The wheels were in motion late on Thursday afternoon for the homecoming of 64 suspected South African mercenaries jailed in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean authorities were processing deportation papers for the men, after which they would be handed over to immigration officials, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.
The chief executive of the National House of Traditional Leaders, Malungisa Gobe, has died in a car accident in Zimbabwe. Two other members of the House, spokesperson Sibusiso Nkosi and North West chairperson Chief ME Mabi, were injured in the accident on Wednesday, as was a Zimbabwean national travelling with them.
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Incessant questioning by relentless prosecutor Billy Downer appears to be taking its toll on fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik in the Durban High Court. ”It’s been a long trial. I have been under a lot of stress and my words are spinning out of context,” Shaik said at one stage.
A traditional healer who told a young patient he had to have sex with her for his medicine to work has been arrested for rape, Free State police said on Thursday. Police spokesperson Sergeant Thandi Mbambo said the matter was reported to police on Wednesday after the 14-year-old girl discovered she was three months pregnant.
The Gauteng government plans to introduce a provincial tax to increase its revenues, provincial finance minister Paul Mashatile said on Thursday. The nature and rate of the tax were not made clear. He said the additional revenue raised will be used for socio-economic development, reducing poverty and unemployment.
A mark on the skull of lion victim Nelson Chisale was not caused by a panga but is a ”normal groove” for veins, a physical anthropologist told the Phalaborwa Circuit Court on Thursday. Chisale was viciously beaten with a panga before being fed to lions in an encampment at the Mokwalo White Lion Project on January 31 last year.
About 80% of Gauteng’s budget of R33,5-billion is earmarked for social services, the province’s finance minister, Paul Mashatile, said on Thursday. The budget will try to address discrepancies in Gauteng, which shows impressive economic growth while battling with high levels of poverty and unemployment and a lack of infrastructure.
Striking truck drivers rejected a new pay offer from the Road Freight Employers’ Association (RFEA) on Thursday, but talks are continuing. After lengthy discussions with the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union, the RFEA offered 7% on basic salaries — not 10% as demanded by drivers.
Lamontville Golden Arrows shoved Bush Bucks closer to relegation when they trounced them 3-1 in a Castle Premiership encounter played at King Zwelithini Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. The home side led 1-0 at interval thanks to a strike by Papi Zothwane, who converted a pinpoint cross ball from Mabhuti Khanyeza in the third minute.
Moroka Swallows kept their unbeaten record intact this season at the Rand Stadium when they scored a 1-0 win over disappointing Silver Stars in a scrappy Castle Premiership clash on Wednesday. Swallows led 1-0 at half-time. To make matter worse for the Limpopo-based Premier Soccer League club, Stars missed a penalty in the 58th minute.
A smile spread across the face of South African captain Kevin Curren when the name of his number-one player, Wesley Moodie, was drawn first on Wednesday for the Euro-African zone group-one Davis Cup tie against Germany in Johannesburg. The tie will be played at the indoor tennis arena at Ellis Park from Friday to Sunday.
Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile on Wednesday said he wants to see racial transformation in sport completed by 2010. ”We would have been there if we did what we had to do since 1992,” Stofile told reporters in Cape Town, lamenting the slow pace of transformation since apartheid ended in the early 1990s.
Bloemfontein Celtic scored one of their best victories thus far when they defeated Castle Premiership leaders Orlando Pirates 1-0 in a pulsating clash played at the Free State Stadium on Wednesday night. The foundations for the win were laid by Celtic’s uncompromising defence. It was a gutsy display and the home side earned their three points the hard way.
Dynamos dropped two valuable points when they drew 0-0 against the relegation-threatened Manning Rangers in their Castle Premiership match played at Giyani Stadium on Wednesday night. Dynamos demonstrated some elements of character from the opening minutes of the encounter but the Durbanites were equal to the task.
Prosecutor-turned-businessman Bulelani Ngcuka is to chair the new-look board of Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront Holdings Company. Derick van der Merwe, MD of subsidary Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, said the holdings board has been reshaped to reflect changes to the Transnet board last year.
The National Association of Conservancies of South Africa is selling advertising on highways to help pay for clear-up operations to remove alien plants, the organisation said on Wednesday. The ”adopt a highway” project is run in much the same way as ”adopt an animal” programmes in zoos, said project coordinator Dave Peters.
World number one tennis player Roger Federer toured Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, visiting the Imbewu Community Volunteers, which he sponsors. This was the Swiss-based player’s first opportunity to meet the organisation’s workers, and many of the children he has sponsored for the past year.
About 3 000 truck drivers gathered at the Johannesburg offices of the trucking industry’s bargaining council on Wednesday in a protest for better pay. Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha addressed the crowd before they marched to Beyers Naude Square.
Conservation authorities at the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park have decided to shoot a huge old crocodile that attacked and killed a fisherman this week, KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife said on Wednesday. But resident Petrus Viviers said he was surprised that Elder had been attacked. He said residents are likely to object to the plans to shoot the killer crocodile.
”We are going to keep on until we get one of those buggers,” says Darrell James Roodt, director of South Africa’s Oscar-nominated film Yesterday. Roodt, producers Anant Singh and Helena Spring, and actress Leleti Khumalo arrived back in Johannesburg on Wednesday after a nail-biting time in Los Angeles for the Oscar awards ceremony.
Why was a ”tasty morsel” such as a finger left intact by the lions that attacked Nelson Chisale, a pathologist asked in the Phalaborwa Circuit Court on Wednesday. The pathologist is testifying in defence of Mark Scott-Crossley, who is accused with Simon Mathebula of murdering Chisale, who was viciously assaulted before being fed to lions.
A very different South African team from the one that beat Zimbabwe in the first two Standard Bank limited-overs matches will take the field at St George’s Park on Wednesday for the third and last match. South Africa barely raised a sweat in winning the first two matches by huge margins.
Santos’ battle against relegation received a boost when they beat Black Leopards 2-0 in a Premiership Soccer League match played at Thohoyandou Stadium on Tuesday. Santos led 1-0 at half-time after striker Carlo Scott put the visitors ahead in the 30th minute with an easily taken goal.
Ajax Cape Town paid the penalty for resting some of their experienced players when they were beaten 3-1 by Supersport United in a Premiership Soccer League match played at Newlands on Tuesday. Ajax opened the score in the sixth minute when Dominique Isaacs made good ground down the right and centred for Thembinkosi Fantini.
Kaizer Chiefs’ hopes of retaining the Castle Premiership title were dented at the FNB Stadium on Wednesday night when struggling Jomo Cosmos held the champions to a goalless draw. The result leaves log leaders Orlando Pirates in the driving seat. The Buccaneers head the standings with 46 points — eight more than second-placed Chiefs.
The government is to review the visa regime inherited from ”the bad old days”, Director General of Home Affairs Barry Gilder said on Tuesday. He was speaking to journalists on the final day of a regional meeting of the United Nations-backed Global Commission on International Migration.
White South Africans living in gated communities think of crime as a type of ethnic cleansing forcing them into semi-migration, a study showed on Tuesday. The study, titled Fear and Loathing in Johannesburg: Constructing New Identities within Gated Communities, was presented at an international symposium on gated communities or townhouses.
The federal executive of the New National Party, which ruled South Africa in the form of the apartheid National Party from 1948 to 1994, met in Johannesburg on Monday afternoon and took the unanimous decision to disband. The party opted to fall under the umbrella of the ruling African National Congress shortly after the national election in April last year.
Nelson Chisale was dead before he was thrown to lions near Hoedspruit in January last year, a Bloemfontein pathologist told the Phalaborwa Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Dr Leon Wagner was testifying in defence of Mark Scott-Crossley (37), who is on trial for Chisale’s murder with Simon Mathebula (43). Both have pleaded not guilty of the killing.
The government’s new draft fisheries policy, released for public comment on Tuesday ahead of the allocation of long-term quotas later this year, will see emerging small and medium enterprises gaining a greater share of South Africa’s fish stocks at the expense of the industry’s big players.
Workers will picket overnight at Zimbabwe border posts the day before elections take place in that country, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Tuesday. The protests on March 30 will be the culmination of other blockades and demonstrations organised by Cosatu throughout March.
The United States should put in context its criticism of ”widespread” abuses by South African security forces, the government said on Tuesday. ”Our track record speaks for itself,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria. ”I hope they put it in the context that we are trying to address whatever problems do exist.”