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.”
President Thabo Mbeki said on Tuesday that the national government will continue to work to strengthen South Africa’s local government system. ”From the point of view of national government, we indeed will pay particular attention to the strengthening of local government,” Mbeki said at a local government conference at Benoni, east of Johannesburg.
The lion murder trial in the Phalaborwa Circuit Court was delayed on Tuesday while a pathologist examined the blood-soaked clothing of the dead man, Nelson Chisale. Dr Leon Wagner, head of the medical faculty at the University of the Free State, was flown up to give evidence in the defence of one of the accused, Mark Scott-Crossley.
Athletics South Africa on Tuesday announced that athletes Isaiah Nkuna (Gauteng North) and Francois Coertze (Free State) have been reinstated for competition after serving a two-year ban for an anti-doping control violation in 2003. Athletics South Africa also announced that Innis Viviers has once again tested positive for a banned substance.
Rik de Voest is only flying into South Africa on Tuesday but his late arrival is good news for captain Kevin Curren. De Voest will join Wayne Ferreira, Wesley Moodie and Jeff Coetzee for this weekend’s Euro/Africa zone group-one Davis Cup tie against Germany, to be played at the Standard Bank Arena.
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/ 28 February 2005
Technology got the better of a burglar who got stuck in an electronically controlled door while trying to break into a Benoni dry-cleaners, East Rand police said on Monday. Superintendent Eugene Opperman said the man tried to break into Alphen Park Dry Cleaners on Sunday. He managed to get the electronic doors partially open when they slammed shut again.
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/ 28 February 2005
The National Party withdrew from the government of national unity (GNU) when the African National Congress refused to establish a consultative council to deal with minority concerns. This is according to former president FW de Klerk, who on Monday addressed the Cape Town Press Club on the role of minorities in post-1994 South Africa.
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/ 28 February 2005
A former patient at Weskoppies psychiatric hospital in Pretoria was arrested on Monday after forcing his way into the facility wielding an axe. ”The man, who was a former patient, came here holding a home-made axe and threatened security guards at the front gate,” said Weskoppies hospital’s chief executive.
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/ 28 February 2005
The massive growth in property prices is now tapering off, leaving the property market at risk of over-trading, property specialists warned on Monday. House prices have risen by 147% since the first quarter in 2000. ”This type of growth is not sustainable,” said a group executive at eQuals, a player in the property market, in a statement.
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/ 28 February 2005
The money set aside to help poor families cope with food price rises has doubled since 2002, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said on Monday. He said the money — R400-million, up from R200-million — has been received by the provinces, but ”a lot of problems had since arisen”.
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/ 28 February 2005
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Senior prosecutor Billy Downer on Monday tried to prove to the Durban High Court that Schabir Shaik was a dishonest person flaunting qualifications he did not possess. He was cross-examining Shaik after the fraud and corruption-accused completed a week of testimony in his defence before the lunch break.
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/ 28 February 2005
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Fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik completed his testimony in the Durban High Court on Monday. During his testimony, he said he had never tried to mislead the South African Revenue Service, shareholders of his companies, or banks. He has also denied state allegations that he tried to solicit a R500 000-a-year bribe for Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
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/ 28 February 2005
The world-famous Blue Train is back in full operation after one set of carriages was withdrawn in March 2003 because of fire damage, Spoornet said on Monday. ”The fire-detection system on the damaged train set has now been updated and improved with the latest technology,” Dorcas Ledwaba, manager of the Blue Train, said in a statement.
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/ 28 February 2005
A majestic course record 11-under-par 61 from Zimbabwean Marc Cayeux saw him run away with the season-ending Vodacom Tour Championship at the par-72 Country Club layout on Sunday. Going into the final round, a playoff looked the most likely scenario but Cayeux literally floored his opposition to end the tournament on 20-under par 268.
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/ 28 February 2005
Old Mutual, South Africa’s largest insurer, will unveil details of its black economic empowerment (BEE) plans in the "near future", its CEO has confirmed. The group has been working on a transaction involving the sale of a 10% stake in its South African operations, as well as Nedcor and Mutual & Federal, to black empowerment partners.
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/ 27 February 2005
Faced with the almost impossible task of scoring 330 runs for victory, Zimbabwe laboured to 198 for seven off their 50 overs in the second game of the three-match Standard Bank limited-overs cricket series at Kingsmead on Sunday to lose by 131 runs. It leaves them 2-0 down with one to play in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.
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/ 27 February 2005
President Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela heaped praise on the late Raymond Mhlaba at his funeral in Port Elizabeth on Sunday. ”Raymond Mhlaba was one of the most committed comrades I had the honour to know and work with in my many years in the liberation struggle,” Mandela told mourners.