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/ 11 February 2005
The Pretoria High Court dismissed an appeal on Friday by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and broker Addy Moolman against their fraud convictions. Moolman sought leave to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein to challenge his 58 fraud convictions and four-year prison sentence, and Madikizela-Mandela wanted to appeal her suspended sentence on 43 counts.
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/ 10 February 2005
A police officer probing alleged sex crimes against Pretoria advocate pair Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo was accused on Thursday of having a grudge against Prinsloo after he laid a complaint against her. Piet Coetzee, for Prinsloo, told the court his client had laid a complaint against Superintendent Daleen du Plessis long before his arrest.
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/ 10 February 2005
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s support for the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) proposal to sell gold reserves is ”worrisome”, the National Union of Mineworkers said on Thursday. The union also said it supports Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s opposition to the proposal.
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/ 10 February 2005
The African National Congress on Thursday stated the party’s unqualified opposition to corruption in all it forms, but refused to bow to pressure for public scrutiny of who its private funders are. The Institute for Democracy in South Africa is seeking to compel the ANC and other parties to open their books for public scrutiny.
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/ 10 February 2005
More than 53Â 000 South African Police Service members have been charged with some form of criminal offence since 2000, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. This is according to statistics released by Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula on Thursday in reply to a question in Parliament in December.
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/ 10 February 2005
The hostage taker at Monte Video Primary School in the Cape Town suburb of Montana has been shot dead, police confirmed shortly after noon on Thursday.
Captain William Reid said a situation occurred where the life of a child hostage was threatened. Earlier reports said a teacher was shot during the hostage drama.
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/ 10 February 2005
Nominated for two Grammy Awards, the voices of South Africa’s most famous Zulu group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, are as much in demand today as they were 40 years ago. The Zulu group’s Raise Your Spirit Higher has been nominated in the best traditional world music and best surround sound categories of the Grammys, to be awarded on Sunday.
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/ 10 February 2005
African National Congress Youth League president Fikile Mbalula was stung into action this week after the Mail & Guardian raised concerns that politics and big business make uneasy bedfellows. Mbalula said that, according to the M&G, ”comrades are … not entitled to participate in the country’s economy”.
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/ 10 February 2005
Begging on street corners will soon be a thing of the past for Johannesburg street children and beggars in general, the Gauteng social services department said on Thursday. The department has begun a drive to register street children for birth certificates and identity documents.
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/ 10 February 2005
A superb Scott Chipperfield goal earned Australia a 1-1 draw with South Africa in a lively friendly in Durban on Wednesday. The second-half substitute for Danny Tiatto struck after 71 minutes, pouncing on a headed clearance from Quinton Fortune and slamming the ball over recalled goalkeeper Calvin Marlin into the roof of the net.
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/ 10 February 2005
Diversified mining group Kumba Resources is willing to participate not only in the financing of rail infrastructure but also the operation of the rail system for the transport of its iron ore and coal products, if necessary. If Kumba does get involved in the financing, it will result in an adjustment to the rail tariff it pays, Kumba CEO Dr Con Fauconnier said.
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/ 9 February 2005
The case between the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) and four political parties being heard in court on Thursday seeks to make public the records of donations in excess of R50Â 000 to these parties. Idasa wants the parties to disclose their private donors, the amount involved and conditions under which the donation was made.
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/ 9 February 2005
Pik Botha (72), long-time minister of foreign affairs in the apartheid government, is free of further cancer, preliminary tests have shown. Unitas hospital spokesperson Karin Lindeque confirmed this on Wednesday afternoon after speaking to his surgeon, Heinrich Schwalb.”Since he heard the news, his spirits are soaring,” Botha’s wife said.
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/ 9 February 2005
Couples wanting to marry should be required to undergo a compulsory Aids test before the wedding ceremony, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. He was speaking at a Cape Town Press Club luncheon on Wednesday. More has to be done to curb the pandemic, including declaring Aids a notifiable disease, he said.
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/ 9 February 2005
The commitment of an Afrikaans-medium school to the traditions of the ”volk” came under scrutiny in the Cape High Court on Wednesday. The governing body of Mikro Primary School in Kuilsriver is asking the court to overturn a Western Cape education department ruling that it provide an English-medium class.
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/ 9 February 2005
Security at all Gauteng public hospitals will be reviewed, the province’s health department said on Tuesday, after the alleged rape of a terminally ill elderly woman in her hospital bed in a gynaecological ward at the Pretoria Academic hospital. The patient’s subsequent death was probably more to blame on her illness than the attack, the department said.
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/ 9 February 2005
South African cricket coach Ray Jennings said on Tuesday that he will apply for the position of coach if the players want him to. The position of coach is to be advertised later this week. Jennings was originally appointed on a short-term basis, until after the tour of the West Indies in March.
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/ 9 February 2005
Dynamos striker Sandile Ndlovu is anxious to wear the Bafana Bafana jersey for the first time against Australia in their friendly match in Durban on Wednesday night. The 24-year-old Ndlovu, who is on loan to Dynamos from Mamelodi Sundowns, is the only new Bafana Bafana recruit included in the team.
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/ 9 February 2005
Three wickets apiece for the Conrad XI’s (read Highveld Lions) David Terbrugge and Garnett Kruger did the most to restrict a Cook XI (read Highveld Strikers) to 230 for seven, and eventually help their team to a five-wicket victory — according to the Duckworth-Lewis method — in their 45-over friendly played at the Wanderers on Tuesday.
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/ 9 February 2005
Canadian junior miner Platinum Group Metals, or PTM, is hoping to start mining platinum in South Africa within five years, PTM CEO Michael Jones said this week at the Mining Indaba. PTM’s key asset is its joint venture with world number one platinum-miner Anglo Platinum (AngloPlat).
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/ 9 February 2005
For the moment, world number one diamond-miner De Beers has no plans to move the venue of its main sight from London where its marketing arm, the Diamond Trading Company, has its headquarters, De Beers group MD Gary Ralfe said on Tuesday.
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/ 8 February 2005
A Democratic Alliance fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe will not ”go as far as the airport”, African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Fikile Mbalula told students at the University of the Witwatersrand on Tuesday. For its own part, the ANCYL opposes a change of government in Zimbabwe, as it is not a ”regime”, said Mbalula.
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/ 8 February 2005
The 35-year-old woman who slit the throat of a pensioner at the Cresta shopping centre in Johannesburg has attacked a fellow patient at the Sterkfontein mental hospital. Kanellie Hazikonstandinou was committed to the hospital after a court found that she was not fit to stand trial for the murder of 81-year-old Maureen Naughtin.
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/ 8 February 2005
South African government policies are forcing enterprises to move abroad because they do not want the government to dictate to them whom they should choose as business partners in South Africa, says the Freedom Front Plus. The minister of minerals and energy on Monday called on the marketing arm of De Beers to move to Southern Africa.
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/ 8 February 2005
Fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik failed to make it back to the Durban High Court after lunch on Tuesday due to chest pains. Shaik’s lawyer, Francois van Zyl, said his client visited a specialist physician during the lunch break and was advised to stay in bed for the rest of Tuesday, as well as Wednesday.
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/ 8 February 2005
Western Cape education minister Cameron Dugmore and his officials had acted like schoolyard bullies in the Mikro primary-school affair, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday. Mikro’s governing body is asking the court to overturn the provincial department of education’s instruction to create an English-medium class at the school.
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/ 8 February 2005
A 65-year-old woman who was raped in a ward in the Pretoria Academic hospital has died, police said on Tuesday. The woman was attacked, allegedly by a 30-year-old Mozambican national, as she slept in an otherwise empty ward on the fourth floor at 4am on Monday, police said. Two nurses on duty were doing their rounds at the time.
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/ 8 February 2005
German-based defender Bradley Carnell has withdrawn from the Bafana Bafana squad to play Australia at Durban’s Absa stadium on Wednesday night. Carnell, who plays in the German second division for Karlsruhe, pulled a leg muscle at the weekend. Last week, Dutch-based goalkeeper Hans Vonk was forced to withdraw from the squad.
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/ 8 February 2005
Struggling Manning Rangers are without a head coach following the sudden resignation of Ian Palmer on Monday. The former Orlando Pirates striker joined the KwaZulu-Natal outfit towards the end of last year on a two-year contract. He was offered a contract after two consecutive victories.
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/ 8 February 2005
Bush Bucks chairperson Sturu Pasiya is adamant that the Eastern Cape team will not be relegated at the end of the season despite languishing at the bottom of the log. ”We are definitely going nowhere. Bush Bucks will still be campaigning in the Castle Premiership next season.” said Pasiya from East London on Monday night.
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/ 7 February 2005
A Pretoria High Court judge has slated legislation that ”discriminates” between male and female child rape victims, with the rapists of boys facing far less severe sentences than those who raped girls. Jordaan described the discrimination as ”ridiculous” and said it cannot be countenanced in a constitutional dispensation such as South Africa’s.
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/ 7 February 2005
A Pretoria woman was arrested at Cape Town International airport after allegedly admitting to having swallowed cocaine ”bullets” worth an estimated R1,9-million. The consignment is one of the largest found on one individual at the airport and is the ninth such arrest at the airport over the past few months.