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/ 11 November 2004
South African President Thabo Mbeki has joined the international community in expressing sorrow and a deep sense of sadness at the passing away "of that icon of the Palestinian struggle, President Yasser Arafat". The ruling African National Congress and other parties have also paid tribute to Arafat.
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/ 10 November 2004
Senior Democratic Alliance politician Kent Morkel has been accused of taking a bribe in a multimillion-rand corruption case that came before the Cape High Court on Wednesday. In a plea-bargain agreement, micro-loan provider Gilt Edged Management Services consented to fines totalling R5-million on two counts of corruption.
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/ 10 November 2004
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday asked whether members of a black empowerment consortium have used their official positions to obtain a deal with Telkom. The consortium, linked to the ruling African National Congress, is to buy a 15,1% share in Telkom worth more than R6,5-billion.
Banks will finance Telkom deal
Deal is ‘crony capitalism’
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/ 10 November 2004
The controversial new medicine regulations will come under the spotlight at the Constitutional Court on Thursday as dispensing doctors challenge sections that force them to register and complete new dispensing courses. Various aspects of the regulations have been rejected by health practitioners and pharmacists.
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/ 10 November 2004
Côte d’Ivoire opposition group leaders will arrive in Pretoria on Thursday for a second stage of talks to resolve the crisis in that country, news reports said on Wednesday. Clashes between the government, rebels and the French military shattered an 18-month-old ceasefire this week, and killed at least 145 people.
Foreigners, citizens flee violence
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/ 10 November 2004
Banks will provide finance to an empowerment consortium with close links to the African National Congress that is to buy a 15,1% stake in Telkom for R6-billion, the party confirmed on Wednesday. The deal has drawn criticism from opposition parties and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
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/ 10 November 2004
Some traffic offenders in Tshwane can now pay their fines at automated teller machines. Following the success of a First National Bank pilot project launched in June last year in Potchefstroom in the North West, Tshwane recently became the first metropolitan area to benefit from the service.
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/ 10 November 2004
The state produced a surprise witness in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial under way in the Durban High Court on Wednesday. A chief police inspector, Pierre Coret, from Mauritius, has taken the stand and is testifying about the two counts of corruption against Shaik with the aid of a French translator.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125282">What did Zuma do?</a>
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/ 10 November 2004
The bid by world number-six gold miner Harmony for world number-four gold miner Gold Fields remains too close to call, with both groups of shareholders likely to make their final decision to vote for or against the merger on the day of the shareholder vote, investment market players said on Tuesday.
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/ 10 November 2004
Listed retailer Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon) has reported an 88% rise in its headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of September 2004 to 968 cents, from 516 cents a year earlier. The group doubled its interim dividend while maintaining two times earnings cover, to 494 cents per share from 247 cents in 2003.
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/ 10 November 2004
Cape Town has taken its next step in improving tourist services in the region with the launch of Cape Town Tourism’s new united corporate identity. Cape Town Tourism was previously the bureau responsible for the CBD, Waterfront and Atlantic Seaboard areas only.
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/ 9 November 2004
An official of the Department of Correctional Services has been arrested in connection with the deaths of Pretoria’s C-Max prison head, a warder and two inmates in a failed escape bid on Sunday. The official, who was employed at the maximum-security jail, was arrested on Monday.
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/ 9 November 2004
Gauteng still has a housing backlog of more than 440 000 people, provincial housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane said on Tuesday. Mokonyane said Gauteng’s housing goals fall within the Breaking New Ground housing-plan document introduced by Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu earlier this year.
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/ 9 November 2004
There was a stunned silence when Madeleen Bredenhann (29) was convicted in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday of hacking to death her mother, Elma Bredenhann, and her grandmother, Albertina (Dassie) Wambach. Judge Chris Botha said his opinion was that Bredenhann’s version must be rejected as false.
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/ 9 November 2004
The sale of Thintana’s remaining 15,1% in Telkom to an elite, government-aligned consortium is an example of an opportunity lost for broad-based empowerment and an unusually unfortunate example of crony capitalism, says shadow communications minister Dene Smuts.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&a=12&o=141486">Telkom welcomes BEE partner</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel took aim on Tuesday at excessive fees charged by insurance companies administering retirement funds. Manuel said while the taxation of pension funds remains "an ongoing concern", this is also true for fees charged.
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/ 9 November 2004
While most South Africans agree that black economic empowerment (BEE) is necessary to uplift standard and correct the wrongs of the past, there is a strong feeling that it has benefited only a select few, a survey has found. The survey shows that 70% of the sample felt that BEE has enriched only a select few.
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/ 9 November 2004
Telkom, South Africa’s partially privatised fixed-line telephone company, will announce its proposed tariffs for next year on Monday, says Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxasana. "With inflation being where it is, we can expect Telkom’s tariffs to be even much lower [sic]," Nxasana told the National Assembly communications portfolio committee on Tuesday.
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/ 9 November 2004
Italian prosecutors are hoping that a former South African police officer now in a psychiatric clinic may be able to testify in Italy at alleged Mafioso Vito Palazzolo’s trial in absentia. The police officer, Abraham Smith, broke down last week when he took the stand.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125190">Count Agusta link probed</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125163">Failed bid to charge Palazzolo</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
A traditional surgeon who allegedly performed an illegal circumcision on a 48-year-old man is to be prosecuted, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. Kupelo said the circumcision season has just started, with more than 30 boys in the Port Elizabeth area queuing for pre-circumcision medical tests on Tuesday.
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/ 9 November 2004
A final report on the Jali Commission’s investigation into corruption and maladministration in prisons is being compiled, with gun smuggling one of the issues addressed. ”C-Max is one of the prisons that fall in the nine management areas we looked at,” said commission secretary Charles Frank on Tuesday.
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/ 9 November 2004
South African IT entrepreneur and the world’s first "Afronaut" Mark Shuttleworth takes ten tough ones from the <i>M&G Online</i>.
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/ 9 November 2004
The Department of Home Affairs on Tuesday disputed reports that 10 000 identity documents were stolen from its offices in Lebowakgomo in Limpopo, saying it was ”less than 1 000”. Thieves broke into the Department of Home Affairs office last Thursday night and stole the IDs.
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/ 8 November 2004
The man accused of murdering Diepkloof police station commissioner Senior Superintendent Shonisani Elias Mashau was not allowed to change his plea in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday. In an explanation of the plea change, Khumalo claimed a previous legal representative had offered to make up a version of events for him.
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/ 8 November 2004
An Italian prosecutor on Monday sought to probe the link between alleged Mafioso Vito Palazzolo and Count Riccardo Agusta, who achieved notoriety in the Roodefontein saga. The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court is hearing evidence for Palazzolo’s trial in absentia in Italy.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125163">Failed bid to charge Palazzolo</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125147">Stressed policeman unfit to testify</a>
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/ 8 November 2004
A thwarted escape attempt by three inmates appears to have been behind the deaths of two officials and two prisoners at Pretoria’s C-Max jail on Sunday, the Department of Correctional Services said on Monday. ”It appears that they shot themselves when they realised their plan was not going to work,” said a spokesperson.
C-Max killings a ‘wake-up call’
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/ 8 November 2004
Sun International has consolidated its leading position in South Africa’s R7,34-billion casino industry over the past year, and is now ready to pursue regional and international opportunities in the gaming, hotel and resort sectors, according to CEO Peter Bacon.
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/ 8 November 2004
A veteran South African detective on Monday told how his bid to have Vito Palazzolo charged with corruption was turned down by the Western Cape’s director of prosecutions. "I thought I had a case," said Leonard Knipe, who was national head of serious and violent crime before he retired from the police.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125147">Stressed policeman unfit to testify</a>
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/ 8 November 2004
The South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights called on Monday for a probe into weapons smuggling in jails following Sunday’s killings at Pretoria’s C-Max high-security facility. It condemned Sunday’s shooting, apparently by a prisoner who killed another inmate and two warders before turning the gun on himself.
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/ 8 November 2004
Stressed former police officer Abraham Smith is unfit to give evidence at the Palazzolo inquiry, a clinical psychologist said on Monday. Psychologist Petrus Roux was called to testify at the hearing in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court after Smith broke down in the stand last week and was admitted to a clinic.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125069">Italian judge criticises SA magistrate</a>
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/ 5 November 2004
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has given the Department of Correctional Services 14 days to reinstate 127 prison workers dismissed for striking illegally. The 127 Modderbee prison officials were dismissed during an illegal strike in July, after ”defiantly” ignoring ultimatums to disengage.
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/ 5 November 2004
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Deputy President Jacob Zuma could have been involved in some ”peripheries” in the adjudication of South Africa’s arms deal, the Durban High Court heard on Friday. This emerged during the cross-examination of KMPG forensic auditor Johan van der Walt in the fraud and corruption trial of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.
Court sees Shaik-Zuma loan agreement