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/ 2 November 2004
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Charges of crimen injuria and intimidation were laid on Tuesday against fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik. A police officer stationed at the Durban High Court claimed he was ”verbally and racially assaulted” before the resumption of Shaik’s trial on Tuesday morning.
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/ 2 November 2004
Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour and MPs experienced the toxic smoke and flammability of mattresses at Pollsmoor prison on Wednesday, where three inmates died in a fire last week. ”Honestly, we must check to change this,” said Dennis Bloem, chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on correctional services.
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/ 2 November 2004
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) was to meet later on Tuesday to pass a resolution that backtracks on one passed by the chamber last week — "which regrets the refusal of the president to address the serious crime of rape in our country and to acknowledge the suffering of women and children who are attacked on a daily basis".
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/ 2 November 2004
Privatisation came under fire on Tuesday afternoon in a debate in the National Assembly on the planned retrenchment of 7 600 workers at South Africa’s semi-privatised fixed-line telephone monopoly Telkom. Leading the debate was Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder.
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/ 2 November 2004
Aids lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is to take the Department of Health to court on Thursday for allegedly obstructing its attempts to obtain information on government targets for the roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs. It says the department compiled a document setting out targets and timetables for the roll-out.
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/ 2 November 2004
Friday November 5 marks the last day of trading of shares in Metro Cash & Carry (Metcash) as such on the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE), following the buyout of the company’s African and South African operations by a consortium of Metcash management, a black empowerment consortium and associates.
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/ 2 November 2004
Foreigners are regularly detained at the Lindela Detention Centre outside Krugersdorp for longer than the permitted 30 days, the South African Human Rights Commission hearings on xenophobia heard on Tuesday. The hearing’s findings will guide what action Parliament will take on the problem of xenophobia.
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/ 2 November 2004
White-collar crime is currently costing the South African economy upward of R40-billion a year, Stallion Security and its division Stallion Investigations said in a statement on Tuesday. A recent KPMG fraud survey detected a massive 13% leap in employee fraud reported since the last survey in 1999.
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/ 2 November 2004
The former police officer who broke down at the Vito Palazzolo inquiry on Monday has been admitted to a clinic, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Tuesday. Abraham Smith was to have testified at the inquiry, in which questions from Italian prosecutors are being put to a series of South African witnesses.
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/ 2 November 2004
Black empowerment projects in agriculture could be jeopardised if the government does not ensure farmers’ safety, said AgriSA in Pretoria on Tuesday. AgriSA president Lourie Bosman said in a statement it is cause for concern that an increasing number of incidents are reported where the attackers wore police uniforms.
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/ 2 November 2004
Gauteng’s 153 roadworthy centres will be audited over the next two years amid fears of widespread fraud and corruption, provincial ministers said on Tuesday.
The move follows Talk Radio 702’s exposure earlier this year of fraud and corruption at the privately owned Wynberg testing station.
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/ 2 November 2004
Rustenburg in the North West province has the distinction of having been South Africa’s fastest-growing urban area between 1996 and 2002, with an annual compound economic growth rate of 6%. The worst performance was put in by the Free State’s Goldfields, which showed an annual decline of 4,3% over the same period.
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/ 1 November 2004
Staff at ThisDay newspaper will meet on Tuesday for more information on the future of the broadsheet, which suspended publication last week. The newspaper launched a year ago but failed to hit the streets last week after printers demanded that a contract be signed and promised surety be provided.
Fuel price up by 500%
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/ 1 November 2004
Ten people were arrested on the West Rand and in the North West province on Monday, for allegedly defrauding the Mine Pension Fund of more than R4,5-million, police said. A spokesperson for the Johannesburg commercial crimes unit said several plots and houses of former mine employees were raided on Monday morning.
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/ 1 November 2004
A former elite police officer broke down on Monday in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, where he had been summoned to answer questions about alleged Mafia kingpin Roberto Palazzolo. Abraham Smith was called on the first day of a hearing in which questions drawn up by Italian prosecutors are being put to a series of witnesses.
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/ 1 November 2004
The Chambers of Commerce and Industry of South Africa (Chamsa) has welcomed the South African government’s commitment to low inflation — but says a thick-point definition of the target should be introduced. Chamsa also said value-added tax (VAT) should be increased by 1% to raise about R6,5-billion in tax revenue.
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/ 1 November 2004
A Namibian national accused of assaulting and attempting to rape a Pretoria advocate was granted R50 000 bail in the city’s magistrate’s court on Monday, radio news reported. Twenty-year-old Ismail ”Zondi” Ashipembe is the grandson of the third secretary at the Namibian High Commission.
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/ 1 November 2004
Solidarity, the mainly white trade union, and the left-leaning Congress of South African Trade Unions were to work jointly on Monday to protest against retrenchments by fixed-line monopoly Telkom — by posting 25 statements on the door of the National Assembly. The Assembly is to debate the Telkom retrenchments on Tuesday.
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/ 1 November 2004
Pupils and teachers at Brandwacht Primary School near Mossel Bay on Monday were mourning the death of an 11-year-old pupil, Aubrey Peterson, killed by a collapsing wall. The Western Cape education department said four other pupils were injured in the accident on Friday. The wall that collapsed was under construction at the time.
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/ 1 November 2004
In introducing the new Director General of her department, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, Minister of Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri on Monday said black economic empowerment (BEE) is an imperative, and as such South Africa needs a BEE charter that recognises such an imperative.
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/ 1 November 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/140506/shaik_icon_new.gif" align=left>The media took centre stage in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in the Durban High Court on Monday. South African Broadcasting Corporation radio, e.tv and talk radio stations 702 and Cape Talk have applied to broadcast the trial. In its application, e.tv said it wants to broadcast sound, not pictures.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124664">No proof of Shaik loans to Zuma</a>
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/ 30 October 2004
An Australian deep-water diver has discovered the 10-year-old remains of a fellow diver while setting a new world record, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Friday. The skeletal remains of Deon Dreyer, who died in 1994 inside Boesmansgat in the Northern Cape, were found at a depth of 271m.
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/ 30 October 2004
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Despite two acknowledgement of debt letters, there was no indication that the R1,2-million that fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik gave Deputy President Jacob Zuma was as loans, the Durban High Court heard on Friday. It was not evident from the accounting records of Shaik’s Nkobi Holdings that there was an amount owing by Zuma.
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/ 30 October 2004
The grandson of a Namibian diplomat based in Pretoria was arrested on Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. He was first arrested by police last week after an alleged attack on a former National Prosecuting Authority prosecutor in her townhouse in Pretoria, but was released from custody as he had diplomatic immunity.
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/ 29 October 2004
An 11-year-old pupil died and four others were injured when the wall of a classroom under construction collapsed on them at a school near Hartenbos in the southern Cape on Friday. Aubrey Peterson, who was in grade five at Brandwacht Primary School, and his school mates had been playing on the site.
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/ 29 October 2004
South African Airways (SAA) will soon be a separate entity reporting directly to the Department of Public Enterprises, Transnet chief executive Maria Ramos said on Friday. Addressing the Cape Town Press Club, Ramos said she has received permission from the Cabinet to begin the process of taking SAA out of the Transnet group.
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/ 29 October 2004
”Feeling great” and accepting his award on behalf of all New Zealanders who fought apartheid, was how Trevor Richards expressed himself after receiving the Order of OR Tambo on Friday in Pretoria. Amid much pomp and ceremony, President Thabo Mbeki bestowed national orders on 30 recipients at the Union Buildings.
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/ 29 October 2004
The public protector ruled on Friday against a complaint that the Cabinet acted improperly when it approved the Department of Health’s plan for the treatment of HIV/Aids. This followed a complaint by Johannesburg woman Anita Allen, who said the assumption that HIV causes Aids has not been proved.
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/ 29 October 2004
South Africa will give consideration to reviewing its policy on the ownership by foreign interests of South Africa’s banks, says Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel. In Parliament, he said the current policy "is informed by the view that four major banks is the minimum number necessary to ensure a certain level of competition in the market".
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/ 29 October 2004
The evening news contains footage of bombs exploding in Baghdad and the ensuing carnage, as well as gruesome details from crime cases such as the murder of Leigh Matthews. SABC2 on Friday launches a news programme with the big news explained for kids.
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/ 28 October 2004
Judgement was reserved on Thursday in Mark Thatcher’s Cape High Court bid to avoid answering questions from Equatorial Guinea prosecutors. Lawyers involved in the three-day hearing said that given the complexity of the case and the judges’ other commitments, judgement is unlikely to be handed down in the near future.