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/ 6 December 2004
The case of four Chinese accused of murdering a Pretoria family was postponed to Tuesday by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court. The postponement followed a dispute as to whether Shen Lin, Yanbo Zang, Jain-hen Bai and Siyuan Liu were originally arrested for kidnapping only or murder as well, as the charge sheet now states.
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/ 6 December 2004
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The Durban High Court has been left to decide whether Schabir Shaik’s tax returns can be used against him in his trial for alleged fraud and corruption. The state already has in its possession an affidavit from Rob Reid, an employee at the South African Revenue Service’s office in Durban.
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/ 6 December 2004
South Africa’s investigation into the arms deal and its putting into place of mechanisms to deal with unbecoming behaviour by both politicians and government officials are illustrations of the government "setting a good example", says Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
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/ 6 December 2004
Parliament is hoping to complete its plan to relocate the parliamentary media to new offices in Cape Town’s old South African Revenue Service building at 90 Plein Street before the start of next year’s session, Secretary to Parliament Zingile Dingani said on Monday.
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/ 6 December 2004
Five members of a Johannesburg youth group were on hunger strike at the Union Buildings on Monday in an attempt to get President Thabo Mbeki to address their problems with obtaining funding from the Umsobomvu Youth Fund to help finance the building of houses and establish commercial and industrial infrastructure south of Johannesburg.
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/ 6 December 2004
Two Pretoria advocates who will go on trial next year for allegedly indecently assaulting and soliciting children will not have access to the personal files of two of their alleged victims. The judge said it is clear from affidavits filed by the advocates that the evidence they seek is not concerned with the offences with which they are being charged.
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/ 6 December 2004
The National Treasury discussion paper on retirement-fund reform fails to deal with the "most pressing problem" facing retirement funds in South Africa, namely excessively high taxation, says the official opposition deputy finance spokesperson, Pierre Rabie.
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/ 6 December 2004
The South African consortium formed by the Airports Company South Africa, Old Mutual plc, the BidVest Group and Indian partner GVK Industries Limited has received official notification from the government of India that it has been pre-qualified in the bid to participate in the privatisation of India’s Mumbai and Delhi airports.
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/ 6 December 2004
The Arrive Alive campaign will not tolerate traffic offenders this coming holiday season — this is according to a statement by the Department of Transport issued on Monday. With schools countrywide closing for the December holidays, Arrive Alive is gearing itself up for the holiday rush.
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/ 21 November 2004
President Thabo Mbeki hopes to travel to Côte d’Ivoire ”as quickly as possible” to meet all parties to the ongoing conflict in that country and discuss a solution. ”I want to go back very, very quickly,” Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria at the start of discussions with the leader of the rebel-held north.
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/ 21 November 2004
Two more bodies were discovered in a drain pipe on the Samrand road in Centurion on Saturday morning, bringing the total number of bodies found in the area to four, Pretoria police said. Spokesperson Captain Piletji Sebola said a team of detectives made the discovery when it returned to the scene to search for possible clues.
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/ 21 November 2004
When their trademark black cars rolled up at British socialite Mark Thatcher’s gates in Cape Town a few months ago, the members of South Africa’s elite Scorpions unit knew they were netting their biggest catch to date. But the Scorpions have also been ruffling feathers in many other quarters of South Africa.
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/ 20 November 2004
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon on Saturday announced plans for a major shake-up in the party as part of a ”revisioning” process. This will include organisational restructuring and an urgent programme for more diversity in membership and leadership structures, he told delegates to the DA’s federal congress in Durban.
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/ 20 November 2004
A police raid on a suspected child-sex operation in Benoni found a three-year-old boy being held hostage, and an under-age girl being pimped out for sex, police said on Friday. Four more men were arrested, one of whom was caught in the act of having sex with the 15-year-old girl, said a member of the Gauteng child protection unit.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125809">Nigerians nabbed in child-sex syndicate</a>
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/ 19 November 2004
Paul Thabang Khumalo, who murdered the station commissioner at Diepkloof police station in Soweto in May 2002, was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 27 years in the Johannesburg High Court on Friday. Judge Geraldine Borchers said Khumalo’s remorse was a sham. He is a violent man who should be removed from society, she said.
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/ 19 November 2004
A second bouncer has been arrested in connection with the beating up of a student outside a Johannesburg nightclub last weekend, Johannesburg police said on Friday. Kevin Hoffmeyer (20) was granted R2 000 bail in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday morning shortly after his arrest, a police spokesperson said.
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/ 19 November 2004
South Africa’s reluctance to give political refugee status to Zimbabweans when they are denied food as part of a political agenda needs to be put before a South African court in a test case, a bishop said on Friday. This call came from Bishop Kevin Dowling of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.
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/ 19 November 2004
Any delay in the development of economic ties between South Africa and the Russian Federation could cost the two countries dearly, Russian Resources Minister Yuri Petrovich Trutnev said on Friday. ”Those who are late are losers and we don’t want to be losers,” Trutnev said, referring to the competitiveness of the global trade arena.
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/ 19 November 2004
President Thabo Mbeki renewed his call on Friday for the worldwide disarmament of nuclear weapons, saying the current slanted situation should not be allowed to continue. For many decades, from the 1950s, the ANC has been an active opponent of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, Mbeki said.
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/ 18 November 2004
Paul Thabang Khumalo (26) was convicted in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday of murdering Diepkloof police station commissioner Superintendent Elias Mashau during an escape bid on May 11 2002. He was also convicted on five other charges, including two of attempted murder.
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/ 18 November 2004
The policy of black economic empowerment (BEE) should be better communicated, especially to foreign countries, an economics conference was told on Thursday. Professor Willie Esterhuyse, of the University of Stellenbosch, was addressing delegates on the political outlook for South Africa.
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/ 18 November 2004
A meeting to determine the fate of seven Eastern Cape Development Corporation directors — who were irregularly dismissed by the provincial minister for economic affairs, environment and tourism, Andre de Wet, in September — turned pear-shaped on Wednesday after De Wet effectively ruled against a High Court judgement instructing him to act "without capriciousness".
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/ 18 November 2004
Three police officers stationed at the Johannesburg serious and violent crime unit could be a danger to the community if released on bail, the Johannesburg Regional Court heard on Thursday. The court also heard that threats were made against a member of the investigating team.
Cops apply for bail
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/ 18 November 2004
”There can never be an end to the pain,” said Julia Ntsoane, whose sister Mampo was one of the 43 people killed in a stampede at Ellis Park on April 11 2001. Ntsoane was one of a small group of people gathered on Thursday for the winding-up of the Ellis Park Disaster Relief Fund, which was established immediately after the tragedy.
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/ 18 November 2004
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is likely to maintain its current monetary policy framework of inflation targeting for at least the next 10 years, despite temptations to focus more on promoting economic growth, according to Bernie de Jager, senior consultant at the SARB’s research department.
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/ 17 November 2004
The rand dipped below the R6 to the dollar level after noon on Wednesday, spelling more trouble for exporters while giving consumers cause to smile, economists said. While the stronger currency could bring interest-rate cuts, lower petrol prices and a reduction in the price of consumer goods, exporters will find it difficult to stay competitive.
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/ 17 November 2004
They call themselves Nelson Mandela Panel Beaters and Nelson Mandela Fine Art, but other than perhaps a shared admiration for South Africa’s greatest icon, the businesses have nothing to do with him. At 86, the world’s most respected statesman is fighting to keep his good name out of the shopping malls, advertising billboards and the world wide web without his specific approval.
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/ 17 November 2004
Arrests are expected in a case in which police investigating a shooting and robbery at a Midrand home were themselves hijacked. Police investigating the robbery were themselves hijacked and their service pistols and unmarked car stolen when they called at the house on Monday.
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/ 17 November 2004
Three men who broke the Foreign Military Assistance Act were fined a total of R350 000 or jail time by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Harry Carlse, Lourens Horn and Crause Steyl pleaded guilty under a plea bargain between the defence and the state to involvement in a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=125671">’Coup confession came after torture'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=125630">Thatcher to be tried in absentia</a>
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/ 16 November 2004
Protesters marching against the Johannesburg City Council’s installation of pre-paid water meters on Tuesday refused to hand over their memorandum of grievances and demands to anyone other than the mayor, Amos Masondo. It was the sixth time in a row that Masondo had failed to turn up, said organiser Trevor Ngwane.
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/ 16 November 2004
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The Durban High Court’s dismissal of an application by television and radio stations to broadcast from the Schabir Shaik trial was a blow for freedom of expression, the National Press Club said on Tuesday. The trial is an event of national importance, it said, as it involves the spending of taxpayers’ money.