South Africa

One in three South Africans believes that Deputy President Jacob Zuma is innocent of allegations of fraud related to the arms deal, while one in five believes he is linked to corruption in some way, a new Markinor survey has found. The survey showed that 34% of South Africans ”strongly agreed” Zuma is innocent of the allegations of corruption.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Saturday warned that knowledge of Aids could lead to people becoming complacent and expecting infection. Speaking at a function marking the sixth anniversary of the launch of the Partnership against Aids, Zuma said there is a danger that people will take Aids as a ”given”.

Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza handed over land to four communities in Limpopo on Saturday, according to a television news report. The report said the Koka Matlou, Mabjaneng, Legata and Lebelo communities were forcibly removed from their lands in the 1800s.

The editor of the Financial Mail (FM), Caroline Southey, has resigned with immediate effect, Moneyweb reported on Saturday. Southey will remain editor of the business magazine until a successor is appointed. She will then assume the position of deputy editor.

Free-to-air television station e.tv did not broadcast footage of the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq as reported on Thursday, the station said. The station’s editor-in-chief, Joe Thloloe, said on Thursday reports that stated his station had aired footage of the beheading in the manner that SABC1 did were not entirely correct.

The South African government on Thursday welcomed the decision by the United States to lift sanctions against Libya and the European Union’s provisional approval for a partial lifting of sanctions. On Monday, US President George Bush released ,3-billion in frozen Libyan assets.

Residents of a village in Limpopo marched to the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg on Thursday, protesting against being ”forcibly removed” to make way for an Anglo Platinum mine. The community of GaPila, near Mokopane, was moved to Sterkwater to allow an Anglo Platinum mine to use the area, the protesters said.

Week after week, a Durban Daily News reporter stole massive chunks of copy from a website in the United States and passed it off as his own. And the reporter, Keeran Sewsunker, who is probably South Africa’s worst serial plagiarist, is still at his desk. The American magazine is now threatening legal action.

The executive producer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) Xhosa news has been suspended pending the outcome of a probe into video footage showing the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq on Tuesday night. ”We don’t show gruesome pictures of people being killed,” an SABC spokesperson said.

An overwhelming number of South African teenagers are confident about the future of the country, according to preliminary results of a study conducted by the University of Witwatersrand released on Wednesday. The study sought to establish how teenagers view South Africa. More than 2 000 children took part in the study.

South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela was reunited on Tuesday with two notebooks that were confiscated from him while in prison.

Security has been stepped up at Johannesburg International airport following an attempted robbery of cargo last week, police said on Tuesday. ”Stringent command and control measures have been instituted to ensure efficient service delivery with the ultimate goal of making the airport a safe and secure environment,” a police spokesperson said.

The government will spend R1-billion in allowances to ensure health professionals are available in rural areas and the public health sector, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday. The strategy will ”address the broader challenge of migration of health personnel from rural to urban areas”, she said.