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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.
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/ 28 October 2004
As the country holds its breath for confirmation of a fuel hike on Friday, economist Mike Schussler believes it will not break the R5 barrier this year. Preliminary figures released this week show that motorists should expect to pay an additional 19c a litre from next Wednesday. This means Gauteng drivers will be paying R4,87 a litre for petrol.
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/ 28 October 2004
Boeremag members had prayed and assured each other they were doing the right thing before planting bombs in Soweto in October 2002, the treason trial in the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday. Self-confessed coup plotter Deon Crous said he and five of the Boeremag accused had planned and planted 10 bombs in the Soweto area.
Bombers did it for ‘Boer nation’
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/ 28 October 2004
The Cape High Court hearing of Mark Thatcher’s bid to avoid answering questions from Equatorial Guinea prosecutors entered its third day on Thursday. State advocate Michael Donen is expected to finish his argument by lunch on Thursday, and Thatcher’s senior counsel, Peter Hodes, will reply after lunch.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124499">E Guinea on ‘fishing expedition'</a>
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/ 28 October 2004
Food retailer Shoprite Holdings is expecting an "exciting" and much-improved second half of 2004 compared with the same period in 2003, with its turnover in the three months from July to September rising by 9,3% on a like-for-like basis, continuing the upward sales trend it experienced in the latter part of its financial year to the end of June 2004.
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/ 27 October 2004
The Pan Africanist Congress has cheered the decision by Harare to boot out a Congress of South African Trade Unions fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. But Mosiuoa Lekota, chairperson of the African National Congress and Minister of Defence, said his party was ”a bit” embarrassed by the deportation.
Cosatu member tells of Zim eviction
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/ 27 October 2004
Johannesburg residents who have applied for boom-gate access control in their streets will hear from Thursday if their applications were approved or not, mayor Amos Masondo told reporters. A total of 324 applications were received — 309 for existing closures and 15 for new closures.
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/ 27 October 2004
A member of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) delegation to Zimbabwe, which was thrown out of the country on Tuesday night, has talked of the group’s seven-hour ordeal at Harare International airport. ”They [Zimbabwean police] attempted to beat us when we asked for food,” Simon Boshielo said.
‘Mbeki should rebuke Mugabe’
Cosatu leaves Zimbabwe
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/ 27 October 2004
De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM), the South African division of global diamond giant De Beers, has concluded the sale of Dancarl Diamonds, a mine in the Northern Cape, to a black-owned partnership consisting of Sedibeng Mining and Meepong, a women’s grouping, together with Australia’s Crown Diamonds NL.
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/ 27 October 2004
Equatorial Guinea authorities are being given a chance to go on a fishing expedition by questioning Mark Thatcher, a Cape High Court judge said on Wednesday. Thatcher is hoping to overturn a subpoena ordering him to answer questions on an alleged coup bid in Equatorial Guinea.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124471">Tough questions in Thatcher case</a>
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/ 27 October 2004
An inquiry into the cause of an explosion at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, last month — which left 10 people dead and more than 100 injured — began on Wednesday, the Department of Labour said. Spokesperson Page Boikanyo said 40 witnesses, including workers and subcontractors, will be questioned during the inquiry.
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/ 27 October 2004
A 37-year-old police officer convicted of killing a Germiston hotelier was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday. Inspector Sibongakonke Ndlovu, found guilty on Friday of shooting dead Petrus Jooste — the owner of the Republic hotel in Elsburg — on New Year’s Day, apparently became ill when the sentence was passed.
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/ 27 October 2004
A sum of R2-million that former president Nelson Mandela gave to Deputy President Jacob Zuma in October 2000 was used to pay the debts of Zuma and Schabir Shaik’s Nkobi Holdings, the Durban High Court heard on Wednesday. At that stage, Zuma experienced huge financial problems.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124444">Company used ‘creative accounting'</a>
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/ 27 October 2004
The judges hearing Mark Thatcher’s Cape High Court application on Wednesday subjected the state’s legal team to some tough questioning on Thatcher’s constitutional rights. Thatcher is seeking to overturn a subpoena ordering him to answer questions on an alleged coup bid in Equatorial Guinea.
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/ 27 October 2004
A 500-day campaign, aimed at turning Johannesburg into a safer environment, will be launched next month, mayor Amos Masondo said on Wednesday. Operation Token Days — which forms part of the city’s broader safety strategy — will kick off on November 8 and run for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.