Judgement was reserved on Tuesday in an urgent High Court application by Disney Enterprises to set aside an attachment order against more than 240 of its trademarks registered in South Africa. The trademarks include well-known images such as Donald Duck and Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
South African courts should not decide whether a South African-born fugitive from justice had received a fair trial in Canada, the Constitutional Court heard on Tuesday. The court is hearing a case that is considered crucial to whether people sentenced in their absence in other countries will be able to find sanctuary in South Africa.
Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour has ordered steps be taken to minimise the risk of a repeat of Monday’s fatal cell blaze at Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town. He visited the prison on Tuesday morning to inspect the cells where six awaiting-trial inmates set fire to mattresses and bedding on Monday afternoon.
The continued and broad-based weakness of the United States dollar in the international currency markets was one of the major factors that caused the rand to appreciate on a trade-weighted basis by 16% during 2003 and by 9% in the first seven months of 2004, said South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni on Tuesday.
Non-performing loans (NPLs) — loans that are more than 180 days overdue or considered irrecoverable — amount to 2% of the total loan book of South African commercial banks, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said in his inaugural address of his second five-year term on Tuesday.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) denied on Monday allegations of financial irregularities made by the head of its finance and administration department. A report in the Sunday Independent newspaper claimed the commission ”suspended a whistle-blower within its own ranks”.
The Pretoria High Court has — with ”no hesitation” — set aside rightwinger Eugene Terre’Blanche’s warrant of arrest and has told the Department of Correctional Services to release him from Potchefstroom prison immediately, following his arrest on Saturday for an alleged parole violation.
The Constitutional Court will start hearing a case on Tuesday that could determine whether South Africa becomes a haven for people sentenced in absentia in other countries. It centres on a South African who fled Canada in 1996 after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl over a nine-month period.
Gay and lesbian people should be given their full rights in terms of marriage, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein heard on Monday. ”Marriage is a mechanism through which heterosexuals automatically get certain rights and privileges,” senior council Pieter Oosthuizen said.
Lazarus Baloyi, in custody for six months on a charge of murdering Mafikizolo vocalist Tebogo Madingoane, walked free from the Johannesburg High Court on Monday. The prosecutor asked the court to withdraw charges against Baloyi on the grounds that an inquest with formal evidence will be held ”in a lower court”.
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania has appointed a committee to find inactive members of the party and to examine perceived disunity, president Motsoko Pheko said on Monday. In a statement on Monday, Pheko said inactive members will be invited to become active and to assist with tasks suited to their skills and influence.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance says the near-record current account deficit recorded in the second quarter of 2004 of R49-billion — 3,7% of gross domestic product — "is cause for concern". Shadow finance minister Raenette Taljaard said there are at least four reasons for this jump in the figures.
Hawkers will march to Johannesburg council offices on Wednesday in protest against being removed from streets in the inner city, the African Council for Hawkers and Informal Businesses said on Saturday. A council spokesperson denied the hawkers were not invited when the city’s new by-laws were formulated.
An opinion poll published this week indicates that trust in Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has more than doubled since 1999. Researchers say certain Zimbabweans have benefited from ruling-party patronage, but that Mugabe’s higher approval rating can mostly be ascribed to state propaganda.
The African National Congress on Friday asserted its authority in Umtata — the last town the United Democratic Movement had any control over in the country. After by-elections in June, the UDM refused to abdicate power and resorted to the court for protection. The court ordered that the parties should resolve their problems.
South Africa and China should have a relationship on environmental issues that will last forever, visiting Chinese vice-minister Zeng Xiaodong said on Friday. Xiaodong, Vice-Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration of the Republic of China, is in South Africa on a five-day visit.
A complaint against the high prices charged for Aids drugs by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has been taken to the Competition Tribunal in Pretoria, the Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) said on Friday. The AHF claims the drug manufacturer’s pricing is to the detriment of South Africans with HIV/Aids.
South Africa’s biggest trade union movement said on Friday it will work with major labour federations from Nigeria and Ghana to have a say in decisions taken by the African Union. Leaders from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) held two days of talks with the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Ghana Trade Union Congress.
President Thabo Mbeki on Friday called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the Gatumba massacre in Burundi and prosecute those responsible. Writing in the African National Congress’s online publication, he urged the African Union and United Nations to declare Burundi’s rebel Palipehutu-FNL a terrorist organisation.
The urgent application by French arms dealer Thint to have criminal charges against it dropped is to be argued in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday. Counsel for the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions argued on Friday that the application should either be struck from the roll or adjourned as non-urgent.
Police were preparing on Friday to exhume the body of a six-year-old boy whose head was found in a man’s refrigerator at Ntunda Trust near Tonga, Mpumalanga, on Thursday. Police spokesperson Inspector Leonard Hlathi said a 32-year-old man had been arrested and was going to show police where the boy’s body was buried.
While the government speaks nobly about transparency and good governance, there is an enormous gap between its words and its deeds, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon in his weekly SA Today newsletter. Leon also commented on the minister of defence’s signing of a new trade agreement with Iran.
The South African Reserved Bank (SARB) will be watching carefully the impact of the high oil price on inflation in the country, SARB Governor Tito Mboweni said on Friday at a meeting of Parliament’s joint finance committees. He acknowledged that there is nothing to be done to influence high oil prices.
Although "carry trade" has played a role in the strength of the rand, the activities of exporters and importers have the biggest impact on the rand’s exchange rate, according to South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni, who was addressing a meeting of Parliament’s joint finance committees on Friday.
A Corporate Law Reform Bill is scheduled to be put to the South African Cabinet for approval by September next year, while the drafting process is expected to be completed by the end of this year. It is expected that a single corporate entity will replace distinctions between close corporations and public and private companies.
Old Mutual South Africa has announced the resignation of Sello Moloko, CEO of Old Mutual Asset Managers (Omam) South Africa. He will be replaced by Thabo Dloti, currently executive general manager of Group Schemes at Old Mutual. Sparks said it was with "deep regret" that he had accepted Moloko’s resignation.
Delegates attending the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ministerial conference in Durban, South Africa, are expected to shortly approve sanction-type measures against Israel, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Dr Nasser Al Kidwa, said on Thursday.
Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is willing to meet with the three unions at Telkom to discuss the fixed-line monopoly’s retrenchment proposals, her spokesperson Donovan Cloete said on Thursday. ”The meeting will happen. The minister will engage with the unions,” he said.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma has condemned the carrying-out of a witchhunt against MPs allegedly involved in the Travelgate scam. The deputy president told MPs: ”I will never participate in the campaign against people when they are not found guilty … if there is no evidence conclusively that says, yes, they have erred.”
The head of a suspected mercenary recruitment agency, one other man and a two women were released by the Scorpions in Cape Town on Thursday after being questioned about possibly illegal military activity. A spokesperson for the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions said the investigation is not over.
National health legislation, due to be signed into law by President Thabo Mbeki, will prohibit the manipulation of any human genetic material for the purpose of reproductive cloning. The minister of health said the legislation permits her to allow ”therapeutic cloning … under prescribed conditions”.
Police say crime at Johannesburg International airport is low and ”there is nothing out of control”, but it appears theft victims are discouraged from reporting their cases. Two passengers recently fell victim to what seems to be a trend that is swept under the carpet: theft by officials and porters from travellers.