Police and soldiers are manning roadblocks in the Somerset East area of the Eastern Cape to enforce a quarantine following a suspected outbreak of avian influenza. Test results determining the nature of the virus are expected by the end of the week. A particular strain of the avian flu virus can be transmitted to humans.
Torrential rain on Thursday brought chaos to Cape Town, flooding shack areas and roads and causing major traffic snarl-ups. Several people were ferried to higher ground by boat from the aptly named River Club in Observatory when the nearby Liesbeeck River burst its banks. Informal settlements were also affected.
A basic income grant is affordable, sustainable and desirable, a coalition arguing for the adoption of such a scheme said on Thursday. The coalition told journalists at a press briefing at the Turffontein racecourse that giving every South African a basic income of R120 a month would cost between R10- and R24-billion a year.
The South African government vowed on Thursday to continue exerting diplomatic pressure to gain access to two of its citizens being held in Pakistan since July 25 on terrorism accusations. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad reiterated that South African authorities have no indication of any terrorist threat against the country.
The private health sector needs to be restructured as its current structure allows financial interests to take precedence over the interests of patients, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. She said it is a system that has been abused by some and detracts from the constructive role that the private sector plays.
Road-rage accused Edward Kekana appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. The 34-year-old man from Sophiatown, Johannesburg, was arrested over a road-rage incident at the weekend that left three people dead and one wounded. The case was postponed until next Tuesday for a bail application.
The Democratic Alliance on Thursday called on the minister of environmental affairs and tourism to investigate why a permit was granted for the export of live elephants to a zoo, among other destinations — in apparent contravention of South Africa’s policy and commitments to the Conference on the Trade in Endangered Species.
The deputy mayor of Buffalo City, which includes East London, collapsed and died in his office on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson said on Thursday. Colleagues heard a noise in 49-year-old Des Halley’s office at the end of a day packed with meetings, and on investigation found that he had collapsed.
The family of Paul Meintjes of Hertzogville, whose resurrection was predicted by a "prophet" after his death about five weeks ago, has not yet made arrangements to remove the body from the town’s mortuary, mortician Nico Foulds said on Thursday. Meintjes’s body has been kept frozen in the town’s mortuary since July 1.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool on Wednesday welcomed the provincial auditor general’s report into a R227 532 car-allowance overpayment to him, saying the findings are a vindication and manifestation of his commitment to transparency. However, the DA said the report raises two important questions.
A suspected outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) in the Eastern Cape province has halted all movement of ostriches to the Western Cape until a confirmed diagnosis has been made regarding the cause of serious mortalities at three ostrich farms in the Cradock-Somerset East region of the Eastern Cape.
More than 20 000 workers are to get average wage hikes of 7,5% thanks to a deal signed by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the Automobile Manufacturers Employers’ Organisation. The agreement was signed in Pretoria after three months’ negotiations.
A high level of violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe has made it ”increasingly difficult” for citizens to participate freely and fairly in elections next year, the Media Institute of Southern Africa said Wednesday. The institute released a report compiled after a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe in June.
Four Free State department of home affairs officials and a policeman appeared in the Ficksburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on corruption charges, Free State police said. The five were arrested on Monday, bringing to 39 the number of people arrested since an investigation began into corruption at home affairs offices in the province.
Market participants have the impression that insider trading in South African has decreased, according to a report released on Wednesday. ”The new regime has changed prevailing attitudes to insider trading, resulted in new policies and approaches among listed corporates and their advisers,” said the chairperson of the Insider Trading Directorate.
While the police and the government declined to comment on Wednesday on claims that two citizens held in Pakistan were plotting attacks on South African tourist destinations, the Democratic Alliance urged the authorities to keep the public properly informed of any real danger.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119792">’Terror’ pair under lock and key</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=119782">’Terror’ pair were to ‘attack Jo’burg'</a>
At any given moment about 25 000 accused have been in prison in South Africa awaiting trial for over three months, and some have been there since 1996. ”Part of the Bill of Rights says that there should be no undue delay in concluding criminal trials. However, the reality is that these unsentenced prisoners often spend 23 hours of the day in a cell, with no rehabilitation, no work and no recreation.”
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by 69 South Africans held in Harare against a judgement by the Pretoria High Court in June that the government be compelled to assist them. The men are being held on charges of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
Disgruntled municipal workers disrupted a meeting of the Tshwane Bargaining Council in Centurion on Tuesday and held officials there against their will. Tshwane Metro Council spokesperson William Baloyi said the group was angry about an apparent double deduction from their bank accounts in lieu of loan repayments.
About 35 workers may be retrenched from the Sowetan and the Sowetan Sunday World, following the newspapers’ recent purchase by Johnnic Communications, the Media Workers Association (Mwasa) said on Tuesday. The feared job losses stem from the purchase of the two newspapers from New Africa Publishing Limited.
While the overall composition of the student body at South African higher education institutions is changing to reflect the demographic profile of society, there is no room for complacency, says Minister of Education Naledi Pandor. Women — and particularly black women — are under-represented in a number of key study areas.
The man who pleaded guilty to murdering a Tshwane Technical University professor was on Tuesday sentenced to 55 years’ imprisonment by the Pretoria High Court. Professor William Papo and two other people were found dead in Papo’s house in Doornpoort, Pretoria, in January last year.
South Africa will host a new round of talks on Burundi to finalise a agreement on power-sharing and on holding elections, South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday. The two days of talks beginning on Wednesday will be attended by all the parties in Burundi except for the Forces for the Defence of Democracy group.
A 34-year-old man appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday in connection with the killing of three people during a road-rage incident at the weekend, Johannesburg police said. Three people were killed and another one wounded in the incident at Unigray on Saturday night.
There was laughter in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday when "Rottweiler" and "KGB" emerged as some of the <i>noms de guerre</i> assumed by the alleged Boeremag coup plotters. One called himself "Motherfucker" and another "Volla", accused-turned-state-witness Henk van Zyl told the court.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119751">Whites were to be ‘slaughtered'</a>
New-vehicle sales were up in July and expected to improve to a level last seen in 1983, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said on Tuesday. ”Current indications are that the new-vehicle market for the full year 2004 could exceed 410 000,” Naamsa said in a statement.
White fears of a massive slaughter by blacks were fuelled at meetings attended and addressed by some of the Boeremag treason trialists, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday. The court was told of meetings where the predictions of Boer ”seer” Siener van Rensburg were used to incite whites to action.
The Inkatha Freedom Party has suspended national organiser and MP Albert Mncwango after he received a prison sentence on Monday for raping his former girlfriend in 2001. The African National Congress welcomed the 10-year jail sentence imposed by the Eshowe Magistrate’s Court.
The mayor, speaker and city manager of the Emthanjeni Municipality in De Aar have been arrested on charges of fraud, Northern Cape police said on Monday. The trio allegedly offered a local businessman a tender on July 2 in exchange for a kickback. The tender involved a municipal house that is to be sold.
Eighty-five people from Gamorona village near Vryburg in the North West appeared in court on Monday after being arrested over the weekend for public violence and assault, police said. The villagers called a meeting with a chief on Saturday, accusing a family of stocktheft. They attacked the family, burning their houses to the ground.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) signed a deal on Monday for a loan of R56-million for the construction of a hotel in Bel Ombre on the southern coast of Mauritius. The hotel project forms part of a broader initiative for the development of the Bel Ombre sub-region.
A key provision in the current Immigration Act, which has led to much confusion over the recording of travel by South African citizens abroad, is to be dumped. Prior to the coming into force of the Act, the movement control system recorded the entry and exit of everyone who left or entered the country.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=119707">Minister calls for immigration review</a>