One of the seven travel agents arrested in connection with the parliamentary travel scam appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday. She is one of seven directors and consultants attached to Cape Town travel agencies arrested by the Scorpions in connection with defrauding Parliament of more than R12,5-million.
In a move to increases South Africa’s protected areas, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk has proclaimed more than 66 480ha of new land to be incorporated into the country’s national parks system. Three of the areas affected by the expansion fall within the Cape Floristic Kingdom.
Jazz legend Sipho Gumede, who died on Monday after a battle with lung cancer, was laid to rest in Durban on Saturday, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. Kwazulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele announced the establishment of a music academy as a tribute to Gumede, the report said.
A new chairperson and vice-chairperson have been appointed to the board of the Road Accident Fund (RAF), acting chief executive Thokozani Magwaza said on Friday. Saths Cooper was appointed chairperson and Vusi Twala as vice-chairperson, Magwaza said in a statement.
The amount involved in the parliamentary travel voucher scam could reach R16-million, Speaker Baleka Mbete said on Friday. She was speaking at a media conference the wake of this week’s court appearance by seven travel agency owners and employees, and speculation that MPs could be next on the Scorpions’ list.
Steps have been implemented to combat corruption at Gauteng vehicle testing stations, the community safety department said on Friday. This followed allegations that officials were fraudulently issuing roadworthy certificates at the Wynberg testing station. Officials allegedly colluded in this corruption by accepting bribes to ignore the fraud.
While the fate of two South Africans being held for suspected terrorist activities in Pakistan remained unclear on Friday, an independent analyst described their situation as bleak. If tried in Pakistan, the death penalty is mandatory for terrorism and the definition of the crime very broad, the analyst said.
In his weekly ANC Today newsletter, President Thabo Mbeki on Friday strongly criticised a report in last week’s Sunday Times, saying the newspaper is ”entirely wrong” in its claim that no additional funds have been set aside by the government for its expanded public works programme.
The South African Navy’s long-serving workhorse, the SAS Outeniqua, is being formally retired from the service on Friday — though she still has a lot of life left in her. The decommissioning of the 12-year old vessel marks a shift in the navy’s capability and spending priorities resulting in part from its acquisition of new corvettes.
Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee was on Thursday evening in Cape Town appointed Woman of the Year in the media and communications category. Sponsored by Shoprite Checkers and SABC2, the Women of the Year Awards recognise achievements by South African women in nine categories.
Former Grootvlei prison director Tatolo Setlai has been acquitted of corruption charges. Setlai had been charged with acting ”’grossly negligently” in allowing a prisoner and others at the prison to produce a video showing footage of wardens procuring sex with minors for prisoners and involved in other illegal actions.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday she was shocked by reports of the attempted murder of Josiah Jele, a former South African envoy to the United Nations. Jele was shot outside his home in Glasgow Road in Lombardy West, south-east of Johannesburg, on Thursday.
Cape Town brothel-keeper Amien Andrews, who offered young girls for sex and watched as two of them were raped, was on Friday jailed for 17 years. Cape Town Regional Court magistrate Chris Naude jailed him for three years for keeping the Salt River brothel and an additional 14 years as an accomplice in the rape of the two teenagers.
Negative perceptions are a greater challenge than crime with regards to South Africa attracting tourists to watch the 2010 Soccer World Cup, bid committee CEO Danny Jordaan said on Friday. Jordaan said these perceptions are the result of crime and because South Africa is the first African country to host the World Cup spectacle.
An estimated half or more of the country’s kilometres of roads, and as much as two-thirds of roads in KwaZulu-Natal, have disappeared, largely due to ineffective administration, said a roads expert on Thursday. While the roads have not physically disappeared, they do not show up on official records.
The assets of Gauteng deputy director of public prosecutions Cornwell Tshavhungwa were attached by his own colleagues at the Assets Forfeiture Unit on Thursday. Tshavhungwa is currently in custody following his arrest on June 7 on fraud and corruption charges involving an amount of R1-million.
Two of the men arrested for suspected terrorist activities in Pakistan at the weekend are in fact South African, the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Thursday. There have been three days of speculation regarding the identity and nationality of the two men after Pakistani newspapers published their names on Monday.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday promised South Africans an accessible, caring and high-quality health system. She was speaking at the media launch of the Department of Health’s Strategic Priorities for the National Health System: 2004 to 2009 in Pretoria.
Cape Town gangster Amien Andrews was found guilty in the regional court on Thursday of keeping a brothel, and as an accomplice on two rape charges involving minor girls. Andrews’s brothel was well known in the underworld as ”Amien’s girls”, where girls aged between 12 and 16 were on offer for sex.
Traffic was brought to a standstill in central Johannesburg on Thursday as nearly 15Â 000 metalworkers marched for better wages. The protesters were marching to the offices of the Steel and Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) and were protesting against Seifsa’s offer of a 7,1% wage increase.
Cape Town’s traffic and city police will apply the full force of the law in dealing with taxi violence, councillor Danile Landingwe said on Thursday. Landingwe said the city will take a ”zero tolerance” stance, following meetings with representatives from taxi organisations this week to discuss outbreaks of violence in the industry.
The Swaziland government’s contempt for court rulings and judicial independence has allowed impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations, Amnesty International said on Thursday in a new report titled Swaziland: Human Rights at Risk in a Climate of Political and Legal Uncertainty.
The African National Congress won a by-election in Umtata on Wednesday — the fifth upset victory by the party in the past few weeks — over General Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement. In other by-elections on Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance snatched a municipal ward in Somerset East from the ANC.
South African Tourism hopes to attract visitors by offering them real human contact experience. Presenting a new strategy for tourism on Wednesday in Kyalami north of Johannesburg, strategic relations manager Chantal Cuddumbey said the new approach demonstrates experiences that South Africa has to offer.
The recent brutal murder of a university student and the shooting of a soccer coach by a referee have rekindled the long-running debate about gun control in South Africa. Gun-related violence claims about 10Â 000 people in South Africa each year, according to the campaign group Gun-Free South Africa.
The Inkatha Freedom Party on Wednesday rebuffed a call by KwaZulu-Natal’s minister for safety and security, Bheki Cele, to extradite Philip Powell from Britain to stand trial in connection with arms smuggling before the 1994 elections. The call was made after the discovery of weapons caches in the Ulundi Legislative Assembly two weeks ago.
South Africa’s opposition Freedom Front Plus says it is concerned about the black economic empowerment charter for agriculture — dubbed AgriBEE — because it introduces unrealistic time frames with too little emphasis on productivity as well as creating unachievable expectations.
The carpet that for many years carried visible stains of the blood from the stabbing of South Africa’s apartheid Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd has been removed from the Old House of Assembly at Parliament in Cape Town. Veteran politician Helen Suzman on Wednesday said she wondered what "had been swept under it over the years".
Six people, believed to be the owners of Cape Town travel agencies, have been arrested by the Scorpions in connection with a parliamentary travel-voucher scam. Scorpions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said the six were at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court and should appear shortly.
An application to exclude 107 documents from the evidence against the 22 Boeremag treason-trial accused has failed, with the judge describing the application as premature and unfounded. The judge said he was unsure what documents he was being asked to exclude.
The chairperson of the Road Accident Fund has resigned to take up a position on the board of directors of a black empowerment company, a joint statement from the fund and William Huma said on Wednesday. The statement said that Huma has been ”relieved of his duties”, but not because of allegations of corruption or dishonesty.
It’s bigger and uglier than its male counterpart. Sometimes it even makes a noise. But many South African women who have used it say they prefer it. Ten years after it was first introduced to South Africa, the female condom, or femidom, is gaining popularity in the country, but cost is limiting its use. The government buys it at about R7 a unit, which is at least 10 times the price of a male condom.