The chairperson of the Pretoria branch of the Red Cross has resigned in "disgust" at the branch’s failure to respond to the humanitarian crisis sparked by attacks on foreigners. Gillian Elson, who quit last Friday, has claimed ineptitude is rife at the Red Cross and has made claims of corruption and theft.
A South African Broadcasting Corporation promotional helicopter transporting cast and crew members from the local soapie 7de Laan crashed into a bakkie in Kroonstad on Saturday, Free State police said. Spokesperson Superintendent Sam Makhele said the helicopter was transporting cast and crew to a stadium for a show.
The African National Congress (ANC) said on Saturday that its president, Jacob Zuma, had nothing to do with a judge accused of trying to influence members of the Constitutional Court in cases involving him. Media reported on Friday that the court said Cape Judge President John Hlophe had approached several members of its bench to influence them.
Anti-immigrant violence in South Africa has killed 62 people and wounded 670 this month, police said on Saturday, raising an earlier toll of 56 dead after several victims died in hospital. ”In total, at 6am on Thursday morning, we had 62 dead people and 670 injured,” national police spokesperson Sally de Beer said after the violence that started two weeks ago subsided.
Articulate, incisive boxer Silence Mabuza is rated fifth best in his division in the world by the authoritative Ring magazine. And, taking this assessment at face value, the versatile bantamweight champion should have little trouble in accounting for little-known Argentinean journeyman Damien Marchiano on Saturday night.
Six Nations champions Wales will be looking to match everything the Springboks throw at them in the next fortnight when the teams meet in a two-Test series. But coach Warren Gatland said he was expecting no miracles from his injury-depleted squad that arrived in South Africa on Friday morning.
Primrose, a middle-class suburb in the east of Johannesburg, was one of the areas hardest hit by the xenophobic attacks that began three weeks ago. The neighbourhood’s Primula Street — usually quiet and calm — was packed with thousands of refugees seeking shelter from the violence. Some of them slept on the streets.
Stalwarts of South Africa’s struggle for freedom from apartheid are angered and saddened at the xenophobic violence sweeping the country. ”We did not struggle to find ourselves in this present situation,” Rivonia trialist Andrew Mlangeni said at the opening of the Liliesleaf Farm museum on Friday.
Poor hygiene may have caused the diarrhoea outbreaks that killed nine babies in the Ndlambe municipal area in the Eastern Cape over the past three months, government departments said on Friday. The Water Affairs Department said although there had been poor water quality, this was neither ”excessive” nor ”severe enough” to cause diarrhoea outbreaks.
Their pictures tell this story far better than I could ever write it. The man in flames keels over from the waist, calling for help as a figure with a flaming torch stands over him. A man lies in a pool of blood. The speech bubble coming out of his mouth says: ”Please give my legs back.” A woman, with tears streaming down her face cries: ”My son, my son.”
"I don’t have a big problem with kwerekweres. I broke [into] their homes and stole their stuff because they have so much more than me. But they’re okay, some of them are friendly. They can come back — we wouldn’t do it again and the police took back the fridge and TV I took".
Cape Judge President John Hlophe has been accused of attempting to influence the Constitutional Court’s decision over search-and-seizure raids carried out by the Scorpions on properties of African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and French arms manufacturing giant Thint.
In the past three weeks, a small society has emerged in the garden of Johannesburg’s Jeppe police station where about 1Â 400 refugees are living. And, as in a normal society, crime has also blossomed. A team of ”peace marshals” has been appointed to try to bring law and order to the camp community.
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) and other youth bodies on Friday launched a campaign against xenophobia following the recent attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa. Briefing the media in Johannesburg, ANCYL president Julius Malema extended his apology and assured foreigners they were welcome in the country.
A planned lodge development at the settlement of Molapo in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve has become a source of controversy. Tourists who frequent the 40-room lodge’s luxury accommodation will enjoy the sights of the Kalahari. The outlook for indigenous Bushmen from the reserve is less positive, however.
South African Airways (SAA) said on Friday it was on track to meet the June 1 deadline for e-ticketing compliance. SAA said its issuing rate for e-tickets exceeded 96,5% which is the current industry average according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
New details have emerged concerning documents that allegedly link Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi to fugitive Belgian fraudster Jean Claude Lacote.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) has on several occasions taken large donations in cash in order to foil its creditors, according to former Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha. He made the claim in an article in the Cape Times on Friday, in which he sought to ”set the record straight” on events surrounding his axing.
The retail price of petrol will increase by 50 cents a litre (c/l) on Wednesday next week, according to a statement from the Department of Minerals and Energy on Friday. This follows the 55c/l increase last month. The price of unleaded petrol in Gauteng thereby increases to R9,96 a litre, and to R9,72 at the coast.
South African society has yet to rid itself of the anguish, pain and degradation of the past, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said on Friday. Speaking at the launch of a ”social cohesion” campaign, Jordan said the recent xenophobia attacks should not be downplayed.
A South African-designed, battery-operated passenger car is to be unveiled early next year, Deputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom announced on Friday. The development of the vehicle could not have come at a better time, he told MPs during debate in Parliament on the science and technology budget vote.
German artist Hans Winkler has brought his site-specific interventions to the Jo’burg streets, writes Anthea Buys.
President Thabo Mbeki must release the letter he allegedly wrote to George Bush asking the American president to ”butt out” of Zimbabwe, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. Mbeki’s four-page letter to Bush apparently criticised the United States for taking sides against Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.
President Thabo Mbeki called on G8 countries on Friday to follow through on promises of support for Africa’s socio-economic rescue plan Nepad. ”The other G8 members have got to respond in the manner that Japan has,” Mbeki said at the end of a three-day development conference in Yokohama, Japan.
In a series of three ATM bombings in less than half a day in Gauteng, gangs of robbers on Friday morning made off with undisclosed sums of cash. In Strijdompark in Randburg, a Standard Bank ATM was blown up at the Motor City Centre, Gauteng police said. ATMs in Atteridgeville and Orange Farm were also targeted.
A complaint against the Daily Sun‘s reporting on the recent xenophobic attacks in Gauteng was submitted to the press ombudsman and the South African Human Rights Commission on Thursday. One of the major issues was the use of the term ”aliens” for immigrants by the newspaper.
Forty-seven people were arrested for public violence on Thursday after a protest against Anglo Platinum’s relocation of bodies from a cemetery in Sekuruwe near Makopane turned violent. Limpopo police spokesperson Captain Sebotsaro Motadi said the protest started on Wednesday but only became violent at 6am on Thursday.
North West agriculture minister Jan Serfontein and interest groups are to try to develop a standardised programme for working with predators. This follows a lion attack on Tuesday on the farm Uitspan, near Mafikeng. David Moloana (50), of Mareetsane village, was killed while cleaning a drinking pen situated in a lion cage.
Itumeleng Khune and not Teko Modise should have been named the Premier Soccer League’s (PSL) best footballer this season if coaches had voted along the lines they suggested to the Mail & Guardian this week. The credibility of the selection is being compared to that of the Zimbabwean election.
South African stocks remained lower at noon on Friday as the mining sector continued to take a pounding on weaker commodity prices. At 12.02pm, the all-share index was down 1,03%. Resources fell 2,15%, while the gold and platinum mining indices lost 1,37% and 0,65% respectively.
Football statistics are weighted in Nigeria’s favour at this weekend’s clash between the Super Eagles and Bafana Bafana. Nigeria may be in a renewal process of their own, but one cannot see how a Bafana side with a new coach, with no proven strikers and playing in front of a hostile crowd, will defeat them, writes Percy Zvomuya.
Mining magnate Brett Kebble gave about R260 000 to the former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, according to the trustees of Kebble’s bankrupt estate, a media report said on Friday. This allegation was contained in affidavits in an application for a summary judgement that would force Yengeni to pay this amount back to the estate.