Najwa Petersen was the one who fired the shot that killed her husband, Taliep, the Cape High Court heard on Wednesday. The claim was made in a confession by Waheed Hassen, one of the hit men she allegedly hired to carry out the killing. The confession was admitted unopposed as evidence.
There is no conclusive evidence that water problems caused the death of 78 children in the Eastern Cape, the Ukhahlamba district municipality said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Dispatch Online said nearly 80 children had died in the Eastern Cape district due to unsafe tap water, and authorities had failed to take any action.
South Africa will wait to finalise a contract with their new coach before officially announcing his appointment, the South African Football Association’s CEO said on Wednesday. ”We expect everything to be in place with all contractual and legal obligations sorted out by May 4,” Raymond Hack told local radio.
South Africa’s targeted CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) rate jumped to a new five-year high of 10,1% in March, beating forecasts and hardening expectations for another interest-rate increase. Statistics South Africa said the targeted measure jumped from 9,4% in February to its highest level since December 2002.
”It’s mind-boggling how much waste 30 000 people can produce in ten hours,” says Justin van Wyk, director of business affairs at BIG Concerts, organiser of the My Coke Fest 2008, the rock music festival that took place in Johannesburg and Cape Town in March.
The JSE remained in the black at midday on Wednesday thanks to firm resources stocks, but banks and financials were under a bit of pressure. By 11.54am the JSE’s broader all-share index was up 0,34%. Resources added 1,01%, but the platinum-mining index, after having being stronger earlier, was now off 0,52% and the gold-mining index was down 1,14%.
The Ginwala inquiry has turned down a request for access to submissions on suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, the inquiry said on Wednesday. ”I have declined a request from Independent Newspapers that I make all submissions made to the inquiry available to them,” said a statement issued on behalf of inquiry leader Frene Ginwala.
Mike Moriarty is to step down as Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader in Johannesburg to make himself available for nomination as a member of the province’s legislature in next year’s parliamentary election, the party said on Wednesday. Moriarty would leave his current post on September 1.
It is starting to come together at last for Mamelodi Sundowns. After failing to defend their Absa Premiership title and sacking one of the country’s top coaches in Gordon Igesund earlier this season, the Brazilians have finally turned the corner under caretaker coach Trott Moloto, who replaced Igesund.
Global resources giant BHP Billiton announced on Wednesday that it has secured a significant long-term gas-supply agreement with a leading Australian energy company, Origin Energy, to supply gas to south-eastern Australia. The supply of gas will commence in late 2009.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille was emerging as a person who would go to extremes to cover up the truth, a former member of the DA said on Tuesday. ”[She is] a person who criticises the judiciary and the media because their duties do not fit her political agenda,” Kobus Brynard, a Western Cape MPL for the African National Congress, said.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni has called for the immediate suspension of the city manager. The DA’s Rika Hunter said on Tuesday that city manager Peter Flusk failed to consult the council when he appointed Dehal Attorneys to act on behalf of Robert McBride, the chief of the Ekurhuleni metro police.
One of the alleged killers of entertainer Taliep Petersen made a written confession that he had committed ”a terrible sin”, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday. However, the accused, Waheed Hassen, maintains the confession was false, and that he was coached by police on what to say.
The man who held several Pretoria News employees hostage last year on Tuesday pleaded guilty to 11 of the charges against him. However, he pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempting to kill police Constable David Bapela when he allegedly shot him in the lower leg.
Business Unity South Africa (Busa) has asked the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to delay its public hearings on Eskom’s proposed 53% tariff hike. Briefing the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Busa chief executive Jerry Vilakazi said a tariff increase would be ”short-sighted” and was not a sustainable solution to the current electricity crisis.
Laughing excitedly, dozens of children on Tuesday filled a new park in Bramfischerville, Soweto, which was opened by Johannesburg City Parks and the district municipality to mark World Earth Day 2008. Johannesburg City Parks has also planted more than 15 000 trees in Meadowlands and Bramfischerville.
South Africa does not need the likes of sacked Sunday Times columnist David Bullard, Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan said on Tuesday. ”He is the type of person South Africa does not need within its borders,” he told a media briefing at Parliament.
Con-artists posing as South African Revenue Service (Sars) officials are trying to take tax refunds back from an unsuspecting public, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) warned on Tuesday. ”Sars is currently refunding individuals who are entitled to tax refunds and thus the storyline is quite believable,” said Sabric.
Fraud related to identity theft cost South African businesses R276-million in the first three months of 2008, said Alexander Forbes Insurance on Tuesday. Alexander Forbes Insurance managing director Gari Dombo said this was a ”substantial increase” on the 2007 figures released by the South African Fraud Prevention Services.
South African stocks were little changed at noon on Tuesday in a thin-volume session, as some traders remained on the sidelines ahead of Wall Street opening. At midday the all-share index was neither here nor there (-0,06%) at 31 754,380. Resources were up 0,50% but the gold- and platinum-mining indices were down 0,16% and 1,63% respectively.
All charges against a couple who were forced to dig up their own child’s body were dropped in the Koppies Magistrate’s Court in the northern Free State on Tuesday. Maria Mnisi and Phineas Johnson stood accused with their former employer Fanie Hyman of violating a grave.
The mayor of Bushbuckridge, Milton Morema, should be suspended, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. Morema is currently facing murder charges. DA local government spokesperson Anthony Benadie said the mayor should be suspended immediately, pending the outcome of investigations.
South Africa is honouring her for helping it overcome the legacy of apartheid, but Linda Biehl says she is simply doing what any parent would after the death of a child: trying to find meaning in loss. She was speaking on the eve of a ceremony at which President Thabo Mbeki is to grant her one of the country’s highest honours.
Listed food retailer Pick n Pay is ”very aware” of the increase in food prices, it said on Tuesday. ”We are very aware of the inflationary pressure on basic foods and are doing everything we can to minimise its impact on customers,” the company said in its results for the year ended February 29.
Luis Renteria netted a 55th-minute penalty on Monday evening to give Platinum Stars a 1-0 win against Moroka Swallows and move his team from 10th to fifth place on the Premier Soccer League table. Stars have 37 points and with this result pushed Swallows out of the top eight into ninth place.
Though Carlos Alberto Parreira will quit his post as coach of Bafana Bafana to be with his ill wife, he remain a technical adviser to the team, he announced on Monday. Meanwhile, the sports website GloboEsporte reported late on Monday that Joel Santana, coach of Brazil’s Flamengo club, would succeed Parreira.
British rugby club Northampton Saints boss Jim Mallinder has refused to be drawn on speculation that he is on the verge of luring South Africa’s World Cup-winning lock forward Victor Matfield to Franklin’s Gardens. Matfield was man of the match in last year’s World Cup final that saw South Africa beat England.
A Chinese ship carrying a shipment of arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe was not in South African territorial waters, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said on Monday in reaction to a claim that the An Yue Jiang was ”passing through South Africa’s territorial waters” in violation of a court order.
First National Bank’s residential property barometer has dropped to the lowest level recorded for any quarter since its inception in 2003, media reports said on Monday. Up to 83% of people selling their houses had to accept a much lower offer than their asking price.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma on Monday called for greater cooperation between the Group of Eight (G8) and the five emerging economies of the South — China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. He was speaking in Berlin at a North-South dialogue on relations between the G8 and the five emerging powers.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille on Monday vowed to take her fight against the Erasmus commission to the Constitutional Court. The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool in December 2007 to investigate the City of Cape Town’s probe into controversial councillor Badih Chaaban.
A projectile the size of a child’s fist shot across the lawn and buried itself in a crouching rhododendron bush. It was summer in the early 1980s and we kids were home from school. My brother, his head crammed with potions learned in the science class, had cobbled together a handful of innocuous kitchen ingredients and turned them into something entirely more volatile.