According to the United States embassy, 14 Americans in the past 12 months have been robbed at gunpoint after landing at the OR Tambo international airport in Kempton Park, a media report said on Tuesday. The embassy said that gangs of robbers targeted people arriving at airport and robbed them either at their destinations or on the way to their destinations.
Poor, rural women bear the brunt of South Africa’s HIV pandemic as they face sexual abuse and discrimination, rights body Amnesty International said on Tuesday, urging government action. A new report said rural women were disproportionately affected by poverty and unemployment and continued to suffer subjugation at the hands of men.
The current global economic turmoil is unlikely to ”impoverish” South Africa and there is some good in the weaker rand, according to First National Bank chief economist Cees Bruggemans. Commenting on the falling rand on Monday, Bruggemans said the good news is that it is the shock absorber of the moment.
At least 20 houses were burnt down and two people shot in clashes between two northern KwaZulu-Natal communities, police said on Monday. Captain Charmaine Struwig said fighting broke out between groups from the Mhlwazini area and Magangangozi area at midday on Sunday.
Workers are entitled to be paid for only one of the public holidays that will be celebrated this Friday, not both, the director of a local law firm said. According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, they are only entitled to compensation for one day’s work, and not for both Human Rights Day and Good Friday.
The state has called for a life sentence for an 18-year-old Eastern Cape youth convicted of raping a 14-year-old mentally ill girl and raping and murdering a girl of 10. Appearing in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday before Judge Cecil Somyalo was Lunga Tata, of Tyoksville, Bathurst.
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa on Monday criticised the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for claiming that President Thabo Mbeki had not been an ”honest broker”. He was briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on foreign affairs ahead of his country’s ”harmonised” March 29 elections.
The African National Congress (ANC) wants its new deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, in government, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe said on Monday. There has been much speculation on whether the ANC’s new leadership would want one of its own present in President Thabo Mbeki’s government.
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya on Monday released a discussion document that could see the current means test for social-grant eligibility overhauled. ”It is the view of the department that the means tests are outdated and consequently exclude many poor people from the safety net,” Skweyiya said.
The South African wheelchair basketball team have avoided the big guns in the pool stages of the Beijing Paralympics. South Africa have been drawn in Pool A with world number-one side Canada, but will not have to contend with Pool B powerhouses the United States, Australia and Britain.
All the talk before Monday’s Nedbank Cup draw centred on a potential final between Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns — with the gnawing proviso, of course, that the Premier Soccer League glamour clubs were not pitted against each other in the last-16 round. But the improbable did occur, amid gasps of amazement and disbelief.
There are obstacles hampering trade between South Africa and Indonesia that need to be addressed, President Thabo Mbeki said on Monday. He was speaking after hosting his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, at the Union Buildings for bilateral talks.
The University of the Free State on Monday asked for proposals on the future of its Reitz men’s residence from various affected parties. A racist video surfaced at the institution last month, made by former students living in the Reitz hostel. The video features black university employees on their knees eating food that had apparently been urinated on by a white student.
The South African National Taxi Council launched a ”taxi pledge” on Monday. The spotlight has been on taxi violence recently after a 25-year-old woman was stripped and assaulted by taxi drivers at Johannesburg’s Noord Street taxi rank because she was wearing a miniskirt.
The case against a 36-year-old man, accused of murdering 11 KwaZulu-Natal women and dumping their bodies in sugar-cane fields, was postponed on Monday in the Umzinto Magistrate’s Court for further investigation. Magistrate Giel van Aarde postponed the case until April 23.
The first witness in the drunken-driving case of Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride told the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday that he was told he and his family would be murdered if he did not help in a cover-up for McBride. ”He wasn’t sober enough to drive,” the witness said.
The former secretary general of the South African National Civics Organisation, Thozamile Gwanya, has been appointed Director General of Agriculture and Land Affairs, the department said on Monday. Gwanya, who matriculated in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, holds a BCom degree from the University of Transkei.
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown will go on trial in September on fraud and theft charges, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Monday. Prosecutor Thersia du Toit said the trial had been set down for nine days between September 15 and October 3. Magistrate Wilma van der Merwe postponed the case to May 2.
Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Monday dismissed appeals against the decision to grant environmental authorisation for a new Eskom power station in Mpumalanga. The project involves the construction of a 5 400MW coal-fired power station near Witbank.
Gold added $24,95, or 2,49%, to trade at $1 025,05 by 1.30pm on Monday — this after rising more than 3% to a record $1 032,60 a troy ounce in overnight trade. Oil prices have also rallied in response to the dollar’s weakness overnight with Nymex crude setting a fresh all-time high of $111,80.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) submitted parliamentary questions to President Thabo Mbeki on Monday, asking him to clear the air on his alleged involvement in the arms deal. The <i>Sunday Times</i> reported that business magnate Tokyo Sexwale had made an "impassioned plea" for Mbeki "to take the ANC into his confidence".
Media24, publisher of City Press, was on Monday ordered to pay prominent African National Congress politician and medical doctor Zweli Mkhize R150 000 in damages for a defaming him in a report in March 2007. Mkhize is chairperson of finance and economic development in the KwaZulu-Natal Cabinet.
South Africa’s large current-account deficit is a major chink in its armour given a low savings rate and current global financial market turmoil, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday. The country was dependent on foreign capital inflows to fund a rising deficit, he said.
The parents of murdered Stellenbosch student Inge Lotz are suing her ex-boyfriend Fred van der Vyver for R4-million each, said Dani Cohen, spokesperson for the Lotz family on Monday. Van der Vyver was acquitted of the murder of Lotz. Juanita and Jan Lotz called Inge ”their sunshine child and an angel. She was the apple of their eye” said Cohen.
An emergency move by the United States Federal Reserve to cut its discount rate has continued to weigh on markets, sending the JSE below the 30 000-level by midday on Monday. The Fed’s move to cut its discount rate, its lending rate to financial institutions, to 3,25% from 3,5%,
Former Springbok captain Corné Krige has slammed the South African Rugby Union’s part in the contractual issue surrounding Springbok coach Peter de Villiers. De Villiers is still in limbo regarding his contract as Springbok coach, and will only sign it after a controversial clause on selection is removed
Extremists have to be excluded from dialogues between Muslims and Jews, the South African Union for Jewish Students’s Ilan Solomons said during the Cook for Peace event held at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) on Sunday. ”Extremists are always those small vocal percentages that create the stereotype of an entire nation,” said Solomons.
The long wait ended in a fairytale triumph for Walter Khumalo when Free State Stars’ veteran goalkeeper came off eight months on the bench to instigate a tense and taut Nedbank Cup penalty shoot-out victory against Platinum Stars at Goble Park in Bethlehem on Sunday afternoon.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on Sunday called on men to take up their responsibility in the war against violence against women and children and the scourge of HIV/Aids. Mlambo-Ngcuka, speaking at the Fourth Treatment Action Campaign’s national congress at the Birchwood Hotel, said: ”When good men are silent, they become part of the problem.”
Santos had goalkeeper Wayne Roberts to thank as they advanced through to the last 16 of the Nedbank Cup after beating Orlando Pirates 5-4 on penalties at the Athlone Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Roberts made saves three times in the shoot-out after the match had ended 2-2 after full-time.
Zimbabwe’s main labour union on Sunday called on millions of Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa to go home to vote in the country’s March 29 elections, South Africa’s Talk Radio 702 reported. Zimbabweans will vote in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections in two weeks.
South Africa, producer of 30% of the gold in circulation today, is unable to profit fully from record prices for the precious metal as a crippling electricity crisis hampers production. The price of gold passed the 000-an-ounce mark for the first time on Thursday.