Five men robbed a family at Hennopsriver in the Erasmia area, burning the mother and father with an iron. Constable Patricia Simelane said the men demanded money — saying that they had been told there was money in the house — and ”they burnt the mother and father with an iron three of four times on the upper body”.
A third person has been arrested in connection with the murders of 18 people in the Mzamba area in the Eastern Cape, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday. A special police task team set up to investigate the murders arrested the man in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.
More than two months after his historic appointment, new South Africa rugby coach Peter de Villiers didn’t sign off on his contract this week because he wouldn’t have final say on team selection. De Villiers, in contract negotiations since his appointment on January 9, backed off from agreeing to the two-year contract on Monday and Tuesday.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s attempt to have search-and-seizure raids as well as a letter requesting documents from Mauritius ruled invalid was set to enter a third day at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg on Thursday.
A Parliamentary delegation will depart from Pretoria on Friday in a convoy to Cuito Cuanavale to commemorate the battle that took place there during the Angolan war. The delegation includes military veterans from both sides, representatives from government, scholars and civil society, Parliament said in a statement.
Search-and-rescue workers saved 20 people trapped in cars and homes by rising water in a heavy overnight downpour in Durban. ”We used a police boat to move many people away from the Island Hotel in Isipingo and we assisted several others who were stuck in cars due to rising flood water,” said Captain Troy Alison.
A substantial jump in the number of Pentecostal Christians could have a positive impact on South Africa’s social and economic development, the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) said on Wednesday. ”If this rate of growth is maintained, South African Pentecostals will number almost 10-million by 2011, or one-fifth of the population,” the CDE said.
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The state’s attempts to obtain documents from Mauritius infringed African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s right to a fair trial, the Constitutional Court heard on Wednesday. Zuma’s advocate said that allowing the documents from Mauritius to be ”imported” would ”negate” the Zuma legal team’s ability to challenge the documents in court.
The government will table draft legislation intended to regulate the private health sector within two months, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Wednesday. ”It is clear that we cannot sustain unregulated private healthcare service delivery in this country and at the same time regulate the medical-schemes industry,” she said.
The Department of Health has shown a decided lack of enthusiasm for investigating the activities of vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. ”The government has failed completely in its … duties to protect the health of the public,” said Geoff Budlender, advocate for the Treatment Action Campaign.
South Africa on Wednesday rejected ”with contempt” claims by jailed British mercenary Simon Mann that it backed his plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. ”South Africa is thrown in just out of the blue … he says he had a nod from us. I would like to know in what sense he had a nod,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said.
President Thabo Mbeki needs to urgently intervene to stop Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla’s ”sadistic games”, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chief whip Koos van der Merwe said on Wednesday. ”The minister of justice can best be described as a sadist,” he said in a statement.
South Africa believes conditions for a free and fair election in Zimbabwe exist — at least on paper, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters at the Union Buildings, Pahad said the next 17 days in the run-up to the Zimbabwean presidential and parliamentary elections would be telling.
Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence came to ”incorrect conclusions” in its report on the so-called ”Special Browse Mole Consolidated Report” produced by the Scorpions, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday. ”Whilst we respect the role of the committee, we contest its views,” NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said.
South Africa’s manufacturing output growth quickened to an unadjusted 1,4% year-on-year in January, despite an energy crisis that knocked industry, official data showed on Wednesday. Compared with December, manufacturing production in volume terms increased, unexpectedly, by a seasonally adjusted 1,1%, Statistics South Africa said.
South Africa can become a caring society despite the racist incidents at Skielik and Reitz hostel at the University of the Free State, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”We are a wonderful country with many talented people,” Tutu said in launching an exhibition honouring struggle stalwarts Walter and Albertina Sisulu.
Vitamin salesperson Matthias Rath is patently dishonest, lying whenever it suits him, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. ”We say that Dr Rath is, on his own showing, not an honest person,” the Treatment Action Campaign’s advocate, Geoff Budlender, said.
An unresolved contract dispute between appointed Springbok rugby coach Peter de Villiers and the South African Rugby Union has erupted again — and remains unresolved. This time a constitutional matter lies at the heart of the matter, De Villiers’s agent, Rian Oberholzer, said on Wednesday.
At least 20 people who were trapped in cars and homes by rising water levels during a heavy overnight downpour in Durban were rescued by the police’s search-and-rescue team. ”We used a police boat to move many people away from the Island Hotel in Isipingo and we assisted several others,” the unit’s commander, Captain Troy Alison, said on Wednesday.
Banks and financials helped the JSE advance further by midday on Wednesday as they cheered the move by the United States Federal Reserve to raise liquidity in financial markets. At noon, the JSE’s broader all-share index had gained 1,35%. Financials collected 1,94%, while banks were up 1,67%.
Games such as ”hit me, hit me” and ”rape me, rape me”, where schoolchildren chase each other and then pretend to hit or rape each other, are being played at South African schools, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said in a report on school-based violence, which was presented in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
South Africa’s business confidence fell sharply to a seven-year low in the first quarter of 2008, as the sector fretted about an uncertain economic and political outlook, a survey released on Wednesday found. The Business Confidence Index, sponsored by Rand Merchant and the Bureau for Economic Research, fell by 19 index points to 48.
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A state lawyer accused African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma in court on Wednesday of trying to delay justice through his attempt to block the use of seized documents at his upcoming corruption trial. The trial, due to start in August, could ruin Zuma’s hopes of succeeding President Thabo Mbeki in 2009.
A recent spate of taxi violence in Gauteng is ”senseless barbarism” that will not be tolerated, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. It has forged relations with law-enforcement agencies to ensure those responsible face the full might of the law, spokesperson Collen Msibi said in a statement.
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Warrants issued to allow the Scorpions to conduct search-and-seizure raids on the properties of African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, his attorney and French arms manufacturer Thint were specific, the Constitutional Court heard on Wednesday.
South African prima ballerina Phyllis Spira has died at the age of 64 in Cape Town, news reports said on March 12. She died in Claremont’s Kingsbury Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Spira had been admitted to hospital earlier in the week for a routine vascular operation and complications set in after the surgery.
A foreign tourist was robbed of his luggage upon his arrival at Johannesburg’s Westcliff Hotel from the OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday, said a hotel spokesperson. Another two tourists, who were in the reception area checking out at the time, were also robbed of their bags, said Gabrielle Palmer.
Nearly half of South African private businesses say a lack of skills is the biggest constraint to business growth in this country, a new survey showed on Wednesday. This the second straight year that workforce issues have been cited as the greatest impediment to growth in the Grant Thornton annual <i>International Business Report</i>.
A pedestrian Bafana Bafana outfit needed an own goal to beat Zimbabwe 2-1 in a friendly international match at the Germiston Stadium on Tuesday evening. Gilbert Mushangazhike struck first for the visitors in the 12th minute. Sthembiso Ngcobo equalised in the 73rd minute and his feeble shot at goal deflected off James Matola late in extra time to give the hosts an unforeseen victory.
”Yo-yo man” Benni McCarthy is back in the Bafana Bafana squad to play Paraguay on March 26 — strengthening the suspicion that the enigmatic striker requested coach Carlos Albero Parreira not to include him in the squad for the recent African Nations Cup tournament in Ghana.
Total transformation is needed at the University of the Free State (UFS), the African National Congress (ANC) in the Free State said on Tuesday. Provincial party spokesperson Playfair Morule said the recent ”dehumanising video” which surfaced at the university was just the tip of the iceberg of racist tendencies at the university.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma sat quietly in the front row of the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, listening to his legal team challenge the validity of the warrants used to seize documents that could be used against him in his forthcoming corruption trial.