No image available
/ 31 January 2008
Dozens of police officers and members of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union converged at a Durban school on Thursday, 48 hours after a former pupil went into the school and threatened teachers and pupils with a gun. The matter was only reported to police on Wednesday afternoon.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
A game of soccer between cars. A troupe of cars performing ballet. Unbelievable as it may sound, these were some of the events that thrilled audiences at last year’s MPH car show. Now, MPH 2008 ”Live Motoring Theatre” has arrived in South Africa for a second year.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
The labour minister has welcomed the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to prosecute two Sasol employees in connection with an explosion in 2004 in which ten people were killed. ”We are happy that our recommendations for prosecution have resulted in someone having to account for the flouting of … laws,” said Membathisi Mdladlana on Thursday.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
Several Durban rivers are polluted with health-threatening levels of E. coli bacteria, sometimes at levels hundreds of times over the recommended safety limits for drinking, washing, swimming or canoeing, the Mercury reported on Thursday. The eThekwini municipality has been singled out as one of the ”most significant” polluters.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe may have dealt a fatal blow to Pretoria’s "quiet diplomacy" by calling an election in the middle of mediation efforts by his South African counterpart, say analysts. President Mbeki was handed the poisoned chalice of mediating between Mugabe and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change last April.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-largest gold producer, on Thursday warned that it may be forced to close shafts and restructure as a result of Eskom’s request that the mining industry reduce its power use by 10%. Gold Fields CEO Ian Cockerill warned that the power shortages in South Africa would affect production in the March quarter.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
South African police have raided a church that was a sanctuary for Zimbabwean refugees, arresting scores of suspected illegal immigrants, the South African Broadcasting Corporation said on Thursday. The raid occurred at about midnight on Wednesday at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, which has become a virtual refugee camp for those fleeing Zimbabwe.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
When Kabelo Thibedi finally reached breaking point and pulled a gun on a civil servant at South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs, his act of desperation achieved instant results. ”If I had not done so … I would not have gotten my ID book. It was delivered to me that same day with the age error in it corrected,” recalls the 23-year-old.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
![]()
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma cancelled his controversial speaking engagement at a Mike Tyson charity banquet outside Johannesburg on Wednesday. About an hour-and-a-half before the event, the hosts said Zuma had to attend to urgent ANC business.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
South Africa’s crippling power crisis will not put off investors nor limit its ability to stage the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. Rolling power cuts have plagued homes, businesses and the mining industry in South Africa for weeks and are likely to continue for about five years, according to state power utility Eskom.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Power failures could be a thing of the past if metropolitan areas cut their electricity usage by 10%, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. ”If we can do that, we can avoid even planned load-shedding,” he told MPs during Parliament’s special joint sitting to discuss the electricity crisis.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
The final countdown has started for Bafana Bafana as they take on Senegal in the last first-round fixture of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana on Thursday night with only a soccer miracle seemingly able to earn them a place in the quarterfinals. Senegal, meanwhile, are in the same precarious position as South Africa.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
A task team will be established to investigate a series of recent rapes and killings similar to the work of a serial killer who had operated in and around Pietermaritzburg in the 1990s, police said on Wednesday. The team will comprise six experienced detectives.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille was not guilty of any wrongdoing in connection with the city probe into councillor Badih Chaaban, an independent inquiry into the matter has found. ”The allegations around the investigation into councillor Chaaban have been nothing more than a smear campaign,” Zille said on Wednesday.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Prosecution procedures into alleged price-fixing by certain South African milk producers will begin next week, the Competition Commission said on Tuesday. Eight dairy companies investigated for alleged price-fixing will be involved in pre-hearings next week, said the commission’s head of enforcements and exemption.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
South Africans can save electricity by going to sleep earlier and boiling less water, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on Wednesday told a special sitting of Parliament to discuss the power crisis. Nationwide power cuts began again at 3pm on Wednesday, said electricity provider Eskom.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Trade union Solidarity on Wednesday demanded that the Department of Labour publish a detailed report about an explosion at Sasol in which 10 people were killed. ”Solidarity demands publication about the 2004 Sasol explosion within 48 hours,” said union spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Circumstances surrounding the arrest of Scorpions investigator Ivor Powell will be investigated, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) said on Wednesday. ”We are investigating the matter. The decision comes after a letter of complaint was received from the Democratic Alliance,” said spokesperson Dikeledi Phiri.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
The African National Congress’s (ANC) drive to close the Scorpions is ”myopic and dangerous”, political analyst Professor Adam Habib said on Wednesday. Speaking at the University of Pretoria’s African Dialogue Lecture series, both Habib and fellow academic and analyst Professor Stephen Friedman said the move sent out the wrong signals.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
The Bulls have included three of their previously injured World Cup Springboks in the side to play the Lions in a warm-up match in Windhoek on Saturday. Danie Rossouw, Gurthro Steenkamp and Akon Ndungane have all been given the green light, and the starting line-up is arguably the best Frans Ludeke could have selected.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
A kulula.com passenger aircraft was forced to turn back after a bird flew into an engine during a Durban-to-Cape Town flight on Wednesday. Airline spokesperson Glenda Zvenyika confirmed that a ”bird strike” occurred on flight MN702, 15 minutes after taking off from Durban. The captain had to shut down the engine.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
A South African National Defence Force helicopter from Pretoria was expected to deliver food parcels to flood victims in Limpopo on Wednesday, the province’s housing and local government department said. ”Those residents are cut off from the outside world. We can only access them by air,” said a departmental spokesperson.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
After all 13 people implicated in the Jeppestown massacre had pleaded not guilty to every charge put to them on Wednesday, the trial settled into the task of admitting vast amounts of evidence into the court records. Earlier, the woman and 12 men elected to remain silent on the 23 charges they face collectively.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
An organisation formed by women’s rights activists in response to Jacob Zuma’s rape trial has been denied an opportunity to hold a "peaceful protest" outside the Emperors Palace casino complex in Gauteng where visiting boxing champion Mike Tyson is to attend a charity fund-raising event.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
The Pretoria High Court refused bail on Wednesday to one of the accused in the Boeremag treason trial, Kobus Pretorius. Pretorius (34), whose father and brother are on trial with him along with 17 other accused on 42 charges including high treason, terrorism and murder, said he had experienced a religious conversion while in jail.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
The JSE ignored CPI data that came in slightly higher than market expectations and continued to gather momentum by midday on Wednesday on news that power had been restored to the mining industry. December CPI came in at 9% year-on-year, while the market expected 8,9%, and CPIX came in at 8,6%, against the expected 8,5%.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
A 27-year-old Durban woman who allegedly set her boyfriend alight and then locked him in a toilet at the weekend is expected to appear at the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Thursday for murder, police said. Captain Bongani Khomo said the woman was arrested in Umlazi on Monday afternoon.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Trade union Solidarity is introducing its own medical fund in a move against what it called "high medical rates", it said on Wednesday. "It’s a non-profit service. We don’t want to make millions out of the sick, but make private healthcare more accessible to the people of South Africa," said Jaco Kleynhans, Solidarity spokesperson.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Vehicle maker Ford Motor Company of Southern African (Ford SA) plans to invest more than R1,5-billion to expand operations for its next-generation compact pickup truck and Puma diesel engine, it said on Wednesday. The investment will start in 2009 and be split between its assembly plant in Pretoria, and engine facility in Port Elizabeth.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, once nicknamed ”The Baddest Man on the Planet”, isn’t about to set foot in any hotspots on his first trip to Africa. Tyson, whose career has been marred by controversy, including a prison term for rape and the infamous ear biting incident in a title fight with Evander Holyfield, says he has mellowed.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
Heavily polluted water from a punctured sewage pipe appears to have been flowing into the Durban harbour via the Umhlatuzana River for up to nine months — reportedly the result of a bungled repair job by eThekwini council contract workers, a media report said on Wednesday.
No image available
/ 30 January 2008
South African mining companies were set to resume production this week after power failures brought the industry to a halt last Friday. Anglogold Ashanti said it expected all its mines would be in full production by the end of the week. Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said: ”All our mines are busy mobilising as the power flow is being restored.”