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/ 19 October 2007
Four staff at a hospital in South Africa were killed on Friday when an employee went on a shooting spree shortly after being sacked, police said. Those victims of the shootings at Seshego Hospital, near Polokwane in Limpopo, included the chief executive officer, the human resource manager and the administration officer.
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/ 19 October 2007
Human trafficking is an evil as terrible as the Atlantic slave trade of the past, Chief Justice Pius Langa said on Friday. ”It is an evil as terrible as the slave trade of the past and it requires a concerted response from civil society and the government,” he said at the International Association of Women Judges Conference in Boksburg.
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/ 19 October 2007
A man accused of raping three elderly women was expected to plead guilty in the Grahamstown High Court on Friday, but changed his mind at the last minute. This prompted his lawyer to withdraw, and the trial was postponed to January 29 2008. The women’s ages ranged from 54 to 65.
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/ 19 October 2007
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South Africa’s politicians are not immune to Rugby World Cup fever, with a fair number already in or on their way to Paris for Saturday’s final against England at the Stade de France. Leading the way, President Thabo Mbeki left for France on Friday morning, sporting his Springbok jersey and cap.
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/ 19 October 2007
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”Go Bokke, go!” is the message from President Thabo Mbeki on the eve of the Rugby World Cup final between South Africa and England. In his weekly newsletter, published on Friday on the ANC Today website, Mbeki said the government was confident the Springboks would repeat what they did at Ellis Park in 1995, and walk away as rugby world champions.
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/ 19 October 2007
A 22-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the brutal murder of a former crime journalist, police said on Friday. Pietermaritzburg police spokesperson Inspector Joey Jeevan said the man was questioned on Wednesday and formally arrested on Thursday. ”He is expected to appear in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday,” she said.
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/ 19 October 2007
There is no huge threat to the media in South Africa, but some planned laws are worrying, South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) chairperson Jovial Rantao said on Friday. Addressing a joint South African Broadcasting Corporation and Sanef conference, Rantao said: ”There is no huge threat against the media in this country.”
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/ 19 October 2007
Sweden and Finland on Thursday called for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to be excluded from a European Union-Africa summit in December but left open whether they would join a British boycott if he showed up. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said he had not decided whether to attend the summit in Lisbon if Mugabe came.
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/ 19 October 2007
The news of the death of South African reggae star Lucky Dube in a botched hijacking attempt in Johannesburg has drawn strong reaction from around the world. As he was leaving for the World Cup in France, President Thabo Mbeki made an appeal to South Africans to confront the ”scourge” of crime together.
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/ 19 October 2007
Instead of trying to impose racial quotas on rugby, the government should be looking at ways of nurturing young black talent for the sport, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. In her party’s weekly newsletter, SA Today, she said the Springboks’ prowess in the international competition confirmed what should be self-evident.
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/ 19 October 2007
The JSE rose modestly at midday on Friday, helped by miners amid soaring metal prices with investors unfazed by talks that Wall Street was poised to open lower. At noon, the all-share index was up 0,61%. Resources gained 1,09% and the gold-mining and platinum-mining indices were up 1,14% and 0,81% respectively.
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/ 19 October 2007
With just a day left to the Rugby World Cup final, a man has been fined in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court for trading in counterfeit Springbok jerseys, Gauteng police said on Friday. The owner of a shop at Value Mall in Boksburg was arrested on Thursday for being in possession of and trading in counterfeit Springbok jerseys.
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/ 18 October 2007
Reggae musician Lucky Dube was shot dead in a hijacking on Thursday in Rosettenville, Johannesburg police said. Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the incident took place at about 8.20pm when Dube (43) was driving in the Johannesburg suburb. He was dropping off his son in the area when he was attacked.
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/ 18 October 2007
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Nelson Mandela urged the Springboks on Thursday to emulate their 1995 World Cup victory when his appearance in a gold and green jersey became one of the iconic images of the post-apartheid era. The ageing former South African president said in a pre-recorded video message to the team he was convinced that they would return home triumphant.
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/ 18 October 2007
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The South African government warned on Thursday that demands for an overhaul of the racial make-up of the Springboks would not be silenced, even if they win this weekend’s Rugby World Cup final. Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba told Parliament that coach Jake White’s charges were still not representative of the nation, 13 years after apartheid.
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/ 18 October 2007
People with skills were not assisting those who were struggling, causing skills-development regulations to be introduced, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Thursday. He said the Department of Labour was currently developing regulations that would make it compulsory for employers to register all vacancies.
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/ 18 October 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) fears party politics was behind the suspension of National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, it said on Thursday. The way in which he was suspended raised ”serious suspicion” that the government may have intervened for ”narrow political reasons”, said spokesperson Patrick Craven.
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/ 18 October 2007
To ignore the vexed question of how to deal with Cape Judge President John Hlophe is to stick your head in the sand.
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/ 18 October 2007
The National Assembly on Thursday adopted a motion of full confidence in Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, thereby rejecting the original motion by the Democratic Alliance, which called for a special committee to probe her fitness to hold public office.
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/ 18 October 2007
South Africa’s mining industry, which records an average of 200 fatalities every year, is seeking to reduce death rates by at least 20% by 2013, the Chamber of Mines said on Thursday. ”To be world-class by 2013, an annual milestone of reducing fatality rates by at least 20% a year is needed,” the chamber’s chief executive said.
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/ 18 October 2007
Murder accused Fred van der Vyver was questioned closely on Thursday on how he came to know that his student girlfriend Inge Lotz had been stabbed. Van der Vyver (25) was under cross-examination in the Cape High Court after his defence team was given permission to reopen its case to present his testimony.
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/ 18 October 2007
Free State crop-spraying pilot Johann Foley described on Thursday how he survived a crash after his aircraft’s engine faltered near Clocolan. ”I made two passes spraying on Wednesday afternoon and was about to make the second turn at a mountain when the aircraft lost power,” Foley said.
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/ 18 October 2007
The case against two boys who allegedly burnt a toddler was postponed in the Ga-Rankuwa Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, Children of Fire said. The organisation’s director, Bronwen Jones, said the case was postponed to next month because the court’s appointed probation officer had not completed a report.
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/ 18 October 2007
A civic movement on Thursday demanded that a ”degrading and discriminating” Rugby World Cup advert featuring Khoisan people be pulled from the airwaves. ”It degrades our Khoisan indigenous people as illiterate,” said national secretary general of the African Renaissance Civic Movement Richard Huber.
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/ 18 October 2007
The world’s biggest producer of platinum, Anglo Platinum, said on Thursday it shut a shaft at its largest operation on Wednesday after one worker was killed, sending platinum prices to a new record. Simon Tebele, a spokesperson at AngloPlat, could not say for how long the Paardekraal shaft in Rustenburg would be closed.
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/ 18 October 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will not be able to pursue its threat of legal action to force Frene Ginwala’s recusal from heading the inquiry into suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, it emerged on Thursday. The DA has previously stated it would be prepared to fight her appointment by President Thabo Mbeki.
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/ 18 October 2007
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With biltong, braais, beer and Bok shirts at the ready, rugby-mad South Africans are preparing to hunker down in style for Saturday’s World Cup final showdown with England. Even wedding plans are being redrawn to ensure that no one misses a minute of the action from the Stade de France in Paris.
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/ 18 October 2007
Security measures will be tightened in shopping centres across the country, Business against Crime (BAC) said in Johannesburg on Thursday. Addressing a media conference in Illovo, BAC’s Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane said the prevalence of violent crimes in shopping centres was of serious concern for the government, the business sector and law-abiding citizens.
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/ 18 October 2007
Earlier this year, Cape Town was debating a by-law that would make solar water heating compulsory for relatively costly new buildings, and certain renovations. But what of solar water heating for less expensive structures — especially homes being built under the country’s extensive low-cost housing programme?
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/ 18 October 2007
Environmental NGO Earthlife Africa has threatened a legal challenge to what it says is South Africa’s ”hasty and ill-informed” draft nuclear policy. The threat was made in a submission on Earthlife’s behalf by the Legal Resources Centre on the policy document, released by the Department of Minerals and Energy in August.
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/ 18 October 2007
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The youngsters assembled at Soweto’s Jabulani soccer grounds for an after-school training session are united in their reply when asked to name their hero: ”Habana. He’s the man!” As the Springboks prepare for Saturday’s World Cup final, a sport that was traditionally seen as a ”white man’s game” is slowly but surely gaining interest among South Africa’s black majority.
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/ 18 October 2007
Nolwazi Mbananga, from the Medical Research Council of South Africa, said that the country’s mines should become "knowledge-based organisations". "We often hear of miners who are trapped underground, but have we asked those miners what the signs are before mines collapse?" she said.