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/ 18 October 2007
The JSE was clutching on to gains at midday on Thursday as heavyweights in the resources and industrial sector kept the bourse firm. BHP Billiton and Anglo American kept the resource index up, and SABMiller lifted the industrial index. By noon, the all-share index was 0,13% higher as industrials advanced 0,25%.
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/ 18 October 2007
A tipper lorry driver who crashed his vehicle into a KwaZulu-Natal school on Wednesday has been arrested, police said on Thursday. KwaMashu police spokesperson Constable Siwe Nxumalo said the man faced charges of reckless and negligent driving, and drunken driving.
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/ 18 October 2007
Information on the Vusi Pikoli saga seemed to indicate interference with constitutional safeguards, the Johannesburg Bar Council said on Thursday. The controversy about the suspension of the National Director of Public Prosecutions required a strong and unambiguous response from the government, said the council.
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/ 18 October 2007
Freedom of expression is a right South Africans should not have to ask for, businessman Tokyo Sexwale told a gathering at the Star’s 120th anniversary celebrations in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”You have the right, you don’t have to ask for that right … you have won that right by being citizens of this country,” said Sexwale.
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/ 18 October 2007
In the land renowned for its scrumptious pizza and ravioli, Bafana Bafana were forced to eat humble pie in Siena on Wednesday night while losing 2-0 to what was
effectively the Italian B team. While the two headed goals from 32-year-old Ukraine-based Cristiano Lucarelli were a long time in coming, the scoreline, if anything, flattered South Africa.
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/ 18 October 2007
A dormitory parent at Oprah Winfrey’s school has been suspended for misconduct, the school announced on Wednesday. The school said the person had been ”removed” from the campus and immediate action had been taken to ensure the safety and well-being of the pupils.
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/ 18 October 2007
World trade talks appeared to be making progress on Wednesday as the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa said they were committed to reaching a deal. The leaders said differences with rich countries were still blocking agreement in the Doha round, launched nearly six years ago to help developing countries grow out of poverty and boost the world economy by opening up global trade.
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/ 17 October 2007
A ruling by a full bench of the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday put another nail in the coffin of Afrikaans-only education in state schools. The court dismissed with costs a review application by Hoërskool Ermelo to set aside a decision forcing it to admit English-speaking pupils and become a parallel-medium school.
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/ 17 October 2007
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota’s ”hostility” towards the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was reflected in his ”ignorance” of its policies, presented as an alternative to those of the government, Cosatu said on Wednesday. Lekota had challenged Cosatu in a radio broadcast to ”present alternative policy positions to those of the ruling party”.
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/ 17 October 2007
The multimillion-rand cost of fighting the Richtersveld land claim was money well spent, the Department of Public Enterprises said on Wednesday. It was responding to a query on the final legal bill for the case, which was settled last week.
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/ 17 October 2007
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula on Wednesday in the National Assembly rebuffed questions on why he would not suspend controversial police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, saying there is a process in place to deal with the matter.
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/ 17 October 2007
Department of Education officials met University of Johannesburg (UJ) students on Wednesday, said the Student Representative Council (SRC). SRC president Mhlobo Hoyi said students met the officials but he would only know the outcome later on Wednesday.
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/ 17 October 2007
The head of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial health department was officially suspended from her post on Wednesday. A statement released by the KwaZulu-Natal premier’s office said the ”cabinet endorsed the decision to suspend” the superintendent general of the department Dr Ruth Nyembezi.
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/ 17 October 2007
Clinton Nassif’s lawyer has refused to confirm ”dramatic new details” about his role in the September 2005 death of his boss, mining magnate Brett Kebble, supposedly contained in a draft affidavit leaked to the media on Wednesday. Lawyer Marius du Toit said Nassif’s legal team could not ”vouch for its correctness”.
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/ 17 October 2007
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Ross Schutte holds up a large slab of beef biltong and says: ”Rugby is good for business. Biltong and rugby — man, the two go together like brandy and Coke.” Schutte has just sold a bag of sliced biltong for more than R1Â 000 and taken two orders for lamb spit braais.
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/ 17 October 2007
Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri told the National Assembly on Wednesday that the state-owned telecommunications giant Telkom has lost R350-million over three years through fraud. She said that Telkom has also experienced significant theft of cables, solar panels and wireless communications equipment.
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/ 17 October 2007
The cost of broadband internet access is set to drop significantly with the adoption in the National Assembly on Wednesday of the Broadband Infraco Bill. The Bill provides mainly for transferring Broadband Infraco to the state from Eskom Holdings. Broadband costs in South Africa are considerably higher than the country’s international counterparts.
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/ 17 October 2007
Transformation and community engagement in the mining industry is a painful but crucial process, the Chamber of Mines sustainable development conference was told on Wednesday. Richards Bay Minerals’ strategic manager, Thabi Shange, said: ”Transformation is painful, cumbersome … It does not imply an easy ride of free will.”
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/ 17 October 2007
At the end of an emotional day of testimony, murder accused Fred van der Vyver on Wednesday formally denied that he killed his student girlfriend Inge Lotz. Van der Vyver was in the witness box for the second day, following a successful application by his defence team to reopen its case to hear his testimony.
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/ 17 October 2007
The elderly victims of an alleged rapist recounted their ordeals in the Grahamstown High Court on Wednesday. ”He grabbed me and pushed me into the bedroom and hit me with his fists, and with a bottle of brandy in his left hand,” one of the women told the court. ”I struggled but because of my age, I got tired. Then he raped me.”
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/ 17 October 2007
The National Empowerment Fund (NEF) has approved expansion capital funding of R7,2-million to Iglhaut-Allrad SA, a black economic empowerment (BEE) company in the automotive industry. The NEF’s chief investment officer, Frencel Gillion, announced the initiative in Pretoria on Wednesday.
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/ 17 October 2007
Najwa Petersen, widow of slain entertainer Taliep, has a ”unique” voice that family friend Waleed Ajoubaar instantly recognised when he heard it on tape, the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Wednesday. Ajoubaar was questioned by prosecutor Shireen Riley, defence counsel Herbert Raubenheimer and Magistrate Robert Henny about the taped voice and his reaction to it.
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/ 17 October 2007
An elderly Durban couple is in a critical condition in hospital after being drugged and robbed on Wednesday by men claiming to be traditional healers. Police said the man and woman were with their son at the time. The family had entered a Standard Bank branch in Amanzimtoti and withdrawn a large sum of money.
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/ 17 October 2007
The Public Servants’ Association of South Africa said on Wednesday that it foresaw chaos in the country’s prisons on weekends following failure of the Department of Correctional Services to compensate its employees who work on Saturdays and Sundays. Correctional services spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said the matter was still under discussion.
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/ 17 October 2007
The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa on Wednesday vowed to push the interests of poor nations in stalled international trade talks and said any agreement would have to benefit the developing world. Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Thabo Mbeki met at a summit in Pretoria.
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/ 17 October 2007
A military board of inquiry into an accident in which nine soldiers were killed has begun its work, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Wednesday. Lekota was visiting seven troopers in various Bloemfontein hospitals, who were injured in the anti-aircraft gun accident at the Lohatla training area in the Northern Cape last Friday.
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/ 17 October 2007
At least 14 Durban school pupils were injured on Wednesday when a tipper lorry crashed into a school in the Lindelani area, north of Durban, police said. Police spokesperson Inspector Michael Read said a truck ploughed into a high school, injuring pupils. ER24 spokesperson Derrick Banks said they had transported 14 school pupils to hospital.
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/ 17 October 2007
South Africa’s Northam Platinum said on Wednesday it expected to lose about 1 000 ounces per day of output after shutting its mine early on Tuesday when a worker was killed in a rockfall. The mine — the world’s deepest platinum mine — produces about 325 000 PGM ounces of platinum a year.
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/ 17 October 2007
The Home Affairs Department’s refugee office in Cape Town was a ”chaotic” place at which refugees were treated like animals, a parliamentary committee said on Wednesday. The MPs, on an unannounced visit, also discovered that refugees were being illegally detained by officials.
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/ 17 October 2007
There has been an ”alarming” increase over the past year in the deadly dust disease silicosis among workers on South Africa’s gold and platinum mines, MPs heard on Wednesday. Mine doctors submitted 1 031 cases of silicosis to the Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases in 2005.
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/ 17 October 2007
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Churches should encourage a diversity of opinions and frank debate in the run-up up to the African National Congress’s election of its new leadership in December, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) said on Wednesday. ”Processes relating to elections are critical for the strength of democracy in our country,” said the SACC.
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/ 17 October 2007
South Africa has been voted the best and most interesting African travel destination in an annual Dutch online travel survey, SA Tourism said on Wednesday. ”We know that the Dutch are enthusiastic safari-goers and that they also enjoy nature and outdoor activities,” said Annemarie Ferns, SA Tourism’s country manager in The Netherlands.