The number of deaths in police custody or as a result of police action increased by 11% compared with the same period last year, a report by the Independent Complaints Directorate revealed on Monday. A total of 698 deaths occurred between April 2006 and March 2007, compared with 621 casualties in 2005/06.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday accused Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane of concealing information and deliberately trying to mislead opposition parties. On September 25, Chikane had invited opposition party leaders to a briefing on the controversial decision to suspend the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli.
Motorists will end up footing the R55-billion bill for the upgrading of Gauteng’s highways, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe announced on Monday. ”This project will be financed through the ‘user-pay’ principle, and it will allow our roads to be funded, without resorting to the national fiscus for such projects,” said Radebe.
Cape Town lawyer Christine Qunta on Monday welcomed the Sunday Times‘s retraction of defamatory statements made by the newspaper against her, saying the apology was proof that the principle of media accountability was being upheld.
Police used water spray on University of Johannesburg (UJ) students who were shaking the entrance gate to the Kingsway Campus on Monday afternoon. Students earlier said they were going to break the gate down if they were not allowed access to the campus. They said they would resort to anarchy.
Emails suggesting that a severe storm with a tornado was to hit Johannesburg and surrounds on Monday afternoon were "greatly exaggerated", the South African Weather Service said. One email on Monday read: "Please be careful as a tornado dropped in Randfontein on Saturday and is expected today."
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South Africa’s media on Monday declared the Springboks as the new favourites to win the Rugby World Cup after they narrowly avoided becoming the third victim of a weekend of quarterfinal upsets. Newspapers breathed a sigh of relief that the Boks saw off a brave challenge by Fiji, who at one stage were level-pegging at 20-20.
AmaZulu shocked Telkom Knockout champions Platinum Stars when they beat them 1-0 in a lukewarm game in front of 8 000 fans at the King Zwelithini Stadium on Sunday. AmaZulu led 1-0 at half-time. The only goal of the match came in the 16th minute when Mpho Maleka beat Wyne Sunderland with a low shot after he received a neat pass from Dumisani Ngwenya.
The JSE remained firm by midday on Monday but according to traders was drifting, lacking direction from world markets. By noon, the all-share index had edged up 0,16%, as industrials increased 0,84%. Banks advanced 0,67% and financials were 0,54% firmer.
Hundreds of University of Johannesburg students were protesting on their campuses on Monday morning, Gauteng police confirmed. Police spokesperson Constable Sefako Xaba said police had been called to the campus on Bunting Road where about 200 students had gathered.
South Africa’s unit of the world’s top diamond producer De Beers said on Monday it expects to produce 14,7-million carats in 2007, and saw a decline in output of 2-million carats in 2008. ”Very soon we will level at 12-million carats into the future,” said David Noko, managing director of De Beers Consolidated Mines.
A woman has been arrested with human tissue in her possession at a Durban hospital, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Sunday. Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu said the 33-year-old assistant nurse was caught with a baby’s umbilical cord in the hospital’s parking lot at 2.15pm.
South African President Thabo Mbeki came under mounting pressure over the weekend to explain his suspension of the country’s top prosecutor, a controversial move weeks before a crunch vote on his leadership of the African National Congress (ANC).
An underground fire has claimed the lives of 23 miners illegally working a disused shaft of the St Helena mine, in Welkom, on the Free State Goldfields, police said on Sunday. A number of illegal miners were feared to have suffocated or burned to death while trapped underground by the fire — which was thought to have started last month.
Another decomposed body of a woman was found in the sugar-cane fields surrounding Umzinto’s Shayamoya township, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Sunday. Superintendent Zandra Hechter said the body was discovered on Saturday when police were busy with their investigations in the area.
An underground fire has claimed the lives of 23 miners illegally working an unused shaft of the St Helena Mine, in Welkom, Free State police said on Sunday. Their bodies were discovered on Sunday morning and brought to the surface by colleagues who had been arrested when the fire forced them to leave the mine on Tuesday.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it is disgusted by the out-of-hand rejection of MP James Selfe’s draft Bill by the chairperson of the select committee on private member’s legislative proposals and special petitions, Vytjie Mentor. The Bill seeks to expunge from the record crimes committed during the apartheid era that would not be crimes today.
Isidingo actor Thami Afrika is out on R3 000 bail, reported Sunday World. Afrika, who plays the role of a lawyer in the television soapie, was arrested on Wednesday for possession of suspected stolen goods. He appeared in the Germiston Regional Court with a Nigerian co-accused on charges of theft.
War veterans in Zimbabwe are planning to stage a ”million-man” march through the streets of the capital, Harare, in support of President Robert Mugabe, state radio said early on Sunday. Veterans of the 1970s war against white minority rule are among the 83-year old Mugabe’s most loyal supporters.
Seven tries in the first half and a score of 47-0 at the break against the Boland Cavaliers on Saturday ensured the Golden Lions of third place on the Absa Currie Cup log after the last round of the season. The Lions’ comprehensive win of 75-0 will see them play the Sharks in Durban next Saturday in the first of the Currie Cup semifinals.
A wet and slippery Newlands set the scene for Western Province’s final Currie Cup match in 2007. Province were still in with a chance at the play-offs — however, the team had to score 102 points to qualify. Against Griquas this was always going to be an impossible task.
It started off as no more than a stroll in the park for the Sharks at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday. But in the end it became a struggle for the weakened KwaZulu-Natal side to overcome a determined bottom-placed Valke in their final round-robin Absa Currie Cup rugby match.
A goal of sheer magic and another of clinical precision from Katlego Mphela gave SuperSport United a 2-1 Telkom Knockout win against Santos at a desolate, mainly deserted Athlone Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Apart from the decisive influence of the goal-hungry SuperSport striker, the teams were evenly matched throughout.
The battle for the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) is becoming ever dirtier and fuelled by paranoia in the final weeks before delegates vote for the as-yet undeclared candidates. The challenge on the surface appears a straight contest between incumbent Thabo Mbeki and ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Climate change is already happening in South Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday during a visit to a biodiversity centre in Cape Town. ”You can see that climate change is already a reality here,” said Merkel, as she visited Biota Africa, a centre where German and South African scientists conduct research on African climate change.
Forsaking high office in order to build the organisation should be the highest honour for members of the African National Congress (ANC), said the ruling party’s national treasurer Mendi Msimang on Saturday. ”Election to high office in the ANC should not be regarded as a stepping stone to government position or the accumulation of wealth,” he said.
Legendary golfer Gary Player has come under fire in South Africa over his company’s business ties with Burma, where a golf course he designed is allegedly used by members of the brutal ruling junta. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for a boycott of all foreign companies doing business in the Asian country.
Another body was found on Friday in the sugar-cane fields surrounding Umzinto’s Shayamoya township, police said on Saturday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Zandra Hechter said skeletal remains of a woman were found by workers who were burning the sugar-cane fields at the time.
An 8% ”overall range” of price hikes was confirmed by the University of the Witwatersrand council, the institution said on Saturday. This followed three days of protests at the university over increases in the upfront fees payment students are expected to make in 2008, and against students having to pay for their own accommodation.
Municipal officials in the uThukela district were accused at President Thabo Mbeki’s imbizo (meeting) near Ladysmith of asking for political party cards before serving residents. An estimated 8 000 people packed the tents at the Uitval sports grounds near Ladysmith to meet Mbeki and hundreds lined up to have their chance to complain.
The Free State Cheetahs pulled off the double over the Blue Bulls with a near-clinical 29-17 victory at Loftus Versfeld on Friday evening. The Bulls had begun with plenty of gusto but soon found themselves running out of steam and handing the game to the Cheetahs.
Jomo Cosmos beat Bidvest Wits 2-1 in an almost farcical and drama-filled Telkom Knockout Cup last-16 match at the Bidvest Stadium on Friday night. As expected, the game started off drearily, but all hell broke loose after Cosmos went 1-0 up from an Anthony Laffor header in the 65th minute.