A swoop by environmental inspectors on the giant Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation’s Vanchem plant outside Witbank in Mpumalanga has uncovered shocking levels of air, ground and water pollution. Environmental management inspectors, better known as the Green Scorpions, carried out a compliance inspection at the plant at the end of August this year.
African National Congress (ANC) succession battles are unlikely to be a feature of President Thabo Mbeki’s imbizo (meeting) in the Ladysmith this weekend, according to local party bosses and analysts. Mbeki’s visit will be the first presidential imbizo in the province since allegations that certain ANC members were trying to make the province a no-go area for Mbeki.
As the Democratic Alliance (DA) took steps to obtain copies of the alleged warrants of arrest for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi on Thursday, the Freedom Front Plus renewed its call for the police chief’s suspension. The DA has lodged an application to obtain copies of the warrants allegedly issued for Selebi, DA parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has tabled a private member’s Bill seeking to expunge from the record crimes committed during the apartheid era that would not be crimes today. The inspiration for the measure came to him from two constituents, DA correctional services spokesperson James Selfe said in a statement on Thursday.
A Border schoolboy rugby player has allegedly tested positive for a banned substance, Dispatch Online reported on Thursday. The 17-year-old Stirling High matric pupil allegedly failed the test that was taken at the Under-18 Craven Week in Stellenbosch in July.
Harmony Gold’s Elandsrand mine near Carletonville has been shut down for up to six weeks after the mine’s main exit was blocked, trapping 3 200 miners underground, the Minerals and Energy Department said on Thursday. About 800 miners remained trapped more than 2,2km underground by 4pm on Thursday.
A man accused of holding several staff members of the Pretoria News hostage was on Thursday declared fit to stand trial. A report by the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital was handed up at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, stating 33-year-old Lionel George from Danville would understand the court proceedings and was able to contribute meaningfully to his defence.
Police were not patrolling the Wits campus on Thursday, a student said after his lectures were disrupted by protesters. Suyash Maharaj was forced out of his class when hundreds of protesting students barged into his Actuarial Science lecture. ”We looked for police protection, because these protesters looked like they could have easily hurt us,” Maharaj said.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says it stands by its statement on South African Broadcasting Corporation board deputy chairperson Christine Qunta and on Thursday laid complaints against her and the company Comforters Healing Gift. On Wednesday, Qunta’s legal representatives demanded the TAC stop publishing defamatory material about her.
About 1Â 250 miners remained trapped more than 2,2km underground in Harmony Gold’s Elandsrand mine near Carletonville on Thursday after an all-night rescue mission. The mine’s general manager, Stan Bierschenk, said the morale of workers still stuck below ground was ”fairly brittle”.
South Africa’s business confidence inched up slightly in September on firmer equities and precious metals but a lull in exports and subdued manafacturing output were a concern, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) said on Thursday. The Sacob Business Confidence Index was at 98,7 after dipping to 98,1 in August.
All Johannesburg municipal workers who participated in a strike earlier this week are to return to work by Friday, city officials said. The Johannesburg Labour Court on Thursday ruled in favour of the city and prevented a secondary strike by the South African Municipal Workers’ Union.
The South African Human Rights Commission has spoken out against children’s rights violations at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, where newborn babies were put in a cardboard box. ”The commission reiterates that section 10 of the Bill of Rights provides that everyone has inherent dignity,” spokesperson Vincent Moaga said in a statement on Thursday.
Even with a new man at the helm in acclaimed former Platinum Stars coach Owen de Gama, the Orlando Pirates ship continued to flounder at Ellis Park on Wednesday night as the Buccaneers slumped to a 5-4 penalty shoot-out defeat against Benoni Premier United after a dramatic Telkom Knockout game finished 1-1 after extra-time.
Khartoum club Al-Hilal are on the brink of completing a fairytale year for football in Sudan as they head to Tunisia for the second leg of their African Champions League semifinal on Saturday. A place in the Champions League final would come just months after Sudan’s national side ended a three-decades drought.
Limpopo’s environmental affairs and tourism department has given the go-ahead for rangers to kill lions that have escaped from the Kruger National Park, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday. Five more cattle were killed by lions at Gawula village outside Giyani on Wednesday.
Media group Naspers is to make a public tender offer to acquire up to 100% of Gadu Gadu, a Warsaw-listed Polish internet company for a total investment of about $155-million, it said on Thursday. Naspers will extend an offer to acquire 100% of the shares of Gadu Gadu SA at a tender price of 23,50 z³oty per share.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) should involve players’ unions in their deliberations on commission for television and sponsorship, the South African Football Players’ Union said on Wednesday. The PSL has come under fire this week over claims that it intends paying internal negotiators 10% commissions on a R1,6-billion television rights deal and a R500-million sponsorship deal.
Protesting students stormed into lecture theatres at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on Wednesday, disrupting classes and chasing away lecturers. ”We have called police back to campus in a bid to have order restored,” management spokesperson Shirona Patel said.
South African police said on Wednesday they believed a serial killer was responsible for the deaths of eight women whose bodies were found dumped in sugar-cane fields on the KwaZulu-Natal. A police spokesperson for the Umzinto area said that while a forensics expert had not yet made his findings public, the most recent discovery of three bodies suggested a serial killer was at work.
The Scorpions crime unit is in the political spotlight again amid reports it was preparing to arrest the nation’s police commissioner, the latest high-profile official targeted by the elite force. Unease over the unit has been building within the ruling African National Congress since President Thabo Mbeki announced the formation of the FBI-style crime unit in 1999.
Africa’s largest media company, Media24, has admitted to falsifying the circulation figures of 12 of its 60 magazine titles. Three senior managers from Touchline Media, a Media24 subsidiary, have resigned and are under investigation in connection with the false circulation numbers.
The Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) has called on the government to probe the increasing prices of basic foodstuffs. ”We believe that the skyrocketing food prices are the result of anti-competitive conduct by the major role players in the food production and supply chain,” Fawu said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that President Thabo Mbeki did have the power to sack former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha. The president had the power to terminate his employment under section 209(2) of the Constitution, read with section 3 of the Intelligence Services Act.
A fugitive who had been on the run for more than three years was re-arrested this week and sentenced on Wednesday to 18 years in jail for hijacking, Johannesburg police said. Sergeant Sanku Tsunke said that ”most wanted fugitive” Thabiso Reginald Makwela (26) had escaped from custody in 2004.
So-called surprise visits by businessman Tokyo Sexwale to branches of the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) have raised the ire of the student body. ”We demand a public apology from Mr Sexwale for bringing the name of our organisation into disrepute,” said Sasco president David Maimela on Wednesday.
One year into the construction of railways of South Africa’s first partly underground express train, the focus is on the completion of routes that are crucial for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Transport Minister Jeff Radebe visited the sites of the Johannesburg and Rosebank rail tracks and stations on Wednesday.
South African Broadcasting Corporation board deputy chairperson Christine Qunta has demanded the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) stop publishing defamatory material about her. Qunta’s legal representatives sent a letter in this regard to the TAC on Wednesday, her lawyer, Athol Gordon, said.
The Johannesburg Labour Court has postponed to Thursday a hearing on whether striking Johannesburg municipal workers could call a secondary strike. Workers affiliated to the South African Municipal Workers’ Union have been on strike since Monday. The court postponed the hearing after counsel for Johannesburg city said some of the union demands were unclear.
The fate of beleaguered Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha is to be decided on Thursday. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Wednesday this would happen at a central executive committee to discuss issues surrounding Madisha.
A new liver costs about R450 000, according to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang — herself the recent recipient of a new liver. In a written reply to a question by the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Ruth Rabinowitz in the National Assembly, she said hospital expenditure on liver transplants was, all inclusive, about R450 000 per patient.
Whether suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli had taken "national security interests" into consideration in decisions he made will be one of the main issues in a hearing to determine his fitness to hold office. President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday approved the terms of reference for the inquiry.