Renowned golfer Gary Player said on Tuesday he was disappointed that his integrity and support for human rights had been brought into question by his removal from the guest list for the Nelson Mandela Invitational golf tournament. Player’s company was involved in the construction of the Pun Hlaing Golf Club in Rangoon.
Africa is a long way off a common monetary union as the continent continues to struggle to harmonise economic policies, South Africa’s central bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday. The Organisation of African Unity first mooted the idea of an African Central Bank and common currency in 1963.
South Africa Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday he would not speak on domestic monetary policy in a speech to a banking conference before an interest-rate decision later this week. ”I have been instructed not to speak about monetary policy here at home … there’s a meeting starting tomorrow [Wednesday], so I can’t speak about that,” he said.
The drug-dealing case against Brett Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti and four others has been postponed to March next year. Agliotti, Stephanos Paparas, his father Dimitrio Paparas, and Stanley Poonin appeared in the Germiston Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. Clinton Ronald Nassif (39) was added to the list of accused in the case and appeared in court.
The JSE had edged up slightly by midday on Tuesday as platinum- and gold-mining stocks started to recover earlier losses. By 12pm, the all-share index was 0,08% in the black as the platinum-mining index gained 1,31%, resources lifted 0,72% and the gold-mining index recovered 0,13%. However, banks and financials were off 0,88% and 0,60% respectively.
A 31-year-old woman was hit by a rubber bullet fired by police outside the Robin Crest residence in Saratonga Avenue, Johannesburg, during a student protest on Tuesday. Margaret Titsi and her sister were crossing the street at traffic lights when police demanded that they clear the road.
Nine senior advocates from the Cape Bar, some of them former acting judges, have publicly called on Cape Judge President John Hlophe to quit. ”We believe that there cannot be public confidence in the continuation in office now of Judge Hlophe,” they said in a letter published on Tuesday.
Within minutes of having her kidnapping case struck off the roll, Mama Jackie had swapped her black suit for camouflage military fatigues. Jackie Maarohanye, better known as the ”Angel of Soweto”, danced on the steps of the Protea Magistrate’s Court in Soweto on Monday while hundreds of her pupils cheered her on.
Gary Player has been asked to step down as the host and honorary guest of the Nelson Mandela Invitational golf tournament, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund said on Monday. Player’s company has business ties with Burma, where a golf course he designed is allegedly used by members of the brutal ruling junta.
A settlement has been reached on the Richtersveld community’s troubled land-restitution deal, lawyers said on Monday. They said the settlement would be presented to Land Claims Court Judge Antonie Geldenhuys on Tuesday morning. ”We’ve settled,” said Rudolph Jansen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights.
An interim court interdict granted to the University of Johannesburg curtailed a protest taking place across the university’s campuses on Monday. About 300 students protested at the university’s Bunting Road and Kingsway campuses. Later in the afternoon, they were joined by students from the Soweto and Doornfontein campuses at the gates to the Kingsway Campus.
Severe weather could cut power this week if it damages electricity pylons and other critical electrical infrastructure, Eskom warned on Monday. The electricity supply was already expected to be ”tight”, the power company said in a statement. It advised consumers to use electricity efficiently and keep on only essential lighting and electrical appliances.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad is still not well enough to travel back to South Africa after being admitted to a Swedish almost a week ago. ”He is stable and improving,” Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday when asked at an unrelated press conference about the well-being of her deputy.
National Lottery operator Gidani had sold more than 1,5-million lottery tickets by Monday morning, said its CEO, Bongani Khumalo. ”We have worked hard to meet the start deadline and we are seeing a good start ahead of the first draw to due to take place on Saturday October 13,” he said.
Transnet group chief executive Maria Ramos has moved up two places to become the world’s 14th most powerful woman in business this year, according to Fortune magazine’s latest rankings. Ramos was 16th on the American leading business magazine’s list last year. This year is the fourth time she has appeared on the annual list.
African countries should make use of intellectual provisions to protect their innovations when it comes to African traditional medicines, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Monday. ”Africa should make use of intellectual-property provisions to protect its innovation with regard to indigenous knowledge and African traditional medicine,” she said Johannesburg.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.