Two bogus policemen wearing police-issue bullet-proof vests and with toy guns in their holsters were arrested in Kempton Park on the East Rand on Friday, police said. Captain Jethro Mtshali said members of the Kempton Park crime-prevention unit were on patrol when they spotted two men running near the Kemstar Mall at about 2am.
With South Africa preparing to host the biggest football showpiece, the 2010 Fifa World Cup, negative talk about Africa abounds in the media. And it seems those who intend fighting the negativity are thin on ideas about how to go about achieving a positive image for the continent.
”Although cricket has transformed more or better than other codes of sport, such as rugby, we have not done nearly enough to transform the game fully, as demanded by our Constitution.” Norman Arendse, the new president of Cricket South Africa, tells Lucky Sindane why quotas are desirable.
It is the best and the worst of times for club soccer. Having scored an unprecedented billion-rand-plus for television rights, the game’s top division, the Premier Soccer League, is finally getting close to its commercial worth. But it is the worst of times for the minor league sides in the feeder Mvela Golden League.
Arguments by the Sunday Times and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on the return of the minister’s medical records were expected in court on Friday. The Sunday Times filed court papers on Tuesday and the Health Department confirmed that its reply had been filed on Thursday.
South Africa’s Cabinet has approved R6,1-billion in funding for a national literacy and numeracy campaign. ”Eighty thousand tutors will be engaged to enable 4,7-million adults to achieve basic literacy and numeracy by 2012, at a cost of R6,1-billion,” Themba Maseko, government spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday.
Business was committed to finding solutions for the country’s skill-shortage problems, South African business leaders told President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday. Briefing the media on Thursday, Safika Holdings deputy chairperson Saki Macozoma said business had assured Mbeki that it was committed to working with the government.
Durban’s proposed King Shaka International Airport moved a step closer to becoming a reality after the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism gave the project the green light on Thursday. The department said that a Record of Decision was signed on Thursday, authorising the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) to develop a trade port at la Mercy.
The man who took revenge on his brother’s murderer by hacking him to death with an axe last year was sent to prison for 12 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday. Judge Andre Erasmus said that Milile Ngiwa (26) had struck Luvo Mzozayana (22) with an axe and ”destroyed his face and brain”.
A presidential bodyguard facing a murder charge was rearrested on Thursday after allegedly breaking his bail conditions. Timothy Sabata Mvula will spend a night in the Kuils River police cells before appearing in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court on Friday to apply for bail on the new charge.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday thumbed her nose at her critics, saying she was there to stay. The media quoted her as telling reporters in East London she would not resign amid accusations that she is an alcoholic who abused her position to get a liver transplant. ”I’m not stepping down,” the minister said.
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South Africa captain John Smit, who has not played since injuring his hamstring against Australia on June 16, will miss Saturday’s World Cup warm-up match against Scotland in Edinburgh. Smit was not among the 22 named by the South African Rugby Union on Thursday, although he travelled with the team on their two-match trip to Ireland and Scotland.
A new energy-saving initiative, targeting Johannesburg businesses and homes, has begun. Launched by Talk Radio 702 presenter Jenny Crwys-Williams, the Power to the People campaign urges Johannesburg residents to save energy and protect the environment.
South Africa needs to produce more scientists in order to compete in the global academic arena, the National Research Foundation (NRF) said on Thursday. Speaking at the Johannesburg Press Club, NRF vice-president Albert van Jaarsveld said it was necessary for students to study science to compete with countries such as Germany and the United States.
The South African government expressed confidence on Thursday in free and fair elections in neighbouring Zimbabwe, even as the ruling party and opposition there remained at loggerheads. The Cabinet accepted a report by President Thabo Mbeki that his attempts to broker a stalemate between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition were ”on track”.
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African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma does not have the right to look over the shoulders of investigators all along the way, lawyers for the state argued in the Pretoria High Court on Thursday. Zuma brought an application to stop the national director of public prosecutions from extending an investigation to the United Kingdom.
One of Jacob Zuma’s attorneys has rejected an out-of-court settlement offer by the state over search-and-seizure warrants executed by the Scorpions in their investigation of the former deputy president. In papers filed at the Supreme Court of Appeal, the attorneys for Julie Mahomed said they had discussed the state’s offer with her on Monday.
The Commission on Gender Equality is concerned that gender issues will receive inadequate attention under a single ‘umbrella’ human rights and equality commission. In a statement on Thursday, it said it had been created as a stand-alone body out of ”no accident of history”.
The South African Cabinet has strongly criticised the ”distasteful” media coverage around Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Briefing the media on Thursday after the Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting on Wednesday, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the Cabinet took a dim view of the distasteful coverage of the minister.
Red-faced at explaining the name to visitors, a South African mayor is now pushing for a fresh title for one of country’s main municipalities, which translates as a pair of bull’s testicles. Obed Mlaba, mayor of Durban, wants eThekwini municipality to be included in a review of place names designed to honour heroes of the struggle against apartheid.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday higher energy and food prices were leading to wider inflation, and again urged consumers to live ”within their means”. Monetary authorities had to guard against the second-round effects of rising prices, he said in a speech in the remote northern town of Haenertsburg.
Springbok wing Akona Ndungane has been sent home from his team’s short tour of Ireland and Scotland for medical treatment, the South African Rugby Union announced on Thursday. Ndungane was injured in his team’s 18-3 victory over Connacht in Galway, Ireland, in a World Cup warm-up match on Tuesday.
A Johannesburg man rescued his daughter from the jaws of a hyena after it attacked the girl in Botswana, Beeld reported on Thursday. The animal grabbed eight-year-old Christin Chalwin-Milton on the left side of the head while she was asleep in a chair next to a campfire in the Okavango Delta.
The Sunday Times is trying to turn Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang into a public figure destroyed by scandal like Oscar Wilde, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Wednesday. He called the widely publicised battle between the two a witch-hunt.
A fresh study into the link between nutrition and HIV/Aids does not provide any new information, the Health Department said on Wednesday. ”The outcomes … do not necessarily provide any new information that was unknown to the Department of Health,” the department said in a statement.
The government is to establish recording studios to help launch new music stars, the Department of Arts and Culture announced on Wednesday. ”The greatest single constraint on the launching of a musical career for the new artist is access to recording facilities,” said Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan.
The families of four South African men kidnapped in Iraq last year are making an international plea to their captors, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday. The four men were kidnapped in December when they were flagged down at a roadblock north of Baghdad.
Three police officers and 12 petrol attendants were arrested for fraud in Namakgale on Wednesday, Limpopo police said. Superintendent Mohale Ramatseba said two constables and a sergeant had allegedly connived with petrol attendants at a filling station in Namakgale to defraud the police of money amounting to R100 000.
South African Communist Party (SACP) chairperson Gwede Mantashe has reacted to a statement made on Wednesday by Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha that he had handed over a R500 000 donation to SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande.
It was a case of beaten but not disgraced for Bafana Bafana as they went down 1-0 to Scotland in an evenly matched and uninspiring friendly soccer international at the half-filled Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen on Wednesday night. It was much better than recent performances by South Africa against teams with any sort of pedigree.
KwaZulu-Natal swimmer Riaan Schoeman was the talk of the South African swimming squad after winning the 400m individual medley final in a new South African record time on Wednesday, the second day of the International Swim Meeting in Tokyo, Japan.
The Constitutional Court reserved judgement on Wednesday on an application by senior editors of Independent Newspapers to access restricted documents relating to former intelligence boss Billy Masetlha. Lawyers for Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils argued that allowing this would compromise the intelligence services.