Toys R Us and Reggie’s have instructed all their stores to remove certain toys from their shelves following an urgent announcement by the agents of international toy manufacturer Mattel. Affected toys reportedly contain either lead paint or tiny magnets that young children might swallow.
The suspension of hospital superintendent Nokuzola Ntshona has created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among conscientious public officials, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) said on Wednesday. ”The PSAM is gravely concerned by the precedent set by the suspension,” it said.
An unemployment lobby group on Wednesday said it is not involved in blowing up automated teller machines, but only encourages those without jobs to do so. ”It is ordinary members of the unemployed who are encouraged by Icemusa to continue with the blastings,” said the leader of the group.
Police have admitted they have no evidence linking two suspects to a mob that assaulted a woman and set her house alight because she was wearing a pair of pants, a packed Umlazi Magistrate’s Court heard on Wednesday. The two men appeared in the court after a second woman, Nomzumo Ngcobo, filed charges of intimidation.
A new Bill proposing an integrated system of coastal management will not lead to expropriation of beachfront properties, MPs were assured on Wednesday. But officials who are sponsoring the Bill through Parliament say that it will make it easier for local authorities to remove holiday chalets illegally built on the beach.
A leading property group has been given the South African mandate to seek out super-rich individuals to buy residences on a yet-to-be-built luxury ocean liner. Prices for the Four Seasons Ocean Residences start at R28-million for 74 square metres. A top-of-the-range, 650-square-metre penthouse suite will set you back R282-million.
Jazz diva Thandi Klaasen has been forced to withdraw from her planned performance at the Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg later in August because of ill health, the events organiser said on Wednesday. The singer had a fall recently. She is still in severe pain and will not be able to manage rehearsals.
Psychology student Grant Harris, charged with shooting dead his parents in July, was on Wednesday referred to the Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital near Cape Town. ”He needs an urgent psychiatric assessment and treatment immediately,” district surgeon Dr S Trope advised the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court.
A notice of motion indicating an urgent application for an interdict will be brought against the pending change of Pretoria’s name on road signs to Tshwane. The notice of motion was filed by the Freedom Front Plus and one of its councillors on the City of Tshwane municipality as well as Afriforum.
The Democratic Alliance has asked Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela to place the health department under the administration of the provincial treasury. ”This will allow the province to take proper control of its finances and institute a complete review of all current appointments,” DA spokesperson Mike Waters said.
Production at coal mines countrywide will resume at midnight on Wednesday following a three-day strike by mine workers, trade union Solidarity said. ”We suspended the strike. Our workers are going back to work tonight [Wednesday] at 12am,” said spokesperson Reint Dykema.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille will take disciplinary action against the city’s metro police who blocked the N2 in Cape Town on Wednesday, her office said. Zille spokesperson Robert Macdonald said the mayor had said ”urgent disciplinary measures” would be instituted and that criminal charges had also been laid with the South African Police Service.
A 26-year-old student police officer died after he was shot and set on fire in Buhle Park, near Germiston, police said on Wednesday. Inspector Juanita Kilian said Constable Kabelo Motsumi from the Katlehong police station was brutally murdered near his parents’ home on Tuesday night.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup will test South Africa’s ”fiscal muscle”, but the country will not run out of money, the chief executive of the local organising committee said on Wednesday. ”We will never run out of money … the project remains within budget,” Danny Jordaan told a 2010 National Communications Partnership Conference in Johannesburg.
The Cape Town Medi-Clinic has laid a charge of theft at the Cape Town police station in connection with missing medical records belonging to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Western Cape police spokesperson Captain Randall Stoffels said on Wednesday the investigation was ongoing and police were busy compiling statements.
South Africa’s Solidarity trade union said on Wednesday its striking members in the coal sector had received a new wage offer from employers and it was canvassing workers to see if they would accept it. ”Yesterday evening [Tuesday] we received an offer from the chamber,” Solidarity spokesperson Reint Dykema said.
A full-strength Australian squad is gunning to add next month’s Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa to its bulging trophy cabinet, batsman Michael Clarke said on Wednesday. Australia swept to a third successive victory in the 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean this year, won the last Champions Trophy and are ranked the top Test side in the world.
South Africa’s rand fell to a four-and-a-half month low to the dollar on Wednesday, and some traders said the rand could weaken even further as investors unload risky assets. At 06h40 GMT the rand stood at 7,39 to the dollar, 0,6% weaker than its previous New York Close. It touched a low of 7,4120 earlier, a level last hit on March 21, according to Reuters data.
Four years of meticulous planning and building a squad of 30 versatile players is what South Africa coach Jake White will be banking on when the Springboks launch their challenge for World Cup honours on September 9. Since his first day in charge of the national side in 2004, White said he would spend his time building a team that could seriously stake a claim for the trophy.
Proteas coach Mickey Arthur’s first reaction to the news of Jacques Kallis’s resignation as vice-captain of the Proteas national squad, prompted by his non-inclusion in the South African Twenty20 squad for the upcoming World Cup, was to implore Kallis not to do anything hasty, which could have a negative impact on his career.
Your cellphone is vibrating in your pocket while you’re trapped in an endless business meeting. Surreptitiously bringing the device into view under the mahogany table you see the caller ID — it’s your boss and she wants to know if the company has sealed the deal.
About 5Â 000 high school pupils from across Gauteng brought traffic to a standstill in central Johannesburg on Tuesday, demanding the implementation of recovery plans after the public-service strike, metro police said. The pupils were led by the Congress of South African Students.
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged Southern African leaders to send monitors to Zimbabwe to investigate the clampdown on the pro-democracy movement. On the eve of a key Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit , leading Zimbabwean human rights groups said they held a four-hour meeting with South African mediators.
Three more Boeremag treason triallists on Tuesday applied for their discharge on all of the charges against them, claiming the state had not managed to link them to any conspiracy to overthrow the government. Counsel for accused Adriaan van Wyk, Pieter van Deventer and Frederik Boltman applied for their clients’ discharge because of a lack of evidence against them.
Veteran Springbok prop Os Du Randt hopes to make his final Test on South African soil a memorable one. ”This is my last season and I want to go out on a high,” the big front-ranker told the media on the eve of the Boks’ Rugby World Cup warm-up Test against Namibia at Newlands on Wednesday evening.
The Sunday Times on Tuesday refused to return documents detailing Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s alleged drinking in hospital. The minister must ”explain on what basis” the documents should be returned, Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya said after a deadline set by the minister for the return of the documents had passed.
South Africa risks becoming a magnet for paedophiles when it hosts the 2010 Soccer World Cup as rising child-sex tourism blights Africa’s top travel spots, activists said on Tuesday. Every year thousands of children in mostly poor countries fall prey to sex tourists. Activists say South Africa must take steps to guard against child-sex tourism ahead of the Cup.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will undertake a major policy review before the 2009 general election, party leader Helen Zille said on Tuesday. Speaking at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for International Political Studies, she said the DA and its predecessors’ major contribution till now had been to keep the idea of opposition alive over decades.
Police have made more arrests in connection with violent organised crime in Gauteng in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, provincial minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia said on Tuesday. He said arrests for residential and business robberies and vehicle hijackings had increased compared with last year.
The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is considering temporarily closing its doors after police broke up student protests at its main campus in Pretoria on Tuesday. Captain Lucas Sithole said 16 students were arrested at a march to protest the suspension of lectures outside the university’s main campus at 11.30am.
Bulls and Springbok number eight Pierre Spies was on Tuesday officially ruled out of this year’s World Cup in France. The 22-year-old was given the bad news on Tuesday after learning last week he may still have an outside chance of making it to France, where the tournament kicks off on September 7.
As senior apartheid-era security officials go to court on Friday, South Africans are divided over whether it will help reveal the truth and reconcile the nation, or reopen the wounds of the nation’s racial divide.