The mayor of Mpumalanga’s Govan Mbeki municipality is expected to appear in court on Friday on charges of killing his deputy, police said. Sipho Nkosi will appear in the Evander Magistrate’s Court charged with Thandi Mtsweni’s murder, said Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi on Wednesday.
South African musician Hugh Masekela believes he is no longer welcome as a performer in South Africa, the Times Online reported on Wednesday. The trumpeter said that many talented musicians whose voices became symbols of protest against white domination found it hard to get bookings in South Africa.
The discovery of a mutilated body on the N1 highway near Vanderbijlpark seven years ago resulted on Tuesday in three former police officers and a former reservist going on trial on charges of kidnapping and murder. The four have pleaded not guilty in the Pretoria High Court to charges of kidnapping and murdering 29-year-old Sandy Botomane in May 2000.
All veld fires that raged through Mpumalanga recently have been brought under control, the department of local government and housing said on Tuesday. ”Although the fires have been brought under control, fire fighters and the provincial disaster-management team are still monitoring the situation,” the department said in a statement.
The National Lottery, stopped at the end of March, appears set to start up again within the next fortnight. Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa will announce the name of the preferred bidder to run the operation in Pretoria within days, his spokesperson, Vukani Mde, told the South African Press Association on Tuesday.
Hammer-murder accused Fred van der Vyver could have been tipped over the edge by a quarrel with his girlfriend, a Cape High Court judge said on Tuesday. Judge Deon van Zyl made the remark in a ruling rejecting Van der Vyver’s application for discharge at the end of the state’s case.
Police have closed their investigation into the rape of a student at Johannesburg’s Chris Hani-Baragwanath hospital because they do not have enough information to continue, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. Confirming a report in the Star, Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said: ”We don’t know where the scene of the crime is and don’t have witnesses or physical evidence.”
Legislation paving the way for regulating interactive gambling, such as on the internet, has been tabled in the National Assembly. According to a memorandum attached to the draft National Gambling Amendment Bill, the interactive gaming industry in South Africa is unregulated.
The Tshwane/Pretoria name change ”is neither here nor there”, said the Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday. ANC Gauteng secretary David Makhura told a press conference the party believed Tshwane was the capital. But it was still a ”matter of process” to make this ”attitude” a reality.
Full investigations into apartheid-era atrocities are needed, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) urged President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday. ”As the PAC we feel that we should have full investigations into unclosed chapters of the past,” PAC president Letlapa Mphahlele told reporters after meeting Mbeki at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Winter had one last blast before making way for spring as snow fell in parts of South Africa on Tuesday. Snow had fallen near the Hex River in the Western Cape, in Sutherland in the Northern Cape, near Tiffendell in the Eastern Cape and in parts of Lesotho and the Drakensberg, according to South African Weather Service forecaster Elke Brouwers.
Limpopo is the country’s safest province, the South African Institute of Race Relations said on Tuesday. It had the lowest rate of murders, rapes and armed robberies, according to a study based on police statistics released in Polokwane. Limpopo is also one of South Africa’s poorest provinces with a very high rate of unemployment.
South Africa have secured the services of former Australia coach Eddie Jones as their technical advisor for the World Cup finals, South Africa Rugby confirmed on Tuesday. ”Eddie brings with him a wealth of international experience and knowledge,” said SA Rugby’s manager of national teams, Andy Marinos.
It is only logical that when a ruling party elects its own leadership it prefers also to be electing the leadership of the country, the Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) said on Tuesday. ANC provincial secretary David Makhura was speaking at a press conference after the provincial executive committee’s meeting earlier this month.
Convicted child killer Theunis Olivier is a serial liar who deserves no mercy, the father of murdered six-year-old Steven Siebert said on Tuesday. Briefing the media at the Cape High Court, Thomas Siebert said Olivier had told a lot of lies regarding the events leading to Steven’s death.
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A bag of papers belonging to African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma which was found outside a Durban flat has been sent for forensic testing. Police spokesperson Phindile Radebe said the bag was found outside a Durban beachfront flat that had been broken into early on Monday morning.
Bidvest Wits University goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs believes the two-day mini-camp for aspiring Bafana Bafana players is an excellent opportunity for those who want to represent their country at the 2010 Soccer World Cup. ”We have so many players who can play for Bafana and too little time to see who is best in the 11 positions,” said Josephs.
New-generation antiretroviral (ARV) drugs could cost 500% more than those now being dispensed by the Health Department, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday. Speaking at the opening of the Women in Partnership against Aids, Tshabalala-Msimang said: ”The reduction of prices of medicines is a critical concern.”
South Africa’s central bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday that above-target inflation meant that interest rates were more likely to rise than fall. South Africa’s inflation has stayed above the Reserve Bank’s target band for three months since breaching it in April, when it rose to 6,3% year-on-year.
Sasol welcomed on Tuesday the National Treasury’s decision not to impose a windfall tax on synthetic fuel producers. ”Our government’s growth vision for the synthetic fuel sector is encouraging,” said Sasol chief executive Pat Davies. Davies said Sasol had started the first phase of ”significantly expanding” existing synthetic fuels capacity in Secunda.
A break-in at a Durban beachfront flat rented by African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma ”does not appear to be a random act of crime”, a media report said on Tuesday. The report said it appeared the intruder rifled through the ANC deputy president’s documents.
All the fuel industry workers who were on strike over the last week would return to work on Tuesday after accepting an 8,5% wage increase. ”We hope that at least by the afternoon shift everybody would have gone back to work,” said Keith Jacobs, spokesperson for the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union.
Convicted child killer Theunis Olivier should spend the rest of his life in jail, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. Testifying in court, Eileen Siebert, mother of murdered six-year old boy Steven Siebert said Olivier deserved to die in prison. ”Steven posed no threat to him [Olivier], and yet he choose to kill him for his own pleasure,” she said.
The body of an American tourist who died on a solo rock-climbing excursion on Table Mountain was found on Monday afternoon, rescuers said. David Andretta (31) had planned to scale the mountain on Sunday while his wife took a walking route up Plattekloof Gorge, spokesperson for Wilderness Search and Rescue Anwaaz Bent said.
The launch of an online tax-filing facility was delayed after pilot tests revealed system flaws, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Monday. ”We are … not prepared to offer any service where we are not happy with the quality and cannot guarantee a pleasant experience for all taxpayers. We expect the eFiling facility to be functional next week,” said Sars.
The suspended chief executive of the Transport Education Training Authority, Piet Bothma, has become the third person to be arrested in connection with the Fidentia affair. He appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday where he was released on R200 000 bail. Bothma has been charged with fraud, theft and with corruption.
South Africa urgently needs to know that its energy supply is secure, experts said on Monday. Norman Ndaba of auditing firm Ernst & Young’s energy department said valid questions were being asked about the consequences of fossil-fuel and nuclear-power sources. Demand for electricity was unlikely to subside, and additional capacity was required as a priority.
South Africa indefinitely suspended meat imports from the United Kingdom after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the south of England, officials said on Monday. ”[We] confirm that no veterinary import permits will be issued for cloven-hoofed animals and products derived thereof originating from the UK,” the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said.
Child murderer Theunis Olivier had threatened to throw Steven Siebert into the sea if he resisted being sodomised, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. Giving evidence in mitigation of his sentence, Olivier said he told the six-year old to cooperate or face death. ”I told him that I was going to throw him into the sea if he protested,” he said.
South Africa’s workers in the petroleum sector said they were hopeful that talks with their employers later on Monday could end their strike over pay, which has severely affected fuel delivery. "We have a meeting tonight [Monday] beginning at 8pm with the employers of the workers and we are hopeful," a union spokesperson said.
Students and medical staff at the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital say they feel unsafe — and that administrators need to do more to improve safety at the world’s biggest hospital. On July 30, a student was raped at the hospital. She had been on her way to the blood bank at about 7pm when two men approached her and one of them raped her.
Two of the accused in the Boeremag treason trial said on Monday they had no plans to testify against a couple accused of harbouring them while they were on the run. Herman van Rooyen and Jan Rudolf Gouws said in statement, faxed from their attorney’s office, that it was reported in an ”untruthful way” that they would testify against Jaco Bogaards and his wife, Beth.