People who take the law into their own hands will have to face the consequences, Western Cape minister of community safety Leonard Ramatlakane warned on Saturday. ”The government has proven it will not tolerate lawlessness. There have been a number of arrests related to recent vigilante activity,” he said.
Bekkersdal community leaders were urged by Gauteng housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane on Saturday to support the government’s planned relocation of 14 000 families from the informal settlement. Eighty percent of Bekkersdal residents will be relocated.
The City of Cape Town’s major storms and flooding plan has been stepped up, authorities said on Saturday after a massive cold front brought heavy rain to Cape Town and surrounding areas on Thursday night, followed by a second, weaker cold front on Saturday. Unofficial reports indicated that more than 30Â 000 people may have been affected by the floods.
The young Sharks earned their spurs in no uncertain manner at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday evening. They attacked with gusto in a rousing first half and defended like demons in the second to secure a valuable bonus point in an emphatic, 29-10 Absa Currie Cup rugby victory over the Blue Bulls.
The national executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC) on Saturday reviewed the deliberations and outcomes of the party’s recent policy conference, and debate focused on the policy challenges towards 2012. Guidelines and a timeframe for anaudit of ANC membership were discussed.
A bemused and bewildered Orlando Pirates were all at sea as record R190-million signing Darren Bent ran riot and virtually assured a 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur victory after 22 minutes of a one-sided Vodacom Challenge final at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday afternoon. The rest of the game on a sun-soaked but somewhat chilly winter afternoon was little more than an exhibition match.
An announcement on the country’s suspended National Lottery is expected within days, according to Department of Trade and Industry insiders, media reports said on Saturday. According to sources, the National Lotteries Board has recommended that the government stick with the initial winning bidder, the Gidani Consortium.
Eleven people were reported by police to have burnt to death in fires that engulfed parts of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal on Friday. In Mpumalanga, a holidaying Johannesburg couple were burnt beyond recognition after trying to escape an enormous fire that ripped through a tourist lodge on Friday night.
Former members of South Africa’s current intelligence services who were once part of apartheid secret services were behind the ”special browse” report about an alleged plot to overthrow the government, said Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane on Saturday at a press conference at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
A penalty by centre Oliver Fowles five minutes into referee’s optional time earned the Border Bulldogs a dramatic 19-19 draw against the Pumas at a wet East London’s Absa Stadium on Friday night. It was a game of two halves with the visitors doing the bulk of their scoring in the first and the Bulldogs in the second.
The Golden Lions massacred the Valke 62-5 in an Absa Currie Cup fixture at a chilly Bosman Stadium in Brakpan on Friday evening. The Lions jumped to fourth place on the Currie Cup log with only their second win from five games, while their opponents remain rooted to the bottom.
A Bellville medical doctor who refused to pay ”excessive” legal fees on Friday won the first round of his Cape High Court battle against his own lawyers. In court papers, Dr Ben Broens said he requested a detailed account after being billed R204 135 by his divorce lawyers, advocate Andre Ferreira and attorney Johannes Brink.
Eight community halls have been opened for people forced out of their homes by flood waters after a massive cold front brought heavy rain to Cape Town and surrounding areas on Thursday night. About 15 000 people have been displaced by heavy rains in the Cape peninsula, reports said on Saturday.
Flowers for Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba’s wife were wrongfully bought from the department’s budget, a preliminary investigation into a newspaper’s allegations of corruption has found. On other allegations in the report, published on Friday, the investigation did not find wrongdoing on the part of the minister.
The death rate among newborn babies at East London’s main public hospital does not differ significantly from the national norm, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. In his weekly newsletter, he said ”neonatal mortality at Frere Hospital is not significantly different from the national incidence of such mortality”.
A court action opposing the construction of the new Green Point Stadium for the 2010 Soccer World Cup was postponed to an unspecified date by the Cape High Court on Friday. The action was brought by an environmental group, the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association.
The police believe they have struck a blow against ATM bombers following arrests in the North West and KwaZulu-Natal, police said on Friday. Police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said that on Wednesday North West police arrested six men who were linked to four cases involving explosions at ATMs in the province during July.
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi says there is not a ”shred of evidence” to support the contention he gave instructions to members of his party to commit ”murder and destruction” in KwaZulu-Natal during the late 1980s. Responding to a Sunday Times column, he said on Friday he could not ignore certain ”serious charges” made against him.
The Zimbabwean embassy in South Africa on Friday denied a looming ban on food imports into Zimbabwe, but said permits will be required to import bulk foodstuffs for resale. ”There are no new regulations coming into effect on August 1 pertaining to this subject as has been pronounced by various media. It’s business as usual,” said ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo.
Trade union Solidarity on Friday accepted a wage offer from employers in the chemical industry after the employer increased its offer from 7,5% to 8%. Solidarity spokesperson Marius Croucamp said his union, along with the South African Chemical Workers’ Union, accepted the 8% wage increase.
A 33-year-old man who stabbed a Pretoria prosecutor 14 times in her office while stealing her cellphone was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Sipho Mnisi grabbed prosecutor Marisa Booyse’s cellphone in her office at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court in September last year and, when she tried to stop him, he attacked and stabbed.
At first glance, Tottenham Hotspur manager Martin Jol conjures up a picture of an imposing Rottweiler. And on Saturday, when Spurs take on Orlando Pirates in the finale to the Vodacom Challenge series of pre-season friendlies at Loftus, there can be little doubt about the ferocity of purpose with which the Netherlands-born manager will be barking orders.
Baby-killer Dina Rodrigues and her four co-accused were on Friday granted permission to appeal against their sentences. Cape High Court Judge Basheer Waglay, however, rejected applications by Rodrigues and three of the men to appeal against their convictions.
Athletics South Africa (ASA) has denied that athletes Louis van Zyl and Alwyn Myburgh absconded from Team SA at the All Africa Games in Algiers last week. ”We knew they were going to compete in Monaco but there is no question of them absconding from the South African team,” said ASA president Leonard Chuene on Friday.
Cape Town mayoral committee member Simon Grindrod plans to sue alleged ”sex blogger” Juan Uys, he said on Friday. Uys, arrested in Kroonstad last week, is to appear in the Cape Town magistrate’s court on Monday on a charge of theft dating back to 2004.
Plans to incorporate municipalities’ metro police units into the South African Police Service (SAPS) could not have come at a worse time, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. Zille, who is also mayor of Cape Town, said she was informed by ministerial letter on June 25 of the planned ”integration of municipality police into the SAPS”.
At midday, the JSE was still hanging below the negative 2% mark as it continued to follow world markets which were still stumbling from the Dow’s losses on Thursday night. At 12.01pm, the all-share index was 1,86% lower. Resources fell 2,47%, the gold mining index lost 2,10% and the platinum mining index was off 2,62%.
Rescue services are using boats to evacuate residents of a flooded settlement near Philippi outside Cape Town in the wake of a massive cold front that has brought heavy rain to the Western Cape. ”Metro [rescue services] and the police are using rescue boats to evacuate people,” Disaster Risk Management Centre manager Walter Solomons said.
Sales at diamond-mining giant De Beers fell 7% in the first half of 2007 on the back of reduced supply of gems to its trading arm while underlying earnings rose 5%, the group announced on Friday. Its total sales fell to ,4 billion from ,66-billion in the first six months of the year over the same period in 2006, interim results showed.
Fraud convict Schabir Shaik has sold shares he held in French arms manufacturer Thint for R41-million. Shaik, who is serving a 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption relating to his relationship with African National Congress Deputy President Jacob Zuma, will not be able to access the money.
A sensational 57th-minute goal from busy Benett Chenene gave Orlando Pirates a 1-0 win over arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs at the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium on Thursday night and the right to oppose England’s Tottenham Hotspur for a second time at Loftus on Saturday in the pre-season Vodacom Challenge series of matches.
The retail price of all grades of petrol will fall by 15c per litre (c/l) on Wednesday August 1, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. This follows an 8c/l fall on July 4 and a 23c/l rise that took effect on June 6. The latest changes bring the retail price of a litre of 95 octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng to 701c/l and to 677c/l at the coast.