Asec Abidjan’s 1-0 win over Al-Hilal of Sudan in the African Champions League on Sunday has thrown the chase for semifinal places in Group B wide open. The Côte d’Ivoire champions won their first game of the group phase with an individual goal from Antoine Ngossan, moving to within one point of Al-Hilal.
Fraud and theft claims against South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande were an attempt to discredit the organisation. The campaign was being conducted by ”elements, including agent provocateurs” who were ”hell-bent” on destroying the party because they were opposed to the direction it was taking.
A trip to Spain by the Deputy Minister of Health without the president’s approval was a ”mistake” and partly due to ”miscommunication”, a media report said on Monday. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge and her party were already in Spain when her office informed her of President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to disallow the trip.
A perceived ”witch-hunt” against specific people involved in apartheid atrocities could revive ”problems”, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma warned on Sunday. The challenge to the country, its leadership and the National Prosecuting Authority was to get to the truth, but at the same time ensure there was reconciliation, he said.
Prison officials must have colluded with the ten prisoners who escaped from the Qalakabusha Correctional Centre in Empangeni, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said on Sunday. The prisoners, aged between 28 and 35, were serving life sentences for murder, armed robbery and other crimes.
It took two days of trekking through the bush, before navigating a crocodile-infested river and then scrambling underneath a barbed wire fence for Peter Nkomo and his family to make good their great escape from the meltdown of Zimbabwe to South Africa.
Fuel shortages will continue on Sunday as talks to resolve a pay strike deadlocked on Saturday night. The Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and the National Petroleum Employers’ Association resumed talks with the bargaining council at the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg at 10am on Sunday.
President Thabo Mbeki has denied there is a witch-hunt against former president FW de Klerk, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Saturday. Mbeki was commenting on reports that De Klerk might have been fingered by former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok in pre-democracy atrocities.
Two Sunday newspapers have reported that South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande is being investigated for alleged theft and fraud. The Sunday Times and City Press wrote that a businessman claimed in an affidavit that he donated R500 000 to the SACP in 2002, but the money never reached the party coffers.
Western Province ended a four-match losing streak in the Absa Currie Cup rugby competition by running out comfortable 47-18 winners in their match against the Valke at Newlands on Saturday. Province started off brightly and were up 17-0 after just 12 minutes, but their performance petered out and they carried only a 20-10 lead into halftime.
Goalkeeper Francis Chansa had every right to celebrate after Orlando Pirates had added to Kaizer Chiefs’ recurring woes with a 3-1 penalty shoot-out victory in the second game of the Telkom Charity Cup at a sun-scorched Mmabatho Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Lions beat the Wildeklawer Griquas 45-24 in an Absa Currie Cup match at the Ellis Park Stadium on Saturday, to stay in the running for a play-off berth. The Lions looked the better side throughout the 80 minutes as Griquas made schoolboy mistakes.
Paramedics from the KwaZulu-Natal provincial Emergency Medical Rescue Services and Netcare 911 on Saturday responded to reports of a collision between two trains at Dargle near the Midmar Dam in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said that a goods train had collided with a locomotive.
Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and National Petroleum Employers’ Association negotiators were still locked behind closed doors at 9pm on Saturday. ”All I can say is that we are still talking,” said Ceppwawu spokesperson Keith Jacobs.
Convicted child-killer Christian Olivier has confessed to molesting at least 200 boys over a period of three years, a media report said on Friday. Olivier was found guilty on Tuesday of the murder, kidnapping and indecent assault of Steven Siebert in December 2005.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) will meet in Johannesburg on Saturday to consider what further action, if any, will be taken about complaints against Cape Judge President John Hlophe, said Chief Justice Pius Langa. Hlophe reportedly responded last month to questions put to him by the JSC about his relationship with the Oasis investment group.
India and South Africa shared the challenge of a struggle against poverty, President Thabo Mbeki told businessmen in Johannesburg on Friday. Business was vital if this problem was to be effectively addressed, Mbeki told the Seventh India Calling Conference.
The Blue Bulls returned to their winning ways with a thorough 36-12 win over the Boland Cavaliers in their Currie Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday evening. In securing their victory, the Bulls scored five tries, two in an uninspiring first half and three in the second.
Representatives from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and the National Petroleum Employers’ Association resumed talks on Saturday in a bid to resolve a pay strike which led to countrywide fuel shortages and panic buying. Ceppwawu spokesperson Keith Jacobs said the union had repeatedly informed employers and the public about the strike.
A seven-year-old schoolboy and a 75-year-old taxi driver were killed when a bakkie ran over them outside a Johannesburg school on Friday, the city’s metro police said. Spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said the accident happened at 7.35am, in Roberts Avenue in front of Jeppe High School.
Malawian rights organisations say their government needs help monitoring Madonna’s planned adoption of a Malawian boy — and a child welfare official agrees that the Southern African country’s foreign adoption procedures need to be overhauled.
Just days after allegedly raping three Durban women and robbing a Gauteng couple, a man gave his 16-year-old girlfriend a watch belonging to one of the victims, the Scottburgh High Court heard on Friday. Silindile Nyathi said her 26-year-old boyfriend, Wonder Mchunu, gave her the watch ”in those days just after we had celebrated the New Year”.
Moves are afoot for South Africa’s capital city to be renamed Tshwane, the Tshwane metro council confirmed on Friday. ”Pretoria is a suburb within Tshwane …. the city centre is Pretoria … the city is Tshwane,” said spokesperson Console Tleane. This lands in the middle of debate over the legal status of the name ”Tshwane”.
There have been ”significant breakthroughs” in several police investigations into organised crime, the Safety and Security Ministry said on Friday. The latest was the arrest of 13 members of a gang suspected of carrying out a spate of cash-in-transit heists in the Eastern Cape, it said in a statement following Thursday’s meeting of the Anti-Crime Leadership Forum.
The name ”Pretoria” will be changed to ”Tshwane” on all route and direction signs across South Africa, the Tshwane metro council said on Friday. Communication and marketing head Console Tleane confirmed that media reports about the name change were true.
As fuel shortages continued countrywide and panic buying set in, the Department of Minerals and Energy insisted on Friday it would not intervene in the strike by fuel workers. ”It is a huge problem and we are not happy with it, but our hands are tied. It is a very tough one … it is an in-house issue,” said spokesperson Sputnik Rantau.
The tens of thousands of Zimbabwean refugees streaming south are a threat to South Africa’s stability, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Their numbers had increased from 4Â 000 a month in 2004 to 20Â 000 a month, he said in his weekly newsletter on Friday.
Taxpayers will be able to file their tax returns online by Monday, the South African Revenue Service said on Friday. Commissioner Pravin Gordhan told reporters in Johannesburg that the new electronic filing system would enable taxpayers to have their assessments done easier and faster.
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira named 23 players — including six strikers — for a mini-camp that will give fringe players a chance to show that they have what it takes to represent the national team in 2010. Parreira is hoping he and his staff will be surprised when they put members of the mini-camp squad through their paces on Monday and Tuesday.
South Africa’s leading rugby players have been dealt a heavy blow after the country’s rugby bosses decided that players basing themselves abroad would no longer be eligible for the national rugby team. The decision on Thursday means some of the Springbok superstars will play their last matches for their country at this year’s World Cup in France.
President Thabo Mbeki should be commended for promoting the appointment of women to senior posts in his government, Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said on Friday. ”As we look forward to celebrating Women’s Day next Thursday, it is heartening to track the progress we have made in advancing gender rights in the last few years,” she said.
The case against one of the men accused of being behind the African National Congress hoax email saga was postponed in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Muziwendoda Kunene, wearing a white suit, appeared briefly in court where his new lawyer asked for another postponement.