President Thabo Mbeki seized the occasion of his speech to the African region conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association on Friday to tick off a number of countries present who have not yet passed anti-terrorism laws. "All of us are obliged to take action to implement the provisions of the African Convention on Terrorism," said.
Riaz Kadwa, charged with murdering his parents at their Crown North home in October 2005, was found guilty at the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday. Judge Fritz van Oosten described Kadwa as a ”self-confessed master of deceit” and rejected his version of the events.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will on Friday lay criminal charges against vitamin salesperson Matthias Rath, the party said on Thursday. Mike Waters, the DA health spokesperson, said Rath had contravened the law by masquerading as a medical doctor.
While the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is taking steps to protect women from domestic violence, its security forces are raining down baton blows on women activists, one female victim said this week. Grace Kwinjeh was one of four women in a group of opposition supporters who were badly beaten by Zimbabwean police on March 11.
Former South African president FW de Klerk on Thursday denied that he had ever condoned apartheid-era murders or other gross violations of human rights. ”I have not only a clear conscience, I am not guilty of any crime whatsoever,” he said. He was responding to newspaper reports that former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok, who faces prosecution, intends to spill the beans on him.
After being pulled off shelves early on Friday last week following a temporary court interdict, the Mail & Guardian is still unable to report on an explosive final draft of an internal audit report of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). On Thursday, Judge Justice Poswa granted the applicant, a senior SABC executive, a further postponement of the matter.
The Health Department has rejected claims by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that it was not doing anything to stop the influx of unregulated alternative medicines into the country. Department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi on Thursday said a lot was being done to prevent the distribution of bogus medicines in the country.
The embattled chief of the Ekurhuleni metro police should be suspended, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. The DA’s Eddie Taylor said Ekurhuleni mayor Duma Nkosi should have suspended McBride, instead of giving him a ”paid holiday”.
Over half the dams owned and managed by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry do not comply with modern safety standards, but are not necessarily unsafe, said Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks. ”At present, 160 of the 294 dams owned by my department do not comply with current-day dam safety standards,” she said on Thursday.
The battle over soccer television rights was settled on Thursday in an agreement in which the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will screen 143 Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches. The agreement between the PSL, pay channel SuperSport and the public broadcaster gives the SABC exclusive screening rights to 110 matches.
Rain driven by strong wind lashed the Cape Peninsula on Thursday, flooding more informal settlements on the Cape Flats. Cape Town disaster management spokesperson Johan Minnie said that on Thursday afternoon the city was providing shelter, food and blankets to about 1 200 people.
The state opposed bail for the alleged hijacker of Judy Sexwale during his appearance in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Mbuso Simelana (27) of Thembisa was arrested on Monday in connection with the hijacking of Judy, wife of presidential hopeful Tokyo Sexwale.
Several alternative medicines that have been banned in other countries have easily found their way into the South African market, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. Briefing the media in Cape Town, DA spokesperson on health Mike Waters said the South African government was doing nothing to stop these dangerous products from being sold to people.
South African shopkeepers are benefiting from a flood of people crossing the border to stock up on goods no longer available in crisis-hit Zimbabwe, but there could be trouble in store on the inflation front. ”We’ve seen a huge escalation in the number of Zimbabweans,” said Pieter Koekemoer, manager of a shop on the Zimbabwe-South Africa border town of Musina.
Although service-delivery protests are understandable, the violence that goes along with some of the demonstrations is concerning, Tshwane executive mayor Gwen Ramokgopa said on Thursday. She released the city’s annual service-delivery figures, showing that the metro council has had success in meeting and even succeeding many of its targets.
South Africa’s producer price inflation slowed to 10,4% year-on-year in June, official data showed on Thursday, but a jump in the monthly rate continued to stoke expectations of higher interest rates. Statistics South Africa said June producer price inflation slowed from an annual 11,3% in May but increased by 2,1%.
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, the 26-year-old world number one 800m runner, returned to his brilliant best at the Herculis Monaco Super Grand Prix on Wednesday when he won his event in a blistering one minute 43,74 seconds. It was the fastest time of the year and the first below 1:44. The gritty South African ran an outstanding race and issued a stern warning to the world elite.
A suggestion by a bungling Premier Soccer League (PSL) to league champions Mamelodi Sundowns to withdraw from the Telkom Charity Cup extravaganza at Mmabatho Stadium next Saturday has been rejected with the appropriate contempt. It was indeed the PSL who created the current embarrassing mish-mash in South African soccer.
It is part of a series of friendly fixtures masquerading as a make-believe competition. But if there is a touch of the Mad Hatter’s illogic attached to the format of the Vodacom Challenge, it will not prevent what should be another near-capacity crowd from cramming into the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium on Thursday night.
Eskom says it cannot guarantee residents in the Cape Peninsula that there will be no blackouts when Koeberg’s Unit One is refuelled early next month, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday. Eskom presented its short to medium term plans to officials from the city of Cape Town on Wednesday.
Soweto’s Dube hostel — plagued in recent weeks by violent protests against poor service delivery — resembles a ghost town. Washing swaying in the wind is the only sign of life, along with the dank smell of urine mingled with that of burnt rubbish.
Former national cricketer Garth le Roux and companies under his control never paid a cent of tax on property-sale commissions totalling just over R1,9-million, Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court heard on Wednesday. Le Roux and his accountant, Deon van Heerden, have pleaded not guilty to 48 counts of income-tax and VAT fraud.
The consistently high death toll of workers in South Africa’s mines is of great concern, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on a visit to AngloGold Ashanti’s Moab Khotsong mine near Orkney on Wednesday. The two deaths there over the weekend brought to four the toll at the mine, said chief inspector of mines Thabo Gazi.
The Citizen portrayed Robert McBride as a criminal, his lawyer said during McBride’s R3,6-million defamation suit against the newspaper on Wednesday. Advocate Daniel Berger said acting editor Martin Williams had ignored the fact that McBride was granted amnesty, thus clearing his criminal record of acts that were politically motivated.
A plan to reduce the effects of commercial fishing fleets within Southern Africa’s so-called Benguela-current large marine ecosystem was released in Cape Town on Wednesday. Experts have hailed it as a clear and practical way of implementing an ”ecosystem approach to fisheries” policy in the region.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has warned taxpayers against applying for deductions for private household security as a form of protesting against crime. Honest, non-suspecting taxpayers could, as a result, end up committing a crime themselves, Sars warned in a statement on Wednesday.
The violence that has marred recent service-delivery protests cannot be justified, the South African Human Rights Commission said on Wednesday. While the commission recognises the right of any person to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions, ”inherent in this right is the respect for the rule of law”, the commission said in a statement.
Hospital group Netcare has denied allegations that private hospitals are presenting inflated invoices to medical-aid schemes. It was responding to a report in the Star newspaper that alleged that private hospitals inflate device and materials invoices when presenting them to medical-aid schemes.
Chilling details on how Pretoria teenager Samantha Uys possibly met her death emerged on Wednesday in the trial of her two alleged killers. Pretoria High Court Judge Tholi Vilakazi ruled that a pointing-out statement by Ricky Godfrey (19) of Meyerspark — one of the accused — was admissible as evidence against him.
The decision by the Cabinet to approve the setting up of structures to ensure that government departments’ documents are available in all the official languages was welcomed by several organisations on Wednesday. ”The decision … is a first, yet far-reaching, intervention to ensure a commitment to multilingualism,” the Afrikanerbond said.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Youth Brigade hopes to pull the country’s youth out of its voting slumber through a ”Miss IFP” beauty pageant, launched on Wednesday. The contest is a bid to get young and first-time voters interested in the electoral process ahead of the 2009 elections.
Sascoc (South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) president Moss Mashishi is pleased with Team South Africa’s performance at the ninth All Africa Games, which took place in Algeria earlier this month. Team SA came third in the event with 180 medals, of which 61 were gold.