The Foreign Affairs Department on Wednesday condemned the criminal attack in Johannesburg on South Africa’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York. Spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the criminal attack over the weekend on Dumisani Kumalo and his family should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
Rain continued to fall in the Western Cape on Wednesday following the occurrence of a cold front in the area this week. Spokesperson for the South African Weather Service Mnikeli Ndabambi said rainy conditions would continue until the end of the week. ”Cold and rainy conditions will persist until the end of the week,” said Ndabambi.
A 28-year-old man is expected to appear in court in connection with the hijacking of Judy Sexwale outside a school last week, Gauteng police said on Wednesday. Police spokesperson Sergeant Sanku Tsunke said the man would appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. He faces charges of armed robbery and hijacking.
Thirteen hostages were rescued from a supermarket in Mthatha on Tuesday night after being held hostage by a gang of gunmen. Eastern Cape police said the hostage takers had escaped. Guards were collecting money inside the Boxer supermarket on Callaway Street when the gang stormed into the shop.
Two rugby players were killed, another may be paralysed and three other people were injured in a road accident in the Free State on Tuesday. Captain Magda Muller said six people were en route from Soutpan heading in the direction of Welkom when their vehicle overturned after a tyre burst.
New club record signing Darren Bent opened his account for Tottenham Hotspur as the English club won a second match on their South Africa tour, beating Orlando Pirates 2-1 in Cape Town on Tuesday. Bent, who joined Spurs for £16,5-million from Charlton, opened the scoring with a 12th minute strike.
Zaphanias Mathe, the father of prison escapee Annanias Mathe, was released from jail after the state withdrew all charges against him on Tuesday. An attorney at the Oliveira Serrao law firm, Nereyde Namitete, said the toxicology report found that the substance that the older Mathe tried to smuggle inside the C-Max prison in Pretoria contained nothing illegal.
A number of people were being held hostage at a supermarket in Mthatha on Tuesday afternoon, Eastern Cape police said. Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said police believed two armed men, part of a gang that robbed the store at about 1pm, were holding staff at gunpoint by 4pm.
Two trade unions in a drawn-out wage dispute with Eskom stood back on Tuesday as a third union announced it had signed a deal with the national power utility. Earlier this month, the electricity supplier declared a dispute with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers and Solidarity.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will be asked to explain last year’s blacklisting of political commentators and analysts to an Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) hearing on Wednesday. The Freedom of Expression Institute has complained that the blacklistings constituted a violation of the SABC’s licence conditions.
Snowfall and thunderstorms are expected in the southern and western parts of the country, said the South African Weather Service on Tuesday. A cold front over the Western Cape on Tuesday night is expected to result in heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms in the extreme south-western parts of the province.
It will be the last flight for the South African Airways (SAA) Supa8 competition after the national airline announced at the launch of the coming season’s competition it would not be renewing a five-year sponsorship. Symbolically, perhaps, holders Chiefs were absentees from the seeded draw by virtue of not finishing among the top eight teams in last season’s Premier Soccer League.
Eddie Jones is enjoying his present ”consultation period” with Jake White’s Springboks — but the former Wallaby coach has stressed that he is not in South Africa to coach the national team, he is simply here to ”exchange ideas”. Jones — who coached the Queensland Reds during the 2007 Super 14 — raised a few eyebrows when he turned up at training in full Bok kit.
Johannesburg beat rival bids from Cape Town and Durban to host the international broadcast centre for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the tournament’s organising committee recommended Johannesburg, which is part of South Africa’s industrial and business heartland.
South Africa’s rand has firmed to levels that may add to central bank concerns about the current account deficit and raise doubts about the wisdom of pushing through more interest rate hikes. Raising rates further could enhance South Africa’s carry trade credentials among investors hunting for higher yields, and so bolster the rand.
A 35-year old policeman who was severely burnt in a fire at a Durban police residence died in the early hours of Tuesday morning, police said. The policeman, Sergeant Craig Roach, suffered burns to 65% of his body in a blaze in his 13th floor flat in the South African Police Service’s Natalia building on Monday morning.
Protests in Soweto against poor service delivery should be a warning to the government that people were losing patience, the Independent Democrats said on Tuesday. Party leader Patricia de Lille said that while people understood the history and the backlog of service delivery, they were no longer willing to accept that there was not enough money.
The National Civilian Safety and Security Action (Nacissa) lobby group on Tuesday urged South Africans to deduct expenditure on private security from their taxable income this year. Spokesperson Conrad Beyers said a substantial portion of South Africans’ income tax should be used by the government for safeguarding its citizens.
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A beaming Nelson Mandela cut birthday cake, gave hugs and received gifts at his annual children’s party in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The children sang Happy Birthday to the 89-year-old shortly after his arrival at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund offices.
South Africa’s ambassador to the United Nations was robbed at gunpoint at his son’s home in Johannesburg on weekend, the latest in a string of attacks on prominent South Africans, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Dumisani Kumalo was ambushed by three armed men in the driveway of his son’s house on Saturday night, it was reported.
OR Tambo International Airport should be expanded and not closed down to make way for a new airport in order to cope with the huge expected increases in air-passenger flows in the province, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said on Tuesday.
It would be no exaggeration to suggest that Orlando Pirates went through the turbulent process of navigating a succession of troubled and tempestuous waters for much of the past season. Now, having lost the services of five of their most cultured players, the Buccaneers give every impression of attempting to guide a rudderless ship as they prepare to take on Tottenham Hotspur.
A decision to appoint a mediator to facilitate a resolution to the impasse between Vodacom and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has been agreed to by both parties. The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union has threatened to call for a boycott of Vodacom unless it extended organisational rights to the CWU.
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Nelson Mandela once took out his wallet at his annual childrens’ party so that a child could buy his grandmother some cake. The story goes that at his 85th birthday celebrations Mandela met a 12-year-old boy who looked after his sick and elderly grandmother, and asked the boy what he would do with 20 shillings.
Wage negotiations in the gold sector of the Chamber of Mines resumed at a slow pace on Monday, trade union Solidarity said. Solidarity mining spokesperson Reint Dykema said the Chamber of Mines had increased its salary offer from 7% to a ”disappointing” 7,25%.
The Johannesburg High Court has granted the African National Congress (ANC) leave to defend itself against efforts to force the party to return Brett Kebble’s donations. Trustees of the slain mining magnate’s estate have been trying to force the party to return R3,5-million as well as R875 000 given to the party’s Youth League.
Soshanguve serial rapist Simon Malatji was on Monday sentenced in the Pretoria High Court to life imprisonment and a further 307 years on various other counts. Judge Ronnie Bosielo sentenced Malatji (32) to life imprisonment for twice raping one of his victims and to a further 307 years’ imprisonment on 30 further counts. All sentences will run concurrently with the life sentence.
There is a rising tide of Zimbabwean immigrants crossing the border into South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. DA home affairs spokesperson Mark Lowe said he and several other DA parliamentarians and local DA councillors had visited the Beitbridge border post and surrounding areas.
Former national cricketer Garth le Roux had acted openly and honestly in all the transactions over which he now faces fraud charges, his advocate told Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court on Monday. Le Roux and his accountant, Deon van Heerden, are seeking a discharge at the end of the state’s case on the 48 counts of fraud they both face.
State utility Transnet unveiled its new brand positioning and corporate-identity strategy in Johannesburg on Monday. Company group chief executive Maria Ramos told reporters that the company had come up with a new one-brand image with its different operations falling under it.
The Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has distanced itself from a South African Press Association (Sapa) report on a speech by Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Monday. Sapa’s report was issued under the headline: ”High crime levels driving tourists away: Van Schalkwyk.”
Caxton has been granted leave to participate in the Naspers/EMN/SuperSport merger procedures subject to certain conditions, the Competition Tribunal said on Monday. The tribunal said the merger had been referred to them at the end of May by the Competition Commission.