The Democratic Alliance (DA) has renewed a call for victims of violent crime to have more say in the justice process and be compensated for crime’s economic and social impact on their lives. ”The justice system needs to change its focus to include providing victims of crime with their rights as a major priority,” the DA said in a discussion document released in Parliament on Monday.
Dalene Swanepoel, gold medal winner in the javelin at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, died on June 2 2007 at the age of 76. Swanepoel had the unique distinction of placing first, second and third at the two Commonwealth meetings she attended.
The mother of jailed Chinese journalist Shi Tao wept and punched the air on Monday as she accepted a press-freedom award on her son’s behalf from world media bosses in Cape Town. "He has only done what any courageous journalist should do," Gao Qinsheng told an annual gathering of the World Association of Newspapers.
Nine players have returned to the Springbok squad ahead of Saturday’s Test against Samoa in Johannesburg, team manager Zola Yeye said on Monday. Hooker Bismarck du Plessis, flanks Luke Watson, Wikus van Heerden and Pedrie Wannenburg, flyhalf Derick Hougaard, centres Wayne Julies and Waylon Murray, wing JP Pietersen and lock Johan Ackermann are back in the camp.
A new daily newspaper, the Times, will be delivered to the homes of 120Â 000 subscribers of the Sunday Times from Tuesday. ”The newspaper will navigate its busy readers through their day, ensuring that they know about key events that impact on them in a clear and simple way,” editor of the Times Ray Hartley said in a statement on Monday.
President Thabo Mbeki on Monday called on the media to provide what he described as accurate and properly contextualised information. ”We in Africa can and do benefit from criticism, but we do ask that it should be based on accurate information …,” he told the 60th World Association of Newspapers congress and 14th World Editors’ Forum in Cape Town.
Former senior Fidentia employees are to be interrogated as the company’s curators hunt for money to return to investors, Moneyweb reported on Monday. It said at least ten people have received subpoenas for an ”examination” before the curators in terms of the Financial Institutions Act later this month.
South African new vehicle sales declined by 1,7% year-on-year in May and the sector’s short-term outlook could be undermined by possible interest-rate rises. The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Naamsa) said on Monday 51 684 new units were sold in May compared with 52 574 the same month last year.
Aids researchers from around the world gather in South Africa on Tuesday amid tentative signs the nation is finally embracing mainstream approaches to fighting the epidemic. Hopes of a shift in South Africa’s attitude to a disease affecting nearly 12% of its 47-million people have been building since the government in March unveiled a revamped Aids strategy.
All 23 fishermen were rescued from a fishing vessel which ran aground and started breaking up off St Francis Bay on Sunday, said the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the boat hit a sandbank as she left the St Francis harbour entrance in three-metre swells.
South African police on Monday fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of nurses taking part in a nationwide strike over pay, wounding several, state radio reported. Police also arrested 20 nurses in the incident at a hospital in Durban, the radio said. It quoted police as saying the nurses were blocking entrances to the hospital.
Aids may be killing elected officials in some Southern African countries faster than they can be replaced, creating a new threat to democracy and governance in the region, a new study said. The Institute for Democracy in South Africa said a study of mortality patterns in Southern Africa indicated Africa’s HIV/Aids crisis was reaching deep into elected governments.
South Africa is still negotiating the release of one of its citizens kidnapped in the Niger Delta, the Foreign Affairs Department said on Monday. ”We are still negotiating [for the man’s release] at this stage. We are, however, in contact with both the man’s mother and his wife,” spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.
Cameroon, the Côte d’Ivoire and Morocco moved to within one point of qualification for the African Nations Cup finals on a weekend overshadowed by the death of 12 spectators in a stampede in Zambia. A government investigation has been ordered and the result of an official enquiry promised by Friday, officials said.
Striking public-sector workers in South Africa warned on Monday that government threats to sack health workers would derail efforts to resolve an increasingly bitter pay dispute. Fikile Majola, secretary general of the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union said negotiations would resume on Monday.
President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday called for enhanced legitimacy through representation and accountability as well as recapitalisation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said low-income countries would continue to draw heavily on a wide range of macro- and micro-economic policy advice linked to financing needs.
As many consumers of traditional news media, especially in the developed world, have moved to the internet to keep up to date, so another exodus has started: from the web to other digital media, especially cellphones. This was the message at a precursor on Sunday to the World Editors Forum and World Newspaper Congress running until June 6.
The government warned striking health workers to return to work on Monday or face being fired while soldiers staffed hospitals and private ambulance services moved seriously-ill babies to private facilities. ”If they are not at their workplace [by Monday], then we will be instituting a process of terminating their services,” said national director general of health Thamsanqa Dennis Mseleku.
Soldiers, volunteers and private hospitals have stepped in to help public-health facilities crippled by the public-service pay strike which started on Friday. Army medics were on duty from 8am on Sunday in wards of the hard-hit King Edward VIII hospital, in Durban.
International Cricket Council president Percy Sonn, who died last weekend following complications after undergoing minor colon surgery, was laid to rest in Cape Town on Saturday. Hundreds of people gathered at St George’s cathedral in the city centre for a funeral service.
Three metro cops who apparently flouted procedure by removing Ekurhuleni metro police boss Robert McBride from the scene of his accident are now suing him. The three, Stanley Segathevan, Patrick Johnstone and Ithumeleng Koko, are suing their boss and the Ekurhuleni metro police department for R4,5-million.
A Butterworth man remained ”fast asleep” while three men took turns raping his girlfriend in his bedroom early on Saturday morning, Eastern Cape police said. The 22-year-old woman allegedly woke up and saw three men in the room where she was sleeping with her boyfriend who was allegedly ”very drunk” at around 3am.
A woman was critically injured when she plunged more that 15m down a mountain at a resort in Potchefstroom on Saturday. ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said the woman was climbing up the Vredefort Chimney at the Thabelo Thabong Mountain Resort with other climbers at 9.30am when she fell.
Nearly 60 journalists have been murdered in recent months, and prosecutions of journalists for ”treason” and ”extremism” are on the rise, according to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). The annual review of press freedom by the Paris-based WAN painted a grim picture of attacks, imprisonment and murder.
Sibusiso Zuma scored twice as South Africa overwhelmed Chad with a record 4-0 victory in their African Nations Cup qualifier in Durban on Saturday. German-based Zuma got both his goals in the first half as the 2010 World Cup hosts stretched their lead in Group 11 to three points.
The intensive care unit at Durban’s King Edward VIII Hospital, South Africa’s second largest, was shut down on Saturday. This was after striking workers reportedly threatened nurses at the unit with knobkerries and whips. Doctors were awaiting ambulances to transfer critically ill patients to other hospitals.
South Africa produced a commanding second-half performance to hammer England 55-22 in the second Test in Pretoria on Saturday. Northern Bulls heroes Bryan Habana and Pierre Spies both scored two tries on their home ground, while Percy Montgomery finished with 18 points to his name.
A murderer jailed for life managed to get a challenge to parole conditions to the Constitutional Court without the help of a lawyer and without two ministers bothering to oppose it. On Friday the Concourt threw out the case, refusing prisoner Paul van Vuren direct access to court without a lawyer.
The next African National Congress (ANC) president should be biased towards the working class, gender sensitive and a unifier, said the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Friday. The NUM said the government should own the mines to create employment and generate revenue towards education.
Union leaders sought to draw other sectors into their wage dispute with the government on Friday as thousands of public servants countrywide downed tools. The first day of what the unions said would be an indefinite strike passed without major incident and had a patchy effect on service delivery.
The controversial monorail from Soweto to Johannesburg is on hold while the provincial government consults more widely on the proposal, said Gauteng’s provincial ministers of transport and finance on Friday. The project was announced on May 16 but Transport Minister Jeff Radebe subsequently ordered it to be put on hold.
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The state will know on Tuesday whether it has succeeded in obtaining an execution order to allow it to retrieve documents from Mauritius about meetings believed to relate to arms-deal corruption. Judge Jan Hugo heard argument this week from the state, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma and French arms manufacturing giant Thint.