Springbok coach Jake White has made three changes to his starting line-up for Saturday’s second Test against England at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. Bulls wing Akona Ndungane replaces Ashwin Willemse in the number 14 jersey, while the other two changes are in the front row where props CJ van der Linde and Gurthro Steenkamp replace BJ Botha and Deon Carstens respectively.
The Democratic Alliance wants a judicial investigation into Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride’s motor accident after claims that officers had covered up for him and were now being intimidated. It is alleged that McBride was drunk at the time of the accident in December near Centurion.
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The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday it had made no decision on whether to charge African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma. Reports that such a decision had been made were ”incorrect and misleading”, NPA spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said.
Brett Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti will go on trial for alleged drug dealing in October, the Germiston Magistrate’s Court decided on Wednesday. Agliotti and three others, Stephanos Paparas, his father Dimitrio and Stanley Poonin appeared together before Magistrate JC Van Wyk on drug-dealing charges.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) may decide to withdraw from the coalition that has ruled since the end of apartheid, threatening to shatter cooperation between leftists and moderate black nationalists. The SACP’s provincial council in Gauteng voted in favour of a go-it-alone approach last week.
The launch of South Africa’s first state-owned satellite from a Russian submarine — planned for next month — has been postponed indefinitely, it was reported on Wednesday. ”It has been postponed because official documentation still needs to be arranged to issue a decree for the launch,” said Nhlanhla Nyide, spokesperson for the Department of Science and Technology.
The Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s economics spokesperson, Eddie Cross, says that judging from his own bakery business, the country’s inflation rate now exceeds 10 000%. He said on Wednesday that he was told by a supplier that flour for his bakery would now cost Z 000 for a 50kg bag, which cost Z 000 just recently.
South Africa again rejected calls for tough action against Zimbabwe on Tuesday ahead of a visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is expected to press the issue. Britain and other Western powers have accused Mugabe of widespread human rights abuses and mismanaging the economy.
Friday’s public-service strike is set to go ahead after the government and unions failed to reach agreement on wage increases after two days of talks in Pretoria. Last-minute talks called by the government broke down in the early hours of Wednesday morning at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council.
High Court papers have been served on President Thabo Mbeki and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla calling on them to respond in the matter of considering applications for a presidential pardon for 384 prisoners, Inkatha Freedom Party chief whip Koos van der Merwe told MPs on Tuesday.
More than half of the one million cases that made it last year on to the rolls of South Africa’s lower courts were withdrawn or struck off, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday during debate on the Justice and Constitutional Development Department budget vote in the National Assembly.
The government’s taxi-recapitalisation programme is a solution to destructive competition over profitable taxi routes, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday. He condemned recent taxi violence around Johannesburg as ”barbarism”. Radius permits will be converted to operating licences.
A document containing proposals to resolve the deadlock between the government and public-sector unions over wage increases was circulated at talks between the parties in Centurion on Tuesday afternoon. The document was handed to all the representatives at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council.
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A Durban High Court judge on Tuesday queried Jacob Zuma’s defence team over its efforts to stop the retrieval of documents from Mauritius that might relate to arms-deal corruption. He asked Zuma’s advocate Kemp J Kemp: ”If a person professes his innocence, then why go to all these lengths to prevent the evidence being obtained?”
Many so-called political prisoners held in South African jails committed their offences after 1994, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla said on Tuesday. Briefing the media in Cape Town, she said it would be incorrect to regard any inmate as a political prisoner.
International donors and African government institutions have to make good on their promises of aid for Africa, the African Monitor said on Tuesday. ”Promises to Africa have been made. The time to act is now,” African Monitor president Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
A Port Elizabeth man was told by Dora Nginza Hospital his mother had died while she was alive and well at home, the Herald Online reported on Tuesday. A horrified Vusumzi Blom, of Zwide in Port Elizabeth, rushed to his mother’s house in New Brighton after receiving the news — only to find her in good health and sleeping in bed.
The Cape High Court on Tuesday denied four men convicted in the Fancy Boys gangster case leave to appeal. Three Fancy Boys gang members, with sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment, and a non-gangster who received stolen property from them had applied for leave to appeal.
The ailing electronic national traffic information system had a negative effect on car sales and the Gauteng economy, a business breakfast heard on Tuesday. Discussing the Gauteng Business Barometer for April, T-Sec economist Mike Schussler said April had been a particularly weak barometer.
The National Treasury has gazetted the details of municipalities whose 2006/07 municipal infrastructure grant allocations have been stopped — because of non-compliance with the 2006 Division of Revenue Act. It amounts to R503-million. The main reason for the funds being stopped is "significant under-expenditure".
Opposition parties on Tuesday castigated the government for not doing more to uphold human rights around the world, particularly in Burma and Zimbabwe. ”How sad that within 13 years South Africa has lost its image as the champion of human rights in the world,” Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said.
Limpopo residents were on Tuesday protesting against their relocation to make way for mining operations. About 300 residents of Mohlohlo village, outside Mokopane, barricaded the road into the village with rocks early on Tuesday morning, said Limpopo police spokesperson Captain Sebotsaro Motadi.
A lack of capacity to spend their allocations from the integrated housing and human-settlement development grant has resulted in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga being stripped of R145-million by the national Housing Department, the Cape Town-based South African Local Government Research Centre has reported.
South African fashion retailer Stuttafords said on Tuesday a court had ordered it to stop selling Gap merchandise due to a dispute with a local firm that claims to be the owner of the brand. Stuttaford chief executive Bruce Rubenstein said the retailer would abide by the court decision and wait for a response from Gap.
President Thabo Mbeki’s facilitation of political dialogue in Zimbabwe will succeed only if its people show they are serious about finding solutions to that country’s crisis, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Tuesday in her budget-vote debate in the National Assembly.
Three people were arrested near Kuruman when police found a female cheetah in the boot of their car, the Volksblad reported on Tuesday. Police operating a roadblock targeting copper thieves made the discovery at 11pm on Sunday when they stopped a Toyota Cressida with a Botswana registration.
Billiton has slammed as ”untrue and irresponsible” the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) claims of racism at its manganese mine in the Northern Cape. The NUM has charged that black workers had to walk 2km to the nearest bus stop, while employees of other races were collected at their homes.
A new database intended to help reduce unemployment among science graduates was launched by Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena in Pretoria on Tuesday. "I have no doubt that what we are engaged in today is a necessary step in the right direction to begin closing the gap of the skills shortage," Mangena said.
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown and financial director Graham Maddock appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday to hear their case postponed to August 31. The two men face fraud and theft charges involving just more than R200-million, with other charges to follow.
The ”Green Scorpions” begin an inspection of Mittal Steel’s Vereeniging plant on Tuesday, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said. The inspection, to last several days, marks the launch of a national environmental compliance campaign in the iron, steel and ferro-alloy industry.
It could hardly have been a more harrowing Monday for Bafana Bafana as Godfrey Sapula dropped out of the squad to play Chad in an African Nations Cup qualifier on Saturday — and the prodigal Benni McCarthy was a conspicuous absentee from the training camp in Durban.
Durban businessman Elias Khumalo on Monday confirmed that his house and offices had been raided by the police.