A Standard Bank automated teller machine (ATM) in Cullinan, east of Pretoria, was blown up in the early hours of Saturday, Pretoria police said. ”Unknown suspects blew up the ATM located within the Spar Centre at about 1.30 am,” said Inspector Paul Ramaloko. He said police found money scattered all over the floor.
Marketing company Glomail has declined to say whether it intends to readvertise fraud convict Kevin Trudeau’s Mega Memory System after being ruled out of line by the Advertising Standards Authority. The supposed memory-training programme has already run foul of United States regulators.
A new press council is being established by the newspapers of South Africa, the founding bodies committee of the Press Ombudsman’s Office said on Friday. ”It will … amend the press code to include the definition and prohibition of child pornography,” said spokesperson Raymond Louw.
Pretoria High Court Judge Johan Els died when his car veered out of control and overturned outside Polokwane on Friday morning, Limpopo police said. Superintendent Mohale Ramatseba said Els died on the scene of the accident, 20km outside Polokwane, at 6.30am.
The building of a 44,7km monorail between Johannesburg and Soweto has been ”put on hold”, the Transport Ministry said on Friday. It said while the monorail proposal cannot be supported in its present form, the government is in principle not opposed to the concept of a monorail.
Public-sector unions on Friday warned the government of ”indefinite labour action” if their demands for better pay and working conditions were not met. The unions outlined six demands in a two-page memorandum submitted to the government in mass marches across the country.
President Thabo Mbeki on Friday rejected an allegation made last week by Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi that government propaganda is like that used by Adolf Hitler’s regime in Nazi Germany. ”The charge that our government … is behaving in a manner akin to the Nazis is very serious in the extreme,” he said.
The United States-led ”war on terror” has opened a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences and is veering dangerously close to Islamophobia, South Africa’s intelligence minister said on Thursday. Ronnie Kasrils said South Africa believed that the ”terrorist” label should not be indiscriminately or incorrectly applied.
Web surfers are flocking to an internet spoof website that claims to be the home page of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The Bob.co.za site, with categories such as ”My Love”, ”My Leaders” and ”My Self”, has had more than 307 000 visitors since it was registered in South Africa in 2002.
Eskom is hoping no load-shedding will be needed over the weekend as power consumption decreases with factories off-line. Spokesperson Carin de Villiers said on Friday that power consumption had broken records twice in the past week. The latest record was Thursday’s peak of 34Â 361MW — 523MW higher than the previous record.
Springbok captain John Smit said on Friday the fact that so little is known of the touring England team makes them dangerous. ”We do not know much about this team,” Smit said, adding that all the talk had been about the Springboks lately. ”When there is something you’re not sure about, an unknown quantity, you have to prepare twice as hard for anything.”
Granting Telkom another four years to finalise the installation of the ADSL system was hampering telecommunications reform in the country, the Telecoms Action Group (Tag) said on Friday. This follows an announcement by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri that she was giving Telkom until November 2011 to unbundle the local loop.
Thousands of small business owners are flooding revenue offices with last-minute applications for tax amnesty before Thursday’s deadline, said the South African Revenue Service (Sars) on Friday. All Sars offices will be open on Saturday from 8am to 1pm and on Monday to Thursday from 8am until 6pm.
A ”standstill” can be expected in South Africa if the government does not act on public-service workers’ demands, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha told thousands of marchers in Cape Town. Speaking outside Parliament, Madisha called on the government to ”negotiate seriously and properly”.
News that three highly qualified medical doctors nominated for posts in two under-staffed public hospitals have been rejected by the Western Cape provincial health department — because they are white — has been slammed by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille.
The planned R12-billion monorail between Johannesburg and Soweto was a first step in addressing the daily traffic chaos on South African roads, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) said on Friday. It was surprised that Transport Minister Jeff Radebe opposed the move, said FF+ transport spokesperson Corne Mulder.
A South African judge on Friday rejected a government request for a media ban in a trial of two men accused of links to a black market in atomic weapons technology. Prosecutors had argued that national security might be compromised by information revealed in the trial of Gerhard Wisser and Daniel Geiges.
More than 10 000 public-service workers started marching in Pretoria on Friday demanding better pay and working conditions. Much of the protesters’ anger was aimed at Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Protesters sang songs blaming her for the breakdown in pay talks between the unions and the government.
A number of power failures across Johannesburg on Friday morning could be linked to overloading and cable theft or damage to cables by third parties, City Power said. Spokesperson Louis Pieterse said power failures in parts of Parkmore, Houghton, Kensington, Wisonia, Glenvista and Boksburg affected individual households, not every resident in those areas.
Peace will not prevail in the Middle East unless Israel stops its aggression against Palestinian people, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said on Friday. Speaking during the Intelligence Department’s budget-vote debate in the National Assembly, Kasrils said Israel must start making positive moves.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has pledged support for a separate bargaining chamber for health workers proposed by the African National Congress (ANC) health committee. ”There is no doubt that nurses and doctors should get a pay boost above the inflation rate,” DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom said in a statement.
At least 14 people, nine of them schoolchildren, have been killed in a five-vehicle accident on the N2 highway near East London, Eastern Cape police said on Thursday. Captain Stephen Marais said a group of schoolchildren returning to Elliotdale in two minibus taxis were involved in the accident shortly after 7pm.
Disgruntled public servants are set to swamp the streets of major South Africa cities on Friday in mass marches to press for better pay, union leaders said. The demonstrations, they said, are a mere forerunner of a full-blown strike next month by more than one million civil servants demanding a 12% salary increase.
The Constitutional Court on Thursday reserved judgement in the appeal by Schabir Shaik against his fraud and corruption conviction, his 15-year jail term and the seizure of his assets. While Shaik’s counsel, Martin Brassey SC, has argued for a mistrial, counsel for the state maintains he should have spoken up a lot sooner if he was unhappy.
The Gauteng provincial government on Thursday said it was waiting for an urgent meeting with the national government on the province’s planned R12-billion monorail linking Johannesburg and Soweto ”The [provincial minister] is awaiting a response from the minister,” said spokesperson Alfred Nhlapo.
Several trade unions representing workers at South African Airways (SAA) have joined forces against the proposed restructuring of the airline, they said on Thursday. The Restructuring Labour Caucus said it had written to SAA’s management and board voicing dissatisfaction.
The feasibility study for a proposed R12-billion monorail between Soweto and central Johannesburg was ”Mickey Mouse,” the chairperson of Parliament’s standing committee on transport, Jeremy Cronin, said on Thursday. ”On the face of what we got it’s not only the process that is poor …,” Cronin said.
Severe shortages of health staff in four Southern African countries is the main barrier to expanding HIV/Aids treatment, according to a Medecins sans Frontières report released on Thursday. The report, Help Wanted indicates that more than one million people need Aids treatment but are not getting it.
A total of 7 000 taxi owners across the country have applied for the small-business tax amnesty ahead of the cut-off date of May 31, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said in a statement on Thursday. A large number of them only responded from the beginning of this week and Sars is calling on to all others to do the same, spokesperson Thumida Maistry said.
Can Ajax do it again? That is the question leading up to Saturday’s Absa Cup soccer final between Mamelodi Sundowns and Ajax Cape Town in Durban. It will be the fourth time the two sides meet this season, and in the three previous encounters Ajax got the better of the Premier Soccer League champions.
”We need to meet them head on in every area,” England captain Jason Robinson said ahead of the first Test against South Africa in Bloemfontein on Saturday. Robinson acknowledged England could be seen as underdogs, but said that would have been the case even if more of the regular team had been in South Africa.
The Department of Correctional Services confirmed on Thursday that Annanias Mathe’s father (80) was taken in for questioning after he allegedly tried to smuggle an illegal substance into C-Max Prison. ”The officials spotted through a scanner a bottle with a black substance inside a loaf of bread carried by the 80-year-old man,” a spokesperson said.