KwaZulu-Natal’s transport minister on Tuesday again justified his convoy’s recent speeding and called for the name of the ”racist” motorist who filmed it. ”He is a self-made, arrogant, non-accountable individual who purports to be a good citizen and I will dare to argue that he is also a racist,” said Bheki Cele in a statement.
The secrecy that surrounded South Africa’s apartheid nuclear weapons programme threatens to envelop the trial in Pretoria of a German and a Swiss engineer accused of using their know-how from the apartheid era to further Libya’s atomic ambitions. The case has sparked media controversy in South Africa.
South Africa expressed concern in Austria on Tuesday over the lack of progress made by nuclear-weapon states in eliminating their nuclear arsenals, ambassador Abdul Minty said. Minty was speaking at a conference of parties to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in Vienna, Austria.
A Port Elizabeth woman falsely arrested for prostitution has been granted R112 018,03 in damages by the city’s high court, Beeld newspaper reported on Tuesday. Laurika Vermeulen (23) initially claimed R600 000 from Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula for unlawful arrest and unlawful incarceration, among others.
Businesses in parts of Ekurhuleni, the Free State and Northern Cape are counting losses running into millions of rands after power failures, media reports said on Tuesday. A prolonged power failure has affected Eastgate Mall, one of South Africa’s largest shopping centres, in Bedfordview, east of Johannesburg.
Shoppers fled and shop owners hurriedly lowered their shutters as thousands of stick- and knobkerrie-wielding protesters ran through Durban’s city centre on Tuesday to the city hall to object to plans to rename streets after African National Congress (ANC) heroes. Minor damage was reported but no injuries.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday, Workers’ Day, urged trade-union leaders at the Athlone Civic Centre in Cape Town to play a meaningful role in skills development and job creation. Meanwhile, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana told a Workers’ Day rally in Johannesburg that employment equity is here to stay.
South Africa’s soap-opera wars were pushed aside as actors from opposing television soaps 7de Laan and Binnelanders took hands in an anti-crime march to the government’s Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday. They were joined by actors from various stage plays, artists and singers.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday, Workers’ Day, dismissed the government’s call for a single public service and told ministers to stop blaming apartheid for problems. Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has said that a single public service would improve service delivery.
The growing disparity in the salaries of workers and their chief executives will lead to the ”toughest” wage talks in a long time, the trade union Solidarity warned in a Workers’ Day memorandum. On unemployment, Solidarity said that while there are more jobs, there are also more people looking for work.
A boxing official at the centre of bribery allegations, Alfred Buqwana, has demanded a public apology from Golden Gloves Promotions for insinuating that he tried to extort a bribe from it. Buqwana’s demand follows a week of drama in the aftermath of Mzonke Fana’s IBF junior lightweight title clash against Malcolm Klassen.
They might have failed to net what is the biggest fish of all among the soccer titles on the continent, but Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns are still hoping to haul in what would be a notable treble from Africa’s teeming soccer pool this year, says Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund.
Rubbish bins and burning tyres were used to barricade the Mangosuthu Highway in Umlazi township, south of Durban, on Tuesday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said. Reports said the roads were barricaded by members of the Inkatha Freedom Party who were protesting against the proposed name change of the highway.
The concentration of power in South Africa is the biggest threat to its democracy, the front-runner to assume the leadership of the country’s main opposition party said on Monday. The challenge for the Democratic Alliance is to lure more black voters and help break traditional racial voting patterns, Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said.
Facing extinction, vervet monkeys that have been a part of Pretoria since its establishment more than a century ago will no longer be seen roaming the area. About 60 vervet monkeys will be relocated from Garsfontein to the Dinokeng Nature Reserve near Hammanskraal, north-east of Pretoria, by May 9.
A 40-year-old angler drowned after he was washed off the rocks by a strong wave between Victoria Bay and Kaaimans River on the Garden Route in the Western Cape on Monday. National Sea Rescue Institute station commander Hennie Niehaus said a witness called the institute, informing it of the drowning at about 1.34pm.
A 49-year-old Pretoria construction worker is under virtual house arrest in Chad, North Africa, because a firm he works for has apparently not paid an estimated R1-million in salaries owed to workers and suppliers in that country, media reports said on Tuesday. Rudi Lauterbach, who has been working in Chad since 2005, was arrested on Friday.
Three men have been arrested in connection with the robbery of businessman Glenn Agliotti’s home last month, Johannesburg police said on Monday. Superintendent Eugene Opperman said the three were believed to be part of an armed gang of five that robbed Agliotti’s home in Bryanston on Monday March 5.
Nine families on a farm near Saron in the Tulbagh area were spared from eviction on Monday for a few more days after the Black Association of the Wine and Spirit Industry secured a court date to try to postpone the eviction order. A Bawsi representative said the eviction order was a result of a dispute over the ownership of Ertjiesfontein farm.
Embattled medical scheme Pro Sano spent more than R17-million on advertising and marketing campaigns in just more than three years, with no net gain in membership. Its reserves of R314-million could be depleted within three years if current losses continue, curator Joe Seoloane said in a report to the Cape High Court.
The family of slain Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer met undertakers on Monday to discuss his funeral, but details of the ceremony are being kept under wraps. The family has decided to keep it a ”totally, totally private affair”, said Theo Rix, Western Cape manager for Doves funeral parlour.
Two children died of smoke inhalation after their mother fell asleep leaving a stove on, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. ”The mother, who was preparing vetkoek for their builder on Sunday night, put a batch on the stove and then fell asleep,” said Captain Jackson Manatha. ”It started to burn and there was a lot of smoke.”
Two men under police investigation for murder and armed robbery appeared in court on Monday for the murder of the detective who had investigated the two charges. They are charged with the murder of Detective Inspector Lourens le Roux, who was gunned down outside the Woodstock police station on April 12.
The process of finding a new national lottery operator is still under way, the Department of Trade and Industry said on Monday. Its statement came a day after the Democratic Alliance accused the government of breaking its own deadline for resuming the Lotto.
Zimbabwe has compensated 800 white former farmers whose property was taken for land reform since 2000, Harare’s government-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Monday. It quoted the minister responsible for the land and resettlement programme as saying billions of Zimbabwean dollars had been paid out in compensation.
HIV/Aids budgets should not be rolled over, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka warned on Monday at the launch of the newly constituted South African National Aids Council (Sanac) in Kempton Park. Mlambo-Ngcuka chairs Sanac, a partnership between the government and civil society including the business and labour sectors.
About 2 000 Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) supporters marched to Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa’s office on Monday to protest against crime and a lack of service delivery, the party said. Azapo’s provincial secretary for political education said his party is concerned about the high level of crime.
A heavily armed gang of five men tried to rob the Wild Coast Sun casino at the weekend, the Sun International resort said on Monday. The gunmen entered the casino at 12.45am on Sunday and forced casino patrons and staff to lie on the floor, Wild Coast Sun general manager Alec McMath said in a statement on Monday.
Instead of engaging foreigners, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula should explain crime to South Africans, the Freedom Front Plus said on Monday. ”Mr Charles Nqakula should rather explain crime in South Africa, here at home, than explaining it in foreign countries,” said the party’s spokesperson on safety and security.
The man accused of holding advertising staff of the Pretoria News newspaper hostage last week will be evaluated by a district surgeon for a possible referral for psychiatric evaluation. Lionel George (32), of Danville, west of Pretoria, was arrested on April 25 after a hostage drama that lasted nearly four hours.
The Afrikanerbond has condemned a Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Freedom Day message suggesting that farm workers are being abused and murdered. ”To accuse farm owners that their workers are being treated like slaves and that workers are being abused and even murdered is extremely irresponsible,” it said.
South Africa recorded a trade deficit of R2,7-billion in March, unchanged from the shortfall recorded in February, the South African Revenue Service said on Monday. Compared with the previous month, exports rose by 14% while imports increased by 13%. The cumulative trade deficit for the first three months of the year was R15-billion.