South Africa’s National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) boarded a Korean fishing vessel at 3am on Thursday to treat the ship’s chef, who had accidentally stabbed himself in the stomach in heavy seas. The NSRI’s station commander at Port Elizabeth, Ian Gray, said the station was placed on alert on Tuesday.
A high-school boy was shot and wounded in a fight between a group of pupils in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, paramedics said on Thursday. ”It is believed that the boy who was shot was a friend of the boy who fired the shot. He got hit in the cross-fire,” Netcare 911 spokesperson Mark Stokoe said.
South African soccer giants Orlando Pirates and Kaiser Chiefs return to Ellis Park amid tight security this weekend — for the first time since 2001 when a crowd stampede claimed 43 lives. Premier Soccer League manager Andrew Dipela told media in a briefing last week that the game will be ”as big and emotional as ever”.
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The latest chapter in South Africa’s sorry Cricket World Cup history was put down to a case of stage fright by former stars on Wednesday as the Proteas once again suffered semifinal heartache at the hands of Australia. However, the team defended their aggressive batting tactics and denied they had panicked.
The Pretoria News will definitely be published and be on the streets on time on Thursday, said acting editor Zingisa Mkhuma on Wednesday night following a hostage drama during which eight newspaper advertising staff were taken hostage and a police officer was shot and injured.
Bribery allegations made by Golden Gloves Promotions (GGP) against the official who officiated at the world title fight in Cape Town will be dealt with by Boxing SA (BSA) in a meeting on Thursday. This was disclosed by a BSA spokesperson Loyiso Mtya amid worsening ties between GGP boss Rodney Berman and his rival who promoted the fight.
More South Africans are working for themselves with one in six now self-employed, economist Mike Schussler said on Wednesday while presenting his fifth South African Unemployment Report. In 2002, one in seven was an entrepreneur. ”More and more people realise that they are not going to get rich working for someone else,” he said.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) on Wednesday added more than 1 000 new applications to the small-business tax-amnesty process through an extensive registration campaign across the country. Several thousand Sars and police officials visited 4 160 small businesses in 30 towns and cities.
A man who took at least nine people hostage at a Pretoria newspaper and wounded a police officer on Wednesday afternoon told them he was ”sick of crime”, said witnesses. By 5.30pm, the man was still in the building with at least one hostage. Police said the hostage-taker had fired a shot, wounding a police officer.
Judge Edwin Cameron should not stand for re-election as chairperson of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) council, three student organisations said on Wednesday. In a joint statement, the organisations said transformation at the university has occurred at a slow pace over the past 10 years.
A slippery 11-year-old boy is terrorising a luxury Durban suburb, entering homes through burglar bars too narrow for adults, the Daily News reported on Wednesday. Once inside, his light footfall is barely heard as he robs his unsuspecting victims, leaving via the same route.
The late judge Wally van Deventer — who said life was too short for ”bad books and bad wine” — was remembered by his colleagues at the Cape High Court on Wednesday. Judge Deon van Zyl told the packed courtroom how Van Deventer’s interest had switched from law to business and then back to law.
As a prelude to the Inner-City Summit set to take place early next month, on Tuesday the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) led members of the media on an inner-city walkabout to gauge the city’s progress in sprucing up the CBD. JDA CEO Lael Bethlehem said the summit will give a big push to inner-city development.
The state has not responded to a settlement offer in a court case in which it is cited alongside controversial vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said on Wednesday. The matter is set down for hearing before Judge Burton Fourie on Thursday, but could be postponed.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation has threatened legal action against those illegally exploiting the former president’s name and image. ”We wish to reiterate Mr Mandela’s own words: his image and name is not for sale,” foundation chief executive Achmat Dangor said in a statement on Wednesday.
South Africa’s largest teachers’ union has rejected a proposed pay rise of 6% for its members. The offer was a ”slap in the face of workers”, South African Democratic Teachers’ Union spokesperson Jon Lewis said on Wednesday. The offer was made by the Department of Public Service and Administration.
The serious side-effects of a popular anti-malaria medicine were listed on Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of murdering his lover with an axe. Michael van Zyl, a BSc graduate, has pleaded not guilty before Judge Daniel Dlodlo to the murder of estate agent Andre Weitz, at the latter’s home at Thornton in Cape Town two years ago.
Life-insurance companies have uncovered 20Â 000 fraudulent claims worth R1-billion over the past four years, the Life Offices’ Association (LOA) said on Wednesday. However, only 2Â 844 fraudulent claims were recorded last year, the lowest number since 2003.
If ordinary African National Congress (ANC) members want a say in their party’s leadership in December, they have until June 30 to get organised. Briefing reporters in Johannesburg, ANC spokespersons on Wednesday outlined the process of electing the new leadership — including the hotly contested race for the top job.
South Africa’s targeted CPIX (consumer price index excluding interest rates on mortgage bonds) inflation rate accelerated to 5,5% in the year to March, official data showed on Wednesday, bang in line with forecasts and the highest level of increase in three-and-a-half years.
Teenage girls, many of them in school uniforms, are flocking to Port Elizabeth’s Dora Nginza Hospital to have abortions, the media reported on Wednesday. It said more than 160 abortions were performed at the Dora Nginza Hospital last month. A health worker said on Tuesday there was an alarming increase in girls under the age of 18 going to the hospital for abortions.
The owner of the Teazers chain of strip clubs, Lolly Jackson, described the South African crime rate as ”a joke” after being robbed at gunpoint for the third time. ”The crime rate in South Africa is a joke. Crime is a joke, it is something beyond me,” Jackson said on Wednesday. The Teazers boss was speaking after an incident on Sunday in which he was robbed.
The retail price of all grades of petrol will rise by 34 cents per litre (c/l) from May 2, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Wednesday. The latest changes bring the retail price of a litre of 95 octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng to 701c/l and to 677c/l at the coast. During the period under review, the average international product price of petrol increased.
It will be an intriguing rehearsal of next week’s Absa Cup semifinal when Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns square up to Telkom Knockout Cup champions Silver Stars at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg on Wednesday night.
The South African Weather Service has warned beach revellers to brace themselves for chilly conditions over the country’s coastal areas during this long weekend. Mark Todd, a forecaster from the National Forecast Centre, said on Wednesday that it was going to be cold and windy over the Southern parts [of the country].
Andrew Jordaan, the man accused of murdering seven-year-old Sheldean Human, appeared briefly in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday, where his case was transferred to the Pretoria High Court for trial. His trial at the high court will start on August 2. Along with the murder charge, Jordaan now faces charges of kidnapping, rape and possession of dagga.
Almost 35Â 000 quota work permits for foreigners with scarce and critical skills were made available by Home Affairs Minster Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Wednesday. Fifty-three occupations — including call-centre managers, clinical and biomedical engineers, technologists, and precision-metal trade workers — were on the list of wanted skills.
Starting on Wednesday, businesses in 30 towns and cities across South Africa will be checked for tax compliance and briefed on the government’s tax amnesty, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said. Spokesperson Adrian Lackay said about 10Â 000 Sars officials and police officers will check if enterprises are on the business register, and inform them of the tax amnesty.
South Africa’s Harmony Gold posted a 31,8% rise in third-quarter headline earnings per share to 58 cents on Wednesday, on a stronger gold price, better grades and cost controls. Harmony, the world’s fifth-biggest gold producer, said it achieved the growth despite lower production in the quarter to end-March, while non-operational earnings boosted its profit.
The murder of a Mount Frere teacher in front of her grade two pupils raised the issue of security at schools, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Wednesday. ”It is intolerable that teachers and learners should face such horrific incidents when they are in school,” spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement.
At least 70Â 000 South Africans are sufficiently frustrated with their arch-nemeses on the road — taxi drivers — to rush to pummel them in cyberspace. This is according to iLogic, the creators of online game Taxi Wars, who claim to have tapped into the ”vein of public frustration”. According to iLogic, their website has received a whopping 70 000 visitors in the 24 hours since the site had first appeared in the media.
The United Nations’s chief housing watchdog called on Tuesday for a halt to forced evictions in South Africa, saying people were being left homeless in breach of the country’s Constitution. ”I am calling for a moratorium on evictions across the country until policy is brought in line with constitutional provisions,” Miloon Kothari, special rapporteur on adequate housing, said.