The Johannesburg metro police is embarking on a mission to recruit and train 500 new metro police officers every year until 2010. The plan is to ensure that there are 4 000 officers by 2010, said Superintendent Wayne Minnaar on Monday. The new recruits will undergo basic training for six months and field training for a further six months.
South Africa’s national parks are poised for a surge in gay tourism now that a tourist operator has launched a series of tours designed to initiate gay visitors to the delights of the savannah. While Cape Town is one of the world’s top five gay holiday destinations, the operator aims to lure gay tourists out of the Mother City.
Motorists should brace for another big hike in petrol prices next month of up to 40c a litre, according to media reports on Tuesday. Motorists swallowed the country’s biggest fuel price rise of 68c in April. Rampant oil prices are the culprit, with upward price pressure expected to continue until next month.
A commission of inquiry will investigate racism at a Western Cape school after an assault on a coloured pupil was captured on a cellphone, the provincial education department said on Monday. The video clip shows grade nine pupil Pequestro Dyssel being assaulted by a fellow pupil while their teacher looked on.
South African residential house-price growth moderated slightly year-on-year in March but prices were not expected to fall despite higher interest rates, a survey showed on Tuesday. The Standard Bank monthly property gauge indicated annualised house-price growth of 8,4% last month, a touch lower than 8,6% growth in February, while month-on-month growth was 1,8%.
The African National Congress Women’s League on Monday objected to court rulings evicting a family from ”ancestral land” in Limpopo and refusing permission for a matriarch to be buried there. The league has noted a ”deliberate attempt on the part of the landowners to frustrate the process”.
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Jacob Zuma has lodged an application for leave to appeal against the Durban High Court’s decision to request documents from Mauritius that may relate to arms deal corruption. The African National Congress deputy president, who celebrated his birthday with a lavish party in Durban at the weekend, lodged the application on Monday.
The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) was ”flabbergasted” on Monday by the ”sluggishness” of the Johannesburg Labour Court in ruling on a dispute between Vodacom and CWU members. On March 12, Vodacom obtained an interim court order preventing workers belonging to the CWU from striking.
The person who stabbed baby Jordan-Leigh Norton in the neck had the direct intention of killing her, it was argued in the Cape High Court on Monday. Closing argument started before Judge Basher Waglay in the marathon trial of five suspects, including the alleged mastermind in the baby’s murder, Dina Rodrigues.
The former co-owner of the Cape Town branch of the Teazers nightclub, Michael Jackson, was on Monday refused leave to appeal by the Cape High Court against his conviction for the murder of a street child. Jackson (45) shot dead street child Xolani Zodwana three years ago.
A father was arrested for allegedly bombing a shack and killing his two-year-old son in Embalenhle in Secunda, Mpumalanga police said on Monday. Inspector Thabiso Ncongwane said the baby had been sleeping along with his mother and her partner when their shack was bombed with mining explosives.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela beamed on Monday as he watched his grandson reclaim a traditional leadership post that Mandela had renounced decades ago to become a lawyer and dedicate his life to fighting apartheid. Mandla Mandela (32) was draped in a lion skin, the symbol of royalty.
An independent doctors’ group in Zimbabwe expressed deep concern on Monday over the growing number of people admitted to hospital with injuries allegedly inflicted by the police and state agents. The association said in a statement it was concerned at the level of force being used in the arrest of opposition activists.
South Africa’s upgraded transport information system was off to a shaky start on Monday, with some testing stations failing to reopen. Authorities in most provinces reported hiccups and constant technical failures. Testing stations in Midrand, Randburg, Sandton, Langlaagte and Pretoria were still closed due to technical glitches.
A flat tax in which the ratio of tax to taxable income is the same at all levels of income — and which replaces various tax bands that feature in a progressive tax regime with a single tax — would allow the South African government to gather more tax at lower rates, Free Market Foundation (FMF) economist Jasson Urbach has argued.
Sophie Edington of Australia picked up six gold medals at the 2007 Telkom National Aquatic Championships, which ended at the Kings Park pool in Durban on Sunday night. She took both the 100m and 50m freestyle medals, the 50m butterfly, and the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke races in her stride.
A new judge has not yet been appointed to hear the criminal trial of alleged child molester Cezanne Visser, alias ”Advocate Barbie”. The trial was delayed for a considerable period when trial Judge Essop Patel fell ill and was unable to resume, resulting in the trial having to start afresh before a new judge.
The elimination of the defending champions and a spirited performance against the odds were two of the features of a thrilling final weekend of league fixtures in the Vodacom Cup competition, which enters its quarterfinal stage this weekend. Holders the Valke went down 17-8 to the Blue Bulls last Friday.
Hulks of stepped, golden sand — looking from the air like rows of pre-Colombian pyramids — have long been part of Johannesburg’s cityscape. Now, they are fast disappearing as mining companies cash in on high gold prices and reprocess the mountains of what they once dumped as waste. Even dumps containing the lowest-grade ore are proving to be, well, gold mines.
The son of a senior Eastern Cape politician has been arrested for theft from a Bisho ministerial residence, the Dispatch Online reported on Monday. It said the grade-10 student (19) is suspected of breaking into the ministerial-complex home of MPL Pemmy Majodina at the Easter weekend.
It appears there has been ”substantial maladministration” in the finances of the troubled United Independent Front (UIF), the Cape High Court has been told. The deputy leader of the party makes the claim in an affidavit submitted as part of a bid to block party disciplinary proceedings against him and a fellow party official.
The board of Eskom has elected Jacob Maroga as its new CEO, Eskom said on Friday. Maroga will take over from current CEO Thulani Gcabashe, whose term ends on April 30. Gcabashe will remain at Eskom to lead a project intended to leverage the economic benefits resulting from the utility’s capital-expansion programme.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned at what it calls the lack of progress in the case of Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, it said at the weekend. McBride was involved in a car accident in December last year and it has been alleged that he was drunk at the time. His blood was not tested on the scene, reports said.
South African Breweries (SAB) is replacing its familiar 750ml ”quart” beer bottles with a more up-to-date model, the company announced on Monday. The new returnable bottle will be introduced across four main brands — Castle Lager, Carling Black Label, Hansa Pilsener and Castle Milk Stout.
All dry dog- and cat-food products manufactured under the Vets Choice and Royal Canin brands in South Africa have been recalled, manufacturer Royal Canin South Africa said on Monday, adding that a batch of raw material received by Royal Canin SA from a third-party supplier ”may have been contaminated”.
The Freedom Front+ has laid a formal complaint over the destruction of a Great Trek memorial at Standerton, party leader Dr Pieter Mulder said on Sunday. Mayor Queen Radebe-Khumalo ordered the destruction of the memorial, which was in front of the municipal offices, apparently with the approval of the Mpumalanga African National Congress.
Kings and royalty from South Africa’s many different tribes will gather on Monday to witness the grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela reclaim the family’s position as traditional leaders. Mandla Mandela (32) will be installed as head of the Mvezo Traditional Council by the King of the AbaThembu, Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo.
SA Airlink pilots have called off a planned strike on Monday over wages, their trade union, Solidarity, said on Sunday night. ”All Airlink flights will depart on schedule from tomorrow [Monday] morning. There will be no disruption of flights,” said union spokesperson Dirk Hermann.
Gauteng must plan ahead if it wants to ease problems arising from increased migration, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday. It was clear that metropolitan areas like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban would attract people ”from elsewhere in the country”, Mbeki said during an imbizo in Braamfontein on Sunday.
A group of former political prisoners are going to court to try to remove businessman Tokyo Sexwale from a trust for ex-political prisoners, media repots said on Sunday. Sexwale heads the Makana Trust, established to look after the interests of former political prisoners and their dependents.
Ajax Cape Town goalkeeper Hans Vonk, inspired perhaps by his Dutch ancestory and how another Hans had saved the town of Haarlem from the raging waters of the North Sea by sticking his finger into a leaking dike, re-enacted his own version of the legend at the mud-spattered Seisa Ramabodu Stadium on Sunday by thwarting wave upon wave of Bloemfontein Celtic attacks.
A Western Cape African National Congress (ANC) councillor and South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) executive member was gunned down in Guguletu on Saturday night, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Sunday.