South African Paralympic star Malcolm Pringle, nicknamed the Pringle Express, has officially announced his retirement from athletics. Pringle was not included in the recently named South African squad for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and said this was an indication that his 17 years of top-level competition was at an end.
The state called for a life sentence for former Teazers co-owner Michael Jackson in the Cape High Court on Thursday after he was found guilty of killing street child Xolani Zodwana. Jackson shot dead the child after closing shop at the strip club in Cape Town on a Saturday morning in May 2004.
More than seven million sharks and skates are killed every year as an unintended consequence of longline fishing off the west coasts of South Africa, Namibia and Angola, a report by environmental group WWF said on Thursday. The practice also claims about 34 000 seabirds and 4 200 sea turtles a year in the area.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been discharged from hospital, her physician said on Thursday. ”The minister is enjoying a pass-out from hospital, which means she gets the opportunity to go home for a couple of hours every day,” said her physician, Professor Jeff Wing.
A 40-year-old Johannesburg metro police officer and a 43-year-old man were arrested when they were found driving a hijacked goods truck in Gauteng on Thursday, said Vaal Rand police. Captain William Mcera said the truck, carrying canned foods, was hijacked in Mpumalanga by three men on Wednesday morning.
Clarity on the cause of the latest spate of renal-failure cases in dogs is expected before the end of the week. In the meantime, Royal Canin has decided to suspend all sales of Vets Choice pet food with immediate effect, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition has released a warning to cat owners regarding some of its dry food.
A 47-year-old man has died of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in the Eastern Cape, bringing the number of deaths to 14 since November, the provincial health department said on Thursday. It also denied reports that XDR-TB patients were walking around freely at a hospital in the province.
The killers who left police crime intelligence Captain Carrim Alli to die in a fire deserved nothing less than life imprisonment, a Pretoria High Court judge said on Thursday. Alli’s dying words, in which he identified Isa Mohammed as the man who had attacked him, was partly responsible for his killers’ conviction.
Former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla has dedicated his graduation from Grahamstown’s Rhodes University to his grandfather and late father Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005. The graduation ceremony comes only days before another historic moment in Mandla’s life.
Train safety ambassadors, many of them reformed train surfers, will be at the forefront of a R5-million campaign to make rail travel safer. This follows the launch of the Easter Back2school Rail Safety campaign by the South African Rail Commuter Cooperation in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Pretoria police have finally been cleared of accusations of beating a local prostitute into a coma, police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi said on Thursday. In January this year, newspapers reported that a 17-year-old girl was fighting for her life in a Pretoria hospital after being severely assaulted by Sunnyside police officials.
Sixteen members of the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) in Swaziland were arrested on Thursday morning during a picket at Mananga border post, said Pudemo treasurer Vusi Mnisi. South Africa’s Congress of South African Trade Unions held a simultaneous picket on its side of the border post.
A 39-year-old man accused of stealing two pairs of shoes from a Rustenburg Pep clothing store has blamed the devil for his crime. Petrus Mthetwa, of Kanana village near Rustenburg, told the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday that he went to the store on April 3 to buy shoes for his two children.
The JSE ticked higher during noon trade on Thursday, but the gains were capped by a weaker tone in resources and mining stocks. At noon, the all-share index was up 0,18%. Resources fell 0,23%, the gold mining index was off 0,58% but the platinum mining index added 0,57%.
The Labour Department will kick-start a campaign to expose the ”scourge of child labour” on Monday with roadshows in Cape Town, Polokwane and Kimberly, it said on Thursday. Managers of the Department of Labour will speak about the extent and gravity of the problem in South Africa and will lead the campaign.
Visible policing on South Africa’s roads will help reduce the high number of fatalities, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. ”A 7,4% increase in the number of road accidents during this year’s Easter week-end compared to a similar period in 2006 indicates the inability of law enforcement agencies to ensure compliance with traffic rules,” said DA spokesperson Stuart Farrow.
Gauteng Commissioner of Police Perumal Naidoo has ordered his officers to ”turn the world upside down” to find the killers of a two-year-old girl in Johannesburg, said Superintendent Eugene Opperman. The baby was shot in the head during a robbery at a Corlett Gardens home in Lyndhurst on Thursday morning.
Johannesburg’s inner-city regeneration programme has led to the eviction recently of more than 100 refugees and asylum seekers, according to a feature posted on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) website. Their belongings are now piled on the pavement surrounding the Coronia Gardens building that had been home to many of them for years.
South Africa is seeking a change in World Cup rules to allow visiting teams to be based in neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Swaziland during the 2010 finals. Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the South African organising committee, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that other African countries should be involved as much as possible.
A dramatic injury time goal by veteran striker Peter Ndlovu virtually assured Mamelodi Sundowns a second successive South African premier league title as they beat Maritzburg United 2-1 in Pretoria on Wednesday. Ndlovu’s goal lifted Sundowns beyond the reach of all except one of their rivals and into a position in which they are all but guaranteed the championship.
The skyscrapers in Africa’s financial heartland cast a long shadow over Maria Zwane’s home in Johannesburg’s teeming Alexandra township, where running water and proper sanitation remain a luxury. Few places illustrate the contrast between South Africa’s rich and poor more starkly than the ”Dark City” of Alexandra which nestles up against Sandton.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has officially withdrawn all radio advertisements of the Tshwane Metropolitan Council that refer to Tshwane as the capital city. The SABC’s policy manager, Fakir Hassin, undertook in writing to the Advertising Standards Authority to withdraw the advertisements with "immediate effect".
Missing pilot Charles Wooler was found alive in Botswana on Wednesday, the South African Search and Rescue Organisation said. ”We have found him; he’s alive,” said spokesperson Santjie White. Wooler went missing in a two-seater Diamond Kakana on Sunday while en route from Keetmanshoop in Namibia to Upington in the Northern Cape.
A man in his 20s was seriously injured when a section of a three-storey building collapsed at a construction site off Kings Highway in Pretoria, paramedics said on Wednesday. ”Paramedics arrived on scene to find that a portion of a three-storey building had collapsed in what appeared to be a hole under the building,” said a Netcare 911 spokesperson.
The fee model for current automated teller machines (ATMs) promotes the development of a nationwide ATM network to which customers of all banks have access, said Absa executive director Louis von Zeuner on Wednesday. Last week, First National Bank proposed that Saswitch ATM fees be eliminated.
Relatives of crime intelligence officer Captain Carrim Alli reacted with relief on Wednesday to the conviction of a police sergeant and his business partner for his murder. In October 2004, Alli and his car were set alight on a lonely farm road outside Pretoria.
The African National Congress (ANC) in the Free State is stable and united, provincial party leader Ace Magashule said on Wednesday in reaction to questions about party leadership battles and ”factions” within the ANC at regional level in the province. ”The ANC is stable and united at all levels,” Magashule said at an ANC media breakfast.
The total number of people killed in road accidents during the Easter holidays was 276, up from 257 last year, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. This is an increase of 19 fatalities over the same period last year. On Monday, the department’s figures had stood at 139 killed — fewer than the number killed in 2006.
Three awaiting-trial prisoners accused of indecently assaulting a 24-year-old fellow inmate in police holding cells appeared in court on Wednesday, said North West police. The three had allegedly ordered their victim to undress and, when he refused, cut his chest with a razor blade. They then took turns to sodomise him.
Six air-quality monitoring stations were opened in the Vaal Triangle on Wednesday, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said. The stations will provide scientific air-quality data to be used as a basis when air-quality management decisions are taken in priority areas.
Johannesburg residents must consider alternative burial options to help the city deal with the demand for more burial space, mayor Amos Masondo said on Wednesday at the launch of the Diepsloot Memorial Park in Johannesburg. Stack burials, for example, mean the city can use existing burial spaces more efficiently.
The BSc graduate accused of murdering his ex-lover, estate agent Andre Weitz, slashed his wrists and overdosed on pills before attacking Weitz with an axe, the Cape High Court heard on Wednesday. Michael van Zyl spoke so softly before Judge Daniel Dlodlo that the judge repeatedly demanded he speak louder or repeat himself.