The Nedbank Championships for the Physically Disabled witnessed another phenomenal performance from Paralympic sprint legend Oscar Pistorius as he broke the world record in the 200m at Germiston Stadium on Thursday. Pistorius clocked a time of 21,58 seconds to break the record of 21,66 he set at the World Championships in The Netherlands last year.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is investigating the cause of a helicopter crash that killed a pilot and his trainee in northern Johannesburg on Thursday morning. Spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu said CAA investigators were at the scene of the crash, trying to piece together information.
Human bones found near the resort town of Umdloti following the heavy waves that hit the KwaZulu-Natal coast recently are in Pretoria for forensic testing, police said on Thursday. Some media reports have said the bones may be those of young girls who disappeared about 18 years ago, allegedly kidnapped by Gert van Rooyen and his lover, Joey Haarhoff.
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) has not lived up to the expectations of the people of the country, its president, Letlapa Mphahlele, said on Thursday. Speaking in Johannesburg a day before the party’s 48th anniversary celebrations, Mphahlele said the PAC has in recent years fallen short of expectations.
Nineteen Metrobus employees who were dismissed during a recent strike could still face disciplinary action, the City of Johannesburg said on Thursday. The two-month strike was called off on Wednesday after an agreement was signed by the municipality and labour unions.
PetroSA says it is investigating an incident in which oily water from its Mossel Bay gas-to-liquid fuel plant spilled into a nearby river last month. In a statement issued on Thursday, the parastatal also confirmed a sulphuric-acid spillage in December last year, but said the effects had been largely confined to the plant.
South Africa’s business confidence in March continued a downward trend that started in January, as infrastructure constraints and a political crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe weighed on business mood. The South African Chamber of Business said on Thursday its Business Confidence Index slipped slightly to 99,5 in March from 100,5 in February.
Armscor has not seen the final version of a forensic report detailing its alleged international sale of small arms ammunition, it emerged on Wednesday. It became aware of the contents of the November 2005 report, reportedly commissioned by Secretary of Defence January Masilela ”in the media”, said Armscor spokesperson Bertus Celliers.
The Safety and Security department is looking at the viability of reporting crime trends to communities, Minister Charles Nqakula said on Wednesday. ”We don’t need to rely on annual crime statistics only, we need to report regular crime trends to communities,” he told a media briefing in Pretoria.
The Metrobus service will resume next week following a two-month strike that ended on Wednesday, the City of Johannesburg said. About 21 violent incidents, including three murders of bus drivers, had been recorded since the strike started on January 29.
About 1 500 workers will join the strike at Premier Foods Blue Ribbon Bakeries, the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) said on Wednesday. Fawu general secretary Katishi Masemola said the strike will be stepped up next Wednesday, following an unsuccessful meeting with Premier Foods in Cape Town on Tuesday.
The African National Congress’s (ANC) Western Cape branch considers the matter of murdered businessman Brett Kebble’s donations closed, it said on Wednesday. ”We regard the donations taken in good faith. If a legal process decides otherwise, we’ll take it from there,” said spokesperson Garth Strachan.
South Africans can expect electricity to get more expensive in coming years as a way of cutting consumption, the chairperson of the Big Business Working Group (BBWG), Saki Macozoma, said on Wednesday. He was briefing the media after discussions between the BBWG and President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria.
The man accused of the kidnapping, rape and murder of six-year-old Michaela Garoenisha Ganchi was found guilty in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. Ronald Ambrose Jones (27) was found guilty on all five counts, including kidnapping and indecent assault.
Eastern Cape traditional leaders want the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to slaughter an animal to apologise for screening a documentary on circumcision, media reports said on Wednesday. The leaders found SABC1’s drama Umthunzi Wentaba insulting because it stripped the tradition of its secrecy and sacredness.
Charges against alleged gang high-flyer Quinton Marinus — known on the Cape Flats as ”Mr Big” — were withdrawn on Wednesday when he and two co-accused appeared in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court. No reasons were given for the withdrawal. The arrest of the three was seen as a major breakthrough in the fight against organised crime.
The Transport Ministry on Wednesday called on motorists to drive carefully over the Easter weekend. Among others, main routes out of Gauteng are expected to carry heavy traffic from noon until 10pm on Thursday and from 6am to noon on Friday, said ministry spokesperson Ntau Letebele.
Slain Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was totally and utterly incorruptible, his friend and sports scientist Professor Tim Noakes told Woolmer’s memorial service in Cape Town on Wednesday. Addressing about 300 mourners in the Wynberg Boys’ High school hall, he said the match-fixing theory was completely and utterly without substance.
A South African drug manufacturer has signed an agreement with an international company allowing it to distribute an antiretroviral (ARV) cheaply in sub-Saharan Africa, the companies said on Wednesday. The agreement allows Aspen to register, package and distribute the protease inhibitor Prezista in sub-Saharan Africa.
A biography of politician Patricia de Lille had invaded the right to privacy of three women whose names and HIV-positive status were disclosed in it, the Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday. The three women were each awarded R35Â 000 in damages, from De Lille, author Charlene Smith and publishers New Africa Books.
A mineworker at a coal mine near Dundee in northern KwaZulu-Natal died on Wednesday when a roof support apparently collapsed and struck him. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said the miner was brought to the surface by the mine’s own rescue team. The miner had suffered severe head injuries that probably led to his death.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has sought to soothe markets rattled by a sudden surge in the country’s current-account deficit, but his view that the bulge is merely a blip does not fit with the figures. Hundreds of thousands of new cars bought last year helped push oil imports higher in the fourth quarter.
South Africa’s state arms agency Armscor sold hundreds of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition into the open market in conflict with government policy, Business Day newspaper said on Wednesday. A secret forensic report in 2005 showed Armscor had sold ammunition for AK-47, R-4 and R-5 rifles to Industrie Spreewerk Lubben in Germany.
Stellenbosch deputy mayor Khulile Shubani has been questioned by police in a probe into a driver’s-licence scam, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation. It said Shubani confirmed he was summoned to the Bellville South police station to explain how he obtained his licence.
A strike by Johannesburg’s Metrobus drivers could end on Wednesday with both parties to the dispute optimistic that an agreement would be signed. ”There’s a strong likelihood that today we will be entering into an agreement,” said Dumisani Langa, the Johannesburg branch secretary of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union.
The extent of multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) strains of TB in South Africa was not currently known, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday. ”We know there are quite a lot of MDR and XDR-TB, although we don’t know the extent,” said Dr Fabio Scano, a tuberculosis expert from the WHO.
An incident of racial abuse toward South Africa coach Paul Treu by South Africans at the Hong Kong Sevens is being investigated. SA Rugby confirmed on Tuesday media reports in South Africa that Treu was racially abused after his team lost to Samoa in the semifinals on Sunday.
South African adventurer and explorer Kingsley Holgate is set to depart from Cape Town later this month on a pan-African trip to hand out educational aids to remote schools, including self-contained libraries packaged in trunks. The trip, which will end in 2008, will take Holgate around the continent’s coastline and up some of its rivers.
More than 20 people were arrested for resisting evictions at Sehlalangenkani informal settlement in Musina early on Wednesday morning, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. About 1 000 households were being evicted from their corrugated-iron shacks.
A man has been arrested after pirate South African CDs and DVDs worth about R4-million were found at a house in Cyrildene, Johannesburg police said on Wednesday. Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the man had been arrested near the house shortly after it was raided on Tuesday.
Nine Zimbabwean car guards were sent to South African deportation facility Lindela on Tuesday and another three were arrested in a swoop on an illegal car-guarding business in Johannesburg by the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira). Twenty car-guarding businesses have come under Psira’s scrutiny over the past 40 days.
The government has warned the loss-making South African Airways (SAA) that it will not bankroll the state-owned airline indefinitely, Business Day reported on Wednesday. In a confidential letter to SAA chairperson Jakes Gerwel, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin wrote that SAA ”cannot and will not be supported at all costs”.