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/ 2 February 2007
Gauteng provincial minister for community safety Firoz Cachalia has denied pledging to quit if crime levels did not decline in a provincial police operation, dubbed Iron Fist. Cachalia said on Friday he was asked by a journalist at a press conference at the launch of the operation if he would consider resigning should crime not decrease.
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/ 2 February 2007
Pleading guilty to the murder of Anglo-Zulu war historian David Rattray on Friday, a 23-year-old man said that robbery was the motive for his gang’s invasion of the Rattray property last week. An unnamed co-accused appeared in the Dundee Magistrate’s Court earlier on Friday.
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/ 2 February 2007
Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s acceptance of payments from the Oasis asset management group raise serious questions about his suitability for leadership in the judiciary, Democratic Alliance (DA) justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said on Friday. She also called for the Judicial Service Commission to reopen its investigation into Hlophe.
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/ 2 February 2007
The Dockrat cousins were leading a seemingly normal life in South Africa — one a cleric at a mosque, the other a dentist with a practice in Johannesburg. Then they popped up as suspects on Washington’s al-Qaeda radar screens and set off alarm bells from the United States to Pretoria about a country seldom associated with Osama bin Laden or radical Islam.
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/ 2 February 2007
Free State farmers have accused Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana of hate speech over her allegations of worker abuse and widespread, inhumane evictions in the industry. ”She is accusing us of murder, rape and evictions,” Free State Agriculture president Louw Steytler said on Friday.
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/ 2 February 2007
Francis Adelaide Tambo will be laid to rest in Benoni on February 10, the African National Congress (ANC) announced on Friday. At a press briefing, ANC deputy secretary general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele said a week of prayer and memorial services in Cape Town and Johannesburg will precede the funeral next Saturday.
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/ 2 February 2007
The National Civil Safety and Security Action (Nacissa) has asked how government and the ruling party can promote a better life for all if crime is out of control. "We are not against strategies that the government has put in place; we are here to assist," Nacissa chief executive Ockie van der Schyf said in Pretoria on Friday.
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/ 2 February 2007
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) is shocked by the announcement that the South African Police Service (SAPS) intends to halve the number of white police officers. ACDP leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe said the SAPS’s intention was to change the white to black ratio from 1:5 to 1:10 over the next three years.
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/ 2 February 2007
The international scientific report on climate change released on Friday is a ”clarion call” to world leaders for immediate action, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said. He was reacting to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which said global warming was ”unequivocal”, and ”very likely” man-made.
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/ 2 February 2007
President Thabo Mbeki might represent all South Africans, but only 2% of the population endorses his views on crime, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. Writing in his weekly letter, Leon said 98% of South Africans believe the president’s approach and attitude towards crime are wrong.
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/ 2 February 2007
The recent African Union summit confirmed that the African continent remains united "in its determination" to pursue the objectives fundamental to the African renaissance, including accelerating socio-economic development, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.
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/ 2 February 2007
Charl Schwartzel has confirmed that he will tee it up in the upcoming Vodacom Championship at Pretoria Country Club in a bid to join Mark McNulty as the only winners of three successive Sunshine Tour Order of Merit titles. Schwartzel currently tops the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit with just over R1,4-million in earnings from five tournaments.
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/ 2 February 2007
A man appeared in the Dundee Magistrate’s Court on Friday in connection with the murder of famed Anglo-Zulu historian David Rattray. Members of the public, as well as the media, were cleared from the small courtroom before the case was to be heard.
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/ 2 February 2007
Vehicle sales for January have improved significantly compared with the same month last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said on Friday. ”New-vehicle sales have started the year on a positive note with … sales at 52Â 213, registering an improvement of 6,9% compared with last year’s 48Â 821.”
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/ 2 February 2007
The South African stowaway found dead aboard a British Airways plane was on Friday identified in a Daily Telegraph report. It is believed that seventeen-year-old Samuel Peter Benjamin crept aboard the aircraft in Cape Town, his home town, before it left on January 22.
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/ 2 February 2007
The Turkish foreign ministry has advised the South African diplomatic mission that two South Africans died in a gas pipeline explosion at Izmik on Thursday. The mission was in the process of verifying the nationalities of the two deceased, ”with a view to advising the next of kin of these unfortunate developments”.
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/ 2 February 2007
Cassius Green, cut man supreme, is probably quite glad that Laila Ali’s regular trainer, Floyd Mayweather Snr, does not enjoy long-distance flights. Mayweather has deputised Green and BB Hudson to work Ali’s corner during Saturday’s bout against Gwendolyn O’Neill at Emperor’s Palace in Kempton Park.
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/ 2 February 2007
The Shell Accountability Group, a global network of environmental groups, has called on Shell to replace, at an estimated cost of R43-billion, the Durban-based refinery that is jointly owned by it and BP through the South African Petroleum Refineries (Sapref) joint venture, Business Report said on Friday.
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/ 2 February 2007
A High Court application by the Financial Services Board has exposed the ”misappropriation” of hundreds of millions of client money by Cape-based asset management company Fidentia. This may prove to be one of the most damaging scandals since the failure of Masterbond in 1992, given that Fidentia was looking after R1,6-billion of other people’s money.
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/ 2 February 2007
Football fans hoping that new national coach Carlos Alberto Parreira would deliver a ”new dawn” type of speech at his first media conference since he officially took over would have left the Sandton Convention Centre disappointed. Parreira’s message to the media on Thursday was that he is a practical man.
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/ 2 February 2007
A C-Max prison inmate who is critically ill with HIV/Aids, but who refuses to use antiretroviral drugs because he believes the health minister’s advice ”to be true and that they have had dangerous side-effects”, wants to die at home. The inmate was sentenced to 60 years’ imprisonment on charges of robbery in June 2001.
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/ 1 February 2007
Leave to appeal a fraud conviction and a four-year prison sentence by Sandile Tsopo, husband of Free State education provincial minister Ouma Tsopo, was denied on Thursday by the Bloemfontein Regional Court. Regional magistrate MI Menong, however, extended Tsopo’s bail pending the outcome of a petition to be filed at the high court.
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/ 1 February 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday welcomed Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana’s pledge to tackle the abuse of farm workers. ”We fully share the minister’s concern about the evictions and … the inhumane treatment and abuse of farm workers,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.
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/ 1 February 2007
South African Tourism (SAT) has signed a deal with BBC World to promote the country as a destination for international tourists, it was announced on Thursday. The electronic marketing campaign will take place from February to July and will consist of advertisements, commercial presentations and online marketing in Europe, the United States and Africa, SAT said in a statement.
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/ 1 February 2007
South Africa football coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is undaunted by the task of transforming Bafana Bafana into a force to be reckoned with by the time the country hosts the 2010 World Cup. ”This is the kick-off for the World Cup in 2010,” the 64-year-old Parreira told a press conference in Johannesburg on Thursday.
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/ 1 February 2007
It is not his duty or task to play director in deciding if the now-infamous Kamp Staaldraad DVD should be changed and then released, a high court Judge said on Thursday. Judge Pierre Rabie said possible cuts to the DVD, suggested in argument by legal counsel for former Springbok security consultant Adriaan Heijns and Jan Steyn, are a matter for debate and negotiation between them and the players.
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/ 1 February 2007
Spending on sustenance and travel by departmental officials for 22 government departments jumped by about R500-million, or 44%, in 2005/06 to R1,6-billion, compared with the previous year’s R1,1-billion, according to replies from ministers to the official opposition.
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/ 1 February 2007
About 100 opponents of abortion prayed outside the gates of Parliament on Thursday for an end to a practice they say has killed 600Â 000 foetuses in South Africa over the last ten years. The demonstration was organised by the Christian Action Network to mark the anniversary of the date — February 1 1997 — when abortion on demand became legal in this country.
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/ 1 February 2007
South Africa and Pakistan go head to head at the Wanderers on Friday evening in the first twenty over game between the two teams. South Africa have played four 20-20 matches, and have lost three and won just one, against Australia. Proteas captain Graeme Smith said on Thursday that he was not too concerned about the team’s record.
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/ 1 February 2007
South Africa’s people are crying out to the nation’s leaders to do ”whatever it takes” to put an end to crime, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said at the funeral of renowned historian David Rattray on Thursday. A six-man gang shot Rattray three times on Friday night in a hold-up at his Fugitive’s Drift lodge.
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/ 1 February 2007
The South African National Museum of Military History is making a civil claim against the South African National Defence Force over a raid on the museum in 2005. Museum director Major John Keene confirmed on Thursday that there was a claim under way, but would not divulge any other details.
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/ 1 February 2007
Tributes from political parties and leaders from other sections of society continued pouring in on Thursday for Adelaide Tambo, widow of former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo, who died on Wednesday. Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said South Africa would sorely miss Tambo in these days when the country needed knowledge.