A four-wicket haul by Dale Steyn helped South Africa stage a brilliant fightback on the fourth day of the third Castle Lager Test at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday. At close of play, South Africa, chasing a target of 211 for victory, were 55 for the loss of two wickets. There was plenty of excitement in the first half hour of play on an action-packed day.
Plans to build a 68 000-seater stadium for Cape Town to host a 2010 Soccer World Cup semifinal got the green light from the provincial government on Friday when it dismissed a series of appeals. The Western Cape province upheld the initial environmental authorisation and approved applications for the rezoning of the stadium grounds.
Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla has not received a report on the findings of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in relation to the presidential pardon of Inkatha Freedom Party associates in prison. ”The minister has not yet received any official report … from the SAHRC,” Justice Ministry spokesperson Zolile Nqayi said on Friday.
An independent report into the cause of a bus accident near Pietermaritzburg the day before Christmas, which claimed 12 lives, has confirmed that the accident was as a result of a tyre blow-out and that the bus was roadworthy, bus company SA Roadlink said on Friday.
The murder of Avhatakali Netshisaulu, son of City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu, was planned, the investigating officer told the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Friday in opposing bail for Netshisaulu’s widow. ”It was a planned murder,” said Inspector Mokebe Madibo. Netshisaulu’s body was found in his burnt-out car north of Johannesburg on December 7.
President Thabo Mbeki has expressed his condolences to the family of former state president Marais Viljoen, who passed away on Thursday. Mbeki expressed his condolences to Viljoen’s daughter, Elna Meyers, and his grandson on behalf of the government and the people of South Africa, his office said.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has asked Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla to speedily process the presidential-pardon applications of 384 Inkatha Freedom Party associates in prison. SAHRC CEO Tseliso Thipanyane said on Friday the commission found the minister violated the applicants’ rights because they had not yet been processed.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has requested correctional services district commissioner Sipho Manqele to react to reports that the African National Congress’s former chief whip, Tony Yengeni, held a ”private Christmas Party” in Malmesbury Prison. Yengeni is serving a four-year prison term for fraud.
Two security guards at a Durban railway station were shot dead and robbed of a shotgun, police said on Friday. The two men were on duty at the Zwelethu railway station in Durban’s Umlazi area on Thursday night when a group of four armed men approached them and opened fire.
Police have arrested a third suspect after a Free State police officer was murdered near Bloemfontein on December 30. Inspector Harry Nagel said the third suspect, a 26-year-old man, was arrested on Thursday morning near Hoëveld in the Bloemspruit area outside Bloemfontein.
Robben Island was chosen as a prison for Nelson Mandela because of its isolation. These days it’s a tourist attraction — but reaching it over the past week has become almost as difficult as escape once was, due to mechanical problems and bad weather. ”Next ferry, January 13,” read a sign at the ticket counter on Thursday morning.
Zimbabwean newspaper owner Trevor Ncube — publisher of the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent in that country and the Mail & Guardian in South Africa — will contest the stripping of his citizenship in a High Court application once a date is allocated. He spoke to the M&G about the case.
Zimbabwean newspaper owner Trevor Ncube is set to contest the stripping of his citizenship in a High Court application. The case has drawn condemnation from international press bodies such as the International Press Institute, the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum.
The African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) has yet to decide when it will hear an appeal by former chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe against his expulsion. ”I’m not sure when the NEC will make a decision on that,” ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said on Thursday. ”It is the NEC that will take a decision on the matter.”
India spun a web of problems for South Africa on the third day of the third and final Castle Lager Test at Newlands on Thursday, and were firmly on top at close of play, with South Africa all out for 373 — trailing India by 41 runs. It was honours even in the first session, with Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla continuing the partnership they began on Wednesday.
A vehicle-testing station owner has appeared in the King William’s Town Magistrate’s Court for allegedly trying to bribe an Eastern Cape transport official, the provincial transport department said on Thursday. Johannesburg businessman Haron Bhika appeared in court on Tuesday charged with corruption, said Eastern Cape traffic control deputy director Mqondisi Kulati.
The proposed release of 62 former death-row prison inmates is outrageous, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) spokesperson Sybil Seaton said on Thursday. The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday that eight prisoners who were formerly on death row will be freed this month.
South Africans have less than two weeks to get into the habit of dialling ten digits instead of seven when making national calls. After January 16, should a person forget to dial the local area code before the seven-digit number (for example, Johannesburg’s area code is 011), then they will be routed to announcements requesting them to dial 10 digits.
Gauteng police Commissioner Perumal Naidoo has said that 2007 should be dedicated to a no-nonsense approach to fighting crime. Naidoo was speaking at a handing-over ceremony of 250 police vehicles on Thursday in Aeroton, Diepkloof, outside Johannesburg.
Zimbabwe’s government-appointed Media and Information Commission will not close down two popular private newspapers even if owner Trevor Ncube — also the publisher of the Mail & Guardian in South Africa — loses his Zimbabwean citizenship, state television reported late on Wednesday.
A last-gasp effort by German goalkeeper Yvonne Frank robbed South Africa of what would have been a well-deserved victory over the third-ranked team in the world in the Spar Hockey Festival at the University of Stellenbosch’s Astro Turf on Wednesday. The teams drew 2-2.
Manchester United might travel to South Africa again before the start of the 2007/08 English Premiership season, said Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund on Wednesday after returning from a visit to a number of leading English clubs during the Premier Soccer League’s mid-season holiday break.
Welkom police divers will resume searching on Thursday for a man who is believed to have drowned when a boat capsized on the Vaal Dam early on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the body of a 35-year-old man was recovered from the Nigel Dam on the East Rand on Wednesday, and a man was found dead in a swimming pool in Johannesburg.
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African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma has criticised the media for calling people who walked out during President Thabo Mbeki’s address at a funeral ”Zuma supporters”. ”They are not Zuma supporters,” he said on Wednesday about those who walked out of the funeral of struggle hero Moses Mabhida.
Tunisian ophthalmologists will perform eye operations in the Eastern Cape in January, the Health Department said on Wednesday. Tunisia and South Africa signed an agreement of cooperation in the field of health in 1999 and formulated a programme of cooperation in 2004.
A second-wicket partnership of 130 between Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla and four-wicket hauls by Shaun Pollock and Paul Harris helped South Africa to a competitive position at close of play on the second day of the third and final Castle Lager Test against India at Newlands on Wednesday.
South African lion breeders are prepared to go to court to test regulations on canned hunting, specifically of lions, the deputy chairperson of the South African Predator Breeders’ Association said on Wednesday. The regulations, to come into force in March, stipulate the circumstances under which lion hunting can take place.
A two-year-old boy died from head injuries after his brother hit him with a garden hoe in Endicott, Springs, police said on Wednesday. The boy’s mother had left him playing with his eight-year-old brother when the incident happened on December 24, said East Rand police spokesperson Superintendent Andy Pieke.
The Dolphins will be aiming to bounce back from a poor performance last month when they face the Titans in a top-of-the-table Supersport Series cricket clash in Pietermaritzburg, starting on Thursday. Also, the Diamond Eagles will be hoping the Christmas break hasn’t robbed them of any momentum.
Rescue workers are searching for two men who were washed down a crevice along a Port St Johns beach on Tuesday, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, two men drowned in separate incidents while swimming in Parys and Heidelberg, and a man drowned when a boat capsized at the Vaal Dam.
As in 2004, two South African quad riders, Cornel de Villiers and Johan Steenkamp, will once again take on the gruelling 2007 Euromilhöes Lisboa Dakar Rally, which starts off in Lisbon on January 6 and finishes in Dakar, Senegal, on January 21. The two riders, together with mechanic Geoff Osche, left for Portugal on December 29.
A man was arrested in Phoenix on Wednesday morning for holding his own child hostage, KwaZulu-Natal police said. Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu said police had accompanied the mother to serve a court interdict for the custody of the five-year-old child.