South Africa

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has rejected claims that low-paid teachers are resorting to prostitution to supplement their salaries. ”While it is true that many teachers are paid low salaries, the union refutes the implication that low-paid teachers are becoming prostitutes to augment their salaries,” Sadtu president Willie Madisha said on Tuesday.

Robbers have beaten to death the wife of a former Cabinet minister in her East Rand home, the Star reported on Tuesday Three gunmen beat, pistol-whipped and strangled Sandra Rabie (48) outside the garage of her Boksburg home at 11pm on Thursday. Rabie was the wife of Jac Rabie (66), former minister of population development in the National Party government of FW De Klerk.

Thieves have broken into the Johannesburg Central police station where they partied on liquor from the officer’s canteen and raided a commissioner’s office, stealing cellphones, Beeld newspaper reported on Tuesday. The burglars slipped through the charge office unnoticed, also making their way unseen past a private security guard after the close of business on Friday.

Robbers have targeted yet another Coin Security cash depot — the third robbed in as many months, the Sowetan reported on Tuesday. A gang of 14 to 16 robbers — one in police uniform and another dressed as a security guard — struck at the company’s Witbank depot at 10am on Sunday morning.

Pharmacists filed an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court on Monday challenging the new medicine-price regulations, said three pharmacist organisations. The pharmacists are challenging both the recommendation on medicine-dispensing fees made by the medicine-pricing committee to the minister of health and the regulations in terms of which it was made.

The pilot killed when his light aircraft crashed into a block of flats in Yeoville, central Johannesburg, was from Botswana, the Civil Aviation Authority said on Tuesday. Most of the mangled wreckage of the plane, believed to be a Piper Cherokee 140, lay against the parking garage of the Bobby Locke block of flats on the corner of Hendon and Harley streets.

Schabir Shaik’s trial was ”unfair” because he was never charged with Jacob Zuma or French arms-manufacturing giant Thint on charges of corruption and fraud, an appeal application filed with the Constitutional Court said on Monday. Shaik was found guilty of two counts of corruption and one of fraud by Judge Hilary Squires in the Durban High Court in July 2005 and was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

South Africa on Monday called uncapped spinner Paul Harris into their squad for the next two Tests against India, in Durban from December 26 and Cape Town from January 2. Harris, who played eight county championship matches for Warwickshire this year, has replaced fellow slow left-armer Nicky Boje, who announced his retirement from international cricket last week.

Fraud, theft and industrial espionage by employees is increasing, a survey has found. More than 80% of employees have no problem helping themselves to company goods, according to an in-house survey by corporate security management company Griffiths Reid.

Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan bowled India to their first Test victory in South Africa on Monday. India won the first Test by 123 runs shortly before lunch on the fourth day. South Africa, who needed 402 to win, were dismissed for 278 in their second innings.

The political violence in South Africa’s history has been replaced by criminal violence, former president FW de Klerk said on Sunday. ”The violence of today is as devastating as the violence of the past,” he said, speaking on Robben Island off Cape Town at a commemoration of the role played by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa.

Lawyers for Durban businessman Schabir Shaik lodged papers with the Constitutional Court on Monday appealing his corruption and fraud conviction and jail sentence. Senior registrars’ clerk Delano Louw confirmed that the papers filed included transcripts of the trial, the appeal and an application for condonation of late filing.

Jozi-H, a new television series set in a fictional Johannesburg hospital, enters a crowded genre, but this medical drama offers something different — a glimpse at life in a society ravaged by violent crime. The production follows the same format dramas like ER, with breakneck editing, punchy dialogue and overlapping story lines that play out over several episodes.