South Africa

A ”whole network” of traffickers is awaiting the release on bail of alleged drug lord Nazier Kapdi, the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Tuesday. Kapdi (55) was arrested in a police trap in October along with four others. They are charged with dealing in the psychosis-inducing drug tik.

Land claims can be settled by the Land Claims Commission without ministerial approval in order to speed up the restitution process, the commission said on Tuesday. Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulama Xingwana has delegated her powers to the chief land claims commissioner and regional land claims commissioners.

South African prosecutors have filed an application for a court order that could clear the way for new criminal charges against former deputy president Jacob Zuma, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The corruption trial of the popular Zuma, once seen as the most likely successor to President Thabo Mbeki, collapsed in September.

Five Iraqis who were abducted with four South Africans in Iraq have been released but the South Africans are still missing, said the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. Department spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the five Iraqis were released on Tuesday.

The Commission on Gender Equality on Tuesday questioned whether Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is being set up for failure because she is a woman. A spokesperson said the commission is wondering whether an incident, where a trip by Mlambo-Ngcuka cost tax payers an estimated R4,55-million, was designed to set the country’s first female deputy president up for failure.

South Africa has a moral responsibility to help other countries in crisis, a Human Rights Institute of South Africa seminar heard on Tuesday. ”In our struggle for human rights, we were assisted by our brothers and sisters on the continent,” said the chief executive of the South African Human Rights Commission, advocate Tseliso Thipanyane.

People should keep their hands off the deputy president, the ruling party on Tuesday said. Reacting to the flight-cost saga, African National Congress (ANC) spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said in a statement: ”The ANC remains concerned that even with clear evidence to the contrary, some people are hell-bent on tarnishing the image of the deputy president.”

Nicky Boje, South Africa’s leading Test spin bowler, announced his retirement on Tuesday in a move that came on the day he was due to join the squad for the first Test against India starting at the Wanderers Stadium on Friday. His sudden retirement came as a shock to selection convenor Haroon Lorgat and coach Mickey Arthur.

There is no change in the status of the four South Africans who were kidnapped in northern Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday morning. At this stage it is not yet known who kidnapped them as no demands have been made, said spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.

Robbers struck twice within minutes in Bryanston in northern Johannesburg on Monday night, leaving a man dead and another injured, paramedics said. ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said paramedics were dispatched to Galway Street in Bryanston at about 7.15pm after ”multiple gunshots” were heard.

The African National Congress (ANC) has dismissed as ”scurrilous” Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) claims that President Thabo Mbeki has left the ANC ”fractious and deeply divided”. Cosatu’s criticism could not stand up to ”honest scrutiny”, the ANC said in a statement on Monday.

South Africa’s slow land-reform programme is forcing commercial farmers out of the agricultural sector, according to the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU). In a memorandum the TAU said that the agricultural industry in most African states has slumped because governments are conducting their agricultural policy on ”a political-ideological basis rather than [on] sound economic principles”.