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/ 20 October 2006
Fists flew in Honeydew in Johannesburg on Friday morning -– Car-Free Day — as a motorist and a taxi driver fought each other in a bout of road rage. Minibus taxi drivers had to be chased from the scene as ”chaos” broke out when they rushed to their colleague’s aid, said chief superintendent Wayne Minnaar from the Johannesburg metro police.
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/ 20 October 2006
Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa is facing a dilemma after the National Prosecuting Authority decided not to prosecute former social development provincial minister Bob Mabaso on a complaint of attempted rape and sexual harassment.
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/ 20 October 2006
The London home and the offices of an arms broker linked to a supplier in South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms deal have been raided by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, it was reported on Thursday. The Guardian said the raids were part of a probe into corruption allegations against Britain’s biggest military hardware exporter, BAE Systems.
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/ 20 October 2006
Mozambique President Armando Guebuza on Thursday called for a probe into the 1986 plane crash which killed the country’s founding leader Samora Machel, a mystery often blamed on apartheid agents. ”I want to reiterate the commitment of the government to find out the truth on the cause of the plane crash,” Guebuza said.
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/ 20 October 2006
A new research report, which was prepared by Genesis Analytics for regional development initiative the ComMark Trust, says that if the Southern African region is to benefit from the huge number of tourists who will be visiting South Africa for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, countries have to start liberalising their air transport routes now.
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/ 19 October 2006
Two sisters from a wealthy Durban family have been arrested after pretending they and a year-old baby had been kidnapped, the Daily News reported on Thursday. The sisters apparently tried to extort a ransom from their parents. Police conducted an extensive operation in a 24-hour search for the women and the toddler.
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/ 19 October 2006
South Africa, burdened with one of the world’s worst Aids crises, should institute mandatory HIV tests through employers, banks and medical-insurance programmes, a senior Aids doctor said on Thursday. ”I don’t think ignorance is a human right,” said Dr Francois Venter, head of the South African HIV Clinicians Society.
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/ 19 October 2006
About 5 000 residents of Potchefstroom on Thursday protested against a proposal to change the town’s name to Tlokwe. The group, mainly Afrikaners, handed a memorandum to this effect to the executive mayor, Mapetlhe Mapetlhe, said Aksiegroep spokesperson Bertus le Roux.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Tshwane metro council this week handed in a motion of no confidence against the city’s executive mayor, Gwen Ramokgopa, calling for her immediate resignation. Meanwhile, Tshwane residents are losing their faith in the local government’s bureaucratic system, saying it is a mess and disorganised.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Highveld Lions will be pushing hard to establish their spot in the upper region of the log when they play an important double-header in the MTN domestic cricket championship this weekend. The Titans’ victory over the Warriors in East London on Wednesday has opened up the race for the semifinals.
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/ 19 October 2006
Sexual-harassment claims against former Gauteng minister of social development Bob Mabaso will be internally investigated by the African National Congress (ANC), the party said on Thursday. ”I am ready to take part in the ANC internal disciplinary process to finalise the matter,” said Mabaso.
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/ 19 October 2006
Two men were killed in a light aircraft crash on Thursday morning near Petrusburg in the Free State, police said. Superintendent Sam Sesing said the Piper Cherokee 140 crashed into an open piece of land on the farm Spitskop about 10km west of Petrusburg.
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/ 19 October 2006
A teenager broke down in the Ramsgate High Court on Thursday as she recounted how her friend from Carletonville, Kalin Jooste, bled to death after being attacked in December last year. Earlier, the two men accused of murdering 16-year-old Jooste pleaded not guilty.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Online Publishers Association (OPA) on Thursday cautiously welcomed the announcement of further consultation on South Africa’s controversial Film and Publications Amendment Bill. The OPA has raised strong concerns over the impractical nature of implementing the legislation for online media.
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/ 19 October 2006
South Africa’s main inflation rates are expected to have dipped in September on lower fuel and electricity prices, but the reprieve is unlikely to ward off further interest rate hikes. The annual increase in the targeted CPIX inflation index is likely to have remained steady at 5% last month, but headline inflation and factory gate prices are forecast to have fallen.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Eastern Cape provincial administration was unable to account for R30,2-billion out of R34,1-billion (88,5%) it spent during 2005/06, the Public Service Accountability Monitor said on Thursday. The Eastern Cape auditor general issued five provincial departments with disclaimers for the 2005/06 financial year. These include the four major service-delivery departments.
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/ 19 October 2006
What would it take for motorists to leave the comfort of their cars and venture on to daunting public transport? With traffic congestion choking economic activity, the government has caught on to international concepts like Car-Free Day — taking place on Friday — that aim to encourage people to do just that.
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/ 19 October 2006
South Africa’s version of Top Gun is running again with the first 10 Hawk lead-in fighter-trainer aircraft officially handed over to 85 Combat Flying School at the Makhado air-force base on Thursday. Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota also officially reopened the school on Thursday.
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/ 19 October 2006
Blanket amnesty will not be granted for all involved in fraud in the Department of Housing, and each case will be dealt with on merit, Director General of Housing Itumeleng Kotsoane said on Thursday. ”We do not want to send the wrong message that corruption pays,” he told a media briefing at Parliament.
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/ 19 October 2006
The end of the marathon Richtersveld land-claim dispute is in sight, with news on Thursday that agreement has been reached on a settlement with the state. At a series of meetings this week, members of the Richtersveld community gave their approval to a draft memorandum of understanding.
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/ 19 October 2006
The adoptive mother of 21-month-old Tammy Herman, who died in what has been called one of South Africa’s worst child-abuse cases, was granted R10 000 bail on Thursday. Zaibunisa Herman (34) briefly appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court in connection with the child’s death in January.
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/ 19 October 2006
Housing delivery in South Africa needs to double from the current delivery rate of about 250 000 housing units a year to 500 000 units if the backlog is to be removed and supply to new urban residents to be fulfilled, Director General of Land and Housing Irumuleng Kotsoane said on Thursday.
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/ 19 October 2006
The wife of a former radio personality died of smoke inhalation in a veld fire which got out of control on Tuesday. Madelein Engelbrecht (41) the wife of the former managing director of Jacaranda FM, Willem Engelbrecht, was fighting a veld fire with other farmers near Dewagendrift, east of Pretoria, when she was she was overcome by the smoke.
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/ 19 October 2006
Some tight bowling and magnificent fielding by the Titans prevented the Warriors from winning their first limited-overs match of the MTN domestic championship at Buffalo Park on Wednesday. Set 214 to win, the Warriors finished on a disappointing 188 for five wickets, a tantalising 26 runs short of victory.
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/ 19 October 2006
More than 300 families were left homeless on Thursday after fires ravaged an informal settlement in Fishhoek, Cape Town local disaster management said. Spokesperson Craig Pillay said firefighters responded to a reported fire at Masiphulele township at about 2am.
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/ 19 October 2006
Angola seek to put the seal on the greatest year in their soccer history with a record-breaking fourth triumph in the Cosafa Castle Cup when they face Zambia in Lusaka in Saturday’s final. Angola drew two of their three matches in a surprisingly proficient World Cup debut performance in Germany in June and came within one goal of reaching the African Nations Cup quarterfinals.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Cabinet has approved the distribution of R73,8-million from the Criminal Assets Recovery Fund (Cara) to law-enforcement agencies and government departments working with victims of crime, the Ministry for Justice and Constitutional Development said on Wednesday.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Andromeda galaxy is more than just the closest large spiral to the Milky Way as it appears through the naked eye, Wits University’s professor David Block said on Wednesday. Block said he had new evidence that Andromeda was involved in a ”violent head-on collision” with the neighbouring dwarf galaxy Messier 32.
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/ 19 October 2006
Their prose did much to expose the moral bankruptcy of apartheid to the outside world but the literary elite of white South Africa has now turned ferociously on the rainbow nation’s new rulers. Following the departure of Nobel laureate JM Coetzee to Australia, authors such as André Brink, Rian Malan and Christopher Hope have delivered searing indictments of the state of the nation.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Department of Minerals and Energy could implement a retail petrol-price cut of about nine cents per litre (c/l) on November 1 2006, provided the daily over-recovery remains at or above the October 18 level. This would bring the total cut to 95c/l since the retail petrol price peaked at R7,04 a litre in August in Gauteng.
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/ 18 October 2006
Former president FW de Klerk congratulated South Africa and the foreign ministry for being elected to the United Nations Security Council. In a statement on Wednesday, De Klerk said the overwhelming vote that South Africa received in the UN’s general assembly was an indication of the esteem in which the country was held in the international community.
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/ 18 October 2006
State-owned PetroSA has begun attaching the assets of oil trader Imvume to recover debt incurred in the Oilgate affair, the parastatal’s chief executive, Sipho Mkhize, said on Wednesday. He told a media briefing in Cape Town that assets worth an estimated R22Â 000 had already been attached from Imvume Management.