Judgement in the bail application of senior Scorpions advocate Portia Kgantsi was reserved in the Randburg Regional Court until next Monday. For the prosecution, advocate Herman Broodryk on Monday argued that the severity of charges against Kgantsi warranted the state’s opposition to bail.
The Free State Rugby Union offices in Bloemfontein have been swamped by hundreds of Cheetahs and Blue Bulls supporters since early on Monday morning trying to get tickets for the Currie Cup final over the coming weekend. ”The phones actually started to ring on Saturday just after the Cheetah-Sharks game,” Piet de Necker, spokesperson for the Free State Cheetahs Company, said.
Police arrested 22 people during a protest against increased taxi fares in Pietermaritzburg’s Copesville suburb on Monday. Initial reports said that tear gas was used to disperse protesters. However, there were also unconfirmed reports that stun grenades and rubber bullets were used by police to disperse the estimated 1Â 000-strong crowd.
Veteran politician Helen Suzman is determined to get back on her feet again unaided after a recent bad fall. ”I’m really doing very well, I think. I can’t manage without a crutch yet but I’m determined I will soon,” said Suzman on Monday. She was at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg for the launch of the book Mandela: The Authorised Portrait.
South Africa has condemned the underground nuclear test in North Korea and has called on that country to abandon its nuclear programme, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. ”The South African government is deeply concerned at the reported nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” said foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
President Thabo Mbeki had struck ”a cheap and cowardly blow” against South African Communist Party leader Blade Nzimande, the Young Communist League told a news conference in Johannesburg on Monday. The league’s secretary general, Buti Manamela, was responding to Mbeki’s speech to the ANC’s national executive committee meeting over the weekend.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is to pay a birthday visit to Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the Department of Health said on Monday. Tshabalala-Msimang is spending her 66th birthday in the private Folateng section of the Johannesburg Hospital after suffering from a lung infection.
South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) — which runs about half of the municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal and holds seats in the African National Congress-led government in that province — has warned against ”the peril of complacence” in face of the danger of South Africa descending into a one-party state.
A new team from Britain’s Royal Navy is due in South Africa next month to help train South African Navy officers to work in new ships and submarines, the Chief of the South African Navy, Vice-Admiral Johannes Mudimu, said on Monday. The United Kingdom’s First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, is currently on a week-long official visit in South Africa.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni will discuss the proposed quotas on Chinese clothing imports on Monday, Cosatu said. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the meeting would take place at 6.30pm at an undisclosed venue behind closed doors.
The South African Police Service’s claim that all Gauteng police stations have a family violence, child abuse and sexual offences (FCS) officer is ”a total untruth”, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. A DA survey showed the SAPS was misleading the public about the closure of police family and child violence units.
A grade 10 pupil was found stabbed to death on the sports fields of a Johannesburg school on Monday morning, said police. The 19-year-old had been stabbed four times, said Captain Schalk Bornman. His body was found at 7am by fellow pupils at Forest High School, in Forest Hill, southern Johannesburg.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has asked all its elected members in provincial legislatures and Parliament to lodge letters of resignation, the Mercury reported on Monday. It said this was aimed at rooting out ”dead wood”, and the letters would only be activated in cases where representatives had failed to perform.
If he had the money, he would sue the Sunday Times for the story ”ANC chief in R50m get-rich-quick deal”, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) head of the Presidency Smuts Ngonyama said on Monday. Speaking on Tim Modise’s show on Cape Talk 567/Radio 702, he said: ”I see they don’t say how many shares were given to me and how many shares were sold … ”
The case against alleged serial rapist Mongezi Samuel Jinxela (36) has been postponed to November 6 to allow time for further investigation. Jinxela, who is accused of raping 70 women between 1994 and 2004, appeared in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday. He was also facing charges of robbery, indecent assault, assault and of kidnapping.
The impression that science is only for the rich, the clever or the select few should be dismantled, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Monday. Speaking at the official launch of the Mondi Education Centre at Piet Retief, she said of the 748Â 000 grade 12 pupils now starting their matric exams, only 48Â 102 had enrolled for mathematics on higher grade.
Zimbabwe has set up an intellectual desk tasked with reversing the brain drain affecting many sectors of the economy, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Monday. Its website said the desk, under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, was expected to start operating early next month.
A self-employed man involved in Oprah Winfrey’s philosophy of uplifting the youth was released on R5Â 000 bail on Monday on a charge of jeopardising the safety of an aircraft flight. Mncedisi Eric Maluleka apparently told a member of the flight crew ”What will you do if me and my friend hijack this plane?”
South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande criticised President Thabo Mbeki on Monday for ”personalising issues” instead of dealing with the real problems. In an interview with South African Broadcasting Corporation radio, Nzimande said the president’s remarks were causing unnecessary stress within the tripartite alliance.
Complaints against Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe for working outside his judicial functions would come under scrutiny again this week, media reports said on Monday. Hlophe and his relationship with Oasis Crescent Property Fund Managers hit the headlines this year.
President Thabo Mbeki has accused South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande of ”extraordinary arrogance”, it emerged on Sunday. It was this which had led him to ”openly despise” the African National Congress, Mbeki noted in his political overview to the ANC’s National Executive Committee meeting held over the weekend.
Cape Town, the undisputed star of South Africa’s tourist industry, is flaunting its majestic mountains and white beaches in a bid to play a leading role in international movie-making. Hollywood may also have its hills and ocean surf, but the sheer cost of shooting in tinsel town means that producers on a tight budget are having to look further and wider to find their ideal location.
Regaining his rightful place as Bafana Bafana captain, Aaron Mokoena was appropriately the instrument whereby South African soccer regained its pride at a packed Independence Stadium in Lusaka on Sunday afternoon. The burly defender forged upfield for a free-kick from Delron Buckley and scored the only goal of the African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of South Africa’s largest black opposition party, has warned an ethnic war could be started by supporters of former deputy president Jacob Zuma complaining of an anti-Zulu conspiracy. South African President Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma last year after he was implicated in a corruption scandal, but the charges were thrown out of court last month.
A fire in Fish Hoek, south of Cape Town, left about 600 people homeless on Sunday morning, Cape Town disaster management said. About 150 shacks were destroyed in the fire, said spokesperson Johan Minnie. ”Fire fighting was severely hampered by strong south-easterly winds, but we managed to put out the fire by 4.15am.”
Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, the conscience of South Africa, celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday with a gala dinner attended by 1 200 guests, including former president Nelson Mandela. The celebrations for his birthday have lasted for weeks. On Friday, he was guest of honour at a ceremony at the University of South Africa.
African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe has no interest in becoming South African president, the Sunday Times reported. In an interview with the newspaper, Motlanthe said he had no ambitions to succeed President Thabo Mbeki when he quits in 2009.
The Blue Bulls proved that they are South Africa’s premier domestic rugby team when they produced a near flawless game of rugby to take them to their fifth consecutive Currie Cup final after beating Western Province 45-30 at Loftus on Saturday.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who became the conscience of South Africa during apartheid, celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday surrounded by the country’s new elite. But the cleric is showing no sign of slipping quietly into retirement, spending his birthday morning encouraging students in Mozambique to have questioning minds before rushing back to Johannesburg for a dinner in his honour.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was in a stable condition after contracting a lung infection, but would spend the rest of the weekend in hospital, her spokesperson said on Saturday. ”She is taking her medication, she is stable, but we are not expecting her to be discharged this weekend,” said Sibani Mngadi.
Gauteng provincial minister of education Angie Motshekga is to apply for a court interdict prohibiting members of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union from striking, her department said on Friday. If the application is refused, the planned strike will affect examinations in the Soweto area, said spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi.
President Thabo Mbeki has expressed disappointment at the poor turnout for the centenary celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha (non-violent resistance) in Durban last weekend, saying the truth will out. Writing in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress (ANC) website on Friday, Mbeki referred to the historic visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.