South Africa

The Mail & Guardian will ”vigorously” contest any court order barring publication of an article on MTN chief executive officer Maanda Manyatshe, the newspaper’s editor, Ferial Haffajee, said on Friday. ”The M&G is concerned that dangerous precedent could be set should procedure be exploited to obtain de facto gags, even when the merits have not been argued,” she said.

President Thabo Mbeki and Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma arrived in Cuba late on Thursday night for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit meeting of heads of state and government. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the president’s visit to Cuba was ”to effectively position NAM to play a meaningful role in global affairs”.

A Pretoria police inspector, who has received death threats since arresting an African National Congress (ANC) ward official from Mamelodi in August, says she will continue her investigation despite the constant harassment. ”It’s all about politics,” Inspector Louise Claasen told the Mail & Guardian Online. ”I will carry on the investigation.”

The South African casino industry expressed puzzlement on Thursday at South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni’s accusation that they were not helping to catch money launderers. Casinos actively assisted the authorities in apprehending money launderers, said South African Casino Association chief executive Derek Auret.

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) on Thursday dismissed allegations of vote rigging during the union’s elections earlier this month. ”Counting of ballots by Eisa [Electoral Institute of South Africa] officials commenced at midday on September 2, with observers present at all times.

Youth leaders barred from entering Zimbabwe this week plan to protest against President Robert Mugabe whenever he visits South Africa. Addressing a press conference in Johannesburg on Thursday, they said the powers in Zimbabwe appeared to be divided.

Cash-in-transit heist robbers are using casinos to launder stolen money, South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni told businessmen in Johannesburg on Thursday. This was just one of the many issues that kept him awake at night, he said in reply to a question from Cyril Ramaphosa at a business breakfast.

Wouter Basson says he has no moral obligation to resign from the South African military after it emerged he is still being paid despite not having worked since 1999. ”I have no moral or other obligation to resign the post. I did not suspend myself,” he said on Thursday.

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is ”working around the clock” to re-arrest 13 accused who were freed when a Kimberley magistrate refused to work after 4pm, the department said on Wednesday. ”At the moment our priority is to get the 13 re-arrested or to summons them back to court,” said Rodney Isaacs, a chief director in the department.

A group of South African youth leaders were deported from Zimbabwe after trying to enter the country on a fact-finding mission, the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum said on Wednesday. This was in spite of having spoken to Harare’s Youth Development Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and having informed the Zimbabwe High Commission in South Africa of their intended visit, read a statement.

The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) has never called for Jacob Zuma to be president of South Africa, the union’s general secretary, Randall Howard, said on Wednesday. ”We have never spoken about comrade Jacob Zuma for president. This [Satawu] is not an African National Congress structure.

The apartheid-era operative dubbed ”Dr Death” for his alleged role in plots to murder black activists is still on the South African military payroll, officials confirmed on Wednesday. Wouter Basson receives a monthly salary of R50 000 from the South African National Defence Force, even though he was suspended from the force in 1999, they said.

Axed spy boss Billy Masetlha was on Wednesday served with a criminal summons at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported. His lawyer, Imraan Haffegee, said Masetlha was not arrested, but summoned to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on October 20.

Seven of the 18 people arrested for the Jeppestown shootout after a supermarket robbery in June appeared in the Roodepoort Regional Court on Wednesday. However, their bail application was postponed until October 4 as one of their lawyers was ill. Four police officers and eight suspected robbers died in the bloody shootout.