One of South Africa’s most wanted gangsters was arrested on Monday after a botched cash-in-transit heist in the East Rand’s Tsakane township, police said. Christian ”Seuntjie” van Wyk was one of eight people caught at a house in Palm Ridge in connection with the robbery, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Electronic equipment was stolen from Lufthansa in a robbery at Johannesburg International airport, the airline said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Karin Duncker said the armed robbery took place on Sunday. No one was injured in the incident. ”The police are currently investigating the case,” she said.
South Africa will not take up the role of mediator in the peace process between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Pahad said South Africa received a letter from the LRA last week asking it to mediate the process.
One of South Africa’s colourful boxing sons, Dingaan Thobela, will attempt to defy Father Time when he makes a boxing come back on October 27. Thobela, also known as the Rose of Soweto, will be vying to relaunch his career at the expense of Soon Botes, whom he will challenge for the South African light-heavyweight crown in Johannesburg.
South Africa’s skills challenges "manifest especially" in those areas of the economy that need technical and specialised skills, such as engineers in mining as well as in the chemical, electrical, mechanical and nuclear fields, while artisans, geologists and economists are also needed, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica said on Tuesday.
South Africa doesn’t have any plans "at the moment" to ease the continued burden of fuel increases on the South African public and any subsidy through the use of the country’s equalisation fund will quickly dry up, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica told an MP on Tuesday.
Former South Africa captain Lucas Radebe plans to leave his homeland and return to England after failing to secure a job with the 2010 World Cup hosts. The defender, who captained his country at the 1998 and 2002 World Cup finals, said he was going back to the city of Leeds where he spent most of his playing career.
Journalist John Pilger is scathing in his criticism of the ”whiter than white” economic policies of the South African government, which he says have enriched a few blacks at the expense of millions of others. In his new book Freedom Next Time, the combative Australian-born writer says the African National Congress (ANC) sold its soul to corporate bosses over glasses of single-malt whisky.
An elderly blind man who allegedly stole about R4-million with his wife held up proceedings in the Pretoria Commercial Crime Court on Monday because he was drunk. Magistrate Desmond Nair postponed proceedings until after lunch in order for Petrus Engelbrecht (60) to sober up.
The South African Football Association (Safa) has offered a R1,8-million monthly salary to incoming Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Monday. Safa appeared before Parliament on Monday morning to describe its plans to reshape South Africa’s soccer teams for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
![]()
Jacob Zuma would have been ”exonerated” had he been charged alongside his financial adviser Schabir Shaik, Zuma’s defence team claimed in its heads of argument filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday. Had they been able to do so, they would have cross-examined Shaik.
Eskom restored the electricity supply to much of the eastern Free State on Monday after cutting it off earlier in the day for emergency repairs, a spokesperson said. ”The earth wire on one of Eskom’s 88KV high-voltage power lines that was hit by lightning and broken could not be joined and was being removed,” said Chriska van der Merwe.
Former president FW de Klerk on Monday said he respected Adriaan Vlok’s apology to Frank Chikane, and wondered why Vlok’s motives were being questioned. ”The inability of many of his fellow citizens to accept even so sincere and humble an apology is an indication of the profound and unresolved differences over our past,” said De Klerk in a statement.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa development fund and a brand new initiative called Siyenza Manje, which provides hands-on technical expertise to municipalities in a range of disciplines, are designed to overturn the reality of reduced capacity among municipalities, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Monday.
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Lindiwe Hendricks hopes to have a ”lean and mean” department when she leaves office. ”I hope to leave behind a lean and mean and much smaller department that is clearly focused on its role as sector leader for forestry and water,” she told journalists on Monday after her first 90 days in office.
African communication ministers are gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, ahead of the signing of a policy framework agreement for one of the continent’s biggest broadband network projects, the South African government’s news service, BuaNews, reported on Monday.
Learning from previous hosts Germany, South Africa has a wonderful opportunity to ensure that the 2010 Soccer World Cup conforms to the principles of sustainable development, a top United Nations official said on Monday. ”You have to look at multiple benefits,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
If passed by Parliament as it stands, the Health Professions Amendment Bill will effectively make professional medical boards in South Africa arms of the government, the Democratic Alliance warned on Monday. The party is therefore proposing four key amendments to the measure, DA health spokesperson Gareth Morgan told a parliamentary media briefing.
Springbok captain John Smit and New Zealand lock Ali Williams have escaped punishment after being cited for punching during Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test in Pretoria. Williams hit South African lock Johann Muller twice in view of referee Alan Lewis, who took no action.
South African hotel and gaming group Sun International on Monday reported adjusted headline earnings per share (HEPS) of 546c for the year ended June — up 33% from the previous year’s 411c. Its full year diluted HEPS declined to 431c from 500 cents before.
The South African Football Association (Safa) on Monday praised the women’s national team, Banyana Banyana, for winning gold at the Cosafa Women’s Tournament that took place in Zambia last week. Banyana Banyana beat Namibia 3-1 in the final, thus ensuring that the team finished the tournament unbeaten.
Outgoing Auditor General (AG) Shauket Fakie has been appointed to head multinational telecommunications group MTN’s business risk management, the group announced on Monday. Fakie’s term of office as AG is set to end in November, and he will take up his new post on January 1 2007.
It could not have worked out more perfectly for the Premier Soccer League and the sponsors had the SAA Supa8 semifinal draw been calculated by an intricate computer programme than the more standard method on Monday. The outcome produced not one juicy derby but two, with Kaizer Chiefs up against Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns facing SuperSport United.
The South African Council of Churches (SACC) has welcomed an apology by apartheid minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok, but said on Monday it was insufficient. SACC general secretary Eddie Makue commended Vlok, who recently apologised to Director General of the Presidency Frank Chikane for police atrocities committed during his tenure.
A police officer who was shot and wounded by two men in an attack in Lydenburg had one of his attackers arrested when the man was brought to the same hospital, Mpumalanga police said on Monday. Constable Dumisani Mhlanga was walking to his home at midnight on Saturday when he was wounded in his stomach and arm by four armed men, said Captain Leonard Hlathi.
South Africa, which has backed Iran’s right to enrich uranium, says it is contemplating processing its own uranium to boost power generation and envisages building up to six new nuclear reactors. But Minerals and Energy Affiars Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said in a speech that any enrichment of uranium would be pursued within international obligations.
Increased productivity could lift South Africans out of the abyss of the many social ills they face, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said in Johannesburg on Monday. The government is aware of the challenges in uplifting people’s lives, he told a conference on promoting productivity in Africa.
South Africa could face ”a grave constitutional crisis” that could leave judges considering whether they should ”continue on the bench”, the Durban High Court said on Monday. Judge Chris Nicholson was referring to a government statement that it would not to comply with a court order to expedite anti-retroviral treatment at Durban’s Westville prison.
No one seemed happy with the outcome as Kaizer Chiefs drew 2-2 with old nemesis SuperSport United in their opening Premier League game of the season at Loftus on Sunday afternoon. The respective coaches, Ernst Middendorp of Chiefs and Pitso Mosimane of SuperSport, were at each other’s throats like a couple of rottweilers after a tense, turbulent game.
Discussions on scrapping of provinces should not take place behind closed doors, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Sunday. ”We must move very cautiously before we decide to scrap an entire elected system of provincial governments,” said DA leader Tony Leon in a statement.
More than 800 immigration officers at South African airports are to go on strike this week, media reports said on Monday. ”The strike on Friday will adversely affect all points of entry and international airports,” said Manie de Clercq of the Public Servants Association. ”It may be that only a few hundred people, but because of the importance of their jobs, it will have a significant effect.”
Building a non-racial society was one of South Africa’s greatest challenges, but nowhere was it more challenging than in the Western Cape, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday. There was a greater sensitivity to issues of race in the region than anywhere else in the country, he told a media briefing in Cape Town.