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/ 24 January 2008
Why, in God’s name, do the Scorpions need to be dissolved into the South African Police Service?
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/ 22 January 2008
The government will look at ways in which members of the Scorpions performing police functions can be absorbed into the police, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The African National Congress has decided that such members of the Directorate of Special Operations should be absorbed into the South African Police Service.
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/ 22 January 2008
Scorpions investigator Ivor Powell was granted R1 000 bail in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. His case was remanded to April 29 pending the outcome of his blood alcohol tests. He was arrested on Tuesday night, apparently in the company of alleged Americans gang boss Igshaan Davids.
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/ 22 January 2008
A top Scorpions investigator is expected to appear in court on Wednesday morning on charges relating to driving under the influence of alcohol, Talk Radio 702 reported on Tuesday. Senior Scorpion Ivor Powell was apparently arrested with fugitive gang boss Igshaan Davids in Woodstock, on Tuesday evening.
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/ 21 January 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) is getting rid of the Scorpions in order to protect ANC members from corruption charges, according to the leader of the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille. Zille said on Monday that besides the seven convicted criminals on the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), six NEC members are currently the subject of investigations.
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/ 20 January 2008
It has not been decided whether African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe will become South Africa’s deputy president, the party’s secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, said on Sunday at the close of the ANC national executive committee’s meeting in Midrand.
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/ 19 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has come out in support of the chief prosecutor of Pretoria’s decision to withdraw charges against advocate Gerrie Nel, head of the Scorpions in Gauteng, it said on Friday. The Pretoria Regional Court this week withdrew charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice against Nel.
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/ 18 January 2008
There is a ”rising tide” of corruption in the South African Police Service [SAPS], Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille alleged on Friday. ”Minister of Safety and Security [Charles Nqakula] and the leadership of the SAPS need to find the political will to acknowledge the grave threat that police corruption poses to our country,” she said in her weekly newsletter.
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/ 16 January 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has requested an urgent meeting with President Thabo Mbeki to discuss what she calls ”the growing perception of a constitutional and moral crisis” in South Africa. ”The implication of the police national commissioner and the ruling party’s presidential candidate in corruption cases is but one reason for this perception.”
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/ 16 January 2008
The South African Police Service has accused the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of trying to obstruct the probe into Gauteng Scorpions head Gerrie Nel. This comes a day after the Pretoria Regional Court withdrew charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice against Nel.
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/ 14 January 2008
The Democratic Alliance on Monday asked the Independent Complaints Directorate to investigate the arrest of Gauteng Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel. This came after charges of corruption and defeating the administration of justice against Nel were withdrawn in the Pretoria Regional Court.
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/ 14 January 2008
South Africa’s embattled police force on Monday sought to reassure the crime-ridden country after a weekend that saw its police chief placed on extended leave in a widening corruption scandal. The South African Police Service was under intense public scrutiny before it was disclosed last week that Jackie Selebi would face charges of corruption and defeating the course of justice.
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/ 14 January 2008
Eleven people who were allegedly carrying out illegal abortions were arrested in central Johannesburg, the city said on Monday. City officials and metro police came upon a makeshift hospital of horrors on Friday when they were trying to clean central Johannesburg of ”poster pollution”.
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/ 14 January 2008
Charges against Gerrie Nel, the head of the Directorate of Special Operations, or the Scorpions, in Gauteng, were withdrawn in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday. ”After careful consideration of the evidence in the docket, the decision was made to withdraw the charges,” chief prosecutor Matric Lupondo said during Nel’s brief appearance.
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/ 13 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has been granted an extended leave of absence, President Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday. Speaking at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, Mbeki said Selebi had requested the leave himself. This follows Friday’s revelations by the National Prosecuting Authority that it was ready to charge Selebi with corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering.
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/ 11 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi is to be charged with corruption and defeating the course of justice after his application to prevent the National Prosecuting Authority from prosecuting him was denied in the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Judge Nico Coetzee said Selebi’s application bore no merit.
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/ 10 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) made a ”concerted effort” to undermine investigations into Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel and prevent his prosecution, Gauteng police said on Thursday. In a statement, Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said prosecutors had refused to look at evidence presented to them in September, which implicated Nel in criminal activity.
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/ 28 December 2007
Rescue services are still searching for the Cessna 210 light aircraft that went missing on Wednesday, said South African Search and Rescue Organisation head Charles Norval on Friday. ”We haven’t had success, but are still searching. The rescue team is following all the leads,” Norval said.
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/ 13 December 2007
A bomb scare disrupted proceedings at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court for about two hours on Thursday. Police spokesperson Captain Paul Ramaloko said chief magistrate Desmond Nair was informed of a call, warning about a bomb, just after 10am. Several police units reacted and arrived at the scene.
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/ 13 December 2007
National, provincial and local government departments, together with state agencies in the various provinces, will work together to manage congestion at the country’s busiest land border posts over the festive season, the border-control operational coordinating committee said on Thursday.
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/ 7 December 2007
The sheer number of crimes being committed in South Africa is still at an unacceptable level, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said on Friday. The decrease in reported crime, however, is encouraging, it said. The rights body said its finding on the unacceptable level of crime is ”exacerbated by the massive under-reporting of crime”.
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/ 7 December 2007
Serial rapist Mongezi Jinxela was found guilty in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday on 220 charges of rape, kidnapping, robbery and assault, the National Prosecuting Authority said. Spokesperson Tlali Tlali said Justice George Maluleka found Jinxela guilty of raping 57 women — making him one of the country’s worst serial rape offenders.
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/ 6 December 2007
The South African Police Service (SAPS) was not involved in reviewing the arrest warrant for its National Commissioner, Jackie Selebi, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Thursday. However, he confirmed that the warrant was indeed the subject of review.
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/ 6 December 2007
Opposition parties have lamented the increases in crime detailed in the latest statistics for April to September, which were released on Thursday. It was deplorable and made a mockery of Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula’s assurances that the crime rate was under control, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Diane Kohler-Barnard said.
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/ 6 December 2007
President Thabo Mbeki took issue with the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) report on South Africa, which suggested that there was an unacceptably high level of violent crime in the country. This emerged when the APRM report was unceremoniously released as part of a post-Cabinet media briefing at the Union Buildings on Thursday.
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/ 6 December 2007
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s office did not want to comment on the plea bargaining and 10-year suspended sentence for drug trafficking handed down to Glenn Agliotti on Wednesday. Spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said: ”You must have noticed it was a Scorpions’ case so you will have to phone them.”
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/ 3 December 2007
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has declined to discuss the withdrawal of its protection services for South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande. ”It’s not something we can discuss in the public domain,” said national police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Vish Naidoo on Monday.
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/ 30 November 2007
Fifteen people were arrested during a crime-fighting operation at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Friday, said the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa). ”Fifteen people have so far been arrested and 10 vehicles have been impounded,” said Acsa spokesperson Tasniem Patel.
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/ 28 November 2007
A ferry boat carrying more than 70 people capsized on Roodeplaat Dam, north of Pretoria, on Wednesday afternoon, Tshwane emergency services said. Spokesperson Johan Pieterse said one passenger suffered a serious leg laceration and was taken to hospital. However, there were conflicting reports on the number of injured.
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/ 27 November 2007
More than 28 000 animals were stolen from farms around the country over the past 18 months, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. Less than 40% of the stock — including game, cattle, sheep and goats — was recovered, DA rural safety spokesperson Ryno King said in a statement.
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/ 24 November 2007
Western Cape Premier Ibrahim Rasool on Saturday met emergency personnel after a killer storm left two dead and damage estimated at around R600-million. An official of the devastated Eden district municipality said storms that ravaged the Cape have caused damage estimated between R500-million and R600-million to the Poort area.
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/ 14 November 2007
The ongoing strike that has seen construction workers down tools at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium could spread to other 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums that are under construction, as well as the high-speed Gautrain. Meanwhile, about 600 striking construction workers marched to Durban’s City Hall on Wednesday.