Allegations of torture highlights the importance of the new national preventive mechanism and the need for independent custody monitoring
The returning police minister has hit the ground running by spending his first day in office paying respect to fallen comrades
The police dodged blame at the inquiry, trying to absolve themselves from responsibility for failure to solve the almost 100 murders
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/ 14 January 2009
”Blue light” VIP escort Hlanganani Nxumalo was on Wednesday ordered to appear in the Camperdown Regional Court on February 13.
A wave of xenophobic attacks spread through Johannesburg townships on Monday. Mobs beat foreigners and set some ablaze in scenes reminiscent of apartheid-era violence. A total of 22 people have now been killed in the violence directed at immigrants around Johannesburg, which began a week ago.
As Zimbabwe’s opposition mulls its options over whether to contest a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe, refugees in South Africa continue to suffer at the hands of the South African police. On April 25, policemen raided a block of flats in Pageview, west of the city-centre, which is home to 15 Zimbabwean refugees.
A British mercenary awaiting trial in Equatorial Guinea for leading a failed 2004 coup has said the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was involved in the plot, the public prosecutor said on Sunday. Jose Olo said former British special forces officer Simon Mann had testified that Mark Thatcher knew all about the scheme to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, has married again in a secret ceremony in Gibraltar, according to a London Sunday newspaper. Thatcher (54) married Sarah Russell (42) after a three-year courtship, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
A South African woman has accused Indian peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo of raping her while on leave, a media report said on Tuesday. SA police detained three Indian army officers working with United Nations peacekeeping forces in the Central African nation on March 12.
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/ 19 February 2008
Seven people were injured on Tuesday when riot-squad officers fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at squatters resisting eviction from a housing project in Delft near Cape Town, South African police said. The violence erupted as several hundred squatters tried to prevent contractors from loading their scant belongings on to removal trucks.
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/ 31 January 2008
South African police have raided a church that was a sanctuary for Zimbabwean refugees, arresting scores of suspected illegal immigrants, the South African Broadcasting Corporation said on Thursday. The raid occurred at about midnight on Wednesday at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, which has become a virtual refugee camp for those fleeing Zimbabwe.
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/ 17 January 2008
Health authorities on Wednesday reported the first known cases of virtually untreatable tuberculosis in Botswana. The Health Ministry said there were two cases of so-called extremely drug resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, as well as 100 cases of the slightly more manageable multidrug-resistant TB, or MDR-TB.
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/ 17 December 2007
Uncertainty over the prosecution of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi was not in anyone’s best interest, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said. The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) spokesperson Tlali Tlali said on Sunday that a decision had been made on whether Selebi ”has a case to answer”.
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/ 27 November 2007
The trial of the Swiss design engineer Daniel Geiges, who was allegedly part of an international nuclear smuggling ring, was postponed on Tuesday because he was too ill to stand trial. The Pretoria High Court was earlier told that Geiges (69) had been diagnosed with cancer of the rectum and was undergoing ”severe treatment”.
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/ 21 November 2007
A police officer was killed and eight others seriously injured in a South African Air Force helicopter crash in the Free State on Wednesday, the military said. Seven other people suffered minor injuries. The Oryx helicopter was carrying 19 people when it crashed at about 11.40am near the Lesotho border.
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/ 6 November 2007
More South African police officers were killed in the 11 years since the end of apartheid than in the previous period, a new study that highlights one of the world’s highest crime rates showed on Tuesday. The South African Institute of Race Relations said 1 894 police officers were killed between 1995 and 2005.
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/ 31 October 2007
South African police are investigating alleged abuses at billionaire United States television magnate Oprah Winfrey’s all-girl leadership academy, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. Rapport newspaper has reported a matron at the school allegedly fondled one of the pupils, and grabbed a girl by the throat and threw her against a wall.
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/ 24 October 2007
All 54 miners trapped by fire underground at a gold mine in Western Australia have been rescued, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Wednesday. The ABC’s website said all 54 had been recovered and local authorities had begun an investigation into the incident.
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/ 24 October 2007
Thirty-seven of 54 miners trapped by fire underground at an Australian gold mine have been rescued, local media reported on Wednesday. There were no injuries and the mine’s rescue team were expected to have the remaining workers back up to the surface within hours.
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/ 24 October 2007
A total of 54 miners were sheltering in emergency chambers underground after a fire broke out at an Australian gold mine on Wednesday. There were no reported injuries and mine officials said they were working to bring the miners to the surface.
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/ 12 October 2007
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has pledged his full cooperation with a panel of experts named on Friday to review a criminal probe against him. ”As an individual, I will fully cooperate with the members of the panel as announced … by the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority],” Selebi said in a statement.
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/ 12 October 2007
The names of the panel expected to review the case against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi were released on Friday. The Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Moktedi Mpshe, said the panel would be made up of Frank Dutton, advocate Mbuyiseli Madlanga, Peter Goss and advocate Shamila Batohi.
South African police said on Wednesday they believed a serial killer was responsible for the deaths of eight women whose bodies were found dumped in sugar-cane fields on the KwaZulu-Natal. A police spokesperson for the Umzinto area said that while a forensics expert had not yet made his findings public, the most recent discovery of three bodies suggested a serial killer was at work.
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/ 21 September 2007
The trial of Swiss design engineer Daniel Geiges, who was allegedly part of an international nuclear smuggling ring, was postponed on Friday because he is too ill to stand trial. The court was told that Geiges (69) had been diagnosed with cancer of the rectum and was undergoing ”severe treatment”.
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/ 16 September 2007
South African police traded gunfire with angry crowds on Sunday as they arrested 180 suspects in two operations in a crackdown on crime including murder and drug-trafficking, state-run media said. Police returned fire after they were shot at from a crowd of onlookers during an operation in which 25 people were arrested for public violence at Mankweng in Limpopo, it was reported.
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/ 3 September 2007
Police officers who reportedly took part in a meat free-for-all near King William’s Town last month have been cleared from any charges. The incident followed an accident in which a truck loaded with pigs overturned. Onlookers apparently then killed the pigs and police officers at the scene allegedly did not take any action.