Johannesburg businessman Hugh Glenister has instructed his legal team to apply to the Constitutional Court for an order to prevent the government from disbanding the Scorpions. This was after the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday struck his application from the roll, saying it did not have the jurisdiction to decide on the matter.
The government should appoint a commission of inquiry to probe the xenophobic attacks that have claimed at least 50 lives and left thousands of people homeless, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) said on Sunday. UDM president Bantu Holomisa said there was a need for a transparent inquiry that would analyse the attacks and remove suspicions that they were ”deliberate and orchestrated”.
Johannesburg businessman Hugh Glenister will likely hear next week whether his court bid to stop the government from disbanding the Scorpions has succeeded. The Pretoria High Court on Wednesday reserved judgement in his case, with Judge Willie van der Merwe indicating it was likely he would deliver judgement sometime next week.
President Thabo Mbeki abdicated his power in deciding to disband the Scorpions, the Pretoria High Court heard on Wednesday. United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa was in court listening as counsel for his and four other opposition parties argued that Mbeki and the Cabinet took their cue from the African National Congress on a decision to dissolve the Scorpions.
Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri expressed ”great concern” on Wednesday about the suspension of South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) CEO Dali Mpofu and head of news Snuki Zikalala. ”All will be done on [the minister’s] part to ensure the ability of the SABC to carry out its mandate,” she said.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa on Monday asked President Thabo Mbeki to meet South Africa’s ”collective leadership” to discuss three critical matters of concern. In a letter to Mbeki, Holomisa said, firstly, that there was the question of South Africa’s involvement in resolving the tribulations of Zimbabwe.
It is possible that the crime-fighting Scorpions may not be incorporated into the South African Police Service by June, African National Congress national executive committee Siphiwe Nyanda said on Thursday. He was speaking at a seminar hosted by the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.
Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Friday lambasted United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa for ”exploiting” the concerns of Joe Slovo residents. The residents are facing eviction to make way for the flagship N2 Gateway housing project. ”It is unfortunate that far from offering sound advice, he sought to exploit the people’s concerns,” she said.
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/ 27 February 2008
A racist video — featuring University of the Free State employees on their knees eating food that had been urinated upon — was widely condemned by various institutions and political parties on Wednesday. The video, made by members of the Reitz men’s residence on the Bloemfontein campus, came to the attention of the public on Tuesday.
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/ 18 February 2008
The acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Mokotedi Mpshe, on Monday said he was puzzled by statements saying the Scorpions are to be ”disbanded” on the one hand, and ”dissolved” on the other, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
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/ 14 February 2008
”A disgrace”, ”Answers needed” and ”Crushing more than the Scorpions” was how some newspaper editorials reacted on Thursday to Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula’s announcement in Parliament that the Scorpions would be dissolved.
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/ 12 February 2008
South Africa’s elite, FBI-style Scorpions anti-crime unit will be dissolved, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. ”The Scorpions … will be dissolved and the organised crime unit of the police will be phased out and a new, amalgamated unit will be created,” Nqakula told Parliament in Cape Town.
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/ 12 February 2008
The United Democratic Movement councillor for the Metsimaholo municipality in the Free State, who was shot in the face recently, has died in hospital, police confirmed on Tuesday. Isaac Mokgatla (38) was shot in the Tshepiso informal settlement after he collected his two children from a school on January 31.
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/ 8 February 2008
The African National Congress parliamentary caucus was full of praise on Friday for President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, while opposition parties expressed optimism about the future of the Scorpions detective unit following the president’s address.
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/ 2 February 2008
Factions within the African National Congress (ANC) are bringing the entire country into disrepute and causing uncertainty among investors, said United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa on Saturday. He was addressing the UDM provincial council in Standerton, Mpumalanga.
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/ 30 January 2008
South Africans can save electricity by going to sleep earlier and boiling less water, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on Wednesday told a special sitting of Parliament to discuss the power crisis. Nationwide power cuts began again at 3pm on Wednesday, said electricity provider Eskom.
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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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/ 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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/ 11 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is ready to charge police National Commissioner and Interpol chief Jackie Selebi, it said in court papers at the Pretoria High Court on Friday. The NPA said it would charge Selebi with corruption and defeating the course of justice.
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/ 11 January 2008
The infrastructure of the Transkei is collapsing, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa has told President Thabo Mbeki in an open letter. ”When Transkeians supported change … they had a legitimate expectation that misery will, for the first time, be a thing of the past,” he said in the letter.
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/ 3 December 2007
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South African President Thabo Mbeki and his arch-rival, Jacob Zuma, have both officially confirmed they are candidates for party chief of the African National Congress (ANC), their offices said Monday. ”Mr Jacob Zuma signed the ANC nomination form over the weekend in London,” Zuma’s spokesperson, Ranjeni Munusamy, said.
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/ 15 November 2007
Piet Koornhof, who died in a Stellenbosch frail care centre on Monday at the age of 82, following a stroke, was a man of contradictions. Seen as a ”verligte” in successive apartheid-era Cabinets, the posts he accepted carried responsibility for some of apartheid’s most bizarre and inhumane policies.
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/ 1 November 2007
The district of Matatiele moved a step closer to being permanently incorporated into the Eastern Cape after the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday voted by a narrow margin in favour of the controversial Constitution 13th Amendment Bill. Heated debate between opposition parties and the ruling African National Congress preceded the vote.
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/ 31 October 2007
KwaZulu-Natal opposition parties on Wednesday accused the ruling African National Congress of ignoring the wishes of the residents of Matatiele and forging ahead with the district’s incorporation into the Eastern Cape. The Democratic Alliance (DA) accused the ANC of ”totally ignoring the wishes of the people of Matatiele Maluti”.
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/ 24 October 2007
A case of assault has been opened with the police in Vryheid on Tuesday after a daughter of Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi was struck by chairs during a KwaZulu-Natal legislature session. African National Congress and IFP leaders clashed over issues of service delivery moments before the chair throwing occurred.
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/ 23 October 2007
The Inkatha Freedom Party and the Democratic Alliance on Tuesday boycotted a sitting of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) legislature in Vryheid. The boycott follows an incident on Monday when chairs were thrown during the sitting of the legislature, which is being held as part of the KwaZulu-Natal government’s policy of ”taking the government to the people”.
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/ 25 September 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to the Public Protector to complain about the Health Department’s advertisements placed in various newspapers last week to protest against a judge’s failure to interdict the Sunday Times over its reports on the medical records of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
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/ 21 September 2007
Full-colour advertisements placed in a number of national newspapers on Friday by the Health Department defending its Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, were a waste of taxpayers’ money, the Democratic Alliance said. The United Democratic Movement also criticised the advertisements.
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/ 12 September 2007
In the latest twist in the current floor-crossing saga the African National Congress (ANC), despite all its previous protestations about taking firm action against members of Parliament convicted of fraud, on Wednesday accepted into their ranks Craig Morkel, who was convicted of fraud and theft in the Travelgate debacle.
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/ 11 September 2007
The United Independent Front (UIF) lost both its representatives in the National Assembly on Tuesday when they crossed the floor to the African National Congress. Its single proportional seat in the National Council of Provinces could also be in danger after one of its two Western Cape MPLs also defected to the ANC.
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/ 2 September 2007
Uncertainty over the future of Cape Town’s coalition government continued on Sunday as the newly formed National People’s Party claimed to have secured the allegiance of 10 councillors. The coalition, led by the Democratic Alliance, holds power by a majority of 20 in the 210-seat council.