South Africa

Lethal bootleg alcohol on sale
CAPE TOWN -- The liquor industry has lashed out at ''bootleg bandits'' playing with consumers' lives. The industry yesterday urged consumers to stick to well-known brands of brandy, cane and vodka in the light of the latest bootleg booze expose. ...

Black matrics compensated
JOHANNESBURG -- The marks of matric students whose mother-tongue was an African language would be increased to compensate for having to write examinations in a second language, SA Certification Board spokesman Fred Calitz said yesterday. The move...

Cape Town has best airport
CAPE TOWN -- Cape Town International Airport has been awarded the World Travel Award as this year's leading airport in Africa. The airport's regional general manager, Hennie Taljaard, attributed the achievement to the airport's dedication to worl...

Musician falls to death at Hout Bay
CAPE TOWN -- A 28-year-old man fell 100m to his death while hiking with a friend in the mountains at Hout Bay near Cape Town yesterday. Police Inspector Charlie Connor identified the man as Mr Branko Ignaz, a Yugoslavian citizen who had been in t...

Pretoria issues malaria alert
PRETORIA -- The Health Department yesterday warned people intending to visit malaria risk areas during the school holidays to take the necessary precautions, saying there had been a sharp increase in the number of people who contracted the disease...

Mbeki's ex-spokesman jailed
JOHANNESBURG -- Deputy President Thabo Mbeki's former spokesman, Thami Ntenteni, was yesterday sentenced to a total of seven years in prison. A Randburg magistrate sentenced Ntenteni to five years' imprisonment on a charge of culpable homicide an...

SAB for London listing
JOHANNESBURG -- South African Breweries (SAB) announced yesterday it was to seek a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange in March. The decision follows hard on the heels of similar action by South African industrial and mining giant Anglo ...

Mbeki denies pushing out ministers
PRETORIA -- Deputy President Thabo Mbeki was not involved in the decision of three ANC ministers to make themselves unavailable for election, his office said yesterday. The ANC confirmed earlier this week that Transport Minister Mac Maharaj, Educ...

ANC leaders to meet
JOHANNESBURG -- The African National Congress' national executive committee will meet in Johannesburg early next week to discuss domestic and international political situations, the ANC said yesterday. ANC spokesman Thabo Masebe said the meeting ...

Amnesty bid by IFP, MK members next week
PIETERMARITZBURG -- The TRC amnesty committee will next week hear applications from five former members of the IFP-aligned self protection units (SPUs) and a former MK cadre for attacks that killed at least 27 people in KwaZulu-Natal in the early ...

Ex-NIS chiefs take TRC to court over final report
CAPE TOWN -- Western Cape director-general Niel Barnard, in a high court application for a review of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) findings, has characterised himself and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) as peace brokers who...

No arrests yet in cocaine bust
PRETORIA -- Police forensic scientists would take until the end of the month to extract between 150 and 180kg of cocaine discovered hidden in 11 600 bottles of liquor in City Deep, Johannesburg on Tuesday. Inspector Jason Naidoo, an analys...

UK helps protect African fish
CAPE TOWN -- The British government yesterday said it would commit about R200 million to supporting a code of conduct for responsible fisheries in Africa. The announcement was made by UK International Development Minister George Foulkes, who is a...

I will stay in South Africa -- Ginwala
CAPE TOWN -- National Assembly Speaker Frene Ginwala yesterday denied rumours that she was considering a post with the United Nations saying they were devoid of all truth. "I have no intention of leaving South Africa again," she said in a stateme...

Ban on Sanlam shares for tax dodgers extended
PRETORIA -- The South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced in Pretoria yesterday that a ban on certain tax debtors receiving free shares as part of the demutualisation of insurance giant Sanlam has been extended. On November 27 the Cape of Go...