South Africa

Probe into road accident pay scam
CAPE TOWN -- The government on Wednesday authorised the Heath Special Investigating Unit to investigate lawyers who defraud road accident victims of compensation due to them from the Road Accident Fund. The investigation was ordered following num...

Talk of Mandela as big fight promoter
JOHANNESBURG -- The Madiba magic is about to hit the bigtime boxing ring soon ...or is it? Panos Eliades, the promoter of British heavyweight boxer Lennox Lewis, whose fight at the weekend with American Evander Holyfield ended in a controversial...

Domestics want minimum R1200 a month
JOHANNESBURG -- Domestic wor-kers would not pay tax if the government legislated a minimum wage of R1200 a month for them, according to the South African Revenue Service (SARS). With the 1999/2000 tax-free threshold for people younger than 65 cur...

Farmer shot dead by intruders
WITBANK, Mpumalanga -- An Ogies farmer died of his injuries after he and his wife were attacked by three intruders early yesterday morning. Johannes Harmse, 73, and his wife Bettie were attacked by three men who entered through their bedroom wind...

1775 police firearms lost, stolen in 1998
CAPE TOWN -- A total of 29694 firearms were reported stolen last year, of which 1775 were either lost or stolen from the police, Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi said yesterday. Only 1764 firearms were recovered during the same peri...

Community service for teachers debated
CAPE TOWN -- Community service for teachers, along the lines of that performed by newly-graduated doctors, is being considered in an investigation by unions and the national and provincial education departments, MPs heard this week. The national ...

Heath criticism not on says PAC
BLOEMFONTEIN -- The verbal attacks on Judge Willem Heath by two cabinet ministers gave the impression that the ruling party wanted to suppress information on corruption on the eve of the national and provincial elections, the Free State chairman o...

Police target 27000 illegal arms
CAPE TOWN -- The South African Police Service remained convinced that if it could remove most illegal firearms from circulation, this would make a major impact on serious crime, National Police Commissioner George Fivaz said yesterday. Briefing...

Y2K holidays may be extended
CAPE TOWN -- The Reserve Bank has asked the government to consider declaring December 31 this year and January 3 next year public holidays. This would be to give companies and banks leeway to iron out computer problems arising from the changeover ...

Parties rally to 'misquoted' Heath unit
CAPE TOWN -- The Heath Special Investigating Unit said yesterday it had never claimed the government was not interested in fighting corruption. Its statement follows last week's criticisms of the unit by Ccabinet ministers, including a warning f...

Mandela's nephew to start NNP branch
CAPE TOWN -- President Nelson Mandela's nephew, Reverend Daliwonga Mandela, intended establishing a branch of the New National Party at Motherwell, Port Elizabeth, NNP MP Manie Schoeman said yesterday. Giving notice of a motion in the National...

Omar pays tribute to media
CAPE TOWN -- Justice Minister Dullah Omar yesterday paid tribute to the media for their role in exposing corruption. South Africa no longer had a media that was muzzled, and lawmakers respected its independence, he said in debate on his budget ...

House passes Broadcast Bill
CAPE TOWN -- The controversial Broadcasting Bill was approved by the National Assembly yesterday, after attempts by opposition parties for a last-minute opportunity to air their views on the matter were turned down by Deputy Speaker Baleka Kgosi...

SA peace exercise biggest in Africa
PRETORIA -- The largest ever peacekeeping exercise in Africa is to be held in South Africa next month, the government announced yesterday. It would cost R20 million and would involve at least 26 countries and 4 500 people, the planning director o...

Prisoners clean up streets
PRETORIA -- A new drive to put prisoners to work began here yesterday with 63 inmates cleaning up part of Potgieter Street. Correctional Services spokesman Rudi Potgieter said this was the first of a number of similar projects countrywide. Corre...

Decision today on pupil's expulsion
PRETORIA -- The Mafikeng High Court yesterday postponed to today an urgent application by Vryburg High School to set aside a decision against the expulsion of a Grade 9 pupil accused of stabbing a matric boy. The school is seeking a review of the...

Youths rape women, molest girl
CAPE TOWN -- Two house mothers were gang-raped and a 13-year-old girl sexually molested by three youths who broke into an SOS Children's Village house in Thornton, near here, early yesterday morning, police said. Superintendent Nina Kirsten said ...

Bifsa denies subsidy houses' poor quality
JOHANNESBURG -- The Building Industries Federation of South Africa (Bifsa) has repudiated media reports that more than half of the 600000 subsidy houses built for the poor since 1994 were sub-standard. Bifsa said the claims had no foundation. Bi...

2-5pc land suitable for reform
CAPE TOWN -- Only between two to five percent (1,3 million hectares) of the 25,5 million hectares of land owned by the State was potentially suitable and available for land reform purposes, Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom said yesterday. ...

Mandela, Gaddafi in talks
CAPE TOWN -- President Nelson Mandela will hold talks in Tripoli today with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi about developments in the Lockerbie case, and would then address a rally in the Libyan capital, presidential aide Parks Mankahlana said yeste...