South Africa

Youth groups in conflict over Aids conference
PRETORIA -- Two major youth organisations with a mostly shared constituency are at loggerheads over an international Aids conference planned for Durban later this year. The South African Youth Council (SAYC) yesterday said it had not been consul...

Mandela cartoon exhibition opens on Robben island
CAPE TOWN -- An exhibition of original cartoons featuring former President Nelson Mandela will open on Robben Island today. The exhibition is a tribute by cartoonists to Mandela on the 10th anniversary of his release from prison. It will run unt...

Family murder fugitive meekly gives himself up
PRINCE ALFRED HAMLET -- After holding a farming community in the grip of fear for more than 24 hours, Johnny Jooste, 35, the man suspected of killing seven people in the Koue Bokkeveld in the Western Cape, eventually walked out from under a tree ...

Medinfo: No risk of Congo fever epidemic
JOHANNESBURG -- A Congo fever epidemic was unlikely despite the fact that two people had died in South Africa during the past two weeks after contracting the highly infectious disease, Medinfo spokesman Dr Steven Toovey said yesterday. Reacting t...

Truck drivers strike over wages
JOHANNESBURG -- Businesses in Gauteng ground to a halt yesterday as more than 1000 truck drivers embarked on a strike over a wage dispute with their employers. The striking workers, allied to the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) and fiv...

Editors required to give written undertakings SAHRC reconsiders subpoenas
JOHANNESBURG -- The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) took a step back yesterday by indicating it was prepared to withdraw subpoenas served on more than 30 editors and journalists to appear before its forthcoming inquiry into racism in the media....

Gold smuggling ring busted
JOHANNESBURG -- Nine kilograms of gold, worth over R500000, were seized and 22 employees of Grootvlei Gold mine arrested after a smuggling syndicate was bust in Springs yesterday, said police spokesman Captain Andy Pieke. Two firearms and R30000 ...

US envoy, two guests attacked in Free State
MASERU -- Both the South African police in the Free State and the American Embassy in Pretoria yesterday refused to divulge details on the weekend attack on the administrative secretary of the US embassy here, Michael Breeding, and two female gues...

1999 stats show crime up, murder down
PRETORIA -- Crime increased slightly last year, compared with 1998, the Safety and Security Department said yesterday. There was an increase of 4,7percent in the volume of cases reported during 1999, compared with the previous year, a department...

Heath appointment 'unconstitutional'
PRETORIA -- The appointment of Judge Willem Heath as head of a special investigating unit was unconstitutional because it violated the requirement that the judiciary should be separate from and independent of the other branches of government, the ...

Itch attack closes schools
BLOEMFONTEIN -- Fourteen Free State schools were closed for fumigation yesterday in an "itching phenomenon", which has seen hundreds of children flocking to provincial hospitals and clinics since last week. The schools would remain closed today,...

Cosatu plans May stayaway over job losses
JOHANNESBURG -- The Congress of SA Trade Unions has tabled its final notice to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) of its intention to hold a national 24-hour work stayaway on May 10 to protest against job losses. Nedlac...

'Devilish' CT dean apologises, keeps job
CAPE TOWN -- A bid to have the Anglican Dean of St George's Cathedral, Rowan Smith, resign, after his "devil's tail" appearance in an advertisement screened at a recent Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, has been withdrawn. The Archbishop of Cape Tow...

MPs 'may be redeployed'
CAPE TOWN -- The African National Congress would consider all levels of leadership, including MPs and even Cabinet ministers, for local government posts, ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said on Monday. On whether some Cabinet ministers had been earm...

Reporter: 9 officers beat me up
CAPE TOWN -- Nine policemen appeared in the Mitchell's Plain Regional Court yesterday on charges of assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and attempts to defeat the ends of justice. It was alleged before Magistrate ML Marais that po...

Plett woman, 87, attacked
CAPE TOWN -- An 87-year-old Plettenberg Bay woman was recovering in the Knysna hospital with internal injuries after being assaulted and robbed by five men in her farmhouse on Sunday. Inspector Rassie du Toit said yesterday that Mrs Julie Everart...

Manuel urged to slash personal tax in Budget
CAPE TOWN -- Opposition parties and business yesterday urged Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to slash personal income tax in his national Budget announcement tomorrow. The New National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party called for a five percent ...

MPs: increase phone time
CAPE TOWN -- Ordinary MPs want their telephone unit allocations increased from 3500 units a month to at least 5000 before they are expected to cough up from their own pockets, according to a proposal by the joint committee on the support for Membe...

'Some education changes may have been too hasty'
PRETORIA -- Some of the changes made to transform the education system may have been too hasty, Education Minister Kader Asmal said here yesterday. After the 1994 election, the first thing to happen was an attempt to eradicate from syllabi all no...

Satra chairman recuses, denying vested interests
CAPE TOWN -- The preferred bidder for SA's third cellular network would still be named at the end of March, despite the recusal of the South African Telecommunication Regulations Authority (Satra) chairman, Nape Maepa, from the adjudicating panel....

Winnie let off the hook
CAPE TOWN -- Parliament's chief legal adviser Anton Meyer suggested yesterday there was little chance of government recouping the R112960 spent by former deputy arts minister Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on an unauthorised trip to Ghana in 1994. How...