2010 volunteer applications still flooding in

WITH only 10 days left to register, over 74000 people have put down their names for the 15000 World Cup volunteer spots.

Skill such as driving are still needed. Applications close on August31. Forms are available at www.FIFA.com/volunteers2010. People wanting more information can call the toll-free hotline on 0800-525-252 or send e-mails to volunteerprogramme.2010oc.com . No salaries will be paid but volunteers will receive stipends to cover expenses. — Sapa

Another exit at SABC

THE SABC’s chief executive of public commercial broadcasting services, Pearl Luthuli, has resigned .

“It becomes too unbearable when people are out to get you all the time,” she told the Mail & Guardian yesterday. “I got tired of being a lame duck executive who could not make decisions .”

Luthuli’s resignation is the latest in a string of controversies at the public broadcaster, which is expecting to lose R1 billion in the 2008/09 financial year. — Sapa

Zuma repairs Angola ties

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma wrapped up his visit to Angola yesterday with a clutch of new deals that analysts said would lay the groundwork for closer ties between two key regional players.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos hailed the two-day visit as a “new era in bilateral relations”, while Zuma said the new trade partnerships would “change the economic landscape of southern Africa”.

Business leaders and analysts said the visit was a major step towards reviving relations that had cooled under former President Thabo Mbeki . — Sapa-AFP

EC school bus attacked

POLICE have arrested five taxi operators for stoning a school bus on the N2 freeway near Dutywa.

Captain Jackson Manatha said the bus – carrying school pupils to Centane after a school soccer match – was attacked by people in a bakkie at 7.30pm on Thursday.

They threw stones at the windows and windscreen of the bus and and used a blunt object to puncture one of the bus’s tyres. The incident was believed to be related to taxi-bus warfare . — Sapa

Housing scam in W Cape

THE police commercial branch unit is investigating a R50 million housing scam in Atlantis, Western Cape.

Superintendent Jerome Hardenberg said Eugene Hendricks allegedly took deposits from about 1500 victims, offering an attractive housing project . — Sapa

Tea adverts canned

ADVERTS claiming that a tea containing Chinese herbs destroys HIV have been canned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The ASA said in a ruling released this week that the marketers of Revivo tea, Aconite Medical Suppliers, had produced no credible evidence that the tea had any effect on HIV or Aids . — Sapa

Somali killed near PE

A SOMALI employee was killed and a shopper was wounded when three gunmen robbed a tuck shop in Despatch, near Port Elizabeth, late on Thursday.

“Three shots were fired and a Somali worker was fatally wounded after being shot in the chest and a woman shopper was wounded,” said Inspector Mariette Olivier .

The robbers fled the scene with money and were still at large, she added. — Sapa

Ninth swine flu death

A NINTH South African has died of swine flu, Beeld newspaper reported on Friday.

Although the death of Gautenger Grobbie Grobler, 53, on Saturday, has not been confirmed by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Beeld said it had a copy of his death certificate.

It stated that he had died of swine flu .

The NICD has confirmed eight H1N1 deaths, including three pregnant women.

It said there had been 3485 laboratory- confirmed cases of swine flu throughout the country, most of which were mild. — Sapa