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Landmark judgment allows live-streaming in court

The public and other interested parties attending court hearings will now be able to live-stream the proceedings after a ground-breaking judgment by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) yesterday. Until now, only recognised media houses could apply for the broadcasting and ...

Trade union official arrested in bribery 'sting'

Namibia’s Anti-Corruption Commission has arrested a trade unionist for alleged bribery. The Namibian reports that Sakeus Shikongo, who is a representative of the Namibian Food and Allied Workers Union, is accused of requesting a $350 bribe from the manager of ...

Nigerian sex worker ring snared

European police have arrested six suspected members of a Spanish-based gang who trafficked Nigerian women for sex. BBC News reports that police say the group worked in at least 15 countries. The EU's police agency Europol said $3.4m in assets ...

Kenyan court blocks extended inheritance

Children born more than nine months after the death of their mother's late husbands are not entitled to inherit a share of the deceased’s property, Kenya’s High Court has ruled. Justice Lucy Gitari held that children cannot be regarded as ...

Laptop theft charge against EFF MP withdrawn

The state has withdrawn a laptop theft charge against EFF MP Nazier Paulsen in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court. ‘The state withdraws the charge,’ prosecutor Adiel Jansen said after consulting with senior officials earlier in the day during an adjournment. ...

Radio host 'unscheduled' over gay men remarks

The SABC has confirmed that Radio 2000 breakfast host Phat Joe has been ‘unscheduled until further notice’, in the wake of a backlash over his comments about the LGBTIQ+ community. According to TimesLIVE, the radio star weighed in on a ...

PIC proposes debt-equity swap to save Eskom

A proposal by the biggest owner of Eskom’s debt to convert its $6.4bn holding into equity has become a rescue option to restructure the troubled power utility, says a Business Day report. In return, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which ...

Pandor to address action against Bruce Koloane

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor will approach President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss steps to be taken against Bruce Koloane, SA's ambassador to the Hague, for his role in the landing of a Gupta-family plane at Waterkloof in 2013 ...

Senior MDC official remanded in custody

MDC Alliance deputy chairman Job Sikhala who has been charged with subversion has been remanded in custody until 24 July. The lawmaker was initially expected to appear at a Harare court on Monday, but was transferred to a court in ...

Relief on the way for SABC – Minister

The SABC will receive an interim financial relief from the government within 10 days and may gain further financial assistance in 45 days should it meet requirements set out by government. Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams made the announcement in Parliament ...

No need to amend Constitution – Motlanthe

There was no need to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to enable land expropriation in the public interest, former President Kgalema Motlanthe said yesterday. Speaking at a dialogue about a mooted agricultural development agency facilitated by former constitutional negotiator ...

Claims of R2.3bn against Eastern Cape police

Police in the Eastern Cape are facing civil claims of more than R2.3bn, provincial Safety and Liaison MEC Weziwe Tikana has revealed. Responding to questions from DA MPL Bobby Stevenson, Tikana said the claims emanate from alleged wrongful arrests and ...

Facial ID tests awaited in local actor's murder case

The man accused of killing Matwetwe actor Sibusiso Khwinana still needs to undergo facial recognition tests to match him to the person in CCTV footage which police obtained, notes News24. Julius Lucas briefly appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court yesterday, ...

Life sentence for elderly woman's murder

* The Limpopo High Court (Polokwane) has sentenced a man to life for the murder of an elderly woman with an axe. Police spokesperson Constable Maphure Manamela yesterday said Justice Mathume Tshehla was also sentenced to 15 years for robbery ...

Mkhize denies he asked PIC for money

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has refuted claims that he requested funding for the ANC from the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) when he was treasurer-general of the party, says a TimesLIVE report. Former PIC CEO Dan Matjila told the PIC inquiry ...

NHI Bill finally gets Cabinet approval

The National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill has finally been approved by Cabinet for tabling in Parliament. Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Jackson Mthembu yesterday said the Cabinet had approved the Bill for release for public consultation ...

Mkhwebane 'disappointed' by Gordhan's 'personal insults'

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says she is disappointed at the ‘personal insults’ by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan in court documents challenging her report into the so-called SARS ‘rogue unit’. ‘It is our considered opinion that the emotive language and ...

Cabinet gets tough on over-spending councils

The Cabinet has called for heads to roll as it cracks down on fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure at municipalities. Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu, addressing the media after a Cabinet meeting yesterday said, 'We can't just continue condemning ...

Bowmans to probe possible 'irregular' practices at Cell C

Cell C has asked law firm Bowmans to investigate business units possibly involved in 'irregular' practices after its debt rating was recently downgraded to reflect that a default had become a 'virtual certainty'. Shares in major shareholder Blue Label Telecoms ...

US pushes for life-term for 'ruthless' El Chapo

US prosecutors have called for 'ruthless' drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to be jailed for life plus 30 years for trafficking hundreds of tonnes of drugs to America. El Chapo is to be sentenced on 17 July after being ...

eSwatini bans witchcraft competition

A competition pitting witch doctors against each other in a battle of skills this weekend has been banned. The Times of Swaziland quoted the event organisers as saying the competition would have seen witch doctors competing against traditional healers which ...

Depoliticising the Office of the Public Protector

The Constitution makers were wrong to believed the Public Protector’s office was going to be above partisan politics. Attitudes to the present protector and her predecessor depend on where you stand on the ANC’s factional divide. ‘For both sides, the ...

Minister hints that missing Tanzania journalist is dead

A report on the Daily Nation site notes that Tanzania's Foreign Minister Paramagamba Kabudi has appeared to say that a journalist who went missing in 2017 may have died. In a media interview he was asked if the state had ...

World's commercial courts collaborate on money judgments

Commercial courts from around the world have set out their procedures for enforcing money judgments made by one another in a single document, intended to improve public perception and understanding of enforcement procedures according to Out-Law.com. The Multilateral Memorandum on ...

Fake Facebook 'marriage' hits a nerve in Nigeria

Four men in Nigeria's northern city of Kano have received death threats for planning a mock wedding on Facebook that was deemed offensive to Islam. This after Sanusi Abdullahi confessed to 'jokingly' offering a female Facebook member $50 for her ...

Marriot Group to contest hefty data breach fine

Marriott International is to contest a UK regulator's plans to issue it with a £99.2m fine for an alleged breach of data protection laws. The hotels business disclosed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday that the ...

Brazil pushes through contentious pension reforms

Brazil's lower house of Congress has voted by a large majority to overhaul the country's generous pension system. The vote, with 379 in favour and 131 against, is seen as an important victory for President Jair Bolsonaro, whose government says ...

Amal Clooney criticises Trump for media attacks

Lawyer Amal Clooney has joined UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in criticising Donald Trump's attacks on the media, saying the US President has emboldened individuals who wish to persecute journalists, according to The Guardian. 'The country of James Madison has ...

What happens when Zuma refuses to testify?

When former President Jacob Zuma appears before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, he may not want to answer the questions put to him, but he clearly wants to attack the reason he’s being asked them in the ...

High levels of harassment in House of Lords – report

Peers have overseen a culture of harassment and bullying in the House of Lords which has been hidden because staff fear reprisals, according to an official report released this week. One in five members of staff in the upper house ...

Senior judges back digitisation of UK courts

Senior judges have enthusiastically backed progress on the modernisation of court processes, and sought to quell some of the misgivings about what the reforms mean in practice. Sir Terence Etherton, Master of the Rolls, told MPs he was an 'unapologetically ...

Trump man defends handling of sex predator's case

US Labour Secretary R Alexander Acosta has defended his handling of the sex crimes prosecution of the financier Jeffrey Epstein in Florida more than a decade ago, bucking a growing chorus of Democratic resignation calls while effectively making the case ...

Major receives charges for headscarf 'defiance'

Less than a month before her scheduled date in front of a military court on 7 August, SANDF Major Fatima Isaacs has received the official charges against her from a military prosecutor. A Cape Argus report says charged with ‘wilful ...

No bail for advocate accused of falsifying qualification

Ntate Manoel Mabesa (48) – who practiced as an advocate for many years after allegedly submitting a false qualification in his admission application – has been denied bail after appearing in the Bloemfontein Regional Court, Volksblad reports. Magistrate Collin Nekosie ...

R1m damages for prolonged stay in jail

Sphamandla Mtshali – who spent a 20 months in jail for housebreaking and robbery and was then told that the charges had been dropped – is to receive R1m in damages. A Pretoria News report says Mtshali initially instituted a ...

Parliament urged to explain fraud MP’s appointment

The DA has called for former Buffalo City Mayor Zukisa Faku to be investigated after she resigned as an MP last week, says a TimesLIVE report. The party believes Parliament needs to explain how Faku was elected as an ANC ...

Bail application delays a ‘comedy of errors’

East London Advocate Mike Maseti is seething over a murder accused’s bail application that has been postponed on no fewer than 20 occasions. A Daily Dispatch report says Maseti’s client, Mazulwandile Mgijima (37) is charged with murder and attempted murder ...

Masina defends tenders

* Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina yesterday defended the tender processes and costs with regards to its acquisition of chemical toilets. At a media briefing in Germiston, he told journalists the city had provided 39 000 chemical toilets to around 600 ...