Wednesday, April 29 2020

An interdict granted three years ago ordering a Port Shepstone businessman to remove a prominent billboard - claiming the government “hijacked” his property in a “land grab” - has been set aside. In his ruling, Durban High Court judge Mahendra Chetty said the interim interdict, which was final in effect, should never have been granted in the first place because of entrenched law that the government and state organs cannot be “defamed”. “The common thread in case law is that the state should not use courts as a means to muzzle or stifle the right of freedom of its citizens to criticise government, no matter how harsh it may be perceived to be,” he said.

Bail for man after ‘illegal’ hunter shot dead

A man arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a 30-year-old suspected illegal hunter on a Limpopo game farm at the weekend has been granted R5,000 bail. The 32-year-old suspect appeared in the Lephalale Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. His case was postponed to July 3 for further police investigations. According to Brig Motlafela Mojapelo, the incident occurred on Sunday when the deceased and two other men were caught by nature conservation members while allegedly hunting illegally on the farm outside Lephalale. “The three were allegedly found in possession of two bags containing pieces of wild animal dried meat, a gemsbok and hunting tools. The deceased was allegedly shot and killed by the suspect soon after they managed to escape from the nature conservation officials who caught them,” Mojapelo said.

SA Express liquidation puts 700 jobs at risk

SA Express has been placed under provisional liquidation, putting 700 jobs at risk should the liquidation be made final. The high court in Johannesburg ruled on Tuesday that the ailing airline, which was placed in business rescue in February, was unlikely to be able to continue operating into the future. A liquidator will be appointed, and the court said affected parties need to put forward why the airline should not be liquidated, Daily Maverick reported. Should the liquidation be made permanent, 691 jobs at the airline would be lost. The business rescue practitioners, Phahlani Mkhombo and Daniel Terblanche, had in March launched the court application to provisionally liquidate SA Express.

Fear, whispers surround Kim’s health: defectors

Defectors from North Korea say many of their relatives and contacts were unaware of the international speculation over leader Kim Jong Un’s health or were unwilling to discuss the issue in clandestine calls made from the South. One defector said some people in the North had nevertheless been privately talking of Kim’s whereabouts after he failed to appear at a key state holiday on April 15, but only in very closed circles. – Reuters

Billionaire held over wife’s disappearance

Norwegian police say they have arrested a businessman over the disappearance of his wife 18 months ago, the latest twist in a case that has kept the Nordic countries on tenterhooks. Tom Hagen, 70, was arrested on suspicion of ‘murder or accessory to murder’. His wife Anne-Elisabeth Hagen disappeared without a trace from their home in Lorenskog in October 2018. A poorly written ransom note was found at the scene. – AFP

Italy completes the bridge to hope

A final section of a new bridge in Genoa, built after a deadly 2018 motorway collapse, was slotted into place Tuesday, providing a much-needed symbol of renewal for coronavirus-hit Italy. Construction has continued throughout the national lockdown. A siren sounded as the last vast section of deck was put in place and one side was finally reconnected with the other. – AFP

They perform one of SA's most important services - collecting recyclables that would otherwise swell the country's rubbish dumps and burden municipal trash collection - but the coronavirus lockdown has left thousands of waste pickers without any way to make a living. While municipal refuse removers were classified as essential workers, waste pickers were excluded from the list. Lockdown measures are expected to be relaxed slightly from May 1, but the group still faces an uncertain future.