ASSOCIATION NEWS
News snippets from around the world week, the foundation says that it doubts that the state has ever been ready for trial. However, the NPA says the matter was last postponed to Tuesday, pending the challenge to the racketeering charges by Thales. It says that when Thales lost its challenge and decided not to appeal it, it paved the way for the trial to proceed. NPA Spokesperson Sipho Ngwema says the state is ready to start the proceedings and has indicated its earliest preferred date for trial and Thales has done the same. (Source: www.sabcnews.com)
Gauteng to review its booze regulations to curb ‘drinking sprees’ and crime Gauteng premier David Makhura says the province is looking at tightening the sale of alcohol regulations beyond the current Covid-19 regulations. Makhura, who was speaking during the official handover of 55 high-performance vehicles to police last weekend, said alcohol was one of the contributing factors to crime in the province. (Source: www.timeslive.co.za)
To stop climate disaster, make ecocide an international crime
Police failed to stem sharp rise in serious crime in last Q 2020 The quarterly crime statistics for October to December 2020, show a rise in murder, rape and assault cases. This is a bleak picture compared to the drop in crime recorded during the hard lockdown. Police Minister Bheki Cele said that the figures showed gaps in policing and SAPS would have to pull up its socks to address the problem. (Source: www.dailymaverick.co.za)
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NPA is ready to proceed with Zuma’s corruption trial The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has refuted the Jacob Zuma Foundation’s statement, which accuses it of postponing the former President’s corruption trial. Zuma faces charges of racketeering, two counts of corruption, one count of money laundering, and twelve counts of fraud relating to 783 payments he allegedly received in connection with the controversial multi-billion-rand Arms Deal. In a statement issued last
SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA FEBRUARY 2021
The Paris agreement is failing. Yet there is new hope for preserving a liveable planet: the growing global campaign to criminalise ecocide can address the root causes of the climate crisis and safeguard our planet – the common home of all humanity and, indeed, all life on Earth. Nearly five years after the negotiation of the landmark Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions and associated global warming to “well below 2.0C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C”, we are experiencing drastically accelerating warming. 2020 was the second warmest year on record, following the recordsetting 2019. Carbon in the atmosphere reached 417 parts per million (ppm) – the highest in the last three years. (Source: www.thegaurdian.com)
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