Free Republic

The U.S. new sanctions initiative, strongly supported by Israel, to impose new sanctions against Iran, is designed to punish it for its purported covert nuclear weapons program by imposing new restrictions on Tehran. As a result, many of Iran’s oil customers are scrambling to avoid collateral damage to their economies. The sanctions’ potential fallout is now hitting South Africa, Africa's biggest economy, which receives nearly 25 percent of its needs from Iran, roughly 98,000 barrels per day (bpd), or about 4 percent of Iran’s total exports. South Africa's economy, which has been hit by fuel shortages in the past because...

No assessment done of the economic effect of new legislation, Nqakula says Government did not consider the economic effect of the Firearms Control Act and will not consider changing the law if it was found to be adversely affecting certain businesses in the country, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula has said. The Firearms Control Act, after being approved in 2000, was fully implemented in July this year. Reports of massive losses by gun dealers and difficulties in the hunting, film and private security industries have followed the full implementation of the act. Huge numbers of applications for firearm licences...

HOUSTON (AP) - A South African woman pleaded not guilty Friday to immigration charges in a case that raised concerns about whether terrorists could enter the country by way of Mexico. Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed, 48, was arrested July 19 after being stopped by the Border Patrol at McAllen-Miller International Airport in south Texas as she tried to board a plane bound for New York. She carried a pair of muddy, wet pants in her baggage, $7,300 in various currencies and a passport with three double-sided pages missing. Border Patrol agents determined Ahmed did not have a valid visa for...

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula urged the country's gun owners to fall in line with the new firearm control law, saying its implementation was a priority for the police and his department. With an urgent application by the South African Gun Association and others thrown out of court with costs, and with protesters outside Parliament threatening to break the new law, Nqakula made it clear that the police would proceed with the implementation of the legislation from today. The new Firearms Control Act came into operation at midnight last night. In dismissing the application by the gun owners' association...

The government is going ahead with stringent new firearm laws which come into effect tomorrow because it believes registered owners are partly responsible for the reported loss of nearly 8 000 guns this year. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula told Parliament yesterday that it was a "fallacy" to think that registered owners committed no infringements regarding gun control. "Many of the illegal firearms in circulation were owned legally once upon a time. From January to May this year, registered gun-owners in South Africa reported 7 993 firearms they lost or that were stolen from them. This is in addition...