A prestigious private school in Ballito said it stood firmly behind its no drug policy after a high court ruled in favour of a pupil who was expelled after being bust for smoking dagga.

Durban High Court acting Judge Cassim Sardiwalla on Tuesday ruled that a 15-year-old grade 8 pupil at Ashton International College, be allowed to return to school.

The use of the substance was discovered during a random drug test done by the school. Sardiwalla said the process the school followed was flawed because it did not abide by its own policies and rules.

In a statement, the school said it was “not the ruling that Ashton International College were hoping for”.

For more http://www.news24.com

A gang of ATM bombers escaped empty-handed in Stanger on Tuesday night, but not before wounding a KwaZulu-Natal policewoman in a hail of bullets.

It emerged that the ten-strong gang, who were apparently armed with high-calibre assault rifles, were unable to detonate explosive charges in the ATM gallery.

Two independent police sources with knowledge of the investigation, who could not be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed that the gang escaped with nothing.

For more http://www.news24.com

A police officer who allegedly helped co-ordinate a botched robbery at a West Rand police station appeared in court on Wednesday, the Hawks said.

Constable Mpho Matsoso, 30, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with conspiring with three men to rob the Dunnottar police station, near Springs, of firearms, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said.

He further faced charges of attempted murder, corruption, armed robbery, malicious damage to property, and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.

For more http://www.news24.com

Bloemfontein – University of Free State vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen vowed to hundreds of students on campus on Wednesday he would do everything in his power to help those who can’t afford tuition fees.

He said he was proud of the manner in which students conducted themselves in the past week during the #FeesMustFall campaign.

Jansen was responding to a memorandum of demands – including help for needy students, the removal of apartheid-era statues and the end of outsourcing – that was handed to him by students earlier this week.

For more http://www.news24.com

Johannesburg – University of Witwatersrand Vice Chancellor Adam Habib would resign if he really cared about the students, Wits EFF leader Vuyani Pambo said on Wednesday.

Pambo told Habib that he had lost the students’ trust.

Habib attempted to address students at the university after he had earlier promised to speak to them following a protest by a group of students and workers who called for an end to outsourcing.

Habib asked for a month to address their outsourcing concerns, but students refused to accepted that and shouted that he was making them angry.

For more http://www.news24.com

All 102-year-old Nomahlanu Hadebe wanted was to see her great-grandchildren and, thanks to cataract surgery, she now can.

Hadebe is one of 12 elderly people from disadvantaged communities in KwaZulu-Natal’s iLembe District, whose eyesight was restored thanks to the “big heart” of opthamologist, Dr Malcolm Carey, and a hospital that “cares about the community it serves”.

All 12 patients had cataracts, a progressive clouding of the lens inside the eye, causing sight to become fuzzy, making everyday activities increasingly difficult.

Carey performed Hadebe’s surgery free of charge at Netcare Alberlito Hospital last week.

For more http://www.iol.co.za

A man was killed when the bakkie he was driving was rear-ended by a lorry on the N2 near Amanzimtoti on Wednesday morning.

Netcare 911 spokesman Chris Botha said that two passengers in the cab of the bakkie were also injured. One man was described as being in a serious condition while the other was described as being a in a critical condition.

Botha said that eyewitnesses told paramedics at the accident that the lorry had rear-ended the bakkie which then veered off the N2 and up the embankment into the underside of the Umdoni Road bridge that crosses over the N2.

For more http://www.iol.co.za

Cape Town – The University of Cape Town has made an undertaking to move away from outsourcing services on its campus and to find the additional funding needed to achieve this “somehow”, it said on Wednesday.

“Last night (Tuesday), we made a commitment to the principle of insourcing. A process to determine the modalities, framework and timeframes of the implementation of this decision will need to be agreed upon by all parties involved,” vice-chancellor Max Price said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Key points of the statement were released on the university’s official twitter account and the student representative council welcomed the announcement.

“This decision assumes that we will have a commitment from staff and students that operations at the University of Cape Town will be allowed to return to full capacity,” Price added.

For more http://www.iol.co.za

New Delhi – India’s government said on Wednesday it would ban foreigners from using surrogate mothers in the country, a move likely to hit the booming commercial surrogacy industry.

Ranks of childless foreign couples have flocked to the country in recent years looking for a cheap, legal and simple route to parenthood.

Health industry estimates put the size of India’s surrogacy business at nine billion rupees ($138 million) and growing at 20 percent a year.

But critics have said a lack of legislation encourages “rent-a-womb” exploitation of young, poor Indian women.

For more http://www.iol.co.za

Johannesburg – ANC councillors who don’t enjoy the support of their communities could be out of a job next year, regardless of their influence in local ANC structures.

This may be part of the consequences of a selection system that will see communities deciding on ANC candidates even when they aren’t members.

The move is part of the ANC’s attempt to clean up its image ahead of what are expected to be fiercely contested local government elections next year.

This comes as the party seeks to address the connection it has seemingly lost with many communities where opposition parties are eating into support by championing community struggles, even where ward councillors are ANC members.

For more http://www.iol.co.za