JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African police found four bullet-riddled bodies in an unused shaft of a mine belonging to relatives of Nelson Mandela and President Jacob Zuma, an officer said on Thursday.

Police told reporters they believed the men were illegally prospecting for gold in abandoned shafts at the Grootvlei mine outside Johannesburg.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – President Jacob Zuma called on Thursday for “calm and unity” after reports African migrants were fleeing South Africa for fear of fresh xenophobic violence after the close of the World Cup soccer tournament.

A previous spate of anti-foreigner attacks in 2008 cut into investor confidence and another wave could weaken Zuma and mar the country’s image after its successful hosting of the Cup.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s success in hosting the soccer World Cup has made life more difficult for President Jacob Zuma by raising expectations his government can meet a series of unfulfilled promises in the same bold fashion.

After his government has shown it can deliver all that was needed to host the month-long sporting event, the public now wants Zuma to show the same resolve in dealing with the problems that have lingered since the end of apartheid 16 years ago — unemployment, poverty and a woeful education system.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African police and the military have been deployed in several townships due to growing threats against foreign migrant workers and protests about squalid living conditions, police said on Monday.

Signs of social instability could harm South Africa’s image and investor sentiment, undoing gains achieved by hosting the successful soccer World Cup tournament that ended on Sunday.

PRETORIA, July 9 (Reuters) – South Africa and Brazil pledged
on Friday to deepen trade and commercial ties in another sign of
emerging countries gradually shifting their economic dependence
away from rich nations.

At the end of a six-country tour of Africa — his 12th trip
to the continent — Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva
told South African counterpart Jacob Zuma that developing
economies had to tear down barriers to trade.

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s government on Thursday played down concerns that locals will turn on poor African migrants competing for scarce jobs in the continent’s largest economy when the curtain falls on the soccer World Cup.

“So far what we are dealing with are rumours people have wittingly or unwittingly spread that is fuelling a hysteria of a possible outbreak,” Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa told a news conference.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African world 800 metres champion Caster Semenya was cleared on Tuesday to compete as a woman, nearly a year after controversial gender tests put her career on hold.

Semenya, 19, has not run competitively since undergoing tests at the Berlin world championships in August.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The former head of South Africa’s police force was found guilty on graft charges on Friday, one of the most senior officials yet to be legally implicated for corruption in the country.

Prosecutors said Selebi, formerly a leading anti-apartheid activist and well-connected in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, had links to organised crime and received about 1.2 million rand ($155,200) to ignore drug trafficking.

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South African police have arrested a British tabloid journalist for helping a fan gain access to the England dressing room after a World Cup soccer match, national police commissioner Bheki Cele said on Tuesday.

Sunday Mirror reporter Simon Wright was arrested in Cape Town on Monday after closed circuit television footage indicated he helped 32-year-old fan Pavlos Joseph get into the England locker room after their June 18 draw with Algeria, police said.

PRETORIA, June 29 (Reuters) – South African police have
arrested a British tabloid journalist for helping a fan gain
access to the England dressing room after a World Cup soccer
match, national police commissioner Bheki Cele said on Tuesday.

Sunday Mirror reporter Simon Wright was arrested in Cape
Town on Monday after closed circuit television footage indicated
he helped 32-year-old fan Pavlos Joseph get into the England
locker room after their June 18 draw with Algeria, police said.
“The police have reason to believe this incident was
orchestrated. The police believe the motive was to put the World
Cup security in a bad light and possibly to profit from it,”
Cele told a news conference in Pretoria.