Wow, very scary.

Is it common practice in So. Africa to block such news stories?

good question. Even now there are very few details on this story

Our old (apartheid-era) governments were often labelled "repressive" and they certainly tried (with partial success) to block news stories. Now the new (post-apartheid) government has been attempting the same.

Fortunately the press is quite free and very keen to investigate and publish as much as possible, even if it means stretching the law a bit... This has not changed from years ago.

I think the present government is having a hard time accepting that the press which was so critical years ago, is still being critical today.