At least 30 people are believed to have died when their bus left the road and went over a cliff into a river near Cedarville in KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said paramedics had told him that the bus went off an 80m embankment and landed upside-down in the river.
A motorcyclist punched a KwaZulu-Natal VIP driver on Saturday afternoon after the driver had crashed into the back of another car, seriously injuring its occupant. KwaZulu-Natal transport spokesperson Rajen Chinaboo said road traffic inspectorate officials at the scene reported that there ”had been some sort of altercation”.
Criminals are using xenophobia as a ”perfect excuse” to commit crime, KwaZulu-Natal safety and security minister Bheki Cele said on Friday. ”I am just concerned that criminals are using xenophobia as an excuse to commit crimes … Why else would they steal the foreigners’ belongings?”
A Metrorail passenger train derailed early on Saturday morning at Durban’s Merebank railway station, injuring 135 people — 21 of them seriously. The Umlazi-bound train derailed at 6.30am. While none of the carriages overturned, a steel support of the overhead electric power cables buckled on to the second of the train’s six coaches.
A 76-year-old man is fighting for his life in a Durban hospital after being stung more than 1 000 times by bees on Wednesday, paramedics said. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said the man had left his house in KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) Drummond area to go for a walk when he was attacked by the bees.
At least 125 students were arrested during a protest at Durban’s Mangosuthu University of Technology on Thursday, police said. Captain Khephu Ndlovu said the students would face charges of public violence and malicious damage to property.
Four accidents on Monday claimed the lives of 31 people in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), prompting the province’s premier to declare this coming Thursday a day of mourning. KwaZulu-Natal health spokesperson Leon Mbangwa said a collision between a coal truck and a minibus taxi near Dundee claimed the lives of 15 people, while another 12 were killed on the outskirts of Durban.
Ten people were killed on Monday morning in an accident on the N3 highway near Pietermaritzburg, transport officials said. Rajen Chinnaboo, spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal transport department said the accident took place on the N3 Durban-bound highway before the Shongweni offramp at 7:30am.
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/ 24 February 2008
At least one person was killed and another nine critically injured in an explosion at a ferromanganese smelter in Cato Ridge near Durban on Sunday morning, emergency services said. The Durban fire brigade was attending the scene at the Assmang ferromanganese smelter 60km from Durban.
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/ 19 February 2008
A man and a woman travelling in a white BMW were critically injured outside Hillary Primary School in Durban on Tuesday morning after gunmen opened fire on their vehicle, which had stopped near the school. Donovan Pillay (26) was seated in the car with Leanne Armugam — the wife of his cousin, local taxi boss Duncan Armugam.
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/ 26 December 2007
Wrapped Christmas presents lay strewn across a KwaZulu-Natal highway following a horrific accident that claimed the lives of five people on Tuesday. Bayview police Commissioner Superintendent Rajen Ramchunder said a car travelling into Chatsworth hit a traffic island and went into oncoming traffic.
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/ 22 December 2007
At least 10 people were killed and more than 20 injured in a collision when a bus ploughed into the trailer of a stationary truck near Estcourt in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands on Saturday morning, paramedics and the provincial road traffic inspectorate said. Of those injured, eight were in a critical condition.
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/ 4 December 2007
Paramedics have confirmed that four people were injured after a taxi turf war broke out involving taxi associations from around Durban on Tuesday. Police said some associations were attempting a takeover of a taxi rank. The incident happened just three hours before the unveiling of the province’s summer-holiday road-safety plan.
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/ 21 November 2007
It has been more than 31 hours since a petrol tank was struck by lightning at Durban’s Engen Refinery and by 7am on Wednesday the tank was still burning. plant officials said. ”The fire seems to be very persistent,” said Engen spokesperson Herb Payne.
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/ 20 November 2007
South African oil refiner Engen has slowed operations at its 180 000 barrel-per-day plant in Durban after an oil tank caught fire, although the blaze did not damage the refining facilities. The fire, which continues to burn, started on Monday evening when a petrol tank containing about seven million litres of petrol exploded.
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/ 20 November 2007
A massive fire broke out at the Engen refinery in Durban on Monday night, the cause of which was not immediately known. However, Engen refinery spokesperson Herb Payne said it was possibly caused by a lightning strike. Payne said there were no injuries or fatalities and that all staff had been accounted for.
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/ 15 November 2007
A Durban policeman is undergoing emergency surgery after he was shot twice in the chest while trying to apprehend armed robbers fleeing a crime scene, police said on Thursday. Four armed robbers hit the Beverley Jewellery store at the Pavilion mall in Westville at about 10am and Detective Andre Mostert of the Berea police station intervened.
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/ 17 October 2007
An elderly Durban couple is in a critical condition in hospital after being drugged and robbed on Wednesday by men claiming to be traditional healers. Police said the man and woman were with their son at the time. The family had entered a Standard Bank branch in Amanzimtoti and withdrawn a large sum of money.
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/ 15 October 2007
A former crime journalist was shot and killed while leaving church in Woodlands on Sunday, Pietermaritzburg police said. Superintendent Henry Budhram said Elaine Anderson -– a former crime reporter for the Witness newspaper — was allegedly leaving church in her car when she was confronted by two armed men on Sunday night.
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/ 18 September 2007
Durban’s Island View oil depot was ablaze on Tuesday night after three tanks exploded. Hundreds of residents on the Bluff flocked to various streets and points to view flames shooting high into the night sky. A Bluff resident, Ivan Raimbault, said there was an explosion at about 7pm. Ten minutes later the second tank blew. The third one exploded five minutes later.
A man was wounded and a woman and two good Samaritans robbed of their vehicles amid a high-speed chase on the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) North Coast, police said on Wednesday. Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said a woman was hijacked and robbed of her Nissan Almera in Mandini, near the Tugela River, on Tuesday night.