”The initial formation of the private security industry was encouraged by the apartheid regime,” says Jenny Irish-Qhobosheane, a private security researcher. ”This was done because the police had to concentrate on political opposition. Private security had to fill the gap that was left by the public police.”
In part two of this feature, Mail & Guardian Online journalist Ellen Hollemans speaks to private security players.
The Pretoria High Court on Tuesday ordered that game and trophy hunting on private game farms bordering the Kruger National Park may go ahead. Judge William de Villiers had set aside an order on March 29 by the Limpopo provincial government, in terms of which all hunting activities on these farms were suspended.
Thousands of people packed St Peter’s Square on Friday as Pope John Paul II’s health deteriorated. They prayed and gazed up at his third-floor window in a quiet vigil repeated in churches around the world. In South Africa, Catholics were praying for a peaceful end for the pope and churches were preparing special masses.
"In an internationally condemned move, an enraged King Mswati III of Swaziland has decided to close his country’s borders with South Africa, starting on Friday." Sounds unbelievable? It is! Read the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i>’s April Fool’s Day story that had its readers wondering about the Swazi monarch’s shock announcement.
Bantu Holomisa, the president of the United Democratic Movement, has fired arrows laced with poisonous words at the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. He has accused the reserve of killing the Kruger National Park’s wildlife. But the TPNR’s management is convinced of the reserve’s innocence and is fighting back, even threatening legal action.
The Limpopo provincial government has placed a moratorium on hunting in the private nature reserves that border the Kruger National Park (KNP). The moratorium concerns private reserves that are not separated from the KNP by a fence. However, the chairperson of the Timbavati Association has called the moratorium ”totally illegal”.
Hunting in private game reserves that border South Africa’s national parks is of "specific concern" to Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk, he said in a statement on Wednesday. The issue was raised two weeks ago by Bantu Holomisa, leader of the United Democratic Movement.
South African civil society groups came back from Zimbabwe disillusioned about the state of democracy in the country, they said on Tuesday. The six-member delegation said that ”only the most optimistic MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] politicians” could hope for political change through free and fair elections.
Children outside a primary school in Cape Town were approached on Tuesday by animal activists who are trying to persuade young people to stop eating chicken. The activists use cards depicting the downside of chicken consumption. The campaign coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spoke to the Mail & Guardian Online.
Bantu Holomisa, the president of the United Democratic Movement, has fired arrows laced with poisonous words at the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. He has accused the reserve of killing the Kruger National Park’s wildlife. But the TPNR’s management is convinced of the reserve’s innocence and is fighting back, even threatening legal action.