It was good cheer, rugby and music in Pretoria’s Church Square on Saturday after a group of about 500 protesters submitted petitions to the Department of Arts and Culture against renaming the city Tshwane. A handful of black participants took part in the march, which was attended by the young, old and disabled.
The era of disposing landmines by detonation could be over after a high-tech device was unveiled on Tuesday that neutralises mines with a remote-controlled gas flame. The MineBurner is a remote-controlled device that burns landmines without the need to move, touch or detonate them.
A Durban man plans to walk around the country on stilts for almost 5 000km to raise crime awareness and fund victim care centres. Said Charles de Vos on Tuesday: ”You may think this is the craziest thing you have ever heard of, but if you are serious about fighting crime in a unique way, nothing is crazy.”
More than three-quarters of South African households receive free water and more than half receive free electricity, Statistics South Africa said in Pretoria on Thursday — but two million households are without toilet facilities. The figures are part of a non-financial census of municipalities for the year ending June 2003.
The Tshwane City Council voted on Monday to retain the name Pretoria for the city centre only, whereas the name Tshwane will refer to the greater metropolitan area. The council authorised the municipal manager to affect all the necessary legal and administrative procedures to register the geographical area that constitutes the municipality as a city with the name Tshwane.
White South Africans living in gated communities think of crime as a type of ethnic cleansing forcing them into semi-migration, a study showed on Tuesday. The study, titled Fear and Loathing in Johannesburg: Constructing New Identities within Gated Communities, was presented at an international symposium on gated communities or townhouses.
No image available
/ 20 January 2005
Protesting prison warders taking part in a protest march in Pretoria on Thursday were urged not to sing about Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour’s mother’s genitals or accuse him of being full of shit. ”We are marching to protest against the reduction of warders on duty in prisons over the weekends,” said a Police and Civil Rights Union spokesperson.
No image available
/ 13 January 2005
The president of world soccer governing body Fifa, Sepp Blatter, on Thursday accepted on behalf of the body one of South Africa’s highest awards. Blatter, in the country to meet members of the 2010 World Cup organising committee, met President Thabo Mbeki before accepting the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo.
Jordaan ‘perfect’ for 2010
No image available
/ 16 December 2004
President Thabo Mbeki gave South Africa’s reconciliation process a glowing report card on Thursday, saying black and white citizens are standing up for freedom together. ”We have begun to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood,” he said at Reconciliation Day celebrations in Pretoria.
No image available
/ 18 November 2004
”There can never be an end to the pain,” said Julia Ntsoane, whose sister Mampo was one of the 43 people killed in a stampede at Ellis Park on April 11 2001. Ntsoane was one of a small group of people gathered on Thursday for the winding-up of the Ellis Park Disaster Relief Fund, which was established immediately after the tragedy.