MPUMALANGA health and welfare authorities have set aside R4-million to boost the distribution of female condoms across the province in the battle against Aids, said chief medical officer, Dr Kelvin Billinghurst, on Tuesday. He said the female condom, which is inserted into the vagina and also covers the external genitalia, was initially regarded as a […]
AS the first results come in from the Free State, the African National Congress, predictably has taken a firm lead with 70% of the votes counted thus far. The surprise is in the Democratic Party having around a 1% lead over the New National Party’s 7%. The Freedom Front is running a close third. Extremely […]
IN one of the quickest elections in the country, voting at the tiny Eastern Cape town of Paterson was over by 10.45am. 350 voters had made their crosses by then — the town’s roll only had 210 registered voters. This represents a 100% turnout, although the figure includes voters with ID books showing registration receipts.
FREEDOM Front premier designate, Hein Mentz, voted in Ermelo but complained that the Casim Park polling station was forced to close after just one hour because it only received 140 ballot papers. The station was expected to handle at least 3000 voters. Mentz also warned that it appears a number of mobile voting stations are […]
TUESDAY, 12.30PM: STATE-owned synthetic fuel producer Mossgas has asked the government to allocate R180-million from the Central Energy Fund to finance the development of its Bredasdorp Basin gasfields. The request from one of South Africa’s most expensive white elephants comes at a time when the future of the South African petroleum industry is in turmoil […]
THE Independent Electoral Commission was forced to quarantine four full ballot boxes in Ermelo on Tuesday after their seals were broken. Seals on three of the boxes from different polling stations were apparently simply not closed, while the seal on a fourth box appears to have been broken by accident while being transported. All four […]
POLLING stations opened late on Wednesday in several parts of Mpumalanga because more than 300000 ballot papers were not delivered to the right places. IEC provincial media officer Leon Mbangwa said some ballot papers intended for Standerton, White River, Middelburg, and the Lowveld District Council were delivered instead to the IEC offices in Nelspruit. “We […]
VOTING got off to a false start in the hotspot of Greenfields on the East Rand when officials discovered they had been using the wrong ballot papers. IEC officials accidentally used tender ballot papers for the first 177 voters. Clusters of police officials are monitoring voting at both the Greenfields and nearby Phola Park polling […]
THREE men who police caught carrying firearms into a voting station in KwaMbonambi, KwaZulu-Natal, are believed to be bodyguards of African National Congress member Walter Felgate. Felgate, a former Inkatha Freedom Party hardliner, suffered a physical assault a month ago while campaigning for the ANC. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman director Bala Naidoo said the men are […]
VIOLATIONS of a week-old ceasefire between rebel forces and the government side in war-wracked Sierra Leone have been reported to the United Nations, observers said on Tuesday. The UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (Unomsil) ”continues to receive reports of violations or attempted violations of the ceasefire which can put the peace talks in Togo […]