Attacks on members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) rose by 67% between 2004/05 and 2005/06, according to a former policeman and now researcher for the Institute of Security Studies, Johan Burger. But only one more policeman died in the latter period than in the former. Burger said this indicated that the SAPS’s ”street survival” course, introduced in 2005, was bearing fruit.
While Americans prefer timber-frame houses, most South Africans still like brick-and-mortar homes. But the newly elected president of the Timber Frame Builders’ Association, Ian Michelsen, hopes to change that. He is determined to get South Africans to fall in love with timber-frame homes.
Concerns are mounting about South Africa’s plummeting shark population, with 400 000 sharks killed off the West Coast last year alone. ”The mismanagement of shark conservation in South Africa has left the species wide open,” warned Grant Smith, director of marine predator action group Sharklife.
South Africa is keeping its options open about a new climate-change framework proposed by the United States last week. The government said this week it would look at the US’s proposal, but that it respected the current round of United Nations negotiations on the subject. “It is something that South Africa will study,” President Thabo Mbeki’s office said.
Climate change is the flavour of the month, with world environmental politics dominated by the climate change debate. At the centre of the debate is the Kyoto Protocol, which outlines how the countries of the world should reduce their carbon footprints. Under the protocol, developed countries with high carbon emissions can buy "carbon credits" from less-developed countries.
Farmers in East Africa are set to enter the lucrative international organic produce market after launching their own seal of quality for organic products. The farmers hope the new East African Organic Products Standard (EAOS) — launched at the East African Organic Conference in Dar es Salaam this week — will boost sales for struggling farmers in the region and give their produce an exclusivity they can market at premium prices.
The Pretoria High Court recently heard that an Auditor General report on the old and new National Traffic Systems questioned whether the system had adequate security in place. It also emerged that the department had done nothing after being warned about the security breach.
Yolandi Groenewald counts the casualties at last week’s Boerevolk reenactment of the battle of Amajuba.
When, a couple of years ago, environmental conferences were held and issues of the Earth discussed, men in suits carrying briefcases were few and far between. But as climate change and environmental politics edged itself higher on to the world agenda, things have changed dramatically.
From the koppie overlooking Orania in the Northern Cape, Hendrik Verwoerd stared stonily down at the motley group of white men having a nude braai. The wors was first-class, and De la Rey blared in the background. “I could feel the statue’s eyes burning into me,” recalls Beau Brummel, South Africa’s most single-minded proponent of the glories of the naked human form.