Being raped by her neighbour was an horrific ordeal for Angie*, a young woman who lives on the East Rand. But traumatised as she was, she was determined to make the perpetrator pay. She gritted her teeth, went through all the medical examinations and told the tale of how a seemingly friendly encounter turned into a violent fight and sexual assault.

Eastern Cape environmental officials are under huge pressure to approve housing developments in the cash-strapped province, as developers eye its pristine coastline. Environmentalists fear political pressure may lead to uncontrolled development, as officials are strong-armed into cutting procedural corners.

South Africa’s Civil Aviation Authority has denied that the air travel industry could be shut down by a Satawu strike. However, striking workers warned that the strike, which began on Thursday, could jeopardise the safety and security of air travellers. Workers on strike are those who regulate the safety and security of South Africa’s air infrastructure, such as air-worthiness inspectors.

A wetland has been bulldozed in Nelspruit as part of plans to construct a new stadium for the 2010 soccer World Cup. The wetland was not bulldozed to make way for the Mbombela stadium itself but for a school that will have to be temporarily relocated because it is currently on the site where the stadium will be built.

Farmers have raised heavyweight objections to a steel barrier erected on the Crocodile River, at the Mpumalanga government’s request, to stop hippos from chomping canoeists. They say the metre-high steel cable — which will ensure the animals watch the Lowveld Croc canoe marathon from a safe distance — is environmentally unfriendly overkill for a race that happens once a year.

Former opposition leader Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert’s definition of himself is disarmingly simple: ”I live in Africa; therefore I am an African.” Slabbert made his intervention in a lecture he delivered recently at the University of the Witwatersrand, titled I Am an African — If Not, Why Not?. It was one of a series of lectures hosted by political analyst and academic Xolela Mangcu

The United States, Russia, China and India continued to be seen as among the key obstacles to a new climate change treaty as the United Nations climate conference in Nairobi drew to a close. The Kyoto protocol ends in 2012. But many of the Nairobi delegates were deeply sceptical about whether the current round of talks will deliver a mandate to negotiate a new convention at the same time next year.