Cape Town

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has committed the second 10 years of democracy to the achievement of high rates of economic growth and development. The ANC, which came to power in 1994, has targeted the advancement of skills among blacks and the beneficiation of South Africa’s raw materials as key elements of its 10-year economic transformation plan.

President Thabo Mbeki and other members of the African National Congress leadership — including Jacob Zuma — were gathering in Cape Town on Sunday for the launch of the party’s local government election campaign. The launch coincides with the 94th anniversary of the ANC’s founding on January 8 1912.

A Tygerberg hospital minibus used to transport patients has been hijacked, Cape Town police said on Saturday. The Toyota Hi-Ace minibus, fitted to transport outpatients, was on its way from Tygerberg hospital to Eersteriver hospital with a passenger just after noon.

The Inkatha Freedom Party on Friday promised an ”exciting” local government election campaign, saying it intends to take full advantage of the African National Congress’s troubles regarding former deputy president Jacob Zuma. ”The political situation in the ruling party is creating space for expansion in others,” secretary general Musa Zondi said.

Just more than 21-million of a ”debatable” 27-million eligible voters are registered to vote in the coming local government polls, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula said on Friday. Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi formally gazetted March 1 for the election.

Eighty-one residents of Ezibeleni near Queenstown were to appear in the local magistrate’s court on Friday following an outbreak of vigilante action in which buildings were torched and one person died. They would face charges of public violence, murder, attempted murder and assault, police said.

The inquest into the cause of death of deceased national cricket captain Hansie Cronje is scheduled to be heard in Cape Town in a couple of months. Cronje died when the Hawker-Siddeley aircraft he was travelling in crashed into a cliff close to George airport nearly four years ago.

An African Union report condemning Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s human rights record has been hailed by South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance. The report of the African Union’s Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights — meeting in Banjul, The Gambia — has urged Mugabe to allow an AU delegation to go on a fact-finding mission to his country.

Firefighters entered their 10th day on Tuesday evening fighting a blaze in the Franschhoek mountains above Dewdale farm. Danie Wilds, fire chief of Cape Winelands district municipality, said crews were still battling the same hot spots that have been their nemeses for the past couple of days.

The man sitting opposite me looks avuncular. With wispy greying hair and beard, Andre du Toit could easily play Father Christmas, but instead he is serving a 20-year sentence in a maximum-security prison for a double murder. ”I was terrified. I’ve never ever been to a prison in my whole life, and in a matter of three, four seconds, my whole life changed,” he says.

South Africa, an economic and political leader in Africa, is also the continent’s number-one jailer. If prisons are a reflection of society, what conclusions are to be drawn from this reality, particularly in a nation rightfully proud of its nascent democracy? Wendell Roelf investigates.

An accused man is arrested. At the court’s holding cells he is savagely raped. His assailants shove a ”bullet” filled with contraband dagga up his rectum, to be couriered into prison. His ordeal has only begun. This is the testimony of ”Frank Erasmus”, contained in a letter read out to members of Parliament in October 2004.

Seven yachts competing in the gruelling around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race set sail from Cape Town on Monday in light winds for the second and most dangerous leg of the global dash. A shot from the starter’s cannon at 1pm local time signalled the start of the 6 100-nautical-mile leg.

Firefighters were on Monday busy combating mountain fires that started last week in the Cape winelands. Conservation manager Patrick Shone said the affected areas were Wemmershoek and the Groot Drakenstein mountain. Almost 11 800ha of fynbos has been destroyed in Wemmershoek and 7 100ha on the Groot Drakenstein.

South Africa, an economic and political leader in Africa, is also the continent’s number one jailer. If prisons are a reflection of society, what conclusions are to be drawn from this reality, particularly in a nation rightfully proud of its nascent democracy? In global terms, South Africa is not alone in registering a sharp increase in its prison population.

South Africa’s rail utility, Spoornet, has already been paid R63 324 by a private security company for thefts which were carried out after the luxury Blue Train and Shosholoza Meyl crash between De Aar and Beaufort West in the Karoo on Wednesday October 26.

Parts of Mthatha’s 540-bed Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital — including its operating theatres — were still without running water on Wednesday. The hospital’s difficulties were due partly to Mthatha’s general water supply problems, and partly to a succession of pipe bursts, Oliver Tambo District Municipality community services director Chauke Ngoma said.