Orania chairperson Carel Boshoff’s wife, Anna, died on July 10 at the age of 75, the family said. "Tannie Anna, as she was known, was a community person par excellence, and will be remembered for the countless initiatives aimed at maintaining and reclaiming the Afrikaner’s freedom," the family said in a statement.
Metal and engineering industry strike action could be over on Tuesday if talks succeed, both unions and employers said on Tuesday morning. Talks between unions and the Steel and Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa resumed at 10am in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
A Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta) driver has been shot dead in Khayelitsha in the sixth taxi-related killing in less than a month. The murder of a 24-year-old Codeta-affiliated driver, who may not be named as his next of kin have not been informed, follows the murders of five Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association drivers in the past three weeks.
The importance of the Proudly South African campaign is undisputed, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said about the troubled organisation on Monday. Last month the Proudly South African campaign denied media reports that the DTI had withdrawn its support.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula will look into Democratic Alliance (DA) allegations about problems in the restructured specialised family violence, child abuse and sexual offences (FCS) units and take corrective steps if necessary. Nqakula’s spokesperson, Hangwani Mulaudzi, said on Monday that, previously, the FCS units were based in area offices.
The Social Development Department on Friday defended provisions in the Children’s Act giving access to contraceptives to children as young as 12. The department said it was concerned about ”misinterpretation” of the Act, certain sections of which came into effect last Sunday.
South Africans have every reason to be concerned about the latest crime-trends report, says Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille. ”There can be no doubt, however much government’s office-bearers try to play them down, that the statistics portray a society in which crime is endemic, violent and unrelenting,” she said on Friday on the DA’s website.
An alleged burglar who abandoned a bail application, then changed his mind and reapplied, only to abandon it again, on Thursday decided he wanted bail after all when he appeared in a Cape Town court. Moegamat Lucas (21) had officials exasperated when he made his ninth appearance in the magistrate’s court.
Three groups of hikers, including foreign tourists, have been mugged while walking above Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, the Table Mountain National Park confirmed on Thursday. Two Dutch hikers, three Australians and two South Africans were robbed in separate incidents of cash, cellphones and jewellery.
Western Cape police declined to comment on Thursday on contradictory news reports that the suspected killers of two-year-old Sonja Brown were about to be arrested, and that an autopsy showed she was not murdered. The reports were carried earlier in the day by a Cape Town newspaper and a local radio station.
South Africa’s refugee system is being abused by those seeking to legalise their stay in the country even though they fall outside the definition of a refugee, Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Johnny de Lange said in Cape Town on Thursday at a meeting regarding the status and treatment of refugees.
While many people dread Friday the 13th, for father and son Norman and Patrick Pieterse it may just be their lucky day. On July 13, Cape Town Regional Court magistrate Johnny Vermeulen is to pronounce them guilty — or not -– of aggravated armed robbery.
There are no major safety concerns about nuclear waste management in South Africa, the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) said in Cape Town on Wednesday. NNR Nuclear Technology and waste programme manager Thiagan Pather was speaking at a public participation forum.
The only people who said crime was out of control in the Western Cape were the Democratic Alliance, Western Cape provincial community safety minister Leonard Ramatlakane said on Wednesday. He said calls for him to step down were ”frivolous” and something to which he would not respond.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday called for a deepening of corporate governance and accountability, saying it was necessary to understand that sound corporate governance was not enough. Manuel was addressing a conference of the International Corporate Governance Network in Cape Town.
Najwa Petersen fired the shot that killed her husband, Taliep, in December last year, the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Wednesday. Investigating officer Captain Joe Dryden gave the court a graphic account of Petersen’s last moments when he was called to testify in opposition to a bail application.
The prevalence of HIV/Aids appears to be dropping, prompting the Department of Health to express optimism on Wednesday about its prevention programmes. Preliminary results from a 2006 survey show a statistically significant decrease in the prevalence of HIV among pregnant women using public hospitals, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said.
Though alleged killer Najwa Petersen was reportedly suicidal, there was no evidence that being in prison would increase the risk, a forensic psychiatrist told the Wynberg Regional Court on Wednesday. Dr Larissa Panieri-Peter was testifying in a bail application by Najwa, accused of masterminding the murder of her husband, entertainer Taliep Petersen, last year.
Entertainer Taliep Petersen died only after two previous murder bids planned by his wife, Najwa, went awry, Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court heard on Tuesday. The claim emerged during a bail application by Najwa and Abdoer Emjedi, one of her three co-accused, in a courtroom packed with about 150 family and members of the public.
The latest crime statistics released on Tuesday prove crime is out of control despite government assurances to the contrary, opposition parties said. ”We are alarmed at the increase in murder [2,4%], the 118% increase in bank robberies … and the sharp increase in robberies at residential premises,” Inkatha Freedom Party spokesperson Velaphi Ndlovu said.
The African National Congress (ANC) is to contest the legality of the decision to reinstate Truman Prince as municipal manager of the Central Karoo district municipality. Western Cape ANC secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha described the move as ”improper and wrong”.
Child Welfare South Africa on Tuesday welcomed the implementation of some sections of the Children’s Act from last Sunday, but also expressed concern about giving young children access to contraceptives. This section stipulates that no person may refuse to sell or distribute free condoms to a child over the age of 12 years.
Najwa Petersen stabbed her husband, Taliep, in the neck the day after she was discharged from psychiatric treatment, the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Tuesday. Najwa, who is appearing with Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders in connection with Taliep’s murder in December last year, is seeking bail.
The Gauteng government’s attempt to negotiate with violent taxi organisations sent out the wrong message about crime, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. The DA’s Gauteng transport spokesperson, James Swart, said bus drivers in Alexandra in Johannesburg had been attacked recently.
Both Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana and his deputy, Mamiki Shai, have vowed to continue their legal tussle until one or the other apologises. In a statement issued by his office on Monday, Mushwana said he had been approached by Kader Asmal ”with a view to encourage a settlement of the court action”.
A Paarl local councillor was stabbed in the cheek with a screwdriver on Monday after cornering an alleged cellphone thief, the Independent Democrats said. Conrad Poole, newly elected ID councillor for Amstelhof, chased the man through the streets of his ward, the party said in a statement.
Six more youths have lost their penises as a result of bungled circumcisions in the Eastern Cape, the provincial health department said on Monday. Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said 18 would-be initiates were admitted to hospital in Port St Johns last week, of whom four had to have their septic penises amputated.
Climate change in South Africa could drive thousands of species to extinction in the next 50 to 80 years, Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena said in Port Elizabeth on Monday. Mangena was opening the annual conference of the Society for Conservation Biology, an organisation that advances the science and practice of conserving biological diversity.
The Western Cape’s newest — and potentially second largest — cycle race, Die Burger Fietstoer, was unveiled on Friday and will take place on Sunday December 2. This road race will take place in and around Stellenbosch and is an official seeding event for the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour.
The Children’s Act is set to come into force on Sunday, except for those sections still needing regulations, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said on Friday. ”The bulk of the Act deals with matters that must be implemented on a practical level, which means that regulations will be required before these matters can be operationalised,” he said in a statement.
One solution to South Africa’s land-reform problem is to make available some of the ”huge tracts” of state-owned land around the country, says Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille. ”This land is currently unproductive, under-utilised and under-resourced,” she said in her weekly newsletter, published on the DA’s SA Today website on Friday.
Independent market research has found that more than two-thirds of Capetonians are in favour of the Green Point Stadium, City of Cape Town officials said on Thursday. ”These are exciting and gratifying scientific results, and it shows a growing excitement in Cape Town,” said the city’s director of service-delivery integration.