South Africa’s top Catholic bishop said on Monday he cannot understand why the South African government is not considering sanctions against neighbouring Zimbabwe, given the success that sanctions brought for South Africa. ”What further suffering will sanctions bring to the people of Zimbabwe?” the bishop asked, pointing out that he is not calling directly for sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Aids activists in South Africa hope that the inclusion of sex workers in an HIV research project will draw attention to the need for outreach programmes targeting this often marginalised group. About 600 female sex workers in and around Durban in KwaZulu-Natal are expected to participate in the study.
The wife of Malan Moyo, one of the South Africans among the 70 suspected mercenaries being detained in Zimbabwe, died in Phalaborwa on Wednesday, a KwaZulu-Natal radio station reported on Friday. Moyo’s daughter said that they have been battling to get word of her mother’s death to her father.
The installation of ”intelligent road studs”, along a notorious stretch of road in KwaZulu-Natal, has seen accidents drop so dramatically that the province’s transport department has just had them installed on another stretch of highway. The studs have seen fatalities drop from 27 in the seven months prior to the start of installation in October 2002, to one.
Ben Shabalala, a member of South Africa’s most famous a cappella ensemble, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, was shot and killed in unknown circumstances, the group’s record company said. He was in his late 40s. Shabalala, whose brother Joseph founded and still leads the group, was killed on June 16 in a Durban suburb.
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosutho Buthelezi maintained on Friday that irregularities in the last general election "may have robbed the IFP of victory in KwaZulu-Natal". The party withdrew its case in the Electoral Court because it would be difficult to prove, not because it retracted its claims of widespread irregularities, Buthelezi told a rally in Durban.
About 5 000 people have been left homeless after more than 200 shacks burned down at the Slovo informal settlement in KwaMbonambi on KwaZulu-Natal’s north coast, police said on Monday. Umfolozi police spokesperson Superintendent Jay Naicker said it was believed that a candle left unattended in one of the shacks caused the fire, which quickly spread through the settlement on Sunday night.
Drug dealers are now targeting KwaZulu-Natal primary school children, a Durban police spokesperson said on Thursday. He said the mainly Nigerian drug lords recruit runners to infiltrate the schools. ”It’s not only in Durban but in the whole of the province. There isn’t a school they do not target.”
A 16-year-old KwaZulu-Natal schoolboy has died after allegedly being beaten by his principal, police said on Tuesday. Mthokozisi Zuma, a grade 10 pupil at Phezulu High School in Hammarsdale, was beaten with a stick, allegedly by his principal as
punishment for coming late to school. The boy was taken to a nearby clinic where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The Shembe church in Inanda, Durban, is laying claim to the vuvuzela horn, which has become the ubiquitous symbol of South African soccer. A spokesperson said on Tuesday that the horn was first used by Prophet Isaiah Shembe in 1910 and since then church members have been using it when they dance during worshipping.
More than 1Â 000 pharmacists and University of KwaZulu-Natal pharmacy students, chanting ”save our profession” and waving placards, gathered outside Durban City Hall on Thursday. The protesters said they were protesting against the ramifications of the government’s new medicine pricing laws and dispensing licences.
Fighting poverty and creating a climate for growth and development are the key challenges facing Durban, eThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba said in his budget speech on Wednesday. ”The budget represents continuity and change. We continue to … build our people and growing the economy,” said Mlaba.
Black economic empowerment, poverty, education, HIV/Aids, tourism and the Soccer World Cup in 2010 were some of the issues KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele touched on in his ”state of the province” address in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday. He plans to pay particular attention to broad-based economic empowerment.
Police on Monday dispersed more than 800 protesters and 150 taxis that blocked Durban’s Mangosuthu Highway on Monday morning, police said. The blockade caused chaos as commuters could not use the M4 to and from Umlazi and Durban International airport early on Monday morning.
An investigation into how 35 awaiting trial prisoners managed to escape from Durban’s Westville prison in broad daylight, using a warder’s vehicle, was launched on Wednesday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Vish Naidoo said eight of the men, wielding knives, overpowered the prison warden and a police officer.
Kidnap victim Jameel Pandor is back at his parents’ Durban home after being treated in hospital following his release, his father said on Friday. Pandor senior, a wealthy businessman, said his son had been kept blindfolded and handcuffed throughout his ordeal, but had otherwise been treated quite well.
South African National Parks (Sanparks) announced on Monday the launch of the organisation’s newest park — the Mapungubwe National Park. Previously known as Vhembe Dongola National Park, the Mapungubwe National Park is situated in Musina, north-east of Polokwane, the capital of the Limpopo province.
The Inkatha Freedom Party has lashed out at City Press for running the front page lead article on Sunday headlined I quit! – Buthelezi, saying it is ”fictitious and completely without any foundation”. The article said a ”distraught” Buthelezi had announced he would step down as party president, saying last month’s election results were a vote of no confidence in his leadership.
Prince Nelisuzulu Benedict Buthelezi, son of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Princess Irene Buthelezi, has died. In a statement issued on Thursday his family said Buthelezi (53) passed away on Wednesday. Prince Nelisuzulu Buthelezi was born on March 21, 1951, and died at King George V Hospital in Durban. The cause of death was not disclosed.
South Africa’s million-plus people of Indian origin complain that a controversial scheme to uplift people marginalised under apartheid is working against them. The bone of contention for this relatively small but economically and politically important group is the black economic empowerment programme.
Before the Titanic, there was the Waratah. A luxury passenger liner on her maiden voyage, she was coal-fired and boasted eight watertight compartments. They said she was unsinkable. On July 27 1909 the Waratah was rounding South Africa, halfway through her voyage from Australia to England, when she vanished.
![]()
Preliminary election results in hotly contested KwaZulu-Natal show that just over 60% of the province’s voters cast their ballots on Wednesday. Provincial electoral officer Mawethu Mosery told reporters in Durban on Thursday that around two-million of the province’s 3,8-million registered voters had gone to the polls.
![]()
Allegations of political violence and vote rigging continued in KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday morning. Incidents included the shooting of a Democratic Alliance councillor, security forces evacuating African National Congress party agents, and the Inkatha Freedom Party laying another complaint of irregularities with election authorities.
KwaZulu-Natal: Two-million voted
![]()
Claims that Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota will be KwaZulu-Natal’s premier after the election are not true, African National Congress provincial leader S’bu Ndebele said on Sunday at a rally in KwaMashu. Ndebele said the claims — in a pamphlet circulating in the northern parts of the province — shocked him.
Special Report: Elections 2004
A row is brewing over the award of a five-year R26-million contract to manage Durban’s city centre street parking — and over the contents of a report by the eThekwini Metro ombudsman that allegedly confirmed irregularities in the adjudication of the tender.
Blowing the whistle-blowers
![]()
Members of the African National Congress have laid about 20 charges of intimidation, assault and disruption of political events against other political parties in KwaZulu-Natal in the run-up to the April 14 election, the ANC said on Monday.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The case of controversial Durban businessman Schabir Shaik was postponed in the city’s magistrate’s court on Friday to January 17 next year. Friday’s case relates to Shaik allegedly being in possession of minutes of a Cabinet meeting on the multibillion-rand arms deal.
Norway will give South Africa about R235-million under a five-year bilateral cooperation agreement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. The two countries’ foreign affairs ministers met on Friday for the annual consultations that were set out in the memorandum of understanding of 1996 between the two countries.
The victory of African slaves over French rule in Haiti in the 1800s should be used by Africans to inspire them to address successfully the challenges facing them across the world, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. He was spreaking at the Sixth African Renaissance Conference in Durban.
The government is concerned by reports that the risk of infectious diseases was high in prisons as a result of rapes, says Health Minister Manto Tshabalala Msimang. She says HIV/Aids was reported to be high in prisons, especially among male inmates, because of the rape cases that were reported.
No image available
/ 23 February 2004
An African National Congress activist was shot dead near Umkhomazi, south of Durban, on Friday, according to a statement from the party. The ANC said it believed two out of five attackers who were party to the murder of 25-year-old Sifiso Msomi, were local Inkatha Freedom Party activists.