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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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/ 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.
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/ 20 February 2004
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The African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party delivered messages of peace as they signed a code of conduct in Durban on Friday with 11 other parties contesting the April elections in KwaZulu-Natal. Several cases of political clashes have recently been reported between the ANC and IFP in KwaZulu-Natal.
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/ 20 February 2004
A second ambulance has been hijacked this week in KwaZulu-Natal after a hoax call, police said on Friday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said the latest incident happened on Thursday night at approximately 10pm in J-Section, Umlazi, near Durban. This first incident took place on Tuesday.
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/ 14 February 2004
The Roman Catholic Emeritus Archbishop of Durban, Denis Eugene Hurley, died on Friday in Durban after returning from a religious celebration. At the age of 31 Hurley became the youngest Catholic bishop in the world at tht time and was hailed as a champion of human rights.
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/ 13 February 2004
A key member of the South African Broadcasting Corporation board personally arranged for the placing of an advertisement for the African National Congress on SABC radio — using his own company to do the booking and earning an agency commission.
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/ 12 February 2004
Seventeen people were badly injured on Thursday when about 7 000 people turned up to apply for 500 jobs at Durban’s new marine theme park, police said. Another 52 job seekers suffered minor injuries. Some of the job seekers, gathered at Durban’s International Convention Centre, were crushed against a steel fence.
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/ 28 January 2004
Representatives of the Inkatha Freedom Party and African National Congress met for talks in Durban on Tuesday, but the talks were inconclusive, ANC national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said. He added that the meeting at Kings House in Durban was regarded ”as a meeting in progress, as always”.
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/ 26 January 2004
The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday criticised the early closure of voter registration stations in the Durban area despite an assurance by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to the contrary. The ANC said it was ”outraged” at the way IEC staff members conducted themselves at the voting stations.
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/ 24 January 2004
Judge President of the Cape, Justice John Hlophe, says the continued use of English and Afrikaans in South African courts is hampering the transformation of justice. The judge said about 90% of cases heard in the lower courts involved indigenous language speakers.
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/ 24 January 2004
South Africa could teach newly democratic countries in Europe a thing or two about the Constitution making progress, although the Europeans are arguably more adept at stimulating economic development, says ambassador Michael Lake, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission in South Africa.
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/ 23 January 2004
A 71-year-old Durban doctor and a 29-year-old woman were arrested on Friday for their involvement in the international smuggling of human tissue, police reported. Trafficking in human tissue and body parts made headlines last year when it was discovered South Africa was a major destination for human body parts.
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/ 18 January 2004
South Africa needs a democratic alternative to win the war against HIV/Aids, unemployment, crime, poverty and to prevent the consolidation of a one-party state, Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Sunday when he unveiled his party’s manifesto and election campaign in Durban.