Kevin Davie recalls the warm hospitality of the people of Lesotho and the variable weather conditions in which they live. The village of Ha Sepechela is pretty remote, comprising about 30 chimneyless huts. Here residents leave the top half of their stable-type doors open to allow smoke to escape.
Poor hygiene may have caused the diarrhoea outbreaks that killed nine babies in the Ndlambe municipal area in the Eastern Cape over the past three months, government departments said on Friday. The Water Affairs Department said although there had been poor water quality, this was neither ”excessive” nor ”severe enough” to cause diarrhoea outbreaks.
A life without foreigners? I woke and switched on the radio for the early morning news. I heard our foreign neighbours have gone back to their African countries. Good news, I said, now there will be peace. I went to the bathroom for a shower to find there was no hot water. I needed a […]
An investment of R42-million was placed into a project for a medical aid for ex-miners on Thursday. The agreement aims to improve public health facilities that will be largely utilised by ex-miners in South Africa and neighbouring countries, for the benefit of medical examinations.
The death toll for the Eastern Cape bus crash stood at 22, including five children, police announced on Wednesday. The bus — which belongs to a private bus company — careened down a 200m embankment into a river near the town of Cedarville on Tuesday. During the course of the day, there were conflicting reports of how many people had been killed, ranging from 20 to 30.
At least 24 people were killed and scores more injured in the Eastern Cape when a bus careened down a 200m embankment into a river near the town of Cedarville. Police spokesperson Superintendent Zandra Wiid said it was not known how many people were in the bus. Unconfirmed reports said there were as many as 80.
One month after her appointment, the new director general of water affairs and forestry, Pam Yako has come out fighting — promising she will target water-guzzling operators, including in the mining and forestry industries, in an attempt to prevent water becoming as critically threatened a resource as energy.
Thousands of people marched through Johannesburg on Saturday, calling for an end to the violence that has killed at least 50 African migrants and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. People in Hillbrow, home to many African immigrants, cheered the march, which was organised by churches and labour unions.
The blackened fragments spread out on the table look at first glance like no more than a scattering of charcoal, left over from a long-dead fire. But on closer examination one sees that the fragments are grouped, and that each group has its own printed label. In one corner, in a plastic lunchbox-type container, are the smallest fragments of all.
Argentina’s Damian Marchiano is reputed to be one of the toughest bantamweights around. And come May 31 at Emperors Palace, fans will learn just how tough when he challenges Silence Mabuza for the latter’s IBO bantamweight title. Not that the diminutive Mabuza is too worried about his latest challenger, having had his eyes firmly set on a unification bout later this year.
Experts say the often chaotic land reform programme has compromised food production: white farmers facing land claims are reluctant to plant crops, while emerging black farmers have insufficient training and support to produce the quantities of food needed by the domestic market.
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma has received support from alliance partners to run for presidential elections, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Sunday. ”We will not only be accompanying him to court but to the Union Buildings as the next president of South Africa,” he said, announcing the outcome of an alliance.
A 36-year old man, accused of murdering eleven KwaZulu-Natal women and dumping their bodies in sugarcane fields, will be tried in the Ramsgate High Court. Thozamile Taki and his alleged accomplice Hlengiwe Nene appeared briefly in the Umzinto Magistrate’s Court on Friday, where Magistrate Giel van Aarde ordered that they be held in custody until the trial starts on November 17.
The Department of Health and the Department of Water Affairs are still collecting door-to-door information on the outbreak of diarrhoea in the Eastern Cape which cost 78 children’s lives, the provincial government said on Thursday. Spokesperson Papama Mfenyana said the province was still waiting for information from the team on the ground.
Salaries should increase on average by about 11,8% in 2008, an employment report released on Thursday shows. ”Higher inflation makes for high salary increases,” said economist Mike Schussler, who compiled the report for the United Association of South Africa trade union.
Bones collected from an Eastern Cape farm suspected to be that of the Pebco Three will be examined, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Thursday. The NPA said it found around 12kg of bone material, identified out of 250kg of burnt material.
Water contamination was a factor in the death of nearly 80 babies in the Eastern Cape, the provincial government said on Wednesday. An interim report acknowledged that a ”multiplicity of causes”, including ”systematic failures affecting water quality”, were to blame for the deaths of the babies, said the provincial government in a statement.
South Africa had a ”persisting inability” to deal with the legacy of inferior health, education and other social infrastructure for working-class communities, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Saturday.
Almost on the stroke of midnight last Sunday, a giant of the liberation struggle — but also a top-class mathematician and a trained traditional healer — drew his last breath. Lieutenant General Andrew Masondo, or ”Comrade Dillinger”, as he was widely known, finally succumbed to long illness.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) will monitor investigations into the cause of the deaths of nearly 80 Eastern Cape babies, the body announced on Friday. Earlier this week, reports emerged that 78 children from the Eastern Cape had died as a result of diarrhoea allegedly caused by contaminated water.
It has been a busy few weeks at the South African Rugby Union (Saru). At the end of March Saru’s AGM mandated Oregan Hoskins to remain as president for the next two years. Hoskins rebuffed a challenge for the presidency from his vice-president, Mike Stofile, and then lambasted his opponent for saying: ”There is no place for black people in South African rugby.”
An intensive investigation is under way to establish whether contaminated water in the Eastern Cape caused the death of nearly 80 children, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Thursday. Earlier this week, media reports said nearly 80 children from the towns of Barkly East, Maclear, Sterkspruit and Elliot had died from diarrhoea and other complications.
There is no conclusive evidence that water problems caused the death of 78 children in the Eastern Cape, the Ukhahlamba district municipality said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Dispatch Online said nearly 80 children had died in the Eastern Cape district due to unsafe tap water, and authorities had failed to take any action.
Cold and stormy weather that hit the Eastern Cape on the weekend has claimed three lives so far, police said on Monday. Two men apparently died from the cold near Mthatha on Sunday, while a woman was killed in a storm in the province’s Ngcobo area. By Monday afternoon, snow that had been falling over the province overnight was beginning to clear up.
A woman was killed and three other people injured during an overnight storm in Ngcobo in the Eastern Cape, police said on Sunday. Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said the woman (64) died when strong winds collapsed her home. ”There is lots of damage. Roofs were ripped off homes, whole structures came down, cars were damaged,” he said.
Snow is expected to fall on the high ground of the Eastern Cape this weekend, the South African Weather Service said on Friday. A cold, wet weekend is expected throughout most of the province. Heavy rains of 50mm plus in 24 hours are expected along the coastal belt and adjacent interior on Sunday.
Government departments have generally continued to underspend on their budgets since 2004, the Public Service Commission said on Thursday. Meanwhile, a national government team is to be deployed to help the embattled Eastern Cape housing department fulfil its mandate.
Wintry weather conditions are expected to appear this weekend, the South African Weather Service said on Wednesday. ”The first outbreak of cold weather this year will occur from Saturday, taking more effect on Sunday,” said forecaster Puseletso Mofokeng. He said rain-free conditions were expected until Friday.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Friday accused President Thabo Mbeki’s government of deliberately seeking to emasculate the African National Congress. A new style of political leadership is required, he told the National Union of Metalworkers in the Eastern Cape.
The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) will stage the first of a series of protests against rising food prices in a march through Polokwane in Limpopo on Sunday, spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Friday. Besides drawing attention to rising food prices, the protesters will also complain about the electricity crisis.
Jeremy Kuper speaks to Simphiwe Dana, who performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London recently, and brought down the house.
The Eastern Cape health department will not recognise nurses trained at illegal nursing schools because the schools do not train quality nurses, the department said on Thursday. Departmental spokesperson Siyanda Manana said such institutions are not accredited by the South African Nursing Council.