Struggle stalwart Ncumisa Kondlo was a warrior, revolutionary and patriot, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma said at her funeral in the Eastern Cape on Saturday. It was with ”deep sorrow and sadness” that she was laid to rest, Zuma told dignitaries, families and friends who gathered to mourn her at her village of Ndwayana.
It was straight from the Jonas Savimbi School of daylight robbery. With the ballot papers counted and the unrigged result declared, cue dummy-spitting, foul-crying toy tosser. Mike Stofile’s ”there is no place for blacks in South African rugby” is the most predictable post-South African Rugby Union (Saru) presidential election utterance since unification.
Nineteen boys were rescued from an Eastern Cape initiation school on Tuesday, police said. Captain Mduduzi Godlwana said the 19 boys at an initiation school in Mgodini were found to be in a serious condition.
In the latest blow to South Africans already reeling from scheduled load-shedding, entire cities will now be plunged into darkness as Eskom institutes even more extreme power cuts. The shock development, which will be known as sector-sharing, will see the country divided into four vertical zones, each spanning many thousands of square kilometres.
Four boys died after they were rescued from initiation schools in the Eastern Cape, the provincial health department said on Monday. Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said that in a joint ongoing operation, which started on Friday, 87 boys were rescued from illegal initiation schools.
Most of us are multifaceted beings — we expose our different sides in our interaction with different people. Others might have known Ncumisa Kondlo differently, but I was among those who experienced her as an open, lively, engaging, funny, perceptive, determined person.
More than 30 tuberculosis (TB) patients used their illness to scare security and nursing personnel as they ran away from a hospital in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Tuesday. Twenty-five patients with multidrug-resistant TB and eight with extreme drug-resistant TB overpowered guards at the Jose Pearson Hospital on Thursday last week.
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Attitudes towards Jacob Zuma becoming president of South Africa appear to have shifted slightly in his favour, a survey of 2Â 000 people indicates. People were asked in February to agree or disagree with the statement: ”If Jacob Zuma becomes president in 2009, it will bring disaster to South Africa”, TNS Research Surveys said on Tuesday.
Ncumisa Kondlo, a member of the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) and deputy chairperson of the South African Communist Party, died in East London on Monday, the ANC said. Kondlo was elected to the NEC in December 2007 and also served on the party’s national working committee.
At least 21 drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients — who ran away from a Port Elizabeth hospital last week — returned on the weekend, Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Monday. On Thursday, 33 drug-resistant TB patients forced their way out of the Jose Pearson Hospital.
For thousands of patients quarantined for up to a year with multidrug-resistant or extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, the Easter holiday period only reinforces their loneliness. Last December, patients in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape broke out of TB hospitals to be with their families during the festive season.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients have again staged a mass breakout from Port Elizabeth’s TB hospital. The Eastern Cape health department’s Sizwe Kupelo said on Sunday the department was looking for 21 patients from a group of 33 who had forced their way out of Jose Pearson Hospital on Thursday.
Two people died and three were injured — two of them seriously — in a three-car pile-up on the N1 south near the Grasmere toll plaza on Saturday night. Netcare 911 has responded to more than 280 accidents on the country’s roads since the start of the Easter weekend, said spokesperson Nick Dollman.
Four people died and 16 were injured — one critically — in Cape Town on Saturday morning in one of more than 285 accidents on the country’s roads since the start of the Easter weekend. In Durbaniville, Netcare 911 spokesperson Nick Dollman said a car collided with a minibus taxi in the early hours of Saturday.
Eskom has applied for a 53% hike in electricity tariffs, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa announced on Tuesday. It said it had received the application earlier in the day. Eskom is seeking this hike in place of the 14,2% increase it was granted in December last year.
Eastern Cape health minister Nomsa Jajula is in hot water after failing to appear on a radio show that cost the government almost R13 000 for the slot, the Dispatch Online reported on Tuesday. The week before, provincial social development minister Sam Kwelita also missed his appointment.
The state has called for a life sentence for an 18-year-old Eastern Cape youth convicted of raping a 14-year-old mentally ill girl and raping and murdering a girl of 10. Appearing in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday before Judge Cecil Somyalo was Lunga Tata, of Tyoksville, Bathurst.
The former secretary general of the South African National Civics Organisation, Thozamile Gwanya, has been appointed Director General of Agriculture and Land Affairs, the department said on Monday. Gwanya, who matriculated in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, holds a BCom degree from the University of Transkei.
A third person has been arrested in connection with the murders of 18 people in the Mzamba area in the Eastern Cape, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday. A special police task team set up to investigate the murders arrested the man in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.
Bestselling author Eoin Colfer, whose Artemis Fowl series of action-fantasy novels has sold more than nine million copies worldwide, may well wish to operate under a cloak of secrecy — as his famous teenaged creation does — when he arrives in South Africa this week.
A 57-year-old German tourist died at St Francis Bay when he apparently choked on his food at a restaurant, Eastern Cape police said. Victor Bhor was at a restaurant on Sunday when the incident occurred, said Inspector Gerda Swart. She said Bhor’s friends, who accompanied him to dinner, tried to assist him but were not successful.
If you’re worried about rocketing petrol prices — which hit R8,25 a litre in Gauteng last week and are set to increase further — you can take some comfort from the fact that reform of the fuel sector is finally under way, with the promise of a freer, more efficient fuel market kicking in early next year.
Hundreds of members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) were arrested on Thursday after invading the Nelson Mandela 2010 Stadium in Port Elizabeth, the union said. Branch chairperson Nomvula Hadi said workers were leaving the stadium when police opened fire with rubber bullets and teargas.
The government’s failure to extend the child-support grant to all vulnerable children under the age of 18 will leave about two million children without social support for the foreseeable future. Last month’s budget, which capped the age for children on the grant at 15 from January next year, was severely criticised by civil society.
Four accidents on Monday claimed the lives of 31 people in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), prompting the province’s premier to declare this coming Thursday a day of mourning. KwaZulu-Natal health spokesperson Leon Mbangwa said a collision between a coal truck and a minibus taxi near Dundee claimed the lives of 15 people, while another 12 were killed on the outskirts of Durban.
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/ 29 February 2008
Media24 on Friday announced the closure of the Gauteng and Free State editions of its Afrikaans tabloid, Son, citing weak growth prospects. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape additions would continue to publish, a statement from Fergus Sampson, CEO of the emerging markets division, said.
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/ 29 February 2008
A passenger rail service between East London and Mthatha will be inaugurated this weekend, Eastern Cape provincial transport minister Thobile Mhlahlo said on Friday. The Kei Rail Service would start operating on Saturday, transporting 216 passengers between the two towns, he said.
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/ 29 February 2008
The possible loss of 6 900 jobs at Gold Fields mining company will affect more than 50 000 additional South Africans, deepening the economic impact beyond the numerical cuts alone. According to research by the mineworkers’ union, NUM, each miner supports an average of between six to 10 dependants.
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/ 24 February 2008
Western Province (WP) laboured to a 51-7 Vodacom Cup victory over the Griffons at Bellville South on Saturday afternoon, after leading 32-0 at the break. In Wellington, the Boland Kavaliers scored an unconvincing 31-22 win over the Valke, and the Leopards ran out a comfortable 32-14 win over Eastern Province in Port Elizabeth.
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/ 22 February 2008
Provinces will receive R238-billion this year, a whopping 16% higher than last year’s allocation. By 2010/11, provincial budgets will have doubled on their 2004/05 levels. All increases to key portfolios outstrip inflation by significant margins. But will they spend it well?
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/ 21 February 2008
Percy Zvomuya reports on the recipients of the Academic and Non-Fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa grants.
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/ 21 February 2008
Education Minister Naledi Pandor wore the broadest smile among her counterparts on Wednesday as Finance Minister Trevor Manuel was once again in a generous mood towards her department. But some education analysts are sceptical about provinces’ capacity to deliver on disbursing the billions allocated to general education.