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/ 23 November 2007
A siren screams at 12 noon, signalling the start of the weekly sports period at Moremogolo Primary School in Phokeng, Rustenburg. A group of about 50 boys — aged between 11 and 12 — rushes to the school’s storeroom to fetch their rugby kit. There are only 15 rugby tops, which coach Bridge Ramorwa hands out to the most promising players.
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/ 22 November 2007
As Piet Koornhof quietly shuffled of this mortal coil last week, an Eastern Cape man said he still had a question for the apartheid-era Cabinet minister.
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/ 22 November 2007
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The battle for the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) moves one step closer this week to a head-to-head clash between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. While there has been talk of a compromise candidate, one commentator believes that time has run out for that option.
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/ 20 November 2007
Ben Mafani never met Piet Koornhof, who died this week at the age of 82. But he hopes to come face to face with Koornhof in the life hereafter, because he has a question for the apartheid-era Cabinet minister. Mafani wants to know why he, his family, and thousands of other people were forcibly removed from ”white” South Africa three decades ago.
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/ 17 November 2007
Prisoners are preparing to buy maps and plans from Department of Correctional Services officials and warders, a media report said on Friday. The maps apparently detail how the department plans to prevent escapes this festive season, including when and where warders will be on duty.
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/ 16 November 2007
The increase in the number of cases where the Eastern Cape provincial government is contesting the right of poor citizens to access social grants suggests that the majority party is at war with the poor, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday, writing in her weekly newsletter.
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/ 16 November 2007
Murders and rapes are forcing women to abandon their homes in five villages outside Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reports. The residents of Skhobeni, Xhongora, Sigubudwini, Bozwana and Tabase villages claim that these acts of violence against women have been going on since 2003.
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/ 15 November 2007
A South African lottery player is sitting with a R10,9-million winning ticket that has not yet been claimed, National Lottery operator Gidani said on Thursday. The ticket was bought in the Eastern Cape and notched up five winning numbers plus the bonus number in the November 3 draw, Gidani’s spokesperson Themi Tulwana said.
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/ 15 November 2007
Matatiele residents were set to march through Pietermaritzburg on Thursday to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in protest over their incorporation into the Eastern Cape. Matatiele-Maluti Mass Action Organising Committee chairperson Mandla Galo said that at least 45 minibus taxis had transported residents to Pietermaritzburg.
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/ 9 November 2007
Mark Gevisser’s book on Thabo Mbeki is easily the most serious effort by a biographer to get to grips with the elusive leader, writes Drew Forrest.
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/ 9 November 2007
The case against a 36-year-old man accused of murdering 10 KwaZulu-Natal women and dumping their bodies in sugar-cane fields was remanded on Friday in the Umzinto Magistrate’s Court for further investigation. The courtroom was packed with relatives, and outside the court there was a heavy police presence.
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/ 5 November 2007
An Eastern Cape man was on Monday convicted of indecently assaulting and murdering his aunt because she owed him R20. Grahamstown High Court Judge Jeremy Pickering found that Caswell Nkanunu, of Emasimini, murdered Nomanci Taliwe (47), of Elliot, in her house on December 11 2004.
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/ 2 November 2007
The Department of Labour said on Friday that preliminary findings of the ongoing inspections of compliance by the South African iron and steel industry painted a picture of an industry "fraught with high disregard of labour legislation countrywide".
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/ 2 November 2007
More than R7-billion later the Coega Development Corporation appears to be close to securing its first anchor tenant. The Mail & Guardian has learned that PetroSA chief executive Sipho Mkhize and department of minerals and energy director general Sandile Nogxina were set to visit the CDC late this week to discuss housing PetroSA’s mooted R39-billion crude-oil refinery.
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/ 1 November 2007
The district of Matatiele moved a step closer to being permanently incorporated into the Eastern Cape after the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday voted by a narrow margin in favour of the controversial Constitution 13th Amendment Bill. Heated debate between opposition parties and the ruling African National Congress preceded the vote.
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/ 31 October 2007
KwaZulu-Natal opposition parties on Wednesday accused the ruling African National Congress of ignoring the wishes of the residents of Matatiele and forging ahead with the district’s incorporation into the Eastern Cape. The Democratic Alliance (DA) accused the ANC of ”totally ignoring the wishes of the people of Matatiele Maluti”.
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/ 30 October 2007
Survivors of apartheid-era crimes should be involved in investigating those abuses, a non-governmental body proposed on Tuesday. ”Survivors should be treated as a resource for information, and this will play a part in their healing process,” Theresa Edlmann of the Spirals Trust said in Johannesburg.
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/ 30 October 2007
More than 3Â 000 people packed the local soccer stadium in Matatiele as the second day of public hearings on the region’s controversial incorporation into the Eastern Cape started on Tuesday. Matatiele was incorporated into the Eastern Cape on February 28, hours before voting started in the local government election of 2006.
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/ 30 October 2007
At least 500 people packed a local soccer stadium in Matatiele as the second day of public hearings on the region’s controversial incorporation into the Eastern Cape started on Tuesday. Matatiele was incorporated into the Eastern Cape on February 28, hours before voting started in the local government election of 2006.
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/ 29 October 2007
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Cyril Ramaphosa has been formally nominated to lead the African National Congress, media reports said on Monday — though the businessman has maintained he is not interested in the position. The ANC’s Rondebosch branch in Cape Town has nominated Ramaphosa as its candidate in the party’s succession race.
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/ 26 October 2007
Oom Os du Randt — the Springbok loosehead prop — is one of the most experienced sports stars in the country. At the ripe old age of 35 and with two World Cup winners’ medals around his neck, he has a lot to pass on to younger players, especially those who do not know how to handle success and end up in self-destruct mode.
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/ 26 October 2007
With Limpopo still to be accounted for, Eastern Cape provincial government departments are leading the field when it comes to poor accounting, according to figures released by the Auditor General on Friday. Eleven of the province’s 12 departments received qualified audit reports for the 2006/7 financial year, and three of the 11 got an ”adverse” rating.
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/ 25 October 2007
Because of the effect of HIV/Aids on a company’s workforce, corporate social responsibility programmes benefit not only local communities, but also the company’s bottom line. The SA Business Coalition against HIV/Aids, or Sabcoha, says that more than 90% of people with HIV/Aids are workers, managers or employers.
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/ 25 October 2007
With most schools in rural areas facing abject poverty, overcrowding, lack of resources and facilities, the cry for help is loud and desperate. Rural children want to compete on an equal footing with their urban brothers and sisters. Anglo American South Africa has answered this call with its Rural Schools Programme aimed at ameliorating the situation in Limpopo.
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/ 24 October 2007
Life is improving steadily — at least in the area of housing and basic service delivery — for the 48-million people living in South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa. The organisation on Wednesday released the first results of its 2007 Community Survey, based on responses from about 255Â 000 households.
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/ 22 October 2007
Stock theft in South Africa has amounted to R327 676 500 in the past year, the National Stock Theft Forum said on Monday. ”At the moment, stock theft is hampering the profitability of the stock farmers and it is also interfering with the government’s land-reform process, as well as the empowering of the emerging farmers,” the forum said in a statement.
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/ 21 October 2007
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Pride and politics mixed on Sunday as South Africans celebrated their Rugby World Cup final win over England. Festivities continued through the night as South Africans packed fan parks and restaurants and filled the streets with honking cars draped with the national flag.
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/ 18 October 2007
A civic movement on Thursday demanded that a ”degrading and discriminating” Rugby World Cup advert featuring Khoisan people be pulled from the airwaves. ”It degrades our Khoisan indigenous people as illiterate,” said national secretary general of the African Renaissance Civic Movement Richard Huber.
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/ 17 October 2007
Transformation and community engagement in the mining industry is a painful but crucial process, the Chamber of Mines sustainable development conference was told on Wednesday. Richards Bay Minerals’ strategic manager, Thabi Shange, said: ”Transformation is painful, cumbersome … It does not imply an easy ride of free will.”
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/ 12 October 2007
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has pledged his full cooperation with a panel of experts named on Friday to review a criminal probe against him. ”As an individual, I will fully cooperate with the members of the panel as announced … by the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority],” Selebi said in a statement.
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/ 12 October 2007
The names of the panel expected to review the case against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi were released on Friday. The Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Moktedi Mpshe, said the panel would be made up of Frank Dutton, advocate Mbuyiseli Madlanga, Peter Goss and advocate Shamila Batohi.
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/ 11 October 2007
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President Thabo Mbeki’s chances of staying on as leader of South Africa’s ruling party improved on Thursday when the party said the biggest share of regional votes in a leadership contest would go to his stronghold. Mbeki, barred from seeking re-election as national president in 2009, has signalled he intends to stand for a third term as African National Congress (ANC) leader.