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/ 4 December 2007
KwaZulu-Natal traffic authorities on Tuesday launched their holiday road-safety plan by announcing a high-tech new system to trap speeding motorists and identify stolen vehicles. The summer holiday brings increased activity as locals, visitors and tourists traverse the length and breadth of the province.
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/ 4 December 2007
A civil society organisation says it is to launch Equality Court proceedings on behalf of an Eastern Cape youth said to have been forcibly circumcised. It claims the youth was subjected to traditional circumcision in March this year after he had himself circumcised at East London’s Frere Hospital three months earlier.
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/ 4 December 2007
The Breede River Valley in the Western Cape is known as a fertile farming area that hosts internationally renowned vineyards, picturesque fruit orchards and tourist farm stalls, but a visit to Ashton’s Zolani township quickly scrapes away the lush veneer to reveal the reality of unemployment, poverty and hunger for many of its inhabitants.
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/ 3 December 2007
Negligence or malpractice at public hospitals has cost the Health Department millions of rands in damages awards over the past few years, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has said. However, such cases are rare exceptions to the usually excellent care provided, she said in a written reply to a parliamentary question by Gareth Morgan of the Democratic Alliance.
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/ 3 December 2007
Nineteen beaches around the country are set to benefit from a massive clean-up of South Africa’s coastline during the festive season, Vodacom announced on Monday. Beaches in the Eastern and Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal will benefit from the third annual Vodacom Beach Clean-Up Campaign, which will run over 23 days, starting on December 15.
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/ 29 November 2007
An extra R87-million has been allocated to help people living in extreme poverty, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said on Thursday. The money was in addition to funds already given to provinces for relief, he told reporters after meeting provincial ministers of social development in Durban.
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/ 28 November 2007
A plant found only in the Eastern Cape has been hailed as a new miracle cure for diabetes, the Herald Online reported on Wednesday. Researchers said ”astounding results” had been obtained from the effect of extracts of the Karoo plant Sutherlandia Frutescens in stabilising blood sugar in diabetes one and two.
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/ 28 November 2007
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A constitutional crisis. Instability. Business as usual. Disillusionment. The jury was out on South Africa’s immediate political future at the Mail & Guardian‘s Critical Thinking Forum held in Johannesburg on Tuesday evening. Will the African National Congress’s Polokwane conference bring popular change or business as usual?
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/ 27 November 2007
More than 28 000 animals were stolen from farms around the country over the past 18 months, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. Less than 40% of the stock — including game, cattle, sheep and goats — was recovered, DA rural safety spokesperson Ryno King said in a statement.
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/ 27 November 2007
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The African National Congress’s (ANC) Women’s League late on Monday nominated deputy leader Jacob Zuma as its candidate to head up the organisation, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. Their backing for Zuma for the top job comes after the ANC Youth League on Friday also nominated Zuma.
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/ 26 November 2007
Absa and the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to speed up the provision of housing in several provinces. Absa has committed R2,6-billion for the building of 100Â 000 units by 2010. The bank has also committed an additional R150-million for project preparations.
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/ 26 November 2007
Manenberg police station in Cape Town is one of the best-run in the country, while those at Verena in Mpumalanga, KwaMashu in KwaZulu-Natal, and Inyibiba and Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape are among the worst. These are the findings of a Democratic Alliance study highlighting South Africa’s police stations and the service they offer.
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/ 26 November 2007
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The African National Congress Women’s League is to finalise its nominations for the party’s leadership on Monday. Earlier, it was reported that the women’s league favoured Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. The league, however, refuted this saying it would ”speak for itself” once it had consolidated the provincial nominations.
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/ 25 November 2007
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On December 16, delegates to the 52nd national conference of the African National Congress will meet in Polokwane to decide if President Thabo Mbeki should have a third term as party president and, with it, power over the party’s MPs. In the meantime, every day brings more intrigue in the succession race.
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/ 23 November 2007
Tsitsikamma district residents in the Eastern Cape are being evacuated by Cacadu’s disaster management due to heavy rains, the South African Weather Service said on Friday. ”The R61 and R62 are still closed. One lane is open on the N2 between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town,” spokesperson Garth Sampson said.
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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.