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/ 17 September 2007
The name Grahamstown is a step closer to being renamed after a Makana council meeting resolved that ”Grahamstown must go”. Makana mayor Phumelelo Kate told Grocott’s Mail on Monday that the name change proposal was based on historical reasons.
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/ 17 September 2007
South Africa’s decision to invest in a nuclear power future has raised concerns about what will happen to the nuke waste generated. Last week it emerged that nuclear power would account for about half of Eskom’s planned new generating capacity. At present South Africa’s nuclear waste policy is vague and does not list a clear end-plan of what will happen to high-level nuclear waste.
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/ 16 September 2007
Businessman Tokyo Sexwale has reiterated that infighting within the African National Congress (ANC) would destroy the party, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Sunday. Sexwale was addressing the Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans’ Association in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.
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/ 15 September 2007
As the floor-crossing window drew to a close on Saturday, sole Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) representative in the national legislature, Motsoko Pheko, denounced the floor-crossing practice as ”political prostitution”. ”Floor-crossing cheats voters — it robs them of the mandate they have given to a political party of their choice,” he said.
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/ 14 September 2007
Jocelyn Creed started playing rugby in 2002 with Villagers Rugby Club. She played Western Province rugby for three seasons. Then she was appointed to manage Villagers ladies’ team and the Western Province ladies’ team during their season. Creed and her friends noticed the lack of attention paid to women’s rugby and opened Ntombi Rugby Academy in May last year.
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/ 11 September 2007
The Social Assistance Act unfairly discriminates against a group of men who are among the poorest of the poor in South Africa, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday. The Act entitled men to apply for state old-age pensions, based on a needs test, when they reached the age of 65, but entitled women to start receiving the pension at the of 60.
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/ 8 September 2007
A head-on collision between a truck and a bus killed 13 people and seriously injured four others in the Eastern Cape on Saturday. Emergency workers were trying to extract two other passengers from the wreckage while two men and two women had been taken to hospital.
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/ 8 September 2007
Separated conjoined twins Danielle and Danika Lowton remained in a stable condition on Saturday having survived a successful 16-hour operation to separate them. Arwyp Medical Centre Private Hospital spokesperson Henry du Plooy said the twins were being monitored constantly.
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/ 5 September 2007
The Pan African Congress (PAC) on Wednesday became the first casualty of the floor-crossing season as its former deputy president launched a new party. Themba Godi announced the launch of the African People’s Convention (APC) at a hotel near Kempton Park. APC spokesperson Mafemane Maringa said the party had been joined by 40 councillors.
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/ 4 September 2007
The embattled Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has suffered a further blow with the defection of its deputy president Themba Godi and two MPLs to the newly formed African People’s Convention (APC). Godi’s move to the APC was announced by National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete at the start of proceedings on Tuesday.
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/ 3 September 2007
Police officers who reportedly took part in a meat free-for-all near King William’s Town last month have been cleared from any charges. The incident followed an accident in which a truck loaded with pigs overturned. Onlookers apparently then killed the pigs and police officers at the scene allegedly did not take any action.
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/ 2 September 2007
Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday said he has no interest in joining the African National Congress presidential succession race — this after the Sunday Times reported that Ramaphosa had joined the race. ”I have no interest in standing for this position,” he said in a statement.
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/ 2 September 2007
Seven awaiting-trial prisoners have escaped from an Mthatha jail, Eastern Cape police said on Saturday. Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said the men — arrested for crimes such as murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, theft and assault — had escaped from their cell at Wellington prison between 10pm and 11pm on Friday.
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/ 2 September 2007
Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa has joined the African National Congress (ANC) presidential succession race, according to weekend media reports. The ANC’s powerful OR Tambo district in the Eastern Cape has formally stated that it will nominate Ramaphosa for the presidency. Regional secretary Mlamli Siyakholwa said that "we have been lobbying Ramaphosa, I must admit".
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/ 1 September 2007
A number of local councillors and one member of a provincial legislature have crossed over to the Democratic Alliance (DA) since the floor-crossing window opened at midnight, DA federal chairperson James Selfe said on Saturday. ”There is a steady trickle of people to us, but it’s a trickle, not a flood, and that’s as we anticipated it,” he said.
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/ 1 September 2007
Archbishop Desmond Tutu berated South Africa’s government on Friday over delays in introducing an HIV/Aids drug treatment plan and said its leaders’ unorthodox views had led to unnecessary deaths. Recalling fallen anti-apartheid heroes, the Nobel peace laureate said they would be shocked by the devastation caused by the pandemic, which he said was killing 900 people every day.
The Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area is grappling with an increasing number of tuberculosis (TB) cases, with about 250 new patients being admitted to the Livingstone and Dora Nginza hospitals each month. In addition to this, over 200 new multidrug-resistant TB patients are transported from throughout the province to the Jose Pearson Hospital in Bethelsdorp each month.
Nedbank is making things happen in a number of rural communities in the Eastern Cape. It has opened a mobile branch in Centane and another branch, called the Green Shop, will open as soon as it is built. Working with Pick ‘n Pay Group stores, Nedbank has opened an in-store branch at Boxer Superstores, one of the Pick ‘n Pay Group stores.
Fraud, theft and unauthorised spending are on the rise in government departments, according to a Public Service Commission (PSC) report tabled at Parliament on Tuesday. The PSC’s Report on Financial Misconduct for the 2005/06 Financial Year says this cost the taxpayer at least R45-million at the time.
An internal investigation has been completed into the conduct of South African Police Service officers at an accident scene near King William’s Town earlier this month where a truck carrying 211 pigs had overturned. Onlookers apparently stormed the truck and killed the pigs — of which some were still alive — for meat.
The African National Congress government is ruthlessly extracting every cent it can from former deputy minister of health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge while the health minister is spending exorbitant amounts of public money unnecessarily on helicopters to travel around the Eastern Cape, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
For some time now there has been a sustained discourse on ”succession”. Because Thabo Mbeki is constitutionally prohibited from another term as president of the country, the person likely to succeed him must be ”identified” in advance in order to facilitate a smooth transition. Or so we are told, writes Monde Nkasawe.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday thumbed her nose at her critics, saying she was there to stay. The media quoted her as telling reporters in East London she would not resign amid accusations that she is an alcoholic who abused her position to get a liver transplant. ”I’m not stepping down,” the minister said.
The South African Medical Association (Sama) said on Wednesday that the ”whistle-blowing” on the part of a doctor at East London’s Frere Hospital was an ethical and responsible intervention. Professor Denise White, acting chairperson of Sama, said investigations were needed to establish whether or not the rights of patients had been further violated.
Seeing buses full of tourists looking for a glimpse of South African poverty, squatter camp resident Lawrence Rolomana decided to try to earn a share of the cash they were spending. Bored and jobless, the 22-year-old approached the tour guides and asked: ”Can you please share your guests with us?”
The number of foreign tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 10% ahead of Tourism Month in September, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Tuesday. ”South Africa is following the global trend with a rise in travel and tourism to our country. Overall foreign arrivals grew by 10% from January to May 2007,” he said.
Go by bike from Pietermaritzburg to the Cape and no end of people will express surprise at your undertaking. Some will offer an opinion on your sanity. On day 13, in the part of the Karoo known as the Camdeboo, this fellow stops his car and does just that. Now he gets out and introduces himself, writes the Mai & Guardian’s Kevin Davie.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Saturday she does not know who her new deputy will be. She was touring Durban’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital to see what improvements had taken place at the hospital’s maternity and neonatal wards where a klebsiella outbreak claimed the lives of 22 babies in 2005.
The Eastern Cape government has rejected a claim by a suspended hospital official that 200 babies have been dying every month at East London’s two largest hospitals. The former deputy manager of the East London Hospital Complex, Dr Nokuzola Ntshona, made the claim in an interview published in the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.
Fervent efforts are being made by Nkosinathi Joyi’s camp to prevent the International Boxing Organisation (IBO) from stripping him of his mini-flyweight title — this after reports emerged that the IBO was on the verge of relieving the unbeaten East London fighter of the title for failing to defend it since winning it in November last year.
Outspoken workers in the public health sector are being gagged by the government, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) said on Wednesday. A spokesperson said suspensions within the sector and the dismissal of the deputy health minister suggest that free speech needs ”intensive care”.
The suspension of hospital superintendent Nokuzola Ntshona has created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among conscientious public officials, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) said on Wednesday. ”The PSAM is gravely concerned by the precedent set by the suspension,” it said.