Vusi Mahlasela, Simphiwe Dana and Siphokazi Maraqana vie for the big one at this year’s South African Music Awards ceremony, writes Nadia Neophytou.
A 47-year-old man has died of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in the Eastern Cape, bringing the number of deaths to 14 since November, the provincial health department said on Thursday. It also denied reports that XDR-TB patients were walking around freely at a hospital in the province.
Former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla has dedicated his graduation from Grahamstown’s Rhodes University to his grandfather and late father Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005. The graduation ceremony comes only days before another historic moment in Mandla’s life.
A candidate for a post on the bench of the Cape High Court faced tough questioning at the Judicial Service Commission on Tuesday over her claim that judicial appointments were often steeped in racial and gender prejudice. Advocate Nona Goso was also quizzed over incidents in which she appeared to have signed off review cases without reading them.
The number of people killed on South African roads over the Easter weekend has risen to 181, the Department of Transport said on Monday night. Of the 181 people who lost their lives in 143 crashes, 41 were drivers, 71 were passengers and 69 were pedestrians, spokesperson Ntau Letebele said.
A deaf-and-dumb woman was raped, allegedly by two men, in Butterworth on Saturday morning, Eastern Cape police said. The 20-year-old grade-11 pupil from Gauteng, on holiday in the area, was accompanied to her family’s house following a party in the Bungeni informal settlement, said Captain Jackson Manatha.
Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan has paid tribute to renowned academic Professor Archibald Monwabisi Mafeje, who died in Pretoria on March 26. ”The demise of a pioneering intellectual powerhouse will always be a great loss to a nation,” Jordan said in a statement.
The use of government-issued condoms as business cards at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees in Oudtshoorn has irked Eastern Cape authorities. The culprit was a T-shirt and clothing company, Gooi Mielies, which was distributing promotional stickers stuck on to free government condoms.
Eastern Cape traditional leaders want the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to slaughter an animal to apologise for screening a documentary on circumcision, media reports said on Wednesday. The leaders found SABC1’s drama Umthunzi Wentaba insulting because it stripped the tradition of its secrecy and sacredness.
The Transport Ministry on Wednesday called on motorists to drive carefully over the Easter weekend. Among others, main routes out of Gauteng are expected to carry heavy traffic from noon until 10pm on Thursday and from 6am to noon on Friday, said ministry spokesperson Ntau Letebele.
Organisers of the 13th Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in Oudtshoorn have been quick to remove posters of the right-wing Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB). The Herald Online reported on Monday that the posters also made reference to controversial Afrikaans song De la Rey and apartheid South Africa’s coat of arms.
Alcohol abuse costs South Africa in the region of R10-billion a year, or 1% of GDP, but the excise tax on alcohol collects only about R7-billion. This leaves the country with a shortfall of about R4,5-billion in costs to health services, the criminal justice system, and, of course, human lives.
Twelve people were killed when a minibus taxi overturned on a highway in the Western Cape, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Saturday. Five people were seriously injured in the accident, which occurred as members of the same family were taking a corpse to the Eastern Cape province for burial.
The South Africa Bus Employers’ Association (Sabea) said all staff reported for duty on Wednesday morning in accordance with a Labour Court ruling, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. On Tuesday, the court granted an interim order in favour of Sabea preventing a strike planned for Wednesday. This means that any strike will now be unprotected and illegal.
Most people believe that corruption occurs to speed up approvals to which people are legally entitled, a survey has found. The number of people who believe this roughly equals the number of people who think that corruption is a means to ill-gotten gains. Business Against Crime and the German Technical Cooperation Agency commissioned the survey as part of business’s contribution to the South African National Anti-Corruption Forum.
R1-billion has been allocated this year to eradicate bucket toilets in established settlements by December, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Friday. ”All bucket systems that exist in formal establishments and townships will be completely removed by December 2007,” said a departmental spokesperson.
Fifteen unidentified bodies, badly decomposed and with only shreds of clothing, have been found at a mortuary in Umzimkulu, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Thursday. Superintendent Zandra Hechter said the grisly find was made by two officials of the health department on Monday.
A R37-million project to reduce maternal infant mortality has been launched in the Eastern Cape, the province’s department of health said on Wednesday. A spokesperson said the ”Saving Mothers Saving Babies” project will be implemented in 30 district hospitals and community health centres in the Eastern Cape.
Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane is leading a project to revitalise South Africa’s historic schools. ”We want to restore and preserve these schools for future generations,” said Ndungane in a statement on Tuesday. ”We want them to be centres of cultural and educational excellence.”
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille says she will stand for the post of Democratic Alliance leader at the party’s federal congress in May this year. She made the announcement at a Cape Town Press Club dinner on Thursday evening, a year to the day after being elected mayor of Cape Town.
A large, green moving truck is parked at the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk shopping centre in Cape Town. The movers’ mission: science on the move. Their destination: the yearly Sasol SciFest in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. An ancient glider, a chariot, and superbly crafted astronomical instruments are on the payload.
Residents and businesses in the Amathole district in the Eastern Cape will enjoy high-speed internet access as well as free voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone calls within the network by the middle of this year. This is thanks to a new project to roll out WiMAX broadband services in the district.
Trustees of the late Brett Kebble’s estate had by Monday not been formally notified that the Western Cape’s African National Congress (ANC) branch would keep the mining magnate’s donations. If the party refused to pay back the millions Kebble had given it, the trustees would turn to the Insolvency Act, said an attorney.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress and the official opposition Democratic Alliance have been urged by Independent Democrats member of Parliament Lance Greyling to ”give back the money” they received from slain businessman Brett Kebble ”without a fight”.
Trustees of Brett Kebble’s estate have issued notices of demand to the African National Congress (ANC) to repay millions it had received from the slain mining magnate, the Sunday Times reported. The notices demanded the return of ”R24-million in stolen money paid to the ANC and leading members from Kebble’s personal account between 2002 and 2005”.
South Africa still has a long way to go to throw off its ”ethnic blinkers”, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said, referring to his party’s leadership race. ”We are still held back by the prejudices and wrong-headed decisions of the past,” Leon told the party’s Gauteng congress at the Benoni High School on the East Rand.
No Hout Bay ‘apartheid’ Your coverage of Hout Bay is simplistic and immoral. It is not an “apartheid” conflict, as you suggest, with racist, affluent whites on one side and poor, victimised black people on the other. It is about upholding the law and trying to find a humane and practical solution to unhealthy, overcrowded […]
Johnnic Communications, the JSE-listed media and entertainment group, has increased its stake in online recruitment-services company CareerJunction. The acquisition of a further 25% of CareerJunction from permanent recruitment services and flexible staffing sector company Adcorp Holdings will raise Johncom’s shareholding to 85%.
Fifty out of 85 construction employers were found to be violating workplace safety regulations during an on-site crackdown by labour inspectors in the Eastern Cape, the Labour Department said on Wednesday. Department spokesperson Zolisa Sigabi said seven construction sites had been shut down and an additional 48 contravention notices were served.
Pupils at an Eastern Cape school are doing a choreographed set of movements to Bok van Blerk’s controversial song De la Rey, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday. A number of songs have been choreographed as part of the school’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
The ”dismal” state of housing delivery in the Eastern Cape needs national intervention, a public watchdog organisation said on Tuesday. Public Service Accountability Monitor researcher Chantelle de Nobrega said the province would not meet a nationally set target to eradicate informal settlements by 2014 without help.
Eight people are feared drowned during floods in the Eastern Cape over the weekend, emergency services said on Tuesday. Captain John Fobian said the missing people were from the former Transkei, Queenstown and Grahamstown. Four bodies have been recovered in the province since Monday.