The South African Communist Party (SACP) on Sunday welcomed the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs’ decision to do away with the ”willing buyer/willing seller” policy in land reform. ”In particular we welcome her commitment to set deadlines to negotiations over the price of land under claim,” said the SACP in a statement.
An Eastern Cape pastor, charged with having raped his adoptive daughter, kept videotapes showing the alleged victim naked in a bath, The Herald Online reported on Friday. His other two daughters told the Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday they discovered the tapes in the pastor’s study.
The National House of Traditional Leaders says it is planning public hearings on circumcision in a bid to counter the continuing deaths resulting from the ritual. Chief Dikgale Solomon, head of a four-man task team, said on Friday it was intended to hold the hearings before the December circumcision season.
The body of an initiate buried in a secret mountain grave could be exhumed in a criminal probe into the cause of his death, the North West provincial government announced on Thursday. Justice Naane’s father, Kereng, insisted that his family needed to bury him to have closure, said government spokesperson Cornelius Monama.
Forensic auditors have uncovered records of more than R25-million listed as having been paid to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its structures by Brett Kebble and companies linked to the slain magnet, the Sunday Independent reported. The ANC says it has not been quizzed about any such alleged funds.
Disaster relief in the Eastern Cape was well under way by Saturday morning, after the province was hit this week by flooding, disaster management said. ”We relocated 7 000 people yesterday [Friday] to about 25 community halls in Port Elizabeth and East London,” said a spokesperson for the Nelson Mandela Bay municipal council.
This week South Africa experienced weather extremes starting with a berg wind and a tornado, and ending with snow and floods. A report by South African Weather Service meteorologists Luis Fernandes and Lee-Ann Clark — from the National Forecast Centre in Pretoria — detailed the week’s strange weather.
The National Sea Rescue Institute borrowed a helicopter, a rubber duck and a tractor to complete two rescues and a mercy mission along the flooded coast on Friday. Meanwhile, one of 14 people rescued from the Thaba ‘Tseka mountains in Lesotho has been airlifted to hospital in a critical condition.
A high court judgement on Friday clearing the way for the Southern Spears to play in next year’s Super 14 competition is a ”triumph for South African rugby”, the franchise’s MD, Tony McKeever, said. ”The victory for the Spears … is a defeat for SA Rugby, but it’s also a triumph for South African rugby,” McKeever said.
The towns flooded in the southern Cape and Eastern Cape this week are being assessed for aid, provincial officials said on Friday. All except one of the national roads in the Eastern Cape are now open. Meanwhile, a three-night ordeal for eight people trapped in their cars by snow in the mountains in Lesotho has finally come to an end.
South Africa’s most prolific mass murderer takes another sip of coffee, eases back in his chair and pauses when asked if it is true he shot more than 100 black people. ”I can’t argue with that,” says Louis van Schoor. ”I never kept count.” Seated at a restaurant terrace in East London, a seaside town in the Eastern Cape, the former security guard is a picture of relaxed confidence, soaking up sunshine while reminiscing about his days as an apartheid folk hero.
Fraud and theft made up the bulk of financial misconduct cases reported in the 2004/2005 financial year, the Public Service Commission said on Thursday. The highest number of cases were reported by national departments, which had 39% of the 513 cases of financial misconduct. The Free State and Eastern Cape reported 10% each.
Rescuers trying to save a woman who got stuck in a tree after her house was flooded were hampered by snakes making for their jet ski, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Thursday. ”There were lots of snakes in the flood waters. They were using the rescue gear and the jetski for floatation,” spokesperson Craig Lambinon said.
A joint South African-Lesotho police operation resulted in 264 people being arrested, Free State police said on Wednesday. ”The aim of the bilateral operation was to combat the flow of illicit firearms, ammunition, drugs and vehicles between the borders,” Superintendent Sam Sesing said.
Fourteen people were rescued from a truck in a flooded river in Plettenberg Bay using a front-end loader, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Wednesday. A massive cold front has brought freezing conditions and flooding to the country. Four bodies were recovered after a car was washed away in floods in George.
Light snow fell over Sandton, north of Johannesburg, on Wednesday as a cold front gripped the country. Snowflakes were also falling in Rosebank, Bryanston, Soweto and Hyde Park. ”Snow over Gauteng seems to occur once every eight to 10 years,” said weather forecaster Kevin Rae.
A massive cold front sweeping across South Africa has brought freezing conditions to much of the country, with snow reported as far north as Bloemfontein in the Free State and parts of Gauteng, as well as reports of serious flooding in the southern Cape and a tornado in Dullstroom in Mpumalanga.
South Africa’s population was estimated at approximately 47,4-million at mid-year 2006, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Tuesday. In addition, Stats SA said the estimated overall HIV-prevalence rate is approximately 11%, from less than 9% in 2001, with the HIV-positive population estimated at approximately 5,2-million.
Whip out your winter woollies, put on thick socks and boots and stock up on firewood — it is going to be cold and wet in the entire country this week. The South African Weather Service said on Tuesday a strong cold front was moving in over the interior with snow already being reported in the Western Cape.
Business is helping tackle crime, with several initiatives by Business Against Crime bearing fruit. Vehicle theft and hijackings are down about 16% over the past five years from about 115 000 in 2001 to 96 000 last year. Even more impressive is the 30% reduction in Gauteng hijackings last year.
The Public Protector has nearly finished his investigation into complaints over the incorporation of Matatiele into the Eastern Cape, his office said on Wednesday. The Public Protector, advocate Lawrence Mushwana, met on Wednesday with the Matatiele-Maluti Mass Action Organising Committee to discuss its complaint.
South African Ben Sassman admits his bid to help a lonely friend living with HIV/Aids started out as a ”feel-good project for myself” but is now an online dating service reaching people around the globe. The Positive Connection, in its third year, can even claim success in the matchmaking game, having brought together a few solid partnerships.
Heritage month — which is September — will see the holding of hearings into the causes of deaths at initiation schools. The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural and Linguistic Communities said on Tuesday that this was decided as a matter of urgency at a meeting held to discuss the recent spate of deaths at initiation schools.
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The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the Eastern Cape may strike if there are repeated delays in former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s fraud and corruption trial, Cosatu’s provincial secretary said on Monday. ”If there are perpetual postponements in the case, then we will have no option [other] than to take a stance,” said Xola Pakati.
Avian influenza detected in poultry north-west of Mossel Bay is under control, the Department of Land Affairs and Agriculture said on Tuesday. ”The virus has been classified as type H5N2 which is not known to infect humans, unlike the H5N1 virus that has caused disease in humans in Asia, Europe and North Africa”, said spokesperson Nare Mabuela.
Factional politics in the Eastern Cape appear to have scuppered a multimillion-rand ecotourism project on the Wild Coast, and in the process chased a leading private tourism company out of South Africa. After years of haggling with politicians and bureaucrats, Wilderness Safaris says it has had enough.
A Limpopo chief, Fhulumani Kutama, was elected unopposed on Thursday as chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders. He replaces Mpiyezintombi Mzimela, who left the post after the dissolution of the house of traditional leaders in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The circumcision death toll in the Eastern Cape has reached 19 with news on Thursday of the death of another would-be initiate, the provincial health department said. An official said the 18-year-old youth died after being circumcised at an illegal initiation school in the Libode area of Transkei.
Transformation in rugby is no longer a moral issue; it is a strategic necessity if the sport is to survive in South Africa. That is the view of Dr Willie Basson, author of the transformation charter that the South African Rugby Union (Saru) adopted at its latest president’s council meeting. Presenting the charter to the media on Tuesday, Basson said rugby’s traditional resource pool is dwindling.
Action is needed to stop deaths in initiation schools from ruining the custom, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities said on Monday. ”We cannot go on like this. One death is [a] loss too many for cultural communities …,” commission chairperson Mongezi Guma said.
The Mthatha General hospital, which serves 2,5-million people in the eastern region of the Eastern Cape, has a 32% vacancy rate among doctors and a 39% vacancy rate among pharmacists, according to figures released by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Monday.
The National House of Traditional Leaders is to appoint a four-member task team to get ”first-hand information” on ongoing problems with traditional circumcision ceremonies. The resolution follows the deaths of 16 youths and the hospitalising of dozens more in the Eastern Cape over the past few weeks.