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/ 4 September 2006
More children are attending and finishing school but more are vulnerable due to poverty and the death of at least one parent, said an Education Department report released on Monday. The report found that the demand for high school and higher education institutions would probably grow strongly while demand for primary schools would grow more slowly.
South Africa’s dams are 92% full, according to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s records. The department reports on its website that the dams were only 65% full this time last year. This week, dam levels in the provinces ranged from overflowing in the Northern Cape to 72% full in Limpopo.
Eastern Cape Police have questioned eight people after discovering an investment scam in Grahamstown which used Oprah Winfrey’s name to target hundreds of people. Captain Mali Govender said on Friday people were told: ”You pay R10 and [US talk-show queen] Oprah Winfrey is going to pay you R1 200 a month for 10 years”.
Members of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) staged protests outside government offices around the country on Thursday. The illegal protest was part of a ”global day of action” to pressure the government on its response to HIV/Aids. However, the Department of Health said it will continue to focus on prevention in its fight against HIV/Aids.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) had decided to deliberately stage illegal protests because it was tired of the government’s failure to act on HIV/Aids, it said on Thursday. ”We deliberately did not apply for permission to protest and we don’t apologise for that because we are tired of government’s inactivity in the face of the Aids pandemic,” said the TAC’s general secretary Sipho Mthathi.
Rainfall has eased in the sodden southern Cape but more is expected, said the South African Weather Service on Thursday. In the 24 hours to 8am on Thursday, the weather service recorded 11,6mm in Riversdale, compared to 28mm the day before, 4mm in George (71,5mm on Wednesday) and 18mm in Heidelberg (25mm on Wednesday).
A striking Shoprite employee has appeared in court after he and other strikers allegedly intimidated a 30-year-old woman in Butterworth, Eastern Cape police said on Wednesday. Captain Jackson Manatha said Zukisani Mboxwana made a brief appearance at the Butterworth Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is remaining tight-lipped hours ahead of a planned international day of action on Thursday. ”It is a secret,” said Rukia Cornelius, the TAC’s national manager, on Wednesday. The day will see protests at South African embassies and government institutions in South Africa, the United States and Europe.
The country’s biggest short-term insurer, Santam, on Wednesday reported a 16% decline in headline earnings to R583-million for the six months to the end of June. This equates to headline earnings per share of 498 cents against 599 cents for the previous comparable half-year.
The South African government has been told that progress has been very slow in achieving black economic empowerment (BEE) in South African business, with government itself contributing little in terms of procurement from black business. This emerged in a meeting between President Thabo Mbeki and his economic cluster ministers on Tuesday.
Two boys died near Cofimvaba after picking up hand grenade they found while hunting, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. ”Police explosives experts said it is an M26 hand grenade of South African origin,” said Superintendent Edwin Taleni after the police explosives unit went to the scene on Monday to identify the type of explosive.
Parliament on Saturday said it has taken note of Constitutional Court rulings this week relating to the Abortion Amendment Act and the cross-boundary municipalities law, among others. ”The two judgements are of critical importance to the legislative procedures of Parliament,” Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete said.
The Eastern Cape is fast-tracking housing for those left homeless by recent floods, said the provincial department of housing and local government on Wednesday. Up to 20Â 000 families were either displaced or partially affected by the recent floods, storms and snowfall disasters that struck certain parts of the province.
Despite the difficulties they faced, women’s struggles during apartheid resulted in South Africa today having one of the most progressive constitutional-legislative frameworks for women’s rights in the world. It is not, however, a time for complacency — there exist devastating compromises and crucial omissions, writes Pregs Govender.
Three people were found dead after they were trapped in snow in Mount Fletcher in the Eastern Cape, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday. ”Today’s [Wednesday] freezing weather in the area is probably the cause of their death.” Disaster teams in the Eastern Cape were also battling to clear roads of snow that fell overnight in Barkly East and Elliot, Arrive Alive said.
Prominent Eastern Cape politicians and officials believe their cellphone conversations are being tapped or intercepted, Dispatch Online reported on Wednesday. It said at least one has made a formal complaint on the matter to the police. So nervous are senior officials that many now use code names to disguise their conversations when discussing political affairs on their cellphones.
Negotiations to end a pay strike by workers at Shoprite Checkers will begin in Johannesburg on Friday, the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) said on Wednesday. ”Shoprite requested the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] to intervene and a meeting has been set up for August 18,” said Saccawu negotiator Thoko Mchunu.
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) and private broadcast channel Supersport on Tuesday launched a high-performance academy for rugby that will be based in Alicedale, near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. The institute will house 30 players from across the country between the ages of 17 and 20 years.
Roofs of houses and businesses were in danger of collapsing under the weight of snow in Barkly East and Elliot in the Eastern Cape, Arrive Alive said on Wednesday. Disaster teams and traffic authorities were using graders to clear snow off the road. ”But it is very, very cold and the snow is very thick,” said an Arrive Alive spokesperson.
A strike at Shoprite stores around South Africa enjoyed widespread public support and is impacting on the company, the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) said on Tuesday. ”The strike is continuing today [Tuesday] and the fact that Shoprite are closing some stores is proof that the strike is having an impact,” said Saccawu negotiator Thoko Mchunu.
The Addo Elephant National Park is set to become the third-largest national park in the country, according to South African National Parks. The park’s new southern access road was officially opened by the minister of environmental affairs and tourism on Tuesday, coinciding with the park’s 75th-anniversary celebrations.
Shoprite on Monday condemned "in the strongest terms" incidents of violence and vandalism allegedly involving striking members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union at some of its stores in the Eastern and Western Cape over the last 48 hours.
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.