![]()
South Africa’s third local government election since the advent of democracy in 1994 took place in a low key and peaceful manner on Wednesday. ”The voting process has proceeded smoothly throughout the country,” the Independent Electoral Commission said in a brief statement.
![]()
A holiday atmosphere took hold of strife-torn Khutsong early on Wednesday afternoon as residents opted for soccer instead of voting. However, Khutsong voters make up only a fraction of 1% of the country’s 21-million voters and should not be concentrated on to the detriment of the others, President Thabo Mbeki said.
![]()
Khutsong community stalwart Jomo Mogale on Wednesday called for a by-election in the troubled township where residents are boycotting the local government poll. He said the few voters who had trickled in to cast their ballots were mainly candidate councillors themselves.
![]()
South Africa’s third post-1994 local government election got under way without obvious hitches at 7am on Wednesday. President Thabo Mbeki was the first voter to cast his ballot at the Colbyn voting station in Pretoria. He was welcomed by Independent Electoral Commission chairperson Brigalia Bam and chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula.
No image available
/ 27 February 2006
The political party formed to keep Matatiele in KwaZulu-Natal, the African Independent Congress, says it is disappointed in the Constitutional Court’s decision not to make a ruling on the demarcation issue before polling day on Wednesday. The court ruled that the election will go ahead as planned in the municipality.
No image available
/ 25 February 2006
The Pumas continued their good form in the Vodacom Cup and beat the Lions 35-29 in a tight match played in Witbank on Friday night. The Blue Bulls had to come back from an eight-point deficit at half-time to secure a 39-21 victory against the Bulldogs in East London, and the Falcons condemned the Cheetahs to another loss.
No image available
/ 21 February 2006
![]()
Even if there is a problem at midnight, people should be able to go to their councillors’ houses and wake them up to sort it out, President Thabo Mbeki told supporters at an African National Congress election rally in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, on Monday.
No image available
/ 21 February 2006
Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela has sacked provincial youth commission chairperson Mlungisi Lumka and youth commissioner Nonkuselo Nkayitshana, her office said on Monday. The working relationship with the commissioners had ”irretrievably broken down” after the publication of articles and advertisements by the commission.
No image available
/ 20 February 2006
Three tourists were killed and four others were injured in an accident at the Shamwari Game Reserve near Grahamstown, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. Spokesperson Superintendent Michelle Matroos said the driver at the reserve was taking seven visitors sightseeing on Sunday afternoon when he experienced difficulties on an uphill slope.
No image available
/ 17 February 2006
Transnet will consider a proposal for mediation in the ongoing dispute with labour over the restructuring of the parastatal, a spokesperson said on Friday. John Dludlu said the company has informed the four labour unions involved in the dispute that it will consider their proposal for mediation as early as this weekend.
No image available
/ 17 February 2006
While unions were reporting all Eastern Cape Transnet employees on strike on Friday, Metrorail maintained that all its critical staff were at their posts and transport services were at 100%. Metrorail’s Thandi Mlangeni said: ”All our critical workers, like train drivers, did show up for work.”
No image available
/ 17 February 2006
An Eastern Cape policeman might be in hot water after an afternoon on the beach in full uniform in the company of a ”skimpily dressed colleague”, media reports said on Friday. Residents in the coastal village of Blue Horizon Bay near Port Elizabeth were fuming over the incident on Sunday afternoon.
No image available
/ 15 February 2006
A Transnet strike in the Western Cape and Northern Cape kicked off on Wednesday with rail services in the Cape Town area severely affected. The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union said more than 5 000 employees downed tools to protest ”management’s unilateral decisions about restructuring the company”.
No image available
/ 14 February 2006
Encroachment by subsistence farmers is threatening the survival of the delicate ecosystem of the coastal peat swamp forests of the St Lucia Wetlands Park in Maputaland, on the border of KwaZulu-Natal and Mozambique. But park authorities are reluctant to take action against the farmers.
No image available
/ 13 February 2006
The Constitutional Court will decide on Tuesday whether it can be directly accessed by the Matatiele municipality and others over a demarcation dispute. The municipality wants the court to rule on the constitutionality of the Twelfth Constitutional Amendment and the Cross-Boundary Municipalities Laws Repeal and Related Matters Act.
No image available
/ 13 February 2006
Trade unions locked in a dispute with state-owned Transnet over restructuring have postponed their strike in the Eastern Cape until Friday to give the labour structures in the province enough time to finalise logistics and other outstanding issues, it emerged on Monday.
No image available
/ 12 February 2006
Attempts by robbers to break into the house of the Eastern Cape health MEC raised suspicion on Saturday as to whether he was being targeted, his office said. Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said MEC Bevan Goqwana noticed on Saturday morning that attempts had been made to gain entry into his Southernwood home in Mthatha.
No image available
/ 9 February 2006
The South African Weather Service has warned of more rain for the flood-hit provinces of Gauteng and Free State. This came as traffic chaos and reports of cars and people being swept away in Gauteng dominated news reports on Thursday. In the Free State, reports indicated that homes had been flooded, and bridges were under water.
No image available
/ 8 February 2006
South Africa will ban poultry imports from Nigeria following an outbreak there of the deadly strain of the H5N1 bird flu, the first on the continent, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday — but Pretoria will not step up its precautionary measures as the outbreak remains far from Southern Africa.
No image available
/ 8 February 2006
At least eleven people have been killed and several others were injured in a bus accident near Beaufort West in the Karoo on Wednesday morning, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported. A Cape Town Metro Rescue official said the accident happened on the R-61 just outside Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape on the way to Beaufort West.
No image available
/ 7 February 2006
Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile has denied media reports that he supports the curbing of President Thabo Mbeki’s powers to hire and fire provincial premiers. ”The unscrupulous allegations quoted the minister as saying that ‘the appointment of premiers by the president should be changed’,” his office said on Monday.
No image available
/ 6 February 2006
Host nation South Africa is to refurbish five existing stadiums and build five new venues for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, in terms of an agreement with international football association Fifa. Five new stadiums will be built, including ones in KwaZulu-Natal’s eThekweni metro and in Cape Town.
No image available
/ 3 February 2006
The United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) said on Thursday that next week’s planned strike by Transnet workers over the parastatal’s restructuring plans will continue. Utatu spokesperson Chris de Vos said the union was disappointed that a meeting with Transnet management on Thursday yielded no results.
No image available
/ 3 February 2006
It began life as the Super 6, with state sides from Australia and New Zealand joined by Western Samoa. When South Africa was readmitted to the international fold it became the Super 10 and when the game went professional at the end of the 1995 World Cup it expanded into the Super 12. Now the Super 12 is dead. Long live the Super 14.
No image available
/ 2 February 2006
South African Airways obtained an interim Labour Court order on Thursday against a sympathy strike by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union. Spokesperson Jacqui O’ Sullivan said the order would remain in place until final judgement next Tuesday.
No image available
/ 2 February 2006
A fire on a 80km front was still raging in some Western Cape areas on Thursday morning — although a blaze that caused havoc in Die Kelders, Gansbaai, had been put out. A Working on Fire spokesperson said much depends on the wind and temperatures.
No image available
/ 1 February 2006
A march by thousands of Transnet workers in Durban ended on Wednesday, bringing to a close the first in a threatened series of strikes at the parastatal, a trade-union spokesperson said. A Durban metro police spokesperson said marchers were well behaved.
No image available
/ 1 February 2006
Trade unions on Wednesday said they were ”very satisfied” with their first in a series of strikes against Transnet’s restructuring programme. ”We are very satisfied. On the short notice that we organised it, we never thought it would be this successful,” the United Transport and Allied Trade Union’s Chris de Vos said.
No image available
/ 31 January 2006
Transnet workers in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State ended their second day of strikes on Tuesday with unions claiming success. ”No matter which way you try and spin it, there’s no doubt the strike has been effective,” the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union’s (Satawu) Randall Howard said.
No image available
/ 31 January 2006
Operations at the majority of state-held Transnet divisions were proceeding normally, company spokesperson John Dludlu said in a statement as the strike in KwaZulu-Natal entered its second day on Tuesday. Barring the Durban Container Terminal, Richards Bay port and Metrorail in "a few areas", operations were running at 100%, he said.
No image available
/ 30 January 2006
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) on Monday again declared its loyalty to the party’s beleaguered deputy president, Jacob Zuma, and said it opposes ”the creation of two centres of power” in the ANC. League functionaries also briefed the media on an ANCYL national executive committee meeting over the weekend.
No image available
/ 30 January 2006
Only 42 out of Metrorail’s 140 weekday trains were running in Durban on Monday, because of a strike by Transnet workers. The strike also slowed operations at the Durban and Richard’s Bay harbours. Tshwane, the Witwatersrand, the Western and Eastern Cape were running trains as normal.