The number of shack dwellings in South Africa rose from 1,45-million in 1996 to 2,14-million in 2003, according to Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu. That was 417 new shacks a day on average between 2001 and 2003 and 210 shacks per day on average in the five years between 1996 and 2001.
The circumcision season death toll in the Eastern Cape has risen to 22 with the news that a would-be initiate had apparently hanged himself at Bholothwa in the Queenstown area. Provincial health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Thursday that Mzwanele Diniso (24) was found hanging from a tree on New Year’s Day after going missing from the illegal initiation school he was attending.
As many as 4 000 people were still being registered by the City of Cape Town’s human-settlement unit on Thursday afternoon, following an early-morning fire that destroyed about 800 shacks in the Joe Slovo informal settlement near Langa. The people were registering for aid and new accommodation.
The road death toll for December has risen to 1 215, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Collen Msibi said 512 of the fatalities were pedestrians, 414 were passengers and 289 were drivers. The figure is down from 1 234 reported in the same period last year.
Road deaths during the Christmas holidays were at 1Â 162 by the end of December, the Department of Transport said on Monday. There was heavy traffic on the country’s main routes on Monday as holidaymakers returned home. Meanwhile, the bodies of five people who drowned after their car plunged into the Vaal River have been recovered.
The Eagles swooped into Cape Town and inflicted yet another defeat on the Cape Cobras as the home side finished their season winless. The Warriors overcame an atrocious start to the new year almost to snatch what would have been a remarkable victory in their final Standard Bank Cup limited-overs cricket match against the Highveld Lions.
Two mountain fires, fanned by a strong south-westerly wind, burned out of control in the Boland on Monday night, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. One of the fires was raging in Du Toit’s Kloof at Donkerhoek and the second above Dewdale on the Hottentots Holland flank.
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/ 29 December 2005
Education Minister Naledi Pandor was disappointed on Thursday at the 68,3% pass rate recorded by the 2005 matric class. ”I’m not satisfied,” she told a media briefing in Cape Town where the figure was announced. ”How can anyone be satisfied when more than 30% of our children are failing? Surely you can’t have that. I’m not happy.”
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/ 29 December 2005
The Eastern Cape health department has hit back at a traditional leader who claimed it had incurred the wrath of the ancestors by meddling in the circumcision ritual. Contralesa provincial chairperson chief Mwelo Nonkonyana was quoted on Wednesday as saying the 18 circumcision-related deaths so far this summer season meant the department had ”dismally failed”.
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/ 29 December 2005
The shock of seeing his brother murdered caused evil spirits to enter the body of alleged housebreaker Nkululeko Tuntubele, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Wednesday. The evil spirits had a major impact on his client’s physical condition, defence lawyer Asghar Mia told the court.
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/ 28 December 2005
The death toll on South Africa’s roads over the holiday season has reached 965, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Collen Msibi said 411 of the casualties were pedestrians and 88 were children under 14. Msibi said that although ”shocking”, the figure was down from the 1 140 deaths over the same period last year.
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/ 27 December 2005
A child died in a fire that destroyed about 60 shacks in an informal settlement off Lansdowne Road in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on Monday, city fire-control spokesperson Gregory Carolissen said. A fire in the same area early on Monday morning razed about 200 shacks.
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/ 26 December 2005
Firefighters were still combating a brush fire at Melkbosstrand on Monday afternoon, Cape Town’s chief fire officer, Piet Smith, said. About 200 shacks were destroyed in a fire in an informal settlement at Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats on Monday morning, disaster-management services spokesperson John Brown said.
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/ 24 December 2005
The Matatiele-Maluti mass action group has filed an urgent application with the Constitutional Court asking to be excluded from Friday’s legislation on municipal boundaries, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reports. The legislation will transfer the Matatiele area from KwaZulu-Natal to the Eastern Cape.
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/ 23 December 2005
Roger Kebble has resigned from the board of Simmer and Jack mines, it was announced on Thursday. Kebble told the gold-mining company his decision was prompted by the need to spend more time with his family following the murder of his son Brett in September.
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/ 23 December 2005
According to the South African Naturist Federation, "naturists are not different from other people, they are just more comfortable". If you are one of these, then South Africa has some of the best places on Earth for you. Not to be confused with "naturalists", "naturists" are people who are interested in extending the number of activities that can be conducted in the nude.
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/ 22 December 2005
Four youths killed when lightning struck an initiation school in the Mqanduli area of Transkei last week were buried on Thursday in an emotional ceremony attended by hundreds of people. Seven other would-be initiates were injured in the third fatal lighting strike at an initiation school in the region in three years.
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/ 22 December 2005
The Eastern Cape health department has identified a possible 179 ghost workers on its books, which could mean savings totalling R1,59-million a month. A departmental spokesperson made the announcement on Wednesday at the end of a month-long exercise in which staff were asked to collect their pay cheques in person.
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/ 20 December 2005
Rain and a drop in temperature to below 20 degrees Celsius are predicted for the entire coast from Plettenberg Bay to Durban on Christmas Day, according to the South African Weather Bureau. Mpumalanga and Limpopo will be hit by the colder, wetter weather late on Sunday, but Cape Town should experience fine Christmas weather.
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/ 19 December 2005
The number of abalone poachers arrested on the Eastern Cape coast had risen from 129 in 2003 to 168 in 2004, according to Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk. Although the total abalone stock lost could not be determined, he said that between January this year and October 31, 93 poachers had been arrested.
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/ 19 December 2005
Since the beginning of December, 560 people have been killed on South African roads — mostly due to drunken driving, driver fatigue and speeding. At about the same time last year, 726 road deaths had been reported. Road accidents have also decreased, from 619 up to this time in December 2004 to 466 thus far.
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/ 17 December 2005
Twenty people were confirmed dead by 9am on Saturday after the bus they were travelling in overturned and plunged into a river near Wepener, Free State police said. Captain Elsa Gerber said 77 other passengers were removed from the wreckage and transported to several hospitals in the province.
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/ 15 December 2005
Gauteng police put a halt to a meeting on Thursday at Khutsong Stadium by residents protesting their municipality’s incorporation into the North West from Gauteng. Although the situation in Khutsong remained calm on Thursday, police maintained a strong presence in the area.
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/ 15 December 2005
Word from Cape Town that Parliament had rubber-stamped a Bill that put an end to cross-border municipalities triggered violent protests in Khutsong on Wednesday. By evening, a police officer had been badly burnt during a petrol-bomb attack and five houses had been torched.
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/ 14 December 2005
The National Council of Provinces gave the final green light to controversial legislation doing away with cross-boundary municipalities on Wednesday. The changes have sparked vehement protests, particularly in Khutsong — a part of Merafong municipality — where residents have been staging violent protests.
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/ 14 December 2005
Minister of Minerals and Energy Lindiwe Hendricks is due to make an announcement on Wednesday following a meeting with the petroleum industry over fuel shortages. Addressing the National Assembly earlier on Tuesday, Hendricks said: ”Everybody knows the industry is to blame in this case.”
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/ 14 December 2005
A night vigil led by the South African Communist Party in Khutsong, outside Carletonville, went ahead on Tuesday night, despite police declaring it illegal. The government decides on Wednesday whether the municipality, currently in Gauteng, will be incorporated into North West province.
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/ 13 December 2005
The National Assembly on Tuesday approved legislation giving effect to the Constitution’s Twelfth Amendment that abolishes cross-boundary municipalities. This affects 17 municipalities, including the contentious ones of Merafong (Gauteng to North West) and Matatiele (KwaZulu-Natal to Eastern Cape).
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/ 13 December 2005
Parliament will have an attentive audience on Wednesday when residents of Merafong municipality gather to hear the result of their demand to remain part of Gauteng province. On Monday, a protest march ended in the handing over of a memorandum calling for the proposal that Merafong be incorporated into North West to be withdrawn.
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/ 8 December 2005
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund opted out of a big bash for underprivileged kids this year, and will instead deliver gifts to schools, it said on Wednesday. This was done in an attempt to ”minimise exposing children to unnecessary difficulties”, the fund said in a statement.
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/ 30 November 2005
South African athletes won four gold medals on the second day of the 2005 Pacific School Games in Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday. Jan (JP) Hoffman, world youth shot-put champion and one of the top athletes at the meeting, won the discus for boys in the 17-to-19 category with a good distance of 48,43m.
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/ 28 November 2005
Health officials in the Eastern Cape are still searching for 19 boys believed to be at an illegal initiation school in the bush near Flagstaff, said a spokesperson for the provincial department of health on Monday. Also, one boy died after falling ill at another circumcision school in the area.