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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.
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/ 28 November 2005
One boy has died and eight others were admitted to the Mthatha general hospital after they fell ill at a circumcision school in the area, the Eastern Cape Health Department said on Monday. ”When we got there on Sunday night one of the boys had already died. Two are in a critical condition and the others are stable,” said spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.
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/ 28 November 2005
”I am tiring of technocratic talk. Joel Netshitenzhe’s most recent statement, that the government would not change its mind on the provinces it has assigned to cross-border municipalities because to give in to peoples’s demands would be a ‘perverse incentive’, is really so much hogwash,” writes Rapule Tabane.
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/ 25 November 2005
Enough of the crocodile tears I read with dismay Nomboniso Gasa’s open letter to Jacob Zuma (March 17), and cringed at her crocodile tears. I am not politically correct and shall nail my colours to the mast: I align myself with Zuma’s fight to be accorded respect and dignity, not least by the partisan character […]
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/ 25 November 2005
The Wail fills the passion gap Goodness gracious me! All these years I thought Steven Fried-person wrote the horse-racing column! Thank you, Madame Editor, for the honorary mention in your ”A 21st century M&G” piece celebrating/commemorating/salivating on 20 years of the newspaper. My Saturday afternoon slumber was pleasantly interrupted by an old friend, Aso Balan […]
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/ 25 November 2005
A whole lot of bull I am struck by the moral dishonesty of those who attacked the SPCA’s response to the slaughtering ritual Tony Yengeni was responsible for (”The great bull debate”, January 26). If someone objects to ”cultural practices” like bride burning, dry sex or female genital excision, is she also guilty of ”selective […]
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/ 25 November 2005
How to tire Zuma The Art of Seduction, by JZ: If she is wearing a dress; she is asking for it. If she crosses her legs; she is asking for it. If she visits your house; she is asking for it. When a woman says ”no”; she is asking for it. Never visit the beach […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Best the DA has to offer? It is laughable that the DA’s Athol Trollip is putting himself forward to replace Tony Leon at national level (“Trollip in race for DA’s top job”, January 12). Claiming that he can fill Leon’s shoes, albeit with difficulty, Trollip boasted on TV: “I am white on the outside and […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Border cricket has been at the forefront of the United Cricket Board’s youth development programme since 1987 and is regarded as the best in the country. The programme provides schools and clubs with equipment every year in order to help them participate in their fixtures.
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/ 24 November 2005
Johnnic Communications (Johncom) announced on Thursday that its interim headline earnings per share increased 156% to 179 cents for the six-month period ended September 30. The media and entertainment group said its profits increased by 24% to R160-million, while revenue jumped 14% to R2,2-billion.
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/ 23 November 2005
A campaign to stop controversial German vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath from conducting ”illegal” HIV trials in South Africa will be stepped up, three organisations said on Wednesday. ”He has got to be stopped,” Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha said.
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/ 23 November 2005
Eight of South Africa’s nine provinces are being been severely affected by drought, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Wednesday. Hardest hit are northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, said the department’s senior manager of drought and risk management, Ikalafeng Kgakgatsi.
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/ 22 November 2005
A handful of residents of Kleinskool in Port Elizabeth were still burning tyres in the streets by 9am on Tuesday morning, in protest over alleged poor service delivery, Eastern Cape police said. Inspector Johan van Greunen said 10 people from the area set the tyres alight early in the morning.
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/ 18 November 2005
A thousand Khutsong residents protested outside the office of Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa on Friday against plans to incorporate the Merafong municipal into the North West province from Gauteng. Stressing their dissatisfaction over the proposed re-demarcation, the group handed a memorandum over to officials.
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/ 14 November 2005
Twenty-five people, mainly children, were taken to hospital after eating food believed to be dog meat in an Eastern Cape village on Monday, the provincial health department said. Departmental spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the parents of a 17-year-old boy had told him to kill a dog that was attacking and killing their sheep.