Former president Nelson Mandela will not have a high-profile birthday — on July 18 — this year, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Thursday.
A 20-year-old rape suspect committed suicide by cutting his throat with an electric grinder at the Tsolo police station in the Eastern Cape, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday. A police official said the rape suspect grabbed the grinder, an exhibit in another case, from the charge office and connected it to a power point.
Although the business confidence index of the South African Chamber of Business increased in June to its highest level so far this year, there are economic developments that could adversely affect future confidence, the chamber said. The index increased to 128,2 in June this year from 127 in May.
Three more boys have died as a result of botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape, bringing the death toll over the past few weeks to 12. Last week, the National House of Traditional Leaders called on the government to establish a special task force to deal with deaths in traditional initiation schools.
There was much ululating as President Thabo Mbeki and former deputy president Jacob Zuma entered this week’s gathering of the African National Congress’s policy conference. One was the overall leader of the country as well as the party while the other had fallen from political grace after being ”released” as the country’s deputy president by Mbeki before a joint sitting of Parliament.
The names of the three people killed when a parcel exploded outside a house in Grahamstown this week were released on Wednesday. The victims were Justin Martin (52), Johannes Kortrooi (58) and five-year-old Leonardo Lottering, who died in hospital on Tuesday.
The South African textile industry says cheap imports from China are threatening to wipe out the local industry, where 75 000 jobs have been lost since 2002. "We’re a very distressed industry at the moment. We’re actually on our knees … we’ve been devastated," said the managing director of Gregory Knitting Mills, Selwyn Gershman.
Thousands of workers protested against unemployment and poverty around South Africa on Monday in a nationwide strike that business says was poorly attended and unnecessary. The SA Chamber of Business said that only 10% of workers took part in the strike, which cost the economy an estimated R500-million.
A traditional circumcision surgeon was arrested and 28 young boys rescued from his house in Libode in the Eastern Cape on Sunday, a spokesperson for the provincial health department said. ”The suspect allegedly used one unsterilised knife to circumcise all the boys,” Sizwe Khuphelo said.
The refloating of the bulk carrier Kiperousa, stranded on the Eastern Cape coast, will begin at about noon on Thursday, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) said. Samsa spokesperson Captain Peter Kroon said the fine weather in the East London area will assist in refloating the beached vessel.
A 23-year-old man has died while attending a school offering circumcision rituals illegally, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. The man died of dehydration at the school in Sada outside Queenstown on Monday, said department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.
The SABC will be allowed to broadcast regional television programmes on two stations in official languages other than English, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) announced on Wednesday. Icasa chairman Mandla Langa said SABC 4 would broadcast in Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi and TshiVenda, Xitsonga and Afrikaans.
A 14-year-old boy has died after apparently being asphyxiated by fumes from a brazier at an initiation school in Port Elizabeth, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. The police have opened an inquest docket, and a post-mortem will be conducted to establish the exact cause of his death.
The concept of willing-buyer, willing-seller has been underscored by Minister of Agriculture and Land Thoko Didiza in reply to a question about government’s target of 30% of white agricultural land being redistributed to black farmers by 2015.
Attempts to refloat the stranded log-carrier Kiperousa failed on Thursday, but the operation will be tried again on Friday evening, the South African Maritime Safety Authority said. Spokesperson Captain Peter Kroon said on Friday that the cable between the tug and the ship came undone on the first pull on Thursday evening.
South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle hero Nelson Mandela will be joined by pop superstars Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox at charity concert.
The salvage tug Nikolay Chiker was on Thursday morning closing in on the stranded log-carrier Kiperousa, as part of an effort to refloat her, the South African Maritime Safety Authority said. Spokesperson Captain Peter Kroon said the tug would try to refloat her during the high tide on Thursday afternoon.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday the media have treated him in a ”grossly unfair” way and used the Schabir Shaik trial for political reasons. Meanwhile, hundreds of youths, participating in a protest against unemployment on Thursday, called for Zuma to become the country’s next president.
The Eastern Cape’s Great Train Race has been cancelled this year due to differences between Athletics South Africa (ASA) and Eastern Province Athletics (EPA). The race — in it’s 25th year — had to be called off after ASA and EPA were embroiled in a dispute regarding a controversial ruling over foreign athletes.
Six hours of negotiations between striking unions and Metrorail were a ”total disaster and waste of time”, said United Transport and Allied Trade Unions (Utatu) general secretary Chris de Vos after Wednesday’s meeting. The strike, which has left thousands of commuters inconvenienced, will enter its fourth day on Thursday.
The Central Unions have retained South Africa’s fifth Super 14 franchise, South African Rugby Union president Brian van Rooyen confirmed on Wednesday. However, the South-Eastern Cape franchise will play in the 2007 and 2008 Super 14, with the South African team that finishes last in 2006 dropping out to make way for them.
The bulk carrier Kiperousa is still aground by the stern off the Eastern Cape coast and is awaiting a salvage tanker from Cape Town, the National Ports Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday. Shortly after 11am on Tuesday, a Mayday signal was put out by the vessel and a massive rescue operation was launched.
Out in a remote rural area of the Transkei last week an unusual cattle auction, held by a new black economic empowerment auctioneering company, took place. Buyers gathered near a school in the Peddie location, 100km by road from East London. They were bidding for animals that would otherwise end up being sold for ceremonial slaughter or to travelling smouse or speculators.
The CEO of the Border Cricket Board in East London and a South African National Defence Force major were among 12 people arrested on Monday on fraud charges, Eastern Cape police said.
The awarding of a Rugby Super 14 franchise to the Southern and Eastern Cape must be ”non negotiable” when the SA Rugby Union’s President’s Council meets to discuss the matter on Wednesday. This is the view of the SEC bidding franchise, comprising the Border, Eastern Province and South Western Districts Rugby Unions.
Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday that 1,6-million houses have been built since 1994, but admitted the housing backlog is still enormous and her department can only do so much. She said poor communication with the public is the likely cause of protests about the pace of housing delivery.
What makes the Afrikaans tabloid Son such a runaway success? And why are the tabloids in general doing so well, while the more established broadsheets seem to be struggling to increase or even uphold their circulation? One cannot answer these questions without taking into account the far-reaching, liberalising changes that have taken place in South Africa over the past 10 years.
There should be no rejoicing over the guilty judgement in the trial of businessman Schabir Shaik, despite its vindication of South Africa’s prosecutorial and judicial systems. Deputy President Jacob Zuma may not have been in the dock, but the judgement indirectly indicts him in such a devastating way that it is hard to see how his political career can survive it.
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica has a tricky job. She needs to manage the implementation of the 1998 water Act, and try to ensure that black farmers gain access to water resources without cutting into the productivity of commercial farms. All of this work overlaps the responsibilities of other Cabinet portfolios, but Sonjica manages almost no implementation budget.
Very cold and wet conditions are due to hit parts of the country this weekend, but for many people a weekend of hot chocolate and romantic snuggling is a remote thought — finding ways of keeping warm safely is far more pressing. But makeshift measures such as illegal electricity connections can be deadly.
A surfer has received 100 stitches after being attacked by a shark at the mouth of the Kei River in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday. National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson Craig Lambinon said Jay Catarall (32) was surfing with two other people when the shark bit him on both buttocks and the back of both legs.
More than R130-million will be made available for housing in the Nelson Mandela metropolis following four days of protests over slow housing delivery. Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela announced this on Thursday while appealing for calm. ”We shall not abandon the poor,” said Balindlela.