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/ 6 December 2004
An investigation has been ordered into an Eastern Cape doctor’s alleged refusal to treat a two-year-old rape victim on Saturday. The Eastern Cape health department’s superintendent general has appointed a team of investigators to probe the incident and make recommendations, a departmental spokesperson said on Monday.
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/ 6 December 2004
The Arrive Alive campaign will not tolerate traffic offenders this coming holiday season — this is according to a statement by the Department of Transport issued on Monday. With schools countrywide closing for the December holidays, Arrive Alive is gearing itself up for the holiday rush.
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/ 30 November 2004
Fifteen people were arrested for various cases of fraud amounting to more than R2,5-million in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday. Superintendent Mike Fatyela said members of the joint anti-corruption task team in the province expected to arrest another 10 people during the course of the morning.
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/ 30 November 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/142915/aids_icon.gif" align=left>A year ago the government approved a national plan for the management, care and treatment of HIV/Aids. Its aim was to provide free anti-retroviral drugs in the public health sector. The HIV prevalence rates range from an estimated 13,1% in the Western Cape to a very high 37,5% of adults in KwaZulu-Natal. A <i>M&G</i> assessment as World Aids Day approaches reveals the leaders and laggards.
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/ 27 November 2004
The East London-based Daily Dispatch has appointed Phylicia Oppelt as its first woman editor. The 35-year-old, formerly of the Sunday Times, will take over the 132-year-old newspaper on January. She replaces Gavin Stewart who has been editor for the past 10 years, the paper said.
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/ 26 November 2004
”President Mbeki explains to European leaders why Nepad is succeeding beyond all expectations.” ”The government reveals how the arms deal has brought billion of rands in foreign investment and created thousands of jobs.” Then comes the ”ag shame” touch, delivered with a helping of devastating SABC wordplay to get the nation hosing itself. Does that menu smell familiar? Of course it does.
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/ 25 November 2004
The African National Congress (ANC) and the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) both won three of eight contested municipal by-elections held on Wednesday – with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) retaining two seats it previously had held.
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/ 25 November 2004
Media and entertainment group Johnnic Communications on Wednesday reported an increase of 727% in headline earnings to R124-million for the six-month period to 30 September 2004. Revenue for the period rose by 52% to R1953-million from R1284-million in 2003, while profit from continuing operations before exceptional items leapt by 800% from R17-million in 2003 to R153-million.
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/ 18 November 2004
A meeting to determine the fate of seven Eastern Cape Development Corporation directors — who were irregularly dismissed by the provincial minister for economic affairs, environment and tourism, Andre de Wet, in September — turned pear-shaped on Wednesday after De Wet effectively ruled against a High Court judgement instructing him to act "without capriciousness".
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/ 12 November 2004
”It has often surprised me how difficult it is to speak across colour barriers, to people who do not understand your reality. Communication barriers arise when one does not recognise the other’s experience as authentic, real and true. I have started to feel quite oppressed by the presence of ”whiteness” in my world, or perhaps my presence in the white world.” A black professional in Cape Town feels like a foreigner in her own land.
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/ 9 November 2004
A traditional surgeon who allegedly performed an illegal circumcision on a 48-year-old man is to be prosecuted, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. Kupelo said the circumcision season has just started, with more than 30 boys in the Port Elizabeth area queuing for pre-circumcision medical tests on Tuesday.
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/ 8 November 2004
An Italian prosecutor on Monday sought to probe the link between alleged Mafioso Vito Palazzolo and Count Riccardo Agusta, who achieved notoriety in the Roodefontein saga. The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court is hearing evidence for Palazzolo’s trial in absentia in Italy.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125163">Failed bid to charge Palazzolo</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125147">Stressed policeman unfit to testify</a>
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/ 5 November 2004
There is no need to panic about drought — unless the rain stays away for another two months, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said in Pretoria on Friday. The department is reviewing the state of the Vaal River system to see if water restrictions in Gauteng — now South Africa’s driest province — will be necessary.
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/ 29 October 2004
Local business and labour have welcomed the almost doubling of production for the East London-built new C-Class Mercedes Benz. DaimlerChrysler chairperson Christoph Kopke said this week that the East London plant would be producing around 80 000 of the new C-Class from 2007 — up from the 45 000 a year for the current W203 model.
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/ 29 October 2004
The most alarming thing about the Schabir Shaik trial in Durban is that the revelations being made by various witnesses seem unsurprising. As each new narration unfolds we learn of chicanery, double-dealing, hustles, swindles, lies. And we do little more than shrug. If these things were even 10% true, we should be outraged.
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/ 22 October 2004
Adverse weather conditions continued to delay the start of oil-transfer operations from the BBC China, the cargo vessel stranded off the Eastern Cape Coast, authorities said on Friday. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said the ship has about 120 tonnes of oil on board.
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/ 19 October 2004
Listed retailer Pick ‘n Pay has managed the current South African environment of very low inflation and deflation in some categories by improving its operational efficiencies as well as encouraging higher sales volumes, reflected in an improvement in its operating profit margin to 2,6% from 2,4% a year earlier.
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/ 18 October 2004
Sectoral education and training authorities (Setas) are here to stay, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Monday about the oft-criticised learning institutions. ”We are not going to scrap the Setas. On the contrary, we are going to do what we can to strengthen them,” Mdladlana said.
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/ 18 October 2004
A six-hour maritime drama played out along the Wild Coast when 16 seamen were airlifted off a freighter in stormy seas in the early hours of Sunday morning, the Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre said. Helicopters battled 40-knot winds and three metre swells to airlift 16 crewmen off the freighter BBC China.
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/ 15 October 2004
The European Union’s decision this week to extend the ban on ostrich imports from South Africa because of an avian influenza scare in the country has caught the local ostrich sector by surprise, industry representatives say. "We were hoping to resume export by November 1," said Anton Kruger, general manager of the South African Ostrich Business Chamber.
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/ 12 October 2004
Eight schoolchildren died and 60 were seriously injured in a bus accident in Tabankulu in the Eastern Cape on Monday, the provincial transport department said. Spokesperson Tshepo Machaea said the children from the Mtutukazi Junior Secondary School were on a tour to East London when the driver lost control while negotiating a curve, causing the bus to overturn.
The Eastern Cape education department has overspent its budget by more than R600-million, the province’s education minister Mkhangeli Matomela told MPs on Tuesday. Briefing Parliament’s education select committee, he warned the overspending would lead, among other things, to cutting the number of schools the region had planned to build this year.
A cold front will hit the Western Cape province from Wednesday evening and should continue moving over South Africa, while at the same time bringing rain, until Tuesday next week, said South African Weather Service (Saws) forecaster Evert Scholtz. There should be heavy showers over parts of the Western and Eastern Cape up until Friday.
The Constitutional Court on Friday denied the Port Elizabeth municipality leave to appeal a court ruling preventing the eviction of 68 people living in shacks on private land in the city. The case began when 1 600 people in the suburb of Lorraine sought an eviction order to have the shack dwellers removed.
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/ 30 September 2004
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has welcomed a commitment by Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk to complete a strategic environmental assessment in Pondoland, an ecologically sensitive area of the Eastern Cape currently under threat from mining and the construction of a toll road.
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/ 30 September 2004
If there is one lesson to be drawn from events over the past month in the Free State, Gauteng and Eastern Cape, it is the central importance of mature political leadership. Confronted by the <i>M&G</i> with serious allegations against provincial minister Angie Motshekga, Gauteng has acted quickly, ordering a set of investigations into reports that she unfairly privileged an empowerment trust.
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/ 30 September 2004
Since the front section of this paper seems to be getting all the good stories, Oom Krisjan is happy to be the first to bring details of Travelgate II. On a recent whip-around of city press clubs to tell the public why they are not a bunch of high-flying gadabouts, the speakers of the National Assembly and the National Council of Whatever all arrived in the Big Smoke on the same plane. Definitely a step in the right direction, you’d say.
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/ 29 September 2004
Either 4,6-million or 8,4-million people had no jobs in South Africa in March this year — depending on whether one used official or expanded unemployment figures released on Tuesday. This translated into an unemployment rate of either 27,8% or 41,2%, according to the results of Statistics SA’s latest Labour Force Survey.
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/ 28 September 2004
The Eastern Cape government has spent R104-million on treating botched traditional circumcisions since 2001, according to provincial health minister Bevan Goqwana. He released the figure on Monday at a three-day conference in East London on circumcision.
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/ 27 September 2004
The Eastern Cape experienced wild weather conditions on the weekend, which caused power cuts, accidents, and road closures. Heavy downpours, gale force winds, and rockfalls all took their toll on the province, and at least 11 people were killed — including two babies in hospital who died during a power-blackout.
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/ 24 September 2004
The estranged Eastern Cape province has been rocked by another shock move by that province’s government, apparently in an effort to weed out corruption. Late on Thursday night, the entire Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) board and the corporation’s chief executive officer was suspended.
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/ 24 September 2004
Twice a year the Chrissiesmeer shop owners put up signs on their doors that say, "Gone Frogging". Instead of preparing for World Tourism Day on September 27 by publishing a set of platitudes about the most prominent places to visit, we decided to abide by the spirit of these intrepid merchants and prepare a portfolio of the country’s more unpredictable and out-of-the-ordinary travel destinations.