Twenty-seven facilities had met the basic requirements for accreditation to provide quality care for Aids patients, the national Department of Health has announced. The 27 facilities will begin admitting patients and performing HIV testing and medical examinations.
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The Democratic Alliance has accused the Eastern Cape African National Congress of ”high decibel” intimidation after a bid on Tuesday to disrupt a DA meeting with a massive sound truck. The truck parked outside a Port Elizabeth hall where a DA lunch-time meeting was in progress.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The number of man days lost in South Africa due to strike action fell from 945Â 000 in 2002 to 700Â 000 in 2003, according to labour analyst’s Andrew Levy strike report for 2003. The report says strike action in the country has levelled off significantly since the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt on Tuesday faces interrogation by Advocate Kessie Naidu, the man who had South Africans glued to their television screens as leader of evidence in the recent Hefer commission hearings. Naidu was appointed at short notice to replace advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33347">Nieuwoudt mum on ‘interrogation'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33337">Nieuwoudt sorry for saying ‘terrorist'</a>
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt said on Monday he did not remember how he persuaded a trained freedom fighter to cooperate with him after being arrested. Nieuwoudt is applying for amnesty for the 1989 car bomb murders of three black colleagues and an informer at Motherwell.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33337">Nieuwoudt sorry for saying ‘terrorist'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33325">Motherwell bombing hearings resume</a>
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt apologised on Monday for using the word "terrorist" to describe trained guerrillas who infiltrated apartheid-era South Africa. His application for amnesty for the 1989 car bomb murders of three black colleagues and an informer at Motherwell is being heard afresh in Port Elizabeth.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33325">Motherwell bombing hearings resume</a>
Eastern Cape premier Makenkhesi Stofile says he would have no problem if a troubleshooting report on his administration were released before the coming election, because it contains ”nothing new”. The report was scheduled to be released two weeks ago.
It’s been a confusing few months for world-weary observers of African elections, as they’ve sat and watched South Africa and waited for the smoke to rise. Where’s all the razor wire? This isn’t an election campaign, it’s a queue. And no one is cutting in. Frankly, this year’s election campaign has been decidedly dull.
The Karoo dorp of Beaufort West is a curious mix. It is the birthplace of heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard and has a museum in his honour. It is the place where anti-apartheid activists downed a helicopter in the 1980s. Unemployment stands at an estimated 60% among the about 60Â 000 Central Karoo residents. Taking the Central Karoo from bust to boom needs more jobs that will stay.
The re-hearing in Port Elizabeth of the amnesty application of three former security policemen has been delayed by a controversy over a legal representative in the case. Gideon Nieuwoudt, Wybrand du Toit and Marthinus Ras are applying for amnesty for the 1989 car bomb death of the so-called Motherwell Four.
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UDM leader Bantu Holomisa has described local politics as ”nauseating”, saying the ANC, DA and NNP have failed to deliver on their promises and continued to campaign for votes on racial lines.
The bomb that killed three black policemen and one informer in Motherwell in 1989 will feature at an amnesty hearing starting this week. The justice ministry says the three former security policemen, including Gideon Nieuwoudt, who had been convicted of being responsible for the bomb would apply for amnesty.
The poor infection control practices in some of South Africa’s top academic hospitals raise the spectre of ”unexplained” HIV/Aids transmission, an article in the SA Medical Journal says. ”There is an urgent need to re-evaluate and improve infection control practices in health care settings,” the article concludes.
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A war of words has broken out between the Independent Democrats and the Democratic Alliance over a DA radio advertisement that allegedly vilifies ID leader Patricia de Lille and her party.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The police are to shut down a Cape Town employment agency following a visit on Friday by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, his department said. a spokesperson Snuki Zikalala said Excellence Domestic Employment had been operating illegally for the past five years.
President Thabo Mbeki launched the Urban Renewal Programme in 2001 to target development in the eight urban areas with the highest poverty levels in South Africa. Approximately R200-million will be invested in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain this financial year.
The African National Congress has reacted sharply to demands by the Landless People’s Movement in the Eastern Cape to either give it land, or see farms in the region occupied forcefully on election day. The ruling party said on Thursday it will not tolerate hooliganism aimed at misleading people and creating chaos and discord.
The hamlet where Nelson Mandela spent his boyhood may have attracted big businesses keen to link up to South Africa’s most famous name but it still faces huge social and economic problems that bedevil thousands of villages in the country.
The increase in the number of deaths on the population register is an indictment of government’s handling of the Aids pandemic, the United Democratic Movement and Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. The number of deaths on the register rose by 68% over the past six years to 457Â 000 in 2003.
A recent international study conducted in South Africa confirms that social pensions play a significant role in alleviating poverty. The pension system is a firmly entrenched feature of South Africa’s social welfare framework. The country has an unemployment rate of more than 40%, making a conventional, contributory pension scheme unworkable.
A Port Elizabeth man is recovering from a horrific ordeal in which he was forced to watch a woman being repeatedly raped and, severely injured after being stoned and stabbed, he had to crawl through salt pans to seek help, Eastern Cape police said.
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/ 28 February 2004
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The name of former African National Congress Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela does not appear on the party’s list of candidates for Parliament, released on Friday. Former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, convicted of fraud last year, is also not on the list.
Elections 2004 special report
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/ 27 February 2004
The Eastern Cape’s R31-billion budget was welcomed on Thursday by opposition parties and interest groups except the Democratic Alliance, which expressed some reservations about certain issues.
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/ 24 February 2004
The government’s much-anticipated Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and Aids Care and Treatment, which provides for the rollout of anti-retrovirals, was presented to Parliament’s portfolio committee on health on Tuesday. The plan aims to provide at least one anti-retroviral service point in every health district within a year.
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/ 20 February 2004
A R20-million hospital-sharing partnership between the Eastern Cape health department and the private sector, the first of its kind in South Africa, was launched on Friday.
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/ 17 February 2004
Just 24 hours before Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel announces his 2004/05 Budget in Parliament, a United Nations-accredited NGO called in papers before the Cape High Court on Tuesday to have the government’s multibillion-rand arms deal declared null and void.
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/ 16 February 2004
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Two political minnows announced on Monday their coming together to contest the general elections, united in their ”fight against moral decay and godless government”. The New Labour Party and the Christian Democratic Party signed their cooperation agreement on Sunday evening, following months of negotiations.
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/ 16 February 2004
Environment Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa has announced his intention to designate five new marine protected areas, according to his department staff at Parliament on Monday. The areas will be designated in the government gazette on Tuesday.
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/ 11 February 2004
Former security police colonel Gideon Niewoudt has been arrested and charged for the deaths of the so-called Pebco Three in 1985, the Scorpions said on Wednesday. The Scorpions arrested Niewoudt in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday morning. He later briefly appeared in the city’s Magistrate’s Court and was released on R50 000 bail.
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/ 11 February 2004
Ephraim Mteka, chairperson of the Bhangazi Trust, smiles as he walks along the shores of Lake Bhangazi in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park. "The past few years have been good for us," says Mteka. "We settled our land claim and we are reaping the benefits of ecotourism. Things can only get better."
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/ 9 February 2004
The government gave out 270-million male condoms last year, which is an 80% increase from 1997 when 150-million were distributed, the Department of Health said on Monday. The department announced the figures at the launch of its Sexually Transmitted Infections/Condom Week, which runs from February 9 to 14.
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/ 6 February 2004
The Democratic Alliance has called for Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza to explain chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya’s statement that the government is considering a six-month extension for land claims in the Eastern Cape.