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.
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/ 6 February 2004
It was about two minutes long, some off-the-cuff comments made in a BBC domestic radio programme at six in the morning. Eventually, so inflated by spin and the media, this short broadcast became the reason the BBC lost its director general, the chairperson of its board of governors and the journalist who made the comments. How long this cull will continue is anyone’s guess. The BBC is said to be in a state of ”meltdown”.
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/ 2 February 2004
South Africa’s Coega industrial development zone and neighbouring deepwater port of Ngqura outside Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape have firm funding commitments totalling about R7,4-billion from the public sector for their ongoing development.
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/ 2 February 2004
The South African province of the North West was the worst offender in spending or alternatively keeping track of its capital spending of South Africa’s nine provinces. In the first nine months of the fiscal year, the North West housing department spent only 2,6% of its capital expenditure allocation of R390-million.
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/ 29 January 2004
The health ministers of South Africa and Angola signed an agreement on Thursday to cooperate in combating diseases such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. The pact paves the way for twinning of hospitals in the two countries, technical support to Angola and the exchange of health professionals and information.
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/ 29 January 2004
More women than men registered to vote during the voter registration drive of January 24 and 25, and 18- to 25-year-olds proved those accusing them of apathy at least partly wrong. The Independent Electoral Commission on Thursday announced the results of the country’s second voter registration weekend.
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/ 25 January 2004
Leaders of all major political parties were out and about, encouraging unregistered citizens to take advantage of the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC’s) last voter registration weekend before the election. The voting stations are open from 8am to 5pm on Sunday.
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/ 20 January 2004
After poor summer rainfall, a favourable rain-producing weather system is developing, the South African Weather Service said on Tuesday. The key areas that could receive decent rain in the next week are the North West, Gauteng and Free State provinces, with heavy falls possible in places.
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/ 20 January 2004
South Africa is not yet facing critical water shortages — but will be "in trouble" if inadequate rain falls over the next three months. The country was hit by severe dry spells in 1992/93 and 1983/84. The Weather Bureau has already declared this season’s drought the worst in 88 years.
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/ 17 January 2004
President Thabo Mbeki has declared parts of six drought-stricken provinces in the country disaster areas, the Department of Provincial and Local Government said on Friday. The disaster areas are in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, the North West, the Free State and the Northern Cape.
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/ 17 January 2004
There is a strong suspicion that a decomposed body police found on the Tradouw Pass, near Barrydale in the Western Cape, is that of missing Dutch exchange student Marleen Konings, police said on Friday. A 46-year-old man has been taken into custody, but not formally charged with Konings’ murder.
South Africa’s Department of Transport has reiterated its appeal to motorists to reduce their speed on national roads in anticipation of traffic exodus at the end of the holidays, government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday.
The Democratic Alliance has urged Tourism and Environmental Affairs Minister Valli Moosa to put a stop to the proposed N2 toll road that will run through the Wild Coast between East London and Durban. DA transport spokesperson Stuart Farrow said he had sent another request to Moosa urging him to reconsider the decision.
There is no need for an investigation into the Eastern Cape’s 8,2% improvement in its matric pass rate, Umalusi, the body responsible for monitoring matric examinations, said on Monday. The results have improved by 24,4% since 1999.
The statutory body that monitors examinations has said that the standard of the 2003 matriculation examinations will be investigated amid controversy over whether the pass rate was manipulated and artificially inflated, it was reported on Sunday.
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/ 31 December 2003
Democratic Alliance (DA) congratulated matriculants, although it said teachers should not place emphasis on the pass rate over quality education. In a statement on Tuesday DA spokesperson Willem Doman said the DA was also concerned that the number of pupils writing matric had fallen since 1998.
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/ 30 December 2003
South Africa’s 2003 national matriculation pass rate has improved by 4,4% to a total of 73,3%, Education Minister Kader Asmal announced on Tuesday, up from 68,9% in 2002, 61,7% in 2001 and only 48,9% in 1999. Asmal said the results ”clearly show that the tide has turned” for South Africa’s education system.
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/ 30 December 2003
The Eastern Cape provincial health department says the R1-million allocated to awareness-raising programmes on the problems of traditional circumcision practices has been well spent. ”A lot of unnecessary incidents have been avoided,” said departmental spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.