No image available
/ 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.
No image available
/ 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.
No image available
/ 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.
No image available
/ 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.
No image available
/ 22 December 2003
Post-apartheid South Africa has some of the most comprehensive legislation for controlling corruption and conflicts of interest in the world. But the government’s anti-corruption campaign has suffered from a lack of leadership and a serial inability to implement the anti-graft systems that it has put in place.
No image available
/ 16 December 2003
Thousands of penguins on the rocky shores of Robben Island let the visitor for a moment forget that the island is a symbol of all the horrors of apartheid and as renowned as Alcatraz in the bay of San Francisco. Tourists can take a ferry from Cape Town to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela and the elite of the anti-apartheid struggle were incarcerated.
No image available
/ 15 December 2003
An estimated 10th of the country is experiencing the driest year on record, agricultural meteorologist Johan van den Berg from Enviro Vision in Bloemfontein said on Monday. Official records, being kept since 1915, show that several parts of South Africa during the past 11 months received the least rain in 88 years, he said.
No image available
/ 12 December 2003
Lemmer is amused by South African government mouthpieces who regularly lambast Australia and other countries for their ”megaphone diplomacy” towards Mad Bad Bob up north, while touting our own approach. Considering how spectacularly unsuccessful the softly, softly method has been, perhaps we should rename it ”pin-drop diplomacy”.
No image available
/ 11 December 2003
Sun International, one of South Africa’s largest listed hotel and gaming groups, is planning a significant expansion of its Fish River Sun resort in the Eastern Cape, including the sale of some of the property by Pam Golding Properties, in a project that will represent sizeable investment for the region.
No image available
/ 9 December 2003
Senior police management should take notice of some disquieting perceptions among police reservists contained in newly compiled research, as the South African Police Service (SAPS) considers making more use of reservists. The research delves into the impressions of active police reservists and their role in the SAPS.
No image available
/ 8 December 2003
Amid a new wave of circumcision deaths and arrests, Eastern Cape traditional leaders continue to reject the province’s clampdown on illegal circumcision schools. The head of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa in the province said on Monday that chiefs are ”extremely unhappy”.
No image available
/ 8 December 2003
Seven people died instantly when lightning struck the house in which they stayed at Goqwana village, Tsolo, in the Transkei, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. Five others were taken to the St Lucy hospital with injuries. All the victims were in one room at the house when the lightning struck on Sunday.
No image available
/ 5 December 2003
The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) has expressed its concern over the decision of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to allow the controversial N2 toll road to run through the Eastern Cape.
No image available
/ 4 December 2003
Two more circumcision deaths were reported in the Eastern Cape on Thursday as provincial health authorities continue their battle against illegal initiation schools. The deaths — one at Barkly East, the other at Maclear — brought the total to seven in the past three weeks.
No image available
/ 28 November 2003
Here in the Dorsbult, we’ve been trying to ignore the World Cup. But it’s impossible. Not only has Jonny Wilkinson taken over from Naas as the best kicker in the world, but it turns out that instead of practising how to hold on to the ball in the wet, the Boks spent the weeks before their antipodean adventure learning how to wet their balls in the hole.
No image available
/ 26 November 2003
Some months ago I wrote about the proposed N2 Wild Coast toll road to run from Libode to Port Edward (Where to the N2, January 24 to 30). The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is now at a point of making a decision and once again I ask why a toll road is necessary, writes Geoffrey Davies.
No image available
/ 25 November 2003
The South African economy grew by 1,1% in the third quarter of this year, Statistics SA reported on Tuesday. It said this compared to real annualised growth rates of 0,9% in the first quarter (revised from 1,5%) and 0,5% in the second one (revised from 1,1%).
No image available
/ 25 November 2003
Lumka Yengeni, wife of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, has made it on to the ruling party’s ”national-to-national” list for Parliament — in a position which would ensure her election to Parliament.
No image available
/ 19 November 2003
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt was added on Thursday to the list of accusers of National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka. Ngcuka’s spokesperson, Sipho Ngwema, confirmed that the national prosecuting authority, headed by Ngcuka, was investigating Nieuwoudt, whom the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had refused amnesty.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=23770">Maharaj ‘not sure’ about spy claim</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=23757">Mo Shaik’s report ‘factually flawed'</a>
No image available
/ 18 November 2003
Former transport minister Mac Maharaj on Tuesday dismissed the Hefer commission’s changed terms of reference. He denied that he ever accused National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka of abusing his powers due to past obligations to the apartheid regime.
‘Mo Shaik fingered Ngcuka’
No image available
/ 17 November 2003
A stony-faced Mac Maharaj presented himself as the paragon of virtue when he took the stand at the Hefer Commission of Inquiry this morning and repeated his allegation that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka ”in all probability” had been an apartheid spy.
No image available
/ 14 November 2003
Department of Labour inspectors have surveyed the wreckage of a bridge that collapsed at the Coega development zone outside Port Elizabeth and interviewed eight construction workers about the disaster. Two construction workers were killed and 18 injured on Thursday when the bottom formwork of the bridge collapsed.
No image available
/ 12 November 2003
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has won two municipal by-elections – in the Western Cape at Breede River/Robertson municipality and at Dealesville in the Free State unopposed — while the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has won a seat at Phillipstown in the Northern Cape unopposed.
No image available
/ 10 November 2003
Conservation bodies have strongly criticised plans to mine heavy metals and build a toll road along part of the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast, calling for a rethink before government gives the go-ahead. The World Wildlife Fund said projects ”pose an inherent threat to the region’s natural environment and its people”.
No image available
/ 6 November 2003
South African Department of Labour on Wednesday said over one thousand contravention notices and almost 170 prohibition orders were issued by inspectors during last week’s blitz inspections of the construction industry, which ran from October 27 to 31.
No image available
/ 5 November 2003
Former apartheid spy Vanessa Brereton has apologised to the anti-apartheid activists she betrayed during her time as agent RS452, saying she does not deserve or expect forgiveness. The former Eastern Cape human rights lawyer said she was ”spellbound” by her lover — senior security policeman Carl Edwards — who recruited her into the secret police in the 1980s.
No image available
/ 4 November 2003
South Africa has made significant gains since the advent of democracy in April 1994. However, the country still faces serious problems. The most significant one — apart from the impact of HIV/Aids — is the lack of economic and social rights for a large sector of the population.
No image available
/ 3 November 2003
Buffalo City Municipality is set to change racially offensive names of zones in its massive Mdantsane township. The sections of Mdantsane are currently numbered from NU1 to NU17. ”The term NU 1 to NU 17 stands for native unit and is offensive,” said mayor Sindisile Maclean at the unveiling of the Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme.