Incandescent lamps will be exchanged for energy-saving lamps in all provinces from April onwards, Eskom said on Wednesday. The exchange programme for compact fluorescent lamps is already under way in several of the country’s provinces and has seen more than 12-million lamps distributed in three years.
South Africa 2010 Soccer World Cup chief Irvin Khoza apologised unreservedly in a statement on Wednesday for using the word ”kaffir” towards a black journalist. In a formal statement issued through the South African Human Rights Commission, Khoza said he had decided on this action after seeing the University of the Free State (UFS) racist video on the news.
Newspaper columnist Jon Qwelane on Wednesday at a public forum organised by the South African Human Rights Commission refused to apologise for calling a former colleague a ”coconut” for objecting to a recent, blacks-only Forum of Black Journalists event. The forum discussion was frank and at times heated.
The council of the University of the Free State must ”go” because they do not want to transform, the African National Congress chairperson in the province, Ace Magashule, said on Tuesday. ”I cannot agree with those people who want to say everything at the University of the Free State was still fine,” Magashule said.
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Gold Fields said on Wednesday an employee who was trapped at its Beatrix mine had been rescued but another was still missing after an accident on Tuesday. The company — the world’s fourth largest gold miner — said the incident occurred after the ground shifted in a stope 750m below the surface at the number one shaft of the mine in the Free State.
The emergence of the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) indicates there are problems in the media, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) CEO Tseliso Thipanyane said on Tuesday. ”What is going wrong in media rooms to lead to the establishment of the FBJ?” he asked at a discussion on how the media cover race and racism
Thirteen students were arrested at the University of the Free State (UFS) on Tuesday for contravening a court order. Police spokesperson Captain Chaka Marope said they were taken into custody on the Bloemfontein campus at about 8am after they disrupted classes.
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Lawyers for the University of the Free State (UFS) and two white male students who made a racist video involving black university workers were still discussing details of possible disciplinary action on Monday. UFS spokesperson Lacea Loader said the process of disciplinary action was still ongoing on Monday as ”the legally correct processes were continuing”.
On the segregated campus of South Africa’s University of the Free State this weekend, tensions were thunderously high as black students planned a mass protest for Monday against the white students who made a video humiliating their black cleaners.<br><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/319216/video-icon.gif"> <a href="http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=333647&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/" target="_blank" class="standardtextsmall"><b>With live video</b></a>
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/ 29 February 2008
Media24 on Friday announced the closure of the Gauteng and Free State editions of its Afrikaans tabloid, Son, citing weak growth prospects. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape additions would continue to publish, a statement from Fergus Sampson, CEO of the emerging markets division, said.
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/ 29 February 2008
Police are investigating a case of crimen injuria in relation to a racist video made by students at the University of the Free State. The video, which caused national outrage, features black university employees on their knees eating food that had apparently been urinated upon by white students.
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/ 29 February 2008
A Drum magazine journalist was beaten up in what is believed to have been a racial attack in a café in Bloemfontein on Thursday night, the magazine said. ”Drum condemns the incident and believes there is no place for such racist behaviour,” said deputy editor Elmari Rautenbach on Friday.
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/ 28 February 2008
Two University of the Free State students apologised on Thursday for their involvement in a racist video which has sparked a national outcry. RC Malherbe and Schalk van der Merwe said they acted without malicious intent, and expressed sorrow for the embarrassment they might have caused any individual or group.
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/ 28 February 2008
Four young men in the Free State could hardly have known that their video of a demeaning mock initiation of black university employees would be flashed on the world’s TV screens.
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/ 28 February 2008
Last week the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported that the South African Communist Party planned to axe two senior Cape Town members for daring to criticise undemocratic practices at the party’s congress last year and suggesting that it is obsessed with "individuals" (read Zuma) to the detriment of its professed role as the party of the working class.
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/ 27 February 2008
A racist video — featuring University of the Free State employees on their knees eating food that had been urinated upon — was widely condemned by various institutions and political parties on Wednesday. The video, made by members of the Reitz men’s residence on the Bloemfontein campus, came to the attention of the public on Tuesday.
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/ 26 February 2008
A video of University of the Free State employees on their knees eating food which had been urinated upon was condemned ”in the strongest possible terms” by the university on Tuesday. The video, made by male students at the Reitz Residence, surfaced on Tuesday morning and adds to an already tense racial situation at UFS.
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/ 26 February 2008
Premier Soccer League log leaders Ajax Cape Town and the ever-improving Santos will face Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates respectively in the last-32 round of the inaugural Nedbank Cup. The draw involving the Soweto clubs attracted loud applause from the crowd and there was also a huge roar of approval for the R6-million first prize.
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/ 24 February 2008
A 10-man Golden Arrows team beat the listless Moroka Swallows 1-0 in an Premier Soccer League (PSL) match at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Free State Stars ensured Black Leopards remained bottom of the log when they beat them 2-1 in Thohoyandou.
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/ 22 February 2008
Provinces will receive R238-billion this year, a whopping 16% higher than last year’s allocation. By 2010/11, provincial budgets will have doubled on their 2004/05 levels. All increases to key portfolios outstrip inflation by significant margins. But will they spend it well?
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/ 21 February 2008
Ten students were arrested on various charges at the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State after a group took part in a ”disruptive march”, Free State police said on Thursday. Captain Chaka Marope said police had ”a hard time” on Wednesday night, until early on Thursday morning, containing the situation.
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/ 19 February 2008
The first of South Africa’s long-planned "new generation" prisons should be completed by February next year, MPs heard on Tuesday. The R662-million Kimberley Correctional Centre was more than one-third completed by the end of last month, prisons commissioner Vernie Petersen said.
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/ 18 February 2008
Public universities are expected to ask the government on Monday to exempt them from Eskom’s load-shedding, which has gripped the country in the past few weeks. The national outages have undermined the smooth running of university administrations, disrupted lectures and placed millions of rands’ worth of research at risk.
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/ 16 February 2008
In what might be described as circus soccer, with the goalkeepers in the role of trapeze artists taking a couple of tumbles, Golden Arrows and Free State Stars drew 2-2 in a Premier League game that contained some impressive skills and many laughable errors.
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/ 15 February 2008
South African rugby will enjoy an auspicious season this year. We begin the year as the envy of the rugby-playing nations, champions of both the world and the Super 14. Even the internecine wrangling for power in the South African Rugby Union (Saru) has failed to dim that envy.
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/ 12 February 2008
The United Democratic Movement councillor for the Metsimaholo municipality in the Free State, who was shot in the face recently, has died in hospital, police confirmed on Tuesday. Isaac Mokgatla (38) was shot in the Tshepiso informal settlement after he collected his two children from a school on January 31.
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/ 8 February 2008
Trish Pollock might disagree, but what the hell: there is nothing sexy about her husband. Not for him the off-duty rock-star life loved and lived by Herschelle Gibbs, nor the model-go-round that Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis seem to spin on endlessly and effortlessly.
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/ 8 February 2008
Springbok coach Peter has challenged black clubs which claim he is neglecting black talent to name the players they say are overlooked. De Villiers reacted to complaints that rugby authorities paid no attention to black areas and therefore denied talented youngsters opportunities to play at the highest level.
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/ 7 February 2008
Diamond giant De Beers spends $100-million a year on exploration activities in the regions where the company expects to have the most impact, and has invested more than this in the past few years to establish a greater presence and activity rate in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, its group MD said on Wednesday.
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/ 6 February 2008
South Africa’s preparation for the World Cross-Country Championships enters a crucial stage when some of the country’s leading athletes compete at the 34th Janmeda International Cross-Country Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday. ”This race is a brilliant test run,” said Boy Soke, who hails from the Free State.
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/ 31 January 2008
Free State farmers were on Thursday asked by Eskom to cut their power consumption by 10%, mainly during the ”red periods” of between 6pm and 7pm every day. ”This is with immediate effect,” Free State Agriculture president Louw Steytler told journalists in Bloemfontein.
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/ 25 January 2008
The Nigerian method of low-budget movie-making is set to take off in South Africa if an upcoming producer has his way, writes Percy Zvomuya.