Roofs of houses and businesses were in danger of collapsing under the weight of snow in Barkly East and Elliot in the Eastern Cape, Arrive Alive said on Wednesday. Disaster teams and traffic authorities were using graders to clear snow off the road. ”But it is very, very cold and the snow is very thick,” said an Arrive Alive spokesperson.
The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has chosen a new top structure at its provincial congress in Limpopo, a spokesperson said. Mudini Maizha said on Sunday that Japie Ligege was chosen as the new chairperson for the party in the province. Morwamotshi Ntwampe is his deputy, while Elvis Molapo is the new secretary.
A Thabong man shot dead a 14-year-old plaintiff in a case against him outside the Welkom Magistrate’s Court on Friday, Free State police said. The man then shot and wounded himself, Captain Rosa Benade said. The man allegedly went to the state prosecutor and said he wanted to plead guilty on a charge of assaulting the teenager.
Three lions killed two security guards at a game farm near Virginia in the Free State on Wednesday, police said. Captain Rosa Benade said the two men — one aged 36 and the other 70 — worked as security guards at the farm, which is situated 7km from Hennenman.
Inspectors from South Africa’s Department of Labour carried out "blitzes" in the Free State province this week but the vast majority of workplaces targeted were found to be compliant with the country’s employment equity laws, a spokesperson for Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Tuesday.
The new headquarters for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup will be completed and fully operational by the end of October, the South African government news agency, BuaNews, reported on Monday. This comes just 11 months after a sod-turning ceremony at what is to be the South African Football Association’s new home.
Western Province got off to the best possible start at the Spar National Netball Championships in Port Elizabeth on Monday, beating defending champions Central Gauteng by 45 goals to 38 in their opening match. Central Gauteng certainly did not appear to be champion material in the first quarter.
Cash-in-transit heist gangs hit at least six vans on Monday — three of them from Fidelity Cash Management Services and three from Coin Security. Although shots — including assault-rifle fire — went off in all but one of the attacks, only one security guard was wounded. Four robbers were arrested.
This week South Africa experienced weather extremes starting with a berg wind and a tornado, and ending with snow and floods. A report by South African Weather Service meteorologists Luis Fernandes and Lee-Ann Clark — from the National Forecast Centre in Pretoria — detailed the week’s strange weather.
The National Sea Rescue Institute borrowed a helicopter, a rubber duck and a tractor to complete two rescues and a mercy mission along the flooded coast on Friday. Meanwhile, one of 14 people rescued from the Thaba ‘Tseka mountains in Lesotho has been airlifted to hospital in a critical condition.
Escalating violence in South Africa’s schools is a reflection of society and not of a defunct education curriculum, the national Department of Education said this week — this after criticism that the school curriculum fails to prevent school violence because it does not address pupils’ emotional and psychological development.
Fraud and theft made up the bulk of financial misconduct cases reported in the 2004/2005 financial year, the Public Service Commission said on Thursday. The highest number of cases were reported by national departments, which had 39% of the 513 cases of financial misconduct. The Free State and Eastern Cape reported 10% each.
Rescuers trying to save a woman who got stuck in a tree after her house was flooded were hampered by snakes making for their jet ski, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Thursday. ”There were lots of snakes in the flood waters. They were using the rescue gear and the jetski for floatation,” spokesperson Craig Lambinon said.
A joint South African-Lesotho police operation resulted in 264 people being arrested, Free State police said on Wednesday. ”The aim of the bilateral operation was to combat the flow of illicit firearms, ammunition, drugs and vehicles between the borders,” Superintendent Sam Sesing said.
Fourteen people were rescued from a truck in a flooded river in Plettenberg Bay using a front-end loader, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Wednesday. A massive cold front has brought freezing conditions and flooding to the country. Four bodies were recovered after a car was washed away in floods in George.
Free State farmers are to take the government to court over safety concerns along the Lesotho border, their union said on Wednesday. ”The research has been done and the economic impact has been quantified,” said Free State agriculture president Louw Steytler.
Light snow fell over Sandton, north of Johannesburg, on Wednesday as a cold front gripped the country. Snowflakes were also falling in Rosebank, Bryanston, Soweto and Hyde Park. ”Snow over Gauteng seems to occur once every eight to 10 years,” said weather forecaster Kevin Rae.
A massive cold front sweeping across South Africa has brought freezing conditions to much of the country, with snow reported as far north as Bloemfontein in the Free State and parts of Gauteng, as well as reports of serious flooding in the southern Cape and a tornado in Dullstroom in Mpumalanga.
South Africa’s population was estimated at approximately 47,4-million at mid-year 2006, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Tuesday. In addition, Stats SA said the estimated overall HIV-prevalence rate is approximately 11%, from less than 9% in 2001, with the HIV-positive population estimated at approximately 5,2-million.
Whip out your winter woollies, put on thick socks and boots and stock up on firewood — it is going to be cold and wet in the entire country this week. The South African Weather Service said on Tuesday a strong cold front was moving in over the interior with snow already being reported in the Western Cape.
Charges of assault, resisting arrest and impeding a police officer in performing his duties were withdrawn against the Free State chairperson of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) on Monday, the party said. Hendrik Minnie, a Mangaung Local Municipality councillor, was arrested on Friday night at Heidedal in Bloemfontein and spent the weekend in police custody.
The ability to intercept passes and create try scoring chances from turnovers enabled the Free State Cheetahs to take four valuable points from their exciting top-of-the-table Absa Currie Cup rugby encounter as they toppled the Sharks 31-19 in Durban on Saturday evening.
An Odendaalsrus man who held his girlfriend and two-year-old boy hostage in a house in Kutlwanong was overpowered by police early on Saturday morning, Free State police said. ”This morning at about 6am members of the task force from Pretoria went into the house and managed to arrest the suspect,” Superintendent William Mokoena said.
Politicians, including Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff, have formally acknowledged they owe the defunct Bathong travel agency tens of thousands of rands, a liquidation inquiry heard on Wednesday. Bathong is one of the agencies targeted by the Scorpions in their probe into the alleged abuse of parliamentary travel vouchers, and Bathong director Mpho Lebelo will be in the dock along with more than two dozen current and former MPs on Monday when their criminal trial begins in the Cape High Court.
A South African company on Tuesday unveiled plans for the continent’s first billion-dollar factory to make bio-ethanol from maize, as Africa races to find alternative energy sources in the face of soaring oil prices. The Ethanol Africa plant, located in the Free State province, is expected to be in full production next year, making up to half-a-million litres of bio-ethanol a day.
Maintaining physical health should not be one of the challenges faced by initiates attending an initiation school, Free State provincial minister of health Sakhiwo Belot said on Friday. ”Horrendous malpractices, often resulting in the physical … and psychological debilitation and even death of young men in these schools are well known,” the minister.
Much work must still be done to ensure optimal implementation of HIV and Aids policy in both primary and high schools, a conference heard on Thursday. Although the majority of schools have guidelines on the Department of Education’s HIV and Aids policy, a wide gap still exists between policy and implementation.
Free State police have launched a manhunt for a gang who robbed a chartered aircraft at the Bloemfontein airport of an undisclosed amount of money early on Thursday. Police spokesperson Captain Elsa Gerber said a group of between eight and ten men stopped their Ford bakkie in front of the Baron Beachcraft twin prop plane at around 7.45am, preventing the pilot from taking off.
The figures are certainly impressive. According to Statistics South Africa, the country’s tourism industry has experienced growth of more than 100% since the demise of apartheid in 1994. But in a country struggling to overcome the effects of apartheid, these figures do not necessarily add up to a success story.
The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal said that accelerating development and service delivery is a greater priority that changing the name of the province. ”We don’t think the question of the name of the province is a priority for now,” the party’s provincial spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu told the South African Press Association.
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s suggestion that KwaZulu-Natal’s name be changed should be supported because the current name is associated with suffering and humiliation, the Pan Africanist Congress said on Monday. Zwelithini has also called for the history of the Zulu nation to be rewritten to correct ”falsifications” of history.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has announced a reshuffle of four key posts in its shadow cabinet, including the shifting of fiery health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard to the safety and security portfolio. Kohler-Barnard takes over from Free State MP Roy Jankielsohn.