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.
Government’s social sector cluster of ministries is making steady progress with delivery, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said on Friday. Over 3,4-million children under the age of 14 now received the child-support grant, he said during a media briefing on the implementation of government’s programme of action.
The Free State Cheetahs coaching staff, led by Rassie Erasmus, believes their first real test of the Currie Cup season will come when the defending champions face the Lions on Saturday. The Cheetahs are coming off two massive wins, over Griquas and the Falcons, while the Lions are coming off successive losses.
Acclaimed Flemish artist Frans Claerhout (87) has died in a Bloemfontein hospital, radio news reports said on Tuesday. He died in his sleep, two weeks after being admitted for pneumonia. Born in Belgium in 1919, he became a Catholic priest and came to South Africa as a missionary in 1946, ministering to the people of the Free State.
A ”frightening” number of police officers have died in Gauteng so far this year, with almost as many slain in the first six months of 2006 as in the whole of last year, said the office of National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. The deaths of four police officers in a bloody siege in Jeppestown last Sunday brought the tally to 19 since the start of the year.
Now that all the fuss and bother have died down, I find myself feeling a sort of empathy for our genial Minister of Safety and Security, Charles ”Whingers Beware” Nqakula. I have seldom seen such a flurry of outrage and hurt feelings in response to an idle remark tossed off in Parliament by the minister.
The chasm between Super 14 experience and Vodacom Cup rugby was further exposed when defending champions the Cheetahs hammered Griquas 55-14 in a one-sided opening Currie Cup encounter played in Bloemfontein on Saturday. The Cheetahs surprisingly won the Currie Cup last year.
Gold Fields confirmed on Wednesday that one mineworker was killed in a surface blasting accident at its Beatrix Mine in the Free State shortly before 9am on Wednesday morning. Three other workers were injured and taken to the St Helena hospital in Welkom, the group said.
The Department of Transport is committed to the introduction of a nationwide, integrated fare-collection system that would include the taxi industry in the taxi-industry subsidy net, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe reported on Tuesday. The ticketing system is included in the department’s 2006-to-2009 strategic plan.
Invalid decisions by the Free State premier, unlawful payments by two Northern Cape municipalities and problems at the Commission on Gender Equality were the major focus of reports released by Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana on Tuesday. He has also completed his probe into Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s controversial trip to the United Arab Emirates.