The brother and sister of the wife of slain Free State official Noby Ngombane appeared in the Bloemfontein District Court on Thursday in connection with his murder. Ngombane, who was gunned down at his home, was the head of the Free State government’s policy-monitoring and evaluation unit in the premier’s office.
The government is being asked to consider a new deal for South Africa’s 1Â 240 public libraries, currently floundering in the no-man’s-land of an ”unfunded mandate”, meaning provinces do not get money from the national government to meet this responsibility, according to the head of the Centre for the Book.
There was no evidence of ”crispy, fried monkeys” at the fire-ravaged premises of the Animal and Reptile Park in Muldersdrift, an International Wildlife Welfare Organisation inspector said after visiting the private sanctuary on Monday, contradicting claims of animal deaths by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Detectives are investigating the murder of a woman who was hacked to death with a garden spade, Free State police said on Monday. The body of the 40-year-old woman was found at midnight on Saturday in front of a house in Marico Street at Saaiplaas in Virginia.
The Vredefort Dome, spanning the Free State and the North West provinces, has been declared a World Heritage Site, the Department of Arts and Culture said on Thursday, making it the country’s seventh such site. This decision was made earlier in the day at the 29th World Heritage Committee meeting being held in Durban.
Municipal officials and councillors found guilty of misusing public funds will be strictly dealt with, Matjhabeng executive mayor Serake Leeu warned on Wednesday. He was reacting to a report by the Free State auditor general’s office into alleged irregularities in debt collecting at the Matjhabeng local municipality in 2001 and 2002.
The Free State Cheetahs held off a determined Border Bulldogs XV to win their Currie Cup match 18-12 at the Absa Stadium. In other matches, the Mighty Elephants beat the Falcons and the Blue Bulls maintained their stronghold in the Currie Cup competition at home ground Loftus by beating the Boland Kavaliers.
Eight South Africans suspected of involvement in a planned coup d’état in Equatorial Guinea had their trial set down on Friday for next year in the Pretoria Regional Court. During a brief appearance in the morning, their trial date was set for January 16 to February 3.
Free State police have experienced a last-minute rush in the handing in of firearms before the gun amnesty ends at midnight on Thursday. Superintendent Annelie Wrensch said designated police officers at some police stations were having ”a busy day” by Thursday afternoon. More than 80Â firearms have been handed in.
Three new sites in South Africa may become United Nations world heritage sites. They are the Vredefort Dome in the Free State, the Taung Skull fossil site in the North West province and the Makapans Valley in the Limpopo province. The nominations were unveiled in Johannesburg on Tuesday by Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan.
Some three billion years ago, planetary explosions saw stars fall from the sky into the oceans that flanked Godwanaland, the great land mass of our infant planet. Deep below the waves, the carbon of shattered stars merged with the Earth’s mantle to form hard crystalline diamonds.
Ahead of their opening Absa Currie Cup match against the Cavaliers on Friday, the Sharks team has unearthed some exciting new talent from the ranks of clubs in KwaZulu-Natal. Coach Dick Muir said on Tuesday he was very bullish about the team after some hard preparatory work. ”We have been working very hard on our explosive power,” said Muir.
The SABC will be allowed to broadcast regional television programmes on two stations in official languages other than English, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) announced on Wednesday. Icasa chairman Mandla Langa said SABC 4 would broadcast in Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi and TshiVenda, Xitsonga and Afrikaans.
There was still no clarity on Wednesday as to when President Thabo Mbeki will announce Jacob Zuma’s successor as deputy president — but an acting president has to be appointed to fill the shoes of Mbeki when he is in Nigeria on Sunday.
Relief and joy were etched on the faces of women who were among the first Western Cape prisoners to be released on Monday as part of the government’s remission of sentence programmes. ”Ek is te bly. Ek wil net by die huis kom. Dis al. [I am so happy. I just want to go home. That’s all],” said Dorieca Demas from Bishop Lavis.
The curtain has fallen on the Premier Soccer League (PSL), but for the four teams in the promotion-Ârelegation play-offs, the season has just intensified. Manning Rangers, who averted automatic relegation from the premiership, this weekend enter the first round of their quest to retain a place in the top flight against aspirants from the Mvela Golden League teams (Hellenic, Classic and Durban Stars).
The government is ”paranoid and overreacting” in enlisting the help of the National Intelligence Agency and bringing sedition charges against protesters trying to highlight their plight, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Wednesday. ”The government seems to want to criminalise them,” said a Cosatu spokesperson.
The Springbok coaching staff of Jake White, Gert Smal and Allister Coetzee declared themselves satisfied after the national squad had a good workout against the Shimlas rugby team of the University of the Free State on Tuesday. A few hundred rugby enthusiasts, including learners and students, turned to out to view the Boks in action.
Very cold and wet conditions are due to hit parts of the country this weekend, but for many people a weekend of hot chocolate and romantic snuggling is a remote thought — finding ways of keeping warm safely is far more pressing. But makeshift measures such as illegal electricity connections can be deadly.
The African National Congress tried to swat away the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Oilgate revelations last week like some pesky insect. But like the persistent gadflies that we are, we won’t disappear that easily. Hiding behind a paper-thin set of excuses, the party has argued that there is nothing wrong with a private company making donations to a political party.
While the rugby bosses have put the game in a state of turmoil, Springbok coach Jake White and his squad went about business as usual. The Bok squad had their first two field training sessions at Shimla Park at the University of Free State on Tuesday, and White said he was satisfied with what he saw.
On March 19, 750 people from the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Clare Estate, Durban, blockaded Kennedy Road with burning tyres and mattresses for four hours. Residents in the informal settlement had been promised for more than a decade that a small spit of land in nearby Elf Road would be made available to them for the development of housing.
The Springbok squad gave the Bulls players a warm reception when the Pretoria-based players joined the national team at their pre-season training in Bloemfontein on Monday. Said Springbok captain John Smit: ”They really did us proud on Saturday and, with a bit of luck, could so easily have won the game.”
Rampant Kaizer Chiefs successfully defended their Premier Soccer League (PSL) title after beating Bloemfontein Celtic 2-0 at the Free State Stadium on Sunday. Meanwhile, Moroka Swallows came from behind to share the spoils in a 1-1 draw against Black Leopards at the Rand Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Mining company Harmony will retrench 11 780 workers by the end of July, Harmony’s marketing director said on Friday. Responding to the retrenchments, Solidarity spokesperson Dirk Hermann said: ”The workers are now on the receiving end of an unsuccessful bid by Harmony to take over Gold Fields.”
Almost two-thirds of South Africa’s municipalities cannot say whether the water they supply to consumers meets specified standards, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica told MPs on Wednesday. Director General of Water Affairs and Forestry Mike Muller said the problem is confined to rural areas.
The new local government system introduced four years ago will have benefited more than three million households by the end of the 2004/05 financial year, says Provincial and Local Government minister, Sydney Mufamadi. He says more than R10,3-billion has been spent on basic municipal infrastructure since 2000.
Free State police have clipped the wings of a cross-dresser nicknamed ”Chicken”, putting an end to his alleged reign of terror in Mangaung and Botshabelo. Acting on a tip-off, a task team — specially formed to hunt him down — arrested Lebohang Seobi shortly after 5pm on Monday, said a Free State police spokesperson.
Harmony Gold on Monday complied with a Labour Court ruling by withdrawing retrenchment notices issued to about 5 000 Free State mineworkers, the National Union of Mineworkers said. The court found that Harmony Gold had rushed the procedure set down in the Labour Relations Act to retrench workers.
The Labour Court on Friday ruled that Harmony Gold’s retrenchment of 5 000 mineworkers at its Free State mines was illegal. According to the National Union of Mineworkers, the court ruled that all the workers should be reinstated with immediate effect. A Harmony spokesperson said the company is extremely disappointed.
Mathematically, current Premier Soccer League (PSL) champions Kaizer Chiefs are in the best position to retain the title. All they have to do, to go with an already superior goal difference, is win four league games on the trot — something they haven’t been able to do the entire season.
Mamelodi Sundowns moved to the second spot on the log when they beat struggling Wits University 3-2 in a lively Castle Premier League encounter on Monday. Also, Black Leopards beat Manning Rangers, Lamontville Golden Arrows shared the spoils with Silver Stars and Moroka Swallows defeated Bloemfontein Celtic.