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/ 4 February 2005
World number six gold-miner Harmony Gold on Friday said it intends to serve its unions and staff associations with notices of compulsory restructuring over the next two weeks. Harmony said it will be issuing Section 189 notifications, which will result in the start of the legally required 60-day review period.
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/ 4 February 2005
De Beers Consolidated Mines will most certainly start its planned job cuts in Koffiefontein. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported three weeks ago that the diamond miner planned to cut 1 400 jobs in its South African operations. The Koffiefontein mine is located in the southern Free State and employs 795 people.
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/ 3 February 2005
The South African gold-mining industry has been in a period of decline over the past 10 years and further consolidation of the sector is a logical move, such as the proposed merger of Harmony and Gold Fields, Harmony chief executive Bernard Swanepoel said on Thursday.
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/ 1 February 2005
Murder charges against an elderly couple accused of killing five children at Molomini reserve near Msinga (Tugela Ferry) last month were withdrawn in the town’s Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The couple was arrested two weeks ago after the children’s bodies were found in an abandoned car at the couple’s home.
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/ 28 January 2005
Former provincial rugby player and soap-opera actor Deon Coetzee was fined R10 000 or three years in jail on Friday for drunken driving. He appeared in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court before magistrate Clive Linden, who suspended half the fine for five years, leaving Coetzee (43) to pay a fine of R5 000, which he did.
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/ 27 January 2005
SA Rugby has named a team of 12 to represent the country in the next two rounds of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens Series to be held in New Zealand and the United States in February. The players leave on Sunday January 30 for the Wellington leg and then jet off to the US for the Los Angeles tournament.
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/ 26 January 2005
After a recent spate of drownings across the country, police have emphasised the need for water-safety awareness. ”In Gauteng, we had 41 drownings in December and 22 in January,” police spokesperson Eugene Opperman said on Wednesday. The bodies of three children who drowned in separate incidents were recovered on Tuesday alone.
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/ 24 January 2005
President Thabo Mbeki paid a surprise visit to the troubled Moqhaka municipality in the Free State on Monday. Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff told journalists the meeting was part of the president’s unannounced visits to municipalities to check on service delivery. Marshoff said the Free State was privileged to be the first visited by the president.
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/ 21 January 2005
When Sepp Blatter, the president of world football’s governing body, left South Africa last week he said he hoped that South African youth teams would participate in Fifa youth tournaments. That is exactly what the South African under-17 team hope to set up this weekend. They are just one match away from the African youth championships.
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/ 21 January 2005
Forty MPs are to be prosecuted for their role in Parliament’s travel scam, the Scorpions announced on Friday. "After considering the evidence and consulting with the affected parties, we have decided to prosecute certain members of Parliament in this matter," spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said.
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/ 21 January 2005
Former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) international striker Emeka Mamale has joined Premiership side Silver Stars in a last ditch effort to revive his professional career. ”We are delighted to have signed a seasoned striker of Emeka’s calibre”, said Stars general manager Thamaga Mokgophi in Polokwane on Thursday.
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/ 19 January 2005
Two of South Africa’s most promising young cyclists were among the five men who died in a plane crash in the Free State on Tuesday, the manager of South Africa’s national cycling team said on Wednesday. Cyclists Jaco de Witt and Jaco Odendaal, along with three others, were on board an Aerostar light aircraft on their way to Harrismith.
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/ 19 January 2005
Black Leopards and Bloemfontein Celtic shared the spoils when they played to an exciting 2-2 Premier Soccer League draw at Thohoyandou Stadium on Tuesday night. Leopards led 2-1 at the break after coming back from a goal behind. Moses Spandeel put Celtic ahead with a brilliant bicycle kick.
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/ 19 January 2005
A United States-registered light aircraft carrying four people has disappeared over the northern Free State on a flight from Wonderboom airport in Pretoria to Harrismith, the Civil Aviation Authority said on Wednesday. About 20 minutes before landing, a passenger on the aircraft phoned a family member by cellphone to ask them to collect them at the aerodrome at 5.30pm.
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/ 17 January 2005
Firearms handed in to police in three provinces in the first two weeks of a three-month amnesty period were mostly legal weapons. On Monday, about 560 firearms had been already been handed over to police in Gauteng, who also received more than 21 000 rounds of ammunition, of which most were handed in voluntarily.
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/ 16 January 2005
Kaizer Chiefs whipped Bloemfontein Celtic 4-1 in their entertaining Premier Soccer League match at FNB Stadium on Saturday night. It was Celtic’s inaugural match under their new sponsors, Vodacom, who have just signed an R8-million, three-year deal with the Free State-based side. AmaKhosi led 3-0 at half-time
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/ 15 January 2005
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday came out in support for prison warders in their dispute with the Department of Correctional Services. Cosatu said a meeting of its public-sector affiliates on Thursday agreed on a programme of action to rally support for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union.
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/ 14 January 2005
Tom Eaton has met the brain drain. "He’s ghastly. He doesn’t challenge his world-view by reading newspapers (or reading anything, for that matter), so I could name him with impunity, but his real name doesn’t quite convey the flaccid provincialism that infects one’s first impression of him. He could be Shane or Chad or Brad or Steve, but for now let him remain Josh, perky and noxious".
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/ 14 January 2005
Diamond miner De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) could cut 1Â 400 jobs in its South African operations, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> has learnt from senior industry sources. Sources have also indicated a strong possibility of closure of some of De Beers’s unprofitable mines as the company faces difficulty brought about by the strong rand.
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/ 12 January 2005
Three of the alleged masterminds behind a right-wing coup plot to overthrow the government were described on Wednesday as responsible, non-violent men who are not a danger to society. A psychology professor said the results of a series of psychological tests gave no indication that any of the three men are prone to violence.
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/ 12 January 2005
On the first day of school, pupils should think about the whole year ahead, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor advised Free State children on Wednesday. ”The first essay for all learners at the beginning of a new school year should be about their aspirations for that year,” Pandor said in Bloemfontein.
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/ 12 January 2005
World number-four gold miner Gold Fields on Tuesday indicated that no viable alternative has emerged from recent talks and that it continues to pursue other alternatives other than rival Harmony’s offer. It is too soon to have expected a viable solution to emerge, Harmony marketing director Ferdi Dippenaar said.
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/ 29 December 2004
The 2004 matric class has achieved a pass rate of more than 70% for the third year in a row, says Education Minister Naledi Pandor. The official results in eight provinces were released during a media briefing at Parliament, but the results in Mpumalanga have been withheld because some are under investigation.
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/ 21 December 2004
Anglo Platinum’s corporate communications group manager, Mike Mtakati; his wife, Nonhlanhla; and his four children were killed in a road accident early on Monday morning. Their nieces, travelling with them, also died in the accident, according to a statement by Anglo Platinum on Tuesday.
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/ 19 December 2004
Deputy President Jacob Zuma handed over a traditional court, king’s chamber, community hall and other facilities to the people of Klipfontein, Mpumalanga, on Saturday. The project is part of the government’s commitment to ”improve the status and position of traditional leaders in our country”, he said.
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/ 16 December 2004
In the past two weeks, two controversial issues hit the South African National Blood Service hard.
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/ 15 December 2004
About 14 passengers sustained minor injuries when a train was derailed in the Free State on Tuesday, according to police. Police spokesperson Captain Rosa Benade said the passengers were taken to a hospital in Kroonstad. Seven coaches were derailed in the accident shortly before 6pm near Westley, about 10km from Koppies. No fatalities were reported.
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/ 13 December 2004
A 64-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing his 35-year-old daughter with a spear in the Bohlokong area near Bethlehem, Eastern Free State police said on Sunday. The woman was stabbed in the chest as she entered her shack on her father’s premises on Saturday evening, said Captain Motarafi Ntepe.
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/ 6 December 2004
The Constitutional Court has given rail commuters a reason to celebrate and reaffirmed their right to be safe from crime. Two weeks ago, the Constitutional Court ruled that Metrorail and the South African Rail Commuter Corporation were responsible for the safety of train passengers, effectively overturning the findings of the Supreme Court of Appeal.
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/ 3 December 2004
Short-term outlooks are relatively favourable with the best chance for good rainfalls over the period December 6 to December 8, 2004 in South Africa’s maize belt, consultant Enviro Vision said in a statement said on Thursday. Regarding the size of the coming 2004/05 commercial maize crop, Enviro Vision put the crop at about 10 million tonnes, from the previous season’s 9,5 million tonnes.
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/ 2 December 2004
A movie is to be made about the life of deceased former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje. Frans Cronje, the older brother of Hansie Cronje who died in a plane crash in George, 500km east of Cape Town two years ago, announced on Wednesday that the Cronje family had authorised a full-length feature film on the life of the late cricketer.