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/ 15 February 2004
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The Democratic Alliance list of candidates for the 2004 election, to be contested on April 14, holds some surprises and a few predictable placements. DA leader Tony Leon predictably heads the Gauteng national list, followed by sitting MPs Ian Davidson, Richard Ntuli, Janet Semple and Chief Whip Douglas Gibson.
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/ 13 February 2004
Harmony Gold mine said on Thursday night that it was hoping to meet with the National Union of Mineworkers on Friday to resolve a wage negotiations deadlock. The company said it was ”willing to meet with the union at any time”.
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/ 12 February 2004
About five thousand workers, covering seven shafts, at world number five gold miner Harmony’s mines in the Free State and Klerksdorp went on strike on Wednesday over wage increases. The National Union of Mineworkers said the strike began with the late night shift at 9pm.
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/ 12 February 2004
About 5 000 workers, covering seven shafts, at world number-five gold miner Harmony’s mines in the Free State and Klerksdorp went on strike on Wednesday over wage increases. The National Union of Mineworkers said the strike follows a lengthy process of wage negotiations that began as far back as October 23.
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/ 10 February 2004
More than 90 people were injured in a bus crash on the N8 highway between Bloemfontein and Botshabelo in the southern Free State on Tuesday morning, police said. The bus was transporting about 130 adults and school children towards Bloemfontein when it developed ”mechanical problems”.
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/ 9 February 2004
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) on Sunday accused the authorities of preventing vital information from reaching the public and vowed to fight for the right of journalists to protect their sources. Sanef said the organisation was concerned over the flow of information from the police to the media.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30864">The death of Zimbabwean journalism</a>
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/ 6 February 2004
Parliament was a riot of colour and costume shortly before 9am on Friday, ahead of its official opening. Security officials were anxiously muttering into ear pieces, and trying to stop people walking on the red carpet laid out for the President and his entourage.
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/ 4 February 2004
Apart from selling sunflowers and sheep to finance their alleged coup plot, the Boeremag also talked of ”hijacking” a grain harvest and arranging a cash-in-transit heist. According to a police spy, financing for the alleged coup would have included a crop of sunflowers and 200 sheep donated by farmers.
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/ 4 February 2004
New regulations to compel the replacement of non-functioning emergency exits on South African buses and taxis will still take an indeterminate time to come into effect, it emerged on Tuesday. In the meantime millions of public transport passengers run the risk of meeting the same fate as the 51 Saulspoort bus disaster victims.
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/ 3 February 2004
The Boeremag’s alleged plan to take over the country would have been financed by sheep, sunflowers, someone’s retirement package and the sale of bullets. This is according to police spy Johan Smit, who claimed to have infiltrated the Boeremag’s inner circle while secretly reporting to the police.
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/ 2 February 2004
The South African province of the North West was the worst offender in spending or alternatively keeping track of its capital spending of South Africa’s nine provinces. In the first nine months of the fiscal year, the North West housing department spent only 2,6% of its capital expenditure allocation of R390-million.
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/ 29 January 2004
More women than men registered to vote during the voter registration drive of January 24 and 25, and 18- to 25-year-olds proved those accusing them of apathy at least partly wrong. The Independent Electoral Commission on Thursday announced the results of the country’s second voter registration weekend.
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/ 25 January 2004
Leaders of all major political parties were out and about, encouraging unregistered citizens to take advantage of the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC’s) last voter registration weekend before the election. The voting stations are open from 8am to 5pm on Sunday.
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/ 23 January 2004
Rain over the past few days has helped to ease the drought, but government officials and farmers say much more is needed to break its destructive grip. "The rain was very helpful," said Mike Muller, Director General in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. "But it is not nearly enough to break the drought."
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/ 20 January 2004
After poor summer rainfall, a favourable rain-producing weather system is developing, the South African Weather Service said on Tuesday. The key areas that could receive decent rain in the next week are the North West, Gauteng and Free State provinces, with heavy falls possible in places.
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/ 17 January 2004
President Thabo Mbeki has declared parts of six drought-stricken provinces in the country disaster areas, the Department of Provincial and Local Government said on Friday. The disaster areas are in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, the North West, the Free State and the Northern Cape.
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/ 16 January 2004
The bulk of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress’ supporters are unemployed while 94% of them are black, according to the results of a Markinor poll. Similarly, nearly 80% of Inkatha Freedom Party supporters are jobless. The poll was conducted among 3 500 respondents nationwide late last year and was commissioned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
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/ 14 January 2004
The actual area South African commercial maize farmers have devoted to maize during the current 2003/04 season is expected to be 2,55-million hectares, down 6,4% from the 2,724-million hectares farmers intended to plant in November, a survey of 22 grain traders shows.
South Africa’s Department of Transport has reiterated its appeal to motorists to reduce their speed on national roads in anticipation of traffic exodus at the end of the holidays, government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday.
A two-year-old baby was raped in the Free State township of Hlohlowane, police said on Monday. Constable Christopher Mophiring said the girl was rushed to the nearby Clocolan hospital where it was confirmed she was raped.
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/ 31 December 2003
Democratic Alliance (DA) congratulated matriculants, although it said teachers should not place emphasis on the pass rate over quality education. In a statement on Tuesday DA spokesperson Willem Doman said the DA was also concerned that the number of pupils writing matric had fallen since 1998.
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/ 30 December 2003
South Africa’s 2003 national matriculation pass rate has improved by 4,4% to a total of 73,3%, Education Minister Kader Asmal announced on Tuesday, up from 68,9% in 2002, 61,7% in 2001 and only 48,9% in 1999. Asmal said the results ”clearly show that the tide has turned” for South Africa’s education system.
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/ 24 December 2003
As the government announced additional drought relief measures on Tuesday, hopes remained dim for substantial rains in the near future. A comprehensive drought mitigation programme has been put in place following an urgent meeting called on Monday, the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government said.
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/ 17 December 2003
Efforts to tax agricultural land seem increasingly part of a greater plan to target the country’s farmers, Free State Agriculture said on Wednesday. President Louw Steytler said efforts to levy a municipal tax on farmland persist while the agricultural industry is experiencing a drought crisis.
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/ 15 December 2003
An estimated 10th of the country is experiencing the driest year on record, agricultural meteorologist Johan van den Berg from Enviro Vision in Bloemfontein said on Monday. Official records, being kept since 1915, show that several parts of South Africa during the past 11 months received the least rain in 88 years, he said.
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/ 11 December 2003
A Free State farmer on Thursday won, in the Bloemfontein High Court, what is regarded as a test case on the levying of tax on agricultural land. Farmer Hendrik Boshoff from Reitz in the eastern Free State was granted a court order declaring illegal the levying of a 2% municipal tax on his farms.
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/ 8 December 2003
God is certainly having his day in court these days, but I doubt if he’d be anxious to endorse the way his name is being bandied about if he was around to hear it. Down in Bloemfontein in the so-called Free State, former apartheid-era Judge Joos Hefer is trying valiantly to play God while a motley crowd of well-heeled natives and Indians scamper around pointing fingers at each other.
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/ 8 December 2003
About 51 detainees at police cells in the Mangaung region of the Free State were fingerprinted, and seven of them identified as being wanted for other crimes. Captain Sam Makhele said the police visited four facilities and used a new ”morpho-touch” mobile fingerprint device to scan the inmates.
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/ 26 November 2003
The Department of Labour has visited more than 250 business sites in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Northern Cape and Western Cape as part of the nationwide blitz inspections to check on employers’ adherence to the Employment Equity Act.
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/ 24 November 2003
President Thabo Mbeki and his deputy, Jacob Zuma, are predictably first and second on the African National Congress’s provisional list of national candidates for next year’s general elections, released on Monday. The national and provincial lists were adopted by the ANC’s national list conference at the weekend.
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/ 14 November 2003
Harmony Gold Mining, African Rainbow Minerals Investment (Armi) and Avmin have agreed on a deal that will make Avmin South Africa’s largest diversified and empowered mineral resources company.
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/ 12 November 2003
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has won two municipal by-elections – in the Western Cape at Breede River/Robertson municipality and at Dealesville in the Free State unopposed — while the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has won a seat at Phillipstown in the Northern Cape unopposed.