A petrol-bombed truck burned out and three petrol bombs were thrown at police vehicles in Khutsong on Wednesday, North West police said. Superintendent Louis Jacobs said residents had started throwing stones and burning tyres in the morning. Three petrol bombs were thrown at police Nyala armoured vehicles but did not cause major damage, he said.
A R12-billion monorail will be built between Johannesburg and Soweto in the next two years, it was announced on Wednesday. "By 2009, no one from Soweto should have to wait more than 15 minutes for transport," Gauteng finance and economic affairs minister Paul Mashatile said at the launch of the project in Sandton.
Taxi commuters in the Khutsong area were likely to be stranded on Wednesday after local taxi operators suspended services at midnight, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. The suspension came in support of the community’s objection to the incorporation of Khutsong into the North West province, the report said.
Despite African National Congress (ANC) comments to the contrary, businessman Tokyo Sexwale has confirmed that he is being lobbied for the post of party president, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Tuesday. Lobbying would be followed by nominations and Sexwale said he would want to know why he was wanted.
The Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday said it had not yet started discussing names of candidates for ANC national leadership positions. ANC provincial spokesperson Ignatius Jacobs said provincial leadership had decided earlier this year to ”focus on the principles of leadership and not on any names”.
South Africa’s 18th Gay and Lesbian Pride celebrations will be held in the streets of Rosebank, Johannesburg, it was announced on Tuesday. The Johannesburg Pride is the largest gay and lesbian event on the continent, and celebrates South Africa’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities.
Zero pupil attendance was reported at some Khutsong schools on Tuesday, hours after two people were arrested for attacks on three spaza shops. Police spokesperson Superintendent Louis Jacobs said two people were arrested for housebreaking and theft in the early hours of Tuesday.
In the same week that a major climate conference said that gas-emission cuts need to be both drastic and urgent, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk gave his go-ahead for a giant new Eskom coal-fired power station. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the world has just 10 years to implement new strategies to combat global warming.
South African environmental inspectors discovered 10 venomous snakes smuggled in video-cassette cases when they searched a suspicious package at a post office, officials said on Monday. Working on a tip-off, the inspectors seized the package from the Czech Republic.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday questioned the Gauteng health department’s rejection of 22 out of 50 applications for new private hospitals and clinics in the past seven years. Jack Bloom, the party’s Gauteng health spokesperson, said it was ”crazy” to turn down so many proposals by the private health sector.
There was no schooling in Khutsong on Monday despite a 90% attendance by pupils at some schools after a month-long boycott. ”We have confirmation that where learners turned up in large numbers, teaching never took place,” said North West education spokesperson Charles Raseala.
Cosmo City is a place of hope for the new working class looking for an affordable home and a dream come true for people from informal settlements who now live in more than an enclosure of zinc sheets. It brings together sectors of the country’s population who would never have imagined living side by side.
Pupils were returning to schools in Khutsong on Monday after almost a month’s boycott in protest at incorporation from Gauteng into North West. ”In my school, learners are here,” said Khutsong Representative Council of Learners president Sibusiso Kula, who is a grade-12 pupil at Babiri High School.
Hundreds of Taiwanese, Chinese and South Africans gathered to pay their last respects to murdered journalist Gino Feng in Edenvale on Saturday. ”He was my good teacher,” said Jason Wu, who has taken over from Feng as editor-in-chief of the China Express. ”This thing has shocked the Chinese community.”
Business tycoon Tokyo Sexwale said he would ”consider” nomination for the African National Congress presidency at the party’s December conference should he be asked to stand. In January when the Sunday Times reported of Sexwale being approached to run for presidency he dismissed the reports as ”kite-flying”.
A Cape High Court judge involved in a defamation lawsuit that could sink his own judge president has been reported to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), media reports said on Saturday. Judge Siraj Desai has been reported to the JSC by the Pan-Africanist Congress chairperson in Gauteng, Thami ka Plaatjie, who claimed Desai did not have the ”impeccable character” needed in a judge.
The month-long school boycott continued in Khutsong township near Carletonville on Friday. Some matric pupils, who had not been taught in the last five weeks, blamed the government for the lost study time. ”The person who decided to move us to the North West is to blame …,” Mamsy Khumalo, a grade 12 pupil at Badirile High School, said.
Lives could be affected if Gauteng’s new R600-million centralised 10111 call system did not work properly when it was implemented, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday. This comes amid the chaos surrounding the recent implementation of the new electronic national traffic information system, said DA Gauteng safety spokesperson John Moodey.
African champions Hendrik de Villiers and Kate Roberts view the Triathlon World Cup’s opening kilometre of the cycling stage as a potential deciding factor on Sunday. ”The swim should be all right if it is not too windy in the bay area, but it’s the first 600m of the cycle stage … that could be a bit of a test for the athletes,” De Villiers said.
Representatives of learners in Khutsong on Friday urged pupils to go back to school. ”We will try by all means to make sure that learners are at school on Monday and that teaching is taking place,” Khutsong Representative Council of Learners member Sibusiso Kula told reporters.
We may all be preoccupied with the race for the presidency of the ANC, but the volume and tone of the reaction to Helen Zille’s election as DA leader suggests an interest far beyond the party’s electoral base in the future of opposition politics. Even President Thabo Mbeki has been conciliatory, inviting Tony Leon to the Union Buildings at long last.
Everyone knows <i>Sunday Times</i> columnist David Bullard has enough vitriol to run a small vehicle for a month.
Schools in Khutsong township near Carletonville remained empty on Thursday as pupils continued boycotting classes, the Anti-North West Forum said. Spokesperson Jomo Mogale said only teachers were present in schools around Khutsong. Pupils are protesting against the incorporation of the Merafong municipality into the North West from Gauteng.
Shaun Pollock was named the Cricketer of the Year at the fourth Mutual & Federal South African Cricket Awards held in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The Proteas legendary fast bowler scooped the prestigious award ahead of Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini and Ashwell Prince, who were all strong contenders.
President Thabo Mbeki should personally intervene in the Merafong municipality demarcation issue, religious leaders in Khutsong said on Wednesday. ”We ministers of religion want to see peace restored and we plead with the president … to personally intervene …,” they told reporters in Carletonville.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will be picketing outside the Constitutional Court on Tuesday in the hope it rules that the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has the final say in labour disputes and not the courts.
Pupils in Khutsong township on Monday continued boycotting classes in protest against the Merafong municipality’s incorporation into the North West. Anti-North West Forum member Paul Ncwane said there had been no schooling in the area for four weeks. He said only teachers were present in all township schools.
M&G Media, which publishes the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> newspaper in Johannesburg, has been contracted by Mafube Publishing to take over its key management functions, it was announced on Monday. M&G Media will market and distribute all magazine titles published by Mafube — including <i>Enterprise</i> magazine — and assist with advertising sales.
The general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Zwelinzima Vavi, has fired one of the first salvos in the festival of ideas that will culminate in the 52nd ANC national conference. His points on whether the current draft elaborates sufficiently on progress made by progressive forces internationally are well made, writes Mandla Nkomfe.
South Africa’s drive to abolish colonial and apartheid-era place names has met resistance in parts of the black community, where activists accuse the ruling African National Congress of honouring only its own heroes. Thousands of demonstrators thronged the streets of Durban on May Day to protest proposals to rename close to 200 buildings, roads and other landmarks.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille was on Sunday elected as the new leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA). The announcement was made by DA leader Tony Leon to over a thousand delegates at the party’s federal congress in Gauteng. She beat two other contenders for the position, Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip and federal chairperson Joe Seremane.
Hard labour should be reintroduced as a mandatory sentence for murderers, rapists and armed and violent robbers, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) federal congress urged on Sunday. It accepted a resolution condemning rampant crime that was ”undermining the fundamentals of our democracy”.