A Sunday tabloid aimed at the ”new, modern Afrikaner” is to be launched in May, its editor said on Tuesday. Sondag’s Mike Vink said it would offer less sleaze than weekly Afrikaans tabloid Son. This will entail, among others, a page three pin-up girl, who will not be topless. ”It’s not going to be sleazy, but a genuine Sunday newspaper with a sports, news and business section.”
Two shots were fired at Johannesburg’s busy Bree Street taxi rank on Tuesday, just a day after a taxi driver was shot and killed at the same rank, Gauteng police said. Meanwhile, commuters were left stranded at Dobsonville in Soweto on Tuesday morning as taxis were not operating in the area.
While business activity levels in Gauteng slowed down in March, overall performance remains at a high level and businesses in virtually every sector should experience healthy activity, according to the latest Gauteng Business Barometer.
President Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress deputy president, and other top ANC leaders are expected to meet the party’s KwaZulu-Natal leadership on Monday. This followed newspaper reports that some ANC leaders in KwaZulu-Natal were plotting to make the province a no-go area for the president.
Gauteng’s Vaal Rand police arrested a man after 55 refuse bags filled with dagga were found in his car on Sunday. The stash was estimated to have a street value of R1-million, Superintendent Maria Mazibuko said. Police began pursuing a man driving a Toyota Corolla at about 9am in Sebokeng.
The most dangerous places in South Africa are not big cities but scantly populated rural or border areas, a new crime-mapping tool showed on Sunday. Although Johannesburg is synonymous with crime in the minds of many overseas visitors, the new computerised map showed that the chances of being murdered or raped were higher in isolated rural areas.
An unruly gang of about 100 youths barricaded roads, looted spaza shops and stoned motorists and police in Khutsong on Sunday morning, reported South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news. The situation had been ”tense” since Friday, when residents resolved to intensify a defiance campaign.
Moroka Swallows and AmaZulu played to a goalless draw in their Premier Soccer League clash at the Germiston Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Both teams had good scoring opportunities but neither could capitalise on the chances created in front of a vociferous crowd on a warm Gauteng afternoon.
Teachers and principals who fail to increase the matric pass rate in their schools will be dismissed, Gauteng provincial minister of education Angie Motshekga warned on Saturday. Motshekga was addressing teachers, principals, pupils and parents at an education conference at the Sebokeng College of Education.
The North West department of education said on Saturday it would take serious action against teachers and principals who went on strike at Khutsong, near Carletonville, this week. The move follows their absence from a meeting convened by the North West provincial minister for education Johannes Tselapedi earlier this month.
The state of the African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng as well as three key challenges facing the province — education, health and crime — will be discussed at the party’s provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting in Germiston on Saturday. PEC spokesperson Ignatius Jacobs said President Thabo Mbeki had already received its report.
A draw to determine the order in which candidates’ names will appear on the ballot for a new Democratic Alliance (DA) leader was held at the party’s parliamentary offices in Cape Town on Friday. Top spot was won by DA federal chairperson Joe Seremane.
Youths in Khutsong in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, have again protested against their incorporation into the North West, police said on Friday. Superintendent Louis Jacobs said the youths barricaded streets, burned tyres and stoned passing vehicles at about midday.
A group of about 150 people barricaded Marlboro Drive near Alexandra on Friday in protest against their eviction from an industrial site, Gauteng police said. ”They said they had nowhere to go since they had been evicted from an industrial site building,” Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said.
Sasol and Engen’s proposed merger received an unprecedented amount of attention last year from the competition authorities and was eventually rejected, despite initial recommendations that it go ahead. Government has been trying to ensure prices are competitive by increasing pressure, particularly on dominant suppliers
No violent incidents were reported in the Carletonville township of Khutsong on Thursday, the day after youths barricaded roads and stoned passing vehicles, North West police said. Superintendent Louis Jacobs said the situation had calmed down after about 400 youths took to the streets on Wednesday night.
Pay these public servants more The statement about not wanting to overburden taxpayers, in Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi advertisements in the media over the weekend, was really irksome. These public notices were placed in reaction to protracted negotiations with public service unions. As a taxpayer I have no issue in paying taxes […]
The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) will on Friday finalise the order in which the names of candidates will appear on the ballot-papers that will be used during the election process at the party’s congress in Gauteng in May. This will be done by means of a draw.
At least 400 youths blockaded roads, stoned passing vehicles and robbed motorists in Khutsong township on Wednesday night, police said. The youths had just returned from a mass meeting called by the Anti-North West Forum to discuss Merafong municipality’s incorporation into the North West from Gauteng.
The Johannesburg home of Gauteng’s provincial minister of health Brian Hlongwa was robbed and four family members held up on Tuesday night, police said. ”I can confirm that yesterday [Tuesday] evening about 8.30pm in the Sandton area four family members were held up and household items were taken,” police said.
Sophie Edington of Australia picked up six gold medals at the 2007 Telkom National Aquatic Championships, which ended at the Kings Park pool in Durban on Sunday night. She took both the 100m and 50m freestyle medals, the 50m butterfly, and the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke races in her stride.
Gauteng must plan ahead if it wants to ease problems arising from increased migration, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday. It was clear that metropolitan areas like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban would attract people ”from elsewhere in the country”, Mbeki said during an imbizo in Braamfontein on Sunday.
Johannesburg streets were on Sunday lined with frenzied residents clamouring to see President Thabo Mbeki as he made his way through Hillbrow. Some cheered out of windows, others were perched on their balconies — waving and shouting to grab Mbeki’s attention — as he shook hands with ecstatic residents on the streets.
If it is a football dictum that the mark of champions is that they can play badly and still win, then the opposite should apply to the teams that get relegated. They can play well and still lose. Mamelodi Sundowns, in conquering a valiant Maritzburg United, proved the first point, while their luckless opponents testified to the other.
No fewer than 210 cases of Klipdrift were sold at this year’s Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK). And this was only at the Klipdrift tent and did not account for truckloads of Klippies that made their way to Oudtshoorn in cooler bags and methods of mass transportation. There is no denying that the arts festival is one of the country’s biggest bashes and kuiers.
A 40-year-old Johannesburg metro police officer and a 43-year-old man were arrested when they were found driving a hijacked goods truck in Gauteng on Thursday, said Vaal Rand police. Captain William Mcera said the truck, carrying canned foods, was hijacked in Mpumalanga by three men on Wednesday morning.
Pretoria police have finally been cleared of accusations of beating a local prostitute into a coma, police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi said on Thursday. In January this year, newspapers reported that a 17-year-old girl was fighting for her life in a Pretoria hospital after being severely assaulted by Sunnyside police officials.
Gauteng Commissioner of Police Perumal Naidoo has ordered his officers to ”turn the world upside down” to find the killers of a two-year-old girl in Johannesburg, said Superintendent Eugene Opperman. The baby was shot in the head during a robbery at a Corlett Gardens home in Lyndhurst on Thursday morning.
Six people, including four foreign nationals, were arrested in Camperdown near Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday morning in what South African Revenue Service (Sars) officials claimed was the country’s second-largest seizure of perlemoen yet. Between five and six tonnes of perlemoen (abalone) were found.
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Hush-hush preparations are under way for a lavish birthday banquet this week for Jacob Zuma, media reports said on Wednesday. More than 1Â 000 people have been invited to celebrate the 65th birthday of the African National Congress deputy president at Durban’s International Convention Centre on Friday.
The curtain comes down on the South African athletics season this weekend when about 1 500 junior and youth athletes converge in Pretoria for the South African Junior and Youth Championships. Much is at stake. For some it provides an opportunity to qualify for the IAAF World Youth Championships.
A keenly contested final of the women’s 400m freestyle is expected on the opening night of the 2007 Telkom South African National Aquatic Championships at the Kings Park Aquatic Centre in Durban on Tuesday following the heats on the first morning of the six-day event.