Alexandra, Gauteng’s "township of rhythm", is ready to jump aboard the tourism train. Efforts are being made to lure visitors into the heart of a place that was once ruled by gangsters and considered strictly off-limits to anybody with a hint of common sense. But times have changed.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has extended its heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the four members of the South African Police Service who died in a confrontation with armed criminals in Jeppestown on Sunday.
The four police officers killed in Sunday’s bloody clash in Jeppestown in Johannesburg have been identified, while Gauteng’s provincial minister for community safety warned that criminals are mounting a guerrilla war. Captain Dennis Adriao said on Monday the police officers died when the West Rand flying squad and dog unit ”heroically” chased down the heavily armed fugitives.
A shootout in Jeppestown, Johannesburg, on Sunday ended in what was described as a bloodbath with four police officers and eight suspects killed. An emotional Gauteng provincial Commissioner Perumal Naidoo told reporters at the scene that ”four policemen had lost their lives in the line of duty”.
Heavy snowfalls are likely over the north-eastern parts of the Eastern Cape on Thursday, the South African Weather Service said. Forecaster Deon van der Mescht said very cold and wet conditions were expected in Aliwal North, Queenstown and Molteno. Snowfalls would then move to the Drakensberg.
A Gauteng man has spent more than R42 000 to propose to his ”angel” Anita in a full-page newspaper advert on Thursday. On bended knee in the Afrikaans daily Beeld, looking imploringly into the camera and clutching more than 25 red roses, the man asks: ”Anita, my angel, will you marry me?”
The justice system is seen as unfair to people laying a charge of rape, a survey has found. This perception was strongest in the coloured community, with black people the least critical, said Research Surveys, which conducted the study as part of ongoing research into social and political issues. It was also a belief held mainly by women, but not markedly so, the survey found.
East Rand police are closing in on a gang of 12 to 15 striking security guards believed to be responsible for the deaths of 25 of their non-striking colleagues in Gauteng since the end of March. Two of the alleged ringleaders have already been arrested, said Detective Inspector Gerry van der Merwe.
South Africa celebrated World Refugee Day on Tuesday by promising to fast-track its backlog of 100Â 000 asylum applications. The Department of Home Affairs launched four refugee-reception offices around the country to process the applications dating from 1994 to July last year.
Gas supply in the Gauteng area is expected to return to normal over the next few days after a series of mishaps that has throttled supply since the onset of an early winter in May. Afrox, the market leader in bottled gas, says it has supplied an additional 50 000 9kg bottles to alleviate the shortage.
The body of another murdered security guard was found hanging from a tree in Springs on Monday, Gauteng police said. ”He was found hanging from a tree, he had a wound possibly caused by a sharp object on his head and his legs had been tied up,” Superintendent Andy Pieke said.
Support for a third term for President Thabo Mbeki has not cost South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) leader Mlungisi Hlongwane his job. National executive committee member Donovan Williams said a Business Day article reporting that Hlongwane and deputy general secretary Master Mahlobogoane had been suspended was wrong.
Support for a third term for President Thabo Mbeki has cost South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) leader Mlungisi Hlongwane his job, media reports said on Monday. Hlongwane was suspended as president after his calls for a third term for Mbeki as head of state.
One day prior to June 16 the pupils of Inkwenkwezi Primary School in Soweto gather in the assembly area. They are asked to think about the day thirty years ago when police opened fire on schoolchildren protesting in the streets of the township. The headmaster of Inkwenkwezi tells how, back in 1976, young people decided they had put up with racism and repression for long enough.
President Thabo Mbeki laid wreaths at the Hector Pieterson memorial site in Soweto on Friday as part of the 30th anniversary of the June 16 1976 student uprisings. Mbeki was accompanied by Minister in the Presidency Dr Essop Pahad, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa and Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo.
Gauteng police on Wednesday nabbed 600 people linked to rape, murder, hijacking and robbery cases. ”At least 43 suspects can be linked to outstanding rape cases and 10 hijackings. The rest were arrested for crimes such as murder, armed robbery, drug dealing and other crimes,” said Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht on Thursday.
Gauteng local governments are owed R17-billion for unpaid services, provincial minister Qedani Mahlangu said on Thursday. Mahlangu said, while delivering her budget speech in Johannesburg, that the debt, which was incurred due to unpaid services, was hampering service delivery in the province.
Former businessman and politician Themba James Maseko is the new head of government communications, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad announced on Wednesday afternoon. Maseko, a former African National Congress MP, becomes CEO of the Government Communication and Information Systems, which makes him spokesperson for the government.
The Vereeniging laundry murder case will soon be re-enrolled at court, Gauteng minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia said on Friday. ”The police have assured me that the matters of concern raised by the magistrate are being dealt with and that the case will soon be re-enrolled at court,” Cachalia said during his budget speech.
The role of the South African government in the covert "rendition" of Khalid Mehmood Rashid is an affront to the foundational values of our democracy. The Constitution was written with the ghosts of those who had suffered arbitrary detention, torture or disappearance watching over its drafters with the expectation that never again would such abuses be allowed.
Denying reports of a change in its position on the Gautrain, the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) provincial branch on Tuesday maintained its opposition to the high-speed rail link. The Gauteng branch of the tripartite alliance had urged the provincial government to talk to Cosatu about the federation’s concerns, said Cosatu Gauteng chairperson Phutas Tseki.
Gauteng’s budget for HIV and Aids was increased by 47,8% to R515,4-million for the coming financial year, provincial minister of health Brian Hlongwa said on Monday. ”This confirms our unwavering commitment to ensure that we bring this epidemic under control,” he said.
The Council of Education Ministers has approved measures to beef up security at public schools, and the department will identify ”problem schools” needing immediate attention, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor announced on Monday. These are aimed at schools around the country.
The tripartite alliance in Gauteng has agreed that its members should not say things about each other ”that cannot the withstand the test of time”. Gauteng African National Congress secretary David Makhura was addressing a press conference on Monday following the alliance’s provincial ”summit”.
A shortage of fresh water will crimp South Africa’s economic growth if government fails to decrease demand and increase supply of this essential commodity, World Wildlife Fund-South Africa warned on Friday. The conservation organisation said if current usage rates continued, water demand would exceed supply by 2025.
Residents in Johannesburg and other inland and KwaZulu-Natal regions who are experiencing gas shortages need not panic because "there will be gas", Colin McClelland, director of the South African Petroleum Industry Association, told the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> on Thursday. "I’m not concerned that people won’t get gas," he said.
Charges against two of the three men linked to recent train deaths in Gauteng were on Wednesday temporarily withdrawn in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court, police said. Spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said the court heard that there was not enough evidence to prosecute the two.
The South African streetfootball team, which is participating in the first Streetfootball World Cup, to be held during the Soccer World Cup in Berlin in July, is battling to find a local sponsor. Akila Monate, the coach of the team, told the Mail & Guardian Online that finding local sponsorship has been tough.
The price of petrol could rise by up to 30c a litre next week due to the weaker rand and the high oil price, economists said on Wednesday. ”The unfortunate thing is that the oil price remained around [a barrel] for the whole of May and the rand has fallen,” Absa economist Ridle Markus said.
Nine people have been taken in for questioning after a shooting that claimed a man’s life at Port Elizabeth’s New Brighton railway station on Wednesday, police said. Spokesperson Captain Verna Brink said police are seeking to establish whether the shooting is related to the ongoing strike by security guards.
The removal of people from the Thamboville informal settlement near Benoni on Johannesburg’s East Rand turned violent when residents clashed with police on Tuesday. Ekurhuleni metro police spokesperson Superintendent Vusi Mabanga said the relocation of residents to Albert Luthuli Park informal settlement, also in Benoni, was supposed to start at 6am.
More than 2 100 officials of Gauteng’s housing and local government department might be investigated after fraud of more than R133-million in the allocation of housing subsidies was revealed, Beeld reported on Monday. These officials have received R32,8-million in subsidies, despite earning more than the minimum a family has to earn to qualify.