Gauteng

The housing shortfall in Alexandra, eastern Johannesburg, will be under the spotlight in the Pretoria High Court on March 6 when the Gauteng housing MEC gives evidence. ”I welcome the opportunity to present the department’s side of the story and the type of challenges we are facing in implementing the Alexandra Renewal Project,” said MEC Nomvula Mokonyane.

Gauteng social development minister Bob Mabaso has resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment. He said on Friday that he had informed the premier and speaker of the Gauteng legislature that he was stepping down as a member of the executive council, and as a member of the provincial legislature.

Gauteng police Commissioner Perumal Naidoo has appointed a team of senior officers to investigate allegations of racism in the North Rand dog unit. It was reported on Wednesday that a black member allegedly made a written threat to kill three white policemen and a female administrative officer.

Police were on Tuesday continuing a search for the IT executive allegedly at the centre of the African National Congress’s spy and hoax e-mail saga. Durban-based Muziwendoda Kunene has not been seen since his wife dropped him off at a BP garage to board a taxi to Sandton City to attend to his business.

Political parties have until Tuesday to rectify mistakes on their lists of proportional representation candidates for the March 1 election, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said at Monday’s handover to Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa of the 2004 electoral atlas on poll behaviour in South Africa.

Malaria has claimed the lives of six of 483 people hospitalised for the mosquito-borne disease in Gauteng this year. The health department has denied that there is an outbreak of malaria in the province. ”We don’t have that breed of mosquitoes in Gauteng,” spokesperson Bhungani ka Mzolo said on Monday.

The Gauteng department of local government on Sunday announced it would be looking into closing all open manholes that were no longer in use. This follows the death of Mpho Raliete (3) of Katlehong on the East Rand, who died after falling into a manhole on Friday. The child’s body was washed through the sewage line and found 15km away at the treatment plant in Kliprivier.

A total of 108 people, most of them from the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress, joined the newly formed National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) in Gauteng on Saturday. ”Every week, we receive leaders of substance,” said Ziba Jiyane, Nadeco’s founder and national leader.

Sewage swept into the Vaal River by recent rains have all but destroyed the river’s ecosystem, media reports said on Tuesday. The Eco-Care Trust, an environmental organisation committed to the conservation of fish and rivers, said tonnes of dead fish have been floating downriver since the weekend.

The Gauteng Department of Education has merged two under-performing schools, Altem Secondary and Orlando Secondary in Orlando, Soweto, it said in a statement on Thursday. The new school will be located at the Orlando Secondary School premises. The step was taken to ”better utilise resources at these schools to ensure quality education”.