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/ 10 October 2005
Several promising young black gymnasts showed their mettle at the weekend’s acro-gymnastics nationals, which were held at Ermelo in Mpumalanga. Elizke Blofield, a 12-year-old pupil at Laerskool Delmas, and Alexander Demianenko stole the show with brilliant routines to finish with a world-class score of 55,182 (out of 60).
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/ 10 October 2005
Workers in Gauteng and the North West stayed off work and held demonstrations on Monday to protest unemployment and job losses. Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) spokesperson Patrick Craven said demonstrations were being held in Pretoria, Rustenburg, Klerksdorp and Mafikeng.
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/ 10 October 2005
A 46-year-old Swiss lawyer was arrested at a top Sandton hotel on Sunday for sexually exploiting young boys as a ”sex tourist”, Gauteng police said. Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said the high-profile corporate lawyer was caught ”in the act” while having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old Alexandra boy.
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/ 10 October 2005
Fifty people arrested on Saturday following protests sparked off by the murder of a six-year-old girl in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg will appear in the Protea Magistrate’s court on Monday, according to the police. Gauteng spokesperson Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said the 50 were all adults and included both men and women.
Eldorado Park residents promised to continue protesting over the murder of a six-year-old girl on Saturday after a day of violent demonstrations in the township. The residents, who threw stones, broke windows and damaged cars outside of the Eldorado Park police station, dispersed on Saturday afternoon but promised to come back to protest about the death of Gairoenisha Ganchi.
Community members handed over a man to the Eldorado Park police station, south of Johannesburg, on Saturday in connection with the murder of six-year-old Ghairoenisha Michaela Lee Canchi. The girl went missing on Thursday afternoon and her body was found close to her home on Friday morning. She was buried on Friday afternoon.
Gauteng community safety MEC Firoz Cachalia urged Eldorado Park residents to stay calm on Friday and let police investigate the disappearance of a six-year-old girl who was later found murdered. He made his appeal in response to their outrage at the police’s alleged tardiness in handling the case.
Comedian Marc Lottering plans to become a walking, talking condom dispenser, to ”encourage all Capetonians to protect themselves and to survive”, he said in a statement announcing the launch of an innovative nationwide HIV/Aids pledge campaign this weekend. Pledges will be not for money, but rather for action.
The massive HIV/Aids campaigns that South African society is constantly bombarded with has no effect on reducing the pandemic’s prevalence rate. This is according to Warren Parker, a researcher and director of the Johannesburg-based Centre for Aids, who was addressing the Gauteng Aids conference in Midrand on Friday morning.
Recently the Pension Funds Adjudicator (PFA), Vuyani Ngalwana issued rulings on a further 22 retirement annuities (RAs). Life companies have chosen to settle 15 of these rather than face the negative publicity. This brings to 54 the total number of RA rulings since March. The life companies are appealing seven of these in the High Court.
An indigent burial support programme was needed to cope with the rising number of HIV/Aids deaths in South Africa, a researcher said on Thursday. Shirley Ngwenya, a public health researcher in Johannesburg, was addressing a Gauteng Aids conference at Gallagher Estate.
There is a steady increase in HIV prevalence in South Africa, a professor from the University of KwaZulu-Natal said at the opening of the Gauteng Aids Council conference in Johannesburg on Thursday. The life expectancy in the country would soon plummet from 63 years to 46, Professor Alan Whiteside said.
Cape High Court Judge President John Hlophe has dismissed as ”utter rubbish” allegations that he racially abused a top white lawyer and told him to go back to The Netherlands. Hlophe said on Wednesday night he had no idea where the allegations came from. ”It is absolute rubbish,” he said.
Cool and conditions moving over the northern parts of the country brought some relief on Wednesday for firefighters still battling veld fires in Mpumalanga. Earlier in the day, a fire that raged through the North West veld overnight was brought under control near the Vredefort Dome. However, the fire risk remains high in the northern parts of the country.
It is ”patently obvious” that the rights of patients in state hospitals are not being respected and that urgent action is needed, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. DA MP and health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard released a damning report on the country’s ”five worst hospitals” during a press conference at Parliament.
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s attorney Mike Hulley will not lodge an application in the Durban High Court on Wednesday for the return of documents seized during recent raids by the Scorpions, according to his secretary. On Monday, Hulley said the application would probably be lodged on Wednesday.
M&G Media, owner of the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> newspaper, announced on Wednesday that Jason Zeelie has been appointed as the group’s managing director of publishing with effect from November 1. Most recently, Zeelie has worked at Independent Newspapers, where he was Gauteng retail and special projects advertising manager.
A solid final-round 66 in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour at Erinvale reignited Eugen Marugi’s career after a rather non-descript 2004 season. Last week, Marugi underlined his comeback at the Seekers Travel Pro-Am. With back-to-back top-10 finishes, the 21-year-old Johannesburg golfer is finally back on the Sunshine Tour fairways.
The South Africa Foundation on Tuesday launched a new report that focuses on 12 specific proposals for ways to lower telecommunications costs and widen access. The report comes a week ahead of the telecommunication-pricing indaba. The second round of the government-hosted two-day colloquium will take place in Gauteng.
Two months in state hospitals in North West and Gauteng changed a healthy pensioner of Lichtenburg into an ”empty shell”, News24 reported on Tuesday. Des Farrell (72) was admitted to hospital on July 23 with a broken leg. On September 21, he was discharged with mild brain damage and many bedsores.
If coach Stuart Baxter expected a transformation in old habits, with all Bafana Bafana 20 players assembling en masse at the squad’s training camp in Durban on Monday prior to the critical African Nations Cup match against the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was a case of Bafana’s leopards simply not changing their spots.
Firefighting teams are battling to extinguish 15 forest and veld fires that continue to burn out of control in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, Working on Fire (WF) said on Monday. WF spokesperson Val Charlton said about 26 WF firefighting teams are battling the blazes across the northern parts of the country.
About 50 Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) members on Sunday shackled themselves to railings at Parliament in Cape Town to highlight their jobs and poverty campaign. Cosatu’s Eastern Cape provincial secretary said marches would start at 10am on Monday in East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and Queenstown.
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/ 30 September 2005
South Africa’s retail petrol price for all grades of petrol will increase by 12 cents a litre (c/l) from October 5 after a 29c/l rise on September 7, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. The wholesale price of diesel 0,3% sulphur will rise by five c/l after September’s two c/l increase, while diesel 0,05% sulphur will cost six c/l more after a three c/l addition in September.
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/ 30 September 2005
Within the next three years, motorists travelling alone should expect to pay a fee for doing so, the Department of Transport said on Thursday. The measure, called ”congestion pricing”, will be implemented to encourage the use of public transport, the deputy director general of transport said in Mabatu at the launch of National Transport Month.
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/ 30 September 2005
Central Gauteng on Thursday were all but celebrating the South African Interprovincial men’s golf tournament title after their fourth straight win with one match to play at the Benoni Country Club. After comfortably defeating current champions Western Province 7-5, the team from Johannesburg now face a showdown with Kwazulu-Natal on Friday.
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/ 29 September 2005
”The Independent Democrats in Gauteng have lost their engine room,” the Democratic Alliance’s provincial leader in Gauteng, Ian Davidson, claimed on Thursday. According to a statement released by the DA, 11 leading ID office-bearers — including provincial chairperson Peter Batchelor — are joining the DA.
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/ 27 September 2005
Fires that have killed two people and ravaged large areas of land have largely been contained, but now the provinces are starting to count the costs. Crews from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have been fighting fires since September 23.
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/ 27 September 2005
Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini were both honoured for a record-equalling fourth time at the launch of the 2005 Mutual & Federal South African Cricket Annual in Gauteng on Monday. Kallis and Ntini were among the five Mutual & Federal annual cricketers of the year named at the function.
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/ 27 September 2005
A man was killed when a tree fell on top of him during high winds on Monday night at Zevenfontein informal settlement, north of Johannesburg. Monday night also saw large areas of Gauteng plunged into darkness and roofs flying off houses. Johannesburg emergency services received about 1 500 emergency calls.
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/ 26 September 2005
Former South African Football Association leader Solomon ”Stix” Morewa died in his sleep at his Fourways home, north of Johannesburg, in the early hours of Sunday, his family said. Before his death, Morewa (61) had been suffering from complications related to diabetes.
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/ 25 September 2005
In Berea, an inner city suburb in Johannesburg, a worn-out sign next to a hole in a wall reads: ”Place your newborn baby in the door of hope. Anytime day or night. We will care for your baby.” Inside is a square steel container with a colourful teddy bear blanket, ready for the next arrival.