Zulu queens spent R533 000 just on clothing between June and October last year, media reports said on Friday. This came as nearly R10-million was needed to avoid the collapse of some of the royal palaces. The spending spree emerged as the royal household appeared before the finance portfolio committee in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.
The battle for the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) at its December conference in Polokwane should convince foreign investors that the country’s democracy is solid, ANC president Jacob Zuma told the Durban Chamber of Commerce’s 152nd anniversary dinner on Thursday.
President Thabo Mbeki will attend a Southern African Development Community (SADC) emergency summit this weekend in Zambia on the post-election crisis in Zimbabwe. However, Mbeki’s cherished policy of "quiet diplomacy" on Zimbabwe has been rejected by his own party.
President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of ”quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe has been rejected by his own party. The split between the Union Buildings and Luthuli House on the issue became apparent this week when Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai chose to meet Jacob Zuma and Gwede Mantashe in Johannesburg.
Gerhard Zandberg’s South African swimming contingent was caught up in the chaos at Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow airport in London, which caused the swimmers to miss their connection flight to Manchester. The terminal opened recently only to descend into disorder as its baggage-handling system broke down.
South African journalist Mark Klusener was ordered to pay 25 000 shekels (about R53 700) and placed under house arrest by a court in Jerusalem on Tuesday, said his wife, Peroshni Govender. Klusener and other staff members were arrested for operating a pirate radio station.
South African journalist Mark Klusener was expected to appear in court in Jerusalem on Tuesday following his arrest, his wife Peroshni Govender said. She had been told that he and other staff members were arrested for operating a pirate radio station. Klusener is news director of 93.6 Ram FM, based in Jerusalem.
There can be little doubt that all South Africans need to commit themselves to transformation. The recent racist video taken at the University of the Free State and the persistence and extent of racialised patterns of poverty are just two of the more obvious reasons it is necessary to keep working to change society and to remove the legacy of apartheid.
Passengers jumped from a burning bus on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast on Monday, a provincial transport official said. Zinhle Mngomezulu said the Olympic bus was hired by the family of provincial agriculture minister Mtolephi Mthimkulu for his daughter’s wedding and reception.
Current South African road cycling champion Malcolm Lange continued to fine-tune his form in preparation of the defence of his Elite national title in East London next month when he won the Maluti Challenge in Bethlehem at the weekend. The seasoned MTN Energade professional outsprinted a strong field.
Hundreds of international guests and media converged on KwaZulu-Natal on Friday at the start of the Ladysmith Siege Weekend to commemorate historic events that took place during the Anglo-Boer War. Organised by the Emnambithi/Ladysmith municipality, the event is in its fourth year and is expected to attract a crowd of about 5 000.
A 38-year-old man is in a serious condition in a KwaZulu-Natal hospital after both his ears and genitals were ripped off by dogs in Empangeni, paramedics said on Friday. Yusuf Kruger, spokesperson for the privately-owned Mounties Ambulance Service, said the incident took place on Hancock Avenue at 4pm on Thursday.
The case against five men — aged between 18 and 20 — accused of gang-raping a 21-year-old Durban woman was postponed in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on Thursday. The men allegedly raped the woman in a sugar-cane plantation in Hillcrest on March 2 while they took turns at holding her father at gunpoint nearby.
South Africa needs to address the issue of xenophobia, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday in the National House of Traditional Leaders in Pretoria. ”Much has been mentioned by yourself concerning foreigners in our areas. I’m very glad that this matter will be addressed naturally together with the relevant government departments.”
A 76-year-old man is fighting for his life in a Durban hospital after being stung more than 1 000 times by bees on Wednesday, paramedics said. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said the man had left his house in KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) Drummond area to go for a walk when he was attacked by the bees.
At least 2 100 volunteers will be recruited and trained in KwaZulu-Natal by police officers from the United Kingdom to build up a front against crime before the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Project coordinator Nhlakanipho Mahlaba said that R35-million had been allocated for the ”volunteer social crime prevention project”.
A scanner costing R43-million — the first of 18 — has been put into operation at Durban harbour’s container terminal, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Tuesday. Leonard Radebe, head of customs at Sars, said the scanner would improve turnaround times at the congested Durban terminal.
Percy Zvomuya looks at Zimbabwe’s literary enfant terrible Charles Dambudzo Marechera’s ambivalent place in African literature.
The Time of the Writer Festival has become a drawcard for regional literary boffs. Niren Tolsi caught up with some Zimbabweans attending the event.
”There is no doubt that if you were searching for the ultimate partner in the Survivor Maputaland series, Gibson Mkhize would be the man to keep you fit, fat and flourishing.” Lisa Johnston explores the natural marvels of Maputaland, located in northern KwaZulu-Natal, close to Mozambique.
A programme to trace people who default on their tuberculosis (TB) treatment was officially launched in the Northern Cape on Friday by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. All provinces have established TB tracer teams of nurses and community health workers who visit homes to find defaulters and return them to their treatment regime.
For thousands of patients quarantined for up to a year with multidrug-resistant or extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, the Easter holiday period only reinforces their loneliness. Last December, patients in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape broke out of TB hospitals to be with their families during the festive season.
Two men died when their light aircraft crashed on a farm near Van Reenen on Saturday afternoon, said Free State police. The two-seater light aircraft went down approximately 45km south of Harrismith, near the N3 freeway, said ER24 spokesperson Riana Beech. According to witnesses on the scene, the aircraft had completed several flights during the day.
Two people died and three were injured — two of them seriously — in a three-car pile-up on the N1 south near the Grasmere toll plaza on Saturday night. Netcare 911 has responded to more than 280 accidents on the country’s roads since the start of the Easter weekend, said spokesperson Nick Dollman.
Four people died and 16 were injured — one critically — in Cape Town on Saturday morning in one of more than 285 accidents on the country’s roads since the start of the Easter weekend. In Durbaniville, Netcare 911 spokesperson Nick Dollman said a car collided with a minibus taxi in the early hours of Saturday.
South Africa’s tertiary education system is operating at close to capacity with limited infrastructure and academic staffing resources available for expansion, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Durban on Thursday. Pandor said that the government hoped to achieve a higher education enrolment of 820 000 students by 2010.
Traffic authorities are out in full force on the N1 highway to Limpopo as thousands of faithful head to the Zion Christian Church’s headquarters of Moria for the Easter gathering, the traffic department said on Thursday. Spokesperson Ntau Letebele said traffic officials were pulling out all the stops to prevent road accidents.
The Easter weekend promises to be a busy one for lovers of live music, with festivals offering diverse line-ups around the country.
Are SA women fair game? The recent attack on miniskirt wearers at a taxi rank in Limpopo, days after the assault on Nwabisa Ngcukana at the Noord Street rank in Johannesburg, is very scary. In Durban last year women were assaulted and humiliated for wearing pants, and again there was not enough of an outcry […]
At least three protesting students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Pietermaritzburg campus were wounded by police firing rubber bullets on Tuesday, the students’ representative council said. Police spokesperson Inspector Joey Jeevan said officers used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd at 10am.
At least 20 houses were burnt down and two people shot in clashes between two northern KwaZulu-Natal communities, police said on Monday. Captain Charmaine Struwig said fighting broke out between groups from the Mhlwazini area and Magangangozi area at midday on Sunday.
The case against a 36-year-old man, accused of murdering 11 KwaZulu-Natal women and dumping their bodies in sugar-cane fields, was postponed on Monday in the Umzinto Magistrate’s Court for further investigation. Magistrate Giel van Aarde postponed the case until April 23.