Most people believe that corruption occurs to speed up approvals to which people are legally entitled, a survey has found. The number of people who believe this roughly equals the number of people who think that corruption is a means to ill-gotten gains. Business Against Crime and the German Technical Cooperation Agency commissioned the survey as part of business’s contribution to the South African National Anti-Corruption Forum.
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has expressed concern over the suspension of a professor at the University of Kwazulu-Natal after he criticised management. ”We are concerned at the erosion of free expression rights at tertiary academic institutions,” FXI director of operations Na’eem Jeenah said on Friday.
R1-billion has been allocated this year to eradicate bucket toilets in established settlements by December, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Friday. ”All bucket systems that exist in formal establishments and townships will be completely removed by December 2007,” said a departmental spokesperson.
When planes flew into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11 2001, it was the culmination of cunning plans by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
![]()
Jacob Zuma’s advocate was rebuked by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday for submitting an unexpected and lengthy written argument in the state’s tussle to obtain documents from Mauritius. The documents include the 2000 diary of Alain Thetard — the former chief executive of Thales International’s South African subsidiary, Thint.
Fifteen unidentified bodies, badly decomposed and with only shreds of clothing, have been found at a mortuary in Umzimkulu, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Thursday. Superintendent Zandra Hechter said the grisly find was made by two officials of the health department on Monday.
Thousands of people living in the coastal towns and cities of Mozambique have been displaced by Indian Ocean high sea tides that swept into residential and commercial areas this week, news reports said on Thursday. The same phenomenon had sent massive waves slamming into the South African coastline earlier this week.
Farm workers on KwaZulu-Natal farms are subjected to gross human rights violations, the province’s Premier, Sibusiso Ndebele, said on Human Rights Day on Wednesday. In an address at Besters Farm in Ladysmith, Ndebele said most farm workers are being refused access to water, sanitation, electricity and education.
Africa’s first power plant to run on methane gas extracted from a rubbish dump began generating electricity in Durban on Tuesday. The plant, built with funding from the French Development Bank, was officially opened by eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba at the city’s Mariannhill landfill site.
![]()
African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma was expected to attend a Human Rights Day concert on Wednesday in Pietermaritzburg to raise funds for his legal fees, the Witness reported on Wednesday. The concert at the Harry Gwala Stadium was to be followed by an all-night vigil in support of Zuma.
Durban’s beaches will remain closed for at least another five days as the city’s authorities clean up in the wake of the heavy surf that battered the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) coastline. eThekwini deputy head of fire and disaster management Mark te Water said on Tuesday evening that he expected the city’s beaches to remain closed for at least five days.
Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane is leading a project to revitalise South Africa’s historic schools. ”We want to restore and preserve these schools for future generations,” said Ndungane in a statement on Tuesday. ”We want them to be centres of cultural and educational excellence.”
Authorities and residents of seashore properties in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) have begun the process of cleaning up and assessing the damage caused by the massive surf that pounded the province’s coastline on Monday. Swells recorded at between 6m and 8m dissipated on Tuesday morning.
Widespread tidal flooding and huge waves, caused by weather conditions combined with a high spring tide, brought chaos to the KwaZulu-Natal coastline on Monday — and worse may be in store for the battered region. In Durban, beachfront areas were pounded by massive surf in the early hours of Monday morning.
South Africa is investigating two main sources of biofuel, maize and sugar, and already proponents are starting to square off. The windfalls task team has recommended investment incentives for the manufacture of biofuels, or liquid fuels from indigenous raw materials, excluding crude oil and natural gas.
Sprinter Sherwin Vries pulled off an amazing sprint double at the South African Senior Track and Field Championships at King’s Park Athletics Stadium in Durban on Saturday, showing he is on track to go to the World Championships in Japan later this year. It was a fifth national title for Vries.
The fourth suspect in the murder of Anglo-Zulu War expert David Rattray has appeared in the Dundee Magistrate’s Court. Sabelo Xolani Mpanza (28) appeared in the northern KwaZulu-Natal court on Thursday. He was denied bail and the matter was postponed for a week to allow time for his legal-aid application to be processed.
International talk-show host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey on Friday opened a R12-million school in Kokstad on Friday amid much fanfare and celebration. ”The journey began five years ago. We were so impressed with the teachers and the principal that we thought your school was not good enough for you,” said Winfrey at the opening.
A family of four were washed away during a rain storm at the Bhambayi informal settlement in Inanda, north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), police said on Friday. Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said nobody knew exactly when the incident happened but it was during Thursday night.
Disintegrating boxes of medical waste left out in the rain and rotting waste from abattoirs dumped in ditches in the veld were among the environmental hazards discovered by the ”Green Scorpions” during a nation-wide blitz this week. Inspectors from the environmental police force this week carried out a series of countrywide enforcement inspections.
United States talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey is to open on Friday an innovative, environment-friendly school she has funded with the South African government to create a model state education facility. This comes as authorities at the exclusive private academy for poor girls that Winfrey opened in January dismissed complaints it is too strict.
South Africa’s environmental police force, the ”Green Scorpions,” will be out in strength around the country on Thursday in a massive crackdown on polluters and poachers. The Department of Environmental Affairs is to crack down on illegal fishing, the disposal of hazardous waste and the activities of at least one chemical plant.
A 30-member environmental management inspection team, the so-called ”Green Scorpions”, is set to descend on the Foskor Plant in Richards Bay on Thursday to effect a compliance inspection, according to the KwaZulu-Natal department of agriculture and environmental affairs.
A Pietermaritzburg family has been forced to vacate its home in Azalea township after it was invaded by snakes, the Witness reported on Wednesday. The newspaper’s website quoted Bongekile Ndlela (42), a mother of five, as saying she first discovered the reptiles on Sunday inside her bedroom. Since then she has killed five of them with the help of a neighbour.
A fourth man linked to the murder of KwaZulu-Natal historian David Rattray has been arrested, local police said on Wednesday. Superintendent Phindile Radebe said the 27-year-old suspect was arrested on Tuesday night at Helpemekaar, near Rattray’s home.
A test that could dramatically reduce the diagnosis time for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) will be evaluated during the next 12 months, the parties involved in the project said on Monday. The two tests will be evaluated on about 40Â 000 TB patients at increased risk of MDR-TB ahead of an anticipated roll-out.
South Africa is struggling to contain an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) is sending a permanent staff member to help, reported the Lancet. The medical journal said the WHO TB expert would advise the Health Department on how to deal with the outbreak of the often-fatal XDR-TB.
No Hout Bay ‘apartheid’ Your coverage of Hout Bay is simplistic and immoral. It is not an “apartheid” conflict, as you suggest, with racist, affluent whites on one side and poor, victimised black people on the other. It is about upholding the law and trying to find a humane and practical solution to unhealthy, overcrowded […]
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) needs a proactive networked response particularly when it appears together with HIV infection, an international discussion on MDR-TB heard in Johannesburg on Monday. ”It is one disease where there are more questions than answers,” said Dr Norbert Ndjeka from Limpopo.
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Premier Sbu Ndebele on Thursday slammed an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) claim that the provincial government had pulled R200Â 000-worth of advertising as a result of negative media reports. Ndebele described a statement by the IFP’s provincial leader, Lionel Mtshali, as an ”outrageous and despicable lie”.
No image available
/ 28 February 2007
Fifa is confident that South Africa will ensure the safety of football fans during the 2010 World Cup, the world soccer body said on Wednesday. Fifa spokesperson Markus Siegler was addressing the 2010 Fifa World Cup media day held in Sandton. He said Fifa is aware of the social problems South Africa faces, and hopes the World Cup will help the country overcome them.
No image available
/ 28 February 2007
Where’s ‘Mandela Doctrine’? Possibly the cornerstone of the 1994 settlement was the mutual recognition between Afrikaners and Africans, an event that took South Africa closer to the key to its future — realising harmony between its different communities. When trying to make sense of Afrikaners today, it is the sorry state of this mutual recognition […]