Truck drivers ended their six-day strike on Tuesday with the signing of a wage agreement. Supermarket shelves were without many product lines and some petrol stations in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal were out of fuel by the time the truck drivers’ sometimes violence-marred strike entered its sixth day on Tuesday.
Police have identified suspects who may be responsible for the murder of Zulu prince and African National Congress branch chairperson Thulani Zulu. ”There are definite suspects who have been positively identified,” KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC Bheki Cele said on Monday. Zulu was killed in a drive-by shooting last Wednesday.
Truck drivers and their employers have ”in principle” reached an agreement about wages, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) said on Tuesday. Negotiators from the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union and the Road Freight Employers’ Association are expected to sign the deal at noon on Tuesday, said CCMA director Edwin Molahlehi.
Traditional Zulu Indunas (leaders) and thousands of their followers marched through Durban city centre on Saturday calling for their roles to be recognised and legitimised in the KwaZulu-Natal constitution. ”The Zulus are ready for marching and taking to the streets, not for war” said one of the Indunas, Nkosinathi Mkhize.
With five leaders killed since November last year, the Inkatha Freedom Party is calling for action on political violence in KwaZulu-Natal, but some think it might be opening a can of worms. KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele announced a commission of inquiry into violence in the province this week.
A crocodile believed to have killed an elderly man at St Lucia has been shot by a KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife official, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday. KZN Wildlife spokesperson Maureen Zimu said: ”There has been a history of aggression shown by this specific crocodile, it was decided to put it down.”
Police have launched a manhunt for three men after the drive-by killing of Zulu prince and ANC branch chairperson Thulani Zulu. The African National Congress has urged the public to remain calm, and not to speculate on the motive of the killers until the police had completed their investigation.
The National Association of Conservancies of South Africa is selling advertising on highways to help pay for clear-up operations to remove alien plants, the organisation said on Wednesday. The ”adopt a highway” project is run in much the same way as ”adopt an animal” programmes in zoos, said project coordinator Dave Peters.
Conservation authorities at the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park have decided to shoot a huge old crocodile that attacked and killed a fisherman this week, KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife said on Wednesday. But resident Petrus Viviers said he was surprised that Elder had been attacked. He said residents are likely to object to the plans to shoot the killer crocodile.
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Despite blaming his auditors for the illegal write-off of R1,2-million from his company’s books, fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik still employs them. He told the Durban High Court on Wednesday he will meet with his shareholders after the trial to discuss his auditors’ contract.
White South Africans living in gated communities think of crime as a type of ethnic cleansing forcing them into semi-migration, a study showed on Tuesday. The study, titled Fear and Loathing in Johannesburg: Constructing New Identities within Gated Communities, was presented at an international symposium on gated communities or townhouses.
The government’s new draft fisheries policy, released for public comment on Tuesday ahead of the allocation of long-term quotas later this year, will see emerging small and medium enterprises gaining a greater share of South Africa’s fish stocks at the expense of the industry’s big players.
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/ 27 February 2005
Five men drowned and two were washed out to sea during a baptism on Durban’s Suncoast beach in the early hours of Sunday, police said. Captain Gugu Sabela said the men from a congregation in Inanda were taking part in a baptism ceremony just after midnight when the tragedy happened.
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/ 26 February 2005
A police officer was shot dead and another was critically injured when 11 prisoners escaped from northern KwaZulu-Natal’s Eshowe police station on Friday, police said. Captain Musa Khaba said the police officers were feeding the prisoners in their holding cells when they were overpowered, and shot at. All the prisoners escaped.
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/ 23 February 2005
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There has been a 76% increase over the past three years in the number of people receiving disability and care dependency grants in the Eastern Cape, according to the Budget Review tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel at Parliament on Wednesday.
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/ 23 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>The maximum old age, disability and care dependency grants will rise by R40 to R780 a month from April 2005, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel announced on Wednesday. In his national Budget speech he said that foster-care grants will be increased by R30 to R560 and the child-support grant goes up by R10 to R180 a month.
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/ 23 February 2005
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Businessman Schabir Shaik is still bankrolling Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday. ”I continue to do so till this day,” Shaik told the court at his fraud and corruption trial. Shaik began testifying in his defence on Monday and for the past two days he has detailed payments made to and on behalf of Zuma.
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/ 22 February 2005
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Former president Nelson Mandela offered to help to ”extinguish” the debt of Deputy President Jacob Zuma. Testifying at his fraud and corruption trial on Tuesday, Schabir Shaik said Mandela felt Zuma’s financial problems were ”distracting him from his duties at the African National Congress”.
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/ 21 February 2005
Loss of habitat looks set to put paid to one of South Africa’s more distinctive and charismatic bird species, the southern ground hornbill. The savannah-dwelling birds, once widespread across the country’s grasslands, now face a ”very real possibility” of extinction, says the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
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/ 20 February 2005
So you missed the Prickly Pear Festival in the Western Cape last month but worry not, there’s a whole 10 months of local festivals and events to choose from. From the Philippolis Witblits Festival to the Calvinia Vleisfees, we’ve lined up some of your more interesting options.
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/ 17 February 2005
A KwaZulu-Natal game ranger was recovering in hospital on Thursday while his colleague was being feted as a hero for saving him from the jaws of a crocodile. ”We are looking at giving Sifiso Nxumalo a medal for his selfless bravery in saving a colleague,” said Maureen Zimu, spokesperson for Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife.
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/ 16 February 2005
South Africa faces a looming health crisis as increased wealth, poor eating habits and sedentary behaviour point to an ”epidemic” of heart disease, especially among the black population. ”We are sitting on a time bomb,” said professor Anthony MBewu, interim president of the Medical Research Council.
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/ 16 February 2005
Donations from KwaZulu-Natal intended for tsunami-hit countries will instead be diverted to poor people in the province, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said on Wednesday. Acsa spokesperson Chris Jacobs. He said 80 out of 120 tonnes of aid are still in storage in Durban and donors will meet on Thursday to discuss distribution.
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/ 15 February 2005
”I speak to you not as an academic, but as a judge who holds public office as a member of the third arm of the government — which during the United States constitutional drafting process Thomas Jefferson famously described as ‘the least dangerous branch of government’,” writes Judge Edwin Cameron. Academics and judges exercise power through distance from power and through the honest critique of the exercise of authority.
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/ 14 February 2005
There were some sterling performances in the second-day events for individuals at the 32nd Halfway Telkom Midmar Mile at the popular Midlands resort on Sunday. Keri-Anne Payne of the United Kingdom — who was the junior champion in 2001 before her family relocated to Sheffield, England — brilliantly defended the senior women’s title she won last year.
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/ 10 February 2005
An advertisement on the SABC’s website for a weekend screenwriting workshop at something called The Writing Studio triggered a fierce debate in the Dorsbult Bar. ”Write the next great South African film,” read the headline, setting the cat among the pigeons. What, the manne asked, had happened to the first great South African film? How had it slipped past unseen?
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/ 9 February 2005
Dynamos striker Sandile Ndlovu is anxious to wear the Bafana Bafana jersey for the first time against Australia in their friendly match in Durban on Wednesday night. The 24-year-old Ndlovu, who is on loan to Dynamos from Mamelodi Sundowns, is the only new Bafana Bafana recruit included in the team.
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/ 9 February 2005
The absence of broad-based black ownership of the South African economy may lead to economic insecurity and possibly even political instability, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. "I believe that the absence of broad-based black ownership might result in political alienation, economic insecurity and, possibly, even political instability," he said.
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/ 8 February 2005
Struggling Manning Rangers are without a head coach following the sudden resignation of Ian Palmer on Monday. The former Orlando Pirates striker joined the KwaZulu-Natal outfit towards the end of last year on a two-year contract. He was offered a contract after two consecutive victories.
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/ 4 February 2005
Eleven children were seriously injured when a bus on its way to a local school overturned between Wartburg and Dalton on Friday, KwaZulu-Natal police said.
About 32 children were slightly injured and were taken to hospital for treatment. Approximately 10 children were unharmed.
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/ 3 February 2005
Cobras and green mambas endanger the lives of children at a ”jungle school” in KwaZulu-Natal, the principal complained on Thursday. ”You can’t leave your teaching aids in the classes because the monkeys run in and destroy everything,” said Anastacia Mhlongo, principal of Engweni Primary School in the Dukuduku forest near Mtubatuba.
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/ 1 February 2005
Murder charges against an elderly couple accused of killing five children at Molomini reserve near Msinga (Tugela Ferry) last month were withdrawn in the town’s Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The couple was arrested two weeks ago after the children’s bodies were found in an abandoned car at the couple’s home.