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/ 12 January 2004
The African National Congress (ANC) launched what promises to be a bitter election campaign on Sunday by promising to tackle the poverty and unemployment that plague South Africa 10 years after apartheid. Unveiling a sweeping election manifesto, President Thabo Mbeki declared his party’s intention to loosen its conservative economic policies by ramping up public spending.
Mbeki ill
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/ 10 January 2004
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Friday urged unemployed workers to establish skills development forums to channel existing social development funds towards skills development and job creation projects. Mdladlana made the announcement at Richards Bay in Kwazulu-Natal during the third leg of his five-day official visit to the province.
What is the ‘real reason’?” leaders of some of the opposition groups asked in a press release to the world’s deaf and dumb press, ”why South African soldiers, armed to the teeth, are so present on Haitian soil, in Gonaives and Port-au-Prince, in particular? The recent Haiti fiasco has left us with egg on our face.
The man at the centre of a Western Cape shark-baiting controversy on Wednesday explained his motives and actions in a letter to a local newspaper, saying they were misunderstood by the public. ”My motive and intention was to attract the large white shark out to the open sea away from the beach area,” he said.
South Africa’s Department of Transport has reiterated its appeal to motorists to reduce their speed on national roads in anticipation of traffic exodus at the end of the holidays, government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday.
The Democratic Alliance has urged Tourism and Environmental Affairs Minister Valli Moosa to put a stop to the proposed N2 toll road that will run through the Wild Coast between East London and Durban. DA transport spokesperson Stuart Farrow said he had sent another request to Moosa urging him to reconsider the decision.
KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC S’bu Ndebele on Thursday called for an independent investigation into an accident on the Harrismith-Bergville road in which eight British tourists died. Ndebele also sent his condolences to the families bereaved by the accident, which took place at 4pm on New Year’s Eve.
South Africans are less apprehensive about the year ahead than they were a year ago, with only one in every four South Africans (24%) saying that 2004 would be worse than 2003, according to a Markinor. A further 32% said that 2004 would be the same as 2003, and 38% thought the New Year would bring them better things.
Nobel prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his New Year message told South Africans to use 2004 to make the most of the country’s hard earned freedom and to give something back to the underprivileged. Tutu said the country had come a long way in 10 years.
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/ 30 December 2003
South Africa’s 2003 national matriculation pass rate has improved by 4,4% to a total of 73,3%, Education Minister Kader Asmal announced on Tuesday, up from 68,9% in 2002, 61,7% in 2001 and only 48,9% in 1999. Asmal said the results ”clearly show that the tide has turned” for South Africa’s education system.
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/ 23 December 2003
Frogs. Most of us have caught them, some of us even reared them from their infant tadpole stage in glass containers, only to crudely dissect them on tables. A comprehensive frog atlas compiled by the University of Cape Town’s avian unit is currently at the printers and sounds a warning to all frog lovers of the dire straits these amphibians are in.
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/ 18 December 2003
"Computer training for the unemployed and workers" read the adverts for the Resource Action Group (RAG) courses in three of Cape Town’s community papers distributed on the Cape Flats and in townships. But anyone who thinks the eight-week courses are simply about getting a paper qualification is mistaken.
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/ 15 December 2003
An estimated 10th of the country is experiencing the driest year on record, agricultural meteorologist Johan van den Berg from Enviro Vision in Bloemfontein said on Monday. Official records, being kept since 1915, show that several parts of South Africa during the past 11 months received the least rain in 88 years, he said.
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/ 15 December 2003
Boosted largely by ongoing expansion of the harbour and a number of major businesses in the area, the residential property market in Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal is experiencing strong demand, according to Pam Golding Properties. Growth has resulted in an influx of new employees and a constant stream of contractors.
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/ 12 December 2003
South African paper and pulp group Mondi, wholly owned by Anglo American, on Thursday unveiled the country’s first paper and packaging empowerment deal with MCI Resources, led by Cyril Ramaphosa and James Motlatsi. After the conclusion of the deal, empowerment groupings will have a 10% stake in Mondi South Africa.
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/ 9 December 2003
Senior police management should take notice of some disquieting perceptions among police reservists contained in newly compiled research, as the South African Police Service (SAPS) considers making more use of reservists. The research delves into the impressions of active police reservists and their role in the SAPS.
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/ 8 December 2003
South African sugar producer Tongaat-Hulett Sugar on Monday announced that it is looking to cut costs by half as a result of the strong rand, chief executive of the Tongaat-Hulett group Peter Staude said in a statement. These cuts will require the downsizing of its head office at La Lucia in KwaZulu-Natal.
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/ 5 December 2003
Faced with extinction, a small KwaZulu-Natal town has transformed itself into a wildlife reserve. The tourist industry is growing and the local population has embraced the promise of a long-term economic future. More visitors and investors already live and walk among the wildebeest and other game.
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/ 3 December 2003
In South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, a train wound its way through the undulating hills. On board, six young people with HIV or Aids, along with celebrities from local soap operas, television and radio were doing their bit to raise Aids awareness.
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/ 3 December 2003
A post mortem performed on the former daughter-in-law of politician Amichand Rajbansi has shown that she might have died from strangulation, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Tuesday. Karnagie Thandree (32) was found dead in her upmarket Durban townhouse on Sunday.
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/ 1 December 2003
The African National Congress is to meet a delegation from the Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Monday. The delegation will be led by the LTTE Peace Secretariat Secretary General S Puleedevan, the ANC said in a statement.
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/ 26 November 2003
The Department of Labour has visited more than 250 business sites in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Northern Cape and Western Cape as part of the nationwide blitz inspections to check on employers’ adherence to the Employment Equity Act.
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/ 26 November 2003
Some months ago I wrote about the proposed N2 Wild Coast toll road to run from Libode to Port Edward (Where to the N2, January 24 to 30). The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is now at a point of making a decision and once again I ask why a toll road is necessary, writes Geoffrey Davies.
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/ 24 November 2003
Minibus taxi operators have another four years before they have to start complying with basic safety regulations, Transport Minister Dullah Omar announced on Monday. He said operators should have adequate time to find finance for and buy their vehicles.
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/ 24 November 2003
Twenty-six people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe since October and 173 are infected, according to the United Nation’s Children’s Fund. The cause of the outbreak and subsequent spread of the disease in these rural communities is believed to be persistent drawing of drinking water from unprotected sources, such as rivers.
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/ 21 November 2003
The minister returns… Mike van Graan unravels the plot of The Days of our Arts.
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/ 19 November 2003
The African National Congress will win a two-thirds majority in next year’s general elections, in the process increasing its seats in Parliament from the current 266 members to 271 in 2004. This was the prediction from the Human Science Research Council on Wednesday, when a comprehensive survey was unveiled.
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/ 18 November 2003
Both taxi associations involved in violence on the Durban North Coast on Thursday and Friday last week have had their permits taken away, police said on Tuesday. The provincial taxi board withdrew their permits in order to get them to come to the negotiating table, said the police.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=23602">Taxi war simmers in KwaZulu-Natal</a>
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/ 17 November 2003
Household expenditure in South Africa will rise from R279,1-billion in 1993 to an expected R673,4-billion this year, the University of South Africa’s Bureau of Market Research said on Monday. African households are expected to have the largest share in total household expenditure of the four population groups in 2003.
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/ 15 November 2003
Ten people were arrested and about 20 taxis impounded after the vehicles blocked the main road in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal, on Friday afternoon, police reported. This was after four people were killed and three injured in a morning shoot-out involving a taxi on the R102 in Ntshawini.
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/ 14 November 2003
West African drug syndicates are running amok in Durban’s Point area and last year alone the area saw an estimated R1,4-billion change hands in narcotics deals, according to a senior criminal investigator.
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/ 6 November 2003
South African Department of Labour on Wednesday said over one thousand contravention notices and almost 170 prohibition orders were issued by inspectors during last week’s blitz inspections of the construction industry, which ran from October 27 to 31.