No image available
/ 12 January 2007
President Thabo Mbeki will on Saturday deliver a keynote speech during celebrations to mark the African National Congress’s (ANC) 95th anniversary as South Africa’s ruling party prepares to elect a new leader later this year. The speech should be the last anniversary address made by Mbeki as president of the ANC unless he seeks an unprecedented third term.
No image available
/ 10 January 2007
Provincial education departments experienced a smooth start to the first day of school on Wednesday with no major problems being reported. Schools reopened in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West and Free State. ”All our schools opened today [Wednesday],” said Gauteng education spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi.
No image available
/ 10 January 2007
The African National Congress’s (ANC) 95th anniversary rally will be open to the general public, the party confirmed on Wednesday. Spokesperson Steyn Speed said the party wanted to correct an impression that people attending the rally would have to submit their ID numbers in order to attend.
Provincial education departments on Tuesday reported readiness for the arrival of millions of pupils at the start of the 2007 school year on Wednesday. Schools will reopen in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West and Free State. ”The Gauteng department of education is ready to roll out the 2007 academic calendar,” education provincial minister Angie Motshekga said.
Shebeens near schools are a source of school violence and an access to drugs and alcohol for minors, the Young Communist League of South Africa said on Tuesday. The league was announcing at a Johannesburg press conference the launch of its Joe Slovo ”Right to Learn” campaign, which will run from Thursday until the end of January.
A state funeral and private burial will be held respectively in Pretoria, Gauteng, and Bloemfontein, Free State, on Saturday for the late former state president Marais Viljoen, who died in Pretoria last week, according to the South African government news agency, BuaNews.
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council has asked South Africa to send troops to Somalia, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The request was made during a visit to Washington by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
The African National Congress (ANC), which turned 95 years old on Monday, will celebrate its anniversary with a mass rally in Witbank, Mpumalanga, on Saturday. The party said in a statement it was expecting 20Â 000 people to attend the rally, with President Thabo Mbeki being the main speaker for the day.
The festive-season death toll on South Africa’s roads has dropped despite an increase in the number of cars and drivers, the Department of Transport said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Ntau Letebele said 1Â 366 people had died in 1Â 168 crashes over the December 2006 period — a drop from 1Â 454 deaths in 2005.
A 15-year-old girl on Monday reported to police that she had repeatedly been raped by her stepfather since February 2006, Mpumalanga police said on Tuesday. Superintendent Abie Khoabane said the girl reported the rapes after enduring them for almost a year.
No image available
/ 30 December 2006
A total of 1 277 people have died in 1 104 traffic accidents since December 1, the Department of Transport said on Friday. Spokesperson Collen Msibi said that while this was a slight decrease compared to 1 372 deaths in the same period last year, the department was concerned about the increase of fatal crashes involving pedestrians.
No image available
/ 28 December 2006
Predictably, half of our most popular stories in the past week were about the hanging of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
No image available
/ 23 December 2006
Two awaiting-trial prisoners hanged themselves in two separate police stations in Mpumalanga, police said on Friday. One of the men, who had been arrested for the rape of his eight-year-old niece, used a blanket to kill himself. ”The 19-year-old was arrested on Wednesday, a day after the alleged rape,” Superintendent Abie Khoabane said.
No image available
/ 23 December 2006
Two police officers were among people arrested for drunken driving in the presence of Transport Minister Jeff Radebe in separate roadblocks on the N3 in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday, the provincial traffic department said. By Friday, the death toll on South Africa’s roads stood at 907, down from last year’s 1 024 for the same period.
No image available
/ 22 December 2006
A two-year-old cheetah, who had her paw mangled in a crude snare, is to have a prosthetic leg fitted in a ground-breaking operation by animal surgeons in South Africa. Betty Blue was operated on at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre, near Johannesburg, after being rescued from the iron jaws of the trap which had clamped down on her left hind leg in Mpumalanga.
No image available
/ 8 December 2006
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) formally declared a dispute on Friday with the Department of Education over non-payment of teachers. The dispute was declared over an agreement on incentives — termed ”accelerated progression payments” for good performance — Sadtu said.
No image available
/ 7 December 2006
The Department of Education must give teachers detailed salary advice so they know what money is owed to them and what the money is for, the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa said on Thursday. However, the department slammed unions for ”misinformed and inflammatory” remarks.
No image available
/ 7 December 2006
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) was the big winner in the last round of by-elections to take place this year, claiming all but one of the 12 wards contested in results. The municipal by-elections on Wednesday were marked by low voter turnouts, with an 11% turnout at ward three in Mbolela (Nelspruit).
No image available
/ 7 December 2006
Seventeen prisoners escaped from police cells in KwaMhlanga and Dennilton in Mpumalanga, police said on Thursday. In Dennilton, nine men cut their way out of their cell in the early hours of Wednesday, spokesperson Superintendent Malcolm Mokomene said in a statement.
No image available
/ 4 December 2006
Recent union remarks over outstanding payments to teachers are ”misinformed and inflammatory”, the Department of Education said on Monday. A settlement agreement for wage increases has been fulfilled by the department, said spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele.
No image available
/ 4 December 2006
Annanias Mathe, the Mozambican prisoner who escaped from Pretoria’s C-Max jail on November 18, was shot, wounded and arrested in Tembisa on the East Rand of Gauteng on Monday, police said. Mathe was arrested after he stole a car with a tracking device from a house in Craighall Park, national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said.
No image available
/ 1 December 2006
![]()
The South African government unveiled plans on Friday to reduce the number of people being infected with HIV by 50% within the next five years. A new action plan launched by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka also contains target pledges to provide care for 80% of the population.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
Police on Friday said that the man who escaped from the high-security C-Max prison in Pretoria on the weekend has ”the luck of the devil”. ”He must be the devil’s child himself because we get new leads every day but he has not yet been arrested,” said investigating officer Arnold Boonstra. ”He seems to have the luck of the devil.”
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
Mpumalanga will continue to have poor matric results unless the government implemented a comprehensive education rescue plan, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. ”Information obtained by the DA indicate that the results for June exams are extremely poor and improvement in the 2006 matric results may be minimal, if any,” DA spokesperson on education Anthony Benadie said.
No image available
/ 23 November 2006
A total of 303 cases of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) have been confirmed across the country, the Department of Health said on Thursday. ”They are in the hospitals, they are on treatment. Some of them have died,” said the department’s head of TB, Dr Lindiwe Mvusi. Mvusi did not have details at hand of how many had died.
No image available
/ 23 November 2006
North West police shot and wounded a reverend during a search for the man who escaped from Pretoria’s C-Max prison on the weekend. Captain Elsabe Augoustides said on Thursday that the incident happened when police received information about the whereabouts of a man resembling Annanias Mathe (29), who escaped from custody on Saturday.
No image available
/ 23 November 2006
A Mpumalanga man thought to be the Mozambican national who escaped from Pretoria’s C-Max prison has turned out to be someone else, police said on Thursday. ”It is not the Annanias Mathe we are searching for,” national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said.
No image available
/ 22 November 2006
Over five million South African pupils and 13Â 000 schools will be exempt from school fees from January, the Department of Education said on Wednesday. ”The Department of Education wishes to announce that all the nine provincial departments of education have submitted their lists of the number of learners and schools [that] would benefit,” the department said in a statement.
No image available
/ 22 November 2006
Wealthy tourists jetting into South Africa to stay at luxury safari lodges pay top dollar for the illusion of danger, epitomised by a trumpeting elephant or a lion moving in for a kill. But lodge workers and the impoverished surrounding communities face a threat far more deadly than the leopards and lions that thrill the visitors.
No image available
/ 14 November 2006
Only slightly more than one out of 10 South Africans with bank accounts have used their cellphones for banking, according to research released by World Wide Worx on Tuesday. A surprising finding from the research is that the youth market is the least likely to have tried cellphone banking.
No image available
/ 9 November 2006
An unprotected strike by health workers in Mpumalanga has been replaced by lunch-time pickets, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said on Thursday. Provincial secretary December Manana said Nehawu met its members to report back on a meeting with Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla.
No image available
/ 8 November 2006
A debilitating strike which affects health services in Mpumalanga is continuing on Wednesday, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said. Provincial spokesperson Norman Mokoena said a meeting between the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union and Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla deadlocked on Tuesday afternoon.