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/ 21 February 2006
The current strike by Transnet workers was misguided and had no clear objectives, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Tuesday. He said there had been ”more than enough opportunity” for consultation on the structure of Transnet.
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/ 21 February 2006
Metrorail on Tuesday again appealed to train commuters in Gauteng to use alternative transport as the strike by Transnet employees entered its second day. Spokesperson Brenda Motau said a partial service would again be offered during the morning peak, supplemented by buses where possible.
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/ 20 February 2006
Transnet’s strike badly affected Metrorail in Gauteng but left the company’s other operations in the country unaffected, the firm said on Monday. Metrorail, one of Transnet’s divisions, was, ”as expected”, affected by the first of day of strike, which left only a handful of trains operating in central Gauteng during peak hour on Monday.
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/ 20 February 2006
The blame for power cuts that hit large parts of the country over the weekend and continue in the Western Cape lies squarely with Minister of Minerals and Energy Lindiwe Hendricks and the African National Congress, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. The Western Cape, including Cape Town, was without power for most of Sunday.
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/ 20 February 2006
The Transnet strike has severely affected Metrorail in the West Rand — most seriously in Soweto — an official said on Monday. ”We are not able to run a service, even with our contingency plan on the Soweto line,” said Thandi Mlangeni, Metrorail’s spokesperson.
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/ 19 February 2006
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Municipal councillors are the servants of the people and not the bosses of the communities, Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi told party supporters in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, on Saturday. Buthelezi was speaking during the IFP’s local government election campaign in the province.
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/ 15 February 2006
A Transnet strike in the Western Cape and Northern Cape kicked off on Wednesday with rail services in the Cape Town area severely affected. The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union said more than 5 000 employees downed tools to protest ”management’s unilateral decisions about restructuring the company”.
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/ 10 February 2006
The police’s water wing and the Ekurhuleni emergency services had to evacuate Atlasville residents from homes flooded in a heavy downpour on Friday. Police said several blocks of the Boksburg suburb were flooded by a cloudburst. The storm, accompanied by hail, delayed outgoing flights at Johannesburg International airport.
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/ 8 February 2006
South African President Thabo Mbeki has himself been frank about the failure of his ruling-party-controlled municipalities to deliver services, Cape Town’s Democratic Alliance mayoral candidate Helen Zille said in Parliament on Wednesday as opposition parties commented on Mbeki’s State of the Nation address last week.
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/ 7 February 2006
South African farmers called for compromise on Tuesday after the lands commissioner said that large-scale expropriation of farms would start next month. ”It is in everyone’s interest that land claims be completed as soon as possible but it needs to take place in a fair manner,” said Annelize Crosby, land affairs adviser at Agri South Africa.
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/ 7 February 2006
South Africa will from next month start large-scale expropriations of land from white farmers after years of compensation negotiations proved unsuccessful, a top official said on Monday. South Africa’s chief land-claims commissioner said the willing-buyer, willing-seller model will no longer apply to land-restitution claims.
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/ 6 February 2006
Host nation South Africa is to refurbish five existing stadiums and build five new venues for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, in terms of an agreement with international football association Fifa. Five new stadiums will be built, including ones in KwaZulu-Natal’s eThekweni metro and in Cape Town.
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/ 3 February 2006
The United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) said on Thursday that next week’s planned strike by Transnet workers over the parastatal’s restructuring plans will continue. Utatu spokesperson Chris de Vos said the union was disappointed that a meeting with Transnet management on Thursday yielded no results.
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/ 2 February 2006
South African Airways obtained an interim Labour Court order on Thursday against a sympathy strike by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union. Spokesperson Jacqui O’ Sullivan said the order would remain in place until final judgement next Tuesday.
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/ 2 February 2006
President Thabo Mbeki’s ”failed promises” in finance, service delivery and health were the focus of opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon’s speech in Pretoria on Thursday. Leon cited power cuts, fuel shortages, and poor sanitation that led to a typhoid outbreak in Mpumalanga as examples of this decline.
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/ 1 February 2006
Fires that have been raging in the Overberg since Monday continued to burn out of control on Wednesday, destroying five buildings at an upmarket resort and coming dangerously close to homes in the Gansbaai area. The fire, which started near Elim on Monday afternoon, was burning on a continuous front of 40km.
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/ 1 February 2006
A march by thousands of Transnet workers in Durban ended on Wednesday, bringing to a close the first in a threatened series of strikes at the parastatal, a trade-union spokesperson said. A Durban metro police spokesperson said marchers were well behaved.
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/ 1 February 2006
Trade unions on Wednesday said they were ”very satisfied” with their first in a series of strikes against Transnet’s restructuring programme. ”We are very satisfied. On the short notice that we organised it, we never thought it would be this successful,” the United Transport and Allied Trade Union’s Chris de Vos said.
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/ 31 January 2006
Transnet workers in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State ended their second day of strikes on Tuesday with unions claiming success. ”No matter which way you try and spin it, there’s no doubt the strike has been effective,” the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union’s (Satawu) Randall Howard said.
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/ 30 January 2006
The Durban and Richards Bay ports were running at 60% and 50% capacity respectively on Monday as unions embarked on a strike at Transnet. The United Transport and Allied Trade Union said about 15Â 200 workers from all four unions involved in the dispute over restructuring were on strike at both ports.
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/ 25 January 2006
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/262374/vote-box_blue.gif" align=left>Inkatha Freedom Party Ingwe municipality mayor Innocent Miya and three councillors from nearby Ubuhlebezwe municipality have defected to Ziba Jiyane’s National Democratic Convention (Nadeco). Miya, according to Nadeco spokesperson Linda Hlongwa MPL, has been mayor of Ingwe since 2000.
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/ 23 January 2006
Provincial housing ministers should not blame a lack of funds for slow delivery when they fail to spend their full budget allocation, the chairperson of Parliament’s finance select committee said on Monday. ”Don’t … plead poverty,” Tutu Ralane told the housing ministers of four provinces who reported on their spending.
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/ 16 January 2006
Fifteen armed men robbed the Monte Visto Casino in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, of an undisclosed amount of cash on Sunday, said police. The gang overpowered a security guard and forced its way into the casino, said Superintendent Buhle Ngidi. ”They jumped over the cash desk and demanded cash. An undisclosed sum of money was taken,” said Ngidi.
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/ 16 January 2006
Opposition parties spent Sunday launching their local government election manifestos as the African National Congress looked inwards. The Democratic Alliance launched its local government election campaign in Durban on Sunday with promises that it would enhance service delivery and bring an end to corruption.
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/ 13 January 2006
A general dealer voluntarily evacuated his shop and a Standerton street was closed to traffic, as was a dirt road in a nearby township on Thursday, as water was released from the Grootdraai Dam after this week’s heavy rains. It was not nearly as bad as previous floods in the Mpumalanga town, residents said on Thursday.
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/ 12 January 2006
With more than 500 people relocated because of rain damage to their shacks, Johannesburg’s emergency services has urged people living near water lines and crossing low-lying bridges to exercise caution. Some residents of Klipspruit, Alexandra, Diepsloot, Ennerdale and Kaya Sands had been moved, Gauteng Provincial Services said on Thursday.
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/ 12 January 2006
Shots were fired at Johannesburg’s emergency services and police who had rushed to the rescue of three people reportedly swept away by flood waters in Kya Sands on Thursday. ”We arrived at where they were supposed to be washed away and suddenly shots were fired towards the river,” an emergency services spokesperson said.
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/ 12 January 2006
Johannesburg’s emergency services urged caution near bridges and rivers on Thursday as another night of heavy rains raised flood fears. A tow-truck driver rescued a woman who was swept away in her car while crossing a bridge on Witkoppen Road in Sunninghill and two taxis were involved in a head-on collision on the Golden Highway.
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/ 11 January 2006
A possible flood emergency at Standerton in Mpumalanga has not materialised after less water flowed into the Grootdraai Dam than expected, authorities said on Wednesday afternoon. Police spokesperson Superintendent Amanda Peens said the outflow of the dam, which is 114% full, will be maintained at 850 cubic metres per second.
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/ 11 January 2006
A flood emergency might be declared at Standerton in Mpumalanga as more water flows into the already over-full Grootdraai Dam, authorities said on Wednesday. The South African Weather Service said more rain is expected on Wednesday and Thursday, especially over the Highveld and Mpumalanga.
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/ 10 January 2006
The level of the Vaal River at Standerton in Mpumalanga has dropped overnight and no properties were in danger of flooding on Tuesday morning. Police spokesperson Superintendent Amanda Peens said the in- and outflow of the Grootdraai Dam at the town had stabilised.
Houses and businesses in Standerton, Mpumalanga, could be in danger of floods if the current water inflow into the Grootdraai Dam near the town continues, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Monday. Spokesperson Walter van der Westhuizen said the dam was 114% full on Monday afternoon.