First it was the penal colony on Robben Island, then the Old Fort at Constitution Hill. Now a decaying army base on the edge of the Blyde River Canyon, in Mpumalanga, has become the latest set of buildings to be transformed from a place of oppression into a thriving tourism resort. Is tourism earning its reputation as the world’s peace industry by turning the architecture of terror into slick holiday resorts?
A task team has been set up to find — within two months — ways to speed up the provision of classrooms, the education and public works departments said on Monday. The team will report by June with concrete plans to end the practice of teaching children outdoors, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor told reporters in Pretoria.
After deliberations that delayed the intended media conference by three hours at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Friday, SA Rugby finally announced a reshuffle in provincial affiliations in the enlarged Super 14 franchises for the next three years, subject to an annual review and initial three-year trial period.
The almost 900 Mpumalanga matric pupils who had their 2004 exam results nullified for allegedly cheating will get a second chance, the Mpumalanga department of education said on Wednesday. The department feels that falling behind by a whole year on future plans is punishment enough.
Two graves, believed to contain the remains of the ”Mamelodi 10”, were exhumed at the Winterveldt cemetery, north-west of Pretoria, on Monday by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to commemorate national Human Rights Day. The ”Mamelodi 10” were 10 youngsters abducted in June 1986 by the apartheid government’s security police.
Department of Home Affairs offices will be open on the weekend starting from April 1, the department said on Saturday. ”This is to accommodate those who cannot visit our offices during the normal office hours by providing them with extra opportunities to access our services,” said a departmental spokesperson.
The trade union Solidarity is to join an investigation into the latest accident at Sasol’s Secunda plant on Tuesday, which left a man dead. The man died on Tuesday morning in an accident on the second day of a commission of inquiry into the September blast that left 10 dead and 360 injured.
Bullets have been found in each of the remains of the two Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres exhumed in Piet Retief on Monday. National Prosecution Authority spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said on Tuesday that the findings brought them closer to the conclusion of the case.
A man died in an accident in an operation run by a contractor at Sasol’s Secunda plant in Mpumalanga on Tuesday morning. The employee of a company called Fluor was working in the pipe-fabrication shop, said Mark Flower, Fluor’s marketing director. The fabrication facility is operated by Fluor within the boundaries of Sasol’s Secunda plant.
The remains of two Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres, believed to have been killed and buried in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, in 1983, were exhumed on Monday. Months of research have led the National Prosecutions Authority to the conclusion that the exhumed graves belonged to Madoda Bonga and one other, as yet unidentified, cadre.
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/ 27 February 2005
A former councillor has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a baby at Mpumalanga’s Ermelo hospital exactly 10 days after she was born, the province’s police said on Saturday. The baby was found at Boschfontein near Komatipoort on South Africa’s border with Mozambique, Captain Abie Khoabane said.
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/ 23 February 2005
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Total expenditure, excluding interest costs and a contingency reserve, rises from R363-billion in 2005/06 to R428-billion by the end of the medium term expenditure framework period in 2007/08, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said 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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/ 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
After a string of explosions at Sasol plants, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) said on Thursday it will propose a safety plan to the petrochemical company by April. This will be apart from the report of Sasol-appointed international safety consultants Du Pont, said Ceppwawu.
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/ 11 February 2005
A South African National Defence Force Lance-Corporal has been arrested for being absent without leave after he had started working for the Correctional Services department as an assistant director. He was nabbed where he worked in the office of the correctional services’ regional commissioner for the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces in Pretoria.
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/ 2 February 2005
Mpumalanga Economic Empowerment Corporation chief executive Ernest Khosa has resigned again, the province’s finance department confirmed on Wednesday. Spokesperson Thomas Nkosi said Khosa resigned on Tuesday. He resigned last week, but withdrew his resignation over the weekend.
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/ 2 February 2005
It is a common refrain: South Africa is a unitary state and it is reactionary and small-minded to engage in parochial battles about which town should fall under which provincial government. So why would councillors resign, tyres be burnt and stayaways be held because some residents of the far East Rand and far West Rand do not want to be moved away from Gauteng?
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/ 27 January 2005
Trade union Solidarity said on Thursday afternoon, after an emergency meeting with oil and chemicals group Sasol, that it has agreed to be part of the internal investigation following the explosion at Sasol’s Natref plant in Sasolburg on Wednesday. Seventeen people were injured in the explosion, Solidarity said.
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/ 21 January 2005
Forty MPs are to be prosecuted for their role in Parliament’s travel scam, the Scorpions announced on Friday. "After considering the evidence and consulting with the affected parties, we have decided to prosecute certain members of Parliament in this matter," spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said.
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/ 20 January 2005
A team comprising independent experts will be set up to investigate claims of cheating in last year’s Mpumalanga matric exams, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Thursday. The team’s probe will complement a separate ongoing police investigation into the allegations.
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/ 18 January 2005
Examination quality-assurance body Umalusi denied on Tuesday that it has cleared education department officials of involvement in alleged irregularities in last year’s Mpumalanga matric exams. The council rejected a finding, attributed to it by the Mpumalanga education department, that no officials had been involved.
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/ 15 January 2005
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday came out in support for prison warders in their dispute with the Department of Correctional Services. Cosatu said a meeting of its public-sector affiliates on Thursday agreed on a programme of action to rally support for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union.
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/ 14 January 2005
Any staff found to have been involved in cheating in last year’s Mpumalanga matric examinations will be punished appropriately, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Friday. ”Minister Pandor is committed to ensuring that where criminal conduct and fraud is committed, the full might of the law is applied,” her ministry said.
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/ 14 January 2005
The Democratic Alliance on Thursday called for an independent forensic audit into the Mpumalanga matric examinations. The party’s education spokesperson Helen Zille said it was clear that the existing statutory oversight mechanisms were not able to satisfy the public that the examinations were not conducted with integrity.
The provincial department of education in Mpumalanga will not take any disciplinary action against the whistleblower who reported irregularities in the province’s matric exams to the police. The Sunday Times reported this week that the department planned to take actions against the whistleblower.
DA slams action against whistleblower
The announcement by the Mpumalanga education MEC of planned disciplinary action against the whistleblower who revealed cheating in the province’s matric exams was outrageous, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
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/ 30 December 2004
Government claims of an improvement in 2004’s matric mathematics and science performance came under scrutiny on Thursday, with calls for transparent statistics to be released.
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/ 30 December 2004
Examination controlling body Umalusi has agreed to speed up its probe into claims of widespread fraud committed by Mpumalanga matriculants in a bid to hasten the release of pupils’ results, the provincial education department said on Wednesday.
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/ 29 December 2004
The 2004 matric class has achieved a pass rate of more than 70% for the third year in a row, says Education Minister Naledi Pandor. The official results in eight provinces were released during a media briefing at Parliament, but the results in Mpumalanga have been withheld because some are under investigation.
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/ 28 December 2004
Allegations of fraud involving at least 2 000 papers written in this year’s matric year-end examinations were under investigation, Mpumalanga police said on Tuesday. ”Information is streaming in, and the figure could rise,” said Superintendent Izak van Zyl.
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/ 25 December 2004
Amid allegations of examination fraud, Mpumalanga’s matric results are to be withheld when those of the rest of the country are announced next Wednesday, examination controlling body Umalusi said on Friday. Mpumalanga matric candidates may only know their results by the second week of next year.