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/ 23 December 2004
Police on Thursday morning seized every last examination script written by this year’s Mpumalanga matrics as part of an investigation into suspected exam fraud in the province. ”We seized the scripts of all pupils, in all subjects in all schools in the province,” said police spokesperson Superintendent Izak van Zyl.
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/ 19 December 2004
Deputy President Jacob Zuma handed over a traditional court, king’s chamber, community hall and other facilities to the people of Klipfontein, Mpumalanga, on Saturday. The project is part of the government’s commitment to ”improve the status and position of traditional leaders in our country”, he said.
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/ 18 December 2004
Mpumalanga police will thoroughly investigate a possible cover-up over a traffic official’s driving accident. The conduct of police who allegedly refused to provide a blood-testing kit to the Nelspruit Medi-Clinic will be investigated, said Captain Benjamin Bhembe, Lowveld police spokesperson.
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/ 9 December 2004
If the power station at Koeberg in the Western Cape were coal-fired and not nuclear, it would have needed to burn more than 105-million tonnes of the black stuff over the past two decades to equal the power it has produced from just 621 tonnes of uranium, says Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
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/ 3 December 2004
Short-term outlooks are relatively favourable with the best chance for good rainfalls over the period December 6 to December 8, 2004 in South Africa’s maize belt, consultant Enviro Vision said in a statement said on Thursday. Regarding the size of the coming 2004/05 commercial maize crop, Enviro Vision put the crop at about 10 million tonnes, from the previous season’s 9,5 million tonnes.
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/ 30 November 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/142915/aids_icon.gif" align=left>A year ago the government approved a national plan for the management, care and treatment of HIV/Aids. Its aim was to provide free anti-retroviral drugs in the public health sector. The HIV prevalence rates range from an estimated 13,1% in the Western Cape to a very high 37,5% of adults in KwaZulu-Natal. A <i>M&G</i> assessment as World Aids Day approaches reveals the leaders and laggards.
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/ 25 November 2004
Fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik used his influence with Deputy President Jacob Zuma to squash attempts by a United Kingdom professor to start an eco-tourism school in KwaZulu-Natal, the Durban High Court heard on Thursday.
Shaik’s ‘error of principle’
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/ 16 November 2004
The Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA (Contralesa) has bought a 25,1% stake in UWP Consulting, a Johannesburg-based engineering consulting firm. Prince Mpumalanga Gwadiso said the acquisition was in line with its intention to achieve good returns for Contralesa members and the largely rural constituencies it represents.
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/ 11 November 2004
The Klipdrift consumption in the Dorsbult has reached crisis proportions since Tuesday last week. But a message from Michael Moore — yes, he of <i>Fahrenheit 9/11</i> fame/notoriety (and, in the Dorsbult, hero worship; well, ok, among some of us) — has done his bit to cheer us up. He offers "17 reasons not to slit your wrists", a few of which follow …
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/ 5 November 2004
The three levels of government should work together to ensure better coordination in the formulation and implementation of policies, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The president was speaking in Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal at a sitting of the National Council of Provinces .
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/ 5 November 2004
There is no need to panic about drought — unless the rain stays away for another two months, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said in Pretoria on Friday. The department is reviewing the state of the Vaal River system to see if water restrictions in Gauteng — now South Africa’s driest province — will be necessary.
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/ 4 November 2004
Anglo-Swiss mining group Xstrata on Thursday announced the permanent closure of Xstrata Alloys’ Vantech vanadium operation in South Africa, resulting in a write-down of R63,2-million. ”The decision to close Vantech follows a thorough assessment of the operation’s future prospects,” Xstrata said in a statement.
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/ 27 October 2004
An inquiry into the cause of an explosion at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, last month — which left 10 people dead and more than 100 injured — began on Wednesday, the Department of Labour said. Spokesperson Page Boikanyo said 40 witnesses, including workers and subcontractors, will be questioned during the inquiry.
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/ 27 October 2004
Metals and mining company Kumba Resources is to spend R411-million on two new local projects as part of its plans to expand its coal business. Kumba executive Trevor Arran said the projects at the Grootegeluk and Leeuwpan coal mines would mitigate the effect of job losses announced within the group as part of the business
improvement plan.
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/ 19 October 2004
The four convicted murderers of the Van der Merwe family, two of whom were also convicted of rape, were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Circuit High Court in Secunda, Mpumalanga, on Tuesday. The men were also sentenced for other crimes, amounting to 240 years’ imprisonment — but the sentences will run concurrently.
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/ 14 October 2004
Themba Luke Radebe, one of four men accused of murdering members of two Benoni families in February, on Thursday accused the police of assaulting and torturing him to extract a confession. Radebe (44) told Judge Nico Coetzee in the Secunda High Court that a plastic bag was put over his head and kept there until he fainted.
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/ 14 October 2004
More than R16-million has been paid out to claimants who suffer from asbestos poisoning, the Asbestos Relief Trust said on Wednesday. More than 100 claims had been paid out, while 150 more were ready to be finalised, chairperson of the trust, John Doidge, said in a statement.
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/ 12 October 2004
The prevalence of HIV among health workers in South Africa is ”very high” and they need to be targeted with anti-retroviral treatment as part of a multipronged approach to augment the sector, the South African Medical Journal warns. The journal said the high prevalance of HIV in the health sector had serious implications for the health system, with increased absenteeism and non-infected workers becoming overloaded with work.
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/ 11 October 2004
The trial of four men arrested at Mzingi near Nelspruit in connection with the murders of a Benoni family in February is expected to start in the Secunda High Court on Monday, police said. Frans van der Merwe (57) his wife Gina (53) their son Daryl (31) and his wife Melissa (24) were found dead near the Loskop Dam in Mpumalanga on February 9. All had been shot.
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/ 10 October 2004
At least 10 children were raped in Mpumalanga in a space of four days, police reported on Saturday. Among them was an eight-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather (21) at the Emjidini hostel near Barberton, and a 12-year-old boy who was indecently assaulted by a 63-year-old man.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the construction of a R2,1-billion water project that will pump water from the Vaal Dam to an existing water supply infrastructure near Secunda, Mpumalanga, the department of Water and Forestry said in Pretoria.
A cold front will hit the Western Cape province from Wednesday evening and should continue moving over South Africa, while at the same time bringing rain, until Tuesday next week, said South African Weather Service (Saws) forecaster Evert Scholtz. There should be heavy showers over parts of the Western and Eastern Cape up until Friday.
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/ 30 September 2004
Since the front section of this paper seems to be getting all the good stories, Oom Krisjan is happy to be the first to bring details of Travelgate II. On a recent whip-around of city press clubs to tell the public why they are not a bunch of high-flying gadabouts, the speakers of the National Assembly and the National Council of Whatever all arrived in the Big Smoke on the same plane. Definitely a step in the right direction, you’d say.
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/ 24 September 2004
Twice a year the Chrissiesmeer shop owners put up signs on their doors that say, "Gone Frogging". Instead of preparing for World Tourism Day on September 27 by publishing a set of platitudes about the most prominent places to visit, we decided to abide by the spirit of these intrepid merchants and prepare a portfolio of the country’s more unpredictable and out-of-the-ordinary travel destinations.
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/ 21 September 2004
Aggravated robbery was the only violent crime to show an increase over the past two financial years, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi announced on Monday. Murders dropped by 9,9%, attempted murder by 17,8%, serious assault by 4,3%, common assault by 2,6% and common robbery by 7,8%, he told reporters in
Pretoria.
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/ 19 September 2004
The former African National Congress Youth League secretary in Mpumalanga who linked three prominent ANC members to a plot to topple President Thabo Mbeki, has admitted to lying, the Sunday Times reported on Saturday evening. James Nkambule sparked a top-level police investigation in 2001 with his claims.
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/ 18 September 2004
The mutilated body of a newborn baby boy apparently eaten by a dog was found near an informal settlement on the farm Rietvlei near Sundra, Mpumalanga police reported on Friday. Inspector Leonard Hlathi said farm residents spotted the baby’s body and informed police on Thursday.
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/ 16 September 2004
The jury was out on the effectiveness of Thursday’s public-service strike in the Western Cape as unions claimed a massive turnout while the provincial government sought to downplay its impact. In Cape Town, police estimated about 17 000 strikers snaked their way through the city.
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/ 14 September 2004
National airports are the primary gateways to nations today. From the design of a terminal building to the swiftness of baggage retrieval, airports give visitors an all-important first impression of a country’s modernity and capacity to provide services. They are also prestige projects for governments, however, which can lead to problems. Take the situation in Swaziland, for example.
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/ 13 September 2004
Billboards that encourage travellers to "Sho’t Left" (taxi slang for "jump off just there or around the corner") litter the Mpumalanga countryside. The mystical, medieval African city of Mapungubwe is preparing to host thousands of visitors when the subcontinent’s latest transfrontier park is launched at the end of the month.