No image available
/ 11 February 2005
A large cache of weapons and ammunition was found by the police’s national intervention unit in Mqanduli, Transkei on Thursday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Sipho Sizani said the bust followed information about a 34-year-old ex-soldier, who was training people to use firearms.
No image available
/ 15 January 2005
Aids activists will join President Thabo Mbeki and anticipated thousands of other mourners at the funeral of former president Nelson Mandela’s son, Makgatho Mandela, on Saturday. Makgatho died of Aids-related complications last week, and Mandela used the announcement of his death to plead for openness on the disease.
The African National Congress on Friday asserted its authority in Umtata — the last town the United Democratic Movement had any control over in the country. After by-elections in June, the UDM refused to abdicate power and resorted to the court for protection. The court ordered that the parties should resolve their problems.
Chaos erupted in Umtata on Wednesday when police used teargas and rubber bullets to forcibly evict students from the Eastern Cape Technikon. Police took action after an hour-long standoff with a group of students who stood at the main entrance of the institution refusing to leave the premises.
The Eastern Cape Technikon’s Umtata campus has been closed indefinitely after student unrest on the campus on Tuesday. Technikon spokesperson Angela Church said the campus was closed at 5pm in order to ensure the safety of students and staff as well as the institution’s property.
Recently retired former president Nelson Mandela brought the Umtata Magistrate’s Court to a standstill when he paid a surprise visit on Tuesday. Mandela and an aide visited court ”A” where magistrate Shamintha Patan was presiding. ”When he walked into my court I first thought it was my imagination that I was seeing Madiba,” Patan said.
Representatives of the United Democratic Movement will now personally have to pay R250 000 if they cross the floor to other parties, party president Bantu Holomisa announced on Sunday. This was an attempt to discourage what he called ”political promiscuity”.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>President Thabo Mbeki is still an Aids dissident, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa told about 25Â 000 cheering supporters at a party rally in Umtata on Saturday. The gathering, in the UDM’s heartland, was billed as the major rally of the UDM’s election campaign.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
No image available
/ 30 December 2003
The Eastern Cape provincial health department says the R1-million allocated to awareness-raising programmes on the problems of traditional circumcision practices has been well spent. ”A lot of unnecessary incidents have been avoided,” said departmental spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.
No image available
/ 8 December 2003
Seven people died instantly when lightning struck the house in which they stayed at Goqwana village, Tsolo, in the Transkei, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. Five others were taken to the St Lucy hospital with injuries. All the victims were in one room at the house when the lightning struck on Sunday.
No image available
/ 25 October 2003
One more person has died and a hand belonging to a three-year-old child has been found near the scene of Friday’s truck accident on the Main Street in Mount Frere near Umtata, Eastern Cape transport officials said on Saturday. A truck travelling from Umtata collided with 12 vehicles, killing 11 and injuring 28.
It may be considered one of the worst airports in the Eastern Cape, but Umtata airport still attracts a fair share of passengers.
Phase three of the Kei Rail Project gets rolling on Thursday with a special launch by the Eastern Cape government at the Kei Bridge between East London and Umtata.
Five traditional surgeons have been arrested in the Eastern Cape after 20 initiates died following botched circumcisions since the start of the initiation season around early June, the provincial health department said on Monday.
Six executive members of the Umtata-based Uncedo Taxi Association were sentenced to seven life terms each in the Umtata High Court on Monday for the murder of six members of a rival taxi association and a truck driver.
Seven initiates have died from complications, dehydration and assault in the Eastern Cape since the beginning of the circumcision season, the provincial health department said on Thursday.
The Umtata District Court on Monday granted 12 people, who were arrested in connection with the discovery of eight shallow graves inside a church compound in the area, bail of R300 each.
A total of 145 members from the United Democratic Movement (UDM) have defected to the African National Congress (ANC) in Umtata in the Eastern Cape.
Thousands of people gathered in the University of Transkei stadium near Umtata in the Eastern Cape on Sunday to pay tribute to slain SA Communist Party leader, Chris Hani.
Eight people, including former President Nelson Mandela’s official praise singer, a police officer and a traditional leader, were arrested on Thursday for allegedly defrauding the Eastern Cape government.
No image available
/ 13 January 2003
A 10-year-old boy was arrested after a five-month-old baby was raped at Elliotdale outside Umtata in the Eastern Cape on Friday, police said on Sunday.
No image available
/ 17 December 2002
Police and correctional services personnel are still searching for 34 prisoners, who have managed to evade a security dragnet since a mass escape from the Bizana prison in the Eastern Cape on Friday.
No image available
/ 15 December 2002
The Pan Africanist Congress is to intensify campaigns for poverty eradication through the sharing of the country’s wealth ahead of the 2004 elections.
A Libode businessman was fined R15 000, with the option of five years imprisonment, on Wednesday for beating his domestic worker to death with a stick.
The King of the AmaRharhabe Kingdom, Maxhoba Sandile, has invited all chiefs to his Great Place in Mngqesha, Eastern Cape, on June 12 to discuss the controversial play Thuthula — Heart of the Labyrinth.
Umtata came to a standstill on Thursday afternoon when the Zulu royal house motorcade paraded through the streets ahead of a celebrity wedding that will see the royal Zulu and Nelson Mandela’s Thembu houses united.
The four murderers of Payne’s Farm school deputy principal Zingisile Nongoma were on Tuesday sentenced to lengthy jail terms in the Umtata High Court.
The trial of suspended health MEC Dr Bevan Goqwana and Dr Mkhuseli Mashiyi got under way in the Umtata High Court with both pleading not guilty to 1 242 counts of fraud involving more than R170 000.
Three people froze to death in the Eastern Cape’s snowy weather at the weekend, bringing the total number of people dying as a result of the country-wide cold weather to 21.