Violence within the North West Province ANC has worsened. This week there were more assaults and the party’s regional office were torched.
Mining in Rustenburg does not just bring wealth. With the influx of people, it has added to the massive strain on the region’s resources.
Despite massive urbanisation, Rustenburg clings to its agricultural roots. Smallholdings and plots abound nearby.
South Africa has 85% of the world’s supply of a metal that is in ever-increasing demand
Lynley Donnelly explores the effects of Rustenburg’s booming platinum mines on the town
No decision was reached about the future of Merafong at a meeting between an ANC delegation and the Merafong Demarcation Forum on Wednesday.
A tense meeting between an ANC delegation and leaders of the Merafong Demarcation Forum was under way in Khutsong on Wednesday.
More than 60% of municipalities cannot say where their money comes from and more than half cannot provide proof of how they spend it.
The disappearance of delegates’ names and other data from voters’ rolls is apparently rife at regional ANC conferences.
The story of the late Onkgopotse Tiro is told in a brooding documentary by Steve Mokwena called <i>A Blues for Tiro</i>.
The Constitutional Court on Friday refused the Khutsong community’s bid to be reincorporated into Gauteng from North West.
A group of Khutsong pupils allegedly set a classroom and storeroom alight after dissatisfaction over the exam timetable, North West police said on Monday.
Platinum Stars face the biggest match of their short history when they host the African club of the century, Al Ahly, in an African Champions League showdown at Atteridgeville’s Super Stadium on Saturday. Facing the holders of the Champions League title — arguably the best and most successful club side in Africa — does not scare Stars.
The escalating fuel price has seen South Africans discarding gas guzzlers in favour of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.Although car sales overall are down 23% compared with last year, small car sales are up by 25%, according to figures from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa.
The fierce struggle to combat apartheid in the years before its demise and in the ongoing fight against its residual effects sometimes, however, loses sight of the fact that the root causes of apartheid evil lay deeper than its manifestation. Human greed, exclusion and unbridled power continue to manifest themselves, writes Charles Villa-Vicencio.
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/ 29 February 2008
Wednesday afternoon and the sun beats down on a tattered strip of grass surrounded by embattled homes in the centre of KwaMashu township, north of Durban. Boy-men in excruciatingly tight shorts and sleeveless tops do violent pirouettes in the air — usually because someone else is clobbering them.
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/ 17 January 2008
If the South African Reserve Bank needs further evidence of the dampening effect of higher rates on real economic activity, recent building data has been just that, according to independent economic analysts. A major challenge facing the government is also the extreme escalation in building costs.
There were about 1 000 fewer teachers in North West province at the opening of schools on Wednesday as the provincial education department had not renewed their contracts, a teachers’ union claimed. But an education department spokesperson said no teacher shortages are expected in North West.
A South African man was killed and eaten by lions at a game farm in the country’s North West province, police said on Thursday. Samuel Boosen, a 36-year-old caretaker at the Aloe Ridge Lodge at Swartruggens, about 150km west of Johannesburg, went into the lion enclosure to feed the animals before being attacked on Tuesday.
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/ 14 December 2007
The South African Post Office has been ordered to pay R60-million in damages due to contamination of a tender, according to Business Report on Friday. Judge Willie Hartzenberg found the Post Office had confirmed a corrupt tender in 2002 despite the fact that senior managers had been made aware of flaws in the process.
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/ 3 December 2007
Negligence or malpractice at public hospitals has cost the Health Department millions of rands in damages awards over the past few years, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has said. However, such cases are rare exceptions to the usually excellent care provided, she said in a written reply to a parliamentary question by Gareth Morgan of the Democratic Alliance.
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/ 23 November 2007
A siren screams at 12 noon, signalling the start of the weekly sports period at Moremogolo Primary School in Phokeng, Rustenburg. A group of about 50 boys — aged between 11 and 12 — rushes to the school’s storeroom to fetch their rugby kit. There are only 15 rugby tops, which coach Bridge Ramorwa hands out to the most promising players.
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/ 7 November 2007
The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) in the Moses Kotane municipality in the North West Province said it was shocked to learn that the mayor intends to use public money to hire a personal chef. The union said it had tabled a demand that the position be cancelled.
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/ 25 October 2007
Because of the effect of HIV/Aids on a company’s workforce, corporate social responsibility programmes benefit not only local communities, but also the company’s bottom line. The SA Business Coalition against HIV/Aids, or Sabcoha, says that more than 90% of people with HIV/Aids are workers, managers or employers.
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/ 17 October 2007
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday that it had struck a double-digit wage deal with platinum miner Lonmin. The trade union said it had signed a new two-year wage agreement with Lonmin that would see workers getting 10% in the first year and 8% in the second year.
The deaths of four miners in a rockfall forced a halt to production at AngloGold Ashanti’s Mponeng underground mine on Monday while safety checks were carried out, the company said. Increasing deaths at South Africa’s deep and treacherous underground mines have thrust safety into the spotlight in a country where about 200 miners are killed in accidents every year.
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/ 28 September 2007
Heavy storms hit North West province on Wednesday and Thursday, damaging dozens of houses and killing livestock, said the provincial department of local government and housing on Friday. In Gauteng, several areas suffered power failures on Thursday as gusting winds and heavy rainfall swept through the province.
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/ 26 September 2007
At least 40 people who were given land or who were compensated under government’s land restitution programme might have made fraudulent land claims. The rightful claimants were forcibly removed from the area by apartheid authorities in the 1950s and 1960s and relocated to the KwaThema township.
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/ 26 September 2007
Only four land claims in Gauteng and 81 in North West remain to be resolved before the March 2008 deadline for settling all restitution claims in the country, regional land claims commissioner for Gauteng and North West, Tumi Seboka, said on Wednesday.
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/ 25 September 2007
Seventy-million rand has been set aside by the North West Province’s health department for the improvement of nursing colleges. Department spokesperson Lesiba Molala said the department planned to increase the intake of students at the two main nursing colleges in the province.
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/ 20 September 2007
A string of senior advocates acting for state institutions opposed an application by Khutsong residents in the Constitutional Court on Thursday. Outside, police fired rubber bullets at residents protesting against their municipality, Merafong, being included in North West province.
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/ 20 September 2007
Police fired rubber bullets at Khutsong residents protesting outside the Constitutional Court on Thursday. More than 1 000 protesters scattered into the streets of Braamfontein in Johannesburg but some later regrouped again, protesting outside the court against their municipality being included in North West province.