Twenty-one awaiting-trial prisoners escaped from police cells in the North West province on Sunday night. Police spokesperson Captain Elsabe Augoustides said on Monday that the prisoners had overpowered police officers at Lehurutshe, between Zeerust and Groot Marico, who had inspected the police cells at about 6pm.
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/ 3 November 2006
There was nothing about the general mood in the dusty streets of Matlosana township near Klerksdorp in the North West province that indicated that the deputy presiÂdent of South Africa’s ruling party and the president of its youth wing were in town. The township, which, like the rest of South Africa, is facing a high rate of unemployment, crime and poverty, continued with life as normal.
Parts of the Western Cape can expect heavy rain and snow on Monday, Weather SA warned on Monday. ”Heavy falls of rain are possible in the Overberg, Breede River Valley, Ruens, Garden Route and the Little Karoo,” said Weather SA. ”Very cold, wet and windy conditions are expected on the high-ground areas of the Western Cape province and western parts of the Northern Cape province.”
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/ 30 September 2006
Zambia’s presidential race tightened sharply on Saturday as overnight counting yielded big wins for incumbent President Levy Mwanawasa, spurring his main rival to warn of ”ghastly consequences” if any poll fraud was detected, newspapers said. Populist opposition leader Michael Sata had staked out a solid lead in the polls on Friday, amid tensions more than 24 hours after polls closed.
This week South Africa experienced weather extremes starting with a berg wind and a tornado, and ending with snow and floods. A report by South African Weather Service meteorologists Luis Fernandes and Lee-Ann Clark — from the National Forecast Centre in Pretoria — detailed the week’s strange weather.
Five years ago, in an article titled "Scent of the plague", published in the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> (June 29 2001), I summarised my experiences as a doctor working in a health service faced with the plague of HIV infection among children in South Africa. I wrote about how difficult it was to break the news of a deadly infection to the parents, whose likely HIV status was revealed by the illness of their baby.
An awaiting trial prisoner shot during an attempted escape in Lenasia, Johannesburg, has died, police said on Tuesday. He was wounded during a shoot-out with two policemen who were transporting him and two other men to Potchefstroom in the North West province. Sergeant Modukeng Riba (44) was shot and killed and Inspector Piet Maleka (49) was critically injured.
The National Prosecuting Authority on Monday started exhuming remains of eight Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres who were killed in the apartheid era between the years 1984 and 1986 and buried as unidentified paupers at Mmabatho cemetery in the North West province.
A 25cm fossil meteorite has been discovered in the 145-million-year-old Morokweng crater, about 766m beneath the Kalahari Desert in the North West province of South Africa, the University of the Witwatersrand announced on Wednesday. Morokweng is home to the first complete fossil stony meteorites found in an impact melt.
Life insurers saved R347-million in 2005 by preventing dishonest policy holders and financial advisers, as well as crime syndicates, from making fraudulent claims. This was an increase of nearly 40% on the previous year, Gerhard Joubert, chief executive of the Life Offices’ Association said on Thursday.
Assessment of flood damage in the Taung area in the North West province began on Monday and is expected to be completed by Thursday. Town mayor Boitumelo Mahlangu said on Monday the damage has to be assessed and communicated to provincial and national government to free funds for reconstruction.
Northern Cape farmers beneath the Spitskop dam want the region to be declared a disaster area due to flood conditions that have stopped all production for almost a month, a representative said on Thursday. The Taung area in the North West province — upstream from the dam — has already been declared a disaster area.
Ten trapped miners have been found alive 2km underground in a burning mine shaft at Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein, North West province. ”Yes, they have been found. All they said was that they were very hungry,” said Simmer and Jack mining company spokesperson Gail Strauss.
Nine rescue teams were fighting an underground fire at Simmer and Jack Mines’ (Simmers) Buffelsfontein mine in the North West province on Thursday in a race against time to reach nine missing miners, the company said. Simmers CEO Gordon Miller said the rescue teams were close to where they thought the men might be.
Khutsong residents are not accepting their fate regarding the government’s decision to incorporate their municipality into the North West province. Instead they plan to challenge the government in the Constitutional Court on March 30. Khutsong is preparing to battle it out in the courts to remain part of Gauteng.
The environment will benefit from a government decision to allow Holcim to use alternative fuels at its cement plant outside Kimberley, the company said on Wednesday. Traditional fossil fuels will be replaced with waste materials such as tyres, rubber, paper sludge, plastics, solvents, industrial tars and sludge.
Wriggling red worms in tap water have a number of Swartruggens residents in North West province up in arms, News24 reported on Tuesday. It said the worms, between 1mm and 15mm long, appeared in the ”creamy white” water running from taps in homes on Monday morning.
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The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) hopes to have posted 90% of the local government election results by sunset, its chairperson Brigalia Bam said on Thursday. A 47% voter turnout had been recorded by 10.45am, Bam said in a briefing at the IEC’s national operations centre in Pretoria.
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South Africa’s third local government election since the advent of democracy in 1994 took place in a low key and peaceful manner on Wednesday. ”The voting process has proceeded smoothly throughout the country,” the Independent Electoral Commission said in a brief statement.
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Voting got off to a good start despite a few problems, including flooding, at some voting stations, the Independent Electoral Commission said on Wednesday. By 9am, 99% of voting stations were open. Police used rubber bullets to disperse youths in Khutsong and extinguished burning tyres with a water cannon.
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Khutsong community stalwart Jomo Mogale on Wednesday called for a by-election in the troubled township where residents are boycotting the local government poll. He said the few voters who had trickled in to cast their ballots were mainly candidate councillors themselves.
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/ 28 February 2006
The Pretoria High Court on Tuesday dismissed urgent applications by four municipalities to stop the transfer of their assets and services to other provinces. The Merafong Demarcation Forum applied to restrain government from handing over at midnight on Tuesday their assets and service duties from Gauteng to the North West province.
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/ 28 February 2006
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The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Western Cape is planning to conduct Wednesday’s municipal election as if there will be no power available in the province. ”We are planning for no electricity. That is the safest,” provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson told a media briefing in Bellville on Tuesday afternoon.
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/ 24 February 2006
Police have denied news reports that Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota was prevented from leaving a Khutsong stadium on Friday. ”There was no such thing whatsoever,” said police spokesperson Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht of reports that Lekota had been unable to leave the stadium for about 20 minutes.
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/ 23 February 2006
When a primary-school teacher in the troubled Khutsong township asked her grade-one students what the word ”demarcation” means, one pupil answered: ”They want to move us somewhere poor.” The children think it’s ”just a game” to provoke the police by throwing stones and burning tyres in the streets, says the teacher.
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/ 22 February 2006
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The violent protests in Khutsong prior to the municipal elections on March 1 are an exception and not the rule, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Brigalia Bam said on Wednesday at the opening of the IEC’s 12Â 000-square-metre national operations centre in Pretoria.
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/ 20 February 2006
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Protests against the incorporation of Khutsong into the North West province will end in time for the March 1 elections to take place there, African National Congress (ANC) chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota told the South African Broadcating Corporation on Sunday.
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/ 19 February 2006
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African National Congress chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota warned Khutsong residents on Saturday afternoon that those who participate in ”destruction” in the area will be dealt with by police. Some community members threatened earlier this week to boycott the upcoming local government elections.
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/ 2 February 2006
Hundreds of pupils started marching to the Khutsong police station on Thursday afternoon to hand over a memorandum to protest the incorporation of Merafong, in the Carletonville area, into the North West province. It says Parliament must speedily convene to deal with the matter before the end of February.
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/ 23 December 2005
According to the South African Naturist Federation, "naturists are not different from other people, they are just more comfortable". If you are one of these, then South Africa has some of the best places on Earth for you. Not to be confused with "naturalists", "naturists" are people who are interested in extending the number of activities that can be conducted in the nude.
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/ 20 December 2005
An announcement to take the National Council of Provinces’ decision to do away with cross-border municipalities possibly to the Constitutional Court was well received by Khutsong residents at a public meeting on Monday. Sabelo Ngwane of the SA Communist Party’s Young Communist League announced the decision when he addressed hundreds of Khutsong residents at a local stadium.
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/ 14 December 2005
The National Council of Provinces gave the final green light to controversial legislation doing away with cross-boundary municipalities on Wednesday. The changes have sparked vehement protests, particularly in Khutsong — a part of Merafong municipality — where residents have been staging violent protests.