South Africa’s environmental police force, the ”Green Scorpions,” will be out in strength around the country on Thursday in a massive crackdown on polluters and poachers. The Department of Environmental Affairs is to crack down on illegal fishing, the disposal of hazardous waste and the activities of at least one chemical plant.
Negotiations between the Richtersveld community and the government on an out-of-court land-claim settlement are back on track, according to community leader Willem Diergaardt. He was speaking after a 45-minute meeting on Tuesday morning with Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin, in the minister’s Cape Town office.
The first farmland-expropriation exercise by the government, to be effective on March 15, was overshadowed by ”outstanding issues” among claimants of the Pniel farm in the Northern Cape. The land will now first be kept in curatorship by the state before it will be handed to the claimants, the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights said on Saturday.
Miners at the Sonop diamond mine in the Northern Cape will picket outside company headquarters in Wolmaransstad, North West, on Friday, the National Union of Mineworkers said. The union claims some workers have not been paid since January 24, and that retrenched workers have not been fully paid.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) needs a proactive networked response particularly when it appears together with HIV infection, an international discussion on MDR-TB heard in Johannesburg on Monday. ”It is one disease where there are more questions than answers,” said Dr Norbert Ndjeka from Limpopo.
Seventeen Northern Cape farmers locked out Department of Labour inspectors who were on a mission to root out farmers who break the labour laws, said the department on Thursday. The inspectors had made appointments with farmers in Carnavon and Fraserburg during a meeting on February 21.
No image available
/ 27 February 2007
Widely reported as ”the first farm expropriation”, the Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights recently announced that it had expropriated a 25 200ha farm near Barkley West in the Northern Cape to settle a restitution claim by 471 families. The expropriation notice came into effect on January 26 and the land is now vested with the state until it can be transferred to the claimants.
No image available
/ 22 February 2007
The Northern Cape Afrikaner enclave of Orania has launched a chequebook as part of its own currency system, a spokesperson said on Thursday. ”The Orania business chamber launched the chequebook last night [Wednesday], during which the first ten chequebooks were auctioned off,” Eleanor Lombard said in a statement.
No image available
/ 13 February 2007
South Africa has expropriated its first farm in a land-reform drive aimed at returning land taken from the African majority under apartheid, officials said on Tuesday. This marks a new phase in the contentious issue in the country, which has faced growing pressure to erase racially skewed land ownership.
No image available
/ 9 February 2007
The world’s top diamond producer, De Beers, and the South African government will form a new black-controlled diamond mining company, they said on Friday. The new company, which might later be listed on the JSE, will combine the assets of state mining group Alexkor and the Namaqualand mine unit owned by the South African unit of De Beers.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
South Africa is not experiencing a heatwave, the South African Weather Service said on Thursday. ”It is close to a heatwave, but it [the temperature] will be cooling down rapidly tomorrow [Friday],” said spokesperson Garth Sampson. He said a heatwave is measured in the smallest province of the country, which is Gauteng.
No image available
/ 7 February 2007
A multibillion-rand ferro-manganese smelter complex is to be constructed in the Coega industrial development zone, the Herald Online reported on Wednesday. It said the project would almost certainly mean a speedy upgrade of the railway link between Coega and the Northern Cape, where the manganese would be mined.
No image available
/ 5 February 2007
Almost 35% of the total South African personal income of R1,232-billion accrued to Gauteng in 2006, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 16,3% and the Western Cape with 14,7%, a new report showed on Monday. Gauteng led the pack despite the 2005 boundary changes that favoured the Northern Cape.
No image available
/ 30 January 2007
Provincial health departments in the nine provinces of the country are in a state of paralysis due to corruption and neglect, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. ”A DA analysis of the nine provincial health departments reveals a pattern of neglect, mismanagement and blatant corruption,” DA health spokesperson Gareth Morgan said on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 27 January 2007
Spending on the construction of Northern Cape hospitals has not been put on hold due to costs for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, said the National Treasury on Saturday. On Thursday it was reported that construction of a R200-million hospital in De Aar had been delayed by a year due to a cutback in funds from the Treasury.
No image available
/ 26 January 2007
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) lashed out at the Mail & Guardian on Friday following the publishing of an article that uncovered structural breakdown and infighting within the organisation. The ANCYL said in a statement that it ”categorically rejects” the claims of an organisational crisis.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
The building of a modern hospital in De Aar has been put on hold due to the preparation costs of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the Northern Cape health department said on Thursday. Spokesperson Shelley Fielding confirmed there is a 12-month delay in the building of a R200-million hospital in De Aar due to a cutback in money available from the National Treasury.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
No dates have yet been set for the scrapping of taxis in Gauteng, Transport Department spokesperson Sam Monareng said on Thursday. Dates have also yet to be set for the destruction of old vehicles in the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, he said. All Monareng could indicate was that dates would be announced ”soon”.
No image available
/ 17 January 2007
Holiday season traffic deaths and accidents dropped by less than 5% compared with a year ago, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Wednesday. Radebe issued his report on the December 1 to January 10 holiday season traffic at Atteridgeville in Gauteng. The number of fatal accidents dropped by 59 from 1 428 to 1 369 compared with the same time a year ago.
Shebeens near schools are a source of school violence and an access to drugs and alcohol for minors, the Young Communist League of South Africa said on Tuesday. The league was announcing at a Johannesburg press conference the launch of its Joe Slovo ”Right to Learn” campaign, which will run from Thursday until the end of January.
The festive-season death toll on South Africa’s roads has dropped despite an increase in the number of cars and drivers, the Department of Transport said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Ntau Letebele said 1Â 366 people had died in 1Â 168 crashes over the December 2006 period — a drop from 1Â 454 deaths in 2005.
No image available
/ 30 December 2006
A total of 1 277 people have died in 1 104 traffic accidents since December 1, the Department of Transport said on Friday. Spokesperson Collen Msibi said that while this was a slight decrease compared to 1 372 deaths in the same period last year, the department was concerned about the increase of fatal crashes involving pedestrians.
No image available
/ 25 December 2006
A baby and four others were killed in a three-car pile-up between Barkley West and Kimberley in the Northern Cape, police said on Monday. Meanwhile, the Stormvoël tollgate on the N1 highway near Pretoria has been reopened after a tanker’s horse caught fire on Sunday night, Tshwane metro police said.
No image available
/ 23 December 2006
Two police officers were among people arrested for drunken driving in the presence of Transport Minister Jeff Radebe in separate roadblocks on the N3 in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday, the provincial traffic department said. By Friday, the death toll on South Africa’s roads stood at 907, down from last year’s 1 024 for the same period.
No image available
/ 14 December 2006
A week-long tuberculosis (TB) blitz in the Northern Cape has shown that patients are not complying with their TB treatment, the provincial health department said on Thursday. The Northern Cape provincial minister for health, Shiwe Selao, visited communities such as Kommagas in Namaqualand and Upington in the Siyanda district during the week-long TB blitz.
No image available
/ 11 December 2006
More than 13 000 people die every year on South African roads, costing the economy R43-billion, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Sunday. He said economic growth contributes to the increase of accidents as the number of vehicles on the road is increasing.
No image available
/ 8 December 2006
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) formally declared a dispute on Friday with the Department of Education over non-payment of teachers. The dispute was declared over an agreement on incentives — termed ”accelerated progression payments” for good performance — Sadtu said.
No image available
/ 7 December 2006
The Department of Education must give teachers detailed salary advice so they know what money is owed to them and what the money is for, the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa said on Thursday. However, the department slammed unions for ”misinformed and inflammatory” remarks.
No image available
/ 4 December 2006
Recent union remarks over outstanding payments to teachers are ”misinformed and inflammatory”, the Department of Education said on Monday. A settlement agreement for wage increases has been fulfilled by the department, said spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele.
No image available
/ 4 December 2006
Latoya* (17) is confident and articulate. ”I want future generations to see us as leaders, not as followers, because then they will become leaders as well.” She is talking about the Our Own Stories in Our Own Voices project, which takes 45 young women, some of whom are survivors of violence and abuse, and teaches them to document their experiences on film.
No image available
/ 28 November 2006
More South Africans are voluntarily getting counselled and tested for HIV with figures rising annually, the Department of Health said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said 1Â 715Â 588 people utilised the free voluntary counselling and testing services between April 2005 and March 2006. ”The trend is that it seems to be doubling every year,” he said.
No image available
/ 23 November 2006
A total of 303 cases of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) have been confirmed across the country, the Department of Health said on Thursday. ”They are in the hospitals, they are on treatment. Some of them have died,” said the department’s head of TB, Dr Lindiwe Mvusi. Mvusi did not have details at hand of how many had died.