Free State police have experienced a last-minute rush in the handing in of firearms before the gun amnesty ends at midnight on Thursday. Superintendent Annelie Wrensch said designated police officers at some police stations were having ”a busy day” by Thursday afternoon. More than 80Â firearms have been handed in.
The mercury plunged in the Northern Cape town of Sutherland this week, hitting a near-record minus 15 degrees Celcius on Monday night. Resident Mariana Bernardo, who collects data for the South African Weather Service, said it came close to the lowest temperature ever recorded in South Africa, which was minus 16C, also recorded in Sutherland, on the night of July 21, 2003.
The Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum in Soweto is busier than it has ever been, with people turning out to celebrate Youth Day, its chief curator said on Thursday. The museum preserves the memories of events surrounding the fateful march from the Morris Isaacson school in Orlando on June 16 1976.
The SABC will be allowed to broadcast regional television programmes on two stations in official languages other than English, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) announced on Wednesday. Icasa chairman Mandla Langa said SABC 4 would broadcast in Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi and TshiVenda, Xitsonga and Afrikaans.
Relief and joy were etched on the faces of women who were among the first Western Cape prisoners to be released on Monday as part of the government’s remission of sentence programmes. ”Ek is te bly. Ek wil net by die huis kom. Dis al. [I am so happy. I just want to go home. That’s all],” said Dorieca Demas from Bishop Lavis.
The body of a 74-year-old woman who disappeared from a ward at the Kimberley hospital this week was found on the hospital grounds on Thursday, Northern Cape health authorities said. Shiwe Selao, Northern Cape minister of health, said hospital personnel found the woman’s body, after an extensive search, early on Thursday morning.
In the high-stakes nuclear game, will a radioactive waste-management policy be foisted on an unsuspecting public or will ”transparency, consultation and stakeholder participation” be a reality? A draft policy containing those words remains ungazetted while the government looks at prototype pebble-bed nuclear reactors for commercial use.
The hearing of the Richtersveld community’s multibillion-rand land claim has been postponed to October 25 — and could continue into 2006. Land Claims Court Judge Antonie Gildenhuys, who has been hearing evidence in Cape Town over the past four weeks, said on Friday that seven weeks have been set aside for the October session.
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) criticised South Africa’s cricket authorities on Wednesday over the way it awards franchises, saying the system was ”elitist” and ”retrogressive”. An ANCYL spokesperson said South Africa’s cricket authorities are not interested in a programme of transformation.
A three-year undercover investigation into illegal diamond deals in the Northern Cape ended on Tuesday in the arrest of five people, police said. Police spokesperson Superintendent Mashay Gamieldien said the four men and a woman were arrested in Kimberley, Hopetown and Schweizer-Reneke on Tuesday morning.
The time has come to get out the winter woolies because very cold conditions and snow is expected over the Northern and Western Cape this coming weekend. The South African Weather Service said that very cold and windy conditions are expected over the high ground of the Northern and Western Cape on Friday, with rain over the Western Cape and the western escarpment of the Northern Cape.
A 42-year-old man will appear in the Postmasburg Magistrate’s Court on June 14 for allegedly raping a 104-year-old grandmother, Northern Cape police said. Senior Superintendent Elias Mbanyana said on Wednesday the man had appeared in court on Tuesday. He was denied bail and his case was postponed.
The decision to press a land claim was taken by the whole Richtersveld community and not just a section of it, an anthropologist told the Land Claims Court on Wednesday. She was testifying in support of the Richtersvelders’ demand for the return of 85 000ha of diamond-rich land and compensation that could total R2,5-billion.
A derby of many goals: that is what the fans deserve when Chiefs and Pirates meet at the FNB Stadium on Saturday. A derby of many goals: that is what the biggest clash in South African football represents for the owners, fans and sponsors of these two teams.
The Land Claims Court has the power to override the new Minerals Act, an advocate presenting the Richtersveld community’s multibillion-rand claim argued in Cape Town on Monday. The 2002 Act makes mineral resources the common heritage of all the people of South Africa, and does away with the notion of mineral rights.
The first snow of winter has dusted peaks in the Western Cape. Hex River valley resident Andries Brown said that in the wake of the cold front that moved in on Tuesday, the Matroosberg had a fair coating of snow. Above Tulbagh, there was light snow on the Groot Winterhoek peak on Tuesday.
Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya expressed shock on Tuesday over allegations that substandard quality food hampers are being distributed in the Northern Cape. ”These allegations came as a shock and I have ordered the department to investigate with a sense of extreme urgency,” he said in a statement.
South Africa’s largest land rights movement, the 20-year-old National Land Committee (NLC), has been brought to its knees by ideological infighting, financial mismanagement and an exodus of member organisations. The crisis, which was set to be debated at an emergency board meeting on Thursday, has already frightened off the foreign donors who funded the NLC’s umbrella structure since its inception.
South Africa’s robust economic growth made a small, hardly noticeable dent in the country’s massive unemployment rate. Yet those who are lucky enough to be employed in the formal sector saw earnings increase faster than the number of their peers. The latest figures show youth unemployment remains chronically high, while 60% of discouraged work seekers are female.
As the deadline for mining conversion rights falls due at the end of April, the Department of Minerals and Energy finds itself with an unintended problem in the form of alluvial diamond diggers in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. The diggers say the government is strangling their livelihoods with mining reform initiatives that look good on paper but are out of touch with reality.
Nine people were killed and four others seriously injured when a minibus overturned on the N1 between Richmond and Three Sisters on Wednesday, Northern Cape police said. Among the dead, seven were schoolgirls between the ages of 13 and 15, while the other two were adults.
Forty percent of drinking water used in South Africa is unaccounted for, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica said on Wednesday. Municipalities are the key to stopping this huge wastage, she said at the launch of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s water-conservation strategy at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.
South African stars Natalie du Toit, Handri de Beer and Charles Bouwer showed just why they were part of the national team to the Paralympics in Athens last year, as the SA records kept crashing at the Nedbank Championships for the Physically Disabled in Durban on Monday.
South Africa has to make space for policy-making structures to avoid political unrest over land reform, the executive director of the African Institute of Agrarian studies said on Monday. Professor Sam Moyo was speaking at a farmers’ summit held by the National Farmer’s Union in Pretoria.
The excitement of the Absa Cup starts this weekend, and the boys will be separated from the men as they try to reach the quarterfinals. For the lower-division teams, it will be do or die against the Premier Soccer League teams. It seems the lower-division teams have reached the end of the road unless they plan to surprise their opposition, as Silver Stars did in 2003.
Any effort to stop Jacob Zuma from becoming president would be like ”trying to fight against the big wave of the tsunami”, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said on Monday. Speaking at a Cosatu conference in Midrand, Vavi stressed that this was his personal view.
The Education Department confirmed on Monday that over 100 000 teachers who participated in a public servants’ strike last year will lose pay. ”The universal principle of no work, no pay is being applied,” said department spokesperson Tommy Makhode.
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/ 25 February 2005
World number one diamond-miner De Beers said in a statement on Friday said that its planned restructuring at its seven South African diamond mines could see 1 270 people lose their jobs out of a total of 9 442 people employed by De Beers Consolidated Mines. Global resources group Anglo American has a 45% stake in De Beers.
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/ 23 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>The maximum old age, disability and care dependency grants will rise by R40 to R780 a month from April 2005, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel announced on Wednesday. In his national Budget speech he said that foster-care grants will be increased by R30 to R560 and the child-support grant goes up by R10 to R180 a month.
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/ 18 February 2005
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has expressed ”serious interest” in building two large-dish antennas in South Africa as part of its deep space array network, Deputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom announced on Friday.
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/ 17 February 2005
The V&A Waterfront development — which is one of South Africa’s top tourist attractions — is up for sale, Minister of Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in Parliament on Thursday. Discussing the contentious issue of state asset privatisation, Erwin said the government will sell all businesses that are not core to its functions.
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/ 10 February 2005
Diversified mining group Kumba Resources is willing to participate not only in the financing of rail infrastructure but also the operation of the rail system for the transport of its iron ore and coal products, if necessary. If Kumba does get involved in the financing, it will result in an adjustment to the rail tariff it pays, Kumba CEO Dr Con Fauconnier said.