Billiton has slammed as ”untrue and irresponsible” the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) claims of racism at its manganese mine in the Northern Cape. The NUM has charged that black workers had to walk 2km to the nearest bus stop, while employees of other races were collected at their homes.
Much of South Africa can expect another freezing night on Wednesday, the South African Weather Service said as the costs of this week’s cold spell mounted. At least 22 people have died of cold in different parts of the country this week, 15 of them in the Eastern Cape.
The South African Weather Service recorded 54 weather records in the icy wet and snowy weather this week. On Monday, there were 34 new temperature records and on Tuesday another 20. At least 17 people were reported dead from exposure or in fires trying to keep warm in the icy wet weather gripping the country.
An enormous gulf exists between the levels of service provided by different provinces, a Democratic Alliance (DA) study has found. ”If you are poor and reliant on the state for health, education and housing, the best provinces to live in are the Western Cape, Gauteng and the North West,” DA spokesperson Willem Doman said on Monday.
Widespread frost is expected over the central interior and Highveld of Gauteng from Tuesday until Thursday morning, the South African Weather Service said on Sunday. Very cold conditions were expected to persist over the central interior until Wednesday.
Residents of the western parts of the Western and Northern Cape provinces have been warned to brace for severe weather on Saturday, Cape Town’s disaster management said. Very cold, wet and windy conditions were expected on Saturday, would spread to the entire Western and Northern Cape on Sunday and persist until Monday, said a spokesperson on Friday.
Tunisian doctors are coming to South Africa to alleviate a local staff shortage, the Ministry of Health said on Friday. KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape and Mpumalanga are expected to benefit, said spokesperson Sibani Mngadi. H said it was a short-term measure that would give the department time to train more staff and improve its ability to retain them.
Pollution to one of the South Africa’s most important bird areas and home to thousands of lesser flamingos near Kimberley has shown no immediate effect on the birds, a Northern Cape environmental official said on Tuesday. ”There is no immediate effect on the birds; there are no mortalities,” said Mark Anderson.
Nudist king Beau Brummel is not welcome in the Northern Cape’s Afrikaner-only enclave of Orania, the Orania Beweging (Orania Movement) said on Friday. ”Brummel’s preference to walk around naked is his own business, but when he wants to draw Orania in on his plans to open a nudist farm for whites only he is on the wrong path,” said the Orania Beweging.
There could be a lot more white skins on display in the Northern Cape’s Afrikaner-only enclave of Orania if nudist king Beau Brummel has his way, Die Burger reported on Thursday. Brummel apparently plans to open a nudist farm in the town in three weeks.
Spending by South Africa’s provincial governments dramatically improved in the past year as they managed to spend 98,7% of their budgets in the 2006/07 financial year, the National Treasury reported on Thursday. The provinces spent R185,6-billion of their combined adjusted budgets of R188-billion.
Businesses in parts of Ekurhuleni, the Free State and Northern Cape are counting losses running into millions of rands after power failures, media reports said on Tuesday. A prolonged power failure has affected Eastgate Mall, one of South Africa’s largest shopping centres, in Bedfordview, east of Johannesburg.
Two men and a 16-year-old boy have been arrested in connection with the rape of an 18-year-old pregnant woman, Northern Cape police said on Saturday. The three, who allegedly raped the woman on Sunday, were arrested at Galeshewe near Kimberley on Friday, said Captain Tony Modise.
Ninety-five percent of South Africans are proud to be South African, a survey by the University of Stellenbosch found. ”The overwhelming majority of South Africans are proud to be South African, prefer democracy as a governing system and believe that our democratic system will develop positively in the future,” said spokesperson Mari Harris on Thursday.
A Sunday tabloid aimed at the ”new, modern Afrikaner” is to be launched in May, its editor said on Tuesday. Sondag’s Mike Vink said it would offer less sleaze than weekly Afrikaans tabloid Son. This will entail, among others, a page three pin-up girl, who will not be topless. ”It’s not going to be sleazy, but a genuine Sunday newspaper with a sports, news and business section.”
Miloon Kothari, United Nations special rapporteur for adequate housing, was appalled at the living conditions of Johannesburg’s poor. "These are emergency conditions … it’s worse than I expected," he said on Tuesday, walking through San Jose, a dilapidated, 16-storey building in Berea.
It is too early to make pronouncements on the debate over the future of South Africa’s provinces, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) said on Thursday. ”For us in the NCOP, it would be premature to pronounce ourselves on the possible outcome,” NCOP House chairperson Tsietsi Setona told the Johannesburg Press Club.
South Africa’s upgraded transport information system was off to a shaky start on Monday, with some testing stations failing to reopen. Authorities in most provinces reported hiccups and constant technical failures. Testing stations in Midrand, Randburg, Sandton, Langlaagte and Pretoria were still closed due to technical glitches.
Six extreme swimmers completing the final leg of their challenge to swim, in relay, the length of the Orange River have reached the Augrabies Falls near Upington, they said on Friday. The swimmers reached the falls in the Northern Cape on Thursday afternoon after battling rapids and low water levels for three days.
The JSE ticked higher during noon trade on Thursday, but the gains were capped by a weaker tone in resources and mining stocks. At noon, the all-share index was up 0,18%. Resources fell 0,23%, the gold mining index was off 0,58% but the platinum mining index added 0,57%.
Missing pilot Charles Wooler was found alive in Botswana on Wednesday, the South African Search and Rescue Organisation said. ”We have found him; he’s alive,” said spokesperson Santjie White. Wooler went missing in a two-seater Diamond Kakana on Sunday while en route from Keetmanshoop in Namibia to Upington in the Northern Cape.
A candidate for a post on the bench of the Cape High Court faced tough questioning at the Judicial Service Commission on Tuesday over her claim that judicial appointments were often steeped in racial and gender prejudice. Advocate Nona Goso was also quizzed over incidents in which she appeared to have signed off review cases without reading them.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) wants the government to investigate ”properly” the circumstances around the escape of a lion from a game farm near Winburg in the Free State, it said on Tuesday. It said it was relieved to hear the escaped animal was finally shot at by a local farmer.
The lush vineyards, rare plant species and breathtaking scenery that have turned the Cape peninsula into a tourist magnet are in danger of withering away within decades if the doomsday predictions of a growing number of scientists — including a major new United Nations report released on Friday — come true.
Laboratory tests on water samples in various sections of the Vaal River have revealed traces of cholera, the Northern Cape health department said on Tuesday. A departmental spokesperson said the traces were found "specifically at Barkly West, Spitskop, Schmidtsdrift, the Vaalharts weir in Warrenton and the Vaalharts canal system".
Researchers at the North West University have compiled a profile on biltong hunters in a study of the economic impact of biltong hunting in South Africa. About 200 000 hunters set off each year with biltong as their target, which is far greater than the number of trophy hunters who visit the country.
The regional land claims commission and the body representing the Pniel estate land claimants in the Northern Cape had not reached agreement over their differences on Tuesday afternoon, legal counsel said. Legal counsel for the Pniel community property association Adrian Horwitz said the parties were still engaged in an attempt to reach a settlement.
R1-billion has been allocated this year to eradicate bucket toilets in established settlements by December, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Friday. ”All bucket systems that exist in formal establishments and townships will be completely removed by December 2007,” said a departmental spokesperson.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has expressed its shock at an incident in which a Free State farmer chained two girls to a tree. ”Cosatu is shocked to learn that a farmer in the eastern Free State chained two young girls from Lesotho … to a tree,” Free State and Northern Cape provincial spokesperson Sam Mashinini said on Friday.
Workers at diamond miner De Beers in Kimberley will on Thursday protest against planned retrenchments, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said. The company has retrenched close to 2 000 employees in the past two years, said the NUM’s regional secretary in the Northern Cape, Tshimane Montoedi.
Disintegrating boxes of medical waste left out in the rain and rotting waste from abattoirs dumped in ditches in the veld were among the environmental hazards discovered by the ”Green Scorpions” during a nation-wide blitz this week. Inspectors from the environmental police force this week carried out a series of countrywide enforcement inspections.
The state has taken possession of the Pniel estate near Barkly West in the Northern Cape, the first piece of land to be fully expropriated in terms of the government’s restoration programme. ”Land claims commissioner Tovey Gwanja visited the farm personally on Thursday to symbolically receive the key,” Eddie Nkomazana of the land claims office in Bloemfontein said on Thursday.