King Xolilizwe Sigcau of the Xhosas died at Number One Military Hospital in Pretoria on Saturday night, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news said on Sunday. According to the report, the 79-year-old king died after suffering a long period of health problems.
A 47-year-old handyman is expected to appear in the Knysna Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday following the murder of a six-year-old Johannesburg boy in Plettenberg Bay. Theuns Christian Olivier was remanded by the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate’s Court on December 27 after Steven Siebert was found murdered on December 24.
A South African woman was kidnapped and raped several times during the course of a day after her drink was apparently spiked at a nightclub in Mumbai, media reports said on Monday. The woman apparently ordered a drink and asked the barman to keep an eye on it while she went to the toilet.
With a population of just 70, the Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda seemed to embody the imagination and creativity of a South Africa reborn after apartheid. But now another South Africa, one of poverty and inequality, has crashed into it, exposing segregation, racial tension and government neglect.
South Africa, an economic and political leader in Africa, is also the continent’s number one jailer. If prisons are a reflection of society, what conclusions are to be drawn from this reality, particularly in a nation rightfully proud of its nascent democracy? In global terms, South Africa is not alone in registering a sharp increase in its prison population.
A woman dying of HIV/Aids in Yeoville cannot eat or drink, her medicine has run out and getting to hospital on New Year’s Eve is a struggle, because only armoured ambulances dare venture into Johannesburg’s inner city. Rowdy revellers have been known to attack ambulances, throwing toilets and fridges at them.
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/ 31 December 2005
A Pretoria teenager caught speeding at 196kph on the N2 southbound near Park Rynie on KwaZulu-Natal’s southcoast was fined R20 000, the province’s traffic department spokesperson said on Saturday. ”When officers caught the teenager he said he was trying out his mother’s new BMW 320d,” said the spokesperson.
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/ 31 December 2005
All South Africans must renew their pledge to do everything in their power to create jobs and fight poverty to give renewed hope to millions in the country that 2006 will be a happy and prosperous year for them as well, said President Thabo Mbeki. ”We all know that as the year 2005 ended, with many of us enjoying ourselves in the traditional festivities, which will continue as we welcome the New Year, there are also many who did not have the possibility to celebrate.
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/ 31 December 2005
”Toothless Tigers” Orlando Pirates on Friday confirmed they had secured the services of a second leading striker — Bloemfontein Celtic’s Collins Chabalala. Pirates PRO Mike Modisane said the signings showed the club ”meant business” — both in the Premier League and in Africa’s Champions League
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/ 31 December 2005
An 18-year-old matriculant from Eshowe, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, committed suicide after finding out that he had failed his matric examinations for the second time, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Friday. The teenager was found hanging from a tree by family members after collecting his results from Manxele High School.
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/ 30 December 2005
South Africans are bracing for political storm clouds in 2006 as the ruling African Nations Congress confronts its biggest crisis in more than a decade of power, but an economic boom could spread some sunshine. The turmoil surrounding the fate of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, once a frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki, has laid bare deep divisions within the ANC.
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/ 30 December 2005
Following a year of ups and downs, South Africans should look to the future and learn the lessons of the past year. This was the new year’s message contained in separate statements from the Democratic Alliance and African Christian Democratic Party on Thursday.
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/ 29 December 2005
The prices of most grades of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin would decrease from one minute past midnight on January 4, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Thursday. The retail price of 93 unleaded petrol and lead replacement petrol would decrease by six cents a litre from R5,42 to R5,36.
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/ 29 December 2005
Education Minister Naledi Pandor was disappointed on Thursday at the 68,3% pass rate recorded by the 2005 matric class. ”I’m not satisfied,” she told a media briefing in Cape Town where the figure was announced. ”How can anyone be satisfied when more than 30% of our children are failing? Surely you can’t have that. I’m not happy.”
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/ 29 December 2005
South Africa’s microfinance institutions face competition from loan sharks who prey on the vulnerable, especially in the townships where a majority of the country’s poor live. ”You still find loan sharks in the townships. They charge ridiculous rates like 100% a week. But a lot is being done to address it,” said Hennie Ferriera, chief executive officer of Micro Finance South Africa.
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/ 29 December 2005
South Africa’s rail utility, Spoornet, has already been paid R63 324 by a private security company for thefts which were carried out after the luxury Blue Train and Shosholoza Meyl crash between De Aar and Beaufort West in the Karoo on Wednesday October 26.
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/ 29 December 2005
Parts of Mthatha’s 540-bed Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital — including its operating theatres — were still without running water on Wednesday. The hospital’s difficulties were due partly to Mthatha’s general water supply problems, and partly to a succession of pipe bursts, Oliver Tambo District Municipality community services director Chauke Ngoma said.
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/ 29 December 2005
The Eastern Cape health department has hit back at a traditional leader who claimed it had incurred the wrath of the ancestors by meddling in the circumcision ritual. Contralesa provincial chairperson chief Mwelo Nonkonyana was quoted on Wednesday as saying the 18 circumcision-related deaths so far this summer season meant the department had ”dismally failed”.
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/ 29 December 2005
South Africa’s official opposition says it will challenge the education quality assurance body, Umalusi, to state publicly how much the marks in the nationally set matriculation subjects have been adjusted upwards. The results — which are being released to pupils around the country on Thursday — will be officially released by national Education Minister Naledi Pandor in Cape Town later.
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/ 29 December 2005
The shock of seeing his brother murdered caused evil spirits to enter the body of alleged housebreaker Nkululeko Tuntubele, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Wednesday. The evil spirits had a major impact on his client’s physical condition, defence lawyer Asghar Mia told the court.
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/ 29 December 2005
South Africa has deported about 200 illegal Zimbabweans by chartered plane this week, an official said, in a move believed to have been prompted by the unavailability of bus and rail transport over the festive season. South Africa deports between 600 and 6Â 000 Zimbabweans every week from the Lindela repatriation centre west of Johannesburg.
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/ 28 December 2005
Pretoria police are investigating whether the alleged hijacking and cash-heist kingpin they arrested on Friday was involved in armed robberies in Garsfontein and Lyttelton during his three years on the run. Andrew Pilusa (27) is accused of being part of the syndicate behind more than 40 hijackings and two cash-in-transit heists.
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/ 28 December 2005
President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday congratulated Bolivia’s new President Evo Morales, describing his election as evidence of the continuing changes in Latin America. He said the South African government and its people stood ready to continue working to advance the developmental agenda of the south in general and of Bolivia in particular.
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/ 28 December 2005
The death toll on South Africa’s roads over the holiday season has reached 965, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Collen Msibi said 411 of the casualties were pedestrians and 88 were children under 14. Msibi said that although ”shocking”, the figure was down from the 1 140 deaths over the same period last year.
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/ 28 December 2005
A day in the life of a Bafana Bafana coach is traditionally not free of some degree of turbulence — but Ted Dumitru could hardly have expected the shock news on Tuesday that in-form Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Emile Baron had ”bolted” from the squad for the coming African Nations Cup.
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/ 28 December 2005
Bus subsidies cost the national Transport Department R2,17-billion in 2003/04, according to the department’s annual report for 2005. The report, tabled in Parliament, noted that Gauteng received the largest cut of the nine provinces — with R788-million — followed by KwaZulu-Natal with R452-million. The Western Cape received R380-million.
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/ 28 December 2005
A thorough forensic audit was needed to investigate signs that fraud could have led to the massive fuel shortages of the past few weeks, media reports said on Wednesday. The president of the SA Institute for Corporate Fraud Management, Bart Henderson, said on Tuesday they had already called for the Scorpions to investigate the matter, and the request was apparently under serious consideration.
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/ 27 December 2005
A man briefly appeared in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday in connection with the murder of a six-year-old Johannesburg boy in the coastal resort town. Inspector Elgin Antonie earlier said the man on Christmas Day confessed to the killing. He was arrested on Christmas Eve.
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/ 27 December 2005
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has apologised for unintentionally dumping toxic chrome into the Crocodile River near Brits earlier this month. ”The IDC commits itself to cooperating with the authorities to minimise the consequences,” the state development company said.
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/ 27 December 2005
Former Bafana Bafana captain and joint Mamelodi Sundowns caretaker coach Neil Tovey has this advice for club president Patrice Motsepe: stop looking for a coach. The Brazilians’ fortunes have undergone a stunning transformation in the past two weeks since Tovey and former assistant coach Miguel Gramondi jointly took over the coaching.
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/ 27 December 2005
South African Football Association officials looked on in disbelief on Monday as 22 of the 26 Bafana Bafana players who are earmarked for next month’s African Nations Cup tournament — including controversially recalled Pierre Issa — signed up at their Johannesburg training headquarters.
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/ 27 December 2005
A thousand cars an hour were heading inland through the Mooi River toll plaza on the N2 in KwaZulu-Natal by early Monday afternoon, the province’s road-traffic inspectorate said. Spokesperson Rajen Chinaboo said it appeared poor weather had ”dampened some spirits” and at least some holidaymakers were returning home early.