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/ 27 January 2008
A power shortage halted production in South Africa’s lucrative mining sector for a second day on Saturday, and mining company officials said they still did not know when they could resume operations. Power cuts described by President Thabo Mbeki’s government as a national emergency on Friday stopped production in the world’s biggest platinum and number one two gold producer.
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/ 27 January 2008
A guard in a surgical mask patrols a wire fence designed to keep dozens of patients with a lethal form of tuberculosis at Cape Town’s Brooklyn Chest hospital isolated from the rest of the world. Sufferers of extreme drug resistant tuberculosis, a near untreatable strain, battle boredom, depression and the side-effects of a daily palmful of pills.
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/ 26 January 2008
Residents of the impoverished Skielik community on Saturday buried three loved ones who were gunned down last week, allegedly by 18-year-old Johan Nel. Enoch Tshepo Motshelanoka (10), three-month-old Keditlhotse Elizabeth Moiphitlhi and her 31-year-old mother, Anna, were buried at the Swartruggens cemetery.
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/ 26 January 2008
Three people were injured after cash-in-transit security guards were robbed in a Manenberg mall, Western Cape police said on Saturday. Spokesperson Inspector Bernadine Steyn said on Friday morning that Coin security guards did a cash pick-up at a shop in the Nyanga Junction Mall in Manenberg.
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/ 26 January 2008
Fires in Scarborough which started on Friday evening were under control
on Saturday morning, Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services said. Six shacks had burnt down in Oceanview and 70 people had been affected, however no injuries had been reported in the area.
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/ 26 January 2008
Racism was still a key issue in South Africa, political party representatives said as they addressed a gathering at Saturday’s funeral of the murdered Skielik victims. Congress of South African Trade Unions secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said alleged killer, Johan Nel (18) had ”no regard for human life”.
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/ 26 January 2008
Mourners streamed to marquees set up on a patch of land next to the highway past the informal settlement of Skielik on Saturday to bury three people killed there by a lone gunman last Monday. There was a heavy police presence at the marquees, where women stirred pots of food in readiness for the funerals.
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/ 26 January 2008
South Africa beat West Indies by 86 runs in the second one-day international on Friday to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. The home side totalled 255 for nine before bowling out West Indies for 169 in 48.2 overs. Captain Graeme Smith smashed 11 fours in his 86 while JP Duminy hit 68.
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/ 26 January 2008
The ”nightmare” of South Africa’s major gold, platinum and diamond mines shutting down because of power failures became a reality on Friday. ”Tens of millions of rands a day are being lost. It’s a nightmare,” said T-sec chief economist Mike Schussler. The JSE gold mining sub-sector closed almost 6% lower on Friday. The move contributed to the gold price rising.
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/ 25 January 2008
Eskom’s ”poor communication” during the current electricity crisis is of major concern to the tourism industry, the City of Cape Town said on Friday. Simon Grindrod, the city’s mayoral committee member for economic development and tourism, said the tourism industry found it difficult to cope with the power cuts because Eskom was not providing accurate information.
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/ 25 January 2008
Two prisoners died in nine-hour hostage drama at the Witbank Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) condemned the ”tragic” incident in which a police orderly was overpowered and disarmed by four prisoners.
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/ 25 January 2008
Boeremag accused Kobus Pretorius was a changed man after ”meeting Christ” while being held in jail, the Pretoria High Court heard on Friday. Counsel for Pretorius, Annelie Van der Walt, argued before Judge Khami Makhafola that Pretorius should be released on bail so that he could become involved in church and school activities.
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/ 25 January 2008
If, back in the 1990s, the government had chosen to spend billions of rands on new power stations instead of armaments, South Africa would not now be facing an electricity crisis, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. ”It chose to spend billions of rands on arms that we do not need,” she said.
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/ 25 January 2008
High-profile criminal cases involving senior South African officials have renewed fears among opposition parties and the legal community that judicial independence may be at risk. President Thabo Mbeki’s government has had a testy relationship with the judiciary.
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/ 25 January 2008
Most private hospital groups will maintain their tariff increases at the consumer inflation rate, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday. She said the Department of Health had met with several private hospital groups over the past week, who had committed to review their tariff increases.
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/ 25 January 2008
South Africa’s white community should publicly express their concern and outrage at the murder of black people in Swartruggens, the South African Institute of Race Relations said on Friday. The organisation cautioned that the impression should not be made that the broader white community sympathised with the gunman.
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/ 25 January 2008
South African gold producers and the world’s biggest platinum miner suspended production at all their mines in the country on Friday due to a power crisis, helping send precious metal prices to new highs. Shares in most of the affected firms dived as the government said the power cuts were ”a national emergency”.
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/ 25 January 2008
Gold and platinum mining stocks were sharply in the red by midday, led by news that local mines had halted production over power supply concerns. However, the JSE was still holding onto its gains, which was underpinned by the rally in Asian markets.
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/ 25 January 2008
Switch off your lights is what the government is urging South Africans to do to immediately address what it calls a ”national electricity emergency”. On Friday, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin and Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica outlined several plans to alleviate the country’s electricity shortage.
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/ 25 January 2008
Long queues of vehicles at traffic lights knocked out by power cuts may soon be a thing of the past. ”All traffic lights and public lights will be converted to solar power, with battery back-up,” Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said in Pretoria on Friday.
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/ 25 January 2008
Investigations into the incident at the South African Army Combat Training Centre in Lohatla in which nine soldiers were killed have revealed that the tragedy was caused by a mechanical failure, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Friday. The nine soldiers died when a 35mm Oerlikon GDF MK-5 gun malfunctioned at the training centre on October 12 last year.
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/ 25 January 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) has lashed out at a popular soap opera actress for claiming the ANC murders its opponents, and is considering legal action against her. The actress, Winnie Ntshaba, who plays Khethiwe in the soap opera Generations, was speaking at an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) gathering.
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/ 25 January 2008
South Africa’s rolling power failures are a ”national emergency” but economic growth can continue at healthy levels if energy is used more efficiently, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Friday. ”It is clear that we are running our power system at utilisation levels that are overstretching maintanance,” Erwin said.
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/ 25 January 2008
South Africa’s wealth gap is widening and the average black citizen still only earns an eighth of what his white counterpart does nearly 14 years after the end of apartheid. In its annual survey, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, said inequality rose from 0,60 in 2006 to 0,62 last year on a zero to one scale.
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/ 25 January 2008
A recent book by an international photographer takes a fashionable look at township life, writes Matthew Krouse.
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/ 25 January 2008
Nosimilo Ndlovu speaks to three young men who are passionate about filmmaking.
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/ 25 January 2008
The Nigerian method of low-budget movie-making is set to take off in South Africa if an upcoming producer has his way, writes Percy Zvomuya.
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/ 25 January 2008
If local filmmakers can take advantage of incentives, there are some exciting projects lined up this year, wites Andrew Worsdale.
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/ 25 January 2008
South Africa has plenty of energy available. The problem is, we don’t have enough power. Some of the country’s biggest businesses have been queuing up to sell power to Eskom. The potential power on the table — all 5 000MW of it — is almost equivalent to two Koeberg-sized nuclear power stations.
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/ 24 January 2008
Thieving staff members caused losses worth R2,5-million in the Western Cape provincial administration in the last 12 months, the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court heard on Thursday. The deputy director in the administration’s Forensic Investigation Unit, Rajendra Naidoo, testified at the trial of a former staff member, Melanie Otto.
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/ 24 January 2008
President Thabo Mbeki congratulated the country’s top matric students of 2007 — 18 pupils from the nine provinces — at the presidential guest house in Pretoria on Thursday. The pupils had received scholarships through the Thabo Mbeki Matric Merit Awards programme, which is administered by the Thabo Mbeki Education Trust.
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/ 24 January 2008
Veteran bowler Shaun Pollock, who announced his retirement from international cricket earlier this month, will be playing his 300th one-day international (ODI) when he takes the field in the second MTN ODI against the West Indies at Newlands on Friday night.