NELSPRUIT police detonated a suspicious package on Wednesday evening. It was not immediately known is the package was a bomb. An earlier bomb threat outside a primary school in the Mpumalanga town of Lydenburg turned out to be nothing more than a package in the trash that police dogs mistook for a bomb.
POLLING stations in the Highveld region of Mpumalanga have requested extended voting hours as snags and staff shortages are preventing them from processing more than 100 voters per hour. IEC media spokesman Leon Mbangwa said on Wednesday afternoon that polling stations in the rural Moutse and Mbibane areas of the former KwaNdebele had requested that […]
VOTING got off to a false start in the hotspot of Greenfields on the East Rand when officials discovered they had been using the wrong ballot papers. IEC officials accidentally used tender ballot papers for the first 177 voters. Clusters of police officials are monitoring voting at both the Greenfields and nearby Phola Park polling […]
POLLING stations opened late on Wednesday in several parts of Mpumalanga because more than 300000 ballot papers were not delivered to the right places. IEC provincial media officer Leon Mbangwa said some ballot papers intended for Standerton, White River, Middelburg, and the Lowveld District Council were delivered instead to the IEC offices in Nelspruit. “We […]
FORENSIC cordite tests indicate that the suspicious parcel police exploded at a polling station in the small farm town of Burgersfort was normal garbage and not a bomb. Police exploded the parcel in a plastic dustbin at the Burgersfort Primary School just after 10.00am on Wednesday after sniffer dogs indicated that it might contain explosives. […]
MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Wednesday 12.10pm. THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) claims that several employers, some large-scale, are requiring employees to work on Wednesday, election day. The party alleges that businesses are “conniving with certain political parties to deny workers the right to vote so that these parties benefit from the outcome […]
EAST LONDON police are investigating four attempted murder counts after four dog unit members were shot at by gunmen while patrolling the Mdantsane area as part of their election duties. Nobody was injured and the policemen managed to arrest a suspect.
THE Independent Electoral Commission was forced to quarantine four full ballot boxes in Ermelo on Tuesday after their seals were broken. Seals on three of the boxes from different polling stations were apparently simply not closed, while the seal on a fourth box appears to have been broken by accident while being transported. All four […]
TUESDAY, 12.30PM: STATE-owned synthetic fuel producer Mossgas has asked the government to allocate R180-million from the Central Energy Fund to finance the development of its Bredasdorp Basin gasfields. The request from one of South Africa’s most expensive white elephants comes at a time when the future of the South African petroleum industry is in turmoil […]
AN estimated 60% of registered voters in Mpumalanga had cast their ballots by 6pm, with only a couple of polling stations in the former KwaNdebele reporting possible delays. Some polling stations in Daggakraal and Burgersfort had already reported over 95% voter turnout. IEC provincial electoral officer, Steve Ngwenya, told journalists at a press briefing that […]
THE Independent Electoral Commission has denied SABC radio reports that election material was left unguarded at some polling stations in the former KwaNdebele. Provincial electoral officer, Steve Ngwenya, said on Tuesday that the reports were based on unconfirmed allegations by political parties that ballot papers and boxes had been left unguarded at Mjodjami polling station […]
THE head of a 19-member Commonwealth observer group, Britain’s Lord David Steel, said polling reflected that South Africa was becoming a normal country. “There is a very big contrast in what was a liberation election and this one which is much more like a normal election held in any country, with healthy debate between the […]
THE Justice Department has agreed to transfer all its officials out of the former KaNgwane homeland capital of Louisville after they went on strike last week and staged sit-in protests at courts in Nelspruit. The 60 officials went on strike to protest against regular water and power cuts that forced them to drive up to […]
IN one of the quickest elections in the country, voting at the tiny Eastern Cape town of Paterson was over by 10.45am. 350 voters had made their crosses by then — the town’s roll only had 210 registered voters. This represents a 100% turnout, although the figure includes voters with ID books showing registration receipts.
THE Independent Electoral Commission officials expect first results of the one-day election soon after midnight Wednesday — with a conclusive outcome possibly known by midday on Thursday. There are no exit polls or computer projections. Final opinion polls have forecast a majority of between 59% and 69% for the ANC, clearing the way for Deputy […]
AS the first results come in from the Free State, the African National Congress, predictably has taken a firm lead with 70% of the votes counted thus far. The surprise is in the Democratic Party having around a 1% lead over the New National Party’s 7%. The Freedom Front is running a close third. Extremely […]
IN a move that opens up the race to stiff competition, Malawi’s Electoral Commission has withdrawn its appeal case against a High Court decision allowing two leading opposition party leaders to contest the June 15 presidential elections as running mates. The withdrawal of the appeal case means incumbent President Bakili Muluzi faces a tougher election […]
OVER 40 elderly Swazi widows are celebrating their acquittal in a South African court in Pongola on charges of defrauding the government of thousands of rands of pension monies. They were arrested in May last year while queueing at a government office in Pongola to draw pensions using illegally obtained South African documents. They were […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Tuesday 8.30pm. RWANDAN forces on Tuesday violated Kigali’s unilateral declaration of a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kinshasa charged on Tuesday. Rwandan troops backing a rebellion against DRC President Laurent Kabila launched “offensive actions” in central Kasai and southeastern Katanga provinces following heavy losses last month, DRC Deputy […]
THE Democratic Party said on Monday that it has evidence proving that the SABC has been deliberately biased against it. This follows similar complaints lodged against the SABC by the PAC. DP spokesman Douglas Gibson said the DP is in possession of extracts from an SABC-produced document which gives its journalists, anchors and analysts guidelines […]
MONDAY, 10.30AM: THE Finance Department has decided to allow market-makers in South African government bonds to quote wider spreads between buying and selling prices than the two basis points allowed thus far during periods of volatility in the bond market. Analysts say the move is a sign that some primary bond dealers were particularly hard […]
RONNIE ELIOTT and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday 10.30am THE case against fugitive and suspected heist artist, Collin Chauke, was on Tuesday postponed to April 3 next year for trial. Charges have been withdrawn against two of Chauke’s three co accused — Munuku Matjene and Chauke’s right-hand man and best friend Muntu Mahlangu — due […]
ESMIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Tuesday 9.00pm. THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) says the setting aside of former State President P.W. Botha’s conviction on contempt of court charges may allow him to ‘escape responsibility’ for apartheid-era abuses. “Mr. Botha will once again not suffer the consequences of his actions during the worst period of […]
A 50-year-old Parow man has been arrested for allegedly making telephonic death threats to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. His office said on Friday that the arrest should send a clear message to those considering any such actions, that they will have to face the legal consequences of their acts. Mbeki was threatened in five calls […]
ALL Black fly-half Andrew Mehrtens could miss three of New Zealand’s World Cup warm-up games after aggravating a groin injury in Sunday’s Super 12 final. “He had the injury before the game, he will see a surgeon in Auckland in the next 48 hours, and then we’ll make a decision on what should be done […]
THE government has said it will freeze any of Slobodan Milosevic’s assets found in the country, Network Radio News Service reported on Friday. The United Nations war crimes tribunal on Thursday appealed to the international community not to allow Milosevic access to money hidden in other countries. It was rumoured that he had been routing […]
OUTPLAYING Burkina Faso easily and consistently, Ghanaian Under-17s took a 3-1 victory and the championship home from Guinea. This is Ghana’s second U-17 championship. It was the first time that Burkina Faso had ever played in the final of the Under-17 African championship. In the consolation game played earlier in the day, Mali beat Cameroon […]
THE Labour Court on Friday ordered Woolworths to pay a woman R200000 after it refused to offer her permanent employment because she was pregnant. The court found that Woolworths had unfairly discriminated against Beverely Whitehead as an applicant in a job offering remuneration of R300000 a year. Woolworths claimed in court that the reason for […]
CRICKET was difficult enough to understand before the World Cup. It has now become incomprehensible – and that’s official. Steve Waugh admitted earlier in the tournament he did not understand the scoring adjustments for rain-affected games, as worked out by the well-received but little understood Duckworth/Lewis system. On Saturday, meanwhile, Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell announced […]
THREE separate incidents of violence in school sports matches marred South Africa’s weekend both on and off the field. Two pupils were killed, a parent was beaten with a pipe, and a rugby match was halted, reports Beeld on Monday. In the most serious incident, in the Northern Province, police were called in to break […]
MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Monday 6.00pm. SOUTH African markets were mixed to firmer on Monday, as election doldrums kept players away from the equity markets. Dealers adopted a “wait and see” attitude before the upcoming poll, and it showed in volumes a price movents in the late afternoon. At 3.30pm, the all share was up […]
THE European Union has decided to offer Mozambique $75-million to help repair the roads and develop in central and northern parts of the country, an EU official said. Jaxier Puyol, EU representative to Mozambique, said on Saturdays during his tour to Zambezia, a province in central Mozambique, about $30-million of the aid will be used […]