Western Cape

The Inkatha Freedom Party does not play the political games of power and patronage that are ”known to be part and parcel of the politics of the Western Cape”, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi told a campaign meeting in the Cape Town suburb of Hanover Park on Tuesday evening.

The prosecution in the Jordan Leigh Norton murder trial on Monday took the first step in its bid to link a crucial piece of evidence — a waybill — to accused Dina Rodrigues. The state alleges that the waybill was left on the scene of the murder on June 15 last year by the three men and a youth it claims Rodrigues paid to carry out the killing.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has again raised the prospect of a provincial development levy to boost funds for subsidised housing. Speaking at the opening of the provincial legislature on Friday, Rasool said it has become clear that the current subsidy budget is inadequate for growing housing demand.

Anglican teenagers in the Western Cape are almost as sexually active as their peers outside the church, according to a survey reported in the latest issue of the South African Medical Journal. The survey was carried out by researchers from the Cape Town-based Fiklela Aids project and the University of Stellenbosch’s theology department.

The row over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons holds a lesson for ”callous” political parties in the Western Cape, provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Friday. ”Just like we must calm the flames of the cartoon anger, we must desist from fanning the flames of local identity issues,” he said at the opening of the provincial legislature.

The proposed all-weather stadium to be built at Green Point in Cape Town ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup will cost about R1,2-billion, a city official said on Tuesday. The City of Cape Town’s chief operating officer, Rushj Lehutso was speaking to reporters after the central government announced that five new stadiums would be built for the event.

The Western Cape provincial minister for local government and housing, Richard Dyantyi, is waiting for more reports about the Overberg fires before deciding whether it will be declared a disaster area. The fire, which has been raging in the Overberg since Monday, has so far claimed 455 square kilometres of farmland and bush.

Almost half of the Pan Africanist Congress’ municipal election candidates for the Cape Town metro have been disqualified because of inadequate documentation. PAC leader Motsoko Pheko said on Thursday that 23 of the 76 candidates had been rejected by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

The upmarket Grootbos private nature reserve in the Western Cape, which includes a lodge and conference facilities, has been evacuated in the face of fires burning out of control in the Overberg. Helicopters were water-bombing the buildings — some of which have thatched roofs — in a bid to save them from the flames.

Three people, two of them serving African National Congress MPs, have been added to the list of 21 Travelgate accused who will go on trial in the Cape High Court in July. A fourth name, that of ANC Western Cape MP Bruce Kannemeyer, will be added at a court appearance on February 16, Scorpions prosecutor Jannie van Vuuren said.

Former Beaufort West mayor Truman Prince could be expelled from the African National Congress at the weekend, members of the ANC’s Western Cape provincial executive committee said on Thursday. Twenty-three members of the ANC in the Western Cape have already been expelled.

A fire that started on Saturday was out of control on Baines Kloof Pass in the Western Cape on Thursday morning, having already destroyed about 600ha of plantation and fynbos. ”Our people have been battling right through the night,” said Cape Winelands executive mayor Clarence Johnson.