Western Cape

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.

Foreign and local experts meet later on Monday to help find the best course of action for repairs to Koeberg nuclear power station, which has been responsible for numerous recent power outages in the Western Cape. Discussions about repairs to one of two faulty generators would be on the agenda, said Carin de Villiers, spokesperson for the nuclear plant.

A British national is assisting the South African police with an investigation into the alleged rape of a teenager in Johannesburg, the British high commission in Pretoria confirmed. A Friday-afternoon edition of a Johannesburg daily newspaper identified the man as a son of a British diplomat in South Africa.

As the disciplinary hearing of controversial Central Karoo municipal manager Truman Prince got under way on Wednesday, the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) Special Assignment team came under fire for refusing to become involved in the proceedings. Prince has pleaded not guilty to seven charges.

Doctor Fareed Abdullah on Monday denied he had been forced by the African National Congress to resign from one of the Western Cape’s top Aids-fighting posts, as alleged by the Democratic Alliance. Abdullah was responding to a statement by Robin Carlisle, DA spokesperson on Aids and opposition representative on the Provincial Aids Council.

President Thabo Mbeki launched the African National Congress’s election campaign in Cape Town on Sunday with promises of cleaner, more responsive and effective local government. The president repeated the promises in the ANC’s election manifesto, which was also launched at the rally attended by about 25 000 people.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress is ”confident” of winning the metropolitan city of Cape Town in March, the only metropolitan area in the country that eluded it electorally in the last municipal poll in 2000, says the party’s deputy secretary general, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele.