Eastern Cape
Ex-boxer Abbot to testify in car theft case
PORT ELIZABETH -- Gargantuan former boxer and wrestler Jimmy Abbot paid Port Elizabeth a surprise visit yesterday to testify for the defence in a criminal case. Mr Abbott, who is now a "preacher of love", is giving evidence as a character witness ...
No welfare bailout for EC
East Cape News BISHO -- In a shock disclosure for anxious pensioners yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said that "there was never a question of there being a bailout for the Eastern Cape". This follows reports yesterday that...
Bakkie used in robbery found
EAST LONDON -- The white Ford Bantam taken at gunpoint and used as a getaway car after an attempted armed robbery at East London Municipal Market on Thursday has been found, police said yesterday. Inspector John Fobian said the vehicle was found a...
Body found floating in harbour
EAST LONDON -- The body of an unidentified man was found at Latimer's Landing near East London harbour on Wednesday afternoon. Police spokesman Superintendent Eddie Watson said the man, who was black and about 35 years old, was found in the water ...
Boucher, Ntini shine on home ground
By Telford Vice EAST LONDON -- Mark Boucher proved at Buffalo Park yesterday that the South African wicketkeeping gloves will be safe on his hands. Five dismissals, among them two difficult diving catches and a snappy stumping, said as much on th...
Q'town cafe robbed of R500
QUEENSTOWN -- A Queenstown cafe owner was held up and robbed of about R500 cash by three men yesterday, police said. Mr Shunmugam Dhanapalan, 51, of Captain Cook cafe, his sister-in-law Ms Chinnamma Dhanapalan, 50, and employee Patricia Makaleni, ...
Saturday clinics encouraged
QUEENSTOWN -- The public is not making use of municipal clinics here on Saturdays as they seem unaware of the extra opening hours, chief of Health Services Hans Human said here yesterday. Mr Human said the decision in November to open the Philani ...
Summerpride farm burglary
EAST LONDON -- Three men armed with a knife and screwdriver barged into a Summerpride farm house on Thursday morning where they knocked around two young children before making off with R4 000 worth of household goods, police said. Superintendent E...
Cheque fraud suspect linked to store robbery
By Lucas Mati EAST LONDON -- A suspect in last month's R20 000 cheque fraud at Sondela Supermarket in Nqamakwe has been linked to the killing of a JH security guard in an earlier robbery in Butterworth in which about R500 000 was seized. A photog...
Fort Jackson factory robbed of R40 000
By Lucas Mati, Crime Reporter EAST LONDON -- A group of about six armed men made off with more than R40 000 in cash after forcing a foreman to open the safe at a Fort Jackson factory on Thursday night. The robbers, armed with pistols, shotguns...
No glove, no love is the message
EAST LONDON -- National Condom Week from Monday will seek to move the population beyond an awareness of Aids towards taking positive action to prevent it, Eastern Cape Society for Family Health co-ordinator Nompucuko Mgole said yesterday. The camp...
Gunmen kill two workers at Majola tea plantation
PORT ST JOHNS -- Police and members of the South African National Defence Force were deployed at Majola near here yesterday after two employees at Majola tea plantation were shot dead by five balaclava-clad gunmen. A police helicopter spent until ...
Fort Hare 'will not tolerate squatting'
By Mamkeli Ngam KING WILLIAM'S TOWN -- Fort Hare University will no longer tolerate ''squatting'' by students on campus, university registrar Dr Isaac Mabindisa said yesterday. He was responding to a claim by Student Representative Council (SRC) ...
'We care' says Mandela amid pensions hiccup
By Patrick Cull CAPE TOWN -- President Nelson Mandela yesterday said the government would pay pensions not because it had a statutory obligation to do so, ''but because we care''. He gave the assurance that despite ''occasional administrative hic...
Children attacked, robbed by teen gang
By Lucas Mati EAST LONDON -- A young brother and sister were attacked and roughed up by a gang of eight teenage boys near Reeston early on Wednesday while on their way to school in Cambridge, police said yesterday. The attackers escaped with a b...
Medical staff get paid late
EAST LONDON -- Sixty three doctors and other medical staff at the Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals received their salaries yesterday -- nearly a week late. Interns and newly ap- pointed medical officers at hospitals around the province were ...
King moneylender robbed
EAST LONDON -- Two armed men held up a King William's Town moneylender on Wednesday and fled with R20000 in cash. Police spokesman Superintendent Eddie Watson said an employee of People's Finance Cash Loans in Smith Street, Mr Michael Joubert, 26,...
Market trends to drive curricula
EAST LONDON -- Border Technikon needs to take aggressive steps to form links with commerce and industry and to update its curricula in accordance with market trends or needs, the technikon's new vice rector Professor Amos Mdebuka said yesterday. A...
EL port set to expand with new facilities
By Matthew Hattingh EAST LONDON -- The port here is set to perk up with the completion this week of a new 20 000 square metre container terminal. The new terminal, alongside K berth, more than doubles the port's container handling capacity. Port...
7 years for raping own child
EAST LONDON -- A 52-year-old Middledrift man was convicted in the Zwelitsha Magistrate's Court yesterday of raping his seven-year-old daughter in August, 1996. The man, whose name is being withheld to protect the girl's identity, was sentenced to...
SANDF to recruit part-time parachutists
QUEENSTOWN -- The South African National Defence Force's only parachute formation, 44 Parachute Brigade, will be recruiting part-time members stationed in the Eastern Cape at Group 46 in Umtata next Friday and Saturday. The training forms part of ...
Sex-for-sale patient cries rape
QUEENSTOWN -- A Komani Hospital patient has claimed rape after a male patient allegedly failed to pay her a sum of money agreed upon for sex. The suspect had allegedly approached the woman at 10 am on Thursday, and asked her to have sex with him, ...
Mother seeks missing son
QUEENSTOWN -- A Sterkspruit mother is waiting for news of her 19-year-old son who disappeared two weeks ago. Xolani Nathaniel Kwinana left his Sterkspruit home on January 15 to look for a school in the area, police spokesman Captain Bertie van Lit...
Sports Trust on the agenda
EAST LONDON -- The Eastern Cape Sports, Arts and Culture Department could form a partnership to develop a Sports Trust with the National Sports Council (NSC) and private sector, according to provincial government officials yesterday. At a welcomin...
Ex-servicemen plan to fight statue's removal
EAST LONDON -- An umbrella body of ex-servicemen's organisations is to be formed to fight the removal of the Anglo-Boer War statue from in front of the city hall here. This was decided at a meeting convened by The Kaffrarian Rifles Association, ch...
Stofile to miss Bisho opening: Neer stands in
BISHO -- Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile will not deliver his State of the Province speech at the official opening of the Eastern Cape legislature on February 13 as he will be on two weeks' leave. Premier's Office spokesman Mzi Giwu said S...
EC technikons fuller than ever this year
EAST LONDON -- Educational institutions offering vocational training are becoming increasingly relevant, with Eastern Cape technikons fuller than ever this year, East London College (ELC) head of student affairs and development Angela Church said h...
Mayatula denies threat to payouts
By Eric Naki, Political Correspondent BISHO -- Outgoing Finance and Provincial Expenditure MEC Professor Shepherd Mayatula yesterday vehemently denied that payments to Eastern Cape pensioners were under threat. Prof Mayatula said from Cape Town ...
Schoolgirl dies under train at Mdantsane
EAST LONDON -- An unidentified schoolgirl, aged about 16, died after she fell under a moving train at Mdantsane station yesterday. Police spokeswoman captain Shannon Kirkhoff said that the passenger train from East London to Berlin had stopped ove...
Daily Bread Trust sells light plane
By Matthew Hattingh EAST LONDON -- The Daily Bread Charitable Trust has sold an aircraft registered in the name of Daily Bread Trust trustee Edward Batty for R399 000. Mr Batty declined to disclose the price the trust paid for the aircraft. "I am...
Welfare faces yet another crisis
By Adrienne Carlisle GRAHAMSTOWN -- The beleaguered Eastern Cape Welfare Department is facing another crisis as thousands of unprocessed pension and disability grant applications mount up at pension offices across the province. Applications which...
