Eastern Cape
Education, PWD in shambles says A-G
By Eddie Botha Business Editor EAST LONDON -- The Eastern Cape government has had to pay R206 million a year in salaries for more than 6000 supernumerary posts in the Public Works Department (PWD) because no steps have been taken to resolve the or...
Grahamstown TLC 'facing bankruptcy'
By Adrienne Carlisle GRAHAMSTOWN -- The TLC here is staring bankruptcy in the face and if it does not begin to take punitive measures against rates and service defaulters it will "die", town clerk Steve Cridland warned last night. Sending out a c...
Bengu's Unitra mediation succeeds
By Graeson Haw EAST LONDON -- The first step to resolving weeks of campus crisis at the University of Transkei came finally last night with students agreeing to return to lectures today. The move came after intervention by National Education Mini...
Agricultural body audit reveals anomalies
By Eddie Botha Business Editor EAST LONDON -- Audit investigations into the financial accounts of the Ciskei Agricultural Corporation by the auditor-general revealed that the corporation had deducted almost R4million in income tax contributions fr...
Boost for EL as cargo vessel is diverted
By Tiania Stevens EAST LONDON -- The East London port and local businesses could enjoy a new lease on life in the wake of the arrival of the cargo vessel Iwashiro in port yesterday. Congestion in Durban harbour led shipping company NYK to divert ...
Border rugby lifts challenged spirits in game
EAST LONDON -- Members of the Border rugby side yesterday proved their ball skills were not limited to the rugby field when they paid a visit to the McClelland Handicap Centre. The visit, part of a publicity campaign for the 1998 season, was arran...
Stofile in Botswana to forge closer ties for EC
EAST LONDON -- Botswana is set to forge closer links with the Eastern Cape in the areas of agriculture and rural development. Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile's spokesman Manelisi Wolela said Mr Stofile had described the first day of his th...
Prophetess Bungu to be exhumed
By Mkhululi Titi QUEENSTOWN -- The family of East London's International Boxing Federation junior featherweight champion, Vuyani Bungu, government officials and religious leaders will leave for Pretoria later this month to witness the exhumation o...
Alert employee uncovers bogus cheque
Daily Dispatch Reporter UMTATA -- An alert employee at the Engcobo branch of First National Bank saved the bank and the government from being defrauded of more than R1 million. According to police documents, two women presented a government chequ...
Chest bites lead to alleged rapist's arrest
QUEENSTOWN -- A 59-year-old woman bit the chest of a man who raped her in her home in Macibini administrative area, Ilinge, at the weekend, police said. Captain Thembisile Patekile said the man had apparently hidden under the woman's bed before s...
Whittlesea town clerk still hiding out in fear
QUEENSTOWN -- Whittlesea town clerk Mkhululi Mbaba, who fled the town to find shelter elsewhere after a shooting last week left six youths injured, has not returned to his official home. Speaking from the municipal offices yesterday, he said he wa...
Indwe town council considers development, coal mine
By Sonja Raasch QUEENSTOWN -- The Indwe town council is planning to develop the town, and a feasibility study is in progress on the existence of a coal mine near the town. So said mayor Mcebisi Limba here yesterday, following weeks of unrest afte...
Police probe shooting link
QUEENSTOWN -- Police are investigating a link between two separate shootings which left two men dead in Sterkspruit. Mr Madoda Mbune, 26, of Kwa Kwiba administrative area was shot dead after an argument with another man at a taxi rank. Captain Mp...
Police seek escaped inmates
EAST LONDON -- Police are asking the public for help in capturing five awaiting-trial prisoners who escaped from the Berlin police station holding cells at the weekend. The five men, who were charged with housebreaking, theft and possession of an ...
Woman raped on golf course
EAST LONDON -- Police yesterday arrested a homeless man in connection with two weekend rapes at the Alexander County Club on the West Bank. Captain Leanne Beard said three men approached a 28-year-old woman as she walked over the golf course at 9....
Boy, 7, killed crossing road
QUEENSTOWN -- A seven-year-old boy died after he was hit by a vehicle while crossing the street in Butterworth. Ziyanda Diniso was walking home after school on Friday when he saw his father on the other side of the road, police said yesterday. As...
Bogus police steal car, R300
QUEENSTOWN -- A Queenstown man was held at gunpoint and robbed of his vehicle and R300 cash in Newville township here at the weekend. Police said two men had allegedly shown the motorist a fake police card before robbing him of his car. The vehic...
357kg dagga hidden in mattresses on truck
By Wimpie Heath KOMGA -- A R357000 dagga consignment was seized by organised crime unit officers yesterday when they found a suspicious-looking truck near the Kei Bridge. Captain Arrie Mynhardt said police found the truck containing mattresses de...
Social security denies 'brutal, unfair' charge
By Mamkeli Ngam KING WILLIAM'S TOWN -- The deputy director of social security in the Eastern Cape, Mr Ndimphiwe Sofika, has rejected claims that the social security system in the province was brutal and unfair. In an interview yesterday, Mr Sofik...
Economic Affairs director to go
QUEENSTOWN -- The regional director for Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism, Dr Jeff Peires, will be leaving Queenstown soon to take up a new job in the Premier's Office. He has been seconded to the Premier's Office to be a manager of specia...
EL police notch up success in 2 murders
EAST LONDON -- The detective service at the East London police station yesterday reported the convictions of two murderers it caught last year. Captain Leanne Beard said that Ms Nomsle Sajini, 45, was convicted in the high court here last week ...
Five suffer violent deaths in Transkei
UMTATA -- At least five people died and one was seriously injured in separate incidents of violence around Transkei at the weekend, police said yesterday. Inspector Maphelo Ngame said Mrs Nom- dlungwana Sandla was shot by two men armed with 9mm...
Garbage dumped in Cambridge garden
By Matt Ramsden EAST LONDON -- An upset Cambridge couple yesterday slammed vandals who dumped bags of garden refuse in their front yard for the second time in two weeks. Keith and Nicky Harvey, 50, are not sure who is responsible, but suspect a g...
German press reports on poor SAPS work
PORT ELIZABETH -- The wife of murdered German businessman Erich Ellmer -- who was gunned down in the driveway of his Sandton, Johannesburg home in August 1996 -- has slated police handling of the investigation. In letter published in the influenti...
Captain battles to save home
EAST LONDON -- A 60-year-old police captain who suffered a stroke in 1996 and says he cannot get his pension to meet his commitments is battling to save his King William's Town home. Captain Richard Cawe, of Swartberg Street, King William's Town, ...
Master Builders proactive on safety project
EAST LONDON -- Building industry-related deaths and disabilities are not only tragic to the families and employees affected; the costs of injuries as well as damage to equipment and penalties for delays in the completion of contracts are astronomic...
EL Museum officer chosen for US course
By Zingisile Mapazi EAST LONDON -- The East London Museum education officer, Ntosh Satula, has been selected for a two-month training course in museum education at the Bart Rousseve Programme in America. Ms Satula will fly out on June 8 as one of...
Neer's son in court for fraud and forgery
By Wimpie Heath, Court Reporter KING WILLIAM'S TOWN -- The son of Eastern Cape Safety and Security MEC Dennis Neer, Lumtu Neer, appeared briefly in the district court here yesterday on charges including fraud and forgery relating to a motor vehicl...
Ngonyama sworn in as acting premier
BISHO -- Housing and Local Government MEC Smuts Ngonyama has been appointed acting premier in the absence of the Premier Makhenkesi Stofile, who is on a three-day official visit to Botswana. Mr Ngonyama assumed duty yesterday after being sworn in...
Lack of recruits leads to police crisis
By Matt Ramsden EAST LONDON -- The fight against crime might be undermined soon by the lack of new police officers being recruited. East London police Station Commissioner Roelof Berg yesterday warned that the service faces a possible crisis as t...
Police praise soccer fans
EAST LONDON -- Superintendent Andre Grobbelaar yesterday praised the behaviour of the 5500 people who attended the Kaizer Chiefs-Amazulu football match at the Basil Kenyon Stadium at the weekend. "Overall, the crowd was well behaved and discipline...
Community Chest off to a promising start
EAST LONDON -- Thanks to Meyers Delta and monthly donors, the year started on a promising note for the Community Chest, executive director Joss Hamilton said. "However, with a target of R300 000, the chest has a long way to go. "At the current rate...
Children's Fund cheque handed to welfare body
EAST LONDON -- A cheque for funds collected by the Daily Dispatch Children's Fund was handed over to the East London Child and Family Welfare Society last week. Here is the list of donors who contributed R825,15 which boosted the fund to R12 811,3...
Bank committed to supporting emerging farmers
By Eddie Botha Business Editor EAST LONDON -- Land Bank employees are committed to supporting emerging farmers as required by the new mandate from government, says Land Bank MD Dr Helena Dolny after visiting the bank's branch here. Dolny emphasi...
Talks on EC govt role in TLCs
BISHO -- A delegation of the National Council of Province's (NCOP) select committee on constitutional affairs arrived here last night on its way to Butterworth where it will discuss the Eastern Cape government's intervention in the Butterworth TLC ...
Grieving widow, mother says no to amnesty appeal
EAST LONDON -- The widow of an Elliot dairy farmer shot by Apla members in 1993 yesterday told the TRC she believed they should not get amnesty. Mrs Paula Meyers, whose husband Mike and daughter Donne, 21, were killed while selling milk near Engco...
