Stay informed and up to date with the latest news in South Africa by reviewing all major headlines on Tuesday 12 November. After a full week of victory celebrations, it’s back to business for the World Cup-winning Springbok squad. As South Africa’s water crisis deepens, relief in the form of rainfall is expected to quench […]
Eastern Cape breaks drought records — with no end in sight
Long-term forecasts for summer rain to break the devastating drought in the Eastern Cape do not look promising, according to the South African Weather Service. Data gathered for the spring season show record low rainfalls in the province and record high temperatures — with Graaff-Reinet one of the hardest-hit towns. Despite the heat and the […]
Melanie Verwoerd: Food or SAA? Time for government to prioritise
2019-12-04 05:00 The drought affecting our farming communities and by extension our food security should take priority over rescuing SAA, says Melanie Verwoerd. (Tebogo Letsie, City Press, file) Multimedia · User Galleries · News in Pictures Send us your pictures · Send us your stories Very few of us would notice […]
Water Wednesday: DWS takes legal action against Eastern Cape municipality
The Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) at Cradock is non-functional and all that is being done is adding chlorine to the effluent. Solids have settled in the tanks and resulted in an untreated overflow to the Great Fish River. The matter is now being handled at a higher level to resolve the problem. The DWS […]
Monday’s weather: A scorcher to kick off the week
Monday is set to be another scorcher across most of South Africa, says the SA Weather Service. Warnings: Extremely high fire danger conditions are expected over western and central Free State, the eastern parts of the Northern Cape, eastern and central North West, Central Karoo of the Western Cape and the interior of the Eastern […]
M4 in Mpumalanga, R61 in Eastern Cape the country’s most dangerous roads
The N4 in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, and R61 in Mbizana, Eastern Cape, have been declared the country’s most dangerous roads. This is according to an analysis conducted by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) in the past five years. The announcement comes after 24 people were killed in the two provinces over the past weekend. RTMC […]
South Africa’s Karoo drills and prays as taps run dry
GRAAFF-REINET, South Africa (Reuters) – South Africa’s Karoo region has always been parched – it means land of thirst in the language of its earliest inhabitants, the Khoisan hunter gatherers. Yet nothing prepared residents of its oldest town, Graaff-Reinet, for their worst drought in more than a century. As the dry spell entered its fourth […]
Painting the town yellow
The Sullivan Strauss Crime Watch took it upon themselves to neaten their streets and parks by hosting a clean-up on Saturday 16 November. According to the watch’s secretary, Lindsay Southgate, about 15 children joined in the litter clearing and wall painting efforts, with six adults from the community who lead by example. “We are a […]
Saturday’s weather | The heat continues
The hot weather and high temperatures being experienced in parts of the country are expected to continue over the weekend, according to the South African Weather Service. Warnings Extremely high fire danger conditions are expected over the interior of the Northern and Eastern Cape, Central Karoo of the Western Cape as well as the western and […]
Rainclouds & Roadkill: A journey through Cherry Country to the Kingdom of Rain
Image by Wolfgang Claussen from Pixabay As you traverse the southern Free State, marvelling at the golden rockfaces and red-brown earth contrasting with the intense verdancy of the vegetation around Clocolan and Clarens, it becomes clear that all of your rain is going to them – and you chuckle dryly at the thought that they […]
Karoo drills and prays as taps run dry
South Africa’s Karoo region has always been parched – it means land of thirst in the language of its earliest inhabitants, the Khoisan hunter-gatherers. Yet nothing prepared residents of its oldest town, Graaff-Reinet, for their worst drought in more than a century. As the dry spell entered its fourth year, tap water turned brown and […]
Son of slain Cradock Four activist implicates FW de Klerk in father’s murder
Lukhanyo Calata and his family are still waiting for justice, almost 35 years after his father was murdered by apartheid agents. Fort Calata was one of the men now known as the Cradock Four, four anti-apartheid activists from Eastern Cape who were killed by apartheid forces in 1985. To this day, no one has been […]
Eskom South Africa’s largest risk, says IMF and National Treasury
In a press statement released by the National Treasury on Monday 25 November 2019, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded after a visit to South Africa, that the country’s largest economic risk is Eskom, among other challenges like weak economic growth. The IMF visited South Africa from 6 to 21 November 2019 to discuss economic […]
Son of slain Cradock Four activist implicates FW de Klerk in father’s murder
To this day, no one has been prosecuted for the brutal murders of Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli. Lukhanyo Calata and his family are still waiting for justice, almost 35 years after his father was murdered by apartheid agents. Fort Calata was one of the men now known as the Cradock […]
Farmers in Western Cape to get R50M in drought relief funding
Local government have also approached the Department of Agriculture for an additional R147 million for further drought support. The Western Cape government has authorised the released of R50 million in emergency drought relief. The funds will assist farm communities in the Central Karoo District, Matzikamma and Little Karoo and is specifically for food support for […]
South Africa to reopen unsolved sexual offence cases
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s president says a project to reopen unsolved sexual offences cases soon will be rolled out across the country, and he calls violence against women and children “a great shame on our nation.” More than 2,700 women were murdered in South Africa last year, and more than 1,000 children. More than 100 […]
Agriculture association offers boxed donations to struggling Karoo farmers
After a cold welcome in a room of empty chairs at what was meant to be a regular meeting for the Cape Women’s Agriculture Association (CWAA) in the Karoo, the event’s organisers realised their community is facing a massive problem: the drought. CWAA’s Karen Barnard said the organisation understood their community was going through a […]
Small towns are missing the chance to change apartheid’s geography
© 2019 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article. Click here to Book Accommodation in Cradock, Graaf Reinett, Hofmeyer or […]
The women making waves in wine, Part One: A shift towards elegance
Natasha Williams of Bosman Family Vineyards. Photo: Supplied Over the past decade there has been a quiet shift in the style of wines produced by South African winemakers; the heavy wood is gone and the rough tannins have been toned down. The past five years have seen a more pronounced shift towards elegance and style […]
South Africa: Two More Suspects Arrested On Cradock Stock Theft Case
Cradock Stock Theft Unit continues with their operation ‘vat alles’ where they continue to add up the number of suspects arrested for stock theft in this cluster. Two (2) male suspects aged between 39 and 48 years were arrested at Bedford yesterday , 19 November 2019. This arrest is in connection to a recent case […]