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No fewer than 22 Eastern Cape hospitals are being revamped to meet required health standards to fight Covid-19.  

The revamp, at hospitals in  Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela metros and Sarah Baartman, Amathole, Alfred Nzo, Joe Gqabi, Chris Hani and OR Tambo districts, involve wards being turned into single isolation rooms and the addition of new ablution facilities.

Among the hospitals are Frere, Port Elizabeth Provincial, Midlands, Madalweni, Taylor Bequest, Aliwal North, Cradock and Silimela.

Work at some of the hospitals started last week. The project is worth millions of rands, but the final cost will only be known when the work is complete. 

Judy Ngoloyi, spokesperson for provincial health MEC Sindiswa Gomba, said the purpose of the revamp was to ensure effective quarantine and isolation should there be a need.

“The department plans to  procure 2,000 additional beds, of which 240 will be high care  and ICU beds. There are wards which are being revamped in preparation for occupation by Covid-19 confirmed cases,” Ngoloyi said.

It’s been warm, wild and wet across South Africa in 2019, and it has certainly felt like a year of extremes. We’ve seen tornados in KZN, tremors in Gauteng, and one of the hottest days ever recorded in the country. These are the most significant – if not alarming – weather records smashed in the past 12 months:

South Africa – new weather records for 2019

Driest August ever in the Eastern Cape

Nelson Mandela Bay officially clocked its driest-ever month of August since records began in 1900, clocking just 3.3mm of rainfall in total. The last time this part of South Africa had seen anything like this little rain was way back in 1985, when a miserly 4.7mm was measured in the month.

Weather records: Highest April rainfall in Potchefstroom

Senior Grain Analyst Thys Grobbelaar said the North West region had enjoyed a downpour of 188.7mm within the month of April, comfortably beating the 117mm set in Potchefstroom during the 1942/1943 agricultural season.

Cape Town records its highest-ever pollen count

The pollen count in Cape Town reached a new record this year, at almost five times the level regarded as “very high”. The amount of tree pollen in the air was 14% higher than it was a decade ago. Tree pollen levels had “surged to a whopping 235 grains per cubic metre” by September 2019, when the previous highest total was smashed.

Hottest average day temperatures for winter spike in Eastern Cape

Several weather stations experienced the warmest average daytime temperatures on record for the three winter months. This reflects the highest temperatures recorded over the entire hours of daylight, rather than just one specific peak on the thermometer. Areas where the previous highest totals were toppled include:

• Cradock: 23.7C
• Komani: 20.9C
• Mthatha: 23.6C
• Cradock: 22.3C
• Port Elizabeth: 21.9C

The tiny town with a record that wasn’t a record – but it’s now another weather record

We love the story of Vioolsdrif, Northern Cape. The border town near Namibia enjoyed a brief glimmer of fame, before fading back into obscurity this month. It was briefly believed the outpost had recorded a temperature of 54C – which would have been the hottest day ever seen in South Africa.

But just 24 hours after they thought they’d snared some history, reality devastated them: A faulty data component on a local weather station had given a false reading. They “only” reached 47.5C, and although that wasn’t the warmest day in our history, it still holds its own as “Mzansi’s hottest ever temperature recorded in November”. So, you know, there’s that…

New November temperature record set for South Africa today – 27/11 – as #Vioolsdrif records 47.5C, beating its old record of 46.5C. https://t.co/UaynbBhO4x

— MeteoGib (@MeteoGib) November 27, 2019

Cape Town sets a new maximum temperature for September

Parts of the Mother City were fried by temperatures of 35C and above towards the end of September. The unseasonable scorcher turned out to be the hottest maximum temperature ever clocked in CPT during this particular calendar month. Not exactly what the dams needed.

Cape Town, South Africa makes new September max temperature record

— Al Jazeera Weather (@AJEWeather) September 7, 2019

Two new weather records this week in South Africa

Just to prove that records really are tumbling all the time in South Africa, we can even pick two out of the top-drawer from the past week. Two locations in KwaZulu-Natal endured the most rain they’ve ever seen in a single day: Richards Bay copped 72mm over 24 hours, whereas Pennington South ended up with 149mm of the wet stuff. Yikes…

                            
Further update regarding the COVID-19 National Lockdown and status of Group operations:

Further update regarding the COVID-19 National Lockdown and status of Group operations
Pan African Resources PLC

(Incorporated and registered in England and Wales under Companies Act 1985 with registered number

3937466 on 25 February 2000)

Share code on AIM: PAF

Share code on JSE: PAN

ISIN: GB0004300496

(‘Pan African Resources’ or ‘the Company’ or ‘the Group’)
FURTHER UPDATE REGARDING THE COVID-19 NATIONAL LOCKDOWN AND STATUS OF GROUP

OPERATIONS
Shareholders are referred to the Company’s announcements of 24 and 30 March 2020, following the

regulations announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday 23 March 2020, and enacted in

terms of the South African Disaster Management Act (‘the Regulations’), which required a 21-day

national lockdown, effective midnight 26 March 2020 to midnight 16 April 2020 (“the National

Lockdown”), in an effort to contain the spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
On 9 April 2020, following 14 days of the initial lockdown period, President Ramaphosa announced

that the country’s National Coronavirus Command Council has decided to extend the lockdown period

by a further two weeks beyond the initial 21-days, resulting in the existing lockdown measures

remaining in force until 30 April 2020.
Pan African Resources remains committed to all government efforts to contain the spread of COVID-

19. The Group will continue with preventative measures for the spread and detection of COVID-19 at

all its operations, while continuing to undertake essential services during the National Lockdown, as

detailed in the Group’s announcement of 30 March 2020.
As part of these essential services, the Group has obtained authorisation from the South African

Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to conduct surface re-mining and processing activities

on a reduced scale, subject to compliance with and adherence to all relevant Regulations and

applicable legislation. This includes the Group’s Elikhulu Tailings Retreatment Plant and at its

Barberton Tailings Retreatment Plant (collectively, the ‘Group surface operations’), and limited

underground mining operations at Barberton Mines.
The Group surface operations are currently operating at approximately 70 per cent of normal

production capacity, but with a much reduced workforce. Operating with such a reduced workforce is

possible, for a limited time, as a result of the highly automated nature of the surface operations.

Barberton Mines is currently also able to produce the required minimum feed for its BIOX ® processing

plant, thus ensuring the continued integrity of this system. Of the Group’s total staff and contractor

complement, only 26 per cent (excluding security staff) are involved in rendering essential services at

these operations. Updated guidance for the 2020 financial year will be communicated to shareholders

after the National Lockdown has terminated, and once the Group is in a position to quantify the extent

and duration of the operational disruptions during this time.
As previously communicated in the Company’s announcement dated 24 March 2020, the Group’s

liquidity position remains robust. Credit approval from Rand Merchant Bank has been obtained to

defer the last three tranches of the existing gold loan’s redemption, constituting 5,000 ounces

(equivalent to U$7.8m), to the first quarter of the 2021 financial year. The Group’s banking consortium

has also confirmed its support for the Company should further liquidity be required.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe adverse economic and social impact on stakeholders

involved in the Group’s operations and throughout the country. The Group has commenced with

support programmes, in addition to its existing community initiatives, to assist stakeholders to

alleviate hardships in the areas around its operations. These support programmes include food

hampers and hygiene products for employees and specific communities. As a further initiative,

potable water will be distributed by the mine’s water tankers to affected communities in Barberton,

in collaboration with the local municipality, for the duration of the National Lockdown.
Cobus Loots, CEO of Pan African Resources, commented as follows: ‘We are fully supportive of the

actions announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,

while at the same time implementing support measures to assist stakeholders around our operations.

The health and well-being of our employees and communities remains our number one priority, and

the measures that we have implemented enable essential services and operations to be maintained.”
Pan African Resources will continue to provide shareholders with regular updates regarding

developments at Group operations during this time.
Rosebank

14 April 2020
For further information on Pan African Resources, please visit the Company’s website at
www.panafricanresources.com

Contact information
Corporate Office                                 Registered Office
The Firs Office Building                         Suite 31
2nd Floor, Office 204                            Second Floor
Cnr. Cradock and Biermann Avenues                107 Cheapside
Rosebank, Johannesburg                           London
South Africa                                     EC2V 6DN
Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900                      United Kingdom
info@paf.co.za                                   Office: + 44 (0)20 7796 8644
Cobus Loots                                      Deon Louw
Pan African Resources PLC                        Pan African Resources PLC
Chief Executive Officer                          Financial Director
Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900                      Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900
Phil Dexter/Jane Kirton                          John Prior
St James’s Corporate Services Limited            Numis Securities Limited
Company Secretary                                Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker
Office: + 44 (0)20 7796 8644                     Office: +44 (0)20 7260 1000
Ciska Kloppers                                   Ross Allister/David McKeown
Questco Corporate Advisory Proprietary Limited   Peel Hunt LLP
JSE Sponsor                                      Joint Broker
Office: + 27 (0)11 011 9200                      Office: +44 (0)20 7418 8900
Investor Relations                               Thomas Rider/Neil Elliot

Hethen Hira                                      BMO Capital Markets Limited

Tel: + 27 11 243 2900                            Joint Broker

E-mail: hhira@paf.co.za

                                                 Office: +44 (0)20 7236 1010
Website: www.panafricanresources.com
Date: 14-04-2020 10:01:00

Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited (‘JSE’).

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An assassination plotted by the highest echelons of the apartheid regime is slowly being resurrected nearly 33 years after it sent shockwaves throughout the South African liberation movement.

But now, as a spark of hope is ignited that the murders of the four men known as the Cradock Four might finally be investigated, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) have been accused of suppressing apartheid-era investigations.

In 1985, the apartheid state was thrown into panic when people from an obscure township called Lingelihle, next to Cradock in the Eastern Cape, wrested power from the government with protests that culminated in the resignation of members of the Lingelihle puppet council, which was dissolved. The protests were led by the Cradock Four, in a resistance movement aligned with the United Democratic Front.

Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli were executed by the apartheid police in an effort to suppress dissent. On the day of their funeral, then-president PW Botha declared the 1985 state of emergency.

Their killers were members of the Security Branch. But Cabinet members, including FW de Klerk, sat in meetings to discuss the assassination. Others, such as Adriaan Vlok, deputy minister of law and order, were implicated in the planning of their deaths. Vlok had been to Calata’s house less than a month before he was killed.

A reopened inquest found in 1994 that the apartheid state was responsible for their deaths. Calata’s son, Lukhanyo, has steadily applied pressure on the democratic government to prosecute those responsible for his father’s murder since the inquest’s findings.

In 2018, Lukhanyo, a journalist, met Shaun Abrahams, when he was still the national director of public prosecutions. A reopened investigation into his father’s death was under way and Abrahams was waiting to hear from investigators.

But court papers reveal that the lead investigators, a Colonel Vreugdenburg and Captain C Simpson, assigned by the Hawks to the case, were former Security Branch officers. Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed this. The Hawks did not confirm the two investigators’ first names, but said they had been removed from the case following complaints.

The court papers were filed by Imtiaz Cajee, the nephew of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, in his case to have his uncle’s murder prosecuted. He said he believed that the SAPS and the NPA had been “captured” by political forces because of their conduct in cases related to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

In January last year, the NPA had a list of 20 TRC-related cases that could be reopened for investigation. “Astonishingly, two former SB [Security Branch] officers were appointed to lead these investigations,” Cajee said.

In 1986, one year after the Cradock Four were murdered, Richard Motasi was arrested and tortured by the security police. Motasi was a sergeant in the police force, but he was accused of being a double agent.

In an affidavit filed against the police for assault, Motasi wrote that Vreugdenburg was involved in his torture. A line of his affidavit, as quoted in a thesis by John Miles at the University of the Western Cape, reads: “tortured by W/O La Grange, sgt Raath and const Vreugdenburg”.

Moray Hathorn, an attorney at Webber Wentzel who is working on some of the apartheid-era cases, confirmed his team made a complaint to the Hawks when they realised who the investigators were.

Mulaudzi said that when the complaint was made the investigators were removed from all TRC cases.

For Lukhanyo Calata, the appointment of the Security Branch officers to the case is not surprising. He has access to declassified apartheid-era documents that detail how De Klerk attended a meeting at which his father’s murder had been discussed by the State Security Council. These documents are also available in the South African History Archive. The paper trail reveals the planning involved in the assassination plot.

In total, six policemen were denied amnesty at the TRC for the murders. They included former security police head Harold Snyman, who led the interrogation of Steve Biko in 1977.

Calata believes that, if his father’s death is prosecuted, the ANC itself would be in trouble.

“There is a very high probability that they [the ANC] used my father’s life to negotiate for this democracy that we have today,” Calata said.

The Cradock Four case could also see senior apartheid leaders would be prosecuted. Calata believes the ANC is trying to avoid this to protect its own members from prosecution in TRC-related cases.

Allegations of political interference in the prosecution of TRC cases have a long history. In 2015, Vusi Pikoli, the former head of the NPA, filed an affidavit in the high court in Pretoria stating that he had been blocked from prosecuting TRC cases by members of government. He implicated former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi in the attempts to obstruct prosecution.

In Cajee’s court papers, a secret memo written by Pikoli to then justice minister Brigitte Mabandla in 2007 sets out some detail about the interference the NPA experienced. Pikoli told Mabandla that Selebi, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and representatives from the justice department who were meant to assist the NPA in its investigations of TRC-related cases were trampling on the NPA’s mandate by insisting they had powers to make decisions about prosecutions — a role reserved for the national director of public prosecutions.

“I have now reached a point where I honestly believe that there is improper interference with my work and that I am hindered and/or obstructed from carrying out my functions on this particular matter. Legally, I have reached a dead end,” Pikoli wrote. “It would appear that there is a general expectation on the part of the department of justice and constitutional development, SAPS and NIA that there will be no prosecutions and that I must play along. My conscience and oath of office that I took [do] not allow that.”

Pikoli added he could not carry on with the TRC cases and would await direction from the government.

In 2008, the Amended Prosecution Policy, which formulated the NPA’s handling of TRC cases, was struck down by Judge Francis Legodi in the high court in Pretoria. He found there had been political interference. The case was brought by the widows of the Cradock Four, Thembi Nkadimeng (the sister of slain Umkhonto weSizwe operative Nokuthula Simelane) and civil society organisations.

Calata believes there is still interference within the ranks of the NPA and the SAPS in TRC cases. He said there was enough evidence to begin a prosecution, but he had had no feedback on the case since his meeting with Abrahams last year.

“I’m just a journalist but, with just a little bit of digging, I found a proper paper trail. I’m not a prosecutor, I’m not an investigator for the NPA or for the Hawks, but here I have got those documents in my house,” he said.

“This evidence is in the state’s hands. It’s the state’s responsibility. It’s in their hands.”

Artworks by deceased South African artist, Helen Martins, are seen in the garden of her family house in the tiny Karoo town of Nieu-Bethesda, South Africa, 10 November 2014. EPA/KIM LUDBROOK