south africa

Johannesburg – At least 34 people have been killed in two
separate accidents in the Eastern Cape, the Road Traffic Management Corporation
said on Saturday.

Twenty-five people were killed on the R408 between Butterworth
and Willowvale when a bus driver lost control of the vehicle, spokesperson
Simon Zwane said.

“The vehicle overturned, killing passengers. The number
of fatalities is expected to increase as some passengers are still trapped
inside the bus,” he said.

In a separate accident, nine people were killed when a
minibus taxi overturned on the R61 between Cradock and Graaff Reinet

The taxi overturned on an embankment in the early hours of
Saturday morning.

Five people were injured and taken to hospital, said Zwane.

The RTMC was sending crash investigators to the Eastern Cape
to investigate both accidents.

Mountain Zebra National Park is located in the Eastern Cape near Cradock.(SABC)

South Africa boasts one of the best National Parks in the world. The Mountain Zebra National Park outside Cradock in the Eastern Cape has scooped yet another award this past weekend and walked away with the best performing park for the frontier region and in 2014. In the same category, it also won the national event – so it currently boasts that title of Top Park within SANParks.

Janine Lee from Morning Live visited the park to see what makes it so special. At the park, she was greeted by game-rangers who explained to her what the park is about. Some of the visitors come to view the wonder and beauty of the park. There is a special treat for visitors where they view art evidence left by San people over 300 years ago. The National Park is a park for all seasons.

For more click on video below:

Willowvale – As the names of the passengers who died in Saturday’s gruesome bus crash near Butterworth were read out, the screams of their loved ones rose above the soft melody sung at the memorial service on Thursday.

Family members sobbed uncontrollably and others were so distraught that they collapsed inside the marquee and paramedics brought in stretchers to take them outside to treat them.

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters has asked the families, who lost loved ones in a horrific bus accident near Butterworth on Saturday, to approach the Road Accident Fund directly when making claims instead of unscrupulous lawyers who take a big chunk of the money.

Peters was speaking during the memorial service of 35 victims of the bus crash. The bus veered off the road on Saturday and plunged downhill into a riverbank. Most of its passengers, including children, died.

“I want to say to the families, there will be people who will come making lots of promises. I am begging you, no matter how confused you are, do not speak to lawyers, rather speak to your councillors, mayors and government officials to show you where the Road Accident Fund offices are,” Peters said.

“These people will promise to help you with your claims, but ultimately they will take away all the compensation you get for your loss.”

Peters said there are Road Accident Fund offices in every province and representatives in institutions, such as the nearby hospital.

‘Watch who you speak to’

“Do not speak to just anybody, because in cases like these the bulk of the money goes to lawyers and not the affected families. You will find that children are going hungry and destitute when government has actually paid money for them to be taken care of,” Peters said.

Peters, who spoke on behalf of President Jacob Zuma and the national government, said August 29 was one of the country’s “darkest moments”.

This, she said, was also because it was the day of another horrific accident in which 10 people in a minibus-taxi were killed on the road between Cradock and Graaff-Reinet.

Peters said government and the Road Traffic Management Cooperation have taken a resolution for traffic officers to be trained extensively, from one year to three years.

Government, she said, is working to ensure that traffic officers are available around the clock and they are being integrated into the police force in a bid to reduce carnage on the road.

There are plans to change the rules pertaining to drunk drivers. This will mean changing the schedule 3 offence they face at present and elevating it to a schedule 5 offence, making it more difficult for them to get bail.

“Many times people who drink and drive are equal to murderers. We want to make sure we reduce the number of deaths on our roads,” Peters said.

She appealed to the public to use their seat belts in vehicles.

‘Worst the Eastern Cape has seen’

Premier Phumulo Masualle described the accident as a horrific and the worst the Eastern Cape has ever experienced. 

He said the whole of government was affected by the accident and called for the families not to dwell on the past but to focus on their future.

He said those who lost their loved ones are heroes of the nation as their names will forever be remembered in the history of Nqabara.

The premier promised to be with the families during their hour of need and to help them after the funerals.

“We will help you in whichever way we can, even though we might not be able to bring back your loved ones. Things such as these should make us strong and united,” he said.

Willowvale – Social workers had their hands
full on Thursday morning trying to console mourners at a memorial service in
Nqabara village in Willowvale, where 35 people who died in a tragic bus
accident have been remembered, City Press reported.

Nurses, social workers and paramedics
worked hard to console bereaved families, some of whom sobbed uncontrollably,
during the memorial service which was attended by Transport Minister Dipuo
Peters, her provincial counterpart Weziwe Tikana, premier Phumulo Masualle,
Road and Public Works MEC Thandiswa Marawu, mayors, government officials and
religious leaders.

Also present was former premier and current
Bhisho Legislature speaker Noxolo Kiviet.

Thousands of people from all over the
province filled the giant six-pole marquee erected on the grounds of Nduku
Junior Secondary School, in Nqabara, 25km from Willowvale.

Inside the marquee the mood was tense, with
mourners – including widows and bereaved parents – seated on the right-hand
side of the tent.

The crash took place on Saturday after the
driver lost control of the bus in which they were travelling when the brakes
failed. It veered off the road and down a hill, plunging into a river bed. The
driver died in the crash.

The memorial service was organised by the
Eastern Cape departments of transport and social development, as well as the
Mbhashe Local Municipality.

Minister Peters will deliver a message at
the memorial service on behalf of national government and the president later
on Thursday.

Meanwhile, another memorial service will be
held in Queenstown on Friday for 10 others who died on Saturday in a separate
accident between Cradock and Graaff-Reinet. The deadly crash occurred when a
minibus-taxi’s tyre burst.

In one of the blackest periods on South Africa’s roads, a total of 141 people are reported to have died on the country’s roads over the weekend, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) confirmed on Monday.

The “shocking and unprecedented road carnage” has prompted the RTMC to work with provincial traffic authorities to intensify law enforcement on roads, including the introduction of a 24-hour shift for traffic officers and harsher penalties for drunken driving.

“South Africa recorded the most shocking and unprecedented road carnages over the weekend with 141 people confirmed to have been killed in 110 motor vehicles collisions in all provinces,”the RTMC said in a statement. The RTMC said the highest number was recorded in the Eastern Cape where 53 people were killed. Two crashes, one in Willowvale with 36 fatalities and another involving a minibus taxi that crashed near Cradock with nine fatalities, accounted for the majority of the deaths.

Gauteng recorded the second highest number of fatalities with 21 people confirmed to have died from 29 crashes, while Kwa-Zulu Natal recorded 17 deaths from 18 crashes and Limpopo recorded 13 deaths from 12 collisions. The province with the least number of deaths was the Northern Cape where five deaths were recorded from five collisions, followed by the Free State (six deaths from six collisions), Mpumalanga (eight deaths, from ten collisions), North West (nine deaths from eight collisions) and Western Cape (nine deaths from nine collisions).

The RTMC said: “Crash investigators from the Road Traffic Management Corporation were sent to the Eastern Cape over the weekend to determine the exact cause of the two major collisions in the provinces. A preliminary report from the investigators is expected this week.

“The Shareholder Committee, comprising of the national Minister of Transport, the MECs from all provinces and the South African Local Government Association, last week granted the RTMC the authority to harmonise law-enforcement throughout the country and work towards the introduction of a 24 hour/seven days a week shift system.”

The CEO of the RTMC, Advocate Makhosini Msibi said this would contribute to “increased police visibility and ensure greater impact on the prevention of traffic offences and a reduction in traffic fatalities”.

“Harmonisation will streamline the delivery of essential road traffic and law-enforcement services and ensure coordination and collaboration in the implementation of agreed national uniform standards,” Msibi said.

Anti-corruption operations would also be intensified to deal decisively with driving schools that connived with licensing officers to issue drivers’ licenses to undeserving candidates. These operations would also focus on the fraudulent issuance of roadworthy certificates to public transport and freight operators.

Traffic officers would also receive further training and development to be able to do their work effectively and contribute towards reducing fatalities on the roads.

Msibi said the additional on-the-job training to be provided to traffic officers would focus on equipping officers with skills to enforce overload control, dangerous goods transportation, vehicle examination, license examination, road traffic information and road traffic legislation. They would also be trained to do high speed pursuit and interception.

He warned motorists that the RTMC was consulting with the Department of Justice to tighten the law on drunken driving. The proposal under discussion involved the reclassification of drunken driving from a Schedule 3 to a Schedule 5 offence and the introduction of minimum sentences.

“Road safety is not negotiable. It is everyone’s responsibility to behave appropriately on the roads and where they fail there must be consequences,” Msibi said.

The last official rounds of golf were recently played at the present home of the Grahamstown Golf Club, ending almost 120 years of history which started in 1891.

The golf course, reputed to be the third oldest in the country, started as a 9-hole fairway on the Cradock Road Flats was somewhat further from town than the present course.

A second course which opened in 1904 was developed in the vicinity of St Andrew’s Preparatory and the lower part of Hill 60, straddling the railway line.

By the end of 1906 a third course was developed around the Cradock Dam with the 1st tee being near the old West Hill Station at the top end of Constitution Street and a clubhouse above the Cradock Dam on the side of the Settler’s Hospital.

The old club house, destroyed by fire in 1915 and replaced with a wood and iron structure, featured in a famous trial in 1907 relating to the death of nine-year-old Edith Pinnock whose body was found in the cellar.

The clubhouse’s caretaker, Thomas Henry Kerr, was charged and acquitted of the murder.

The move to the current site happened in 1932 with the existing clubhouse, which has undergone much renovation over the years, being built in 1933.

The club’s first elected president was Mr Justice W H Solomon in 1897.

Previously the club’s president was the winner of an annual 36-hole competition.

Later presidents included the controversial Dr Leander Starr Jameson who donated the club’s magnificent Championship Trophy in 1911 and which is still in use.

Its longest serving president was Mr Justice Thomas L Graham from 1906-11 and 1914-40, whose wife was women’s president from 1907-18.

Bernard Wynne is reputed to be the Grahamstown Golf Club’s most successful golfer, winning the Club Championship as a schoolboy in 1925 as well as in 1927 and 1928 as a Rhodes student and the SA Amateur Championship in 1928, 1930, 1933 and 1938, which is still a record.

Wynne was also the first winner of the Freddie Tait Cup for the leading amateur at the SA Open in 1929.

The most successful of the club’s women members was Rose Calmeyer-Leach who was selected for Eastern Province every year from 1979-1996.

Others were Shirley Maclachlan who was women’s champion on nine occasions and Zani Richardson and Kirsty Mcrindle who were each champions on five occasions.

Pine trees were once a feature of the course with 11 000 planted between 1929 and 1933 but they were thinned out over the years and almost all of the remaining trees were removed after a devastating hailstorm in 1993.

The course was always badly affected by drought with water being drawn from the Cradock Dam from 1938 and a limited supply, pumped from Slaai Kraal, only being provided by the municipality from late 1984, allowing for on-tap sprinkler irrigation for tees and greens supplementing the supply from the Cradock Dam which was still in use until 1987.

Famous golfing personalities who have played exhibition matches on the course include Bobby Locke and Peter Thomson in 1956 and Hugh Baiocchi and John Bland in 1978.

A history of the Grahamstown Golf Club was written by Hugh Eales and Rob Cross in 1996 and recounts a number of amusing incidents:

a 198-yard hole-in-one with a putter off the 17th tee by Professor Don Liddell in the 1940’s; a ball “over-clubbed” by Chris Stone on the 18th landing in the club fireplace, and a ball struck by Lady President Barbara Mills off the 9th tee dropping into a passing truck transporting ostriches and not being seen again.

In their epilogue to the history the authors state that: “Nobody will claim that this is a course of great distinction… Yet it has unique charm and a sense of history within an historic region. It has made a substantial contribution to the evolution of golf in South Africa.”

The Club will soon be moving to the new Belmont Valley course for a new chapter in the history of one of the country’s oldest golf clubs.

By Johanna Somers
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 25, 2015

PORTSMOUTH

Flossie Gilmore has breakfast on her front porch: a cigarette, a Dr Pepper and a bag of chips. Once awake, she makes up her bed, sweeps the floors of her four-bedroom apartment at the Lincoln Park public housing complex and awaits her 11-month-old great-grandson.

Gilmore, 72, has raised her own four children, six grandchildren and a neighbor’s child over the course of five decades in Portsmouth public housing complexes.

Now she’s preparing to move, along with her granddaughter and her three children, while the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority demolishes and rebuilds Lincoln Park, where she has lived since around 2001.

Gilmore is indifferent to the plans.

“In a way, it does need to be rebuilt because of all the roaches,” Gilmore said. “Either way, it’s all right with me as long as I have a roof over my head.”

The authority will spend $25 million to $30 million using low-income tax credits, state and federal grants and some city dollars to rebuild the housing complex, increasing to 200 units from 178, in three phases over five years. The financing requires the authority to build low-income housing in return for receiving the tax credits, and the funding mechanism, Rental Assistance Demonstration, requires all apartments or substantially all apartments to be rebuilt. Apartments likely will hold from one to three bedrooms; some in Lincoln Park now have up to five.

It is the first major investment at the site since Lincoln Park was built in 1960.

The authority aims to improve the city’s housing stock, obtain more working, low-income renters instead of jobless renters, and reduce loitering and crime, said Kathy Warren, deputy executive director for the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

While the rebuilt apartments will improve living conditions for residents of Lincoln Park, experts say the change won’t break up poverty in Portsmouth. Rebuilding the same kind of development falls short of what Warren and others called the ideal: mixed-income housing that offers market-rate homes alongside units for low-income families.

“That is kind of like putting paint on a building; you know you haven’t changed the infrastructure,” said Cassandra Newby-Alexander. She is a history professor and director of the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Center for the Study of the African Diaspora at Norfolk State University. “We know that the school systems are still funded based on the tax base. You can upscale it a little bit, provide more amenities, but you are essentially not changing the culture of that area.”

Warren framed the project another way: It’s rebuild or do nothing.

“In this case, us improving the site is the better way to go,” Warren said. “Leaving it the way we have when we have an option is not the responsible thing to do.”

She added that the authority will pay more than $1 million in real estate taxes once Lincoln Park is rebuilt.

Other cities in Hampton Roads have opted for the mixed-income model with market-rate products. Norfolk has demolished public housing and replaced it with mixed-income housing.

Hampton’s housing authority is preparing to tear down one of its projects, also called Lincoln Park, and replace it with mixed-income housing.

“Studies have shown that mixed-income communities are a lot more sustainable in terms of the whole socialization process,” said Hampton Redevelopment and Housing Authority Executive Director Ron Jackson. “Low-income individuals are a part of the community just like everyone else. We are just not going to isolate low-income families anymore.”

Jackson said cities could contribute millions of unrestricted dollars to a mixed-income project to help.

“If the city could say, ‘Hey, we like the idea of market-rate housing in that area so we will pitch in,’ the city could pay for something that would help,” Jackson said. “There are ways to go about getting it done if the city is committed to that same goal.”

But Portsmouth faced several hurdles to that option at the Lincoln Park site.

Warren said limited funding and Lincoln Park’s location close to railroad tracks and Dale Homes, another public housing complex, created a challenge.

“What we are doing at Lincoln Park is close to what we did at Seaboard Square, and the reason we didn’t do home ownership there is because of the proximity to the railroad and to high-traffic roadways,” Warren said.

The authority would not be able to get market-rate rents to cover the cost of building market-rate apartments, she said.

“It would just not compete well with market rents offered elsewhere that have a better location,” she added.

Additionally, money for such redevelopment projects has dwindled. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has ended funding for multimillion-dollar federal grants, called Hope VI, that could be used to buy blighted property to expand the boundaries of a housing project for redevelopment, Warren said.

HUD now offers Choice Neighborhoods grants, but obtaining one is more competitive, local authorities say. Portsmouth’s authority applied for a Choice Neighborhoods grant but didn’t win, Warren said.

“The problem is that the federal government is giving us much less money than even five years ago to maintain” housing stock, said Ed Ware, the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority spokesman.

HUD is facing a $26 billion public housing maintenance backlog and faces further budget cuts, said Lisa Wolfe, a HUD spokeswoman, in an email.

There isn’t enough money to demolish both Lincoln Park and Dale Homes, the neighboring public housing project, and build mixed-income housing, Warren said.

“It’s hard to compare us to Hampton,” she said. “You have to look at the big picture, all the pieces of the puzzle, in order to determine what is the best solution.”

Changes in eminent domain law have made it more difficult for cities to condemn and seize properties for blight.

“We talked to a few owners out there that have houses on the perimeter or have businesses,” Warren said. “They did not want to sell or they wanted an unrealistic amount of money for their property.”

The change in eminent domain law has also made it more challenging for the city and the authority to work together to designate an area for redevelopment, buy up blighted properties and rebuild, Warren said. The last major effort by the city and the authority was in Cradock nearly 10 years ago, she said.

Planning Director Robert Baldwin said redevelopment is a priority, but the city doesn’t have the resources to contribute millions of dollars toward mixed-income residential developments.

“I don’t think you can compare our resources and circumstances to what Norfolk does in any way, shape or form,” Baldwin said. “We are a small city here with limited financial resources, and taking on large redevelopment projects where you have to start doing a lot of land acquisition or rebuilding is just not in the cards.”

Councilman Bill Moody said he would rather see Lincoln Park rebuilt into a development such as Westbury, near Effingham and South streets. The authority demolished public housing complex Ida Barbour and built Westbury, which included low-income apartments and income-capped homes for ownership, in the late 1990s using a Hope VI grant.

“You look over and see Westbury, it looks like a market-rate community and that is what really needs to be the goal, but when it comes to Portsmouth we certainly need HUD money to be able to make that happen,” Moody said.

Councilman Danny Meeks said, “We are a cash-strapped city, we are constantly having budget issues, so I mean I don’t feel we have money hanging around” for mixed-income residential development.

Last month President Barack Obama announced new rules for HUD to better reduce segregation and enforce the 1960s Fair Housing Act.

Catherine Lamberg, director of the Office of Public and Indian Housing for HUD’s Richmond Field Office, said the Rental Assistance Demonstration program can desegregate neighborhoods by attracting a variety of people to a housing area. The program also provides mobility vouchers to residents who want to move after a year or two of residency, said Tom Davis, director of HUD’s Office of Recapitalization.

Warren said Portsmouth’s housing authority could apply for wider-scope grants in the future, possibly for Dale Homes, which it is planning to renovate in mid- to late 2016, or Swanson Homes, which was built in 1941.

“One of the big pieces that we don’t know right now is what programs HUD will offer down the road,” Warren said.

Gilmore, the Lincoln Park resident, said housing projects “don’t make or break nobody. It’s what you want to do for yourself.”

Born in 1942, Gilmore was raised on Virginia Avenue about 3 miles from where Lincoln Park is today in a three-bedroom house with an outdoor latrine. In the late 1960s, she and her husband and children moved into Ida Barbour public housing.

In the early 1990s, she moved to Washington Park with all her grandchildren. They moved to Lincoln Park around 2001.

Gilmore pays $536 a month from her disability check, her deceased husband’s Social Security check, her granddaughter’s disability check and child support. They also each get food stamps, Gilmore said.

She worries about having to move to the back of the complex, which she calls “hell’s hole” because of gambling and drugs, while the authority rebuilds her section of Lincoln Park.

“I don’t want to be way back there,” Gilmore said. She isn’t convinced the Lincoln Park makeover will reduce crime.

“They tore up Jeffry Wilson so the stores wouldn’t get robbed; they’re still getting robbed,” Gilmore said. “A boy got shot over there, so what’s the difference?”

According to crime data, there was a killing less than a quarter of a mile from Seaboard Square, near Interstate 264 and Frederick Boulevard, in recent months and aggravated assaults nearby.

Several Lincoln Park residents shared Gilmore’s skepticism.

“The people that still hang around here still wouldn’t change, so I wouldn’t want to” move back to Lincoln Park, said 20-year-old India Baxter, who has two children. Baxter said she pays $460 a month plus gas and works as a cashier.

Starketa Barrett, 30, grew up in Lincoln Park with her mom, a few apartments down from where she lives now. But she said she wants a Section 8 voucher to get out of Lincoln Park.

“Kids can’t play out here ’cause of drugs; they shoot,” Barrett said. “The counter’s… rotting out; one about to fall on me the other day.”

Newby-Alexander said growing up in the projects has an impact.

“How many of those projects, when you look at the schools, what is the percentage of dropouts?” she asked. “What kinds of businesses are around those projects? How many stores have more alcohol inventory as opposed to healthy food inventory? So to me there is a plethora of issues that encourages poor choices.”

Warren said policies at the new Lincoln Park will change rules for occupancy, giving priority to working people, the elderly and disabled, and those who complete a six-month self-sufficiency program designed to help people complete a GED certificate or get a job.

Tenants will have to sign a good neighbor policy. It calls for school-age children to attend school, requires children under 17 to be supervised between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. and prohibits nuisances such as drug trafficking and public drunkenness, among other rules. Consequences for breaking the rules range from warnings to evictions.

When Portsmouth’s authority tore down Jeffry Wilson and built Seaboard Square, Warren said, the average annual incomes of residents increased from $10,724 to $18,066. And 58 percent of Seaboard Square residents are employed compared with 47 percent of residents at Lincoln Park, she said. Crime incidents decreased from 318 in 2005, before demolition, to 85 in 2014.

“The bottom line on this is we are doing the most with what is offered by HUD and how this site can be developed properly,” Warren said.

Johanna Somers, 757-446-2478, johanna.somers@pilotonline.com

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Lebogang Mashile, whose voice is “wrapped in a ribbon of rhythm”, writes: I turn my weary wounded eyes Inward just to find Ancient hands moulding my story from the inside.

And, of course, that story is collective, it is what nourishes the poetic imagination and the poet’s voice.

That is what makes any poet worth the label a custodian of her or his people’s living memory, a custodian of their story. A people without a living collective memory are bound to be doomed.

A people without a consciousness of where they have come from, which is a crucial aspect of their sense of identity, could not possibly reclaim their history to deploy its vital aspects to chart paths to the future.

It was in that important historical year of 1956 that the people of South Africa abandoned the appeals, petitions and deputations that had characterised ANC protests for more than four decades.

The anti-pass protesters, with the women boldly taking the lead, employed techniques of mass action, strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience.

In the urban areas these campaigns were primarily organised by the ANC Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women.

In the rural areas, resistance was mainly spontaneous. The apartheid regime issued the first reference books to women in the Orange Free State in March, 1956.

This was followed by protests throughout the country. Some 1 200 women protested in Germiston, 2000 in Johannesburg, 4000 in Pretoria, and the list goes on – Bethlehem, Evaton, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cradock, Queenstown.

This degree of popular involvement, along with the level of spontaneous resistance in the rural areas, was unparalleled in any other period of our history.

Then came August 9, 1956. It started, like any other day, without fanfare. However, it was on that day that one of South Africa’s most extraordinary historic events was to unfold.

That morning more than 20000 women from all over South Africa gathered in Pretoria and descended on the Union Buildings to leave a petition bearing 100000 signatures at the door of the apartheid prime minister, challenging the odious pass laws and demanding their political and social rights.

Though the Women’s League seems anaemic these days, in 2006 when there was a call on the women to lead the nation in a commemorative march echoing the 1956 call and salute and honour those who came before, The response was a resounding success.

KEY POINTS

» A people without a living collective memory are bound to be doomed

» A people without a consciousness of where they have come from, which is a crucial aspect of their sense of identity, could not possibly reclaim its history to deploy its vital aspects to chart paths to the future

» 1956 is an important year in our history. It was in that year that the people of South Africa abandoned the appeals, petitions and deputations that had characterised ANC protests for more than four decades

» The anti-pass protesters, with the women boldly taking the lead, employed techniques of mass action, strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience.

» In the urban areas these campaigns were primarily organised by the ANC Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women

Malibongwe! Prof Keorapetse Kgositsile, national poet laureate

The operating license will support the upgrading of the South African railway network from the Northern Cape to the Port of Ngqura, adjacent to the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ.)

In the first R2.3bn phase, a rail infrastructure development project will double sections and introduce new passing loops for 200-wagon trains through a railway line that runs from Coega to Cradock, De Aar, Kimberley and finally Postmasburg reported by Mining Weekly.

The existing manganese at the Port of Port Elizabeth will be relocated to a new facility at the Coega IDZ.

“The decision will strengthen Nelson Mandela Bay’s position as a prime location for investors, especially those with interests in mineral ores and processing plants beneficiating raw minerals for export and downstream manufacturing in the metro,” said Dr Ayanda Vilakazi, CDC Head of Marketing and Communications.

“The manganese container terminal has been one of the fundamental drivers for developing the Port of Ngqura and the Coega IDZ in the first instance.  It will ensure bulk mineral storage and handling facilities at the Ngqura deep seawater port and beneficiation of minerals in the IDZ,” he added.

Dr Vilakazi said Coega and the Port of Ngqura projects were planned and designed as a national strategic growth nodes, promoting economic growth and development in the Eastern Cape through manganese.

In 1910, my mother was born Nancy McAllister in Potchefstroom, a small town in the Transvaal province of South Africa. I realised rather late that she had had a terrible upbringing, which marked her until she died at the age of 90. Her father was an Australian who had come to fight in the Boer war with the Queensland Mounted Infantry. He survived where many died. (I have looked at the rolls.)

After the Boer war, he married my grandmother, but she died in the flu pandemic of 1918, leaving my mother virtually orphaned at the age of 10, as her father was unable to look after her. My mother was looked after sporadically by her auntie Marie, who lived on the farm in Potchefstroom. I can just about remember Auntie Marie, a gentle, well-read woman, doomed to a hand-to-mouth life. She introduced me to Pinocchio, reading by lamplight in a warm Afrikaner accent.

Apparently, my grandfather was benign but no stayer, possibly even a philanderer. He dumped my mother in various schools and the insecurity caused her to plummet from the top of the class, something she told me only a few months before her death in 1990.

Far too late I understood that she had never recovered fully from abandonment, although her sense of loneliness and the pain were alleviated as she grew older by her extravagant beauty. In Cape Town she married my father, a journalist, when she was about 30. I have a picture of their wedding day – she appears to be happy; my father has bad teeth.

My father reported one day that my mother was ill with bronchiectasis, a lung condition, and was offered a choice of living in the dry air of the Karoo or having a lung removed. My brother was already in boarding school, so I was sent to the town of Cradock.

I was five when I was summoned to live with my mother. The air of the Karoo, raspingly dry, was supposed to help her lungs.

We went to live in a hotel. When my brother came on holiday from boarding school in Cape Town for a visit, we both contracted ringworm from the stray cats that hung about in the alley behind the hotel my mother had chosen as her lodging. We had our heads shaved and the unpleasant rings on our scalps were doused in a virulently blue – and virtually indelible – potion. The local swimming pool would not let us in. My mother was outraged. She was starring in a Noël Coward play in the town hall, but even that cut no ice. Her loud complaints embarrassed me.

I did not learn until many years afterwards that my mother had a lover in the Karoo; he wore khaki shorts and had thick golden hair on his legs. He used to sit me on his lap so that I could help him with the steering of his Buick. He took his hands off the wheel for minutes at a time. I seem to remember ostriches running down the road in the headlights.

Once my father came to visit; now I wonder if it was to see what my mother was up to. I was left in the hotel while they went out to another hotel for a drink. I put on my pullover, back to front, and went across town to find them. My father was shocked. He had an idea of himself as rather genteel, and my sudden arrival suggested familial chaos. Harsh words were spoken, which I didn’t understand. Also, he was horrified by the Afrikaans accent I had acquired. He made an attempt to get me to enunciate the vowels clearly in “How now brown cow” and “Round the ragged rocks the ragged rascal ran.”

When my mother decided to stay on in Cradock for another six months – ostensibly for reasons of health – she played tennis, sang in a choir and spent some time on her lover’s farm. My mother seemed, finally, utterly content. I don’t think she was ever as happy again. She took me to be enrolled at the local Catholic school to start my education. The nuns frightened me and I made a run for it, along a cement path and out on to the dusty street, my mother in pursuit. She relented and put me in the local primary school, perhaps remembering her own unhappy years at a convent.

In the 1950s, my father was appointed editor of the Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg and we all moved there. My mother became known for having hit a heckler on the head with her handbag at a political rally in Johannesburg. I was now at school in Cape Town, a 1,000-mile journey, which took 18 hours. I did this journey 40 times during my years at school.

Now my mother contracted breast cancer, and her breast was removed. I don’t think she ever recovered; she saw it as a curse. There was nothing much in the way of palliative care, as far as I could see, and she sank perceptibly into depression. Strangely enough, she was still perfectly happy to have me see her naked in the bath or the bedroom. The scar was awful, a mutilation.

But I deserted her. When I set off for Oxford in the mid-1960s, I more or less neglected my mother. I was completely seduced by Oxford and came back rarely. My father retired soon after and then died while carrying the tea upstairs to my mother, who had become rather querulous and demanding. She moved to an estate of small cottages in the Cape Winelands. I was able to visit her more often, but it wasn’t easy. She went to bed at about 7pm and I could hear her through the walls, laughing at the radio. She also read prodigiously.

One day after a long absence, I came to see her and she had written crudely with a pen the number of her cottage on the whitewashed wall. I was shocked. First, it seemed undignified, and second, I realised – so late – that she was miserably lonely and she was hoping to encourage visitors. I ordered a posh brass house number.

I also took her on drives, one a whole day away to see a friend at her house on a beach 100 miles away. On the journey I discovered that she had few friends on the estate, probably because she scorned the traditional niceties and spoke her mind without fear or favour. She regarded the Mercedes I had hired as showing off. My first mobile phone had the same reaction. Showing off again.

When it was apparent that she was dying, I flew back to Cape Town. She was a husk, almost an outline, of what she had been. She had decided that 90 was old enough. She died on her 90th birthday, as if by strength of mind.

The funeral was shockingly moving. My brother’s bottom lip began to quiver as he read his tribute. I was next, and after his tribute I was barely able to read the poem I had written in her memory. Awkward, direct, critical and selfish – she was all of those things. But she was also an intelligent woman. The early death of her mother and her life with her highly unreliable father had unsettled her. A cloud hung over her for the rest of her life. She told me this a few months before she died. I was overcome with remorse and guilt, as I realised at last that I had never entered fully into her life; for 30 years I saw her only sporadically. My neglect will haunt me for ever.

• Justin Cartwright’s novel Up Against the Night is published on 27 August by Bloomsbury, £18.99. To order a copy for £15.19, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846

The Uitenhage Lion Club flagship service project is back up again after a two term lay off for reasons not under their control.

The winter jersey campaign commenced in 2006 as a result of the high unemployment in the Uitenhage and Despatch communities. This campaign is where school winter jerseys are donated to no fee primary schools only for those children in need.

“Normally donations are handed to the schools at the commencement of the second school quarter for which we will definitely aim for next year,� said Lion President André van Niekerk

The main source of funds raised to make the project a reality is derived from the highly successful Lion Rally which is held in Cradock over the first weekend of December each year. The primary schools which benefitted from the 2015 Lions Winter Jersey Project are Innes, Winterberg, Despatch Primary and Albertyn

THE new board of the South African Post Office has its work cut out to rescue the parastatal from the brink of financial collapse and address its inability to do what it was established for.

The Cabinet announced the new board members on Thursday. New chairman Simosezwe Lushaba was brought in to turn around the Post Office after it was placed under administration in November following a four-month strike that brought mail services to a halt.

The Post Office suffered a net loss of R285m in the first three months of the year, and loses about R100m each month.

In the latest of its many debacles, mail deliveries came to a standstill last week when there was no money to buy fuel for the Post Office’s delivery trucks.

The Congress of the People (COPE) said in a statement on Friday that the lack of money for fuel provided more proof that SA’s post office services were grinding to a standstill.

“We draw attention to the fact that many suppliers had not been paid for a long while,” said COPE spokesman Dennis Bloem. “We have now learnt that all of Siemens’ technical staff in all Post Office sorting centres were retrenched at the end of July. The Siemens sorting machines are now switched off. Siemens had not been paid for a whole year.

“The trust in the SA Post Office has evaporated. Government has allowed it to slide to such an extent that rescue attempts will be made enormously difficult.”

There was nothing the new board could do to save the Post Office when it had no money, and a government bail-out would not resolve the issue, Mr Bloem said.

“How many times was South African Airways bailed out? How many times was Eskom bailed out?” he asked. “The government must honestly tell the people that it has failed.”

However, on Friday the Post Office issued a statement assuring its customers that its fleet of delivery trucks would be up and running on Saturday.

“We assure customers that our operations are running fully following the resolution of the fleet management operational glitch that caused delays in the conveyance of mail,” Post Office acting group CEO Mlu Mathonsi said.

Democratic Alliance spokesman on telecommunications and postal services Cameron Mackenzie said he did not believe Mr Lushaba would be able to turn the Post Office around.

More than 25,000 municipal account statements are lying undelivered at the Cradock post office in the Eastern Cape, and this could have an effect on service delivery, he said.

A group of publishers have vowed to hold the Post Office liable for the effect that its crises have had on their business.

Last year Chris Yelland, owner of magazine publishing company EE Publishers, with nine other publishers, filed a complaint about the Post Office with the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).

The group said it wanted, “Icasa to consider and review its numerous complaints against the South African Post Office and the financial and other damage to the magazine publishing industry caused by its extended failure to meet its licence conditions, and to sanction it accordingly”.

If Icasa rules in their favour in the matter, which is still before the courts, the group would pursue civil claims against the Post Office, Mr Yelland said.

Communication Workers Union general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said the union welcomed the appointment of the new board. “The call for a bail-out will gain momentum because there will be people to account for the money.”

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Cabinet has approved the issuing to Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) of a permanent operating licence to operate the manganese container terminal at the Port of Ngqura, near Port Elizabeth.

This was in line with government priorities relating to Operation Phakisa on growing the country’s oceans economy and would result in relocating manganese operations from the ports of Port Elizabeth and Saldanha to the Port of Ngqura.

Transnet Freight Rail was already in the process of upgrading the railway network from South Africa’s manganese-rich Northern Cape to the Port of Ngqura, to support axle loads of 26 t.

The route would pass through Postmasburg, Kimberley, De Aar and Cradock on the way to South Africa’s newest deep-water harbour.

The R2.3-billion first phase of the railway infrastructure project would involve the doubling of certain sections and the introduction of new passing loops to accommodate 200-wagon trains, operated using high-voltage locomotives.

Portside developments to facilitate the relocation of the existing Port Elizabeth manganese terminal to an enlarged and scalable facility at the Coega industrial development zone (IDZ), situated alongside the Port of Ngqura, were also being undertaken.

There were also private-sector-led plans for a new manganese smelter to be established at the IDZ.

As a deterrent to crime the Sullivan and Surrounds Neighbourhood Watch is calling on residents to establish their own street committees.

Theodore Thomas, secretary of the Neighbourhood Watch, says by establishing street committees residents can play a role in crime prevention.

“We are not saying that by forming a street committee you need to be an active patroller, but to simply be the eyes and ears of the Neighbourhood Watch and police,� he says.

Residents who live in Sullivan Street, Strauss Avenue and Cradock, from the corner of Sonata down to Joe Marks Boulevard towards Bothma Street, are urged to establish their own street committees.

Thomas says by establishing these committees residents get to know one another and look out for each other.

“It is a way for people to socialise and build a relationship with their neighbours. And if something is to happen in the area they would be able to communicate with one another on a more personal level,� he says.

Thomas says through the street committees they hope to create a safer, more friendly environment.

“Residents need to take responsibility for their community and street and show interest in the area they reside if they want to see change. The police and the neighbourhood watches cannot do this alone. We as a collective must take a stand against crime, drugs and gangsterism,� he says.

The function of the street committees will be to watch over their own and their neighbours’ properties, to report suspicious behaviour and to provide information to police.

“If a resident knows that their neighbours are going away for a couple of days they can watch over their property, put out the dirt bin for them, switch on and off the lights if necessary or simply pick up a newspaper dropped in the driveway. All of these actions help to prevent crime and help to stop opportunistic criminals from attempting break-ins,� he says.

Thomas says residents can be assured that they will have the full support of the Neighbourhood Watch as well as the police.

“We want to create an environment which we can all enjoy and call on all interested residents to make contact with the Neighbourhood Watch if they are willing to take this stand – make a difference,� he says.

If you would like to form a street committee call Thomas on 078 052 4751.

As a deterrent to crime the Sullivan and Surrounds Neighbourhood Watch is calling on residents to establish their own street committees.

Theodore Thomas, secretary of the Neighbourhood Watch, says by establishing street committees residents can play a role in crime prevention.

“We are not saying that by forming a street committee you need to be an active patroller, but to simply be the eyes and ears of the Neighbourhood Watch and police,� he says.

Residents who live in Sullivan Street, Strauss Avenue and Cradock, from the corner of Sonata down to Joe Marks Boulevard towards Bothma Street, are urged to establish their own street committees.

Thomas says by establishing these committees residents get to know one another and look out for each other.

“It is a way for people to socialise and build a relationship with their neighbours. And if something is to happen in the area they would be able to communicate with one another on a more personal level,� he says.

Thomas says through the street committees they hope to create a safer, more friendly environment.

“Residents need to take responsibility for their community and street and show interest in the area they reside if they want to see change. The police and the neighbourhood watches cannot do this alone. We as a collective must take a stand against crime, drugs and gangsterism,� he says.

The function of the street committees will be to watch over their own and their neighbours’ properties, to report suspicious behaviour and to provide information to police.

“If a resident knows that their neighbours are going away for a couple of days they can watch over their property, put out the dirt bin for them, switch on and off the lights if necessary or simply pick up a newspaper dropped in the driveway. All of these actions help to prevent crime and help to stop opportunistic criminals from attempting break-ins,� he says.

Thomas says residents can be assured that they will have the full support of the Neighbourhood Watch as well as the police.

“We want to create an environment which we can all enjoy and call on all interested residents to make contact with the Neighbourhood Watch if they are willing to take this stand – make a difference,� he says.

If you would like to form a street committee call Thomas on 078 052 4751