South Africans choose armed response over police: Report
People are increasingly relying more on armed response services than on the police to keep them safe, according to a report on Friday (20/01/2012).
Fury over death at clinic
A YOUNG Uitenhage woman died after waiting eight hours for treatment at a Uitenhage clinic while nurses “took tea breaks and gossiped”.
Action after man dies waiting for ambulance
THE Eastern Cape Health Department has taken disciplinary action against an emergency vehicle dispatcher after a Kwazakhele man died last week following a five-hour wait for an ambulance.
Another grisly find as workers discover skull under floorboards
WORKERS were shocked to discover a human skull while renovating a house in King William’s Town yesterday afternoon.
‘Flawed’ driver demerit plan dusted off
THE Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is forging ahead with plans to roll out the controversial road traffic demerit system nationwide – despite legislation allowing it to do so being flawed.
Serbian declared prohibited person
Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric, who fled his home country to avoid a 35-year prison sentence for the murder of warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, has been declared “a prohibited person”.
ANC retains majority in East Cape wards
The ANC retained its majority in two wards in the Eastern Cape where by-elections were held on Wednesday (18/01/2012), party spokesman Jackson Mthembu said on Thursday (19/01/2012).
Reserve Bank leaves repo rate unchanged
The SA Reserve Bank has left the repo rate unchanged at 5.5 percent, governor Gill Marcus said on Thursday (19/01/2012).
Giraffe calf dies in poaching snare
A BABY giraffe has died in a snare in the latest of a string of poaching outrages on a private game reserve near Uitenhage. The 2005ha reserve Doornkom is owned by botanist Swede Leif Johansen, formerly an ardent hunter, who invested here after falling in love with this part of the world, reserve manager Wayne Rudman explained yesterday (January 18 2012).
Criminals feel sting as Green Scorpions strike
THE Eastern Cape green scorpions have struck fiercely, immobilising a variety of eco-crimes across the province. Sixolile Makaula, spokesman for the provincial department of economic development, environmental affairs and tourism, said their law enforcement or Green Scorpions’ unit had achieved successes over the festive season, across eight different compliance sectors.
Bay residents urged to conserve energy
THE Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has asked residents from Kragga Kamma, Westering and Sunridge Park to reduce electricity consumption.
Backup plane used to shadow Zuma
A backup plane was chartered to shadow President Jacob Zuma’s jet during his recent visit to the United States, the department of defence said on Thursday (19/01/2012).
Bay more violent than Joburg, says study
YOU are more likely to be murdered in the Bay than in Johannesburg, once considered the murder capital of the world. This is according to a Mexican report which ranks Nelson Mandela Bay as the 41st most dangerous city in the world. Johannesburg is 50th.
Kruger flood traps tourists
A NIGHT game drive in the Kruger National Park turned into a nightmare when torrential floods left a group of holiday-makers stranded at a picnic site.
Baby giraffe dies in snare
A BABY giraffe has died trapped in a snare, the latest in a string of poaching outrages on a private game reserve near Uitenhage.
Mannya lays down the law
EASTERN Cape education boss Modidima Mannya warned his staff yesterday to cooperate fully with other government officials and monitoring teams during their visits to the province’s schools.
Eastern Cape school one of world’s top learning centres
A QUEENSTOWN school is one of the best in the world, according to a global list.
EC teachers on go-slow
BARELY a week into the school year, thousands of Eastern Cape teachers aligned to Sadtu are on a go-slow protest, disrupting teaching and further compromising education in the worst-performing province in the country.
‘Bonus saga worse than Hansie scandal’
CRICKET’S bonus controversy is worse than the Hansie Cronje scandal and may have cost the sport as much as R12-million in lost sponsorship, according to a former president of Cricket SA.
Policeman gunned down in front of wife, children
A KWADWESI policeman died after being gunned down in cold blood at his home in front of his horrified wife and children.
Drunk driver wins court case on a technicality
A UITENHAGE man who was convicted twice last year on drunk- driving-related charges, will get his licence back four years earlier than he expected after the Grahamstown High Court ruled he should be treated as a first offender.
ANC councillors killed in crash
THREE ANC councillors died instantly and others were seriously injured when the minibus taxi they were travelling in overturned on the R72 road in Alexandria at the weekend.
Sports Minister in sex scandal
Married Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula – who last night celebrated his 40th birthday with a lavish party in Pretoria – is embroiled in a nasty spat with a former lover.
New broom to sweep Bay metro clean
ALL eyes will be on Nelson Mandela Bay’s new acting municipal manager, Themba Hani, who, over the next three months, is expected to rid the city’s administration of undue political influence – something his predecessor, Elias Ntoba, failed to do.
Kabuso report: Why heads should roll
HERALD reporter Brian Hayward explains in a nutshell the most controversial issues exposed in the 175-page forensic report.
Secrets brought to light from letters
TWO projects singled out by Local Government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane when he finally made public the Kabuso report yesterday are laid bare in secret letters to political bigwigs and confidential special investigations attached in the report’s annexures.
MEC vows to ‘clean up the rot’
AFTER a turbulent fortnight in Nelson Mandela Bay politics, mayor Zanoxolo Wayile and his boss, Local Goverment MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane, came out guns blazing yesterday, vowing to clean up the rot which has pushed the city’s administration to the brink of collapse.
Another attack at festering Arlington
ANOTHER knife attack has occurred at Arlington Waste Disposal Site. The attack, which took place on Saturday afternoon, comes amid calls by the DA for an investigation into the chaotic state of the site and questionable swopping of contractors.
Schoenies otter takes fishing lessons
IT’S one of the iconic wild animals of the metro’s open spaces, but it’s not often seen – certainly not clambering onto the rocks right under your feet. But that was the experience of fishing buddies Gavin Curtis and Stuart Duckenfield who were trying their luck with light tackle and pilchards at Schoenies yesterday (August 10 2011).
Cause and effect of climate change explained
SO HOW to communicate the complexity and magnitude of climate change to youngsters from a little school in Zwide? The kids, in grades six and seven at Mzimhlophe Primary School, were given the answer to this question during their visit to the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre (Samrec) yesterday (August 03 2011).
R1.5-million farming venture will fit Eastern Cape to a tea
THE Eastern Cape government has set aside R1.5-million to kick-start an expanded honeybush tea industry that could be ramped up to produce a turnover of R100-million a year and hundreds of new jobs. The good news follows on the results that have emerged from a study of the honeybush industry, commissioned by the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) on behalf of the provincial economic development and environmental affairs department.
Snowed-in guards airlifted to safety
NINETEEN stock-theft guards stationed on the top of the Drakensberg have been plucked to safety as heavy snow presses in on their lonely outposts. The guards are housed alone or in pairs in 10 shipping containers, at key points along the Lesotho border with the north-eastern Eastern Cape, in the Rhodes area.
Algoa Bay the best monitored in all of Africa
ALGOA Bay is now “the best monitored bay in Africa” with millions of rands worth of equipment installed below the surface measuring a wide range of environmental conditions. That was the proud revelation yesterday (July 28 2011) from SA Environmental Observation Network (Saeon) co-ordinator Shaun Deyzel, who was speaking at a marine science symposium hosted by SA National Parks, at the Addo Elephant National Parks.
Mantis in new Nigeria deal
PORT Elizabeth based tourism group Mantis Collection has announced a bold expansion into West Africa with a landmark, multi-million US dollar deal signed in PE yesterday (July 25 2011) to roll out a sumptuous suite of boutique hotels in Nigeria. Mantis founder Adrian Gardiner signed the deal at Shamwari Townhouse in Summerstrand with highly respected Nigerian businessman Nze Chidi Duru, who is the chairman of Abuja-based Grand Towers Plc. The Nigerian company has interests in the pension, banking, retail, communications, IT and hospitality sectors.
Surf event sets greening benchmark
BILLABONG Pro J-Bay is setting a benchmark for international surfing contests with a comprehensive programme to protect the local environment and combat global climate change.
Karoo farmers take their fracking probe to Jo’burg oil summit
A SMALL Karoo farmers’ association is so concerned about fracking, and damning new evidence out of the US, it is funding the R10000 bill demanded for a four-day oil and gas conference in Johannesburg, to allow one of its members to attend.
Swell job for man with decades of experience
WITH the small waves prevailing yesterday (Sunday July 17 2011) for the Billabong Pro J-Bay, all surfing mojos are focused on the second week of the contest and the swell that, it is hoped, will still set things on fire. The man with un-paralleled expertise in this department is contest director Eric Stedman, 54, who has been scanning synoptic charts, fiddling with barometers and assessing wind direction since he was a grommit back in East London in the 1960s. It also helps that he began surfing Jeffreys Bay 43 years ago.
New official whale watching operator launch in the bay
ALGOA Bay’s first boat-based boat-based whale-watching operation in a decade has been officially launched – and already some exciting sightings are being reported. Lloyd Edwards of Raggy Charters, the company awarded the boat-based whale watching (BBWW) license for Algoa Bay, said yesterday (July 14 2011) he spotted the cow and calf pair of southern right whales off Algorax earlier this week.
Unique source of Bay water
HOW many cities in the world can say they get their water from a World Heritage Site? Very few, I bet. Yet, that’s the case with Port Elizabeth and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and in fact the Gamtoos River Valley vege farmers.
Super surf contest starts at J-Bay
THE latest edition of one of the great global surfing contests, built around an iconic right-hand point break, was launched in Jeffreys Bay last night (Wednesday July 14 2011).
Bayworld raggies returned to the ocean
THE biggest baddest pair from Bayworld’s de-commissioned aquarium, two bulky raggedtooth sharks, were released yesterday (July 26 2011) back into the sea. It was a sad day for the oceanarium, where they have lived for nearly two decades, inspiring awe in hundreds of thousands of visitors – but it is good news for the species, as the pair are now part of a research project aimed at securing our waters as one of the few safe havens in the world for raggies.
PE man’s abduction terror
A FRANTIC six-hour search for a disabled Nelson Mandela Bay businessman, who was abducted by robbers from his Beverley Grove townhouse early yesterday morning, ended after a pedestrian discovered the bound, beaten and traumatised victim near Uitenhage.
Unique study of great whites
A UNIQUE study into the abundance, distribution and movement of great white sharks in Algoa Bay, sponsored by the metro, has been launched. There has never been a fatal shark attack in Algoa Bay, but the metro has committed the R800000 grant as a pro-active step, taken in line with their marketing of Port Elizabeth as “the watersports’ capital of Africa”, researcher Dr Matt Dicken explained yesterday (June 21 2011).
Girl crushed by jungle gym sues metro for R3.5m
SEVEN years after a rusty jungle gym fell on her, leaving her permanently disabled and badly scarred, an Algoa Park teen is fighting a R3.5-million legal battle for damages and justice. Lucindy Hendricks, now 19, went from being a happy, lively 12-year-old to a partially paralysed girl who now battles to get up the 50 steps to her mother’s flat.
Dairy farm could close soon
BUSHY Park Dairy Farm, a flagship “proudly Port Elizabeth” business and a much-loved feature of the metro for the past 20 years, is facing closure. The shock news was confirmed yesterday (June 21 2011) by managing trustee Puffer Hartzenberg, who was responding to unconfirmed reports about the matter.
Refurbished Skead book published
A NEW book aimed at celebrating our natural heritage and guiding sound future conservation policy has been published in Port Elizabeth. Historical Incidence of the Larger Land Mammals in the Broader Western and Northern Cape (including the Eastern Cape as far east as Sundays River) is a complete re-furbishment – with summaries, maps, illustrations and two new chapters – of the original work of the same name by legendary naturalist Dr Jack Skead, who died in 2006.
Co-op sponsors two farmers on US mission
TWO Karoo farmers have flown out of PE on a ground-breaking mission to the US, to get the low-down on fracking, in the country where it all began.
Link Refit to electric cars proposal
IF WE CAN link Refit with electrical motorcars – then we could really be onto something. Speaking to The Herald yesterday (June 14 2011), department of environmental affairs deputy-director general for climate change, Peter Lukey, said the scheduled launch this month of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (Refit), will likely lead to significant positive change.
Exciting reforestation project underway in Transkei
AN UNUSUAL re-forestation and carbon sequestration project is underway in the heart of the old Transkei, where savage erosion is a common feature. The R7600000 project is being run as a partnership between the Congress of Traditional Leaders’ of South Africa (Contralesa), the national department of environmental affairs and a Johannesburg-based company called Carbon Worx.
EC investment boost to counter climate change
EASTERN Cape economic environment MEC Mcebisi Jonas yesterday announced significant new green economy investment to boost green economy skills in the province.
Branch recalls fascinating career
FOR world-renowned reptile and amphibian expert Dr Bill Branch, who retired this week from Bayworld after 32 years employment there – it all began in 1969, on the shores of a lake in East Africa.
Green electricity programme set to launch this month
GOVERNMENT will this month launch the long-awaited Refit programme that will make funding available to pay private energy entrepreneurs who will generate their own green electricity and sell it to the grid.
EC leads climate change battle
THE Eastern Cape government has declared its intention to lead from the front in the war against climate change, with a landmark multi-benefit project agreement signed at the Eastern Cape Climate Change Conference in East London yesterday (June 08 2011).
Climate change conference
EVERYONE change – a milestone Eastern Cape climate change conference, featuring senior political leaders and climate change experts, is set to start in East London today (Wednesday May 8). The Eastern Cape Climate Change Conference will focus on the strategy document that has been prepared by local role-players, and will look towards the UN’s Cop17 summit, the international climate change indaba in Durban in December
‘Plenty of power for smelter,’ says CDC
BLACK-out fears notwithstanding, there is more than enough electricity for the megawatt-hungry Coega manganese smelter, according to the Coega Development Corporation (CDC). CDC communications’ chief Senzeni Ndebele was responding this week to concerns expressed about the power demands of the smelter and how this will affect Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality residents and existing businesses.
Motherwell eco-schools big recipients
TWO Motherwell “eco-schools” were the recipients this week of tens of thousands of rands worth of equipment and furniture to help them learn better. The 26 maths and reading software packages, 100 desks and 200 chairs were donated by ABB after the power and automation giant participated last year in a Wessa eco-schools’ workshop in PE.
Pollution plume off the beachfront raises concerns
A STRANGE-looking plume of discoloured water has been appearing sporadically in the bay between Shark Rock Pier and Humewood Beach, resulting in a number of calls from concerned residents, Following an initial report on May 20 by Humewood resident Elize Pretorius, and then disappearing for several days, it reappeared again this week, prompting further calls.
Put the environment on agenda of new councils
Concerns over Ngqura oil leak ‘unfounded’
CONCERNS have been raised that the oil and gas exploration rig in Port of Ngqura could be leaking oil into the bay. Both the Norwegian company that owns the ultra-deepwater drilling rig and the harbour authorities have rejected as unfounded the concerns raised by environmental group Ocean Messengers.
Ball of fire not the beginning of the end.
Was it a bird? Was it a plane? Was it a comet hurtling to Earth in delayed fulfillment of Harold Campling’s doomsday prophesy? Well, no. In fact, it was the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttle Endeavour, catching the last rays of the setting sun.
Ngqura a fish magnet
THE Port of Ngqura has become an extraordinary magnet for marine life, and could point the way to an important new role for harbours, according to Bayworld marine biologist and shark specialist Dr Matt Dicken.
Stately emperor pays family a flying visit
THERE are moths and there are moths – and then there is the pine tree emperor, one of the giants of the insect world. Gorgeous yellow in colour and “easily the size of a man’s hand”, one of these moths swooped into a Seaview home the other night.
Endangered forest clearing probed
A SWATHE of critically endangered forest and new generation legislation formulated to combat climate change are at the centre of a confrontation in Deer Park. The forestry department has slammed as “reckless and malicious” the clearing of the area, which is over 100m long by on average 4m wide.
Male in search of good life turns up at beachfront
HE WAS a prickly customer – but in the end he came quietly. It was Patrick Mange, the cleaner and gardener at beachfront flatblock Bandle, next to the Beach Hotel, who found him.
EC operators performs strongly at Indaba
THE Eastern Cape has fared well at the Indaba tourism conference and expo in Durban, taking gold in two different categories in the main Welcome awards and only just falling short in the Eteya emerging tourism operators’ awards. The Welcome Awards winners are both from PE and are both family-owned businesses: the Plantation, the wedding, functions’ and accommodation venue on the Sardinia Bay road, and Economic Cars and Bakkies, the 20-year-old Walmer-based car rental firm.
Call for leaders in tune with Nature
A CLARION call for “personal and ecological leadership” was issued at a biodiversity celebration function at Kirstenbosch on Thursday night.
Botanical vision for PE’s parks
NELSON Mandela Bay will soon have its own Kirstenbosch, creating the possibility for a major upswing in environmental protection, tourism and job creation.
NMMU microscope a global break-through
NMMU has been catapulted into the forefront of nanoscience research with the arrival of a state-of-the-art custom-built microscope from Japan. The high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) is the first of its kind that has been sold commercially outside of Japan and the last of a suite of four electron microscopes, costing a total R90-million, that have arrived in the past week from Tokyo manufacturer JEOL and a second manufacturer in The Netherlands.
‘Port guards like the Stasi’
FOREIGN tourists yesterday compared guards at the Port Elizabeth Harbour to the dreaded Stazi security police of East Germany, following an incident in which their driver was manhandled, forcibly detained and then bundled off to Humewood Police Station. The incident happened yesterday morning as the tourists, a group of five Russians and a Belgian, were about to enter the harbour at its southern entrance, headed for a day diving excursion in Algoa Bay with local dive company Expert-Tours.
How to rejuvenate Baakens River Valley
I WAS chatting to permaculture activist and leading member of Transition Network PE Naomi Suzane the other day, and she came with a great idea of how to secure, rejuvenate and celebrate the Baakens Valley. We kicked her idea around, and this is how it turned out.
Dad’s call following son’s death
SIMON Swart started drugging in his early teens and he had been through 15 rehabilitation centres before he died, alone in his room in a backpacker lodge in Central, a fortnight ago. But there was much more to this young man.
Nuclear moratorium call
THE concern group challenging the Thyspunt nuclear reactor has called on government to place a moratorium on all nuclear development in South Africa until the full extent of the Fukushima disaster is known. The call by the Thyspunt Alliance – a broad coalition of residential, cultural, environmental, tourism, fisheries, business and surfing interests in the Oyster Bay, St Francis, Humansdorp and Jeffrey’s Bay area – co-incides with the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, the historic nuclear melt-down in Ukraine.
Major show jumping event scheduled for PE
PORT Elizabeth has been named as a host city for a world show-jumping championship qualifier event, sparking great excitement in the show-jumping fraternity, and the promise of an energising mid-Winter injection of tourist revenue. The event will be attracting the country’s top jumpers, so it is being celebrated in horsey circles – but it is much more than that, event co-ordinator Tanya Radke said yesterday.
Oceanarium seals readied for departure
HOW do you transport eight seals to Pretoria? That’s the preoccupation right now of Bayworld’s oceanarium team, as the relocation of their animals moves ahead.
Chumming fines co-incide with issuing of whale permit
NELSON Mandela Bay Municipality has issued four fines to marine tourism operator Lloyd Edwards related to the controversial chumming incident off Humewood Beach last month. The issuing of the fines at the Port Elizabeth beach office on Friday co-incides with the issuing this week of the long-awaited boat-based whale watching (BBWW) license for Algoa Bay – to Edwards.
Tiny wild cats all set for a long journey
TWO rare, pint-size wild cats are due to be begin a long journey this weekend from the Eastern Cape to Denmark, to join a captive breeding programme to add vital resilience to their gene pool. Black-footed cats are the second smallest wild cat in the world behind the rusty spotted cat of India and Sri Lanka.Counts are difficult because of its nocturnal, highly secretive behaviour, but it is estimated that there are only 10000 of them left in the wild.
Packed halls hear Attenborough
AN ESTIMATED 2000 people gathered at NMMU on Monday night to listen to a seminal address by celebrated Nature documentary film-maker Sir David Attenborough, 84. The audience packed the university’s main auditorium to watch him live on stage, as well as into two other satellite auditoriums, also at the Port Elizabeth stadium, and a hall at the George campus, where they watched his screened address.
Sir David reveals Eastern Cape connection
AN OLD university chum was one of the reasons famous natural history documentary maker, celebrity broadcaster and “hero of our time” Sir David Attenborough was so pleased to get an invitation to come to Port Elizabeth. Speaking yesterday to The Herald at the beachfront hotel where he is staying at the invitation of NMMU before the honorary doctorate due to be bestowed on him today, Sir David explained that one of his good friends when he was studying at Cambridge in the 1940s was Patrick Niven.
PE rhinos dehorned to foil poachers
IN A milestone event yesterday, the horns of the two rhino at Kragga Kamma Game Park were surgically removed, to make them safe from the threat of poachers. The outrage of rhino poaching was brought home as top wildlife vet Dr William Fowlds knelt by the anaesthetised mother rhino and used a chainsaw to remove her enormous horn, while her eight- week-old calf trotted around her, whimpering piteously.
Say no to Mthombo
WE HAVE reached a development T-junction. We can either accept, without thinking, the proposed R80-billion oil refinery, Project Mthombo, without an environmental impact assessment having been done – never mind Durban South and the pollution there, never mind scrutinising that extraordinary 18500 permanent jobs’ promise by our premier.
Minister delays mine appeal decision
MINERAL Resources’ Minister Susan Shabangu has told Pondoland opponents of a titanium dune mining project that she needs another month to consider their appeal against the Xolobeni coastal dune mining project. Shabangu had been scheduled to announce this week her decision on the appeal by the Amadiba Crisis Committee, which is based on the alleged failure of the applicant mining company to properly consult on the project with either residents of the area or the king and queen of Pondoland.
Farewell (for now) to Bayworld oceanarium
BAYWORLD’S oceanarium is set to close at the end of this month to prepare for the de-commissioning of the 43-year-old dolphin pool and the transfer of 24 penguins and nine seals to Pretoria Zoo. It’s all part of “operation stop the bleed” in which Port Elizabeth’s much loved museum and oceanarium complex has had to make some tough decisions in order to deliver, hopefully, long-term bounty.
Get out the Karoo, farmers tell Shell
ANGRY residents of the Middleburg area have called for Shell to “get out the Karoo” after the company failed to guarantee the security of their water if fracking goes ahead. Addressing Shell representatives at a hall in Middelburg’s Grootfontein Agricultural College in a hall packed with farmers in T-shirts saying “Don’t Frack with our Karoo,” members of the audience asked repeatedly if the multi-national could “guarantee no risk to our water”.
Municipality pledges to probe fracking
CHRIS Hani District Municipality is set to do what Treasure the Karoo Action Group is hoping the national government will still decide is necessary. The step? To appoint a team of experts to investigate fracking, the controversial drilling method Shell wants to use to explore for and extract gas from shale beds deep beneath the Karoo
Sundays River road project scrutinised
THE department of water affairs says it will be investigating the bridge-broadening project at Sunday’s River because the national roads agency should not be working on the bank or extracting water from the river without a permit. Mcamile Dweni, a scientist in the department of water affairs’ Port Elizabeth office, was responding yesterday to questions about the project and reports that a work team contracted by the agency is piling sand on the bank next to the existing bridge, and water is being extracted from a spot up-river.
School’s winds of change
A HUMBLE little Port Elizabeth school claimed a momentous first yesterday with the installation of a wind turbine and a linked borehole on their grounds. The 12m turbine has been established at Settlers’ Park Primary School in Walmer, and the power it generates drives a pump that draws water from an adjacent borehole.
Quarry a scar in fynbos valley
THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) has called on the Green Scorpions to investigate a Parson’s Vlei stone quarry project which, they say, is flouting several key metro conservation and development plans. The controversy over the project has erupted, ironically, a few days after the metro’s celebration of its bio-regional plan. The milestone plan seeks to chart a path for sustainable development by overlaying conservation and development needs.
Hospitality takes off in Eastern Cape
THIRTY young people from the Eastern Cape have been given the chance of a lifetime to enter the hospitality trade, in a new partnership programme funded by the government. The programme was officially launched this week in Bathurst and Grahamstown, where a section 21 company, Hospitality Youth Initiative (HYI). has been based for eight years.
Radio activity comtamination concern surfaces around fracking plan
KAROO anti-frackers are calling for the authorities to take note of the latest findings in America that fracking could be contaminating drinking water supplies with radio activity. The findings stem from an investigation by the New York Times and were reported in that newspaper on Friday. The findings include that waste water produced by fracking wells often absorbs radio activity from naturally occurring minerals underground like uranium.
NMMU to lead coastal study
NMMU and the national environment department signed an agreement yesterday which gives the Eastern Cape a unique opportunity to contribute to government’s coastal and marine policy. The department has traditionally enjoyed a strong relationship with UCT because of the focus on fisheries on the west coast.
Laying ore dust to rest
HAS anyone ever wondered how the importers of our manganese ore deal with the air pollution that Transnet and the mining companies seem so completely unable to deal with here in Port Elizabeth? Well, in South Korea, at Hyundai Steel in Incheon, imported manganese and iron ore goes straight from the ship into giant domes.
Strange beaching due to severe ‘upwelling’
HUNDREDS of mysterious Smith’s swimming crabs , have beached themselves at Cape Recife, apparently trying to escape from severe “upwelling” in the bay.
Algoa Bay is host each summer to classic examples of upwelling, which follows on strong and prolonged onshore winds that fold the waves back upon themselves and draw up icy water from the lower depths, wildlife and environment society conservation officer Morgan Griffiths explained.Reports indicate the crabs have been washing up for over a week on Recife’s beacon beach, which runs along the northern side of the cape. But by Monday, the piles of pink and orange carcasses had grown still further.
Nieu Bethesda farmers count flood costs
IT COULD take some farmers in Nieu Bethesda a decade to get back to where they were before the flood that hit them Saturday. That’s the word from the mountainous catchment area north of Graaff-Reinet, where well over 100mm of rain fell in 24 hours, flooding the Gats River and all its tributaries, flattening stock fences, stripping roads to bedrock and bursting farm dams.
Herdsmen key to leopard solution
BRING back herdsmen en force to save the leopard, minimise livestock losses – and create jobs. That was the win-win-win solution presented yesterday by respected researcher Dr Quinton Martins who was speaking at a leopard management workshop at East Cape Training Centre in PE, hosted by the Eastern Cape department of economic development and environmental affairs (Dedea).
Fracking Karoo might need trillions of litres of water
IF fracking applicants gets the go-ahead in the Karoo, South Africa’s arid heartland faces the prospect of hundreds of thousands of wells using trillions of litres of water, a lawyer representing the anti-fracking lobby said yesterday. Graaff-Reinet attorney Derek Light, who is representing some 250 landowners, individuals and interest groups said information from the US environmental protection agency on the fracking industry there indicates up to 80000 wells could be sunk in a 30000ha zone.
Keen young swimmers missing out on premier event
ABOUT a hundred eager young swimmers from Port Elizabeth’s northern and township areas will miss out on what is considered to be the highlight event of their sporting year.
Matric Results – See the PDFs
Pupils and parents flocked to Newspaper House to snap up The Herald Matric Results supplement. Now we make available to you pdfs of the supplement pages.
Article source: http://www.peherald.com/news/article/4539
