Cape Town —
More Than 1,200 State Properties are Illegally Occupied in South Africa
More than 1,200 properties on the department of public works asset register are flagged as illegally occupied, TimesLIVE reports. The department says 1,260 of its 29,000 properties have been identified as such in its "Operation Bring Back" programme. The department, responsible for state property management, has been tasked with undertaking a government-wide investigation into occupied buildings in South African metros. This follows an inter-ministerial committee meeting related to the recent Marshalltown disaster in which 77 people perished in a burning, occupied state building. Operation Bring Back aims to recover stolen or illegally transferred properties and hijacked buildings; regulate occupancy in state properties through legacy housing policies, and investigate and identify more properties that are illegally occupied.
Cost of Household Food Basket up by 7.3%
South African households are struggling to put nutritious food on the table and the cost of staples such as maize and rice are rising to unsustainable levels, a new food price survey has warned. The Mail & Guardian reports that the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group's (EDJG) Household Affordability Index week, tracked food price data from 47 supermarkets and 32 butcheries in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Mtubatuba and Springbok. In August 2023 the average cost of a household food basket was R5 124.34, an increase of R348.75 (7.3%), from R4 775.59 in August 2022.
Five Die as Bus and Car Collide
Five people were killed in the early hours of Sunday September 3, 2023 after a Greyhound bus ploughed into a sedan motor vehicle at the intersection of the N6 national road and the R702 in Free State province, News24 reports. Road Traffic Management Corporation spokesperson Simon Zwane said: "The bus collided with the VW Polo in a T-bone crash. The five [people] from the car all died on the scene." Police said the bus driver was rushed to the local hospital for treatment of injuries.
