By Lee-Yandra Paulsen Over the weekend, Cape Town and the Western Cape were greeted with a chilly and rainy spell, turning the mother city into a cold and wet haven. In an interview with VOC Breakfast on Monday, COCT Disaster Risk Management spokesperson, Charlotte Powell, discussed the impact of bad weather in the region. “We experienced heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday, but there were no major incidents reported to […]
A ward councillor in Macassar, outside Cape Town, Peter Helfrich, says prolonged power outages in the area have resulted in a dramatic increase in crime. Helfrich says there have been four bodies discovered in the space of a week. He says in the latest incident, the body of a man was found on Macassar Road. Two other bodies have been found on the same road, and the body of an […]
President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his condolences to the government and people of India following a horrific train crash in Odisha that killed more than 250 people and injured hundreds more. At least 288 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a horrific three-train collision in India, officials said on Saturday, the country’s deadliest rail accident in more than 20 years. Wreckage debris was piled high at the crash site near Balasore, […]
Cape Town police have foiled a supermarket robbery and seized firearms and police uniforms. A specialised police team arrested four suspects who tried to rob a supermarket in Langa on Friday. Western Cape police spokesperson Sgt Wesley Twigg said police intercepted the suspects, aged between 30 and 36, after a tip-off and seized unlicensed firearms, ammunition and suspected stolen property. “The members followed up on information received about a business […]
Efforts to curb the spread of cholera continued in Hammanskraal, with various non-profit organisations (NPOs) donating water to the disease-stricken town. The South African Female Biker's Forum visited the area to donate bottled water and hygiene packs for residents. To date, 25 people have died from the waterborne disease, since it was declared an outbreak three weeks ago. Different organisations came out to help the community of Hammanskraal with safe […]
Hundreds of thousands of residents in Japan were urged to evacuate on Friday as tropical storm Mawar brought heavy rain and caused several rivers to overflow. The eye of the storm, which has weakened from a typhoon, was 170 kilometres (105 miles) east of the country's southern Amami island by the afternoon. A non-compulsory evacuation order was issued to more than 410,000 people in Toyota in central Aichi region, as […]
The death toll from the collision of two Indian passenger trains in Odisha state has surged to 288 and more than 850 are injured, a state government official told AFP on Saturday, making the rail accident the country's deadliest in more than two decades. Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, also said that "rescue work is still going on" and there were "a lot of serious injuries", according […]
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said that the emergency Karpowership projects could not exceed five years. The projects have come under heavy opposition and should they get the final go-ahead, will be for a period of 20 years. Ramokgopa said that South Africans could not be burdened with lengthy and costly “generational” contracts. The minister was giving an update on Friday on the implementation of an energy action plan to rid […]
By Lee-Yandra Paulsen South Africa is experiencing a cost-of-living crisis, with skyrocketing food and fuel prices, as well as severe rate hikes, forcing households to make tough decisions. Programme Coordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group, Mervyn Abrahams spoke to VOC Breakfast on Friday about the Household Affordability Index in terms of the food basket for May. “The food basket for the working class now stands at R5,071. […]
VOC became the first Muslim radio station in South Africa when a special events license was granted to the station in Ramadan/January 1995. Subsequent temporary broadcast licenses were granted, permitting the station to broadcast for 24 hours.
