South Africa

Polokwane - Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele is to honour the country's best heavy vehicle drivers on Friday.

Pretoria - The Producer Price Index in February 2009 has come in at 7.3 percent year on year, which is 1.9 percent lower than January's figure of 9.2 percent year on year, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) announced on Thursday.

Cape Town - South Africa's off-shore environmental protection vessel, the Sarah Baartman, returned to Cape Town Harbour on Thursday from a four-nation transboundary fisheries patrol in South African, Tanzanian, Mozambican and Kenyan waters.

Pretoria - Cabinet has approved the establishment of an Inter-Ministerial Committee to oversee the final preparations for the award of the bid for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Radio Telescope.

Midrand - Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has welcomed the latest OECD report on South Africa, which states that although strides have been made, the country is not fully reaching its potential.

Pretoria - Cabinet supports the policy and strategic direction the Department of Home Affairs is taking with regards to improving service delivery.

Matatiele- Eastern Cape MEC for Agriculture, Gugile Nkwinti handed over a harvester machine to emerging farmers in the Matatiele area today.

Johannesburg - The OR Tambo International Airport will from 1 April start to multi-use terminals in order to process international and domestic flights interchangeably.

Klerksdorp - The emergency services in the North West has received an extra boost with the graduation of 24 students from the emergency care technician training programme from the North West Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) College.

Pretoria - Cabinet has expressed hope that a new Bafana Bafana coach is appointed soon, following the resignation of head coach Joel Santana.

Eastern Cape - The Eastern Cape Department of Transport will from 1 June increase their fees for vehicle licenses and driver's licenses, registrations and number plates.

Pretoria - Medical doctors affiliated to the South African Medical Association (SAMA) and employed in public health facilities are not planning to go on strike.

Pretoria - South Africans across the country will join more than one billion people in 1 000 major cities worldwide in switching off their lights for an hour on Saturday in support of the Earth Hour campaign.

Pretoria - A cleansing and healing ceremony will be performed at Freedom Park on Sunday to mark the return of the spirits of South African activists who died in Zambia during the liberation struggle.

Durban - With just three days to go before the matric exams, the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department has all systems in place to conduct a successful session.