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/ 14 November 2003

Trade-weighted rand stands proudly

Contrary to public pronouncements that the rand’s strength is almost exclusively due to United States dollar weakness, the move of the rand to its best trade-weighted level since July 18 2001 gives the lie to this reason. The trade-weighted rand has strengthened by a massive 26% since its worst level in January this year.

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/ 14 November 2003

Hotter than Potter

When Reverend Graham Taylor finally put his talent to use, he socked the biblical parable way beyond all previously known boundaries. Taylor was a rural vicar who had to sell his motorbike to get his first novel published. Now he’s considered a threat to JK Rowling, writes Martin Wainwright.

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/ 14 November 2003

Show and sell

The ladies of the Rylstone and District Women’s Institute in Yorkshire, England could hardly have known that their story, in the form of the movie Calendar Girls, was going to be the female Full Monty, writes Peter Bradshaw.

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/ 14 November 2003

Jobs that uplift

"My dream of being able to tell strangers: ‘I have a job,’ came true," Maria Gaanbi, a Sowetan resident and single mother, told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>. She is one of about 30 000 people working on a Gauteng public works initiative called the Zivuseni project — a short-term job-creation programme to combat poverty.

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/ 14 November 2003

Oh dear, minister, you fibbed

New details have emerged of the cosy relationship between Walter Senoko, the businessman who paid Mpumalanga public works minister Steve Mabona R1-million, and the minister himself. These details also suggest Mabona was not truthful when he said a fortnight ago that he had been unaware of contracts that Senoko’s company had with his department.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=23521">Mabona official and buddy face arrest</a>

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/ 14 November 2003

M&G overcomes gag

This edition of the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> contains an article on the Steve Mabona saga which a judge barred us from publishing last week. This is after a new attempt to gag the newspaper failed on Thursday.

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/ 14 November 2003

Mabona official and business buddy face arrest

The Scorpions have moved in on Walter Senoko, the businessman involved in a scandal alongside Mpumalanga public works minister Steve Mabona. The elite investigative unit last week issued a warrant of arrest for Senoko, whose company Positing Corporate Underwriters and Insurance (PCUIC) has had contracts with Mabona’s department.

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/ 14 November 2003

West Bank’s bitter harvest

Abdula Yusuf is too afraid to climb the rocky terraces beyond his village and see the damage for himself. ”They’ll kill me,” he said, waving a hand at the container homes on the top of a neighbouring hill. ”If they can do that thing to trees as old as the Roman times, they will not hesitate to do it to me.”