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/ 22 September 2004
The drop in matric passes at higher-grade level poses a serious dilemma for the Department of Education, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. The department has announced its intention to introduce a single senior-certificate examination and scrap the current distinction between the standard and higher grade.
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/ 22 September 2004
An overwhelming number of South African teenagers are confident about the future of the country, according to preliminary results of a study conducted by the University of Witwatersrand released on Wednesday. The study sought to establish how teenagers view South Africa. More than 2 000 children took part in the study.
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/ 22 September 2004
Nigeria expects about -billion (11,4-billion euros) of investments to be made in the country’s gas sector in the next six years, the head of state-run oil firm NNPC, Funso Kupolokun, said on Tuesday. Nigeria now has total gas reserves of 187-trillion cubic feet.
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/ 22 September 2004
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa was in positive territory in noon trade on Wednesday, helped by a weakening in the rand. By 12h14, the all share and all share industrial indices were up 0,57% and 0,66% respectively. The resources and gold mining indices both rose 0,83% and the platinum mining index jumped 1,58%.
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/ 22 September 2004
Zimbabwe’s information minister has accused the mayor of Bulawayo of lying about food shortages in the country’s second-largest city, where scores of people have reportedly died of hunger. ”There is no food crisis in Zimbabwe. There is no food crisis in Bulawayo,” Moyo was quoted as saying in the state daily The Chronicle.
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/ 22 September 2004
Inflation pressures in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region are expected to subside somewhat on account of sustained policy discipline and improved food-supply conditions in most parts of the subcontinent, the South African Reserve Bank says in its latest quarterly bulletin.
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/ 22 September 2004
The South African banking sector’s overdue loans compare favourably with those of the past and with those in other parts of the world, the South African Reserve Bank says in its latest quarterly bulletin. It says overdue loans are used as early warning indicators for assessing the credit risk run by banks.
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/ 22 September 2004
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has ordered a forensic audit into an auditor-general finding that unknown net debit entries totalling R10-million in the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) 2003/04 annual report were incorrectly accounted for as bank charges.
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/ 22 September 2004
Five convicts who escaped from Westville prison on Monday and were recaptured on Wednesday will face new charges and be moved to a place ”with higher security”. KwaZulu-Natal safety and security minister Bheki Cele said: ”it would be amazing if there was no collaboration” with prison officials in the escape.
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/ 22 September 2004
The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on Tuesday delivered a stern rebuke to nations that ”shamelessly disregard” international law, explicitly chastising the United States, Sudan, Russia, Uganda, Israel and the Palestinians. He also mentioned the human rights abuses in Iraq committed in Abu Ghraib prison by American soldiers.
Annan on Darfur: World must act now