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/ 16 October 2006

DA urges Eskom to release fraud report

The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday urged Eskom chief executive Thulani Gcabashe to make public the KPMG report on the R129-million fraud scandal at the state electricity utility. Media reports indicate the report has been known by Gcabashe since May, but he and Eskom’s senior management have chosen ”to keep it under wraps,” DA spokesperson Gareth Morgan said.

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/ 16 October 2006

Cash-in-transit guards threaten to strike

Cash-in-transit security guards will go on strike if the government does not take steps to protect them from armed robberies, the Motor Transport Workers’ Union (MTWU) warned on Monday. ”We will not hesitate to strike if something is not done to stop this carnage and murder, thus leaving ATMs empty, and shops and banks stranded,” said MTWU general secretary Emily Fourie.

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/ 16 October 2006

Call for greater cooperation on school discipline

Discipline problems in many schools cannot be solved by departments of education or by teachers working on their own, the president of a teachers’ association on Monday. ”It is, however, essential that the Department of Education should take the lead in beginning to find solutions,” said Dave Balt, president of the Professional Teachers’ Association of South Africa.

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/ 16 October 2006

Respect pedal power

”On yer bike” goes the typically blunt English expression to tell someone to get moving, get out of your face, or simply get lost because of a difference of opinion. I’ve been told to get on my bike in myriad different ways since last week’s column about the department of transport’s brilliant scheme to solve the growing problem of traffic congestion on the N1 Joburg-Pretoria highway.

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/ 16 October 2006

Senior Scorpions advocate denied bail

The Randburg Regional Court refused bail to senior Scorpions advocate Portia Kgantsi on Monday. She was arrested earlier this month for bribery, corruption, extortion and defeating the ends of justice. Key to the magistrate’s decision was Kgantsi having falsely claimed in an affidavit that she had handed in a valid passport when it was in fact an expired passport.

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/ 16 October 2006

Pakistan rocked by doping scandal

Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar’s career has been a mixture of brilliance, frustration and injury, but his latest misdemeanour could well be his last. On Monday, Shoaib and new ball partner Mohammad Asif left Pakistani cricket in a state of shock after they were withdrawn from the Champions Trophy squad in disgrace after testing positive for the steroid nandrolone.

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/ 16 October 2006

Rights groups question Madonna adoption

Human rights groups want Malawi’s courts to review a ruling allowing Madonna to adopt a child from Malawi, an impoverished, Aids-stricken Southern African country, according to one of dozens of organisations involved. Boniface Mandere of Eye of the Child, a local child protection society, told the media on Monday a coalition had banded together.