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/ 21 February 2007
Agencies operating under the umbrella of the Department of Trade and Industry will receive R1,7-billion to promote black economic empowerment (BEE) and small-business development, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. Delivering his budget speech to Parliament, he said an additional R380-million will go to the national empowerment fund.
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/ 21 February 2007
The Department of Housing has been allocated R32-billion over the next three years in an attempt to reduce backlogs and fast-track housing delivery. According to the 2007 estimates of national expenditure, tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in Parliament on Wednesday, the department will receive R8,8-billion in 2007/08, R10,5-billion in 2008/09 and 12,5-billion in 2009/10.
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/ 21 February 2007
The Department of Defence’s budget has risen to R25,9-billion to meet the rising cost of peacekeeping operations and the military’s need to beef up its airlift capacity. Tabling his 2007/08 budget in Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said the South African National Defence Force had ”assisted significantly” in helping reduce a number of African conflicts.
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/ 21 February 2007
Spending on dedicated HIV/Aids programmes by national and provincial government departments will exceed R5-billion within the next two years, according to Wednesday’s budget. The Treasury says in its budget review that an additional R1,65-billion has been committed to provinces over the next three years for their Aids-treatment programmes.
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/ 21 February 2007
Prime Minister Tony Blair will on Wednesday announce a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq just as thousands of additional United States troops are arriving there to try to restore order in Baghdad. Blair will make his announcement on the troop pull-out to Parliament in the afternoon, a government source said.
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/ 21 February 2007
Lebanese anti-aircraft guns fired at Israeli warplanes over southern Lebanon on Wednesday, a military spokesperson said, indicating that Lebanon’s army is taking a new assertiveness toward Israel. The Israeli planes had ”violated Lebanese sovereignty, posing a challenge to United Nations Resolution 1701,” the spokesperson said.
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/ 21 February 2007
The South African Parliament is expected to cost R1,07-billion in 2007/8, with constituency allowances for MPs showing the largest spike. Constituency support will cost R188-million in 2007/8 — up from R105-million in 2006/7, while the estimated allocation for 2008/9 rises to R202-million.
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/ 21 February 2007
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has unveiled personal-tax cuts totalling R8,4-billion across all income brackets in the budget for the 2007/08 financial year. The relief, which is being implemented through upward adjustments to all of the income-tax bracket levels, has been made possible by the R29-billion in revenue overruns experienced in the current 2006/07 financial year.
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/ 21 February 2007
Priority crimes are still too common, Gauteng provincial minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia said on Wednesday in announcing a second Operation Iron Fist. ”Specific types of violent crime remain at unacceptable levels, especially house robberies and business robberies,” Cachalia said in elaborating on Premier Mbhazima Shilowa’s state of the province address two days ago.
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/ 21 February 2007
Whoever is head of state and president of South Africa in 2009/10 will receive an estimated income of R1,3-million a year, according to the estimates of national expenditure released on Wednesday. President Thabo Mbeki received remuneration of R1,18-million in the 2006/07 financial year.