Ben Maclennan
Guest Author
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/ 16 October 2006

Travelgate: 14 plead guilty

Fourteen current and former African National Congress MPs were convicted and fined on Monday after pleading guilty to theft and fraud charges stemming from abuse of parliamentary travel vouchers. The sentencing, carried out in the Cape High Court in terms of plea-bargain agreements with the Scorpions, came only a day ahead of their next scheduled court appearance in the case.

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/ 4 October 2006

Macozoma: SA faces beast with two heads

South Africa faced a beast with two heads — greed and drunkenness for power, business magnate Saki Macozoma said on Tuesday. Macozoma, who is also a member of the African National Congress’s National Executive Committee , was speaking at a Cape Town seminar organised by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.

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/ 19 September 2006

Govt plan for Cape Town a blatant abuse, says Zille

Western Cape provincial minister of local government Richard Dyantyi’s move to change Cape Town’s system of government is a blatant abuse of power with serious implications for South Africa, city mayor Helen Zille said on Tuesday. She was reacting to a letter Dyantyi sent her earlier in the day, announcing that he was considering scrapping the current mayoral committee system.

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/ 16 September 2006

Home affairs reassures Christians on marriage Bill

Home Affairs Department portfolio committee chairperson Patrick Chauke says he will not allow his religious beliefs to interfere with the way he and his committee deal with draft legislation on gay marriages. He was speaking outside Parliament on Saturday, after receiving a memorandum from several thousand Christians to protest against the Civil Unions Bill.

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/ 15 September 2006

FW’s spokesperson beaten, robbed

Former president FW de Klerk’s spokesperson Dave Steward believes he and his wife were ”very lucky” to have emerged relatively unscathed from an armed robbery at their Claremont, Cape Town, home. Steward said on Friday that he and his wife Lanice were attacked as they prepared to reverse out of their garage to visit her elderly parents at 6.15pm on Sunday.

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/ 11 September 2006

Former cricketer alleges malicious prosecution

The fraud trial of former national fast bowler Garth le Roux and his accountant began in Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court on Monday with a claim that he was being prosecuted maliciously. In a plea explanation read into the record by his advocate, Wim Trengove, Le Roux said he had already settled most of the tax issues in the case with the South African Revenue Service.

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/ 7 September 2006

Top SACC man calls for single marriage law

The general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Eddie Makue, has called for a single law governing all forms of marriage, including same-sex unions, rather than the dual legislation proposed by the government. He made the call in an open letter to Parliament’s home affairs and justice portfolio committees.

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/ 5 September 2006

Debate over Mbeki house hots up

Allegations of racism and hate speech flew thick and fast on Tuesday when the National Assembly debated the multimillion-rand private residence being built by President Thabo Mbeki and his wife, Zanele. The debate followed a statement by Minister of Public Works Thoko Didiza.