Ben Maclennan
Guest Author
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/ 20 November 2007

‘Freedom fighter’ has a question for Koornhof

Ben Mafani never met Piet Koornhof, who died this week at the age of 82. But he hopes to come face to face with Koornhof in the life hereafter, because he has a question for the apartheid-era Cabinet minister. Mafani wants to know why he, his family, and thousands of other people were forcibly removed from ”white” South Africa three decades ago.

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/ 29 October 2007

Cape Town welcomes winning Boks

Capetonians turned out in their tens of thousands on Monday to salute the victorious Springboks on the final leg of their national victory tour. There were scenes of near-hysteria as the Boks made their way through the city centre in an open-top bus. Businesses shut down, and young and old lined the streets, crammed on to balconies.

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/ 28 October 2007

Cosatu: Alliance won’t survive Mbeki re-election

The tripartite alliance will not survive if Thabo Mbeki is re-elected president of the African National Congress in December, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Sunday. ”A status quo will see the destruction of the alliance itself,” he told what was in essence a Jacob Zuma election rally in Kimberley.

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/ 28 October 2007

Cosatu: Alliance won’t survive Mbeki re-election

The tripartite alliance will not survive if Thabo Mbeki is re-elected president of the African National Congress in December, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Sunday. ”A status quo will see the destruction of the alliance itself,” he told what was in essence a Jacob Zuma election rally in Kimberley.

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/ 15 October 2007

Najwa court hears of blank tapes

The man who sold Najwa Petersen’s family an allegedly encrypted police interview tape is a repeat fraud offender, it emerged on Monday in the Wynberg Regional Court. The tape, which the family believed would help prove her innocence, turned out to be blank, the court heard.

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/ 11 October 2007

I was framed, says Najwa Petersen

Najwa Petersen says she was framed for the murder of her husband, internationally renowned entertainer Taliep Petersen. She made the claim in an affidavit handed in to Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court on Thursday as part of her second bail application, launched on the basis of what her legal team says are ”at least” ten new factors.

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/ 2 October 2007

Surprise move in Lotz murder trial

Murder accused Fred van der Vyver’s legal team has told the Cape High Court it wants him to testify in his own defence. The surprise move came on Tuesday afternoon after the state had already delivered its closing arguments, and Van der Vyver’s advocate Dup de Bruyn had begun his.

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/ 25 September 2007

Richtersvelders back in court

Opposing groups from the Richtersveld community came face to face in the Land Claims Court in Cape Town on Tuesday as the court prepared to weigh up a settlement agreement. The agreement was reached in April this year between the state and the Richtersveld Sida !hub Communal Property Association.

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/ 20 September 2007

New challenge may sour Richtersveld deal

A group of Richtersveld residents is to challenge a settlement agreement with the government when the document goes before the Land Claims Court in Cape Town next week for ratification. The agreement followed a 10-year court battle by the Richtersvelders for the restoration of land taken by the state for diamonds mining.