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/ 12 October 2006
South African President Thabo Mbeki has dismissed as ”mischief” suggestions that he was involved in arms-deal corruption. In the National Assembly on Thursday the president was asked by United Democratic Movement president Bantu Holomisa about ”repeated insinuations” that he had been involved in meetings with arms-deal bidders ”at a critical time of the tender process” involving South Africa’s arms deal.
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/ 12 October 2006
Opposing views regarding a possible change in the type of governance of the city of Cape Town — the only metro area in the country ruled by parties other than the national ruling African National Congress (ANC) — have the potential to evolve into an intergovernmental dispute, says Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi.
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/ 12 October 2006
If South African President Thabo Mbeki had met high-ranking executives of a French arms company — when he was still deputy president — that would not have been problematic, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Thursday. Asked why the president was himself not responding to the questions arising about this possible meeting, Erwin said he was ”sure the president will address that”.
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/ 11 October 2006
The imposition of quotas on Chinese textiles "is going to present challenges" to the South African Revenue Services (Sars), its commissioner Pravin Gordhan told Members of Parliament on Wednesday. He said South Africa had, in terms of the memorandum of understanding with China, taken the responsibility "for controlling the quota".
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/ 10 October 2006
The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) involvement in the new national lottery operator, Gidani, has come under fire from Independent Democrats (ID) chief whip Avril Harding in Parliament. In a member’s statement to the National Assembly, Harding said despite its strong objections to the lottery, Cosatu has emerged as one of the major shareholders in Gidani.
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/ 10 October 2006
The rail parastatal, Spoornet, could not become just a "two-commodity business" — focusing on its iron and coal lines — and that was why it was focusing a lot of money on the general freight business, Transnet group chief executive Maria Ramos said on Tuesday.
South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) — which runs about half of the municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal and holds seats in the African National Congress-led government in that province — has warned against ”the peril of complacence” in face of the danger of South Africa descending into a one-party state.
If he had the money, he would sue the Sunday Times for the story ”ANC chief in R50m get-rich-quick deal”, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) head of the Presidency Smuts Ngonyama said on Monday. Speaking on Tim Modise’s show on Cape Talk 567/Radio 702, he said: ”I see they don’t say how many shares were given to me and how many shares were sold … ”
The licence to operate the national lottery has been awarded to Gidani, Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa announced on Wednesday. Mpahlwa told journalists in Pretoria — at a briefing beamed to Parliament in Cape Town — that it had a significant black economic empowerment component and government was a 20% shareholder.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni says the bank has had a strategy meeting at which the matter of de-linking the mortgage system from prime interest rates was discussed. This emerged in question time at a meeting with trainee accountants in Cape Town on Monday.