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/ 21 November 2005
African governments and the African Union have been petitioned by more than 150 international rights groups to act on the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Earlier this year President Robert Mugabe’s government drew flak over its Operation Murambatsvina, which a United Nations special envoy report said destroyed the homes of up to 700 000 people.
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/ 4 November 2005
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) has asked Parliament’s portfolio committee on arts and culture urgently to intervene in its increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the Department of Arts and Culture. The call was made by NFVF CEO Eddie Mbalo during a presentation of the foundation’s annual report.
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/ 4 November 2005
Massively increased levels of public investment lie at the heart of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s plans for accelerated and shared economic growth. But its ambitious 6% target for economic growth has been scaled back to 4,5%, at least for the next five years. The 6% growth mark is seen as being attainable only between 2010 and 2014.
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/ 28 September 2005
The threat of violence in Nigeria’s volatile oil-producing Niger Delta has escalated after police said they would charge Moujahid Dokubo-Asari of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force with treason. Thousands of Shell employees at the company’s operations in the city of Port Harcourt vacated their workstations as a safety precaution, the company announced recently.
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/ 24 September 2005
The other day I saw a fat, white kid in the international departure hall at Johannesburg airport. His straining T-shirt had three broad hoops of colour across it: orange, white and blue. On his belly the flags of the Transvaal Republic, Orange Free State and Cape Colony bulged out of shape
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/ 16 September 2005
Smuts Ngonyama, who heads the Presidency in the African National Congress, intervened with government regulators to smooth the way for Bato Star, a fishing company in which his family — and allegedly he — holds interests. The company was struggling for permission for its newly purchased trawler, the Sandile, to fish in South African waters, and Ngonyama arranged the meeting between Bato Star and government officials.
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/ 14 September 2005
Condoms everywhere, the stink of latex … thousands of them rolling off the machines like sausages. From its nondescript factory south of Johannesburg, Latex Surgical Products makes about 200Â 000 condoms every day. Jeffery Hurwitz, the factory’s MD, showed the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> the ins and outs of making a condom.
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/ 9 September 2005
Telkom has dropped a R5-million damages action against Gregg Stirton’s website hellkom.co.za, which he launched in response to the telecomms giant’s "incredibly high prices". The website features, amongst other things, the "Hellkom Vent", where users can publish their frustrations with the fixed-line operator.
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/ 1 September 2005
Johannesburg-based Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has emerged as a key player in a potential South African loan to Zimbabwe. The bank was reluctant to provide details but its head of project finance, Peter Gent, told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>: "Our involvement in such a transaction would be as a facilitator in what is essentially a government-to-government deal."
In a development that raises further concern over the conduct of Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana, the Mail & Guardian has established that Mushwana personally intervened to remove a politically sensitive investigation from his Cape Town office. His subsequent report declined to investigate most allegations and took others no further.