Staff Reporter
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/ 21 February 2008

Law firm criticises land numbers in budget

The Legal Resources Centre, a public-interest law firm working on land issues, expressed scepticism on Thursday at the claim in Wednesday’s national budget that the land-restitution process is nearing completion. An extra R1-billion will be set aside over the next three years to settle outstanding land-restitution claims.

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/ 21 February 2008

Budget coalition: Poor more in need of tax breaks

The 2008 national budget took a "business as usual" approach in failing to carry through President Thabo Mbeki’s commitment to change all South Africans’ lives for the better, the People’s Budget Coalition said on Thursday, adding that the government will not be doing anything fundamentally different from what it has done in the past.

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/ 21 February 2008

‘Suicide palm tree’ seeds arrive in Britain

The seeds of the ”suicide palm”, a newly discovered and extremely rare palm tree, have arrived in Britain for urgent study and conservation, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew said on Wednesday. The tree, whose nickname stems from its habit of flowering itself to death once every half century, was discovered only recently on the island of Madagascar.

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/ 21 February 2008

Bottleneck at Mozambique border causes alarm

Inefficiency at one of the border posts between South Africa and Mozambique is a key constraint to accelerated growth of trade and investment between the two countries, the Maputo Corridor Links Initiative (MCLI) said on Thursday. MCLI chief operating officer Barbara Mommen said delays in the movement of cargo through the Lebombo/Ressano Garcia border post was costly

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/ 21 February 2008

Arrows beat AmaZulu 1-0

AmaZulu suffered their third straight defeat in the Absa Premier League when they lost 0-1 to Golden Arrows at Princess Magogo Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. AmaZulu were put to the test as early as the fourth minute when Thanduyise Khuboni’s header forced a brilliant save from AmaZulu goalkeeper Kalilio Kakonje.

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/ 21 February 2008

‘Tough negotiations’ ahead for Eskom

There would be some very ”tough negotiations” with Eskom over the repayment of its R60-billion loan, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in Cape Town on Thursday. ”The terms will have to be worked out, it’s not in our interests to try to squeeze a short-term return,” he told a breakfast meeting.