Staff Reporter
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/ 13 October 2006

Judge blasts Imvume’s conduct

Oilgate company Imvume this week stumbled in its Johannesburg High Court bid to unmask the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s confidential sources of information. Judge Dabi Khumalo on Tuesday issued a damning judgement on Imvume’s conduct before the start of the hearing, set down for this week, meaning Imvume will be disadvantaged should the matter proceed.

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/ 13 October 2006

Goniwe hides in Parliament

Top parliamentary officials are ignoring their own policy guidelines to protect African National Congress chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe from court action aimed at getting him to pay maintenance for two children he fathered. The Sheriff of Cape Town has repeatedly requested permission from the legislature to serve Goniwe with a summons to appear in the Bedford maintenance court.

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/ 13 October 2006

Unclassified

Let us not ask what the government, or to be more precise Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, really wanted the Films and Publications Amendment Bill to achieve when he approved it for tabling in Parliament. Let us stick instead to the more readily discernible facts: what they said they wanted it to achieve, and the mechanisms the Bill proposes.

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/ 13 October 2006

Investment humdinger

General Motors is set to reap a giant-sized return on its investment into a Hummer assembly plant in Port Elizabeth. GM announced last year that it was investing $100-million (R773-million) into its South African operations, primarily in the production of the Hummer H3, a mid-size version of the vehicle Arnie Schwarzenegger made famous, the Hummer.

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/ 13 October 2006

Quintessentially South African

Volkswagen has an uncanny ability with ordinary cars, as its German name suggests. The iconic VW Beetle, for instance, was voted the fourth most popular car of the past century after the Model T Ford, the Mini Cooper and the Citroen DS. In the comparatively smaller South African economy, 288 000 VW Beetles were sold between 1951 and 1979, when the car was discontinued.

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/ 13 October 2006

I beg your pardon, comrade

President Thabo Mbeki hit back at SACP leader Blade Nzimande in a fiery retort at the party’s national executive committee last weekend. His response was that of a party man: he quoted several SACP and ANC historical documents to prove his points and disprove Nzimande’s.

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/ 13 October 2006

Yunus, bank win Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh and the Grameen Bank which offers loans to poor people without any financial security. The committee said: ”Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty.”

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/ 12 October 2006

New, improved Buthelezi

IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi is actively repositioning himself as a unifying statesman, rather than a standard-bearer for Zulu ethnic interests. Answering Mail & Guardian questions this week, Buthelezi said it was important for South Africans to rise above party differences on the succession battle in the ANC and other challenges facing the country, including HIV/Aids, crime, poverty and unemployment.