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/ 13 October 2006
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
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
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
It is hard to describe the thrill, the feeling of sheer relief, the sudden utter diminishment of terror that followed the announcement last week that the government has decided something urgent needs to be done about the booming South African crime rate.
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/ 13 October 2006
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 His response was that of a party man: he quoted several SACP and ANC historical documents to prove his points and disprove Nzimande’s.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
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
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.
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/ 12 October 2006
South Africa was on Thursday unanimously confirmed as the next chair of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, for the period 2007 to 2008, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement issued from Vienna. The decision was taken at a consultative meeting of the group held in Vienna. South Africa was represented at the meeting by ambassador Abdul Minty.
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/ 12 October 2006
A meeting between the Motor Transport Workers’ Union and security companies was postponed on Thursday, the union’s general secretary said. Emily Fourie said the meeting, intended to discuss means of averting a nationwide strike by cash-in-transit security guards next week, would now take place at lunchtime on Friday.
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/ 12 October 2006
The high-occupancy vehicle lane pilot project in October to reduce massive daily traffic congestion between Pretoria and Johannesburg would be conducted ”cautiously and progressively”, the Gauteng department of transport said on Thursday. Provincial minister Ignatius Jacobs was briefing the media on a planned dedicated lane for vehicles travelling with three or more people.