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/ 21 February 2008
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.
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/ 21 February 2008
South Africa criticised the United Nations on Wednesday for lack of action to support the peace process in Somalia even though the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of an African peacekeeping mission there for another six months.
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/ 21 February 2008
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton criticised rival Barack Obama as a big dreamer with little substance on Wednesday as she sought to slow his momentum from 10 straight victories in the race for the party’s United States presidential nomination.
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/ 21 February 2008
A missile from a United States navy warship hit a defunct US spy satellite 247km above the Earth in an attempt to blow apart its tank of toxic fuel, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. It was too soon to tell if the fuel tank had been shattered in the operation over the Pacific Ocean, the Pentagon said in a statement.
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/ 21 February 2008
After weakening sharply late on Wednesday afternoon to levels above R7,90 per dollar, the rand had recovered somewhat overnight and was below R7,80 per dollar in early trade on Thursday. Market players are continuing to digest the contents of Wednesday’s budget.
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/ 21 February 2008
Asked about his plans for lighter, eco-friendly glass bottles and packaging, the head of a southern French wine company this week said that simply was not the issue. "The issue is glass supply. We have a big problem, we cannot get bottles to put our wine in," said Jean-Claude Mas.
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/ 21 February 2008
Education Minister Naledi Pandor wore the broadest smile among her counterparts on Wednesday as Finance Minister Trevor Manuel was once again in a generous mood towards her department. But some education analysts are sceptical about provinces’ capacity to deliver on disbursing the billions allocated to general education.
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/ 21 February 2008
”Trevor does it again!” is a headline we newspaper people have come to rely on at this time of year. It is too trite a formulation, though, and it does not properly credit the complex achievements of 11 years’ planning that have enabled the finance minister to deliver budgets with strong savings, spending and tax relief components for six years now.
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/ 21 February 2008
Our hope is in Simba I always knew Zimbabweans loved and respected Simba Makoni, but I only realised how much when he announced his intention to run for the presidency. A few days ago I met a middle-aged woman who had registered as a voter because of Makoni’s announcement. She told me she last voted […]
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/ 21 February 2008
A main feature of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s newly unveiled budget has been to slash the red tape, and small businesses will be elated over some major changes in the tax legislation. According to the Treasury’s tax team, the focus of this budget was to take the administrative burden of tax compliance off small companies.