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/ 2 February 2008
Like the elephant on its crest, there was a degree of dimorphism about the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) at its draft policy launch recently. Its past, especially the party’s role in the internecine violence of the 1980s and 1990s, was reshaped towards absolution during a narrative history kicked off by Generations actress Winnie Ntshaba.
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/ 2 February 2008
Nigeria is famous as a country with abundant oil, but no fuel. Now add South Africa as a country rich in coal, but poor in power. So bad has the energy crisis become that Eskom has been running with a quarter of its capacity out of service. Effectively, one of every four power plants is standing idle.
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/ 2 February 2008
The United States occupying army in Iraq (euphemistically called the Multi-National Force-Iraq) carries out extensive studies of popular attitudes. Its December 2007 report of a study of focus groups was uncharacteristically upbeat. The report concluded that the survey ”provides very strong evidence” to refute the common view that ”national reconciliation is neither anticipated nor possible”.
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/ 1 February 2008
A doctor who spoke out about medical conditions at Pollsmoor Prison while working there has been redeployed to another clinic, the South African Broadcasting Corporation said on Friday. Paul Theron withdrew his court application to return to the correctional facility on Friday.
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/ 1 February 2008
Gabon Foreign Minister Jean Ping was elected on Friday as the African Union’s top diplomat, replacing Mali’s Alpha Oumar Konare as the head of the AU Commission. ”I can’t say too much at the moment, but of course I am very happy,” Ping told a crowd of diplomats, journalists and well-wishers after winning the vote at an AU summit in Ethiopia.
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/ 1 February 2008
Dealing with poor attendance by African National Congress (ANC) members at parliamentary and caucus meetings would be one of the year’s priorities, the party’s chief whip said on Friday. Nathi Mthethwa said: ”Inculcating a culture of discipline among some of the organisation’s public representatives in this institution will form part of the priorities.”
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/ 1 February 2008
The financial director of Fidentia, Graham Maddock, was on Friday effectively jailed for seven years on 54 counts involving fraud, theft, money laundering, contraventions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act and the reckless or fraudulent conduct of business. Maddock appeared in court in Belville.
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/ 1 February 2008
More than 200 students at Durban’s University of Technology protested over registration fees at the institution’s Steve Biko campus on Friday. Police said the protests at the institution started at about 10am and that the situation at the campus was ”very tense”.
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/ 1 February 2008
Simon Kamunhukamwe just shrugged when Zimbabwe’s official inflation figure topped 26 000%. Exploding prices have become a part of life and protesting against the economic meltdown can be risky, especially as President Robert Mugabe digs in for elections next month.