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/ 7 December 2007
It doesn’t get madder than this. Swaziland is in the grip of a famine and receiving emergency food aid; 40% of its people are facing acute food shortages. So what has the government decided to export? Biofuel made from one of its staple crops — cassava. Several thousand hectares of farmland have been allocated to ethanol production in the Lavumisa district, the place worst hit by drought.
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/ 7 December 2007
The latest Health System’s Trust annual report is an exposé of the unsustainable, inefficient and inequitable state of the nation’s health systems, looking specifically at the impact of the private sector. Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Misimang’s stewardship of the national health system is also described as “sub-optimal” given the stark inequity in access to healthcare between the public and private sectors.
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/ 7 December 2007
Insecurity in eastern Chad is worsening as President Idriss Déby Itno’s armed forces battle rebels on several fronts. The Chadian army has launched several major offensives against rebel positions since a month-long ceasefire fell apart recently and hundreds of fighters have been killed and wounded.
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/ 7 December 2007
Elizabeth Jacobs and I grew up in Wellington on the same farm. She was the daughter of the Klaas and I was the daughter of the baas. My three sisters and I called her “Ous” because, being slightly older than us, she was our “Ousus” (older sister). I saw Ous almost every day of my life. After school and at weekends she played with us, writes the Mail & Guardian‘s Pearlie Joubert.
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/ 7 December 2007
The most dangerous place for South Africans to be is in their own homes and workplaces. The crime statistics released on Thursday show decreases in most crime categories but robberies at residential and business premises are still on the rise.
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/ 7 December 2007
All copies of a new book that notorious apartheid murderer Eugene de Kock believes defames him and harms both his dignity and his reputation are being withdrawn from bookshops. This follows a Pretoria High Court interim order two weeks ago after De Kock applied to the court to halt further sales of the book, White Power and the Rise and Fall of the National Party.
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/ 7 December 2007
For most people Washington’s second thoughts about the seriousness of the Iranian nuclear ”threat” will come as a great relief. Those in the Bush administration who appeared bent on forcing a military confrontation with Tehran some time next year will now face greater difficulties in making their case. George W Bush’s ”third world war” is on hold — at least for now, writes Simon Tisdall.
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/ 7 December 2007
The maze of passages leading to District Court B on the first floor of the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court is dim, poorly lit and unventilated. It is mid-morning in Alexandra, a township north of Johannesburg. Just beyond the courthouse steps a throng of pedestrians weaves its way through clutters of hawkers’ stalls and food outlets. Loud music thumps from a radio inside a makeshift barber shop.
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/ 7 December 2007
ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary and pro-Jacob Zuma strongman Senzo Mchunu this week sought to quell rumours that Zuma supporters within party structures would seek to dislodge President Thabo Mbeki from the Union Buildings if their man ascended to the organisation’s presidency.
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/ 6 December 2007
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Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has declined a nomination as African National Congress (ANC) chairperson but has accepted a nomination for deputy president. This emerged on Thursday when the ANC released its long-awaited consolidated list of nominations for its national executive committee.