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/ 26 October 2007
The appointment of veteran Democratic Alliance (DA) politician Douglas Gibson as ambassador to Thailand signals a thawing in relations between the DA and the ruling party, a senior African National Congress MP told the Mail & Guardian recently. Gibson tended to confirm this reading.
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/ 26 October 2007
Africa is losing its brightest to the First World. Less than 10% of doctors trained in Zambia since its independence in 1964 are still in the country: the other 90% have migrated, mainly to Europe and the United States. No less staggeringly, there are more Sierra Leonean-trained doctors in Chicago alone than in the country itself and cash-strapped Benin provides more medical professionals to France than there are in the whole of its own health system.
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/ 26 October 2007
A clash between secular and religious conscience could unfold in South Africa’s education system — and different interest groups are set to line up against one another. The teaching of evolution to grade 12 learners from next year might trigger an uproar among South African parents, teachers and religious sectors.
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/ 26 October 2007
The controversial clause in the Children’s Amendment Bill, which allowed for parents to be fined R300 for spanking their children, has been removed. This week the parliamentary portfolio committee on social development agreed to remove Section 139 from the Bill after the ANC caucus moved to block the Bill being approved last week.
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/ 26 October 2007
”It’s true that we are getting resistance from the executive. For instance, I served in one committee for six years and left it because I got tired of wasting my time with a minister who refused to listen to me.” With his head bent in despair chairperson of the environmental affairs portfolio committee Langa Zita recently told a panel of experts how African National Congress MPs struggled to get their voices heard by ministers.
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/ 25 October 2007
An independent mediator has been appointed to facilitate talks between students and management at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), its Student Representative Council (SRC) said on Thursday, The Department of Education had on Monday appointed mediator Onkgopotse Tabane, said SRC president Mhlobo Hoyi.
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/ 25 October 2007
A man who may have been the victim of a money scam was arrested by police outside the United States embassy in Pretoria on Thursday. The man, who is in his early 40s and who was initially reported to have been planning an attack on the embassy, was praying and chanting across the street from the embassy when police were alerted.
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/ 25 October 2007
Special methods are needed to combat the epidemic of drug trafficking and abuse, it was contended by the state on Thursday in the drug-trafficking case involving Nazier Kapdi and four alleged accomplices. The ”special methods” referred to a police trap set up to bring to book Kapdi and those involved with him in his network.
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/ 25 October 2007
Entertainer Taliep Petersen and his wife, Najwa, were involved in dodgy diamond and currency deals, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday. One of these deals was in progress on the night he died, according to an affidavit handed in as evidence in Najwa’s second bail application.