ANC treasurer general Mendi Msimang and the trustees of the ANC-linked Batho Batho Trust are at loggerheads over who decides how trust money should be spent. The origin of the disagreement is Msimang’s belief that the proceeds from a lucrative sale of trust shares last year should be used to pay off the ANC’s massive debts.
Zimbabwe cranked up the face value of its highest banknote fivefold on Thursday as black-market trading in scarce gasoline and hard currency spiralled. On the illegal market, a single United States dollar bought up to Z 000, up from Z 000 last month.
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/ 28 February 2007
Dozens of people were arrested on Wednesday as pro-democracy activists defied a police ban on demonstrations and took to the streets to protest growing economic hardship and repression in Zimbabwe. The National Constitutional Assembly said many of those arrested were assaulted. The demonstration coincided with a bleak new warning by the head of the Zimbabwe central bank.
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/ 28 February 2007
The Free State will spend more than R10,6-billion on social and human development in this financial year, with the education department getting more than half of this, provincial finance minister Tate Makgoe said on Wednesday in delivering the province’s budget for 2007/08 in Bloemfontein. The department of education will get a proposed allocation of R5,6-billion.
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/ 28 February 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused the United States on Wednesday of creating strife in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Red carpets strewn with flowers were laid out for Ahmadinejad when he met Bashir at the start of a two-day visit to Sudan, which like Iran is under US and United Nations pressure.
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/ 28 February 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will place a full-page advert in the Mail & Guardian on Friday paying tribute to veteran journalist John Perlman. ”We pay tribute to him as an excellent and patriotic journalist,” it said in a statement.
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/ 28 February 2007
The actor and singer Sam Williams has died after a long illness, the Arts and Culture Ministry said on Wednesday. Williams, who died last Wednesday, began his career when he founded a musical group, the Boston Brothers, and was active as a playwright and composer in the 1960s and 1970s.
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/ 28 February 2007
City of Cape Town officials held a long meeting with counterparts from the 2010 local organising committee on Wednesday in a bid for a solution to the financing of the proposed Green Point Stadium. The city this week stalled on approving the R2,7-billion budget for the project after what mayor Helen Zille said were last-minute cost escalations of R180-million.
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/ 28 February 2007
Just hours after being presented with the International Cricket Council ODI Shield for being the world’s top one-day international team, the Proteas set off on Wednesday to take part in the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean. Captain Graeme Smith said there will be 100% commitment from every member of the team.