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/ 4 February 2005

Written in secret

Ishtiyaq Shukri is the winner of the R25 000 inaugural European Union Literary Award for a first, unpublished novel by a South African writer. Here, <i>ZA@Play</i> provides the Q’s and he provides the A’s.

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/ 4 February 2005

Forgetful robbers leave gun behind

Two armed men left a gun behind after robbing an adult store in Springs, east of Johannesburg, of DVDs, videos, magazines and cash on Wednesday, police said on Friday. Police spokesperson Inspector Thomlyn Jacobs said police found an unlicensed 9mm firearm loaded with live ammunition on a chair.

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/ 4 February 2005

Will debt relief reach those who need it?

Margaret Ashira, sitting in a tin-roofed shack in Africa’s largest slum, owes her survival to private charity groups who donate treatment. She believes her own government could do more to help her and other people living with Aids if it weren’t haemorrhaging money to pay the interest on its huge foreign debt.

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/ 4 February 2005

Police incompetence claimed in sex-crimes trial

Further allegations of police incompetence arose in the Pretoria High Court sex-crimes trial of advocates Dirk Prinsloo and Cezanne Visser on Friday. Prinsloo’s advocate, Piet Coetzee, questioned senior superintendent Rudi van Olst about several aspects of the search and seizure at the couple’s Raslouw, Pretoria, home and their arrest in 2002.

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/ 4 February 2005

Lion murder accused ‘too sick’ for trial

Still feeling too sick to go on with his trial, lion murder accused Richard ”Doctor” Mathebula (41) on Friday asked the Phalaborwa Circuit Court for time to recover from the chest pains that have plagued him this week. ”This morning, I tried to consult with my client. He was not in a position to give me proper instructions,” said Mathebula’s counsel, Mathews Kekana.

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/ 4 February 2005

All eyes on tennis champs in Cape Town

Goran Ivanisevic, the handsome Croatian who has been turning heads since he arrived in the Mother City on Monday, has a chance to record a career ”first” when he plays German Michael Stich in the opening match of the Cape Town Grand Champions 2005 tournament at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday.

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/ 4 February 2005

‘It’s more personal against United’

Arsenal defender Sol Campbell has the imposing aura of a great fighter who no one really knows. Yet in person, alone with him in a bare white-walled room, he soon emerges as the opposite of impassive or mysterious. Campbell tells Donald McRae about the depth of bitter feeling between the Gunners and their northern rivals.

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/ 4 February 2005

Chelsea cast a long shadow

It wasn’t the quest for second place that made Manchester United giddy with ambition at Highbury on Tuesday. We already knew how they looked when all they have to scrap over is the runners-up position in the Premiership. In May of last year, they could not stir themselves to stop Chelsea from taking that berth and drew 1-1 with them at Old Trafford.

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/ 4 February 2005

Didata’s ‘year of profitable growth’

While Dimension Data (Didata) billed 2004 as the year to stabilise and invest in growth, the dual- listed group’s CEO Brett Dawson told the investment community in London that 2005 is the year for profitable growth. He was speaking at Didata’s Investor Day seminar, attended by institutional investors and analysts on Thursday evening.