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/ 21 February 2005

Solidarity outlines Budget wishes

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>Trade union Solidarity on Monday asked Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel — ahead of his Budget speech on Wednesday — to focus on job creation, which will stimulate economic growth. Solidarity was presenting its wish list for Wednesday’s Budget speech at a media conference in Johannesburg.

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/ 21 February 2005

Discovery sees strong growth

Health and life insurer Discovery Holdings reported a 43% leap in headline earnings for the six months that ended on December 31, 2004. Headline earnings swelled from R134-million to R191-million, resulting in headline earnings per share increasing on a diluted basis from 26,4 cents to 35,7 cents.

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/ 21 February 2005

People’s Budget: Govt should cut VAT

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>The South African government should stop cutting the personal and company income-tax rate but value-added tax (VAT) should be cut by 1% from 14%, according to the People’s Budget, presented by the South African Council of Churches, the South African Non-Governmental Coalition and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

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/ 21 February 2005

Woolies raises R1,9bn via card securitisation

Listed clothing food and homeware retailer Woolworths has successfully completed the first-ever securitisation of its in-store credit card with the issue and private placement of R1,9-billion in AAA-rated notes, the company said on Monday. The group’s new securitisation programme, Account on Us, issued four tranches of notes.

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/ 21 February 2005

Hunter S Thompson commits suicide

Hunter S Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularised a new form of fictional journalism in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, fatally shot himself on Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67. ”Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family,” Juan Thompson said in a statement.

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/ 21 February 2005

Author Dalene Matthee dies aged 67

Acclaimed South African author Dalene Matthee died at the age of 67 on Sunday, news reports said. Matthee penned more than a dozen novels, including Circles in a Forest — an instant bestseller when it was published in 1984 — and Fiela’s Child published in 1986 and later adapted into a film.

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/ 21 February 2005

Ssshhh! Mswati buys himself another luxury car

Swazi King Mswati III has bought a new Mercedes limousine, the latest in a string of luxury car purchases for himself and his 10 wives in the Southern African kingdom. The 36-year-old king caused a stir on Friday when he turned up at the opening of Parliament in his latest acquisition and ordered his bodyguards to block photographers from taking pictures of the new Mercedes S-Class Pullman.