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/ 18 February 2005

Thatcher answers E Guinea’s questions

British businessman Mark Thatcher answered two lists of questions from Equatorial Guinea prosecutors on Friday about his involvement in a botched coup attempt in the Central African country. A relaxed-looking Thatcher appeared before a Cape Town magistrate in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court to give his replies to the 43 questions.

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/ 18 February 2005

Van Zyl takes the lead at Telkom PGA

Killarney professional Jaco van Zyl led the way after the opening round of the Telkom PGA Championships played at the par-72 Woodhill Country Club layout on Thursday. Despite the announcement that the course was playing tougher than ever, 66 golfers in the 156-man field shot below par with another 19 lying on level par.

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/ 18 February 2005

JSE mixed after dull morning

The JSE Securities Exchange was a mixed bag at noon on Friday after a dull morning session that lacked major drivers. At just over a billion rand, value traded was reasonable, but by no means fantastic. By 12.05pm, the all share index was down a marginal 0,07%. The financial and banks indices fell 0,55% and 1,08% respectively, while the platinum mining index weakened 0,86%.

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/ 18 February 2005

Dr Death back in the dock

For more than eight years germ warfare expert Wouter Basson has lived in the shadow of the prison gates, accused of masterminding state-sanctioned mass murder under apartheid. Now the Constitutional Court will decide whether his 2002 acquittal on 64 criminal charges was justified, or the result of bias and bad findings by an old-guard Pretoria High Court judge.

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/ 18 February 2005

Romance is back in fashion

A survey released in London on Valentine’s Day indicates that the attitudes embodied in Sex and the City are over — and 2005 heralds a return to romance. Casual sex and pornography are no longer popular and singles are looking to be swept off their feet. Long-term relationships are also back in fashion, according to 73% of the 2 500 Britons interviewed.

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/ 18 February 2005

Big Bay deal reversed

Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo has reversed the controversial award of prime beachfront property to black economic empowerment companies — three with links to the African National Congress or its youth league — after a forensic audit found the tender process was ”flawed”. The Big Bay deal was an out of hand sale of 65 plots in Bloubergstrand.

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/ 18 February 2005

Big fish fry Canadian activist

When a Canadian lawyer and corporate governance activist dropped in on an international mining conference in Cape Town last week, he thought it was an opportunity to gather information on dodgy business practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Instead he got a swift ejection, a six-month ban from the Cape Town International Convention Centre, and close scrutiny from the National Intelligence Agency.