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/ 5 February 2005

Letter to the president

”President Thabo Mbeki, allow me to address you in an open letter. Despite my growing animosity towards your personal philosophies, I have been able to handle almost everything you have said and written as president. Until you (or one of your cronies) claimed, on the African National Congress website, that Archbishop Desmond Tutu is the icon of white people,” writes Koos Kombuis.

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/ 5 February 2005

‘We, too, admire the Arch’

The Mail & Guardian is not alone in admiring Archbishop Desmond Tutu (”Some amongst us admire the Arch”). There are many in the African National Congress who admire him too. As an organisation, the ANC has often paid tribute to his contribution to the struggle for democracy in South Africa and to his continued importance to our national life, writes Smuts Ngonyama.

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/ 4 February 2005

Claude reigns in Spain and London

Midfielder Claude Makelele made a controversial exit from Real Madrid 18 months ago — now he is the key man in a Chelsea team threatening to become the best in Europe. It has taken many months for Florentino Perez, the Real president, even to hint that taking the oil out of his magnificent machine might not have been his wisest decision.

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/ 4 February 2005

Council of churches defends use of condoms

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) has expressed shock and dismay at continuing assertions that condoms ”don’t work” as a means of preventing the spread of HIV. Secretary general Molefe Tsele said the SACC believes that all credible scientific studies conclude that the virus that causes Aids cannot pass through a latex condom.

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/ 4 February 2005

Leaders meet to protect Africa’s rainforests

As Central African leaders meet in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, this weekend to discuss threats to the region’s vast forests, the size of the world’s ”second lung” keeps diminishing at an alarming speed. The WWF says that if the deforestation continues at the present pace, two-thirds of the forests may disappear in less than 50 years.

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/ 4 February 2005

Manuel takes on EU, US over aid

South Africa’s Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, accused the European Union on Friday of keeping African farmers poor. He also questioned the moral leadership of the United States as he backed a British-led initiative to boost aid for Africa, for which plans are being discussed at Group of Seven talks in London.

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/ 4 February 2005

Western Areas ushers in world’s deepest drop shaft

Western Areas, in partnership with Vancouver Placer Dome, on Friday commissioned the world’s deepest single drop shaft, South Deep, near Westonaria, 40km south-west of Johannesburg. The main shaft is the deepest in the world at 2 991,5m — nearly 3km. The shaft gives direct access to one of the world’s largest identified gold-ore reserves.