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/ 26 November 2004
”President Mbeki explains to European leaders why Nepad is succeeding beyond all expectations.” ”The government reveals how the arms deal has brought billion of rands in foreign investment and created thousands of jobs.” Then comes the ”ag shame” touch, delivered with a helping of devastating SABC wordplay to get the nation hosing itself. Does that menu smell familiar? Of course it does.
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/ 26 November 2004
First it was vintage heavy metal T-shirts, then came leg warmers and Lycra. Now old cellphones have become the retro fashion accessory to be seen with. Twenty years after Britain’s first cellphone call was made technology has leapt forward, but hipsters and homebodies alike are rejecting flashy new models in favour of tried-and-trusted phone favourites.
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/ 26 November 2004
I drink Diet Coke. It makes me feel good. It helps me retain my boyish figure. It calms me down. It peps me up. It sings me to sleep at night. I love Diet Coke. I want Diet Coke. I need Diet Coke. Advertising people will say this is because of branding. Breweries, currently shacking up with fellow booze pimp Miller, seemed to have got branding down to a fine art. Until Justin Nurse and Laugh It Off.
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/ 26 November 2004
"Mention the name Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and the name Stompie Seipei immediately comes to many a South African mind. The death of this child activist in 1989 will hang around Nelson Mandela’s former wife’s neck for the rest of her life." Journalists and political analysts struggled to understand that ordinary people still loved and adored Winnie, despite this dark stain on her record, writes Max du Preez.
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/ 26 November 2004
When Joyce Mujuru became Zimbabwe’s first and youngest female Cabinet minister soon after independence in 1980, she had no academic qualifications. Mujuru was one of 12 children born to a peasant family in Mount Darwin. She opted out of school at age 18 against her parents wishes to join the liberation army, adopting the name Teurai Ropa, which literally means to "spill blood".
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/ 26 November 2004
Patrice Motsepe may not have been there to sign off on the decision, but Nafhold has finally agreed on a way to distribute its shares to members. Motsepe skipped the meeting that made the decision, in a move seen by some insiders as a sign he is still unhappy with the share allocation. The move nevertheless is seen as the beginning of the end of a long-standing dispute.
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/ 26 November 2004
HIV/Aids is taking a bite out of profits throughout corporate South Africa, with the already embattled mining sector particularly hard hit. According to a report by the South African Business Coalition on HIV and Aids (Sabcoha) released this week, 62% of mines surveyed by the Bureau for Economic Research indicated that the epidemic is already hurting their bottom lines.
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/ 26 November 2004
McDonald’s has announced another change of leadership after CE Charlie Bell stood down to battle cancer seven months into the job. Bell was diagnosed shortly after being appointed. The fast food chain named another company veteran, vice-chairman Jim Skinner, as his replacement. Bell (44) had taken the top job in May after the death from an apparent heart attack of former CE Jim Cantalupo.
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/ 26 November 2004
One of the biggest surprises of the Namibian elections has been that Hifikepunye Pohamba, the South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) presidential candidate, polled more votes than his party despite persistent references that he is a puppet of the more popular Sam Nujoma. Even during the election campaign Pohamba kept a low profile.
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/ 26 November 2004
Four years after the murder of Mozambican journalist Carlos Cardoso, his legacy in investigating corruption has cast a shadow over the campaign for next week’s election. At the time of his death he had been investigating how more than -million had disappeared from Mozambique’s formerly state-owned banks during the privatisation process of the 1990s.