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/ 11 June 2001

NO, YOU CAN?T HAVE A PLANE

THE Nigerian parliament on Tuesday rejected on a third reading a budget request for a new presidential plane. President Olusegun Obasanjo had requested a $47,2-million budget for a plane which he said would be used by Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The upper house of legislature had earlier approved the bill. – AFP

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/ 11 June 2001

SA PLANS $400M SAMURAI BOND ISSUE IN JUNE

SOUTH African Treasury Director-General Maria Ramos said on Friday the government would probably issue a yen-denominated Samurai bond worth about $400-million in the final week of June. She said the amount and maturity of the bond had not yet been finalised, but added: ”We are looking at probably $400 million.” South Africa last tapped the […]

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/ 11 June 2001

DRC rebels threaten passage of UN boat

Kigali, JEAN BAPTISTE KAYIGAMBA | Monday CONGOLESE rebels threatened on Sunday to turn back a United Nations boat that set off last week to open the mighty Congo river, closed to traffic by nearly three years of civil war. Congo’s largest rebel group said they would bar the voyage unless the United Nations Mission in […]

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/ 11 June 2001

‘BREAKTHROUGH’ IN BURUNDI TALKS

THE chief peace mediator in the conflict in Burundi Nelson Mandela said on Sunday a ”breakthrough” has been made towards peace in the central African country, but declined to give details until after he had met the parties involved in the conflict. ”I cannot tell you before we brief the 19 political parties, the army […]

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/ 11 June 2001

500 PARDONED STILL IN NIGERIAN JAILS

MORE than 500 prisoners pardoned by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo are still in jail a year later, the state-owned Sunday Times newspaper reported. Obasanjo last year ordered that prisoners who had served more than 20 years in prison be freed. But the internal affairs ministry has blocked the release of more than 500 men insisting […]

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/ 8 June 2001

A month of boredom

<i>Sweet November</i>, the biggest release of the week, is so bad that there is very little to be said about it. It’s not even worth pulling apart, since it falls apart anyway as you watch it, if it was ever together in the first place.

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/ 8 June 2001

Cry, the Comrades

Bertold Bohmer (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is a widowed, sixtysomething German émigré and athletics trainer. He lives like a pig in a cottage on an Afrikaans couple’s farm, has no interest in women – black or otherwise – and never shaves. This is possible, but highly implausible.

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/ 8 June 2001

Racist assumptions mean blacks lose out on jobs

Glenda Daniels The Department of Labour has slammed employers for using “racist assumptions” as excuses not to hire black people and to test prospective employees for HIV/Aids. In the latest Department of Labour equity report, 31% of employers cited HIV/Aids as a barrier to implementing equity. The equity legislation was formulated by the government to […]