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/ 21 November 2006

Parastatals overall in good shape

South African state-owned enterprises are overall in "a good state" although performance has been uneven in the past financial year, the chairperson of the public enterprises portfolio committee reported on Tuesday. Yunus Carrim also argued that the government was correct to keep these enterprises in state hands.

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/ 21 November 2006

ANC’s year of shame

An unprecedented string of scandals has led to a haemorrhaging of support for South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) that can only be reversed with a thorough purge of the leadership, analysts say. ”There is no cohesive control. The leadership is just giving speeches about corruption and everything, but there is no action,” says Frederik van Zyl Slabbert.

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/ 21 November 2006

Nqakula on Selebi: Show me the evidence

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula on Tuesday repeated his call that action would only be taken against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi based on concrete evidence. He said Selebi’s friendship with Glenn Agliotti, recently arrested in connection with the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble, could not be used to suspend Selebi.

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/ 21 November 2006

Europe, Africa meet over migrant surge

European and African nations struggling to stem an exodus of migrants from Africa gather in Libya on Wednesday to tackle a problem with the potential to hurt economies and stir communal tensions on both continents. The focus will be on identifying long-term solutions such as creating more jobs in Africa to curb its ”brain drain” and widening opportunities for legal migration.

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/ 21 November 2006

Rome airport reopens after bomb threat

Rome’s second-largest airport, Ciampino, briefly closed early on Tuesday following an anonymous telephone call claiming that a bomb was on board a cargo plane, airport officials said. Inspections of aircraft found no evidence of a bomb and Ciampino was reopened about an hour later, officials said. Six flights had been rerouted east to the city of Pescara.

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/ 21 November 2006

Sanef: Squires misquote ‘regrettable’

The frequent and widespread misquoting of Schabir Shaik trial Judge Hilary Squires was ”a most regrettable error”, the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) said on Tuesday. ”Sanef was of the view, however, that the error was not deliberate and did not indicate any pervasive lack of professionalism,” it said in a statement on Monday.

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/ 21 November 2006

Zimbabwe sees kindred spirit in Iran

Iran and Zimbabwe ”think alike” and ”should fight against Western superpowers and their evil systems”, President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying on Tuesday. The Zimbabwean leader said his country and Iran had to come together and work out ”mechanisms for defending ourselves”, according to Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald newspaper.

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/ 21 November 2006

Rwanda rejects calls to indict president

Rwanda on Tuesday rejected calls by a French judge to indict President Paul Kagame over his alleged involvement in the death of the country’s former leader, which sparked the 1994 genocide. ”The allegations are totally unfounded. The judge is acting on the basis of gossip and rumours,” Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said.