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/ 25 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has allocated the largest tranche of the Budget to the provinces — but National Treasury is to exert a much firmer grip on how provincial and local governments spend their money. A key reform introduced in this year’s budget is a change in the way social grants are funded.
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/ 25 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>"We must all work together to pull the wagon through the drift," Trevor Manuel said in every official language but English on Wednesday. And he is using all the room available in the Constitution to ensure that local and provincial governments get their shoulders to the wheel. His balancing act was eased by a larger-than-expected tax overrun.
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/ 25 February 2005
The tender process for building schools is "a system designed for corruption", senior education officials say. But plans mooted by Minister of Education Naledi Pandor to short-circuit graft and waste by relieving provincial public works departments of responsibility for construction tenders have irritated national Minister of Public Works Stella Sigcau.
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/ 25 February 2005
Togo’s military-installed president was expected on Friday to announce he is stepping down following fierce regional and international opposition to his rule, a diplomat at the African Union said. Faure Gnassingbe was expected to make the announcement in a speech to the congress of Togo’s ruling party, the diplomat told The Associated Press.
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/ 25 February 2005
As African Catholics prayed for the health of Pope John Paul II on Friday, speculation mounted that the ailing pontiff could soon be succeeded by Africa’s first pope in more than 1 500 years. With church congregations rising across Africa, Asia and Latin America, observers see a global church that is increasingly oriented towards the south.
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/ 25 February 2005
Several United Nations peacekeepers were killed on Friday when unidentified gunmen attacked their patrol in the northeast region of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN mission in the country said. A spokesperson for the Monuc mission said details of the attack are still sketchy.
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/ 25 February 2005
Dolly the dolphin has followed Max the gorilla into animal history, after Port Elizabeth’s famous bottlenose died on Thursday, aged 36. The oldest Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphin to be born and bred in captivity died at Port Elizabeth’s Bayworld oceanarium late on Thursday afternoon, Bayworld spokesperson Eluise Matthys said.
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/ 25 February 2005
Ninety youths have been arrested in Giyani and one boy is dead after 39 houses were torched in what appeared to be a witch-hunt, Limpopo police said. ”The 39 houses were burnt to ashes,” said Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe. ”Those people lost everything — food, blankets, their children’s school uniforms and school books — everything,” he said.
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/ 25 February 2005
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has warned their rivals not to underestimate the reigning champions. ”No one has fallen asleep over these past months,” Montezemolo said on Friday when the world champions launched what they said is their best car to date, but which will not be raced for the first four grands prix of 2005.
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/ 25 February 2005
Mat Rogers inspired New South Wales to a 25-7 win over Waikato, and Auckland opened the 2005 Super 12 series on Friday with a dominating 30-14 win over the Otago Highlanders in Dunedin. Waratahs fullback Rogers, one of Australia’s best attackers, missed most of the previous Super 12 rugby season with an injured ankle.