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/ 27 October 2004
An inquiry into the cause of an explosion at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, last month — which left 10 people dead and more than 100 injured — began on Wednesday, the Department of Labour said. Spokesperson Page Boikanyo said 40 witnesses, including workers and subcontractors, will be questioned during the inquiry.
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/ 27 October 2004
Metals and mining company Kumba Resources is to spend R411-million on two new local projects as part of its plans to expand its coal business. Kumba executive Trevor Arran said the projects at the Grootegeluk and Leeuwpan coal mines would mitigate the effect of job losses announced within the group as part of the business
improvement plan.
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/ 19 October 2004
The four convicted murderers of the Van der Merwe family, two of whom were also convicted of rape, were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Circuit High Court in Secunda, Mpumalanga, on Tuesday. The men were also sentenced for other crimes, amounting to 240 years’ imprisonment — but the sentences will run concurrently.
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/ 14 October 2004
Themba Luke Radebe, one of four men accused of murdering members of two Benoni families in February, on Thursday accused the police of assaulting and torturing him to extract a confession. Radebe (44) told Judge Nico Coetzee in the Secunda High Court that a plastic bag was put over his head and kept there until he fainted.
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/ 14 October 2004
More than R16-million has been paid out to claimants who suffer from asbestos poisoning, the Asbestos Relief Trust said on Wednesday. More than 100 claims had been paid out, while 150 more were ready to be finalised, chairperson of the trust, John Doidge, said in a statement.
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/ 12 October 2004
The prevalence of HIV among health workers in South Africa is ”very high” and they need to be targeted with anti-retroviral treatment as part of a multipronged approach to augment the sector, the South African Medical Journal warns. The journal said the high prevalance of HIV in the health sector had serious implications for the health system, with increased absenteeism and non-infected workers becoming overloaded with work.
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/ 11 October 2004
The trial of four men arrested at Mzingi near Nelspruit in connection with the murders of a Benoni family in February is expected to start in the Secunda High Court on Monday, police said. Frans van der Merwe (57) his wife Gina (53) their son Daryl (31) and his wife Melissa (24) were found dead near the Loskop Dam in Mpumalanga on February 9. All had been shot.
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/ 10 October 2004
At least 10 children were raped in Mpumalanga in a space of four days, police reported on Saturday. Among them was an eight-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather (21) at the Emjidini hostel near Barberton, and a 12-year-old boy who was indecently assaulted by a 63-year-old man.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the construction of a R2,1-billion water project that will pump water from the Vaal Dam to an existing water supply infrastructure near Secunda, Mpumalanga, the department of Water and Forestry said in Pretoria.
A cold front will hit the Western Cape province from Wednesday evening and should continue moving over South Africa, while at the same time bringing rain, until Tuesday next week, said South African Weather Service (Saws) forecaster Evert Scholtz. There should be heavy showers over parts of the Western and Eastern Cape up until Friday.
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/ 30 September 2004
Since the front section of this paper seems to be getting all the good stories, Oom Krisjan is happy to be the first to bring details of Travelgate II. On a recent whip-around of city press clubs to tell the public why they are not a bunch of high-flying gadabouts, the speakers of the National Assembly and the National Council of Whatever all arrived in the Big Smoke on the same plane. Definitely a step in the right direction, you’d say.
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/ 24 September 2004
Twice a year the Chrissiesmeer shop owners put up signs on their doors that say, "Gone Frogging". Instead of preparing for World Tourism Day on September 27 by publishing a set of platitudes about the most prominent places to visit, we decided to abide by the spirit of these intrepid merchants and prepare a portfolio of the country’s more unpredictable and out-of-the-ordinary travel destinations.
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/ 21 September 2004
Aggravated robbery was the only violent crime to show an increase over the past two financial years, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi announced on Monday. Murders dropped by 9,9%, attempted murder by 17,8%, serious assault by 4,3%, common assault by 2,6% and common robbery by 7,8%, he told reporters in
Pretoria.
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/ 19 September 2004
The former African National Congress Youth League secretary in Mpumalanga who linked three prominent ANC members to a plot to topple President Thabo Mbeki, has admitted to lying, the Sunday Times reported on Saturday evening. James Nkambule sparked a top-level police investigation in 2001 with his claims.
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/ 18 September 2004
The mutilated body of a newborn baby boy apparently eaten by a dog was found near an informal settlement on the farm Rietvlei near Sundra, Mpumalanga police reported on Friday. Inspector Leonard Hlathi said farm residents spotted the baby’s body and informed police on Thursday.
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/ 16 September 2004
The jury was out on the effectiveness of Thursday’s public-service strike in the Western Cape as unions claimed a massive turnout while the provincial government sought to downplay its impact. In Cape Town, police estimated about 17 000 strikers snaked their way through the city.
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/ 14 September 2004
National airports are the primary gateways to nations today. From the design of a terminal building to the swiftness of baggage retrieval, airports give visitors an all-important first impression of a country’s modernity and capacity to provide services. They are also prestige projects for governments, however, which can lead to problems. Take the situation in Swaziland, for example.
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/ 13 September 2004
Billboards that encourage travellers to "Sho’t Left" (taxi slang for "jump off just there or around the corner") litter the Mpumalanga countryside. The mystical, medieval African city of Mapungubwe is preparing to host thousands of visitors when the subcontinent’s latest transfrontier park is launched at the end of the month.
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/ 9 September 2004
When examining the Fair Trade movement it is important first to understand the concept of social consciousness. Becoming socially conscious does not require a paradigm shift in lifestyle — joining a commune, hugging trees or lying down in front of bulldozers. What it does require is lateral thinking and that you ask a few earnest questions about the products you buy, and, in this case, the places you go to on holiday.
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/ 7 September 2004
The operating profit of petrochemical giant Sasol fell by 22% owing to the strength of the rand, the company said at its annual results presentation on Tuesday. The negative effect of the rand was cushioned by the beneficial high oil prices and management initiatives to streamline the business, Sasol chief executive Pieter Cox said.
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/ 6 September 2004
The death toll in an explosion at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, has climbed to seven, company spokesperson Johann van Rheede said on Monday. The explosion, which occurred last Wednesday, claimed the lives of four contractors and two Sasol employees. More than 100 people were injured.
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/ 2 September 2004
South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (Sadtu) members turned out in full force around the country to demonstrate their frustration with the government’s offer of a 5,5% salary increase. Sadtu spokesperson Jon Lewis said an estimated 30Â 000 people marched through the streets of Johannesburg.
Minister: Teachers’ strike ‘ill-timed’
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/ 1 September 2004
Unjustified complaints about delays in the approval process of the controversial Roodefontein golf estate development made former Western Cape environmental director Ingrid Coetzee feel like she was being blackmailed, she told the Bellville Regional Court on Wednesday where she was under cross-examination for a second day.
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/ 1 September 2004
Nine people were still not accounted for by Wednesday afternoon after a gas explosion that claimed six lives at Sasol’s Secunda plant, police said. A spokesperson for the petrochemical company, Johann van Rheede, told reporters on the scene that more than 100 people were injured in the blast in Sasol’s ethylene plant.
On a national tour ahead of the floor-crossing window for councillors, Inkatha Freedom Party national chairperson Ziba Jiyane is stressing its ”centre-right” position and its standpoint on family values. He also criticised the appointment of women with wealthy husbands in jobs above breadwinners.
Police were preparing on Friday to exhume the body of a six-year-old boy whose head was found in a man’s refrigerator at Ntunda Trust near Tonga, Mpumalanga, on Thursday. Police spokesperson Inspector Leonard Hlathi said a 32-year-old man had been arrested and was going to show police where the boy’s body was buried.
Mining magnate Patrice Motsepe this week unveiled the first full-year results of his new company African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) while revealing the next, and probably most interesting, chapter in his career. The results show how far Motsepe has come as a mining entrepreneur — and the hard work that lies ahead in turning ARM into a world-class diversified resources company.
A total of 118 South African women have discovered since the beginning of the month that they had been married without their knowledge, the Home Affairs Department said on Wednesday. This emerged from a campaign urging women to check their marital status on the department’s records in a bid to curb the problem of fraudulent marriages, the department said in a statement.
More than 40 South African women have discovered that they had been married without their knowledge, the Home Affairs Department said on Thursday. They were among about 2 000 women checking their marital status on the department’s records, as part of a campaign to curb the problem of women being unknowingly married to foreigners.
The author Frederick Forsythe observed recently that if a train driver made a grievous error that cost lives, he would not walk away grinning. If an airline pilot did the same he’d probably never fly again. If the driver of a train fell asleep and caused a smash he’d end up in jail. But, considering recent events, it appears that politicians and their manadarins are exempt from all such responsibility.
Former housing minister Sankie Mthemba-Mahanyele is to ask the Constitutional Court for special leave to appeal a court ruling that she may not sue the Mail & Guardian for publishing a defamatory story about her. In a statement on Wednesday, Mthemba-Mahanyele welcomed a decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal that politicians did have standing to sue for defamation.