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/ 10 October 2005
The wage strike at retail chain Clicks, owned by listed health and beauty group New Clicks Holdings, entered its fourth day on Monday with all Clicks stores open and operating as usual, Clicks said. Michael Harvey, brand leader of Clicks, estimated that 70% to 80% of staff within the bargaining unit in Gauteng remained away from work through Monday.
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/ 10 October 2005
The condition of a 46-year-old Southern Cape farm labourer hospitalised with Congo fever was deteriorating on Monday morning, said Western Cape health official Dr Keith Cloete. The unnamed man, a farm labourer from the Riversdale area, was admitted to Groote Schuur hospital on October 5.
Western Province boosted their confidence ahead of their home semifinal against Free State by beating the Lions 23-17 in their Currie Cup clash at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday evening. In Bloemfontein, the Free State Cheetahs put in a morale-boosting 17-3 win over the Sharks.
President Thabo Mbeki on Friday accused the countries of the North of having the wherewithal, but lacking sufficient will to help end poverty in Africa. He said recent events in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the Moroccan coast have brought into sharp international focus the fact that Spain is facing a new invasion from the South.
Strike action by staff of beauty and pharmacy retailer Clicks who are members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union was under way across the country on Friday, although most stores were open, both the union and New Clicks said.
The chairperson of Skandia Insurance, Bernt Magnusson, has decided to resign from the company’s board due to differences of opinion with fellow board members about Old Mutual’s bid for the firm, AFX reported from Stockholm on Friday. The board of the Swedish insurer was split over the R38-billion bid from Old Mutual.
Brett Kebble’s funeral was reminiscent of the Eighties. With the flag-draped coffin, the national anthem reverberating through St George’s Cathedral and a guard of honour by the African National Congress Youth League, his life ended in a struggle send-off.
Marine scientists from South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) were part of a group of international scientists studying a female great white shark, which crossed the Indian Ocean from South Africa to Australia and back within a record-breaking 99 days, DEAT reported on Thursday.
Creditors of DRDGold’s North West operations, including organised labour, have approved the planned R45-million acquisition of the Buffelsfontein Gold Mines by listed mining group Simmer & Jack Mines, Simmers said on Thursday. The approval from creditors comes hours after permission from the Competition Commission was granted for the arrangement.
It is ”patently obvious” that the rights of patients in state hospitals are not being respected and that urgent action is needed, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. DA MP and health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard released a damning report on the country’s ”five worst hospitals” during a press conference at Parliament.
Listed beauty, health and pharmacy retailer New Clicks is facing strike action by members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union, who are set to embark on what they termed would be a "protracted" stayaway over wage differences starting on Friday.
Africa won the battle of the continents on Tuesday when Team Shosholoza chalked up her third victory of the week-long Trapani Louis Vuitton Act 8 off Sicily with a walk-over win of four minutes and 22 seconds against China Team.
According to the latest Absa house-price index, nominal house prices rose by 17,6% year-on-year in September, versus a revised 19,6% in August, the lowest year-on-year growth since December 2002, when it was 17,3%. On a month-on-month basis, nominal growth in house prices was 0,6% in September.
The grieving father of murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble told mourners at his son’s funeral service in Cape Town on Tuesday that he would do everything in his power to get to the bottom of his son’s murder. ”Of one thing I am sure, I will do all within my power to get to the bottom of Brett’s death,” vowed Roger Kebble.
Some of the media were ignoring Brett Kebble’s fundamental right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, said Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency, at the mining magnate’s funeral in Cape Town on Tuesday. Pahad said Kebble’s murder has thrown into sharp relief the relationship between rights and responsibilities under the South African Constitution.
Listed hospital group Medi-Clinic on Monday announced a black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction valued at R1,1-billion in which it plans to sell a 15% equity stake to strategic black empowerment partners (with 11%) and participating Medi-Clinic staff (4%), based on a share price of R18,40 per Medi-Clinic share.
There were thrills, spills, breakages and plenty of action in the Trapani Louis Vuitton Act 8 off Sicily on Monday where the 12 teams from 10 nations across five continents entered for the America’s Cup in 2007 battled for supremacy on the penultimate day of match racing.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) claimed to have shut down the clothing industry in the Western Cape on Monday during a one-day strike in the province and in the Eastern Cape. But a Western Cape clothing-industry spokesperson described the shutdown claim as ”a joke”.
Only a few thousand people turned up to march through central Cape Town on Monday as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) called a one-day strike in protest against job losses. About 27 000 turned up for a similar march in June this year, but police said Monday’s total was only about 5 000.
Cape Town High Court Judge Burton Fourie dismissed the Democratic Alliance’s floor-crossing appeal with costs on Monday. This means the DA has lost its fight to have the National Assembly seats of Dan Maluleke, Richard Ntuli, Enyinna Nkem-Abonta, Bheki Mnyandu and Craig Morkel retained by the party.
About 50 Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) members on Sunday shackled themselves to railings at Parliament in Cape Town to highlight their jobs and poverty campaign. Cosatu’s Eastern Cape provincial secretary said marches would start at 10am on Monday in East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and Queenstown.
Four people died when a Red Cross helicopter crashed near Uniondale in the Western Cape, the South African Red Cross Air Mercy Service said on Monday. The Eurocopter BO105 helicopter crashed on Sunday night with a patient and three crew members aboard. The wreckage was found at first light on Monday.
Two Cape Flats girls found murdered last week were laid to rest on Saturday, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported. Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo said at the funeral of three-year-old Joey Joseph that the community of Delft will stand together to fight incidents of this nature.
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/ 30 September 2005
President Thabo Mbeki has rejected criticism that the African Peer-Review Mechanism (APRM) will be ineffective because of its voluntary nature. Writing in the African National Congress’s online publication, ANC Today, on Friday, he said the process enables each African country to assess the progress it is making towards achieving shared goals.
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/ 30 September 2005
Without institutional autonomy and bold leadership, diversity of language in higher education in South Africa will not survive, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. Furthermore, the autonomy of universities is in itself important, he said in his weekly newsletter on the DA’s website on Friday.
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/ 30 September 2005
Several organisations on Friday cautioned against reports indicating that mass circumcisions could help prevent the spread of HIV. ”HIV cannot be prevented by mass circumcisions,” read a statement from the National Organisation of Circumcision Information Resource Centres South Africa.
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/ 29 September 2005
The South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union said on Thursday it was disappointed at the government’s decision to close down a domestic skills project. The project was a sector education and training authority initiative targeting the country’s estimated 1,5-million domestic workers.
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/ 28 September 2005
Schoolchildren in the Eastern Cape should not have to bear the brunt of the province’s poor budget planning, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. The DA’s Helen Zille appealed to the minister of education to intervene to stop the province from implementing proposed severe budget cuts to the school feeding scheme.
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/ 28 September 2005
Western Province have made four changes — three enforced through injury — to their starting line-up for Saturday’s Currie Cup match against the Sharks in Durban. Egon Seconds and Gus Theron will be on the wings as Zhahier Ryland and Tonderai Chavhanga have been forced on to the sidelines with injuries.
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/ 28 September 2005
Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) has been named one of South Africa’s top three leading business-school brands in the Markinor/<i>Sunday Times</i> Top Brands survey for 2005, released this week. It achieved third place in the survey.
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/ 28 September 2005
Listed diversified black economic empowerment (BEE) company Mvelaphanda Group (Mvela) will acquire a further effective 2,47% stake in banking group Absa, the company said on Wednesday. This follows an agreement with Mvelaphanda Holdings and BEE group Batho Bonke.
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/ 27 September 2005
The Fourth National Swedish Pension Fund said on Tuesday it will reject the R38-billion offer by South African insurer Old Mutual to purchase Skandia Insurance Company, making it the second state pension fund to do so after Skandia’s board would not recommend the offer the shareholders.