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/ 16 November 2004
Alleged drunk driver Benjamin Kleinbooi’s car could end up with Toyota’s financial services division, rather than being forfeited to the state, it emerged on Monday. Kleinbooi’s Toyota Corolla was attached last week by the Asset Forfeiture Unit under a High Court order, after his two drunk driving arrests earlier this year.
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/ 15 November 2004
Listed retailer Woolworths Holdings plans to repurchase R1-billion of its own shares using the proceeds from a securitisation of its in-store card book, the company revealed on Monday. The move could possibly be in preparation for a future black economic empowerment deal.
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/ 15 November 2004
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Monday that an elderly swimmer had been reported missing after a ”huge” great white shark was spotted at Fish Hoek near Cape Town on Monday morning. NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said a full-scale search was under way for the elderly woman.
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/ 12 November 2004
The leaders and people of Israel and Palestine should honour the memories of Yasser Arafat and slain Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by acting practically to achieve the ”peace of the brave”, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. He was paying tribute to the late Palestinian president in his weekly ANC Today newsletter.
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/ 12 November 2004
Despite criticism he is beholden to the interests of big business, recently re-elected United States President George Bush appears to have driven a strong, principled and effective pro-Africa policy, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. ”There are aspects of the Bush presidency that deserve a closer look,” Leon states in his weekly newsletter.
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/ 12 November 2004
Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa started the debate in the National Assembly on Friday morning on the National Small Business Amendment Bill, which he said is aimed at reducing duplication of institutions underpinning small-business development.
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/ 11 November 2004
In a precedent-setting decision, the Cape High Court on Thursday ordered the attachment of the car of a Western Cape man arrested for drunken driving. ”This is the first, and we expect to do a lot more, particularly over the festive season,” said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Sipho Ngwema.
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/ 11 November 2004
If you’re concerned about cancer, skip the braai but enjoy the biltong, say researchers at the University of the Free State. In a paper published in the latest issue of the South African Medical Journal, they have described the results of a battery of tests on nine volunteers fed a biltong-enriched diet over five days.
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/ 11 November 2004
Democratic Alliance Western Cape chairperson Kent Morkel says a claim that he took a bribe is "utter nonsense". Micro-loan provider Gilt Edged Management Services on Wednesday agreed to pay R65-million in fines and compensation on two counts of corruption, one of which involved an alleged R10 000 bribe to Morkel.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125339">DA man linked to loan scam</a>
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/ 11 November 2004
South Africa’s largest commercial banking group, Nedcor, has confirmed its previous earnings forecasts for the financial year to the end of December, saying on Thursday it expects its headline earnings per share (excluding translation gains or losses) to be between 6% and 19% lower than the 502 cents per share reported in 2003.
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/ 11 November 2004
South African President Thabo Mbeki has joined the international community in expressing sorrow and a deep sense of sadness at the passing away "of that icon of the Palestinian struggle, President Yasser Arafat". The ruling African National Congress and other parties have also paid tribute to Arafat.
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/ 10 November 2004
Senior Democratic Alliance politician Kent Morkel has been accused of taking a bribe in a multimillion-rand corruption case that came before the Cape High Court on Wednesday. In a plea-bargain agreement, micro-loan provider Gilt Edged Management Services consented to fines totalling R5-million on two counts of corruption.
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/ 10 November 2004
Listed retailer Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon) has reported an 88% rise in its headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of September 2004 to 968 cents, from 516 cents a year earlier. The group doubled its interim dividend while maintaining two times earnings cover, to 494 cents per share from 247 cents in 2003.
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/ 10 November 2004
Cape Town has taken its next step in improving tourist services in the region with the launch of Cape Town Tourism’s new united corporate identity. Cape Town Tourism was previously the bureau responsible for the CBD, Waterfront and Atlantic Seaboard areas only.
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/ 9 November 2004
The sale of Thintana’s remaining 15,1% in Telkom to an elite, government-aligned consortium is an example of an opportunity lost for broad-based empowerment and an unusually unfortunate example of crony capitalism, says shadow communications minister Dene Smuts.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&a=12&o=141486">Telkom welcomes BEE partner</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel took aim on Tuesday at excessive fees charged by insurance companies administering retirement funds. Manuel said while the taxation of pension funds remains "an ongoing concern", this is also true for fees charged.
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/ 9 November 2004
Telkom, South Africa’s partially privatised fixed-line telephone company, will announce its proposed tariffs for next year on Monday, says Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxasana. "With inflation being where it is, we can expect Telkom’s tariffs to be even much lower [sic]," Nxasana told the National Assembly communications portfolio committee on Tuesday.
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/ 9 November 2004
Italian prosecutors are hoping that a former South African police officer now in a psychiatric clinic may be able to testify in Italy at alleged Mafioso Vito Palazzolo’s trial in absentia. The police officer, Abraham Smith, broke down last week when he took the stand.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125190">Count Agusta link probed</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125163">Failed bid to charge Palazzolo</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
A traditional surgeon who allegedly performed an illegal circumcision on a 48-year-old man is to be prosecuted, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. Kupelo said the circumcision season has just started, with more than 30 boys in the Port Elizabeth area queuing for pre-circumcision medical tests on Tuesday.
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/ 9 November 2004
A final report on the Jali Commission’s investigation into corruption and maladministration in prisons is being compiled, with gun smuggling one of the issues addressed. ”C-Max is one of the prisons that fall in the nine management areas we looked at,” said commission secretary Charles Frank on Tuesday.
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/ 8 November 2004
An Italian prosecutor on Monday sought to probe the link between alleged Mafioso Vito Palazzolo and Count Riccardo Agusta, who achieved notoriety in the Roodefontein saga. The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court is hearing evidence for Palazzolo’s trial in absentia in Italy.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125163">Failed bid to charge Palazzolo</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125147">Stressed policeman unfit to testify</a>
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/ 8 November 2004
Sun International has consolidated its leading position in South Africa’s R7,34-billion casino industry over the past year, and is now ready to pursue regional and international opportunities in the gaming, hotel and resort sectors, according to CEO Peter Bacon.
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/ 8 November 2004
A veteran South African detective on Monday told how his bid to have Vito Palazzolo charged with corruption was turned down by the Western Cape’s director of prosecutions. "I thought I had a case," said Leonard Knipe, who was national head of serious and violent crime before he retired from the police.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125147">Stressed policeman unfit to testify</a>
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/ 8 November 2004
Stressed former police officer Abraham Smith is unfit to give evidence at the Palazzolo inquiry, a clinical psychologist said on Monday. Psychologist Petrus Roux was called to testify at the hearing in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court after Smith broke down in the stand last week and was admitted to a clinic.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125069">Italian judge criticises SA magistrate</a>
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/ 5 November 2004
A letter from an Italian judge, which is apparently strongly critical of the way a South African magistrate has been dealing with the Palazzolo hearings, was handed in to the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday. The court is overseeing the questioning of witnesses whose testimony will be used in alleged Mafioso’s Vito Palazzolo’s trial in absentia in Italy.
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/ 5 November 2004
South Africa’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, says small and medium businesses should be excluded from costly — and bureaucratic — burdens imposed by the Employment Equity Act. Charges of alleged employment-equity violations against eight KwaZulu-Natal clothing companies will cost thousands of jobs, the DA said.
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/ 4 November 2004
Politicians and members of the judiciary, with the exception of magistrates, are to receive a maximum salary increase of 6% this year, the Presidency announced on Thursday. Mbeki’s decision comes after the recommendations of the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers.
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/ 4 November 2004
A crowd of Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) activists marched to Parliament on Thursday as part of a national demonstration calling for the government to pay the TAC’s costs in recent litigation. The spirited protesters toyi-toyied and chanted their way down several blocks in the city centre, bringing traffic to a standstill.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124964">Slow start in treating Aids kids</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124826">TAC to challenge Dept of Health in court</a>
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/ 4 November 2004
Alleged Mafia kingpin Vito Palazzolo is suing top police investigator Captain Piet Viljoen and a former member of the organised crime unit for R5-million each for defamation. Advocate Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau, who has acted as a consultant to Palazzolo, revealed this on Monday in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
Magistrate calls for change in the law
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/ 4 November 2004
Matric results in mathematics, so poor they are a ”crisis of performance”, remain as a legacy of apartheid, a forthcoming publication has found. Focusing on maths, because of the range of career choices it provides, Professor Servaas van der Berg looked at an education system that by world and African standards is a poor performer.