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/ 14 October 2004
A Kempton Park woman who looks after street children has alleged that cases involving police in the Ekurhuleni area do not receive the necessary attention, but the police have denied this. ”The Ekurhuleni Metro Police have held guns against the heads of street children,” alleged Siphumelele ministries founder Elsabe Coetzee.
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/ 13 October 2004
South African transport utility Transnet is not a job creation agent and the best contribution it can make is not to grow its number of jobs, says Transnet CEO Mario Ramos. She was addressing the National Assembly public enterprises portfolio committee on Wednesday.
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/ 13 October 2004
Two districts in the Western Cape, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu/Nyanga, have HIV rates touching 30%. This translates into at least one in four people being HIV-positive. A disrict survey done at 374 facilities, involving the testing of 5 964 people, revealed that Gugulethu/Nyanga had a prevalence rate of 28,1%, Khayelitsha 27,2%, Helderberg 19,1%, Oostenberg 16,1%, Knysna/Plettenberg Bay 15,6% and Caledon/Hermanus 14,2%.
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/ 12 October 2004
The Noupoort Christian Care Centre (NCCC), the controversial drug rehabilitation facility, is to ask the High Court to review a decision by Director General of Social Development Vusi Madonsela to close it down. The NCCC’s attorney said the NCCC has been treated unfairly by the department and will oppose its closure ”all the way”.
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/ 12 October 2004
The Democratic Alliance has called for the trustees of the South African National Aids Trust, including Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, to appear before Parliament’s health portfolio committee to account for the trust’s activities.
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/ 12 October 2004
The South African government was close to a decision on rail restructuring, South Africa’s Public Enterprises Department director general Eugene Mokeyane told parliamentarians on Tuesday. He said: ”Government is gearing towards a policy decision to move forward with rail restructuring and the underlying restructuring models.”
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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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/ 12 October 2004
Black economic empowerment (BEE) financial services group Arch Equity is rapidly building up its asset base to become one of the largest BEE players in the Western Cape, with plans to list on the JSE Securities Exchange before year-end. CEO Desmond Lockey said the company has already started the process to list the company on the JSE.
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/ 12 October 2004
Ordinary South Africans on Monday celebrated a decade of democracy by sharing with Parliament their experiences of the ”rainbow nation”, whose post-apartheid Constitution ensures equality for all. But many of the 150 participants who attended the special session complained that the black majority were still sidetracked after decades of oppression, and formed the main chunk of the jobless.
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/ 11 October 2004
The share price of financial services group PSG Group jumped as high as 14,2% or 57 cents in afternoon trade on Monday after the group reported a 19,6% rise in its headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of August 2004, to 36,9 cents from 33,1 cents a year earlier.
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/ 11 October 2004
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has told traditional leaders that he has long been concerned that the South African government lacks the resolve to address ”the issue of the obliteration of the powers and functions of amakhosi [traditional leaders]” through the imposition of municipalities.
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/ 11 October 2004
The New National Party held its 86th provincial conference in KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend at which its provincial leader Renier Schoeman was unanimously re-elected and former provincial legislature member Brian Edwards became provincial chairperson.
The run-up to the Schabir Shaik corruption trial starting in Durban on Monday has seen the media sharply focusing on the main players in the upcoming drama — even the judge. On Friday, it emerged that Squires also served as a politician and tough justice minister in the then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1970s under Ian Smith.
A policeman was killed by armed robbers in Khayelitsha who were trying to steal his firearm, police said on Friday. Constable Chimani Lucwaba was driving with a colleague along Sigenele Road on Thursday evening when he was approached by four men, one of whom was armed, said police spokesperson Captain Billy Jones.
The Treatment Action Campaign — a South African ant-Aids lobby group –and its leader, Zackie Achmat, are joint nominees for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, to be announced on Friday. ”There could not be a better recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize than somebody who has contributed to save about 20 million people,” said Dr Eric Goemaere, head of Medicins Sans Frontieres South Africa.
The South African Cabinet has urged members of the media to respect the dignity of the office of Deputy President Jacob Zuma ”and not (to) impugn his integrity on the basis of allegations not proven in a court of law”. Government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe noted the Cabinet as saying: ”With regard to matters relating to the deputy president in particular, government has noted his public response to the allegations, and takes him at his word.”
The horror and trauma of being in Pollsmoor Prison, awaiting trial, has left him feeling like a ”piece of human garbage”, convicted paedophile Wiliam John Creasey told the Wynberg Regional Court on Tuesday. After his tearful outbursts on Monday brought his trial to a halt, he assured defence attorney Van Zyl Loots that he was sufficiently recomposed to proceed with his testimony in mitigation of sentence.
South Africa’s Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils says the polarised world order of the Cold War era has given way to ”more uncertainty and unpredictability,” but this new order was here to stay. Kasrils was speaking at a national security conference in Pretoria — on the theme ”Reviewing National Security after 10 Years of Democracy” — on Tuesday.
Tearful outbursts by convicted paedophile William John Creasey on Monday brought his trial in the Wynberg Regional Court to a halt. The 55-year-old teacher is to be sentenced, probably this week, on nine counts of indecent assault involving three teenage boys, and for possession of child pornography.
In what the Scorpions described as an ”historic development” the elite unit registered the Western Cape’s first racketeering and money laundering conviction against the ”Marx syndicate”. Members of the notorious perlemoen smuggling gang were convicted in the Hermanus Regional Court on Thursday afternoon, said Scorpions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema.
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/ 30 September 2004
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has welcomed a commitment by Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk to complete a strategic environmental assessment in Pondoland, an ecologically sensitive area of the Eastern Cape currently under threat from mining and the construction of a toll road.
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/ 29 September 2004
Experts say childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions worldwide, with 155-million school age kids overweight or just plain fat. South Africa is no exception. According to the Heart Foundation, 12% of children in the country are
obese.
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/ 29 September 2004
South African President Thabo Mbeki has poked fun at newspaper speculation about his successor, saying two correct predictions had been made. He stated at the South African Local Government Association conference at a convention centre in Cape Town on Wednesday: ”I have been told that some in our media have very recently been involved in a strange debate evidently to answer the question — what happens when Mbeki goes?!”
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/ 28 September 2004
Gun shop owners are taking the police to court in a bid to get information on the workings of the central firearm registry. This comes in the wake of reports that no legal firearms have been sold in South Africa since the new and tougher firearms Act came into force on July 1.
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/ 28 September 2004
Food retailer Pick ‘n Pay has donated over 800 computer workstations to the Shuttleworth Foundation’s tuXlab programme to assist them in their drive to increase the usage of open source software in South African schools. This single donation will enable the establishment of tuXlabs in up to 40 schools.
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/ 28 September 2004
President Thabo Mbeki has strongly criticised those intent on continuing political assassinations reminiscent of the apartheid regime, vowing that perpetrators will be brought to book. Writing in his weekly newsletter on Monday, he referred to last week’s murder of the former speaker of the Estcourt Municipal Council, Stanley Chetty, who had switched to the ANC during the recent floor-crossing period.
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/ 28 September 2004
Banking group Absa on Monday moved to allay employees’ fears of retrenchments following discussions with England’s Barclays Bank about them buying a controlling stake in Absa. ”This transaction, if it happens, is about growth and leadership, not retrenchment,” said Absa group executive Steve Booysen in an open letter to staff and customers.
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/ 27 September 2004
The Scorpions on Monday arrested a fourth man as a result of their ongoing investigations in conjunction with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) into the alleged fraudulent activities of the former joint chief executives of Leisurenet, Peter Gardener and Rodney Mitchell.
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/ 23 September 2004
Victorious political parties reacted with glee on Thursday to 19 municipal by-elections held around the country the day before. In KwaZulu-Natal, the African National Congress was in a jubilant mood after gaining victories in three by-elections in rural areas, previously regarded as Inkatha Freedom Party strongholds.
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/ 22 September 2004
The drop in matric passes at higher-grade level poses a serious dilemma for the Department of Education, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. The department has announced its intention to introduce a single senior-certificate examination and scrap the current distinction between the standard and higher grade.
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/ 21 September 2004
The madness of the floor-crossing period for municipal government councillors is over and once again the ruling African National Congress has snatched up swathes of support from the opposition. In the period of September 1 to 15, it reaped 326 councillors and only lost four to the opposition — two of them to Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats.
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/ 21 September 2004
After a year of research and consultations with the local aerospace industry, the South African government has decided to help support growth in the industry through the creation of a joint institution, called the Aerospace Industry Support Initiative, according to Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa.