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/ 16 September 2004
Briefing the media at Parliament on Thursday, the Democratic Alliance accused the African National Congress of using opportunistic enticements to lure municipal councillors during the 15-day floor crossing period, and vowed to look into the possibility of amending the relevant legislation.
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/ 16 September 2004
SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer by volume, has declined to comment on Thursday on media reports that the group is in talks regarding a possible joint acquisition of Canada’s Molson. SABMiller spokesperson Nigel Fairbrass said the group couldn’t comment on Thursday’s report in the <i>Wall Street Journal Europe</i>,
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/ 16 September 2004
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has spoken out against the trend of exorbitantly high salaries and greed among professionals, and has called instead for them to give something back to help to reduce the growing levels of inequality and poverty in the country.
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/ 15 September 2004
Black economic empowerment company Akani Leisure Investments has taken over the Halcyon Hotels Group — which includes in its portfolio the prestigious Bay hotel and Blues restaurant in Camps Bay. The acquisition represents the first major empowerment transaction at the top end of the Western Cape hospitality industry.
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/ 15 September 2004
A hemp growing project which offers hope to small farmers in the poverty stricken Eastern Cape could be derailed because hemp is still an illegal substance. Department of Health rules which lump hemp together with dagga could scupper plans for the effective mass production and marketing of the fibrous plant.
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/ 15 September 2004
The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) on Tuesday evening threatened a consumer boycott of all SA Breweries products if some of their members were not reinstated. ”We will take the matter forward. Some issues we will take up seriously, including a total boycott of SAB products until such time as the matter is resolved,” said Fawu president Patrick Jonson, one of a group of about 20 Fawu members who chained and shackled themselves outside SAB’s Newlands depot.
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/ 14 September 2004
A new draft Bill, which will govern the tobacco industry, will grant the minister of health the power to issue regulations on the performance standard that all cigarettes sold in South Africa will have to meet, a top official told MPs on Tuesday. A cigarette will be required to ”self-extinguish after a few minutes if it is not puffed upon”.
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/ 14 September 2004
The government, led by Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, is set to carry on negotiations with public-sector unions on Tuesday evening, following a failure to reach agreement over Thursday’s threatened public-sector strike. The minister said the government is doing everything in its power to avert a strike.
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/ 14 September 2004
South African furniture, electronic goods and appliances retailer Lewis Group has opened the book building process for its initial public offering and listing on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa, in which it plans to offer to the public 40-million ordinary shares of one cent each.
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/ 13 September 2004
The department of health is being taken to court again by Aids pressure group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which is demanding the department release its detailed anti-retroviral rollout programme. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has already filed notice of her intention to oppose it.
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/ 13 September 2004
Mark Thatcher’s lawyers are in the Cape High Court on Monday to challenge a subpoena compelling their client to appear in court to answer questions from Equatorial Guinea prosecutors. ”An urgent review application is being brought in the Cape High Court in order to challenge a range of aspects relating to the subpoena,” said a member of the defence team.
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/ 11 September 2004
The search for Cape Town’s missing hippo was set to take to the air late on Saturday morning as nature conservation officials prepared to board a helicopter to view Zeekoevlei where the animal is hiding. Game capture expert Douw Grobler has been flown in from the Limpopo province to assist with the recapture of the animal.
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/ 11 September 2004
Former president Nelson Mandela has complained about South Africans who want to quickly amass wealth instead of helping others develop. It was at the level of ”what we once referred to as the RDP of the soul” that the nation seemed to ”crucially fallen behind” since the attainment of democracy, he said on Friday.
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/ 10 September 2004
Beer giant South African Breweries (SAB) says its lawyers are considering whether to appeal a Labour Court judgement that it wrongly dismissed 115 workers in 2001. The announcement was made on Friday to a group of about 40 of the workers who gathered at the gates of the company’s brewery in Newlands, Cape Town, demanding to be taken back into service.
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/ 9 September 2004
Nelson Mandela is neither a god nor a saint, he’s got vices and virtues like any other person, says his personal assistant Zelda la Grange.
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/ 9 September 2004
Women in labour so intoxicated they do not know they are giving birth, children fed alcohol to keep them quiet, and low grade wine cheaper than bread. These are realities in South Africa, the country with the worst foetal alcohol syndrome in the world.
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/ 8 September 2004
South Africa’s state-owned arms manufacturing and marketing company, Denel, "is practically at the doorstep of bankruptcy", CEO Victor Moche told MPs on Wednesday. However, he said there is light at the end of the tunnel if the entity focuses on research and development and balancing its budget.
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/ 8 September 2004
A lawyer for alleged Equatorial Guinea coup plotter Mark Thatcher confirmed on Wednesday that a subpoena had been issued for his client’s appearance in the Wynberg Regional Court. ”We still have to examine the subpoena,” said Alan Bruce-Brand. Bruce-Brand said the subpoena provided for Thatcher to go for questioning at the court on September 22.
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/ 7 September 2004
Plans to eradicate alien weeds infesting Southern Africa’s rivers have been ”indefinitely” derailed by administrative delays, a World Bank official confirmed on Wednesday. A multimillion-dollar Southern African Development Community anti-infestation project was due to start last year, but has been delayed.
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/ 6 September 2004
The Democratic Alliance on Monday welcomed another six municipal councillors to its ranks, bring its total countrywide to 1 022. In a speech prepared for delivery to a meeting of the DA’s Cape Town Unicity caucus, Leon said 40 councillors have now crossed over to the DA in the two-week floor-crossing period.
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/ 5 September 2004
A total of 5 138 firearms, mostly illegal have been destroyed during an ongoing firearm operation since last year in the Western Cape. Police spokesperson Superintendent Riaan Pool said the ongoing operation started on September 2003 and has seen about 967 people being arrested for possession of illegal firearms.
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/ 3 September 2004
South Africa’s official opposition leader, Tony Leon, says that Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats and Pieter Mulder’s Freedom Front Plus are the handmaidens of one-party dominance by the African National Congress and accuses the two opposition parties of existing only through ”cannibalising the opposition”.
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/ 3 September 2004
Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri on Thursday announced a number of policy interventions to speed up growth in the information communications technology (ICT) sector, remove constraints, and reduce costs. Briefing the media at Parliament, she said from February 1 next year cellphone operators would be able to use any fixed lines they might need to provide services.
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/ 2 September 2004
The publication by ThisDay newspaper of a list of 136 MPs ”fingered” in the travel voucher investigation adds nothing of value to the public’s understanding of the issues involved, said South Africa’s ruling African National Congress on Thursday. ”The report borders on being malicious and slanderous,” said an ANC spokesperson.
Travelgate: R17m now owed
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/ 2 September 2004
The strike by some South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) members is ill-timed and has the potential of disrupting learning and teaching in schools, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Thursday. Sadtu planned protest marches on Thursday in all nine provinces.
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/ 2 September 2004
A special initiative to rid Africa of vast stockpiles of poisonous, obsolete chemical pesticides posing serious health risks has been launched by the African Stockpiles Programme (ASP). ASP plans to get rid of an estimated 50 000 tons of toxic pesticides and waste, as well as tens of thousands of tons of contaminated soil.
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/ 2 September 2004
Twenty dams will be built over the next 20 years at the cost of R21-billion, Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said in Cape Town on Wednesday. Addressing the media at a post-Cabinet briefing, Sonjica said the Cabinet had approved South Africa’s first national water resource strategy, which would ensure that ”we use our nation’s limited water resources to achieve a better life for all South Africans”.
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/ 1 September 2004
The Democratic Alliance has welcomed the appointment of Silas Ramaite as the new acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, saying he has a tough crime-busting profile. Ramaite was formerly deputy to Bulelani Ngcuka, who vacated the national director post on Tuesday.
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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
National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, speaking to the Cape Town Press Club on Wednesday, said the amount owed to Parliament through the irregular use of parliamentary travel vouchers has risen to R17-million. Previous figures provided by Parliament amounted to between R13-million and R14-million.
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/ 1 September 2004
The Independent Democrats welcomed 18 municipal councillors — mainly from the New National Party — to its ranks on Wednesday, the first day of the two-week period for councillors to change parties without losing their seats. Former NNP Cape Town councillor David Sassman said the NNP ”sold out to the highest bidder”.