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/ 8 December 2003
Amid a new wave of circumcision deaths and arrests, Eastern Cape traditional leaders continue to reject the province’s clampdown on illegal circumcision schools. The head of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa in the province said on Monday that chiefs are ”extremely unhappy”.
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/ 8 December 2003
The Civil Aviation Authority said on Monday that the final report into the circumstances surrounding the air crash that killed former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and two pilots will be released in February. An outstanding report regarding an aircraft component has been received from the United States.
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/ 8 December 2003
Global automobile giant DaimlerChrysler has opted to postpone for several weeks the announcement of the company’s decision regarding the expansion of its South African production plant in East London, originally expected last week. The expansion would involve additional foreign investment of more than R1-billion.
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/ 5 December 2003
President Thabo Mbeki on Friday slated South Africa’s leading petrochemical company, Sasol, for bad-mouthing black empowerment in a submission to the New York Stock Exchange.Mbeki said Sasol has presented black empowerment as a potential negative factor in terms of its performance as a publicly listed company.
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/ 4 December 2003
Two more circumcision deaths were reported in the Eastern Cape on Thursday as provincial health authorities continue their battle against illegal initiation schools. The deaths — one at Barkly East, the other at Maclear — brought the total to seven in the past three weeks.
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/ 4 December 2003
The high value of the rand, so damaging in many other respects, offers a rare opportunity to act against exchange controls without fear of money leaving the country too quickly, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. This step, unlike interest rate cuts, lies uniquely in the hands of the government, he says.
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/ 4 December 2003
The battle for the heart of the official opposition Democratic Alliance has begun with old National Party adherents, old Democratic Party followers, and former coloured Labour Party interests fighting it out for key positions on the Western Cape provincial lists for the legislature and Parliament.
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/ 4 December 2003
Anglo American Farms said on Thursday it has, "after a rigorous two-year process", sold the Boschendal wine farm, located outside Franschhoek in South Africa’s winelands, to a consortium of investors with a 30% empowerment stake for a total consideration of R323-million.
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/ 2 December 2003
The Aids pressure group Treatment Action Campaign and its chairperson, Zackie Achmat, have been nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. The nomination from the American Friends Service Committee says Achmat and the TAC have made ”a significant contribution to the global struggle against Aids”.
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/ 1 December 2003
U2 lead singer Bono made a surprise appearance at a sparsely attended Aids Day rally organised by the Treatment Action Campaign and Cosatu in the Cape Town city hall, and told HIV-positive people they were "the real heroes".
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=24282">Good news, devastation predicted</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=24272">Take the test</a>
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/ 1 December 2003
South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma is to visit the United States from Wednesday for talks with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the UN Security Council, on UN involvement in further advancing the Burundi peace process. The deputy president is due to meet Annan and the council on Thursday.
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/ 1 December 2003
The African National Congress is to meet a delegation from the Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Monday. The delegation will be led by the LTTE Peace Secretariat Secretary General S Puleedevan, the ANC said in a statement.
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/ 1 December 2003
South Africa’s University of the Western Cape (UWC) has received funding of R1-million to be used to upgrade its infrastructure and finance ongoing training and development initiatives of its department of science and biotechnology from global bioinformatics company Electric Genetics.
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/ 1 December 2003
On World Aids Day, South African opposition party the Independent Democrats has urged politicians to take a public HIV/Aids test. Politicians in the country are not setting an example, the party has argued.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=24251">Free drugs offer hope against Aids</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=24270">NGOs challenge govt on rape drugs</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=24253&t=1">China crisis</a>
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/ 1 December 2003
Still waiting for long-promised reparations payments, members of an apartheid victims support group disrupted a healing ceremony held in their honour on Sunday by lawmakers and religious leaders. They forced their way into a VIP tent after organisers told them to sit outside.
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/ 30 November 2003
A musical appeal was made on Saturday at the 46664 concert to governments and ordinary people to take up the fight against Aids and to recognise it as a human rights issue. Greenpoint Stadium was filled to capacity with 45 000 people as musicians like Bono, Johnny Clegg and Bob Geldof sang for those infected with the HI virus.
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/ 28 November 2003
Two of the country’s foremost media personalities squared off at a Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa tribunal on Friday. <i>Mail & Guardian</i> columnist Robert Kirby had lodged a complaint against SABC broadcaster Jeremy Maggs, following remarks made by Maggs on air in September.
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/ 27 November 2003
Court papers have been served on South Africa’s four largest political parties in an attempt to compel them to reveal the source of all large private donations made into their coffers since January 1 this year. The legal action, launched by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), is to be heard in court, probably in February.
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/ 27 November 2003
The Cape Town metropolitan municipality and the Overstrand local municipality, both in the Western Cape, have each received a prize of R1-million for being the cleanest towns in South Africa. Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Valli Moosa handed over the prizes to the winners of the cleanest town competition in Cape Town on Thursday.
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/ 27 November 2003
Governments around the world are being called on to increase their commitment to the production of renewable energies and to level the playing field when it comes to costs and subsidies. This follows the Second World Wind Energy Conference, attended by delegates from 40 countries, which ended in Cape Town on Wednesday.
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/ 26 November 2003
President Thabo Mbeki says inappropriate rewards for top management are a concern in both the private and public sectors, but the government has no intention of intervening. "Government has neither the power nor the intention to intervene in this matter," he said.
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/ 25 November 2003
The first global conference on wind energy to be held in Africa opened on Monday in Cape Town with delegates saying the power-starved continent is using only a fraction of its potential. The conference is being attended by about 350 delegates from 21 countries.
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/ 25 November 2003
South African Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi remains concerned about the Electoral Laws Second Amendment Bill — which allows people temporarily out of South Africa to vote abroad in next year’s national election. the Bill would still exclude a citizen working abroad on a temporary basis as an employee.
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/ 25 November 2003
Lumka Yengeni, wife of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, has made it on to the ruling party’s ”national-to-national” list for Parliament — in a position which would ensure her election to Parliament.
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/ 25 November 2003
Wind-generated energy "could and should" play an important role in South Africa’s energy economy and sustainable development, according to Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, with the first draft of the country’s Renewable Energy Strategy expected in February 2004.
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/ 24 November 2003
Eurythmics singer Dave Stewart — who arrived in Cape Town on Monday to prepare for the 46664 Aids Awareness Concert — on Monday described the gaps between the rich and the poor in South Africa as a ”vision of hell”. However, Stewart did express great admiration for the country’s greatest leader, Nelson Mandela.
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/ 24 November 2003
President Thabo Mbeki and his deputy, Jacob Zuma, are predictably first and second on the African National Congress’s provisional list of national candidates for next year’s general elections, released on Monday. The national and provincial lists were adopted by the ANC’s national list conference at the weekend.
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/ 23 November 2003
South Africa’s exporters went into worry mode again this week as the rand hit a 42-month high against the dollar amid indications that the currency is set to strengthen even further. Nearly all exporting businesses have been reporting sharp losses this year due mainly to the rand’s ongoing strength.
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/ 22 November 2003
Exactly 12 years after Queen’s lead singer, Freddy Mercury, told the world that he was dying from Aids, his band members arrived in Cape Town to prepare for the 46664 Aids Awareness Concert. Both artists expressed their admiration for Mandela, who has given his prison number 46664 to the campaign.
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/ 21 November 2003
South Africa’s International Marketing Council, which has been given the task of promoting a positive international image for the country through an international marketing campaign, will spend about R50-million a year, according to Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad.
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/ 20 November 2003
The Department of Labour will next week conduct a national blitz to target employers who have not reported their employment equity figures, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Thursday in a written reply to a parliamentary question.
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/ 20 November 2003
The decision by the South African government to approve a comprehensive roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs to treat HIV/Aids is a bittersweet victory, says opposition leader Tony Leon. "It comes after over a million lives have been lost to the disease — unnecessarily," he said in his newsletter this week.