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/ 19 February 2008
Recent cases of spying involving the mayor of Cape Town and a report alleging a conspiracy to bring down the government are part of apartheid ”baggage”, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said in Cape Town on Tuesday. He said it is a ”knee-jerk reaction” to assume that the National Intelligence Agency is behind such cases.
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/ 19 February 2008
The disbanding of the Scorpions is still only a ”proposal” and will go to Parliament and include public participation, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said in Cape Town on Tuesday. The unit will also stay on the high-profile cases on which it is currently working, he told a media briefing on the future of the criminal justice system.
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/ 19 February 2008
The Annestacia murder trial, involving accused Richard Engelbrecht, proceeded behind closed doors on Tuesday as the prosecutor presented the testimony of a pathologist. Prosecutor Mornay Julius was also to present the testimony of a six-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by Engelbrecht at the age of three.
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/ 19 February 2008
Evictions have begun at the housing development in Delft illegally occupied by backyard dwellers, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign said on Tuesday morning. A Cape High Court judge on Monday refused the more than 1Â 000 squatters leave to appeal against an earlier eviction order.
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/ 18 February 2008
The Cape High Court on Monday dismissed an application for leave to appeal against an eviction order that compelled illegal occupiers of unfinished homes in Delft on the Cape Flats to vacate their houses by 6pm last Sunday. Judge Deon van Zyl ruled late on Monday that the grounds for appeal were altogether without merit.
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/ 18 February 2008
Janine Wiese, mother of slain 11-year-old Annestacia, wants her daughter’s alleged killer to remain in prison for the rest of his life, she told the Cape High Court on Monday. The mother was asked by prosecutor Mornay Julius how she felt about Richard Engelbrecht, who has pleaded guilty to the girl’s rape and murder.
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/ 18 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget on Wednesday should "turn talk into action", the Independent Democrats (ID) said on Monday. "Our economy is faced with a number of constraints, from the looming threat of a global recession … to the domestic energy crisis," ID spokesperson Schalk Lubbe said.
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/ 18 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel should make good on expectations of a higher age limit for the child support grant, the Black Sash said on Monday. Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya told a media briefing last week that the grant would be extended to the age of 18 and the means test recalculated.
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/ 18 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget speech on Wednesday is even more keenly anticipated this year in view of the electricity crisis and its anticipated negative effects on the economy, and Democratic Alliance spokesperson Kobus Marais has urged Manuel to tackle the crisis head-on.
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/ 16 February 2008
World player of the year Bryan Habana scored the only try of the match as the Bulls began the defence of their Super 14 title with a hard-fought 16-9 victory over the Stormers on Saturday. Habana scored his 25th try in 40 matches in the competition when he dived over on the left hand side four minutes before halftime.
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/ 15 February 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille, the mayor of Cape Town, is once again going to challenge the authorities by marching against gangsterism and drugs in a community where the drug lords are thriving. She announced that on Sunday she would conduct a march through the streets of Macassar in the east of the city, near Somerset West.
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/ 15 February 2008
Helen Zille, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, on Friday challenged African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma to pledge his own allegiance to the Constitution, and to declare that loyalty to the Constitution is more important than loyalty to the ANC.
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/ 15 February 2008
With only weeks to go before the Zimbabwean elections, there has been no let-up in the slanted coverage of the campaign by the country’s public broadcaster, according to the independent Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe. It said that it noted with concern that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation showed no sign of observing Zimbabwean law.
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/ 15 February 2008
Pointing out that Thursday February 21 is International Mother Language Day, the president of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has called for the new schools’ pledge drawn up by the Department of Education to be recited in the different languages of the country — depending on the region.
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/ 14 February 2008
The government intends acquiring five million hectares of land next year in an effort to have 30% of agricultural land in the hands of black farmers by 2014, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana said in Cape Town on Thursday. Currently, black farmers own 4,7% of farm land, she told a press briefing.
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/ 14 February 2008
The Department of Health on Thursday released a revised policy and guidelines clearing the way for dual therapy in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. At the same time, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang dismissed claims that her department was reluctant to implement the new regime.
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/ 14 February 2008
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday dismissed claims that her department was reluctant to implement dual therapy for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. ”I was the first person to express concern about mono therapy … but we had to make sure that we had enough time to examine the implications of dual therapy,” she said.
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/ 14 February 2008
Lindiwe Hendricks, the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, on Thursday denied that South Africa is facing a water crisis. "I can categorically say that we are not facing a water crisis, or a water-contamination crisis," she told a media briefing in Parliament. "The water that comes out of our taps is among the best in the world."
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/ 14 February 2008
The Cape Cobras cruised to a third successive victory in the MTN Domestic Championship at Newlands on Wednesday, beating the Lions by six wickets with four overs to spare. The Lions won the toss and elected to bat first. Stephen Cook and stand-in captain Alviro Petersen got them off to a flying start with a partnership of 61 off 79 balls.
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/ 14 February 2008
Ajax Cape Town maintained their position at the top of the Premier Soccer League standings with a well-deserved 3-1 win over Bloemfontein Celtic at the Athlone Stadium on Wednesday night. The opening minutes of the game were scrappy as neither team were able to stamp their authority on the match.
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/ 13 February 2008
Security guard Richard Engelbrecht, who on Wednesday pleaded guilty in the Cape High Court to the rape and murder of Cape Flats schoolgirl Annestacia Wiese, alleges that police threatened him with harm if he did not confess to a magistrate. Although he has pleaded guilty, the judge has not yet pronounced him guilty.
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/ 13 February 2008
The management of Port Elizabeth’s Jose Pearson Tuberculosis (TB) Hospital has taken steps to crack down on dagga smoking by patients with drug-resistant strains of TB. Some patients with extensively or multidrug-resistant TB being held in isolation have been using their cellphones to order the drug.
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/ 13 February 2008
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday urged President Thabo Mbeki to disband the Ginwala Commission of Inquiry into suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli in view of ”disturbing new evidence”.
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/ 13 February 2008
South Africa’s consumers will continue to fuel economic growth as their incomes increase, a government minister said on Wednesday. Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa told Parliament on Wednesday the economy had gone through structural changes and consumer spending will be resilient.
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/ 13 February 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) has rejected the call made on Tuesday by the Democratic Alliance for Parliament to be dissolved and new elections held, as well as the call made by the Independent Democrats for the government to resign. A statement issued by the ANC on Wednesday said: ”We believe that such calls have no merit.”
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/ 13 February 2008
The KwaZulu-Natal doctor who faces a disciplinary hearing for giving dual-therapy drugs to babies at risk of HIV infection should be hailed as a hero, a doctors’ organisation said on Wednesday. ”To discipline him for doing his ethical duty is disgraceful,” the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society said in a statement.
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/ 13 February 2008
The Department of Home Affairs expects to introduce the proposed new smart-card identity document (ID) to the general public within two years, it said on Wednesday. The card will replace the old ID, which is prone to fraud. The new ID will be much more difficult to forge.
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/ 13 February 2008
Steve Goodwin, the man who has been described as the real founder of Fidentia, has been named repeatedly in a draft indictment against J Arthur Brown. The 38-page document was handed over by prosecutors this week when Brown and the suspended chief executive of the Transport Education Training Authority, Piet Bothma, appeared briefly in court.
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/ 13 February 2008
A resolution to open up the arms deal to further discussion was shot down by the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday. Democratic Alliance MP Eddie Trent, who brought the proposal, finally withdrew it and agreed to the suggestion that the committee merely look into what progress has been made in implementing Scopa’s recommendations.
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/ 13 February 2008
The government has not yet decided whether it will be compulsory for school children to recite a pledge each morning. Lunga Ngqengelele, Education Minister Naledi Pandor’s spokesperson, said: ”From the department’s point of view, we would want each and every school to recite it.”
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/ 13 February 2008
Former leader of the Democratic Alliance Tony Leon, who now speaks for the party on foreign affairs, has launched a scathing attack on South Africa’s plan to host a second World Conference against Racism in Durban next year. "Quite what good will come of this exercise remains open to serious question," he said.
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/ 12 February 2008
Independent Democrats (ID) leader Patricia de Lille on Tuesday moved a motion calling on President Thabo Mbeki and his Cabinet to resign over the energy crisis. Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, she said the ID has lost confidence in the government and its leaders.