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/ 22 January 2008
Scorpions investigator Ivor Powell was granted R1 000 bail in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. His case was remanded to April 29 pending the outcome of his blood alcohol tests. He was arrested on Tuesday night, apparently in the company of alleged Americans gang boss Igshaan Davids.
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/ 22 January 2008
Strict action will be taken against those who ”manipulate” the price of bread, the government warned on Tuesday. It was gravely concerned about rising bread prices, which inevitably affected the poor, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs said in a statement.
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/ 22 January 2008
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma will be spending the rest of this week at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. ”He has been invited there in his capacity as president of the ANC,” party spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said on Tuesday.
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/ 21 January 2008
Theft of artifacts and ”heritage objects” from museums, galleries and churches is on the rise, said Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan on Monday. ”Unfortunately, many of these items have not been recovered,” he said in response to questions in Parliament.
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/ 21 January 2008
An application in the Cape High Court on Monday, concerning sequestration proceedings involving Fidentia’s J Arthur Brown and his wife, Susan, was ”an abuse of the judicial system”, Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis said. In December last year, Judge Davis ordered the provisional sequestration of Brown and his wife’s joint estate.
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/ 21 January 2008
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown on Monday made his first appearance in the Cape Town Regional Court, where he is to go on trial on two charges of fraud, one of theft and one of contravening the Companies Act. Brown had previously made several appearances in the lower district court.
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/ 21 January 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) is getting rid of the Scorpions in order to protect ANC members from corruption charges, according to the leader of the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille. Zille said on Monday that besides the seven convicted criminals on the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), six NEC members are currently the subject of investigations.
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/ 21 January 2008
His chosen vocation ridiculed by peers and elders alike, South African teenager Andile Ndlovu remains unwavering in his ambition to become a world-class ballet dancer. One of a small pool of black, male practitioners of an art considered by many to be the domain of whites and the rich, Ndlovu is doing what he can to popularise ballet in his community.
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/ 19 January 2008
For the second successive match, striker Tarryn Bright spared South Africa’s blushes when she landed the winning goal in her side’s 1-0 win over Ireland on Friday in the third Test played at Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. Bright also scored the lone goal in South Africa’s close-shave 1-0 victory over the tourists on Tuesday.
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/ 18 January 2008
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk has called on the United States to assume a ”fair share of responsibility” in reducing world greenhouse-gas emissions. He was delivering a speech in Cape Town at a climate-change round-table discussion.
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/ 18 January 2008
There is a ”rising tide” of corruption in the South African Police Service [SAPS], Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille alleged on Friday. ”Minister of Safety and Security [Charles Nqakula] and the leadership of the SAPS need to find the political will to acknowledge the grave threat that police corruption poses to our country,” she said in her weekly newsletter.
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/ 18 January 2008
Having taken it over last week from his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, newly elected leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Jacob Zuma is giving up his weekly pulpit in the ANC’s online newsletter, <i>ANC Today</i>. The weekly sermon was an opportunity, much prized by Mbeki, to deliver often literary admonishments to individuals or organisations.
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/ 17 January 2008
British national Anthony Cooper was on Thursday found not guilty of causing the fire on Table Mountain that allegedly caused the death of British tourist Janet Chesworth. Cooper appeared in the Cape Town Regional Court, charged with culpable homicide, as well as contravening the National Forestry Act.
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/ 16 January 2008
British national Anthony Cooper on Wednesday told the Cape Town Regional Court of his frantic efforts to put out a veld fire on the slopes of Table Mountain — caused by a cigarette he allegedly flicked from his fingers as he stood smoking near his car. Cooper has been charged with culpable homicide.
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/ 16 January 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has requested an urgent meeting with President Thabo Mbeki to discuss what she calls ”the growing perception of a constitutional and moral crisis” in South Africa. ”The implication of the police national commissioner and the ruling party’s presidential candidate in corruption cases is but one reason for this perception.”
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/ 16 January 2008
The Finance Ministry has invited all South Africans to send tips on how the country’s finances should be run to the annual "Tips for Trevor" campaign. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel plainly takes some notice of what the public tells him since he often refers to these tips during his budget speech in Parliament.
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/ 16 January 2008
Suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli has objected to government’s request for an extension to file its submissions to the Ginwala Commission of Inquiry. A copy of a letter, sent by Pikoli’s law firm Denys Reitz to inquiry head Frene Ginwala, was released to the media late on Tuesday. Earlier on Tuesday, Ginwala herself criticised government for its ”slow response” and failure to deliver its submission on time.
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/ 15 January 2008
The Ginwala Commission of Inquiry into suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli has criticised the government for its ”slow response” and failure to deliver its submission on time. In a statement on Tuesday, inquiry head Frene Ginwala said she had ”reluctantly” granted the government a 10-day extension.
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/ 15 January 2008
Opposition parties on Tuesday voiced their concern over Eskom’s inability to avert a power crisis in the country, with the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) calling for the appointment of a multiparty task team to handle the situation. FF+ spokesperson on energy Willie Spies said it was evident that the government did not have the capacity to deal with the current power crisis.
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/ 15 January 2008
The Cape High Court on Tuesday again postponed the Delft eviction case — the application will now take place on January 29. The court furthermore urged Democratic Alliance city councillor Frank Martin to engage a lawyer to represent him in proceedings.
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/ 15 January 2008
President Thabo Mbeki should explain to Parliament why he is reluctant to reinstate suspended National Prosecution Authority head Vusi Pikoli, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. ”President Mbeki needs to clarify his position on the DA’s call for him to brief Parliament on his refusal to review his decision to suspend advocate Vusi Pikoli,” the DA said.
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/ 14 January 2008
With 24 hours to go before deadline, the Ginwala Commission of Inquiry into suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli has yet to receive the government’s submission on the matter. According to the commission rules and timeframes, Pikoli has until January 31 to make his submission.
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/ 14 January 2008
The timetable for hearings into the City of Cape Town’s spy-allegation controversy will be released to the public on Tuesday, the Erasmus Commission of Inquiry said. Commission spokesperson Zithulele Twala on Monday said the commission had already finalised the timetable.
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/ 14 January 2008
The Irish government has approved a €5-million grant (about R50-million) for building township houses in South Africa. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announced details of the grant in Cape Town on Monday during an official visit aimed at, among other things, monitoring projects funded by Irish Aid, a government development agency.
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/ 12 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has quit as head of international crime-fighting body Interpol, the organisation said on Sunday. The news follows President Thabo Mbeki’s announcement on Saturday that Selebi, who faces allegations of corruption, fraud, racketeering and defeating the ends of justice, was going on extended leave of absence.
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/ 12 January 2008
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Judicial autonomy in South Africa’s young democracy will be put to the test as politicians and judges eye each other with growing distrust ahead of the graft trial of African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma. His backers say there is no chance of Zuma getting a fair trial from a judiciary which is still largely male and white.
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/ 11 January 2008
In his first weekly online newsletter to African National Congress (ANC) members, Jacob Zuma, the new party leader, insisted on Friday that there were no fundamental policy differences among any members or leaders of the ANC. ”The vibrant debate that is sometimes misconstrued as division is merely differences of opinion,” he wrote.
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/ 11 January 2008
The deepest divisions in the African National Congress were driven not by ideology, but by greed and lust for power, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. Writing in her first online newsletter of the year, she said that given the richness of the spoils on offer, it was not surprising that bitter rivalries had developed between factions.
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/ 11 January 2008
The Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans’ Association (MKVA) has condemned what it says is the ”demonisation” of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni by ”certain elements in the media and elsewhere”. ”Comrade Tony Yengeni never stole any money nor killed anybody,” the MKVA said in a statement on Friday.
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/ 11 January 2008
Tax collectors from 39 countries around the world meeting in an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development-sponsored conference on Friday agreed to support a further conference specifically on taxation in Africa. The conference will be hosted by the South African Revenue Service, and will take place in May this year.
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/ 11 January 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) needs to get back to the business of government, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Friday. He said politicians might all be talking in hushed tones about competing centres of power, but most South Africans ”are fretting about rising food prices and high interest rates”.
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/ 11 January 2008
Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats (ID) on Friday called for the government to regulate bread prices. Rising bread prices were hurting the poor and the unemployed the most, according to Rodney Lentit, the ID’s local government liaison officer. Bread prices were deregulated in 1991.