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/ 14 November 2007
Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has undertaken to repay his department R1 020 on Thursday for flowers he sent to his wife. When the issue arose and was brought to his attention in the middle of this year, he had immediately stated his intention to pay back the money, he said on Wednesday.
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/ 14 November 2007
The death toll from Tuesday’s accident involving a truck crammed with farmworkers has risen to eight. The news came as the Western Cape government vowed to crack down on the way farmworkers are transported. The accident happened in the Boland, when the truck, reportedly carrying about 70 farmworkers, overturned.
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/ 14 November 2007
South Africans can soon expect a vast improvement in the time it takes to obtain identity documents, passports and a range of other services, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula announced on Wednesday. Also, a loophole allowing illegals to acquire South African documents and grants fraudulently will be closed.
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/ 14 November 2007
Lock Victor Matfield has withdrawn from South Africa’s squad for the one-off Test with Wales on November 24, becoming the 12th member of the World Cup-winning squad to miss the tour. The South African Rugby Union (Saru) announced he had been released due to personal commitments.
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/ 14 November 2007
The Governor of the Reserve Bank, Tito Mboweni, gave a very strong signal that another interest hike is on the way when he told members of Parliament that in his opinion, rates should go up. The bank staff’s forecast for inflation in the coming months shows inflation increasing above the 6% target for part of 2008.
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/ 14 November 2007
Slain musician Taliep Petersen described his marriage to Najwa as a ”nightmare” the Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town heard on Tuesday. Taliep’s sister Tagmieda Johnson took the stand after the lunch break, at Najwa’s second bail application before Western Cape Regional Court president Robert Henney.
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/ 13 November 2007
Investigating officer Captain Joash Dryden on Tuesday warned the Wynberg Regional Court that Najwa Petersen, accused of the murder of her husband Taliep, ”will be gone if she is released on bail”. Petersen’s senior counsel Herbert Raubenheimer, wanted Dryden to concede that Petersen had an ”arguable case”.
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/ 12 November 2007
The Western Cape government is winning the war against drugs, Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Monday. ”Considering that this financial year is only halfway through, police have already arrested 374 high flyers … confiscated 37Â 558 grams of mandrax, 6Â 499 grams of methamphetamine [tik] and 4Â 447 grams of heroin,” he said.
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/ 12 November 2007
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) is considering legal steps over proposed norms and standards for managing the elephant population being formulated by the Environmental Affairs and Tourism Department. The NSPCA on Monday aborted a meeting to discuss captive elephants.
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/ 12 November 2007
The government has failed to take necessary steps to ensure learners are protected against the escalating violence in schools, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. DA spokesperson on safety and security Dianne Kohler-Barnard said violence in South African schools has reached unacceptable levels that require immediate intervention.
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/ 12 November 2007
A vacant plot in Cape Town’s Clifton area has been sold for R11,25-million — believed to be the highest price per square metre paid to date for undeveloped property in South Africa. The record price achieved for the stand followed the sale earlier in the year by Lew Geffen Sotheby’s of a Clifton apartment for R34-million.
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/ 10 November 2007
Lives are being lost in many countries through lack of cooperation between tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/Aids health programmes, a senior United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/Aids official said in Cape Town on Friday. Dr Alasdair Reid was speaking at a media briefing held alongside a major conference on lung health in the city.
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/ 9 November 2007
A home owner who disposed of household goods worth R99 000 belonging to his former tenant, without the tenant’s permission, was on Friday sentenced to two years’ house arrest. Vaughan Fred Alberts (45), was also fined R1 800 or four months’ jail on a charge of malicious damage.
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/ 9 November 2007
A United States trade embargo against Cuba is discouraging South African companies from doing business in that country, delegates attending the South Africa-Cuba joint bilateral commission heard on Friday. Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said trade between the two countries is almost non-existent.
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/ 9 November 2007
The global burden of tobacco is going to get much worse before it gets better, an expert from the World Lung Foundation said in Cape Town on Friday. Developing countries will bear the brunt of this burden and its ”huge” economic implications, said Dr Judith Mackay, coordinator of tobacco control at the foundation.
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/ 9 November 2007
A botched charge sheet on Friday led to the acquittal of a journalist who in May allegedly threatened to blow up the Cape Town premises of Radio Heart if his grievances were not aired. David Robert Lewis (39) appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court before magistrate Phindi Norman.
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/ 9 November 2007
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille has named a replacement advocate to conduct an official probe into the city’s spy affair. The first person she chose for the job, advocate Geoff Budlender, withdrew over a possible conflict of interest. Zille has now asked advocate Josie Jordaan of the Cape Bar to lead the inquiry.
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/ 9 November 2007
A journalist, furious because his stories had been rejected, stormed into a radio station’s premises and threatened to ”blow this place up” unless his grievances were aired. Radio Heart’s news anchor Zulpha Khan on Friday told the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court she bore the brunt of the incident in May.
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/ 9 November 2007
Politicians are likely to get an inflation-related increase this year as an interim measure, it emerged on Friday. President Thabo Mbeki is still considering the recommendations made by Judge Dikgang Moseneke, who heads the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers, the Presidency said in a statement.
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/ 8 November 2007
South Africa’s tuberculosis (TB) cure rate will reach 85% over the next five years, the Department of Health vowed on Thursday. Releasing the final version of its latest TB strategic plan, Director General of Health Thami Mseleku said the plan’s goals were guided by international targets.
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/ 8 November 2007
Transformation in sport has to happen in the shortest period of time, but not at the expense of any South African athletes, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. With true transformation, as a country, South Africa could become an even greater force in world sport, he said.
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/ 8 November 2007
The engine that dropped off Nationwide flight CE723 had sucked in ”an object” as the plane was taking off, the airline said on Thursday. It was commenting on the drama on Wednesday in which a Johannesburg-bound Boeing 737 lost one of its two engines during take-off from Cape Town airport, yet managed to land safely half-an-hour later.
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/ 8 November 2007
While replying to questions in the National Assembly, President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday again dismissed suggestions that the government participate in a class action in the United States against 23 multinational corporations that did not disinvest during apartheid.
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/ 8 November 2007
The Cabinet has approved 85% of government spending on a number of products and services procured from small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). This measure is intended to grow SMMEs and increase demand for goods and services from the sector, government communications head Themba Maseko said on Thursday.
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/ 8 November 2007
Santos put on their best home performance and were held to a 1-1draw by defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns in an Absa Premier League soccer match at the Athlone Stadium on Wednesday night. The home side should have held at least a 3-0 lead at the interval. Instead, they went into the break with a 1-0 lead, thanks to a penalty by Erwin Isaacs.
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/ 8 November 2007
A majority of the countries who undertook to assist Sudan financially in implementing the African country’s peace agreement have not fulfilled their pledges, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. He said his government would do everything in its power to ensure that countries fulfilled their pledges.
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/ 7 November 2007
The war to halt perlemoen (abalone) poaching has pitched R180-a-kilogram divers on the one side against R4 000-a-month marine inspectors on the other, MPs heard on Wednesday during a briefing to members of Parliament’s environmental affairs portfolio committee.
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/ 7 November 2007
A Nationwide Boeing 737 had to make an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday afternoon when an engine fell off during take-off. The plane, which had been bound for Johannesburg, landed safely after airport fire and rescue services hurriedly cleared the debris from the runway. There were 106 passengers on board.
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/ 7 November 2007
A forensic audit report into the financial management of the Land Bank is to be referred to the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions for ”further investigation”, the Land Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday. This was among recommendations made by the Cabinet after consideration of the report, it said in a statement.
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/ 7 November 2007
Suleiman Petersen, teenage stepson of slain musician Taliep Petersen, had to take over responsibility for the Petersen household after police arrested his mother, Najwa, for Taliep’s murder. This was disclosed in a letter handed to the Wynberg Regional Court on Wednesday during Najwa Petersen’s second bail application.
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/ 7 November 2007
Members of Parliament on Wednesday heard a plea from the troubled state airline, South African Airways (SAA), for an injection of R744,4-million to pay for one-off labour restructuring costs. The cash, they were told, is needed before the last day of November.
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/ 7 November 2007
Sports and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile ruled out racial quotas for national teams on Tuesday after the mainly white Springboks’ recent victory in the Rugby World Cup reignited the debate over transformation. ”Quotas are out,” Stofile told a parliamentary sports committee. ”Let us put our resources into the development of talent.”