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/ 2 November 2007

Zille: There will be no cover-up in spy probe

There will be no cover-up in the alleged spy scandal involving the surveillance of Cape Town councillors, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille vowed on Friday. ”Let me be clear. There will be no cover-up in this matter. If anyone in the city or the DA has broken any law, the police must lay a charge and we will deal with it head-on,” she said.

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/ 2 November 2007

Abalone court challenge postponed

A court challenge to Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk’s new abalone restrictions has been postponed for a month. Legal teams of the South African Abalone Industry Association and the state gathered at the Cape High Court on Friday morning for what was expected to be an application for an urgent interdict against the restrictions.

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/ 2 November 2007

State firms flex muscle in Africa oil boom

Africa’s state-owned oil firms are taking a bigger role in the rush to tap the continent’s energy resources and threatening to upstage the Western majors who have dominated exploration and drilling for decades. Governments from Luanda to Lagos are pushing for greater control and laying down increasingly stringent rules for the international firms.

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/ 2 November 2007

Mbeki criticises behaviour of media

President Thabo Mbeki devoted a large part of his speech to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Friday to criticising the behaviour and ownership of the media. Speaking in Pniel, outside Stellenbosch, where the NCOP was holding a provincial sitting, he emphasised that the government has ”absolutely no intention to limit press freedom”.

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/ 2 November 2007

Buthelezi: Helen Suzman deserves more recognition

Former anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman has not been given the recognition she deserves in the new South Africa, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Friday. In a tribute to Suzman ahead of her 90th birthday next week, he said she had tirelessly used her position as MP during the Sixties and Seventies to break the apartheid mould.

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/ 1 November 2007

Court urged to release Najwa Petersen on bail

The release on bail of Najwa Petersen, accused of the murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep, was essential to save her young daughter from long-term emotional damage, Cape Town psychologist Rosa Bredenkamp told the Wynberg Regional Court on Thursday. Petersen has launched a second bail application after her first was rejected.

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/ 1 November 2007

Govt to pump R100-million into fish farms

The government is to invest R100-million next year in six marine fish-farming projects, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced on Thursday. ”There are huge opportunities in marine aquaculture, which will not only reduce the pressure on wild stocks, but provide new economic opportunities,” he said.

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/ 1 November 2007

Rwanda tribunal’s most wanted remains elusive

FĂ©licien Kabuga has a reward of several million dollars on his head, and tops the list of fugitives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Yet, he’s managed to escape justice for years. The ICTR was set up in northern Tanzania by the United Nations in 1995 to bring high-level perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide to justice.

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/ 31 October 2007

Abalone court challenge to proceed

Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk still faces a court challenge from the abalone industry even though he backed down on Wednesday from a harvesting ban. The ban, prompted by rapidly declining stocks, was to have come into effect on Thursday. It would have halted all commercial harvesting of the threatened shellfish from the wild.

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/ 31 October 2007

SA meat exports to EU under threat

The European Union is threatening to ban the import of South African animal products because the government has failed to meet certain requirements agreed on five years ago, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. The ban would cover South African beef, mutton, pork, chicken, ostrich and game products, among others.

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/ 31 October 2007

Psychiatrist backs Najwa’s bail bid

According to research, 70% of young children who have a parent in jail develop emotional problems, the Wynberg Regional Court heard from a psychiatrist on Wednesday. Rosa Bredenkamp was testifying before Western Cape Regional Court president Robert Henney in support of Najwa Petersen’s second bail application.

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/ 31 October 2007

Judgement on noseweek decision handed down

Publication of the fact that a person is a client of a specific bank does not infringe privacy rights, according to Cape Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso. She made the finding in a written judgement, handed down this week, on a bid by FirstRand to prevent magazine noseweek publishing the names of clients involved in an allegedly dodgy tax scheme.

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/ 31 October 2007

Jake White steps down as Bok coach

A bitter Jake White announced on Wednesday that he is to quit as coach of South Africa’s World Cup-winning rugby team, accusing Springbok bosses of bouncing him out of the job. White, who has been linked to coaching positions with rival national sides, said he would take the team to Britain next month for matches against Wales the Barbarians.

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/ 31 October 2007

Suspension of abalone fishing postponed to 2008

The suspension of abalone fishing has been postponed to February 1 next year, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Wednesday. Instead of the ban coming into effect on Thursday, as originally planned, a substantially reduced total allowable catch of 75 tons would now be permitted during the interim.

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/ 30 October 2007

Cautious thumbs-up for Manuel’s budget

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s 2007 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement has received a cautious thumbs-up from some opposition parties. Tabling the budget in the National Assembly on Tuesday, he announced that almost R81,5-billion was to be added to the government’s projected spending over the next three years, bringing spending growth to 6,4% a year in real terms.

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/ 30 October 2007

SA sees budget surplus over next three years

South Africa will record a budget surplus for the next three years due to higher-than-expected tax revenues and would invest more to boost infrastructure, the National Treasury said on Tuesday. In its Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, the Treasury said robust economic growth over the past five years had provided for a more expansionary fiscal stance.

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/ 29 October 2007

Zille requests Cape Town ‘spy’ tapes

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille has asked the police to let her listen to tapes related to the city’s ”spy” affair. Her request, in a letter to provincial Commissioner Mzwandile Petros on Monday, comes after police played some of the tapes to journalists. She said in a statement that Petros had also ”presented” the tapes to Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool.

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/ 29 October 2007

Cape Town welcomes winning Boks

Capetonians turned out in their tens of thousands on Monday to salute the victorious Springboks on the final leg of their national victory tour. There were scenes of near-hysteria as the Boks made their way through the city centre in an open-top bus. Businesses shut down, and young and old lined the streets, crammed on to balconies.

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/ 29 October 2007

Minister says aviation key to tourism growth

Aviation is the key to boosting growth in South Africa’s tourism industry, says the Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Marthinus van Schalkwyk. A total of 27,6% of all tourists arrived in the country by air, he said in a speech prepared for delivery at his department’s sixth annual tourism conference.

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/ 28 October 2007

Slowdown takes shine off SA’s mini-budget

As South Africa’s economic growth slows and inflation heats up, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel will present a medium-term budget on Tuesday with decidedly less to smile about than six months ago. While analysts expect Manuel to be more cautious in his revenue predictions, they believe past prudence has left him with enough room for manoeuvre.