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/ 16 October 2007
African National Congress chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota in the National Assembly on Tuesday defended the decision to suspend National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, as well as the police probe into the alleged theft of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s health records.
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/ 16 October 2007
Murder victim Inge Lotz broke down in tears on the morning of her murder, her former boyfriend, Fred van der Vyver, who is accused of killing her, told the Cape Town High Court on Tuesday. Van der Vyver took the stand after an apparently precedent-setting ruling by Judge Deon van Zyl, which allowed the defence to reopen its case when final arguments were already under way.
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/ 16 October 2007
The accident at the South African National Defence Force’s Lohatlha training grounds last week happened immediately after technicians had finished repairing the weapon, a Mark V twin-barrelled 35mm gun, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
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/ 16 October 2007
The Department of Education is looking to regulate the responsibilities of senior teaching staff during strikes, says Education Minister Naledi Pandor. ”Currently, I have no plans to declare teaching an essential service,” she said in written reply to a question in the National Council of Provinces by Motlatjo Thetjeng of the Democratic Alliance.
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/ 16 October 2007
Chief executive of Pick ‘n Pay Nick Badminton told analysts in Cape Town on Tuesday that although food was often the last to be affected by inflation, "we feel that it will be a little tight in the next six months". He said that internal inflation within the group was showing a 7% increase for the full year, but warned that August showed inflation at 9,5%.
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/ 16 October 2007
Legislation paving the way for much cheaper broadband internet access is likely to be approved in the National Assembly on Wednesday. According to a memorandum attached to the Broadband Infraco Bill, the high broadband costs in South Africa compared to international counterparts have been investigated.
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/ 15 October 2007
The man who sold Najwa Petersen’s family an allegedly encrypted police interview tape is a repeat fraud offender, it emerged on Monday in the Wynberg Regional Court. The tape, which the family believed would help prove her innocence, turned out to be blank, the court heard.
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/ 15 October 2007
Police dispersed a group of Zimbabwean asylum seekers outside the Department of Home Affairs refugee offices in Cape Town on Monday. The group of about 100 Zimbabweans were protesting against the department’s reluctance to issue them with refugee-status documents.
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/ 15 October 2007
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has expressed outrage at alleged political and police action regarding Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and deputy managing editor Jocelyn Maker, likening it to apartheid-era conduct.
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/ 14 October 2007
Opposition parties and the South African National Editors’ Forum have expressed concern at reports of police plans to arrest Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and journalist Jocelyn Maker over the theft of Health Minister Manto-Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical records.
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/ 12 October 2007
Pikoli inquiry chairperson Frene Ginwala has dismissed a demand by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille to recuse herself. Replying to a letter by Zille in this regard, Ginwala said letter had been drawn to her attention on Thursday night, ”though I had learnt of its contents via the media”.
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/ 12 October 2007
Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s refusal to resign is a typical example of persons holding high office refusing to face the consequences of their actions, says Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille. ”By refusing to step down, contrary to the dictates of good governance, such senior office-bearers undermine our young democracy,” she said on Friday.
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/ 12 October 2007
President Thabo Mbeki on Friday paid tribute to Argentina-born revolutionary Che Guevara, who died at the age of 39 in Bolivia forty years ago. More than anything else, Guevara’s was a life dedicated to the genuine independence of all countries, Mbeki said in his weekly online newsletter, ANC Today.
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/ 12 October 2007
Media reports of parents incurring R300 fines for smacking their children are inaccurate, a senior African National Congress (ANC) member of Parliament’s social development portfolio committee said on Friday. Statements to that effect were ”quoted out of context”, MP Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu said in a statement.
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/ 11 October 2007
Najwa Petersen says she was framed for the murder of her husband, internationally renowned entertainer Taliep Petersen. She made the claim in an affidavit handed in to Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court on Thursday as part of her second bail application, launched on the basis of what her legal team says are ”at least” ten new factors.
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/ 11 October 2007
The international scientific community is trying to inject new urgency and unity into the elusive hunt for an HIV/Aids vaccine, just weeks after trials with the most promising candidate to date were halted. At a conference in Cape Town, Alan Bernstein was named on Thursday as the first executive director of the Global HIV-Vaccine Enterprise, an alliance of researchers and funders.
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/ 11 October 2007
A pharmaceutical company has donated three Gila monsters to the Tygerberg Zoo near Cape Town to honour the advancements in diabetes care made possible by these lizards. A hormone is found in the saliva of Gila monsters that helps them regulate blood sugar.
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/ 11 October 2007
Following the panic that gripped Johannesburg on Monday when emails and SMSs said an alleged tornado was about to strike the city, the Cabinet has decided to ask the national disaster-management centre to find ways in which such situations could be better managed in future.
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/ 11 October 2007
The Democratic Alliance has asked former speaker Frene Ginwala to recuse herself from chairing the Pikoli inquiry, and threatened legal action if she does not. Ginwala was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki to probe whether suspended National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Vusi Pikoli is fit to hold office.
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/ 11 October 2007
A South African man was seriously injured when hijackers dragged him along a tarred road for 2km after his feet got stuck in the seatbelt of his car, police said on Thursday. The 44-year-old was forced out of his car in a suburban street on Wednesday by four fleeing men who had just robbed a house in Bellville in Cape Town, said a statement by police in the Western Cape.
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/ 11 October 2007
The taxi industry will soon be part of the government’s public-transport subsidy system, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Thursday. Radebe said more than 60% of South Africa’s people used taxis. ”We need to support our taxi industry,” he said in Thaba Nchu in the Free State.
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/ 11 October 2007
The Presidency has declined to confirm whether President Thabo Mbeki will hold back on appointing the new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board as requested by labour and civil society organisations, saying it will address its written response directly to those organisations that had made the call.
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/ 11 October 2007
Government spokesperson Themba Maseko admitted on Thursday that the authorities were worried about the damage being done to the country’s international image by the ongoing saga surrounding suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli and police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
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/ 11 October 2007
Fifa ended its three-day inspection tour of South Africa on Wednesday praising the progress made in building the stadiums that will be used for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. There have been concerns about the country’s high crime rate and poor transport system, as well as the pace of construction.
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/ 10 October 2007
Several labour and civil-society organisations have asked President Thabo Mbeki to hold back on appointing the new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board and return the list of names approved by the National Assembly last month. ”We have asked him not to appoint them,” the organisations said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
Tears of joy flowed on Tuesday when the Richtersveld community got a court order restoring land taken from them seventy years ago. ”I am overwhelmed with joy. I can’t hold back my tears,” said community leader Willem Diergaardt. ”This is a big moment in the history of the Richtersveld.”
The stakes will be raised considerably this weekend as the Absa Currie Cup premier division enters its semifinal stage. The two semifinal clashes are the highlight of a bumper weekend on the local rugby calendar that also includes the promotion/relegation play-offs.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has apparently thrown her weight behind leading businessman Tokyo Sexwale for the African National Congress presidency. Meanwhile, audited ANC membership figures have confirmed the Eastern Cape as the party’s strongest province, media reports said on Tuesday.
The lawful decision by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) not to continue its inquiry into Cape Judge President John Hlophe has upset some people, the Black Lawyers’ Association (BLA) said on Tuesday. ”It’s an outcome they don’t like,” BLA president Henry Msimang said.
Johannesburg entrepreneur Mncedisi Eric Maluleka, who joked on board a kulula.com flight about hijacking the aircraft, was found not guilty on Tuesday of jeopardising the safety of an aircraft and its passengers in flight. He appeared in the Bellville Regional Court, before magistrate Clive Linden.
Nine senior advocates from the Cape Bar, some of them former acting judges, have publicly called on Cape Judge President John Hlophe to quit. ”We believe that there cannot be public confidence in the continuation in office now of Judge Hlophe,” they said in a letter published on Tuesday.
A settlement has been reached on the Richtersveld community’s troubled land-restitution deal, lawyers said on Monday. They said the settlement would be presented to Land Claims Court Judge Antonie Geldenhuys on Tuesday morning. ”We’ve settled,” said Rudolph Jansen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights.