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/ 12 November 2003

Aids spending to reach R3bn next year

Total expenditure in response to HIV and Aids, including amounts directly spent by provincial health departments, will exceed R3-million in 2004/05, says Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel. In his mini-Budget speech in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Manuel said R1,1-billion of this would be in the national Department of Health.

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/ 12 November 2003

ANC takes two SA by-elections unopposed

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has won two municipal by-elections – in the Western Cape at Breede River/Robertson municipality and at Dealesville in the Free State unopposed — while the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has won a seat at Phillipstown in the Northern Cape unopposed.

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/ 11 November 2003

One nation, two economies

SA President Thabo Mbeki says his government has taken a cue from the European Union’s model to inject funds to poor regions and social groups. Mbeki said that at its lekgotla in July the Cabinet had focused on the "critically important issue of the struggle against poverty and had observed that South Africa was characterised by two parallel economies".

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/ 4 November 2003

UK backs fairer trade system

The United Kingdom recognised that trade was much more important than aid to Africa and the disappointment of the recent Cancun trade talks should not discourage the pursuit of a fairer global trading system, Minister for Africa at the Foreign And Commonwealth Office Chris Mullin said on Monday.

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/ 29 October 2003

ANC MP tells of Gear battle

In a candid account in his new book <i>Nothing But the Truth</i>, a leading member of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, Professor Ben Turok, has provided a new account of the battle within the party to accept the current economic policy, called Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear).

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/ 28 October 2003

SA arms sales double — but not to Zim

South Africa’s conventional arms exports nearly doubled between 2000 and 2002, according to a government paper referred to the parliamentary defence portfolio committee and joint standing committee on defence. A notable change in the listing is that South Africa sold no arms to Zimbabwe in the past two years.

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/ 27 October 2003

IFP youth leaders tested for HIV

The leaders of the Inkatha Freedom Party youth brigade have had themselves tested for HIV/Aids at the party’s headquarters in Durban. The group said it had taken "the bold step of having ourselves tested" in line with a resolution taken by the IFP youth brigade conference held in Ulundi at the end of August.

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/ 22 October 2003

Treasury job’s R700 000 package

The job to be vacated at the end of the month by South African National Treasury director general Maria Ramos is being advertised with a package of R738 993 a year. The advertisements in national newspapers stated that one of the requirements for the job is a post-graduate degree (master’s) in economics, public finance and financial management.

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/ 21 October 2003

Postal Bill gets the nod

The controversial Postal Services Amendment Bill has got the nod from the African National Congress-dominated public enterprises and labour select committee of South Africa’s National Council of Provinces — despite an eleventh-hour attempt to halt the legislation in its present form.

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/ 21 October 2003

Postal services Bill hearings delayed

Eleventh-hour hearings on South Africa’s Postal Services Amendment Bill — which has raised concerns among courier service providers — have been interrupted when a parliamentary committee meeting was declared irregular by African National Congress chief whip in the National Council of Provinces.

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/ 20 October 2003

Skweyiya urges Bills not be displaced

Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya has appealed to the Speaker of the National Assembly to ensure that the South African Social Security Agency Bill and the Social Assistance Bill not be displaced from the programme of Parliament this year. The two Bills were to have been debated on October 21.

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/ 3 October 2003

Millions for Mbeki’s golf course

The maintenance, restoration and construction of prestigious accommodation for top South African politicians and key officials will take nearly R90-million out of the Department of Public Works’s building kitty during the current financial year.
The department has a budget of R1,9-billion for all public buildings in nine of the provinces.

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/ 18 September 2003

Capital gains tax deadline extended

Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has announced the extension, by a year, of the deadline for the evaluation of second properties in terms of the capital gains tax legislation to September 30 2004. He said that there was a shortage of evaluators in South Africa and the government had acceded to requests for an extension.

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/ 18 September 2003

New dynamic at World Bank meeting

The annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which began in Dubai on Wednesday, would take on a new dynamic as a result of the collapse of the World Trade Organisation talks at Cancun last week, says South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel.