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/ 15 February 2006
South Africa’s rail commuter system will get R4,5-billion in capital subsidies over the next three years, according to the Budget Review. The review, released on Wednesday together with Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s Budget, notes that the system "faces urgent challenges".
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/ 14 February 2006
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel is expected to provide further details in Wednesday’s national Budget about the new form of business tax that will take the place of regional service council levies — including when enabling legislation is likely to be put to Parliament, says Local Government Research Centre head Clive Keegan.
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/ 13 February 2006
The South African Treasury should set aside about R1,1-billion a year to increase the pace of land reform and protect the principle of willing buyer, willing seller, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance in its alternative Budget released ahead of Wednesday’s national Budget by Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel.
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/ 8 February 2006
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was "very welcome" at this weekend’s progressive governance summit, South Africa’s Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad said on Wednesday. "It is very important for Mr Blair to be here as leader of the British Labour Party … [although] we may disagree with him on some of his policies," said Pahad.
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/ 3 February 2006
South African politicians have generally reacted favourably to President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address at the opening of Parliament in Cape Town on Friday. Tony Leon, official opposition Democratic Alliance leader, commented: "I thought that in terms of the national goals it was a positive speech."
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/ 1 February 2006
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has quashed a resolution put to the standing committee on public accounts calling for the auditor general to investigate the recent holiday jaunt to the United Arab Emirates by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
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/ 30 January 2006
Repairs at the Koeberg nuclear power station could take — in "a worst-case scenario" — nine months to carry out, says Eskom’s acting chief executive, Jacob Maroga. Cape Town has been hit by four outages in the past three months and is dependent on Koeberg, especially during peak demand times.
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/ 27 January 2006
Floor-crossing patterns appear to reflect changes in
support on the ground, writes <b>Donwald Pressly</b>.
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/ 25 January 2006
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/262374/vote-box_blue.gif" align=left>Inkatha Freedom Party Ingwe municipality mayor Innocent Miya and three councillors from nearby Ubuhlebezwe municipality have defected to Ziba Jiyane’s National Democratic Convention (Nadeco). Miya, according to Nadeco spokesperson Linda Hlongwa MPL, has been mayor of Ingwe since 2000.
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/ 23 January 2006
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/262374/vote-box_blue.gif" align=left>The ruling African National Congress’s promise to clear 215Â 000 bucket toilets within a year — part of its local-government campaign pledge — is "simply not going to happen", says official opposition leader Tony Leon. He said the ANC has "systematically broken the promises it made in its 2000 local government manifesto".
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/ 18 January 2006
Former South African president FW de Klerk and former deputy president Jacob Zuma are to be among honoured guests at the official opening of Parliament and the State of the Nation address. This emerged at a press conference at Parliament on Wednesday addressed by the presiding officers.
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/ 13 January 2006
The future of Western Cape Democratic Alliance leader Theuns Botha hangs in the balance after a bitter struggle over the mayoral candidate, Helen Zille. Only a win for his party in Cape Town and other Western Cape mayoral races in March will save his political bacon. While the party is now focused on getting Zille’s campaign into top gear the signs of a bloody battle ahead remain.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>The decision to allow former deputy president Jacob Zuma to campaign for the African National Congress in the upcoming local government poll is "deeply hypocritical", said the Democratic Alliance on Thursday. It "confirms once again that the governing party has thrown away its moral compass," the DA said.
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/ 13 December 2005
The South African government says an investment climate survey — a joint Department of Trade and Industry and World Bank initiative — has provided encouraging information as well as challenges as the country prepares to embark on accelerated growth.
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/ 12 December 2005
Satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys, whose alter ego is Evita Bezuidenhout, has sent a Christmas message to South Africa and President Thabo Mbeki. He has played on the words of the Lord’s Prayer in what he described as a festive-season message of good hope for South Africa.
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/ 5 December 2005
Women were the most likely target of contact crimes in South Africa, with one woman or child raped every 10 minutes, South African opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said on Monday. As part of the 16 days of activism against women and child abuse, the DA hung up 22 486 pairs of girls’ underwear to represent the number of reported child rapes in 2004/05.
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/ 5 December 2005
The Freedom Front Plus (FF+), a South African parliamentary party which claims to represent Afrikaans-speakers, has publicly backed South African billionaire businessman Johann Rupert who withdrew millions of rand worth of advertisements from a British magazine.
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/ 5 December 2005
Responding to a recent survey, the chairperson of an ad hoc committee on corporate governance on Monday expressed concern at the poor state of workplace ethics in South Africa. It is reported that 68% of 237 companies surveyed in a fraud and misconduct survey expected an increase in fraud going forward.
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/ 2 December 2005
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has changed his tune about the dangers of an economic underclass in South Africa, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. He noted on Friday that Manuel said Cape Town would one day see the kind of riots that gripped Paris and other cities across France in November.
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/ 28 November 2005
The arms deal between South Africa — through Denel — and India should be rescued by the intervention of Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin, says the official South African opposition Democratic Alliance. The DA said Erwin should put pressure on the Denel board to save the deal.
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/ 23 November 2005
The Moving South Africa strategy warned as far back as 1999 that South Africa’s metropolitan cities needed to be proactive over managing car use "especially for the stubborn segment of the population", says South African Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.
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/ 22 November 2005
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance and its Mozambican counterpart, Renamo, have agreed to sign a record of understanding in the new year, the two parties announced on Tuesday. This follows a visit by DA leader Tony Leon to Mozambique to hold talks with Renamo, headed by Afonso Dhlakama.
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/ 10 November 2005
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni deserves support for his position that remaining exchange controls should be abolished, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance. Mboweni said on Wednesday that South Africa’s remaining foreign-exchange controls have become "purposeless".
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/ 9 November 2005
MPs on Wednesday were warned that the Gautrain rapid rail project may be suffering from "optimism bias" where the project may pan out to be far more expensive — and less popular in the eyes of the consumers — than the project planners envisaged.
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/ 7 November 2005
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and Western Cape Congress of South African Trade Unions regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich have taken each other on over the demands of the modern South African state — and how best to run the economy — in a new magazine, <i>Mindshift</i>.
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/ 3 November 2005
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel says the tax revenue lost through avoidance schemes "clearly runs into billions" of rand and the South African authorities are fine-tuning a mechanism to close existing gaps. He was speaking at the release of a South African Revenue Services discussion paper on tax avoidance.
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/ 1 November 2005
The Diamonds Amendment Bill would not introduce nationalisation in the diamond industry, Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy Lulu Xingwana said on Tuesday. The Bill was passed by the National Assembly with objections noted from the official opposition Democratic Alliance, the African Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus.
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/ 28 October 2005
South African firms should be given tax cuts designed to increase employment for a period of five years, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. For this period, employers should be given tax deductions of 150% of the first R2 000 per month of new employees’ salaries.
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/ 24 October 2005
South Africa’s corporate tax should be reduced to 25% or less as part of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has urged. Manuel presents the MTBPS to Parliament on Tuesday.
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/ 21 October 2005
South African National Assembly minerals and energy portfolio committee has given the Diamonds Amendment Bill — which will set up a state diamond-trading system — the nod. The Diamonds Amendment Bill will also pave the way for a tax on exports of rough diamonds.
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/ 19 October 2005
South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Pravin Gordhan confirmed on Wednesday that there is "money due" in back taxes from the estate of the late Brett Kebble, but did not put a figure to the amount. <i>Business Day</i> reported recently that Kebble was believed to have died owing up to R100-million in tax to Sars.
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/ 19 October 2005
Denel has not been found to have broken any laws in either South Africa or India, but the unfortunate perception has been created that the state arms manufacturer has a cloud hanging over it, says Denel CEO Shaun Liebenberg. He addressed MPs serving on the National Assembly public enterprises portfolio committee on Tuesday.