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/ 14 February 2008
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has condemned the conduct of the Durban metro police in arresting and detaining a Sowetan reporter, Mhlaba Memela, while covering an incident in Durban’s central business district on Wednesday night.
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/ 13 February 2008
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Judge President Vuka Tshabalala said on Wednesday that he had returned all the shares in Absa Bank worth millions of rands, which were given to him by a consortium headed by businessman Tokyo Sexwale. ”I have returned the shares. That’s the end of the matter,” said Tshabalala.
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/ 13 February 2008
At least 830 of KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) law-enforcement officers are under investigation for a host of crimes ranging from assault through to rape and murder, figures released by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) revealed on Wednesday.
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/ 13 February 2008
Attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement between a KwaZulu-Natal ferromanganese factory and its workers over compensation for manganese poisoning foundered on Wednesday. The workers’ trade union and attorney accused the company, Assmang, of negotiating in bad faith.
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/ 13 February 2008
Left-arm spinner Robin Peterson will replace Paul Harris in the South African squad to tour Bangladesh, Cricket South Africa (CSA) said on Wednesday. A CSA statement said Harris would miss the tour because of an abscess that required surgery. ”Robbie has shown excellent form in the SuperSport Series,” selection chief Joubert Strydom said in the statement.
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/ 13 February 2008
At least 284 schools in the greater Durban region owe the eThekwini Water Department over R5-million for unpaid water and electricity. eThekwini water and sanitation head, Neil Macleod, said none of the schools in question had their water or electricity supply disconnected because of the arrears.
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/ 11 February 2008
South Africa announced their squad to tour Bangladesh on Monday after a week of disagreements among the country’s cricket officials. The squad, which is scheduled to leave for Bangladesh on Wednesday, was due to have been named last Tuesday. Disputes between the selectors and the president of Cricket South Africa, Norman Arendse, held up the process.
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/ 11 February 2008
Durban police are investigating 10 cases of fraud linked to national insurance and investment giant Liberty Life. It is alleged that 10 people had chunks of their salaries taken out of their bank accounts, seemingly by Liberty Life, for premiums they did not owe the company.
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/ 11 February 2008
The Durban University of Technology (DUT) and its student representative council (SRC) reached an agreement on outstanding student fees at a meeting on Monday. University spokesperson Nomondi Mbadi said the SRC had committed itself to ending student protests as an agreement in terms of outstanding student debt had been reached.
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/ 10 February 2008
Strike action led by the Durban University of Technology’s student representative council (SRC) looked set to continue after the SRC issued a statement on Saturday demanding an urgent meeting with management. The SRC and the management have been at loggerheads for the past two week over how to deal with the rising student debt.
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/ 8 February 2008
Woza Moya’s beaded dolls and their creators are on exhibition, writes Niren Tolsi.
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/ 7 February 2008
Disagreement between South Africa’s selectors and administrators has delayed naming the squad to tour Bangladesh this month. The list of players was due to be decided on Tuesday but the announcement was deferred after Cricket South Africa president Norman Arendse refused to approve the selectors’ decision.
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/ 6 February 2008
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on Wednesday condemned the recent student protests that have led to the closure of the Durban University of Technology. ”It is entirely unacceptable that a democratic right to protest is being perverted in this way,” Pandor said in a statement.
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/ 4 February 2008
Students, police and security personnel clashed in running battles on the Durban University of Technology’s Steve Biko campus on Monday. Bricks, bottles and stones were thrown by the students. Journalists were chased from the administration block and a photographer was struck on the back by a student wielding a stick.
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/ 2 February 2008
AB de Villiers struck a confident 77 while Shaun Pollock bid an emotional home town farewell as South Africa beat the West Indies by five wickets at Kingsmead on Friday to maintain a perfect record in the one-day series. Pollock delighted a capacity crowd by hitting the winning boundary to seal South Africa’s win.
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/ 1 February 2008
More than 200 students at Durban’s University of Technology protested over registration fees at the institution’s Steve Biko campus on Friday. Police said the protests at the institution started at about 10am and that the situation at the campus was ”very tense”.
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/ 1 February 2008
A host of defamation claims lodged by the African National Congress president Jacob Zuma against several publications were on Friday slashed to ”approximately R12-million”, a spokesperson for Zuma said. Liesl Göttert said: ”Mr Jacob Zuma will instruct his media legal team to drop the defamation component of all media claims that he instituted against some media.”
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/ 1 February 2008
The Polly Parade reaches its climax this weekend when veteran all-rounder Shaun Pollock plays his last matches for South Africa at Kingsmead on Friday and at the Wanderers on Sunday. With an unassailable three-nil lead over the West Indies in the five-match one-day international series, the Proteas will be looking for a series whitewash.
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/ 31 January 2008
The government is looking at the possibility of introducing roadworthiness tests for private vehicles every two years, a senior traffic official said at the launch of a national road safety campaign in Durban on Thursday. Thabo Tsholetsane said government was ”doing a study” to see how often roadworthiness tests could be carried out.
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/ 31 January 2008
Dozens of police officers and members of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union converged at a Durban school on Thursday, 48 hours after a former pupil went into the school and threatened teachers and pupils with a gun. The matter was only reported to police on Wednesday afternoon.
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/ 31 January 2008
Several Durban rivers are polluted with health-threatening levels of E. coli bacteria, sometimes at levels hundreds of times over the recommended safety limits for drinking, washing, swimming or canoeing, the Mercury reported on Thursday. The eThekwini municipality has been singled out as one of the ”most significant” polluters.
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/ 30 January 2008
A task team will be established to investigate a series of recent rapes and killings similar to the work of a serial killer who had operated in and around Pietermaritzburg in the 1990s, police said on Wednesday. The team will comprise six experienced detectives.
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/ 30 January 2008
A kulula.com passenger aircraft was forced to turn back after a bird flew into an engine during a Durban-to-Cape Town flight on Wednesday. Airline spokesperson Glenda Zvenyika confirmed that a ”bird strike” occurred on flight MN702, 15 minutes after taking off from Durban. The captain had to shut down the engine.
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/ 30 January 2008
A 27-year-old Durban woman who allegedly set her boyfriend alight and then locked him in a toilet at the weekend is expected to appear at the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Thursday for murder, police said. Captain Bongani Khomo said the woman was arrested in Umlazi on Monday afternoon.
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/ 30 January 2008
Heavily polluted water from a punctured sewage pipe appears to have been flowing into the Durban harbour via the Umhlatuzana River for up to nine months — reportedly the result of a bungled repair job by eThekwini council contract workers, a media report said on Wednesday.
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/ 29 January 2008
Charges have been laid against the owners of an historical church in KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) Ixopo area after it was demolished over the festive season, the province’s heritage body said on Tuesday. mafa/Heritage KwaZulu-Natal CEO Barry Marshall said the church dated back to the closing years of the 19th century.
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/ 25 January 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) has lashed out at a popular soap opera actress for claiming the ANC murders its opponents, and is considering legal action against her. The actress, Winnie Ntshaba, who plays Khethiwe in the soap opera Generations, was speaking at an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) gathering.
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/ 24 January 2008
Two welders were critically injured when the tank in which they were working exploded in Pietermaritzburg, paramedics said. Netcare 911 said two men were taken to the city’s St Anne’s Hospital. Police spokesperson Inspector Joey Jeevan confirmed the explosion but could not immediately provide any details.
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/ 23 January 2008
Hard labour for hardened convicts was one of the proposals presented at the launch of the Inkatha Freedom Party’s (IFP) Purpose, Vision and Values Programme in Durban on Wednesday. Addressing the issue of crime in the country, the IFP’s Stan Larkan told the more than 3 000 delegates that ”hard labour needs to be introduced”.
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/ 22 January 2008
A KwaZulu-Natal pilot project — proven to reduce court backlogs and overcrowding in prisons drastically — may be rolled out countrywide, if the government comes to the table with funding, the Justice and Constitutional Development Department said on Tuesday.
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/ 20 January 2008
At least 10 people were killed, 10 critically injured and another 23 seriously injured in a bus accident on the R34 near Ulundi on Saturday, KwaZulu-Natal emergency services reported. The accident, involving a Greyhoud bus, took place on the R34 between Melmoth and Vryheid at the turn-off to Ulundi.
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/ 19 January 2008
It has been many years coming, but finally the Hansa Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon has delivered a black winner. Seven-time winner Martin Dreyer paddled into Durban’s Blue Lagoon with Michael Mbanjwa, clocking seven hours, 33 minutes and 24 seconds for the three-day haul from Pietermaritzburg.