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/ 23 November 2007
While sporting attention is turned to the draw for the preliminary round of the 2010 Soccer World Cup this weekend, a different view of soccer in South Africa is being premiered in front of a celebrity audience on Friday. Director Junaid Ahmed’s film More Than Just a Game tells the story of how political prisoners on Robben Island used soccer as one of the means of survival.
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/ 23 November 2007
A record television audience is expected to watch the 2010 Soccer World Cup preliminary draw when it takes place in Durban on Sunday afternoon. World Soccer governing body Fifa spokesperson Nicolas Maingot said on Friday that while television viewer figures would be hard to estimate, there would be 34 television channels broadcasting the draw live.
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/ 23 November 2007
South Africa’s ability to stage the world’s most widely watched sporting event will undergo intensive scrutiny on Sunday when it hosts the qualifying draw for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Thousands of football administrators and journalists will be present in Durban, with hundreds of millions more watching on television, for an extravaganza designed to silence the sceptics.
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/ 23 November 2007
A Qalakabusha prison escapee died on Friday morning after a shoot-out with law enforcement officials, KwaZulu-Natal police said. Police spokesperson Captain Jabulani Mdletshe said the incident took place at 2am in Mtubatuba. Xolani Ngobese and nine other convicted criminals escaped from the prison in northern KwaZulu-Natal on August 4 this year.
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/ 22 November 2007
Fifa president Sepp Blatter arrived in Durban on Thursday amid tight security. His arrival ahead of the 2010 preliminary draw came on the same day that 2010 South African local organising committee CEO Danny Jordaan unveiled the 2009 Confederations Cup emblem at Durban’s International Convention Centre.
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/ 22 November 2007
A total of 170 countries will go into Sunday’s draw for the 2010 World Cup preliminary competition being held in Durban, Fifa said on Thursday. The teams will be chasing 31 places at the World Cup finals to be hosted by South Africa in 30 months’ time.
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/ 22 November 2007
World soccer governing body Fifa was concerned about 2010 stadium preparations, its general secretary, Jerome Valcke, said on Thursday at a media briefing in Durban. Stadium workers in Nelspruit, Durban and Cape Town recently staged strikes for better wages and this raised concerns that South Africa would not be ready to host the World Cup.
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/ 22 November 2007
Officials at Durban’s Engen refinery on Thursday reiterated that a fire that resulted in millions of rands’ worth of petrol going up in smoke would not have an impact on fuel supply. ”We don’t believe that this will have any significant impact in the short- or long-term,” Herb Payne, speaking on behalf of Engen general manager Willem Oosthuizen, said on Thursday.
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/ 21 November 2007
When the first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 only 13 teams participated in the finals and every country that wanted to play in the tournament was welcomed with open arms. Since then, the competition has grown in leaps and bounds and more than 200 countries have entered the first World Cup on African soil.
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/ 21 November 2007
It has been more than 31 hours since a petrol tank was struck by lightning at Durban’s Engen Refinery and by 7am on Wednesday the tank was still burning. plant officials said. ”The fire seems to be very persistent,” said Engen spokesperson Herb Payne.
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/ 20 November 2007
The trial of three men accused of slaughtering a KwaZulu-Natal family is expected to start on Tuesday, police said. The Newcastle family of four, including a teenage girl and baby boy, were found stabbed to death in different rooms of their home in May 2006.
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/ 20 November 2007
A massive fire broke out at the Engen refinery in Durban on Monday night, the cause of which was not immediately known. However, Engen refinery spokesperson Herb Payne said it was possibly caused by a lightning strike. Payne said there were no injuries or fatalities and that all staff had been accounted for.
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/ 19 November 2007
A grade 10 pupil, who stabbed his teacher to death in front of his classmates, was on Monday sentenced to an effective 10 years’ imprisonment. KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Vuka Tshablala sentenced 18-year old Mazwi Mkhwanazi to 15 years, five of which were suspended.
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/ 19 November 2007
The two-week long strike by construction workers building Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium came to an end on Monday after workers accepted an offer made by the Group Five-WBHO consortium. National Union of Mineworkers regional coordinator Bonginkosi Mncwabe said workers would return to work on Tuesday morning.
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/ 19 November 2007
The two-week strike by construction workers at Durban’s Moses Mabhida 2010 stadium may end on Monday, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said. NUM spokesperson Bonginkosi Mncwabe said an offer had been made by the building contractor, the Group Five/WBHO consortium.
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/ 17 November 2007
Negotiations between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Group Five-led consortium building Durban’s Moses Mabhida Soccer World Cup soccer stadium have yielded a draft agreement. NUM’s KwaZulu-Natal regional coordinator Bonginkosi Mncwabe said the union’s leadership would present the agreement to workers on Saturday.
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/ 16 November 2007
KwaZulu-Natal’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader on Friday apologised to the province’s Premier, S’bu Ndebele, over comments he made about the permier’s alleged conflicting business interests. Shortly after the original statement was issued, Ndebele had threatened to sue Mtshali for defamation.
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/ 16 November 2007
Exam papers that were destroyed in a fire at a high school in northern KwaZulu-Natal were scripts that had not yet been marked, police said. A fire ravaged parts of Siyelulama High School in Mtubatuba’s Thandanani area on Thursday night, destroying exam scripts, exam results and school records.
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/ 16 November 2007
Schabir Shaik’s wife is allowed to visit her husband once a week in hospital, while other family members need to go through ”red tape” at the Department of Correctional Services to be allowed to visit Shaik, the family said on Friday. Yunus Shaik was speaking after his brother suffered a mild stroke and was admitted to hospital in Durban.
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/ 16 November 2007
A 37-year-old man who pleaded guilty to stabbing his wife 45 times before driving her into Durban’s harbour in a bid to cover-up the murder was sentenced to 18-years’ imprisonment in the Durban High Court on Friday. Judge Vivienne Niles-Dunér ordered that Dhanendra Heeralall only be eligible for parole after 11 years.
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/ 16 November 2007
Dozens of 2010 construction workers converged on Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium on Friday to continue industrial action. Talks with their building contractor failed to result in a resolution on Thursday. Talks between the National Union of Mineworkers and the Group Five/WBHO consortium are expected to resume on Friday.
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/ 16 November 2007
Police investigating the beheading of a seven-year-old KwaZulu-Natal boy believe a witchdoctor syndicate could have been involved in the crime, KwaDabeka police said on Friday. Vuyani Ngqulunga went missing on November 1 and his body was found a day later in Clermont. His head and testicles were missing.
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/ 15 November 2007
Industrial action is set to continue at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium for the 2010 World Cup following talks between worker representatives and the builders. The National Union of Mineworkers was locked in talks with building consortium Group Five/WBHO for nearly six hours on Thursday.
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/ 15 November 2007
Group Five and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) were on Thursday locked in negotiations in a bid to stop the strike at the Moses Mabhida Stadium from spreading to other 2010 stadiums under construction. NUM national spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said the two sides had met on Wednesday evening and talks had resumed again on Thursday morning.
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/ 15 November 2007
A 37-year old Durban man on Thursday pleaded guilty to stabbing his wife 45 times before driving into Durban’s harbour in a bid to cover up the murder. ”I’m very sorry at what transpired,” said Dhanendra Heeralall as he sat in the dock at the Durban High Court.
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/ 15 November 2007
A Durban policeman is undergoing emergency surgery after he was shot twice in the chest while trying to apprehend armed robbers fleeing a crime scene, police said on Thursday. Four armed robbers hit the Beverley Jewellery store at the Pavilion mall in Westville at about 10am and Detective Andre Mostert of the Berea police station intervened.
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/ 15 November 2007
Matatiele residents were set to march through Pietermaritzburg on Thursday to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in protest over their incorporation into the Eastern Cape. Matatiele-Maluti Mass Action Organising Committee chairperson Mandla Galo said that at least 45 minibus taxis had transported residents to Pietermaritzburg.
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/ 14 November 2007
Confirmation that the Soccer World Cup has arrived on the shores of Africa is little more than a week away. The reality for many in the soccer fraternity will only sink in when they watch the preliminary draw beaming out from Durban’s International Convention Centre to television screens across the world.
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/ 12 November 2007
Dozens of construction workers converged on Durban’s Moses Mabhida 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium on Monday to continue their labour protest over wage disputes. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it was awaiting a date from the Labour Court so that the dispute could be taken to a new level.
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/ 12 November 2007
Three people have been arrested after a seven-year KwaZulu-Natal boy was beheaded for R20Â 000 in what is believed to be a muti transaction, KwaDabeka police said on Monday. Police spokesperson Captain Bongani Khomo said the incident has left police officers and the Clermont community in shock.
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/ 9 November 2007
Hundreds of construction workers striking at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium began dispersing on Friday, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said. Msi Poswa, the NUM’s regional organiser and chief negotiator, said tired protesters were told by the union they could return home. ”They will regroup on Monday,” he said.
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/ 9 November 2007
Hundreds of strikers converged on Durban’s Moses Mabhida Soccer World Cup stadium on Friday as the third day of the construction workers’ strike began. Armed with sticks, umbrellas and knobkerries, the crowd began toyi-toying outside the stadium.