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/ 25 September 2007
The government is committed to meeting its target of eradicating the bucket-toilet system in all formal settlements established before 1994, it said on Tuesday. To ensure this deadline was met an amount of R1,6-billion had been made available ”to provide better and more acceptable sanitation for all”.
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/ 24 September 2007
Respecting the diversity of all cultures and living in the spirit of ubuntu were highlighted at Gauteng’s Heritage Day celebrations.
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/ 24 September 2007
Five people have been arrested in connection with the murder of five women whose decomposing bodies were found in a sugar-cane field on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, police said on Monday. In Stanger, one person was arrested on Sunday evening. A further four people were arrested at a house in Chatsworth on Monday.
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/ 23 September 2007
The controversial Sandi Majali — known for his central role in the Oilgate and Iraq oil-for-food scandals — has been named in a forensic audit into the disappearance of more than R100-million meant for starving children in the Eastern Cape, the Sunday Times reported.
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/ 23 September 2007
A school pupil was stabbed and killed after an argument with another pupil during an end-of-term outing in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape police said on Saturday. Pupils from the Thembelihle High School had gathered at Kings Beach to celebrate the end of the school term on Friday when an argument broke out.
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/ 22 September 2007
Two children were burnt beyond recognition when the hut they were sleeping in caught fire in the early hours of Saturday morning, said Eastern Cape police. Superintendent Msukisi Fatyela said the boys were aged six and eight. One was found dead in a bedroom and the other in the lounge.
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/ 22 September 2007
After being flown from Cape Town on a police jet, a prisoner escaped from the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court on Friday, Eastern Cape police said. Mthatha police said Odwa Sithole (23) was appearing in court for crimes including armed robbery, escaping from custody and possession of an unlicensed firearm.
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/ 20 September 2007
The controversial Constitution 13th Amendment Bill was passed in the National Assembly on Thursday, despite opposition from the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party, among others. The Bill seeks to realign certain provincial borders to avoid municipal boundaries straddling them.
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/ 17 September 2007
The name Grahamstown is a step closer to being renamed after a Makana council meeting resolved that ”Grahamstown must go”. Makana mayor Phumelelo Kate told Grocott’s Mail on Monday that the name change proposal was based on historical reasons.
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/ 17 September 2007
South Africa’s decision to invest in a nuclear power future has raised concerns about what will happen to the nuke waste generated. Last week it emerged that nuclear power would account for about half of Eskom’s planned new generating capacity. At present South Africa’s nuclear waste policy is vague and does not list a clear end-plan of what will happen to high-level nuclear waste.
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/ 16 September 2007
Businessman Tokyo Sexwale has reiterated that infighting within the African National Congress (ANC) would destroy the party, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Sunday. Sexwale was addressing the Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans’ Association in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.
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/ 15 September 2007
As the floor-crossing window drew to a close on Saturday, sole Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) representative in the national legislature, Motsoko Pheko, denounced the floor-crossing practice as ”political prostitution”. ”Floor-crossing cheats voters — it robs them of the mandate they have given to a political party of their choice,” he said.
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/ 14 September 2007
Jocelyn Creed started playing rugby in 2002 with Villagers Rugby Club. She played Western Province rugby for three seasons. Then she was appointed to manage Villagers ladies’ team and the Western Province ladies’ team during their season. Creed and her friends noticed the lack of attention paid to women’s rugby and opened Ntombi Rugby Academy in May last year.
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/ 11 September 2007
The Social Assistance Act unfairly discriminates against a group of men who are among the poorest of the poor in South Africa, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday. The Act entitled men to apply for state old-age pensions, based on a needs test, when they reached the age of 65, but entitled women to start receiving the pension at the of 60.
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/ 8 September 2007
A head-on collision between a truck and a bus killed 13 people and seriously injured four others in the Eastern Cape on Saturday. Emergency workers were trying to extract two other passengers from the wreckage while two men and two women had been taken to hospital.
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/ 8 September 2007
Separated conjoined twins Danielle and Danika Lowton remained in a stable condition on Saturday having survived a successful 16-hour operation to separate them. Arwyp Medical Centre Private Hospital spokesperson Henry du Plooy said the twins were being monitored constantly.
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/ 5 September 2007
The Pan African Congress (PAC) on Wednesday became the first casualty of the floor-crossing season as its former deputy president launched a new party. Themba Godi announced the launch of the African People’s Convention (APC) at a hotel near Kempton Park. APC spokesperson Mafemane Maringa said the party had been joined by 40 councillors.
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/ 4 September 2007
The embattled Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has suffered a further blow with the defection of its deputy president Themba Godi and two MPLs to the newly formed African People’s Convention (APC). Godi’s move to the APC was announced by National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete at the start of proceedings on Tuesday.
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/ 3 September 2007
Police officers who reportedly took part in a meat free-for-all near King William’s Town last month have been cleared from any charges. The incident followed an accident in which a truck loaded with pigs overturned. Onlookers apparently then killed the pigs and police officers at the scene allegedly did not take any action.
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/ 2 September 2007
Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday said he has no interest in joining the African National Congress presidential succession race — this after the Sunday Times reported that Ramaphosa had joined the race. ”I have no interest in standing for this position,” he said in a statement.
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/ 2 September 2007
Seven awaiting-trial prisoners have escaped from an Mthatha jail, Eastern Cape police said on Saturday. Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said the men — arrested for crimes such as murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, theft and assault — had escaped from their cell at Wellington prison between 10pm and 11pm on Friday.
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/ 2 September 2007
Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa has joined the African National Congress (ANC) presidential succession race, according to weekend media reports. The ANC’s powerful OR Tambo district in the Eastern Cape has formally stated that it will nominate Ramaphosa for the presidency. Regional secretary Mlamli Siyakholwa said that "we have been lobbying Ramaphosa, I must admit".
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/ 1 September 2007
A number of local councillors and one member of a provincial legislature have crossed over to the Democratic Alliance (DA) since the floor-crossing window opened at midnight, DA federal chairperson James Selfe said on Saturday. ”There is a steady trickle of people to us, but it’s a trickle, not a flood, and that’s as we anticipated it,” he said.
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/ 1 September 2007
Archbishop Desmond Tutu berated South Africa’s government on Friday over delays in introducing an HIV/Aids drug treatment plan and said its leaders’ unorthodox views had led to unnecessary deaths. Recalling fallen anti-apartheid heroes, the Nobel peace laureate said they would be shocked by the devastation caused by the pandemic, which he said was killing 900 people every day.
The Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area is grappling with an increasing number of tuberculosis (TB) cases, with about 250 new patients being admitted to the Livingstone and Dora Nginza hospitals each month. In addition to this, over 200 new multidrug-resistant TB patients are transported from throughout the province to the Jose Pearson Hospital in Bethelsdorp each month.
Nedbank is making things happen in a number of rural communities in the Eastern Cape. It has opened a mobile branch in Centane and another branch, called the Green Shop, will open as soon as it is built. Working with Pick ‘n Pay Group stores, Nedbank has opened an in-store branch at Boxer Superstores, one of the Pick ‘n Pay Group stores.
Fraud, theft and unauthorised spending are on the rise in government departments, according to a Public Service Commission (PSC) report tabled at Parliament on Tuesday. The PSC’s Report on Financial Misconduct for the 2005/06 Financial Year says this cost the taxpayer at least R45-million at the time.
An internal investigation has been completed into the conduct of South African Police Service officers at an accident scene near King William’s Town earlier this month where a truck carrying 211 pigs had overturned. Onlookers apparently stormed the truck and killed the pigs — of which some were still alive — for meat.
The African National Congress government is ruthlessly extracting every cent it can from former deputy minister of health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge while the health minister is spending exorbitant amounts of public money unnecessarily on helicopters to travel around the Eastern Cape, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
For some time now there has been a sustained discourse on ”succession”. Because Thabo Mbeki is constitutionally prohibited from another term as president of the country, the person likely to succeed him must be ”identified” in advance in order to facilitate a smooth transition. Or so we are told, writes Monde Nkasawe.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday thumbed her nose at her critics, saying she was there to stay. The media quoted her as telling reporters in East London she would not resign amid accusations that she is an alcoholic who abused her position to get a liver transplant. ”I’m not stepping down,” the minister said.
The South African Medical Association (Sama) said on Wednesday that the ”whistle-blowing” on the part of a doctor at East London’s Frere Hospital was an ethical and responsible intervention. Professor Denise White, acting chairperson of Sama, said investigations were needed to establish whether or not the rights of patients had been further violated.