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/ 26 October 2006
OR Tambo International airport is one of hundreds of South African place names that have been officially changed since 2000. The airport’s new name and a bust of Tambo are due to be unveiled on Friday by President Thabo Mbeki. The South African Geographical Names Council lists 833 new names approved since 2000, including at least 145 names that were completely changed.
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/ 25 October 2006
Secrecy is fundamental to the initiation custom, the public hearing on initiation schools heard on Wednesday. The South African Human Rights Commission’s Free State office manager, Mothusi Lepheana, who spoke in his personal capacity, said secrecy is needed to preserve the ”copyright” of the initiation process.
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/ 24 October 2006
A South African cultural rights group on Tuesday urged the government to establish legal ground rules for male circumcision rituals to prevent botched surgeries by traditional healers. Over the last decade 83 people have died — including 19 this year alone — in the Eastern Cape province as a result of the age-old practice that marks the passage of boys into manhood.
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/ 24 October 2006
If metal detectors are necessary in certain schools to guard the safety of pupils, they must be used, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. DA education spokesperson David Quail said there had been over 20 deaths in schools this year, and that media statements of shock and sympathy from the department are not enough to solve the problem.
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/ 23 October 2006
Initiation schools could avoid problems by avoiding commercialisation and keeping strict control, a public hearing on initiation schools heard on Monday. ”We don’t do it for gain. We do it for the pride that’s involved, the spirituality, the richness that’s involved,” said Titus Kgatoke, the secretary of an Ndebele initiation school based in Thembisa, north-east of Johannesburg.
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/ 22 October 2006
”On a visit home I collapsed on the night of June 7 and was admitted as an emergency case to the intensive care unit at the Nelson Mandela Hospital. There I was stripped and lay naked in bed under an obviously used sheet for two days until a member of my family managed to bring me some night clothes.”
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/ 21 October 2006
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) has called upon the executive of the Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRFU) to resign. Saru released a statement after a meeting of the management committee on Friday, saying it was very concerned about the poor state of affairs of the EPRFU.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Highveld Lions will be pushing hard to establish their spot in the upper region of the log when they play an important double-header in the MTN domestic cricket championship this weekend. The Titans’ victory over the Warriors in East London on Wednesday has opened up the race for the semifinals.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Eastern Cape provincial administration was unable to account for R30,2-billion out of R34,1-billion (88,5%) it spent during 2005/06, the Public Service Accountability Monitor said on Thursday. The Eastern Cape auditor general issued five provincial departments with disclaimers for the 2005/06 financial year. These include the four major service-delivery departments.
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/ 18 October 2006
State-owned PetroSA has begun attaching the assets of oil trader Imvume to recover debt incurred in the Oilgate affair, the parastatal’s chief executive, Sipho Mkhize, said on Wednesday. He told a media briefing in Cape Town that assets worth an estimated R22Â 000 had already been attached from Imvume Management.
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/ 18 October 2006
In 2001, the Jali Commission started its inquiry into alleged incidents of corruption, maladministration, violence and intimidation in the Department of Correctional Services. It is now 2006 and the report of commission, named after Thabane Jali, the chairperson of the commission, has been publicised.
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/ 18 October 2006
Johannesburg police on Wednesday promised pupils at a Booysens high school they would monitor their safety following the fatal stabbing of a pupil on the premises. "I will be here all the time with the principal," said newly appointed Booysens Commissioner Rex Qabanisa Mochabi, speaking to pupils at Forest Hill High.
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/ 17 October 2006
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka warned that the government may be forced to ask the Chinese to increase the quota of clothes and textiles they export to South Africa if local manufacturers fail to meet demands, the Dispatch Online reported on Tuesday. And should local businesses fail to make the most of the quota agreement entered into with China, it would expire, she warned.
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/ 17 October 2006
Some economic analysts say the passion for land is dying out in modern South Africa as more rural residents move to urban areas to escape the crushing poverty that contrasts sharply with much of the country’s prosperous cities. But some SA women, who met on the weekend, showed land hunger was still strong at a conference with hundreds of activists, officials, traditional leaders and farmers.
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/ 17 October 2006
A Port Elizabeth man was expected to appear in the Uitenhage Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday following a hostage drama in Despatch, Eastern Cape police said. The man, in his 40s, allegedly locked a woman in his house at Azilia Park about 11am on Monday, said spokesperson Inspector Marianette Olivier. The man panicked when he saw police vehicles and neighbours gathering around the house and started shooting at bystanders.
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/ 16 October 2006
Correctional services is strengthening its ”onslaught” against fraud, corruption and unethical behaviour by publicly naming those found guilty and dismissed since the institution of various interventions. Briefing the media at Parliament on Monday, Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour released the first list of correctional officials dismissed after being found guilty of various charges.
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/ 16 October 2006
The National Development Agency (NDA) is tightening up its systems to prevent a repeat of an R8,8-million misappropriation of funds discovered in a recent forensic audit. It has also begun criminal proceedings against the former NDA employee allegedly at the centre of the fraud, NDA chief executive Godfrey Mokate said in Johannesburg on Monday.
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/ 16 October 2006
The PetroSA plant outside Mossel Bay was calm on Monday morning after it was hit by a strike last week, Southern Cape police spokesperson Captain Malcolm Pojie said. He said police had set up a joint operations centre along with the parastatal at the plant, which has been shut down for annual cleaning and maintenance, to monitor the situation.
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/ 10 October 2006
Delegates at Free State public hearings on initiation schools on Tuesday called for special courts to be established to deal with transgressors of initiation customs. The call was made in a joint statement by the South African Human Rights Commission, the National House of Traditional Leaders and the Commission for the rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.
A 78-year-old woman managed to identify the men who raped her and then set fire to her body before she died, Eastern Cape police said on Thursday. The brutal rape and murder of the woman and her niece on Tuesday last week have left the Grahamstown community shocked and angry, according to police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender.
There appeared to be little relief in sight for the rain-sodden Eastern Cape, with the whole province on high alert as heavy rains continued, disaster management said on Thursday. Disaster Management’s Captain John Fobian said warnings had been issued all over the province from the Fish River to Port Elizabeth.
Four street children stole a cellphone and a pair of shoes after stabbing and killing 52-year-old Quintin Boutel in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape police said on Thursday. Spokesperson Superintendent Johann van Greunen said Boutel and his girlfriend were walking home from the Pub & Grub restaurant in Newton Park at about 10.30pm on Wednesday when they were confronted by the youths.
Any South African who uses national highways or main roads in our cities will sooner or later run into a government convoy. Depending on the rank of the politician being taxied, the convoy can stretch from two to eight cars. At the last count, President Thabo Mbeki had eight. Jacob Zuma may be out of government, but he has almost as many.
Traditional circumcision rites have killed 83 initiates in the Eastern Cape alone between 1996 and 2005, public hearings into initiation schools were told on Wednesday. There had been 19 more deaths in the province this year. Another 63 initiates had to undergo amputations, while 562 were hospitalised, Eastern Cape department of health officials said on the second day of the hearings.
South Africa’s recent upbeat assessment of job growth is not a true reflection of trends in the country’s workforce, say critics who contend that gaps in official employment data undercut the government’s rosy claims. Statistics South Africa reported last week that there were 544Â 000 new jobs in the year to March and noted a ”slightly upward trend” in employment.
The African National Congress (ANC) has expressed deep sadness over the death of MP James Kati, a spokesperson said on Monday. James Zamiwonga Kati, who became an MP in 1999, died on Friday after a long illness. ”The ANC dips its revolutionary banner in remembrance of his undying spirit,” said ANC Parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo.
Parts of the Western Cape can expect heavy rain and snow on Monday, Weather SA warned on Monday. ”Heavy falls of rain are possible in the Overberg, Breede River Valley, Ruens, Garden Route and the Little Karoo,” said Weather SA. ”Very cold, wet and windy conditions are expected on the high-ground areas of the Western Cape province and western parts of the Northern Cape province.”
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/ 29 September 2006
South Africa’s poorest municipality, the OR Tambo District Municipality in Transkei, could find itself lagging as much as 10 years behind the national target dates for water and sanitation, President Thabo Mbeki heard on Friday. This was the warning in a report handed to him during a day-long visit to the Mbizana area.
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/ 29 September 2006
President Thabo Mbeki on Friday laid a wreath at the grave of the parents of former African National Congress stalwart Oliver Tambo on a rural hillside in the Mbizana district of Transkei. The wreath-laying came ahead of a presidential imbizo that will include a public meeting and a report back on the functioning of the Oliver Tambo district municipality.
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/ 27 September 2006
Top SA Rugby officials are to meet the three Southern and Eastern Cape unions soon to find a solution to an ongoing franchise dispute, Dispatch Online reported on Wednesday. The SA Rugby delegation will comprise president Oregan Hoskins, vice-presidents Mike Stofile and Koos Basson and chairperson Mveleli Ncula.
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/ 20 September 2006
Hundreds of people from the Landless People’s Movement and the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) gathered in central Johannesburg on Wednesday to protest against the slow delivery of services to the poor and the destitute. About 1 600 people were expected to take part in the march to the Department of Home Affairs.
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/ 20 September 2006
Only the position of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president is to be contested in its leadership election, the union federation’s congress in Midrand heard on Wednesday. Willie Madisha, who presently holds that office, will be pitted against Zanoxolo Wayile, Cosatu’s Eastern Cape chairperson and a National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa member.