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/ 7 February 2005
A range of international scientists are preparing to come to South Africa for this year’s national festival of science in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. The Sasol Scifest is not only considered the biggest science festival on the African continent, but it is also opening up dialogue between local and developed-world scientists.
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/ 4 February 2005
The damage caused by the freak storm which struck the Eastern Cape town of Klipplaat on Wednesday evening has been estimated at R8,4-million. Five people were critically injured and more than 20 sustained minor injuries when the storm descended on the town shortly after 6pm.
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/ 3 February 2005
Five people were critically injured and at least 20 hurt when a tornado whipped through the town of Klipplaat near Jansenville in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday evening. ”The town looks like Baghdad. It’s dead. There was wind, rain, hail coming from all four corners,” Iqwezi municipality councillor Mannetjie Blouw said.
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/ 2 February 2005
Health managers in the Eastern Cape face censure and possible dismissal if they do not deal with complaints about negligence at hospitals under their care, health minister Bevan Goqwana said on Wednesday. In a statement, Goqwana warned quality assurance managers to ”pull up their socks or ship out”.
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/ 31 January 2005
South African exports rose by 7% in rand terms and 25,7% in dollar terms in 2004, as the strong rand failed to dent export growth due to strong demand from China and high commodity prices. Exporters are reporting buoyant demand, which is sadly constrained by bottlenecks on the railways and harbours, not by the strong rand.
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/ 28 January 2005
”Blacks don’t have an identity in South African rugby because of the complexities of what constitutes black. Black is not coloured and coloured is not black. While this debate continues, the white conservatives sit back and play the role of puppeteer.” Former Springbok communications manager Mark Keohane writes for the Mail & Guardian.
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/ 25 January 2005
Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Buyelwa Sonjica is to sign a forestry lease agreement on Tuesday between the South African government, MTO Forestry and the Amatola Forestry Company, which opens the door to black empowerment companies to lease part of the country’s forests.
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/ 20 January 2005
The Eastern Cape health department has announced a R4-million plan to help deal with perennial cholera outbreaks, which have since 2002 claimed the lives of 83 people and hospitalised another 6 000 in the region. A departmental spokesperson said 22 specialised motorbikes are going to help combat outbreaks.
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/ 20 January 2005
Due in part to the high-profile launch of Mark Shuttleworth’s new Ubuntu open-source operating system, more and more ordinary computer users are realising that there is life after Windows. To help them on their way, a new magazine, <i>Tectonic</i>, will be launched in South Africa in March.
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/ 18 January 2005
Chief land-claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya says he believes that all 22 447 unresolved land-restitution claims will be settled by the end of this year. ”We are confident,” he said on Monday in Cape Town, where he and provincial commissioners are holding their regular quarterly meeting.
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/ 15 January 2005
Hundreds of people, including President Thabo Mbeki, converged on Qunu in the Eastern Cape on Saturday to support former president Nelson Mandela at the funeral of his son, Makgatho, who died of Aids. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Aids activist Zackie Achmat and businessman Patrice Motsepe were among those who went to bid farewell to Makgatho.
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/ 15 January 2005
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday came out in support for prison warders in their dispute with the Department of Correctional Services. Cosatu said a meeting of its public-sector affiliates on Thursday agreed on a programme of action to rally support for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union.
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/ 15 January 2005
Aids activists will join President Thabo Mbeki and anticipated thousands of other mourners at the funeral of former president Nelson Mandela’s son, Makgatho Mandela, on Saturday. Makgatho died of Aids-related complications last week, and Mandela used the announcement of his death to plead for openness on the disease.
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/ 13 January 2005
More prison workers could be fired following threats of legal action by the South African Prisoners Human Rights Organisation (Sapohr), National Correctional Services Commissioner Linda Mti warned on Thursday. Sapohr has served papers on the Department of Correctional Services after the dismissal of prison staff in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
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/ 12 January 2005
Nelson Mandela, supported by his wife, Graca, attended his son Makgatho’s Mandela’s memorial service at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Makgatho (54), Mandela’s only surviving son, died of HIV/Aids on Thursday last week. In his sermon, Reverend Mvume Dandala, said ”that the first step to victory against Aids is not only to know one’s adversaries but to name one’s adversary”.
Which four Southern Africa countries held elections this year? Who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize? Who provides the donkey’s voice in the film <i>Shrek</i>? Name the Jewish architect of Polish extraction who won the bid to design a memorial for New York’s Twin Towers. How many of the year’s events can you recall? Put yourself to the test …
About 20 circumcision initiates in Port Elizabeth turned on their traditional nurse and killed him, an Eastern Cape health department official said on Monday. Sizwe Kupelo said the incident occurred on Friday, when the unnamed nurse was assaulted with sticks and died from his injuries.
As police hinted at withdrawing at least some of the over-stretched officers manning strike-hit prisons in the Eastern Cape, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union on Sunday warned that the action is just the build-up to countrywide disruptions.
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/ 30 December 2004
Tsunami survivors slammed government officials and singled out the South African ambassador in Thailand on radio and the press for their handling of the tsunami crisis. A Pretoria newspaper quoted survivors accusing South African officials in Thailand of incompetence.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=177242">SA rallies to aid of Tsunami victims</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=177241">Tsunami toll nears 120 000</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=177234">SA relief workers to fly out</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=177235">30 000 Somalis in need of Aid</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=177229">SA tsunami survivors return</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=177200">South Africans still missing</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=177227">Aid arrives in tsunami disaster zones</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=177203">Calls for UN to lead relief effort</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=177202">The true horror emerges</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/content/l3_fl2.asp?cg=tsunami%20disaster&o=194303">Tsunami disaster special report</a>
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/ 30 December 2004
Former president Nelson Mandela has paid a visit to ailing former Eastern Cape premier Raymond Mhlaba at his Summerstrand home in Port Elizabeth, SABC news reported on Wednesday. Mandela was accompanied by his wife Graca.
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/ 29 December 2004
The 2004 matric class has achieved a pass rate of more than 70% for the third year in a row, says Education Minister Naledi Pandor. The official results in eight provinces were released during a media briefing at Parliament, but the results in Mpumalanga have been withheld because some are under investigation.
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/ 28 December 2004
The KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape coasts have experienced unusual tidal activity and sea currents in the wake of the earthquake that struck south-east Asia at the weekend which sent giant waves across large areas of the Indian Ocean. In the PE area one person is missing, believed drowned, as a result of higher than usual swells
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/ 27 December 2004
The National Sea Rescue Institute and the SA Navy have warned the public and fishermen against high waves along the KwaZulu-Natal Coast and parts of the Eastern Cape following the tsunamis which killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa.
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/ 20 December 2004
Gifts not distributed during former president Nelson Mandela’s annual Christmas party will be handed out to pre-schools early in 2005, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund announced on Monday. The party was called off in the Eastern Cape on Sunday after ”shuffling and pushing” among the 76 000-strong crowd.
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/ 20 December 2004
Former president Nelson Mandela’s annual Christmas party for children was called off on Sunday amid a crush of pushing and shoving children and parents jostling for position in the queue for presents. The organisers had bargained on between 15 000 and 20 000 guests, but made provision for an extra 10 000, said Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund spokesperson, Archie Tsoku.
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/ 19 December 2004
Deputy President Jacob Zuma handed over a traditional court, king’s chamber, community hall and other facilities to the people of Klipfontein, Mpumalanga, on Saturday. The project is part of the government’s commitment to ”improve the status and position of traditional leaders in our country”, he said.
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/ 17 December 2004
With the music industry hit by a testosterone rush, Brian Letlhabane talks to local pop’s heart-throbs and heavies, featuring the likes of MXO, Mr Selwyn and RJ Bejamin.
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/ 17 December 2004
The Department of Social Development launched a major anti-corruption campaign recently, asking for public support in its fight against fraud, but a large proportion of the fraud is committed by civil servants. The corruption takes many forms, including syndicates operated by corrupt government officials, doctors, lawyers and priests. We investigate how government officials collude with members of the public to defraud the state of millions of rands.
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/ 14 December 2004
Eastern Cape emergency workers struggled to clear a scene of carnage on Tuesday after a runaway truck ploughed through a taxi rank in the town of Flagstaff, instantly killing four and injuring 10 others, two critically. It appears the articulated truck was speeding through the town centre when it lost control.
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/ 13 December 2004
Citizens who received social grants to which they are not entitled have until the end of March to apply for indemnity. Those who fail to do so will face ”drastic measures”, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said in Pretoria on Monday. He said about 37Â 000 people are apparently illegally enjoying benefits.
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/ 10 December 2004
City of Cape Town nature conservation officials have at last captured the elusive young male hippo that escaped from the Rondevlei Nature Reserve in February this year. It took six darts and a three-and-a-half hour chase in the dark through reed beds and deep water in the small hours of Thursday morning to get the 800kg animal under control.
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/ 9 December 2004
The six-year-old boy struck by lightning on a Pretoria golf course on Wednesday is still in a very critical and unstable condition, the Pretoria East hospital said on Thursday. His internal organs have suffered from the heat and electricity that surged through him in the lightning strike that killed his father, paramedic Roger Owen-Ellis.