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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.
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/ 6 December 2004
An investigation has been ordered into an Eastern Cape doctor’s alleged refusal to treat a two-year-old rape victim on Saturday. The Eastern Cape health department’s superintendent general has appointed a team of investigators to probe the incident and make recommendations, a departmental spokesperson said on Monday.
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/ 6 December 2004
The Arrive Alive campaign will not tolerate traffic offenders this coming holiday season — this is according to a statement by the Department of Transport issued on Monday. With schools countrywide closing for the December holidays, Arrive Alive is gearing itself up for the holiday rush.
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/ 30 November 2004
Fifteen people were arrested for various cases of fraud amounting to more than R2,5-million in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday. Superintendent Mike Fatyela said members of the joint anti-corruption task team in the province expected to arrest another 10 people during the course of the morning.
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/ 30 November 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/142915/aids_icon.gif" align=left>A year ago the government approved a national plan for the management, care and treatment of HIV/Aids. Its aim was to provide free anti-retroviral drugs in the public health sector. The HIV prevalence rates range from an estimated 13,1% in the Western Cape to a very high 37,5% of adults in KwaZulu-Natal. A <i>M&G</i> assessment as World Aids Day approaches reveals the leaders and laggards.
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/ 27 November 2004
The East London-based Daily Dispatch has appointed Phylicia Oppelt as its first woman editor. The 35-year-old, formerly of the Sunday Times, will take over the 132-year-old newspaper on January. She replaces Gavin Stewart who has been editor for the past 10 years, the paper said.
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/ 26 November 2004
”President Mbeki explains to European leaders why Nepad is succeeding beyond all expectations.” ”The government reveals how the arms deal has brought billion of rands in foreign investment and created thousands of jobs.” Then comes the ”ag shame” touch, delivered with a helping of devastating SABC wordplay to get the nation hosing itself. Does that menu smell familiar? Of course it does.
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/ 25 November 2004
The African National Congress (ANC) and the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) both won three of eight contested municipal by-elections held on Wednesday – with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) retaining two seats it previously had held.
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/ 25 November 2004
Media and entertainment group Johnnic Communications on Wednesday reported an increase of 727% in headline earnings to R124-million for the six-month period to 30 September 2004. Revenue for the period rose by 52% to R1953-million from R1284-million in 2003, while profit from continuing operations before exceptional items leapt by 800% from R17-million in 2003 to R153-million.