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/ 23 September 2004
Deputy President Jacob Zuma has encouraged young women to take part in the virginity-testing programme of the OR Tambo district municipality. Speaking at the AmaMpondomise heritage celebrations held at Emdibanisweni Great Place near Umtata in the Eastern Cape, Zuma said the ancient practice of virginity testing is a viable solution to curbing the spread of HIV/Aids and teenage pregnancy.
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/ 22 September 2004
More than half the commercial farmers in the Eastern Cape will face bankruptcy if they are forced to pay a land tax set at 2% of market value, according to research released on Wednesday. That rate would lead to an 89% drop in profits for farmers in the province and have other equally serious knock-on effects.
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/ 22 September 2004
A senior Eastern Cape government official and an accomplice were arrested on Wednesday morning for alleged fraud and corruption involving R1,2-million. The National Prosecuting Authority said the official allegedly received a R50 000 bribe for fraudulently advancing payment of R1,2-million to the accomplice’s company.
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/ 21 September 2004
Aggravated robbery was the only violent crime to show an increase over the past two financial years, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi announced on Monday. Murders dropped by 9,9%, attempted murder by 17,8%, serious assault by 4,3%, common assault by 2,6% and common robbery by 7,8%, he told reporters in
Pretoria.
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/ 16 September 2004
There’s nothing like patting yourself on the back (something Lemmer has given up doing as it puts his spine out of place) when no one else is willing to hand you the kudos. The African National Congress Premier of the Western Cape placed prominent advertisements in newspapers to mark the first 100 days of his government elected in April.
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/ 15 September 2004
Black economic empowerment company Akani Leisure Investments has taken over the Halcyon Hotels Group — which includes in its portfolio the prestigious Bay hotel and Blues restaurant in Camps Bay. The acquisition represents the first major empowerment transaction at the top end of the Western Cape hospitality industry.
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/ 15 September 2004
A hemp growing project which offers hope to small farmers in the poverty stricken Eastern Cape could be derailed because hemp is still an illegal substance. Department of Health rules which lump hemp together with dagga could scupper plans for the effective mass production and marketing of the fibrous plant.
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/ 10 September 2004
The extermination of 1 300 ostriches, that have been raised as part of an Eastern Cape black economic empowerment farming venture, started on Thursday after the birds tested positive for bird flu. All the birds are in Salem, near Grahamstown. ”The consequential loss of this will run up to R350 000 over the next three months,” said local Agri-Business managing director Martin Fick.
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/ 9 September 2004
When examining the Fair Trade movement it is important first to understand the concept of social consciousness. Becoming socially conscious does not require a paradigm shift in lifestyle — joining a commune, hugging trees or lying down in front of bulldozers. What it does require is lateral thinking and that you ask a few earnest questions about the products you buy, and, in this case, the places you go to on holiday.
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/ 7 September 2004
The appointment of Eastern Cape tourism board CEO Glenton de Kock has been put on hold after the Eastern Cape tourism board resigned en masse this weekend in protest against his appointment. However, Environmental Affairs and Tourism MEC Andre de Wet says he hopes to have a new board by the end of this month.
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/ 7 September 2004
There are still at least seven prisoners facing the death penalty in the Eastern Cape, although the death penalty was finally written out of the law six years ago. Countrywide, there are thought to be dozens of prisoners who were sentenced to death before the abolition of the death penalty in 1995, who are still waiting for their sentences to be commuted.
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/ 6 September 2004
Eastern Cape finance minister Enoch Godongwana was fired on Monday, Premier Nosimo Balindlela’s office said. ”Both the suspension of the finance superintendent general, Monde Tom, and Godongwana’s dismissal come after a probe into financial irregularities in that department,” a spokesperson said.
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/ 2 September 2004
South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (Sadtu) members turned out in full force around the country to demonstrate their frustration with the government’s offer of a 5,5% salary increase. Sadtu spokesperson Jon Lewis said an estimated 30Â 000 people marched through the streets of Johannesburg.
Minister: Teachers’ strike ‘ill-timed’
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/ 2 September 2004
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on Thursday launched the Large Business Centre (LBC), which will cover 9 000 companies with a minimum annual turnover of R250-million. Manuel said that the LBC has been established to make it easier for large companies to comply with the law.
Rare and endangered cycad plants, often referred to as living fossils, are being stolen in South Africa at an alarming rate, with at least two species from Limpopo province having disappeared completely. According to the National Botanical Institute, the country’s botanical gardens are also being targeted by cycad poachers.
Sardine frenzy hit the KwaZulu-Natal south coast on Monday as the tiny silver fish headed back home towards the Eastern Cape. Mike Anderson-Reade from the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board said a huge crowd was gathered at Shelley Beach and that at least 150 baskets had been filled with fish.
On a national tour ahead of the floor-crossing window for councillors, Inkatha Freedom Party national chairperson Ziba Jiyane is stressing its ”centre-right” position and its standpoint on family values. He also criticised the appointment of women with wealthy husbands in jobs above breadwinners.
The Eastern Cape soccer referee who allegedly shot dead a coach and injured two players during a match at Kenton-on-Sea in July has been arrested in Port Elizabeth, police said on Thursday. Grahamstown policing area spokesperson Inspector Mali Govender said detectives had followed up information that the man was hiding in the Walmer township in Port Elizabeth.
Avian flu has been detected on three more farms near Middleton in the Eastern Cape, but the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Wednesday there is no need to panic as the farms are within its quarantine zone. Blood and tissue samples from ostrich farms around the country are also being tested.
Five officials of the Eastern Cape health department were arrested in a pre-dawn raid by the Scorpions on Wednesday for allegedly defrauding the government of R12,5-million. The five will soon appear in the Mdantsane Regional Court on charges of fraud, theft, money laundering and tax evasion.
A total of 118 South African women have discovered since the beginning of the month that they had been married without their knowledge, the Home Affairs Department said on Wednesday. This emerged from a campaign urging women to check their marital status on the department’s records in a bid to curb the problem of fraudulent marriages, the department said in a statement.
The government must tackle muti killings and ritual murders even though some might want this problem to remain hidden, an expert said on Monday. Professor Thias Kgatla, professor of religious studies at the University of the North, said a repeat of a successful campaign in 1994 against the practice is needed.
The Eastern Cape government needs more than R150-million over the next three years to address some of the problems it faced before 2002, an interim report said on Wednesday. The report states that the education department needed more than R37-million, social development over R93-million and roads and public works was short of more than R20-million.
Chaos erupted in Umtata on Wednesday when police used teargas and rubber bullets to forcibly evict students from the Eastern Cape Technikon. Police took action after an hour-long standoff with a group of students who stood at the main entrance of the institution refusing to leave the premises.
Swiss authorities said on Wednesday that they have suspended all imports of poultry from South Africa indefinitely following the outbreak of bird flu in ostrich farms. Meanwhile, testing of ostriches for avian flu on Wednesday moved outside the quarantine area in the Eastern Cape where it was first detected.
Ostrich culling continues — in secret
A 24-hour hotline for concerned members of the public and farmers became operational on Wednesday, as the culling of thousands of ostriches entered its second day in the Eastern Cape. A media photographer was earlier on Wednesday turned away from a farm where the culling of the infected birds is taking place.
The Eastern Cape Technikon’s Umtata campus has been closed indefinitely after student unrest on the campus on Tuesday. Technikon spokesperson Angela Church said the campus was closed at 5pm in order to ensure the safety of students and staff as well as the institution’s property.
Ostrich meat is still safe for consumption despite the outbreak of avian flu on two farms in the Eastern Cape, the Klein Karoo group, which represents producers of ostrich meat and ostrich products, said on Tuesday. A spokesperson said the outbreak of the disease has been contained to the two farms in the Middleton area.
Ostrich culling to start in E Cape
About 30 000 ostriches will be stunned by a powerful electric shock and then shot with a single bullet to the brain from a specialised pistol, as mass culling of infected birds gets under way on Tuesday. The birds are being culled following an outbreak of avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu.
First National Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank Limited, has opened a portable branch in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, for personal and business customers. The bank’s spokesperson Nono Bam said on Saturday that the branch provided all banking services. She said clients will have access to two tellers, two customer service consultants and two ATMs.
South Africa will on Monday begin culling about 30 000 ostriches to control an outbreak of avian flu in the Eastern Cape. Police and soldiers have set up roadblocks in a 32km radius around Middleton in the Somerset East area, to prevent exposed birds being transported around the country.
Police and soldiers are manning roadblocks in the Somerset East area of the Eastern Cape to enforce a quarantine following a suspected outbreak of avian influenza. Test results determining the nature of the virus are expected by the end of the week. A particular strain of the avian flu virus can be transmitted to humans.