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/ 8 December 2003
Amid a new wave of circumcision deaths and arrests, Eastern Cape traditional leaders continue to reject the province’s clampdown on illegal circumcision schools. The head of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa in the province said on Monday that chiefs are ”extremely unhappy”.
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/ 8 December 2003
Seven people died instantly when lightning struck the house in which they stayed at Goqwana village, Tsolo, in the Transkei, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. Five others were taken to the St Lucy hospital with injuries. All the victims were in one room at the house when the lightning struck on Sunday.
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/ 5 December 2003
The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) has expressed its concern over the decision of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to allow the controversial N2 toll road to run through the Eastern Cape.
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/ 4 December 2003
Two more circumcision deaths were reported in the Eastern Cape on Thursday as provincial health authorities continue their battle against illegal initiation schools. The deaths — one at Barkly East, the other at Maclear — brought the total to seven in the past three weeks.
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/ 28 November 2003
Here in the Dorsbult, we’ve been trying to ignore the World Cup. But it’s impossible. Not only has Jonny Wilkinson taken over from Naas as the best kicker in the world, but it turns out that instead of practising how to hold on to the ball in the wet, the Boks spent the weeks before their antipodean adventure learning how to wet their balls in the hole.
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/ 26 November 2003
Some months ago I wrote about the proposed N2 Wild Coast toll road to run from Libode to Port Edward (Where to the N2, January 24 to 30). The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is now at a point of making a decision and once again I ask why a toll road is necessary, writes Geoffrey Davies.
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/ 25 November 2003
The South African economy grew by 1,1% in the third quarter of this year, Statistics SA reported on Tuesday. It said this compared to real annualised growth rates of 0,9% in the first quarter (revised from 1,5%) and 0,5% in the second one (revised from 1,1%).
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/ 25 November 2003
Lumka Yengeni, wife of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, has made it on to the ruling party’s ”national-to-national” list for Parliament — in a position which would ensure her election to Parliament.
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/ 19 November 2003
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt was added on Thursday to the list of accusers of National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka. Ngcuka’s spokesperson, Sipho Ngwema, confirmed that the national prosecuting authority, headed by Ngcuka, was investigating Nieuwoudt, whom the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had refused amnesty.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=23770">Maharaj ‘not sure’ about spy claim</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=23757">Mo Shaik’s report ‘factually flawed'</a>
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/ 18 November 2003
Former transport minister Mac Maharaj on Tuesday dismissed the Hefer commission’s changed terms of reference. He denied that he ever accused National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka of abusing his powers due to past obligations to the apartheid regime.
‘Mo Shaik fingered Ngcuka’
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/ 17 November 2003
A stony-faced Mac Maharaj presented himself as the paragon of virtue when he took the stand at the Hefer Commission of Inquiry this morning and repeated his allegation that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka ”in all probability” had been an apartheid spy.
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/ 14 November 2003
Department of Labour inspectors have surveyed the wreckage of a bridge that collapsed at the Coega development zone outside Port Elizabeth and interviewed eight construction workers about the disaster. Two construction workers were killed and 18 injured on Thursday when the bottom formwork of the bridge collapsed.
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/ 12 November 2003
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has won two municipal by-elections – in the Western Cape at Breede River/Robertson municipality and at Dealesville in the Free State unopposed — while the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has won a seat at Phillipstown in the Northern Cape unopposed.
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/ 10 November 2003
Conservation bodies have strongly criticised plans to mine heavy metals and build a toll road along part of the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast, calling for a rethink before government gives the go-ahead. The World Wildlife Fund said projects ”pose an inherent threat to the region’s natural environment and its people”.
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/ 6 November 2003
South African Department of Labour on Wednesday said over one thousand contravention notices and almost 170 prohibition orders were issued by inspectors during last week’s blitz inspections of the construction industry, which ran from October 27 to 31.
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/ 5 November 2003
Former apartheid spy Vanessa Brereton has apologised to the anti-apartheid activists she betrayed during her time as agent RS452, saying she does not deserve or expect forgiveness. The former Eastern Cape human rights lawyer said she was ”spellbound” by her lover — senior security policeman Carl Edwards — who recruited her into the secret police in the 1980s.
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/ 4 November 2003
South Africa has made significant gains since the advent of democracy in April 1994. However, the country still faces serious problems. The most significant one — apart from the impact of HIV/Aids — is the lack of economic and social rights for a large sector of the population.
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/ 3 November 2003
Buffalo City Municipality is set to change racially offensive names of zones in its massive Mdantsane township. The sections of Mdantsane are currently numbered from NU1 to NU17. ”The term NU 1 to NU 17 stands for native unit and is offensive,” said mayor Sindisile Maclean at the unveiling of the Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme.
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/ 30 October 2003
Twenty-one people were killed on the N1 when a bus and a truck were involved in a collision near Beaufort West in the early hours of Thursday. The accident happened around 1am about seven kilometres outside Leeu-Gamka, between Beaufort West and Laingsburg. That strip of road is infamous as a ”death run”.
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/ 29 October 2003
Several officials employed by the Eastern Cape provincial administration were arrested at their offices on Wednesday in connection with fraud and corruption charges. Numerous documents were also taken as evidence in fraud and corruption investigations involving R4,4-million.
R1-million govt fraud bust in KZN
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/ 25 October 2003
One more person has died and a hand belonging to a three-year-old child has been found near the scene of Friday’s truck accident on the Main Street in Mount Frere near Umtata, Eastern Cape transport officials said on Saturday. A truck travelling from Umtata collided with 12 vehicles, killing 11 and injuring 28.
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/ 23 October 2003
Two former anti-apartheid activists are to testify before the Hefer commission on Thursday during its fourth day of public hearings in Bloemfontein. Commission secretary John Bacon said Letha Jolobe and Advocate Glenn Goosen would be called to the stand.
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/ 21 October 2003
The name Unisa is to remain, a university is to be named after former president Nelson Mandela, and the term technikon is to disappear, Minister of Education Kader Asmal said on Tuesday. He was announcing the new names of higher education institutions that are to merge in terms of a plan approved by the Cabinet last year.
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/ 21 October 2003
A consortium led by Accenture has been awarded the tender to set up the information and communication technology systems, valued at R3,7-million, of the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) in Port Elizabeth, the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) said on Tuesday.
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/ 21 October 2003
The Hefer commission confirmed on Tuesday that it had been in contact with a former Eastern Cape human rights lawyer who had confessed to being apartheid government agent RS452. Commission secretary John Bacon said Vanessa Brereton, who now lives in London, contacted the commission last Sunday through a go-between.
Sources won’t be compromised
Arms deal focus
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/ 17 October 2003
Many fishermen angling from the shore along the Transkei coast are paying lip service to regulations governing the number and size of the fish they may catch, and most are ignorant about closed seasons for certain species.Richard Davies
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/ 15 October 2003
Thousands of Eastern Cape taxi drivers say they will support anything that will halt the government’s taxi recapitalisation programme because they still don’t understand it. Nearly four years after the government announced its plan to upgrade the ageing taxi fleet, provincial taxi bodies still complain that they have been excluded from all critical stages of its development.
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/ 10 October 2003
The Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday it welcomed the expansion of the terms of reference of the Hefer Commission to include Justice Minister Penuell Maduna in the probe. ”But we believe there is still more work for the commission,” said Sheila Camerer, DA justice spokesperson.
Another court crisis for Ngcuka
Arms deal focus
Most Eastern Cape provincial departments have not responded to a request in May from the Public Service Accountability Monitor to provide it with information on disciplinary action taken against those allegedly involved in 409 reported cases of misconduct, corruption and maladministration.
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/ 26 September 2003
The idea of the Siyagruva series first came to me at a conference in mid-1999 when I listened to the head of the Centre for the Book in Cape Town, Elisabeth Anderson, talk about the need to get young people — teenagers — to read. Robin Malan, editor of the new Siyagruva series of novels for teens, tells how the successful project came about and developed.
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/ 24 September 2003
An out-of-court settlement between a farm owner and an occupant in Grahamstown recently is certain to attract attention from stakeholders rural reform policies. It is the first time that the Legal Resources Centre has handled a case in which there was ”such a favourable outcome” for the evicted occupant.