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/ 28 October 2005
Springbok scrumhalf Fourie du Preez has been ruled out of the end-of-year tour after an medical scan on Friday afternoon revealed damage to his groin muscle. Du Preez felt discomfort on Thursday evening after suffering a groin strain at Thursday afternoon’s training session at St Stithians College in Johannesburg.
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/ 27 October 2005
Kaizer Chiefs completed the harrowing experience of drawing six successive Premier Soccer League (PSL) games during the goalless draw against Classic on Wednesday. In other matches, Supersport beat Leopards, Stars and Ajax played to a draw, Celtic lost at home to Swallows, and Cosmos and Santos ended 1-1.
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/ 25 October 2005
In a week of Premier Soccer League fixtures that is due to end in a crescendo with the pinnacle South African soccer derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates on Saturday, Mamelodi Sundowns are intent on stealing much of the thunder. Sundowns are currently placed seven points behind log leaders Pirates.
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/ 24 October 2005
Thousands of workers belonging to the country’s largest union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), have embarked on strike action in the Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to protest against issues such as job losses, casualisation and racism in the workplace.
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/ 22 October 2005
The Cheetahs won only their second-ever Currie Cup title when they shocked the defending champions Blue Bulls 29-25 in a pulsating final played in front of a packed Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening. The Bulls led 12-9 at half-time and 25-15 with nine minutes remaining.
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/ 22 October 2005
In just one week, police reported 15 murders in South Africa, with the most gruesome case being that of a North West father who wiped out his entire family. Inspector Thabo Makhafola said the man, from Madikwe’s Lethlakeng village in North West, had been a security guard at a mine in the area.
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/ 21 October 2005
Retailers Pick ‘n Pay and Woolworths have come out against the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) planned pickets, part of Cosatu’s campaign against casualising, retrenchments and foreign goods. ”It seems that Cosatu does not have the facts about Pick ‘n Pay correct,” Pick ‘n Pay personnel director Frans van der Walt said.
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/ 21 October 2005
While the game’s administrators appear to want the Currie Cup to go away, the paying public has other ideas — or certain sections of the paying public, anyway. Early on Monday morning the crowds were already snaking out into the street outside Loftus Versfeld and tickets for Saturday’s Currie Cup final between the Blue Bulls and the Cheetahs were sold out in six hours.
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/ 20 October 2005
Most people in Johannesburg used their private vehicles to get to work on Thursday despite the government’s call to use public transport and participate in Car-Free Day. Several high-ranking officials and premiers made use of buses and taxis, but motorists in Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein still preferred their cars.
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/ 20 October 2005
Supersport United have advanced to the quarterfinals of the Coca-Cola Cup with a 2-1 win over Free State Stars at the Super Stadium in Atteridgeville on Wednesday night. The hosts deserved more goals than the score line reflected, but fluffed many golden opportunities throughout the match.
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/ 19 October 2005
Mining house Thistle is to dismiss about 1 400 workers at its President Steyn gold mine in the Free State, the company announced on Wednesday. The announcement follows an agreement with the National Union of Mineworkers and Solidarity.
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/ 19 October 2005
Blue Bulls captain Anton Leonard will be fit to lead his team for the last time when they face off against the Free State Cheetahs in the Currie Cup final on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld. Leonard injured his shoulder as he scored a try in last week’s bruising semifinal against the Lions.
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/ 19 October 2005
Arguably the two ”form” teams in the Premier Soccer League right now, log leaders Orlando Pirates and Moroka Swallows would hardly seem to need reinforcements for Wednesday night’s potentially spectacular derby encounter at Ellis Park. There is good reason to believe the Buccaneers’ ascendancy will come under threat.
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/ 18 October 2005
Mangaung mayor Papi Mokoena has been relieved of all leadership positions in the African National Congress in the Free State, the party announced on Tuesday. Free State ANC deputy chairperson Pat Matosa said the decision by the party’s provincial working committee (PWC) was taken in the interests of stabilising local government at all levels.
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/ 18 October 2005
The Department of Minerals and Energy has established an expert team to investigate the wider issues raised by a tremor that killed two miners and injured 20 others at DRDGold’s North West operations this year, it said on Tuesday. The panel will consider the risks to mine workers, mines and the public by seismicity in mining areas.
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/ 18 October 2005
On paper, regional integration in Southern Africa has made advances — with countries being knit together by protocols and agreements of every stripe. It’s a pity there isn’t a similarly comprehensive network of roads and railways, say transport analysts — who point out that true regional integration will remain a pipe dream if goods cannot move efficiently between Southern African states.
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/ 17 October 2005
There were conflicting reports of the success of a Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) call for a worker stayaway in Mpumalanga, the Free State and Northern Cape on Monday. Cosatu said the protest was a ”magnificent” success, while the South African Chamber of Business said its impact on businesses was hardly felt.
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/ 16 October 2005
Free State played a masterful tactical game to beat Western Province (WP) 16-11 at Newlands on Saturday and advance to their second consecutive Currie Cup final. It was the second year running that they made beat WP in a Cape Town semifinal and the match followed much the same pattern as last year’s.
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/ 16 October 2005
Two goals within five minutes against Ajax Cape Town were sufficient to cement Orlando Pirates’ position at the top of the Premier Soccer League log with a 2-1 victory. Also, Bloemfontein Celtic beat Santos 2-1; Bush Bucks lost 1-0 to Dynamos; and Jomo Cosmos beat Free State Stars 2-1 to register their second win.
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/ 14 October 2005
Rapid urbanisation is causing the demand for housing to grow faster than the government can deliver it, Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday. ”At this rate, we are not going to get very far. We have a serious problem,” she told the annual conference of the Black Management Forum in Johannesburg.
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/ 14 October 2005
Mike van Graan asks if we can move on to real transformation, now that we have generally replaced white people with black people at the trough of public funds.
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/ 14 October 2005
Serendipity, coincidence, synchronism, eureka moments — these have garnished my life-track beyond all expectation. The most striking serendipitous occurrence of my student years marked my first visit to the cave I was subsequently to name Mwulu’s Cave.
Western Province boosted their confidence ahead of their home semifinal against Free State by beating the Lions 23-17 in their Currie Cup clash at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday evening. In Bloemfontein, the Free State Cheetahs put in a morale-boosting 17-3 win over the Sharks.
Recently the Pension Funds Adjudicator (PFA), Vuyani Ngalwana issued rulings on a further 22 retirement annuities (RAs). Life companies have chosen to settle 15 of these rather than face the negative publicity. This brings to 54 the total number of RA rulings since March. The life companies are appealing seven of these in the High Court.
There is a steady increase in HIV prevalence in South Africa, a professor from the University of KwaZulu-Natal said at the opening of the Gauteng Aids Council conference in Johannesburg on Thursday. The life expectancy in the country would soon plummet from 63 years to 46, Professor Alan Whiteside said.
Cool and conditions moving over the northern parts of the country brought some relief on Wednesday for firefighters still battling veld fires in Mpumalanga. Earlier in the day, a fire that raged through the North West veld overnight was brought under control near the Vredefort Dome. However, the fire risk remains high in the northern parts of the country.
An African National Congress mayor and a councillor in Bothaville, respectively facing charges of attempted murder and assault, have been suspended, the party announced on Tuesday. Controversial Nala mayor Godfrey ”Baarde” Tsoai and another councillor, Khumisi Letsoara, have been suspended as councillors and party members.
About 50 Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) members on Sunday shackled themselves to railings at Parliament in Cape Town to highlight their jobs and poverty campaign. Cosatu’s Eastern Cape provincial secretary said marches would start at 10am on Monday in East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and Queenstown.
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/ 29 September 2005
Johannesburg’s City Power chief executive, Mogwailane Mohlala, will leave the utility in January, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday. The announcement comes shortly after the National Electricity Regulator released a report critical of the company and repeated power outages in the city.
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/ 28 September 2005
Western Province have made four changes — three enforced through injury — to their starting line-up for Saturday’s Currie Cup match against the Sharks in Durban. Egon Seconds and Gus Theron will be on the wings as Zhahier Ryland and Tonderai Chavhanga have been forced on to the sidelines with injuries.
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/ 27 September 2005
Fires that have killed two people and ravaged large areas of land have largely been contained, but now the provinces are starting to count the costs. Crews from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have been fighting fires since September 23.
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/ 26 September 2005
Wildfires began claiming lives — both human and animal — on Monday as they ran unabated across the hot, dry countryside, fanned by heavy winds. A six-year-old girl, Bonakele Ngema, burnt to death in a house where she was trapped while seeking refuge from a roaring blaze that bore down on her in Mntanenkosi reserve, KwaZulu-Natal.