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/ 10 December 2004
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has had to balance his praise of government with negative comments to avoid being labelled a ”ruling party lapdog”, said ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe. On Thursday, Motlanthe told delegates at the ANC Gauteng 9th provincial congress that Tutu’s comments were an indication of the pressure on people to conform to the ”ideological straight-jacket of reaction”.
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/ 10 December 2004
The North Rand police have expressed concern over the number of drownings recorded since the start of December. North Rand police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman said the police’s water wing has had to recover 10 bodies in the area since the beginning of the month.
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/ 9 December 2004
The falling fuel price was a boon to the economy equivalent to a one-percent cut in interest rates, T-Sec chief economist Mike Schussler said on Thursday. ”The current falls in the oil price and rand strength [or dollar weakness] are combining to give South Africans the biggest petrol and diesel price fall in percentage terms since November 1990,” said Schussler.
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/ 8 December 2004
A South African editor tells this story: ”I asked my newsroom when a story should not identify a victim of abuse. One answer: ‘In cases of bestiality, the pet should not be named.”’ It’s a true tale and one that predates the rise, and rise, of tabloid journalism — which is the really appropriate context in which to discuss such species distinctions.
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/ 3 December 2004
The profiling of donors by the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) smacked of racism, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. She was referring to an admission by the SANBS that it racially profiled blood donations and that the Health Department was aware of this. Tshabalala-Msimang said she should have been consulted.
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/ 1 December 2004
If Gautengers use water sparingly between now and May — when authorities will re-assess the drought situation — restrictions might not be necessary in 2006 and 2007, Rand Water said on Wednesday. This is in spite of the Vaal Dam being only 32% full and falling by a further one percent each day.
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/ 30 November 2004
Gauteng education MEC Angie Motshekga did not benefit financially or act dishonestly in recommending a particular trust for a contract, a report released on Tuesday said. Motshekga’s conduct in her position as MEC was, however, found to be unacceptable. The Gauteng Legislature’s Integrity Commission investigated media allegations that Motshekga and her family had benefited financially from the Sediba Trust.
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/ 30 November 2004
The numbers for effective land restitution and redistribution are astronomical, the time short and sometimes it seems that only a miracle can ensure the success of the programme. Although most land stakeholders agree that land reform is too slow and that finances present a major obstacle to reform, different people have different ideas of how to overcome the department’s money blues. We take a closer look at these options.
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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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/ 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
The real value of recorded building plans passed by municipalities (at constant 2000 prices) during the first nine months of 2004 increased by 29,5% or R5,167-billion from R17,507-billion to R22,674-billion compared with the first nine months of 2003, according to figures released on Thursday by Statistics South Africa.
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/ 23 November 2004
Down here, on the Deep South Coast, the pre-holiday panic is on. Supermarkets are full of frantic buyers, local authorities, understandably a little torpid during the rest of the year, are giving a spit and polish to those corners of the Hibiscus Coast that need it. This year, however, it’s been different, very different — the out-of-town holiday-makers have all been beaten to it by the purple alien …
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/ 22 November 2004
South African Breweries, the South African arm of global brewing giant SABMiller (SAB), has confirmed that it will invest R5-billion in its South African operation over the next five years to expand capacity and to improve its ability to meet changing consumer needs locally, underpinning the company’s strong growth prospects.
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/ 22 November 2004
Tributes have poured in for the National Council of Provinces chairperson Joyce Kgoali, who died in Johannesburg on Sunday. The African National Congress Women’s League called their late executive committee and working committee member ”unassuming and forthright” with an ”unshakeable” commitment to the
organisation’s policies.
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/ 20 November 2004
A police raid on a suspected child-sex operation in Benoni found a three-year-old boy being held hostage, and an under-age girl being pimped out for sex, police said on Friday. Four more men were arrested, one of whom was caught in the act of having sex with the 15-year-old girl, said a member of the Gauteng child protection unit.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125809">Nigerians nabbed in child-sex syndicate</a>
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/ 19 November 2004
The police’s child protection unit say they have rescued 13 children over the last month in Gauteng and in Durban from a gang of men that used them for sex. Superintendent Andre Neethling, head of the child protection unit in Gauteng, said the girls had been locked up and given crack cocaine, which had made them dependent on their captors.
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/ 16 November 2004
Sheila Weinberg, anti-apartheid activist and member of the Gauteng legislature, has died at the age of 56, the legislature announced on Tuesday. In 1964, Weinberg became the youngest detainee in South Africa when, at the age of 17, she was held at the Johannesburg Fort under the 90-day detention law.
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/ 15 November 2004
Three police officers appeared in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Monday on charges of theft, defeating the ends of justice and assault — while a fourth was arrested on similar charges. The trio — a captain and two inspectors — were arrested on Friday after an investigation into the theft of stolen funds.
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/ 11 November 2004
The Klipdrift consumption in the Dorsbult has reached crisis proportions since Tuesday last week. But a message from Michael Moore — yes, he of <i>Fahrenheit 9/11</i> fame/notoriety (and, in the Dorsbult, hero worship; well, ok, among some of us) — has done his bit to cheer us up. He offers "17 reasons not to slit your wrists", a few of which follow …
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/ 9 November 2004
Gauteng still has a housing backlog of more than 440 000 people, provincial housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane said on Tuesday. Mokonyane said Gauteng’s housing goals fall within the Breaking New Ground housing-plan document introduced by Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu earlier this year.
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/ 9 November 2004
While most South Africans agree that black economic empowerment (BEE) is necessary to uplift standard and correct the wrongs of the past, there is a strong feeling that it has benefited only a select few, a survey has found. The survey shows that 70% of the sample felt that BEE has enriched only a select few.
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/ 8 November 2004
Sun International has consolidated its leading position in South Africa’s R7,34-billion casino industry over the past year, and is now ready to pursue regional and international opportunities in the gaming, hotel and resort sectors, according to CEO Peter Bacon.
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/ 5 November 2004
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has given the Department of Correctional Services 14 days to reinstate 127 prison workers dismissed for striking illegally. The 127 Modderbee prison officials were dismissed during an illegal strike in July, after ”defiantly” ignoring ultimatums to disengage.
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/ 5 November 2004
Gauteng’s minister for community safety, Firoz Cachalia, expressed anger and shock at the killing of a police officer at a roadblock in Johannesburg on Thursday. ”It is very saddening to see these kinds of vicious attacks on members who are dedicated to serving their communities,” he said on Friday.
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/ 5 November 2004
There is no need to panic about drought — unless the rain stays away for another two months, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said in Pretoria on Friday. The department is reviewing the state of the Vaal River system to see if water restrictions in Gauteng — now South Africa’s driest province — will be necessary.
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/ 5 November 2004
The South African government’s refusal to disclose the number of children receiving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in KwaZulu-Natal province has raised fears among Aids activists that children’s rights to health care and life are being violated.
The national treatment plan, unveiled last November, initially targeted the treatment of 53Â 000 people by March 2004, which has since been extended to March 2005.
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/ 4 November 2004
The South African government’s refusal to disclose the number of children receiving anti-retroviral drugs in KwaZulu-Natal has raised fears among Aids activists that children’s rights to health care and life are being violated. A survey at 13 of KwaZulu-Natal’s public hospitals found only 39 children were receiving anti-Aids medication.
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/ 3 November 2004
A R10-million provincial cash injection for equipment at the East Rand’s ailing Natalspruit hospital could be too little, too late, Democratic Alliance health spokesperson Jack Bloom said on Wednesday. Blaming provincial inaction for the hospital’s woes, he said prevention would have been better than cure.
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/ 2 November 2004
Gauteng’s 153 roadworthy centres will be audited over the next two years amid fears of widespread fraud and corruption, provincial ministers said on Tuesday.
The move follows Talk Radio 702’s exposure earlier this year of fraud and corruption at the privately owned Wynberg testing station.
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/ 28 October 2004
As the country holds its breath for confirmation of a fuel hike on Friday, economist Mike Schussler believes it will not break the R5 barrier this year. Preliminary figures released this week show that motorists should expect to pay an additional 19c a litre from next Wednesday. This means Gauteng drivers will be paying R4,87 a litre for petrol.