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/ 26 September 2007
At least 40 people who were given land or who were compensated under government’s land restitution programme might have made fraudulent land claims. The rightful claimants were forcibly removed from the area by apartheid authorities in the 1950s and 1960s and relocated to the KwaThema township.
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/ 26 September 2007
Only four land claims in Gauteng and 81 in North West remain to be resolved before the March 2008 deadline for settling all restitution claims in the country, regional land claims commissioner for Gauteng and North West, Tumi Seboka, said on Wednesday.
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/ 25 September 2007
The government is committed to meeting its target of eradicating the bucket-toilet system in all formal settlements established before 1994, it said on Tuesday. To ensure this deadline was met an amount of R1,6-billion had been made available ”to provide better and more acceptable sanitation for all”.
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/ 25 September 2007
The South African National Roads Agency Limited will implement a pilot onramp metering project on four interchanges on Gauteng’s N1 Ben Schoeman highway from Wednesday. ”With ramp metering, the traffic flow on to the freeway is controlled to prevent stop-go conditions on the freeway,” a spokesperson said.
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/ 25 September 2007
Jo’burg Pride celebrations kick off on September 28 with Ster Kinekor’s first Pride Film Festival, writes Matthew Krouse.
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/ 25 September 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to the Public Protector to complain about the Health Department’s advertisements placed in various newspapers last week to protest against a judge’s failure to interdict the Sunday Times over its reports on the medical records of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
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/ 25 September 2007
Last week, at the Gauteng launch of its reborn Uno, Fiat kicked off proceedings by setting us loose on a section of the Carnival City casino off-road route. This seemed a little strange until we heard that the Italian company now includes a raised-body version of the Brazilian-built hatch in its line-up, intended to make it more suitable for those pesky African and South American dirt roads.
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/ 24 September 2007
A -million diesel and petrol pipeline linking the Mozambican capital, Maputo, with neighbouring South Africa will be in operation by the end of 2009, an official with the company overseeing the project said on Monday. ”We will start building it in mid-2008 and it will be ready by 2009,” said an executive with pipeline firm Petroline.
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/ 24 September 2007
Respecting the diversity of all cultures and living in the spirit of ubuntu were highlighted at Gauteng’s Heritage Day celebrations.
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/ 24 September 2007
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in Gauteng has nominated Gauteng finance minister Paul Mashatile for provincial chairperson, the league said on Monday. At an extended meeting of its provincial executive committee, the ANCYL agreed on a set of broad characteristics for the collective leadership.
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/ 21 September 2007
Remembering the activist at the Apartheid Museum: Emilia Potenza reports.
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/ 20 September 2007
A string of senior advocates acting for state institutions opposed an application by Khutsong residents in the Constitutional Court on Thursday. Outside, police fired rubber bullets at residents protesting against their municipality, Merafong, being included in North West province.
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/ 20 September 2007
The Gauteng housing department plans to fast-track housing delivery over the next two years, housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane announced on Thursday. This comes after the special investigating unit confirmed on Wednesday that it is investigating government officials believed to have fraudulently received housing subsidies.
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/ 20 September 2007
Police fired rubber bullets at Khutsong residents protesting outside the Constitutional Court on Thursday. More than 1 000 protesters scattered into the streets of Braamfontein in Johannesburg but some later regrouped again, protesting outside the court against their municipality being included in North West province.
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/ 20 September 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday rejected the proposed shortlist of candidates to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board. An emergency resolution was brought before the union body’s central committee in Kempton Park, Gauteng, by three member unions.
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/ 20 September 2007
Monday September 24 is Heritage Day, a public holiday in South Africa. But this year it may just become more famous as National Braai Day. The day, supported by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, ”will allow us to get together, burn the past and cook up a succulent future”, says Jan Scannell, CEO of National Braai Day.
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/ 19 September 2007
Taxi operators on Wednesday blamed the registrar for public transport in Gauteng for violence that erupted between two taxi groups vying for the Clearwater Mall route west of Johannesburg. The Faraday Taxi Association and the Dobsonville, Roodepoort, Leratong, Johannesburg Taxi Association said the registrar had failed to decide who could use the route.
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/ 19 September 2007
The special investigating unit (SIU) on Wednesday confirmed it is investigating thousands of government officials believed to have fraudulently received housing subsidies. In its initial findings, the SIU identified 53 000 public servants receiving housing subsidies, for which more than 31 000 did not qualify.
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/ 19 September 2007
The growing number of violent incidents in schools stems from problems within society and parents being too lenient, the Gauteng African National Congress’s education sub-committee said on Wednesday. ”We need good role models in society to be able to influence children,” said sub-committee chairperson Amon Msane.
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/ 18 September 2007
The mother of a schoolboy who was stabbed to death on the weekend is a senior Gauteng education official, the department confirmed on Tuesday. Mfundo Ntshangase, a grade 11 pupil at King Edward VII high school, was stabbed seven times by pupils from another school at a party on Sunday.
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/ 18 September 2007
A distraught Randburg mother determined to meet the teenagers arrested after her son was stabbed to death was advised against it by police on Tuesday. ”I want to see for myself that the culprits … were arrested and are behind bars,” Nonhlanhla Ntshangase said. Her 18-year-old son, Mfundo, was stabbed seven times by pupils from another school at a party on Sunday.
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/ 17 September 2007
When Ahmed Mursal was held up by a drug-desperate gunman in the tuckshop where he was working in the Cape Flats township of Delft, he offered to buy the gun for R250. He told the gunman he could pay only R30 then, but would speak to his Somali brothers, one of whom was sure to want to buy the gun. If the gunman brought the gun the next day, Mursal would pay the balance of R220. The gunman accepted.
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/ 15 September 2007
As the floor-crossing window drew to a close on Saturday, sole Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) representative in the national legislature, Motsoko Pheko, denounced the floor-crossing practice as ”political prostitution”. ”Floor-crossing cheats voters — it robs them of the mandate they have given to a political party of their choice,” he said.
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/ 15 September 2007
The judiciary must and should always be independent from the executive and Parliament, and be resistant to influence from any quarter, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma said on Saturday. In an address to the Gauteng Law Council, he said the country should guard against passing legislation that could give investigating powers to the judicial system.
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/ 14 September 2007
Twins Danielle and Danika Lowton were doing well a week after the operation that separated them, the Arwyp Hospital said on Friday. Spokesperson Henry du Plooy said Dr Wale Adedipe, Arwyp Medical Centre’s resident neurosurgeon, reported that the twins were doing ”very well” after he visited them on Friday.
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/ 13 September 2007
Since the beginning of the year not a single illegal farm eviction has been reported to farming union AgriSA, it said in a statement on Thursday. The union was responding to remarks by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Dirk du Toit that farmers who illegally evicted tenant workers would have their land expropriated.
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/ 13 September 2007
Transnet Pipelines has been given the go-ahead to construct a petroleum pipeline from Durban to Gauteng, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) said on Thursday. Expected to cost R11-billion to build, it will carry petrol and diesel and is expected to come into use in the third quarter of 2010, said spokesperson Wanda Langenhoven.
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/ 12 September 2007
The recent water shortage at Gauteng’s Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is over after repairs were made to a burst water pipe. Some sections, including the entire theatre block, at the large Soweto hospital had been without water since last week Wednesday.
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/ 12 September 2007
Mpumalanga and North West have spent R166-million on strike recovery measures, Education Minister Naledi Pandor told the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday. Replying to oral questions, Pandor said Mpumalanga had spent R96-million on teacher remuneration for Saturday and holiday classes.
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/ 12 September 2007
Samson Mashaba struggles to retain his sense of humour as he waits to see his doctor. ”If you’re unlucky, you’ll die standing here,” says the 69-year-old as he surveys the queue ahead of him at a rural hospital in Mpumalanga. While South Africa may boast some of the finest hospitals on the continent in cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town, rural healthcare is dogged by a lack of cash, personnel and facilities.
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/ 11 September 2007
Taxi violence is disturbing and must be curbed in order to build confidence in the taxi industry, the Gauteng registrar for public transport said on Tuesday. ”We all come to the point of saying enough is enough and let us stop the carnage. Let us all bring back confidence in the taxi industry,” Sam Ledwaba told a media conference in Johannesburg.
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/ 8 September 2007
The violent nature of many recent protests was a major concern, said Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa on Monday. He was briefing the media in Johannesburg on the recent Gauteng Extended Executive Council lekgotla. ”Many [protests] were characterised by street blockades, the burning of tyres and the destruction of property.”