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/ 25 November 2005
Fed up with Mpofu I am fed up with the SABC CEO Dali Mpofu’s spin-doctoring of the SABC’s cheap political propaganda. He has failed to deal with legitimate media criticism that the corporation is failing to cover news impartially and accurately. This year has seen the controversy over the booing of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Lob from cuckoo land And now we have a lob from the far right of fundamentalist cuckoo land — Philip Cole (Letters, October 6) telling us that if Fred marries Steve today then tomorrow Fred may marry Molly the Cow. And God knows if this sort of thing carries on, we could have Fred marrying […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Kirby’s nuclear ignorance Robert Kirby writes complete nonsense (”Alex in wonderland”, August 25) when he says Russia’s Chernobyl nuclear power station ”went out of control because of what Nersa [the National Electricity Regulator] recently diagnosed at Koeberg”. The primary reason for the accident at Chernobyl was a crazy reactor design that would never be allowed […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Glaring holes in judgement There are glaring gaps in the ruling of the learned judge in the Jacob Zuma rape case: Malume is a brother to one’s sister. The relationship between malume and umshana (niece/nephew) is closer than fatherly — it is maternalistic. In Zulu culture, adults parent every child in the community. And someone […]
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/ 25 November 2005
PLAN bodies dishonoured The discovery of the bodies of PLAN fighters buried in a mass grave near the former South African Defence Force (SADF) base at Eenhana in Namibia gives me the opportunity to write about my own experience while serving on the Namibian/Angolan border. I was unwillingly conscripted into the SADF for two years […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Motsepe can buy success I found Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya’s article (”Motsepe is bad for soccer”, October 13) damaging and ignorant. Before Patrice Motsepe entered the game, South Africa’s professional players were earning as little as R2 000. Today the standard of local football has improved and players are earning better salaries. Yes, Motsepe has changed coaches […]
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/ 25 November 2005
JZ abusing culture I am proud to be a Zulu woman, and think Zulu culture, like other South African cultures, should be celebrated. But I am sick and tired of Jacob Zuma hiding behind Zulu culture whenever he shoots himself in the foot. During his rape trial he claimed the victim had seduced him and […]
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/ 25 November 2005
All faiths used violence Pope Benedict, in trying to argue that religion should not be spread by force, failed to say that the Catholic Church, indeed Christianity, has been guilty of this. Strife between Catholicism and Protestantism, and the use of force to maintain orthodoxies by the rack, burning and warfare, are an unedifying history. […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Campus racism insidious Auditors Deloitte have found that there is no racism at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s medical school (July 7), only “small incidents, which appear to be nothing more substantial than personal differences, or wrong perceptions, or misunderstandings …” Case closed, let’s get on with it! The problem here is one of perspective, because […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Best the DA has to offer? It is laughable that the DA’s Athol Trollip is putting himself forward to replace Tony Leon at national level (“Trollip in race for DA’s top job”, January 12). Claiming that he can fill Leon’s shoes, albeit with difficulty, Trollip boasted on TV: “I am white on the outside and […]
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/ 25 November 2005
Protesters sang pro-Gauteng songs as they arrived at a public hearing about provincial boundary demarcations in Carletonville on Friday. They had come to town by bus from nearby Khutsong, where the issue has been the focus of recent violent protest.
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/ 24 November 2005
Read more on the names at the helm of the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.
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/ 24 November 2005
The South African Allied and Transport Workers’ Union (Satawu) has called on the government to scrap the R20-billion Gautrain project. Satawu said that instead of spending such an amount on one service, the government should use the money to upgrade the entire rail network.
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/ 23 November 2005
The Gauteng and the North West legislatures will hold joint public hearings to consider the Constitution Twelfth Amendment Bill, which deals with South Africa’s cross-boundary municipalities. The Bill, which was recently passed by Parliament, proposes that some councils in Merafong be moved to the North West.
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/ 23 November 2005
A campaign to stop controversial German vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath from conducting ”illegal” HIV trials in South Africa will be stepped up, three organisations said on Wednesday. ”He has got to be stopped,” Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha said.
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/ 23 November 2005
Eight of South Africa’s nine provinces are being been severely affected by drought, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Wednesday. Hardest hit are northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, said the department’s senior manager of drought and risk management, Ikalafeng Kgakgatsi.
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/ 22 November 2005
The Tshwane metropolitan council would not commit itself on Tuesday to removing all forms of advertising proclaiming Tshwane rather than Pretoria as South Africa’s capital. Such advertisements have been found to be misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority — a ruling the council said it respects.
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/ 22 November 2005
The Gauteng government plans to accelerate spending on infrastructure and social services in the next three years. Provincial minister for finance and economic affairs Paul Mashatile tabled the provincial medium-term budget policy statement to the Gauteng legislature on Tuesday.
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/ 21 November 2005
President Thabo Mbeki called on Monday for good leadership in South African soccer. He was speaking at the laying of the foundation stone of the new headquarters of the South African Football Association at the FNB Stadium. ”Let us have a place where we can work and have good leadership,” he said.
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/ 21 November 2005
The African National Congress is maintaining silence on the outcome of its two-day National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting which extended late into a third day on Sunday. A report on ways to heal rifts in the party and the rape allegations against axed deputy president Jacob Zuma are believed to have been on the agenda.
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/ 18 November 2005
A thousand Khutsong residents protested outside the office of Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa on Friday against plans to incorporate the Merafong municipal into the North West province from Gauteng. Stressing their dissatisfaction over the proposed re-demarcation, the group handed a memorandum over to officials.
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/ 18 November 2005
SA must shun patronage The article “Beware of a shallow culture” (November 4) by Joel Netshitenzhe initiates a vital debate. Where exactly are black South African culture, and South Africa, heading? Netshitenzhe is concerned about a loss of direction in South Africa. He stresses the need to continually hold an ethical vision of a future […]
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/ 17 November 2005
The parliamentary committee looking into the viability of the Gautrain needed to do a ”bit more work” before it decided on the project’s future, Gauteng finance minister, Paul Mashatile, said on Thursday. The parliamentary transport portfolio committee recently recommended that the Gautrain should not go ahead.
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/ 17 November 2005
Noting the heightened public interest in the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link project, the Gauteng government stated "unambiguously" on Thursday that the project is still on track. Provincial minister for finance and economic affairs Paul Mashatile said the Gauteng government is at present negotiating financial closure with the preferred bidders.
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/ 17 November 2005
Listed retailer Mr Price has reported a 52% rise in diluted headline earnings per share for the six months to end-September 2005 to 46,5 cents from 30,6 cents a year earlier. The company declared an interim distribution of 24,3 cents per share, up from 13,2 cents at the halfway point in 2004, reducing its distribution cover to two times earnings from 2,4 times in the year-earlier period.
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/ 16 November 2005
A commission of inquiry should be set up to assess the state of rail transport in Gauteng, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party said on Wednesday. They said such a commission should come up with proposals for overhauling the entire rail system.
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/ 16 November 2005
The government acted against the will of the people of Merafong by passing a Bill in Parliament to incorporate the Gauteng town into the North West province, the South African Communist Party said on Wednesday. ”There’s nothing democratic about what is happening in Merafong,” SACP district secretary Nkosiphendule Kolisile said..
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/ 12 November 2005
The violent train protests and torching of municipal offices in Gauteng this week were the ”ugly face of our reality”, President Thabo Mbeki wrote in his weekly online letter on Friday. ”It is the task of our movement to mobilise the people to protect public property, which is held in trust by the state for the people,” he wrote.
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/ 11 November 2005
The Department of Labour has told security guards who marched to its offices in Pretoria on Friday that it will consider their demands on improved working conditions and salary adjustments. The department is preparing to investigate demands made by the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union.
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/ 11 November 2005
Hundreds of singing protesters from Khutsong and other areas around Carletonville gathered at the township’s stadium on Friday morning to march to the local police station. Their mission was to present a memorandum on the latest events related to protests over provincial demarcation.
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/ 10 November 2005
About 145 Durban train drivers are expected to go on strike on Thursday afternoon over new rosters, a day after at least 28 coaches were burnt in Gauteng by commuters angered by delays. The drivers’ union will also meet Metrorail CEO Lauriette Modipane to discuss the safety of its drivers in the wave of train torchings.
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/ 10 November 2005
The latest wave of train torchings has cost Metrorail an estimated R200-million, leaving the company with no more trains to run between Gauteng’s Midway and Vereeniging stations, spokesperson Thandi Mlangeni said on Thursday. Commuters upset over train delays set 28 coaches alight on Wednesday evening.