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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.
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/ 9 November 2005
MPs on Wednesday were warned that the Gautrain rapid rail project may be suffering from "optimism bias" where the project may pan out to be far more expensive — and less popular in the eyes of the consumers — than the project planners envisaged.
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/ 8 November 2005
A member of the Gauteng legislature, the Freedom Front Plus’s Jaco Mulder, on Tuesday made a second attempt to buy "blacks-only" Eyethu shares from Nedbank. In a statement, Mulder — who is his party’s provincial leader — said he officially handed in his application to his Nedbank branch in Krugersdorp for his Eyethu shares.
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/ 8 November 2005
A Durban man says he was lucky to be able to tell the tale of a weekend pirate attack on his cruise ship off Somalia’s coast, the Mercury website reported on Tuesday. Charles Forsdick described how some passengers had to throw themselves to the floor to escape bullets.
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/ 7 November 2005
The township of Khutsong was quiet on Monday, with a march and stayaway planned for Friday as the next item on the protest calendar, the South African Communist Party said. The township saw protests last week over residents’ dissatisfaction with proposals to transfer the Merafong municipality from Gauteng to the North West province.
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/ 7 November 2005
The government is considering postponing the municipal elections until mid-2006 to allow for re-demarcation disputes to be resolved, media reports said on Monday. The reports said this would entail bringing a constitutional amendment before Parliament which could push back the deadline for the polls by up to two months to May.
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/ 4 November 2005
Johannesburg and Pretoria recorded the highest temperatures for November in 40 years on Thursday, the South African Weather Service said on Friday. Forecaster Lee-Ann Clark said Pretoria sweated in a sweltering temperature of 39 degrees Celsius on Thursday, while Johannesburg recorded 34.
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/ 4 November 2005
Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi will not be visiting Khutsong residents near Carletonville on Friday afternoon, his office said. Residents of the township have been protesting since Wednesday against a proposal that the Merafong municipality be included in the North West province.
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/ 4 November 2005
Enthusiasm is something Mimi Mthethwa, newly elected president of Netball South Africa, has in plentiful supply. The Empangeni-based deputy chief education specialist is still working on getting things in order. Julia Beffon speaks to the new boss of South Africa’s biggest women’s sport.
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/ 3 November 2005
Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi and provincial leaders will visit Khutsong on Friday, after two days of often-violent protests by residents over proposals to redemarcate the West Rand town. Protests broke out on Wednesday over the possible inclusion of the Merafong municipality into the North West.
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/ 3 November 2005
Citizens of the Merafong municipality, which includes Carletonville, were not consulted on a decision to incorporate the area into the North West, an South African Communist Party spokesperson said on Thursday. The demarcation has failed the community, said Jomo Mogale, local chairperson of the SACP.