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/ 19 February 2008

KwaZulu-Natal counts its tourism blessings

Tourists spent an estimated R2,5-billion in KwaZulu-Natal during the festive season, while more than 1,4-million foreign tourists visited the province during 2007, the province’s arts, culture and tourism minister said on Tuesday. During the year, hotels in the province reported an average occupancy rate of 71,3%.

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/ 19 February 2008

Suspected taxi-war shooting leaves two injured

A man and a woman travelling in a white BMW were critically injured outside Hillary Primary School in Durban on Tuesday morning after gunmen opened fire on their vehicle, which had stopped near the school. Donovan Pillay (26) was seated in the car with Leanne Armugam — the wife of his cousin, local taxi boss Duncan Armugam.

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/ 19 February 2008

Undersea cable to usher in new bandwidth era

Light is all its going to take to connect South Africans and the rest of Africa to Europe and Asia via the Middle East by 2010. International contractor Seacom is building and will own and operate a high-capacity undersea cable that will stretch over approximately 17 000km, providing cheap bandwidth at high volumes.

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/ 18 February 2008

Shaka statue to be ‘very high’ but not 106m

A statue of King Shaka Zulu ka Senzangakhona to be built north of Durban will be ”very high” but not 106m tall, the KwaZulu-Natal premier’s office said on Monday. Logan Maistry, spokesperson for Premier S’bu Ndebele, said the exact height and cost of the statue cannot be determined until architects complete the design.

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/ 18 February 2008

Twins celebrate 100th birthday in Jo’burg

Johannesburg twins Dora Uys and Ethel Nembula will be among the world’s oldest twins when they turn 100 on Wednesday. Dora’s daughter Joyce Uys said about 150 family members will be gathering in Riverlea next weekend to celebrate the twins’ birthday, and a church service will be held in their honour on Wednesday.

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/ 18 February 2008

Patients before process, say doctors

The KwaZulu-Natal health department has identified a quiet rural doctor as a troublemaker, charging him with misconduct for "wilfully and unlawfully without prior permission of [his] superiors rolling out prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission dual therapy to pregnant mothers and newborns".

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/ 17 February 2008

Zuma plans to wed again

Jacob Zuma, president of the African National Congress (ANC), husband to two wives, is planning to take a third, a media report said on Sunday. Zuma (65) married 33-year-old Nompumelelo Ntuli, the mother of two of his children, in early January.

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/ 17 February 2008

Curtain comes down on Lion King

It was described as the show that couldn’t close, but on Sunday the curtain will finally come down on the <i>Lion King</i>, by far and away South Africa’s most popular stage production. This internationally acclaimed musical entered the South African theatre scene in June last year, and its stay has been extended three times.

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/ 16 February 2008

R200m statue of King Shaka for KwaZulu-Natal

A 106m statue of King Shaka Zulu ka Senzangakhona will be built on the banks of the Thukela River north of Durban, media reports said on Saturday. The statue would cost about R200-million to build and was expected to be 13m higher than the Statue of Liberty in New York. A feasibility study estimated that the statue would attract 4 000 visitors a day.

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/ 14 February 2008

Manto denies blocking dual-therapy programme

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday dismissed claims that her department was reluctant to implement dual therapy for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. ”I was the first person to express concern about mono therapy … but we had to make sure that we had enough time to examine the implications of dual therapy,” she said.

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/ 13 February 2008

KZN judge returns Sexwale shares

KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Judge President Vuka Tshabalala said on Wednesday that he had returned all the shares in Absa Bank worth millions of rands, which were given to him by a consortium headed by businessman Tokyo Sexwale. ”I have returned the shares. That’s the end of the matter,” said Tshabalala.

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/ 13 February 2008

Liberty working with cops to end fraud scam

Five independent brokers have been identified as allegedly using personal client information to submit unauthorised policy applications to Liberty Life, the financial-services group said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Mandy Denton said Liberty Life had sent one forensic investigator to KwaZulu-Natal to assist police with investigations.

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/ 7 February 2008

Video conferencing launched in Parliament

While it was designed to cut costs and reduce bureaucracy, a new video-conference facility launched in Parliament on Thursday gave MPs the chance to see what their colleagues in the provinces look like. National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete hoped the project would one day link the government to rural areas.

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/ 6 February 2008

In office, but not in power

The right to reply space encourages readers to feel a co-ownership of the newspaper so that it is a public debating space run by a wider forum, rather than just the reporters and editors who run it. So it pains me to intrude upon readers’ space, but the article last week by a group of leaders at the University of KwaZulu-Natal deserves a second look, writes Ferial Haffajee.

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/ 6 February 2008

More than half of SA dams not safety compliant

Over half of South Africa’s public dams, including the biggest — the 5,3-billion cubic metre Gariep Dam — do not fully comply with modern-day safety standards, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Wednesday. ”As at October [last year], 160 of the 294 dams do not comply with current dam safety standards,” the department said.

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/ 6 February 2008

Cross-country runners ready for Ethiopia

South Africa’s preparation for the World Cross-Country Championships enters a crucial stage when some of the country’s leading athletes compete at the 34th Janmeda International Cross-Country Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday. ”This race is a brilliant test run,” said Boy Soke, who hails from the Free State.

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/ 3 February 2008

ANC MPs seen as loyal to Mbeki fear the axe

Fear now stalks the corridors of African National Congress (ANC) power as the party’s new president, Jacob Zuma, asserts his authority in Parliament, the provinces and the party structures, the Sunday Times reported. ANC MPs made their anxiety known in a closed meeting of the ANC’s parliamentary caucus on Thursday.