The recent spate of light-aircraft accidents was largely a result of human error and negligence, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Friday. ”It’s not the machine that is a problem — it’s the human; the pilot, the maintenance engineer …” said the CAA’s executive manager of air-safety investigations, Gilbert Thwala.
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Jacob Zuma’s homestead at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal is said to be bracing for another festivity, with the new African National Congress (ANC) president reportedly planning to marry Nompumelelo Ntuli — the mother of two of his children — on Saturday, the Mercury newspaper reported on Friday.
I was in ecstasy on my first visit to Ghana last April — I was on the same flight as military strongman turned ex-President Jerry Rawlings. Ten years out of power, he still cuts a dashing figure. Now a comfortably ensconced senior statesman, for me, like so many around the world, he represented a recent incarnation of the spirit of pan-African self-determination, writes Kojo Parris.
Well-known KwaZulu-Natal birder Robin Guy (75) was shot and killed during an attempted robbery in Bryanston, Johannesburg, on Wednesday night. He and his wife, from Underberg, had been in Johannesburg on a festive-season visit when two robbers disturbed a dinner on the verandah of his brother-in-law’s home, Guy’s journalist son, Duncan, said on Thursday.
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The corruption trial of Jacob Zuma, leader of the African National Congress, was unlikely to take place any earlier than the already scheduled August starting date, his lawyer, Michael Hulley, said on Thursday. The National Prosecuting Authority said this week it was prepared to proceed with the case early if Zuma wished.
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Fraud convict Schabir Shaik is alleged to have spent in excess of R800Â 000 on Jacob Zuma’s children — footing an education bill of close to R500Â 000. Not only is he alleged to have paid the education fees of the African National Congress president’s children, but he and his companies allegedly forked out more than R200Â 000.
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/ 31 December 2007
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The state has identified a list of 218 witnesses it intends calling to testify in its case against African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma. Attached to the indictment, filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, the list of witnesses includes Independent Democrat party leader Patricia de Lille and former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein.
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/ 31 December 2007
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As tensions between the camps of former African National Congress (ANC) president Thabo Mbeki and his successor, Jacob Zuma, reach boiling point over the decision to charge Zuma, the newly elected ANC president has retreated to his Nkandla homestead ahead of the party’s January national executive committee meeting.
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/ 28 December 2007
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma received a rousing welcome from the more than 5 000 people who turned out for his annual Christmas party in Nkandla on Friday where he was due to hand out presents to hundreds of children.
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/ 27 December 2007
Two Fidelity guards, who had taken cash to an ATM machine, were robbed of their firearms at a shopping centre in KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday, police said. Spokesperson Superintendent Muzi Mngmoezulu said two armed men held up the guards at the Glebe shopping centre in Umlazi.
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/ 26 December 2007
Another illegal dumping ground of tens of thousands of defective condoms has been found in KwaZulu-Natal, the provincial department of agriculture and environmental affairs said on Wednesday. Locals found the condoms strewn on the road near a primary school on the main road to Indwedwe on Christmas Day.
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/ 26 December 2007
Wrapped Christmas presents lay strewn across a KwaZulu-Natal highway following a horrific accident that claimed the lives of five people on Tuesday. Bayview police Commissioner Superintendent Rajen Ramchunder said a car travelling into Chatsworth hit a traffic island and went into oncoming traffic.
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/ 24 December 2007
A national plan is in place to give thousands of matriculants who are not expected to pass this year a second chance, a newspaper reported on Monday. ”Education departments confirmed on Sunday that the plan was being finalised at provincial level,” the report in Beeld said.
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/ 24 December 2007
Santa Claus will have to slide down slippery chimneys on Christmas Day as thunderstorms are expected in most parts of South Africa on Tuesday. Rain and thunderstorms across several parts of the country have been predicted by the South African Weather Service.
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/ 23 December 2007
Thabile* was 15 when she was forced to marry a man in his thirties in the Mgudlulweni village near Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape. Her parents agreed to "give" their daughter to him. She did not know about the marriage or consent to it. On her way to school one day, four men abducted her. "I was walking to school and they grabbed me. They took me to a man I did not know to be my husband," Thabile says.
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/ 23 December 2007
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Nothing will stop African National Congress president Jacob Zuma from becoming the next president of South Africa, the party’s KwaZulu-Natal secretary Johan Mchunu said on Saturday. He was speaking at a beachfront celebration in Zuma’s honour in Durban.
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/ 23 December 2007
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Former president Nelson Mandela has praised Jacob Zuma, the new leader of the African National Congress (ANC), as a man who could unify the divided party. In a message of congratulations, Mandela said: ”Our experience of Comrade Zuma is of a person and leader who is inclusive in his approach, a unifier and one who values reconciliation and collective leadership.”
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/ 22 December 2007
At least 10 people were killed and more than 20 injured in a collision when a bus ploughed into the trailer of a stationary truck near Estcourt in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands on Saturday morning, paramedics and the provincial road traffic inspectorate said. Of those injured, eight were in a critical condition.
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/ 21 December 2007
An internal forensic audit at the offices of KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele has revealed that some of his employees were involved in fraud and corruption, the premier’s spokesperson said on Friday. A service-provider employee had been working ”in cahoots with employees” to make illegal and unauthorised payments to the provider.
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/ 21 December 2007
A KwaZulu-Natal farmer was shot dead on his farm in the Estcourt area, the KwaZulu-Natal Agriculture Union (KwaNalu) said on Friday. Initial information received by the union was that Greene (70) had been approached by a group of men on Thursday and sustained a single, fatal gunshot wound.
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/ 21 December 2007
The transnational family, nourished by email, chatrooms, long-distance calls and SMSs has increasingly become a feature of migrant communities. In this virtual family the husband might be living and working in South Africa, his wife slaving away as a nurse in England and their children at school in Zimbabwe, their country of origin.
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/ 20 December 2007
A team of psychologists in KwaZulu-Natal has been tasked to deal with ”stressed” matriculants when they receive their results, the provincial department of education said on Thursday. Spokesperson Chris Maxon said the department was concerned by an increase in the number of attempted suicides by pupils.
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/ 20 December 2007
South Africa’s second-largest housing market, the Western Cape, continued to have the lowest house price inflation in the country, fresh data showed on Thursday. Price inflation in the province dropped from 12% in July to 11% in August, the Lightstone residential property index showed.
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/ 20 December 2007
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/327874/livefrompolo.gif" align=left border=0></a>A vision to link social grant users with access to the economy appears one of the "stronger resolutions" emanating from the ANC’s social transformation commissions. Vusi Madonsela, director general of the Department of Social Development, said that one of the two commissions had deliberated on the issue of ensuring that people did not become dependent on social grants.
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/ 19 December 2007
A KwaZulu-Natal street child — who allegedly stole money, clothing and jewellery from a car — was picked up, thrown into the boot of the car and then assaulted, police said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Captain Edmund Singh said the incident took place in Chatsworth’s Crofdene area in Durban at about 9.15pm.
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/ 19 December 2007
A mother and her 19-month-old baby were dumped on the side of a road in Pietermaritzburg after being hijacked, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Superintendent Henry Budhram said the father was dropped off at a different location.
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/ 19 December 2007
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An attempt to get the principle of gender parity elevated to the top structures of the ANC was trounced on Monday night, the Mail & Guardian has learned.
The policy, also known as the 50/50 principle, is a steep change in empowerment in the ANC and requires that every alternative position available for leadership be reserved for a female candidate.
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/ 18 December 2007
This morning, facing too many deadlines, I found my brain blocked. I have been reading all three fat Mandela books, trying to find something to say for a commissioned article. In the midst of my writer’s block I have been searching for a high by following the Obama campaign on the internet and ignoring our own political frenzy here in Kenya, for this time it has no grace.
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/ 18 December 2007
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Jacob Zuma is the new president of the African National Congress. The announcement was greeted by an outpouring of joy and ecstatic cheering by ANC delegates at the party’s conference in Polokwane shortly before 9pm on Tuesday. Thabo Mbeki received 1 505 votes and Zuma received 2 329.
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/ 18 December 2007
More than 560 people have died on South African roads since the beginning of December, the Department of Transport said on Tuesday. At least 119 people were killed in accidents in Gauteng, 86 in KwaZulu-Natal, 58 in the Western Cape, 70 in the Eastern Cape, 52 in the Free State, 74 in Mpumalanga, 51 in Limpopo and seven in the Northern Cape.
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/ 18 December 2007
The body of a 70-year-old man was found with his testicles and one arm missing, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Tuesday. Umfolozi police spokesperson Captain Jabulani Mdletshe said Johannes Mchunu’s body was found on the banks of the Umfolozi River on Monday, a day after he went missing.
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/ 18 December 2007
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/327874/livefrompolo.gif" align=left border=0></a>Membership of the African National Congress has grown to 620Â 000 members from 416Â 000 members in 2002. A national conference, the most powerful gathering of the party, is a perfect opportunity to assess who makes up the ANC. Who is the typical ANC member and what do they believe in?