The Democratic Alliance has lambasted the Mpumalanga Rugby Union for including a convicted murderer in the Vodacom Pumas rugby team. Gert van Schalkwyk (22) — one of the infamous ”Waterkloof Four” — has been included in the starting line-up for the provincial team.
Five years after its developers announced that the construction of the Kaizer Chiefs Stadium would be complete by this year, not a brick has been laid. Construction work on the Bob van Reenen stadium precinct in Krugersdorp, earmarked by Chiefs as their home venue, was expected to begin in July 2006 and it was to be ready to use in 2008.
The government has approved an R8,6-billion road and rail improvement scheme to help cater for thousands of visitors expected for the 2010 soccer World Cup, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The Moloto rail corridor project will link Gauteng with Mpumalanga in the north-east close to the popular Kruger National Park.
African National Congress treasurer general Mathews Phosa has called for an improvement in the country’s black economic empowerment (BEE) policy and urged the legal profession to consider whether the current BEE "framework" is "functional" and whether it is assisting emerging black entrepreneur.
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/ 28 February 2008
France is giving a R15,5-billion (â,¬1,4-billion) coal-fired power station to South Africa as a gesture of friendship. The agreement was signed on Thursday between Buyelwa Sonjica, the Minister of Minerals and Energy Affairs, and Jean-Marie Bockel, the French Deputy Minister for North-South cooperation.
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/ 26 February 2008
The Mpumalanga local government hopes to boost the provincial economy, attract investment and create employment over the next two years. The economy, investment and employment executive council committee on Tuesday outlined some of the projects to be undertaken during this period.
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/ 26 February 2008
Premier Soccer League log leaders Ajax Cape Town and the ever-improving Santos will face Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates respectively in the last-32 round of the inaugural Nedbank Cup. The draw involving the Soweto clubs attracted loud applause from the crowd and there was also a huge roar of approval for the R6-million first prize.
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/ 22 February 2008
The government has promised Anglo American that its mining rights will be renewed under new rules governing the industry — even as data summarised in the budget shows just how badly regulatory barriers continue to limit South Africa’s ability to cash in on the biggest commodities boom in living memory.
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/ 22 February 2008
Provinces will receive R238-billion this year, a whopping 16% higher than last year’s allocation. By 2010/11, provincial budgets will have doubled on their 2004/05 levels. All increases to key portfolios outstrip inflation by significant margins. But will they spend it well?
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/ 21 February 2008
Inefficiency at one of the border posts between South Africa and Mozambique is a key constraint to accelerated growth of trade and investment between the two countries, the Maputo Corridor Links Initiative (MCLI) said on Thursday. MCLI chief operating officer Barbara Mommen said delays in the movement of cargo through the Lebombo/Ressano Garcia border post was costly
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/ 20 February 2008
Eskom is not as concerned about the domestic availability of sufficient coal as it is with the speed at which it could be mined, <i>Business Day</i> reported on Wednesday. The national power utility is also worried about logistical problems in transporting the coal to power stations.
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/ 18 February 2008
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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/ 2 February 2008
Factions within the African National Congress (ANC) are bringing the entire country into disrepute and causing uncertainty among investors, said United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa on Saturday. He was addressing the UDM provincial council in Standerton, Mpumalanga.
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/ 31 January 2008
The labour minister has welcomed the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to prosecute two Sasol employees in connection with an explosion in 2004 in which ten people were killed. ”We are happy that our recommendations for prosecution have resulted in someone having to account for the flouting of … laws,” said Membathisi Mdladlana on Thursday.
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/ 30 January 2008
South Africans can save electricity by going to sleep earlier and boiling less water, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on Wednesday told a special sitting of Parliament to discuss the power crisis. Nationwide power cuts began again at 3pm on Wednesday, said electricity provider Eskom.
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/ 29 January 2008
Every year the festival season becomes longer and more exotic. That summer spell when young people gather in fields to listen to music and fall over, the result of either inebriation or inappropriate footwear, used to involve simply packing a tent and heading for a farmer’s field. Today you can build your summer around a trip to Benicassim in Spain, Burning Man in Nevada or Exit in Serbia.
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/ 27 January 2008
Is it our business as journalists to pronounce on who is best placed to lead the ANC? If you look at some of the personalities in the party’s new leadership, such as unrepentant convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni, or former Mpumalanga health minister Sibongile Manana, who tried to frustrate provision of treatment to people with HIV, the temptation exists to damn them all.
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/ 25 January 2008
The Nigerian method of low-budget movie-making is set to take off in South Africa if an upcoming producer has his way, writes Percy Zvomuya.
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/ 20 January 2008
About 2Â 000 nurses have been deployed to under-served areas across the country since the start of the year, the Department of Health said on Saturday. In a statement, the department said it will also open additional nursing colleges to increase the supply of nursing staff.
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/ 18 January 2008
Cases of murder, armed robbery and theft against seven men and a woman were on Friday postponed in the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court, Mpumalanga police said. The eight are accused of killing businessman Sihlangoma Solomon Hlongwane, whose tongue was tied with a string and pulled out until he died.
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/ 18 January 2008
Three Pretoria High Court judges have described the ”insensitivity” of Hoërskool Ermelo and its governing body to students who did not want to be taught in Afrikaans as ”shocking”. The judges last year dismissed the school’s application to set aside a decision to revoke the powers of its governing body to determine language policy.
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/ 17 January 2008
If the South African Reserve Bank needs further evidence of the dampening effect of higher rates on real economic activity, recent building data has been just that, according to independent economic analysts. A major challenge facing the government is also the extreme escalation in building costs.
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/ 14 January 2008
Three Department of Home Affairs officials arrested on 39 counts of fraud appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday, the department said. Two senior male immigration officials were arrested on Friday in Mahamaba in Mpumalanga and one female official was arrested in Pretoria.
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/ 11 January 2008
Mpumalanga is considering name changes to major towns, including provincial capital Nelspruit, the city said on Friday. City spokesperson Gordon Nkgathi said: ”The proposed geographical name changes, including the renaming of Nelspruit to Mbombela, have been considered and recommended by the Mpumalanga provincial geographical names committee.”
The number of fatalities on South African roads over the festive season decreased by 13,26%, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday. He was releasing the Arrive Alive campaign’s figures for the holiday season from December 1 to January 6. The number of people killed on the roads had declined to 1Â 419.
The ANC’s national executive committee elected its 28-member national working committee (NWC) on Monday. Get the complete list of NWC members here, as well as the names of the eight ANC members who will form part of the ad hoc committee to draw up a report on the arms deal.
Grade 12 pupils from at least four schools in Mpumalanga are caught up in confusion as to whether or not they have passed their matric exams, the Sowetan reported on Wednesday. Instead of joining the throng of those who passed, Thokozani Hlatshwayo and several of his classmates were left ”confused and traumatised”.
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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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/ 22 December 2007
An elderly Vryheid woman who was savaged by a hyena on Thursday has undergone plastic surgery at Johannesburg’s Milpark Hospital. Alie Nel (83) was in a ”very stable condition” in the hospital’s trauma intensive-care unit on Saturday, said its marketing manager, Amelda Swartz.
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/ 22 December 2007
A 40-year-old man killed his wife and then handed himself over to police in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga police said on Friday. ”He took out a knife and stabbed her four times all over her body, and then he took a hammer and hit her on the back of her head,” said Superintendent Abie Khoabane.