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/ 23 June 2007

Four die, 41 injured in Witbank accident

Four people died and 41 others were seriously injured when two trucks and a bakkie collided in Blinkpan outside Witbank, Mpumalanga police said on Saturday. Spokesperson Captain Leonard Hlathi said three of the people died on impact, while a fourth died on arrival at the Cosmos Hospital in Witbank on Friday morning.

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/ 22 June 2007

More must be done to empower women, says report

South Africa lacks women in high positions, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has found. A lot still needed to be done to empower women, the PSC said in a report released on Friday. ”Critical in this endeavour is the creation of an enabling environment to ensure that women’s talents and potential are harnessed …,” it said.

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/ 19 June 2007

Minister: Women must benefit from land claims

Women should benefit from the settlement of land claims, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said on Tuesday. Handing over commercial land valued at R1-billion to four communities in Mpumalanga, she said it was crucial that women were not marginalised. ”Women must benefit significantly from the economic benefits that follow with this claim,” she said.

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/ 13 June 2007

Labour seeks show of force in strike

South Africa’s civil-service strike broadened on Wednesday as other union workers walked out, piling more pressure on the government in a dispute stoking political tensions in Africa’s largest economy. Union leaders have vowed to shut the country down in sympathy with civil servants, whose two-week-old strike has already caused chaos in hospitals, schools and public offices.

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/ 12 June 2007

NUM puts strike plans on hold

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will not join Wednesday’s general strike because employers need to be given 10 days’ advance notice. The union’s 280 000 members would instead hold demonstrations and pickets when not on duty in support of public servants’ wage demands.

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/ 12 June 2007

A summary of Indaba highlights

If you weren’t one of the lucky visitors to experience throngs of product owners and travel journalists, fantastic tourism exhibitions (and some mediocre ones), aching feet, too many cocktail parties and wall-to-wall networking sessions, then you missed out on this year’s Travel Indaba at the ICC in Durban.

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/ 9 June 2007

Cosatu warns govt not to anger workers

The government’s firing of striking nurses will anger workers and their unions, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Saturday. ”All the trade unions will be extremely angry at this provocative and quite unnecessary move by the government,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.

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/ 7 June 2007

Are we taking care of the environment?

Environmental rights are critical for South Africa to develop sustainably in the 21st century. But how well are we doing in terms of implementation? Increasingly we see that this appears to be just so much public relations. Last month the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkyk, issued the authorisation for a new 4 800MW coal-fired power station in Limpopo.

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/ 7 June 2007

Lie of the land

Four years ago the National Association of Conservancies of South Africa (Nacsa) did not exist. Now it operates in seven provinces, with 750 conservancies, protecting about 30-million hectares of land. "That is five times more than SANParks and the provinces control, and we do it on no budget at all," says Nacsa chairperson Anthony Duigan.

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/ 7 June 2007

From waste to water

South Africa’s first water reclamation plant, the Emalahleni Water Reclamation Project, is expected to be up and running by July. The project is a brainchild of Anglo Coal South Africa and is this year’s winning project in Greening the Future’s category of companies with innovative environmental strategies that improve business performance.

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/ 4 June 2007

Union says threats will scupper talks

Striking public-sector workers in South Africa warned on Monday that government threats to sack health workers would derail efforts to resolve an increasingly bitter pay dispute. Fikile Majola, secretary general of the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union said negotiations would resume on Monday.

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/ 3 June 2007

Health workers told to report for duty

The government warned striking health workers to return to work on Monday or face being fired while soldiers staffed hospitals and private ambulance services moved seriously-ill babies to private facilities. ”If they are not at their workplace [by Monday], then we will be instituting a process of terminating their services,” said national director general of health Thamsanqa Dennis Mseleku.

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/ 24 May 2007

Ali Funeka stripped of boxing title

Mdantsane fighter Ali Funeka was finally stripped of his title by Boxing South Africa (BSA) on Wednesday for refusing to defend it against top contender Godfrey Nzimande. BSA said Funeka was relieved of the title due to his failure to respond to numerous letters ordering him to honour the defence of his title.

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/ 22 May 2007

Cold snap shatters weather records

The South African Weather Service recorded 54 weather records in the icy wet and snowy weather this week. On Monday, there were 34 new temperature records and on Tuesday another 20. At least 17 people were reported dead from exposure or in fires trying to keep warm in the icy wet weather gripping the country.

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/ 21 May 2007

Cape storms force hundreds to evacuate

More than 800 people were forced to evacuate their homes by the stormy weather that hit Cape Town on the weekend, the city’s disaster risk management centre said on Monday. And the South African Weather Service said more bad weather is on the way. Forecaster Stella Nake said Cape Town should expect another cold front on Thursday.

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/ 21 May 2007

Eastplats joins JSE ranks

Eastern Platinum (Eastplats) listed on the JSE on Monday morning under the "Resources, Mining-Platinum" sector. "The JSE listing will enable us to access South Africa’s capital market and increase our investor base in an environment in which the PGM sector is well understood," said Eastplats president and CEO Ian Rozier.

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/ 21 May 2007

DA points to service-delivery problems

An enormous gulf exists between the levels of service provided by different provinces, a Democratic Alliance (DA) study has found. ”If you are poor and reliant on the state for health, education and housing, the best provinces to live in are the Western Cape, Gauteng and the North West,” DA spokesperson Willem Doman said on Monday.

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/ 20 May 2007

Big chill hits SA

Widespread frost is expected over the central interior and Highveld of Gauteng from Tuesday until Thursday morning, the South African Weather Service said on Sunday. Very cold conditions were expected to persist over the central interior until Wednesday.

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/ 18 May 2007

Tunisian doctors to assist South Africa

Tunisian doctors are coming to South Africa to alleviate a local staff shortage, the Ministry of Health said on Friday. KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape and Mpumalanga are expected to benefit, said spokesperson Sibani Mngadi. H said it was a short-term measure that would give the department time to train more staff and improve its ability to retain them.

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/ 16 May 2007

Boeremag treason accused dies

One of the Boeremag treason accused, Herman Scheepers, has died after a long battle against a brain virus he contracted in jail. Scheepers (52) has been absent from the trial since last year because of his ill health. He was granted bail in July 2006 after four years in custody, following an urgent application by his attorney, Paul Kruger.