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/ 3 February 2006
The United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) said on Thursday that next week’s planned strike by Transnet workers over the parastatal’s restructuring plans will continue. Utatu spokesperson Chris de Vos said the union was disappointed that a meeting with Transnet management on Thursday yielded no results.
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/ 2 February 2006
South African Airways obtained an interim Labour Court order on Thursday against a sympathy strike by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union. Spokesperson Jacqui O’ Sullivan said the order would remain in place until final judgement next Tuesday.
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/ 2 February 2006
President Thabo Mbeki’s ”failed promises” in finance, service delivery and health were the focus of opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon’s speech in Pretoria on Thursday. Leon cited power cuts, fuel shortages, and poor sanitation that led to a typhoid outbreak in Mpumalanga as examples of this decline.
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/ 1 February 2006
Fires that have been raging in the Overberg since Monday continued to burn out of control on Wednesday, destroying five buildings at an upmarket resort and coming dangerously close to homes in the Gansbaai area. The fire, which started near Elim on Monday afternoon, was burning on a continuous front of 40km.
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/ 1 February 2006
A march by thousands of Transnet workers in Durban ended on Wednesday, bringing to a close the first in a threatened series of strikes at the parastatal, a trade-union spokesperson said. A Durban metro police spokesperson said marchers were well behaved.
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/ 1 February 2006
Trade unions on Wednesday said they were ”very satisfied” with their first in a series of strikes against Transnet’s restructuring programme. ”We are very satisfied. On the short notice that we organised it, we never thought it would be this successful,” the United Transport and Allied Trade Union’s Chris de Vos said.
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/ 31 January 2006
Transnet workers in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State ended their second day of strikes on Tuesday with unions claiming success. ”No matter which way you try and spin it, there’s no doubt the strike has been effective,” the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union’s (Satawu) Randall Howard said.
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/ 30 January 2006
The Durban and Richards Bay ports were running at 60% and 50% capacity respectively on Monday as unions embarked on a strike at Transnet. The United Transport and Allied Trade Union said about 15Â 200 workers from all four unions involved in the dispute over restructuring were on strike at both ports.
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/ 25 January 2006
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/262374/vote-box_blue.gif" align=left>Inkatha Freedom Party Ingwe municipality mayor Innocent Miya and three councillors from nearby Ubuhlebezwe municipality have defected to Ziba Jiyane’s National Democratic Convention (Nadeco). Miya, according to Nadeco spokesperson Linda Hlongwa MPL, has been mayor of Ingwe since 2000.
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/ 23 January 2006
Provincial housing ministers should not blame a lack of funds for slow delivery when they fail to spend their full budget allocation, the chairperson of Parliament’s finance select committee said on Monday. ”Don’t … plead poverty,” Tutu Ralane told the housing ministers of four provinces who reported on their spending.
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/ 16 January 2006
Fifteen armed men robbed the Monte Visto Casino in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, of an undisclosed amount of cash on Sunday, said police. The gang overpowered a security guard and forced its way into the casino, said Superintendent Buhle Ngidi. ”They jumped over the cash desk and demanded cash. An undisclosed sum of money was taken,” said Ngidi.
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/ 16 January 2006
Opposition parties spent Sunday launching their local government election manifestos as the African National Congress looked inwards. The Democratic Alliance launched its local government election campaign in Durban on Sunday with promises that it would enhance service delivery and bring an end to corruption.
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/ 13 January 2006
A general dealer voluntarily evacuated his shop and a Standerton street was closed to traffic, as was a dirt road in a nearby township on Thursday, as water was released from the Grootdraai Dam after this week’s heavy rains. It was not nearly as bad as previous floods in the Mpumalanga town, residents said on Thursday.
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/ 12 January 2006
With more than 500 people relocated because of rain damage to their shacks, Johannesburg’s emergency services has urged people living near water lines and crossing low-lying bridges to exercise caution. Some residents of Klipspruit, Alexandra, Diepsloot, Ennerdale and Kaya Sands had been moved, Gauteng Provincial Services said on Thursday.
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/ 12 January 2006
Shots were fired at Johannesburg’s emergency services and police who had rushed to the rescue of three people reportedly swept away by flood waters in Kya Sands on Thursday. ”We arrived at where they were supposed to be washed away and suddenly shots were fired towards the river,” an emergency services spokesperson said.
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/ 12 January 2006
Johannesburg’s emergency services urged caution near bridges and rivers on Thursday as another night of heavy rains raised flood fears. A tow-truck driver rescued a woman who was swept away in her car while crossing a bridge on Witkoppen Road in Sunninghill and two taxis were involved in a head-on collision on the Golden Highway.
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/ 11 January 2006
A possible flood emergency at Standerton in Mpumalanga has not materialised after less water flowed into the Grootdraai Dam than expected, authorities said on Wednesday afternoon. Police spokesperson Superintendent Amanda Peens said the outflow of the dam, which is 114% full, will be maintained at 850 cubic metres per second.
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/ 11 January 2006
A flood emergency might be declared at Standerton in Mpumalanga as more water flows into the already over-full Grootdraai Dam, authorities said on Wednesday. The South African Weather Service said more rain is expected on Wednesday and Thursday, especially over the Highveld and Mpumalanga.
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/ 10 January 2006
The level of the Vaal River at Standerton in Mpumalanga has dropped overnight and no properties were in danger of flooding on Tuesday morning. Police spokesperson Superintendent Amanda Peens said the in- and outflow of the Grootdraai Dam at the town had stabilised.
Houses and businesses in Standerton, Mpumalanga, could be in danger of floods if the current water inflow into the Grootdraai Dam near the town continues, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Monday. Spokesperson Walter van der Westhuizen said the dam was 114% full on Monday afternoon.
The wet weather experienced over most of the interior is likely to continue for another two days before starting to clear up, Weather SA said on Monday. Forecaster Siyabonga Mphethwa said the rain is caused by a tropical low that moved in over the northern part of South Africa on Friday from Mozambique.
Elephants roaming the parched plains of Africa’s national parks can get up to half their food by risky midnight raids into crop fields, according to scientists who tracked a herd by satellite monitoring in Kenya’s Samburu national reserve. It is a problem that also occurs in South Africa.
The road death toll for December has risen to 1 215, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Collen Msibi said 512 of the fatalities were pedestrians, 414 were passengers and 289 were drivers. The figure is down from 1 234 reported in the same period last year.
Road deaths during the Christmas holidays were at 1Â 162 by the end of December, the Department of Transport said on Monday. There was heavy traffic on the country’s main routes on Monday as holidaymakers returned home. Meanwhile, the bodies of five people who drowned after their car plunged into the Vaal River have been recovered.
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/ 29 December 2005
Education Minister Naledi Pandor was disappointed on Thursday at the 68,3% pass rate recorded by the 2005 matric class. ”I’m not satisfied,” she told a media briefing in Cape Town where the figure was announced. ”How can anyone be satisfied when more than 30% of our children are failing? Surely you can’t have that. I’m not happy.”
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/ 28 December 2005
The death toll on South Africa’s roads over the holiday season has reached 965, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Collen Msibi said 411 of the casualties were pedestrians and 88 were children under 14. Msibi said that although ”shocking”, the figure was down from the 1 140 deaths over the same period last year.
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/ 24 December 2005
The Matatiele-Maluti mass action group has filed an urgent application with the Constitutional Court asking to be excluded from Friday’s legislation on municipal boundaries, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reports. The legislation will transfer the Matatiele area from KwaZulu-Natal to the Eastern Cape.
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/ 21 December 2005
This year’s matric exams were valid and credible, education quality assurance body Umalusi said on Wednesday in Pretoria. It found that the country’s matric, adult education and vocational examinations were conducted in line with policy and the results were valid, reliable, fair and credible, said Umalusi chairperson John Pampallis.
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/ 20 December 2005
Rain and a drop in temperature to below 20 degrees Celsius are predicted for the entire coast from Plettenberg Bay to Durban on Christmas Day, according to the South African Weather Bureau. Mpumalanga and Limpopo will be hit by the colder, wetter weather late on Sunday, but Cape Town should experience fine Christmas weather.
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/ 19 December 2005
A massive effort is under way to provide fuel to the two sectors most in need — the deciduous fruit farmers in the Western Cape and the summer rainfall farmers of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West — the South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia) said on Monday.
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/ 19 December 2005
North Rand police on Sunday arrested a 35-year-old man believed to be a hijacking and robbery kingpin, at his hideout in Tembisa. Spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman said the man was wanted in connection with 14 cases of armed robbery in Gauteng.
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/ 18 December 2005
Dean Elgar of Free State was unfortunate to just miss a well-deserved century by one run when he scored 99 against Border at Fort Hare University, Alice, on Saturday on the second day of the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket Week. Elgar made his runs off 154 balls with eight fours and Free State totalled 192-6 in their 50 overs.