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/ 24 February 2008
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha might be fired on Tuesday, City Press newspaper reported in its online edition on Saturday. Madisha’s fate is likely to be decided at Cosatu’s four-day central executive meeting that is expected to start on Sunday.
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/ 24 February 2008
The African National Congress has ordered an audit of all empowerment deals and tenders that were received by its investment company, Chancellor House, media reports said on Sunday. Earlier this month, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported that Chancellor House would exit two multibillion-rand contracts with Eskom.
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/ 23 February 2008
A shaky peace deal in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took another hit on Friday when renegade general Laurent Nkunda said his group would no longer participate in daily ceasefire meetings. He said he had taken the decision after the United Nations accused forces loyal to him of massacring at least 30 villagers.
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/ 23 February 2008
White journalists expressed their dismay after they were denied access to the ”hottest news ticket in town” when barred from listening to African National Congress president Jacob Zuma at a forum exclusively for black journalists. Zuma addressed the Forum of Black Journalists’ relaunch in Johannesburg on Friday.
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/ 22 February 2008
”I saw nothing wrong,” said African National Congress president Jacob Zuma when asked whether he approved of the exclusion of white journalists from an address at the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) on Friday. Zuma was addressing journalists after the FBJ re-launch held at the Sandton Sun hotel in Johannesburg.
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/ 22 February 2008
A month-old peace accord in east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faced a fresh hitch on Friday when Tutsi rebels halted participation in a ceasefire commission in protest at United Nations allegations they had massacred civilians. The move announced by renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda posed a potential threat to the January 23 ceasefire.
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/ 22 February 2008
The assault of a woman at a taxi rank for wearing a miniskirt indicates just how necessary it is for the taxi industry to transform, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Friday. ”Unfortunately, this very sad incident has reinforced the view that taxi drivers are a law unto themselves,” said Radebe in Durban.
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/ 22 February 2008
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Friday said her efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle — including responsible drinking habits — among South Africans were not hypocritical. Speaking to the media at the launch of ”the Healthy Lifestyle Day” in Port Shepstone, she questioned why the media linked her recent liver transplant to her promotion of a healthy lifestyle.
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/ 22 February 2008
The South African National Editors’ Forum has slammed the decision of the new Forum of Black Journalists to exclude white journalists from their meeting in Sandton on Friday. African National Congress president Jacob Zuma was to deliver an off-the-record address at the inaugural imbizo.
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/ 22 February 2008
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille has accused the Public Protector of abusing his office for party political purposes in attacking DA MP Mike Waters. She declared that in the six years since his appointment, Lawrence Mushwana, a former ANC MP, has succeeded only in protecting the ANC from the people.
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/ 22 February 2008
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma is to deliver an off-the-record address at the inaugural imbizo of a forum exclusively for black journalists in Sandton on Friday. Chairperson Abbey Makoe said the Forum of Black Journalists was an association ”who would politically in the South African context be defined as of African descent, coloureds and Indians”.
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/ 21 February 2008
Floor-crossing will finally be scrapped, a media report said on Thursday. Following on a decision by the African National Congress’s Polokwane conference, Parliament’s committee on private members’ legislative proposals on Wednesday agreed to a draft Bill that will lead to the scrapping of the practice.
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/ 20 February 2008
Stripped of its polemical verbosity, Philip Dexter’s article (January 25) simply argues that the electoral contest against Thabo Mbeki’s leadership was just about personal power to pursue egoistic interests. The newly elected leadership will use its power to pursue these interests, including purging those who differed with them towards the national congress, writes David Masondo.
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/ 20 February 2008
Overwhelmingly positive or mediocre? Economists on Wednesday had a variety of impressions to share of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget, tabled in Parliament earlier in the day. Colen Garrow, economist at Brait, said: "There was nothing in it for the embattled consumer."
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/ 20 February 2008
Springbok rugby captain John Smit will remain at the helm of the side until the end of the year, coach Peter de Villiers announced on Wednesday, as political mudslinging continued with the Freedom Front Plus condemning the reaction of African National Congress MPs to former Springbok captains calling for an end to political interference in the sport.
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/ 20 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel played his cards close to his chest on Wednesday when questioned about his future during a media conference before his delivery of the national budget in Parliament. "I have said in the past that I serve. I can’t say what will happen," he said.
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/ 20 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that recent political developments within the African National Congress (ANC) made the drafting of the 2008 budget difficult. "I never had any concerns on whether there will be difficulties in these areas," he said.
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/ 20 February 2008
South Africa is sitting on gold, platinum and other minerals that are selling at record prices on world markets, yet its economy is, quite literally, underpowered. The rand, the worst performing currency this year, has lost 12% against the dollar in the past month since the country was hit with electricity shortages that kept mines from working.
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/ 19 February 2008
Seven people were injured on Tuesday when riot-squad officers fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at squatters resisting eviction from a housing project in Delft near Cape Town, South African police said. The violence erupted as several hundred squatters tried to prevent contractors from loading their scant belongings on to removal trucks.
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/ 19 February 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday congratulated the Springboks for winning the Laureus World Team of the Year award. ”With this prestigious award, they have once more shown that South Africa is a force to be reckoned with, and that we can take on the best of what the sporting world has to offer and come out on top,” the ANC said.
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/ 19 February 2008
Classes at all the Tshwane University of Technology’s campuses were suspended amid student protests on Tuesday, authorities said. ”The decision was taken due to the prevailing atmosphere on campus and the potential for violent clashes between striking and non-striking students,” vice-chancellor Errol Tyobeka said.
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/ 19 February 2008
The disbanding of the Scorpions is still only a ”proposal” and will go to Parliament and include public participation, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said in Cape Town on Tuesday. The unit will also stay on the high-profile cases on which it is currently working, he told a media briefing on the future of the criminal justice system.
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/ 18 February 2008
The Cape High Court on Monday dismissed an application for leave to appeal against an eviction order that compelled illegal occupiers of unfinished homes in Delft on the Cape Flats to vacate their houses by 6pm last Sunday. Judge Deon van Zyl ruled late on Monday that the grounds for appeal were altogether without merit.
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/ 18 February 2008
The goal posts for Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s spending plans in Wednesday’s national budget were carefully placed last October when he revealed his medium-term expenditure framework. However, political change and the dramatic change in economic outlook caused by the electricity crisis have set the posts whirling.
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/ 18 February 2008
The acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Mokotedi Mpshe, on Monday said he was puzzled by statements saying the Scorpions are to be ”disbanded” on the one hand, and ”dissolved” on the other, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
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/ 18 February 2008
The Democratic Alliance (DA) was making a mockery of Parliament, the African National Congress charged on Sunday. This, after public protector Lawrence Mushwana recommended Parliamentary action against DA MP Mike Waters. Waters complained last year that President Thabo Mbeki had abused his office by demanding that Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang get priority on a organ-transplant list.
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/ 17 February 2008
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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/ 15 February 2008
Helen Zille, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, on Friday challenged African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma to pledge his own allegiance to the Constitution, and to declare that loyalty to the Constitution is more important than loyalty to the ANC.
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/ 15 February 2008
South Africa’s left is riding high as the government prepares to unveil a budget that is expected to raise spending on social programmes and shift policy more towards fighting unemployment and poverty. Powerful trade unions and the South African Communist Party have recently seen their influence within the ruling African National Congress rise.
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/ 15 February 2008
Pointing out that Thursday February 21 is International Mother Language Day, the president of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has called for the new schools’ pledge drawn up by the Department of Education to be recited in the different languages of the country — depending on the region.
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/ 14 February 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille is to request a meeting with African National Congress president Jacob Zuma to discuss the future of the Scorpions, she said on Thursday. ”I intend to put this challenge to him. I will write to Mr Zuma and request an urgent meeting to state unambiguously the disastrous consequences that disbanding the Scorpions will have for South Africa.”
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/ 14 February 2008
South Africa should continue supplying its neighbours with power, African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday at the launch of the party’s Energy Efficiency Campaign. Mantashe said he did not want South Africa to be an ”island of prosperity in a sea of poverty”.