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/ 14 February 2008
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma has asked the Constitutional Court to strike down a court ruling allowing seized documents to be used against him in a corruption case. Zuma and his lawyer Michael Hulley argued that prosecutors and investigators had acted illegally when they raided and seized documents.
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/ 14 February 2008
”A disgrace”, ”Answers needed” and ”Crushing more than the Scorpions” was how some newspaper editorials reacted on Thursday to Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula’s announcement in Parliament that the Scorpions would be dissolved.
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/ 14 February 2008
The Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) did not act improperly as suggested by the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana said on Thursday. The ANCYL lodged a complaint with his office stating that the Scorpions held an ”inappropriate” meeting.
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/ 14 February 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) is subscribing to the ”big-lie” theory, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. ”The ANC subscribes to the theory that if the ”big lie” is repeated often enough, then people will believe it, and reality can be shaped by the ruling party,” the DA’s Gauteng provincial safety spokesperson, James Swart, said.
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/ 14 February 2008
Fresh clashes were reported on Wednesday between armed groups in a troubled region in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in breach of a three-week-old ceasefire. Soldiers loyal to rebel General Laurent Nkunda and Mai Mai militiamen exchanged gunfire in towns north-west of Goma, the capital of Nord-Kivu province, a local official said.
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/ 14 February 2008
African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma was in Mauritius on Wednesday in connection with the corruption case he faces. Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, confirmed by telephone from the Indian Ocean island that his client was meeting with legal representatives about documents that allegedly contain proof of bribes being solicited.
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/ 13 February 2008
The pledge the government intends having all schoolchildren recite during morning assembly is a good start, but more is needed to instil values in children, experts said on Wednesday. The proposed pledge was unveiled by Education Minister Naledi Pandor on Tuesday.
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/ 13 February 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) has rejected the call made on Tuesday by the Democratic Alliance for Parliament to be dissolved and new elections held, as well as the call made by the Independent Democrats for the government to resign. A statement issued by the ANC on Wednesday said: ”We believe that such calls have no merit.”
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/ 13 February 2008
The Presidency said on Wednesday that it would have to consult President Thabo Mbeki before commenting on a report quoting former ambassador to France Barbara Masekela. In the report, Masekela is quoted as saying she had arranged a meeting between Mbeki and an arms company that is the co-accused in Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial.
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/ 13 February 2008
A resolution to open up the arms deal to further discussion was shot down by the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday. Democratic Alliance MP Eddie Trent, who brought the proposal, finally withdrew it and agreed to the suggestion that the committee merely look into what progress has been made in implementing Scopa’s recommendations.
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/ 13 February 2008
South Africa has been plunged into a fresh debate over the racial make-up of its sports teams 14 years after the country emerged from apartheid. As the cricket squad prepared on Wednesday to fly to Bangladesh after a furious row over the dearth of black players in its line-up, white rugby legends protested against government pressure on selectors to put colour ahead of ability
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/ 12 February 2008
Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Sandra Botha tabled a notice of motion in the National Assembly on Tuesday calling for Parliament to be dissolved. Speaking during debate on President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, she said in order to tackle the challenges currently facing South Africa, it is necessary to start from a clean slate.
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/ 12 February 2008
South Africa’s elite, FBI-style Scorpions anti-crime unit will be dissolved, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. ”The Scorpions … will be dissolved and the organised crime unit of the police will be phased out and a new, amalgamated unit will be created,” Nqakula told Parliament in Cape Town.
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/ 12 February 2008
The African National Congress’s (ANC) national working committee urged party members on Tuesday to refrain from undisciplined and divisive behaviour ahead of the ANC’s provincial conference season. Members were asked to ”desist from behaviour that threatened the unity and discipline of the movement”.
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/ 12 February 2008
President Thabo Mbeki failed to take action despite being told South Africa’s police commissioner faced prosecution over his alleged links to organised crime, the Star newspaper reported on Tuesday. The paper quoted an affidavit filed on Monday by Mokotedi Mpshe, the acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority.
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/ 11 February 2008
An African National Congress (ANC) MP on Monday denied being booted off a South African Airways (SAA) flight after an alleged drunken argument with another passenger. Frans Tlokwe Maserumule said he left the plane willingly after the incident, which took place before the flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town took off.
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/ 11 February 2008
The Democratic Alliance on Monday sided with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on a possible court challenge to the composition of the new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board. Cosatu confirmed earlier it is considering legal action to have a new board appointed by the National Assembly.
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/ 11 February 2008
A Pretoria High Court judge ruled on Monday that Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla had failed to exercise her constitutional duties diligently over the applications of 384 prisoners for presidential pardons.
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/ 11 February 2008
The Independent Democrats (ID) on Monday dismissed as false claims by Cape Town mayor Helen Zille that the Democratic Alliance (DA) did not sanction the bribery of ID councillor Sheval Arendse. Simon Grindrod, ID caucus leader for the city, said it was clear that the bribery was done with the full blessing of the DA leadership.
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/ 11 February 2008
South African President Thabo Mbeki said he has no plans to appoint the deputy president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to the Cabinet or make other changes to accommodate allies of ANC leader Jacob Zuma. Mbeki told the Star there was no truth to reports that he would appoint Kgalema Motlanthe to his Cabinet.
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/ 10 February 2008
The print media was, as usual, overreacting to the African National Congress’s (ANC) intentions to investigate the establishment of a media tribunal in South Africa, ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe said on Sunday. Motlanthe was speaking at the South African National Editors’ Forum question-and-answer session in Cape Town.
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/ 10 February 2008
An intense battle over the future of the Scorpions is raging between the government and the African National Congress, the Sunday Times reported. The party’s parliamentary caucus was setting up a heavyweight committee to drive the dismantling of the unit, while President Thabo Mbeki was mounting a defiant fightback campaign.
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/ 9 February 2008
The festive tone that once marked South African President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation speeches was absent when he outlined his priorities for 2008 on Friday, two months after losing control of his ruling party. There was less cheering, singing and dancing as Mbeki’s motorcade pulled up to the Parliament buildings.
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/ 8 February 2008
There was nothing ”unusual” about President Thabo Mbeki’s Friday State of the Nation address, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said. ”Contrary to the stated theme of his speech, this was business as usual for the president,” she said. Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said Mbeki’s address was ”another list of promises”.
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/ 8 February 2008
The African National Congress parliamentary caucus was full of praise on Friday for President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, while opposition parties expressed optimism about the future of the Scorpions detective unit following the president’s address.
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/ 7 February 2008
The Erasmus commission appointed to look into the Cape Town city council ”spy” saga is ”unlawful and unconstitutional”, city mayor Helen Zille said on Thursday. Zille said she had written a letter to Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool asking him to reconsider the commission on the grounds that it was a ”gross abuse of power”.
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/ 7 February 2008
There is a greater public sense of anticipation about what President Thabo Mbeki will say in his State of the Nation address on Friday than before any previous such speech he has delivered since assuming office in 1999. This is in part due to the recent dramatic twist in Mbeki’s political fortunes.
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/ 7 February 2008
The Young Communist League (YCL) on Thursday blamed the media for ”wittingly or unwittingly” misleading the public on comments made by South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni. The league held a teleconference with Mboweni on Thursday during which his comments about certain African National Congress members and inflation-targeting were discussed.
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/ 7 February 2008
South Africa’s Parliament on Thursday approved legal changes to make abortions easier to obtain, despite criticism from opponents who said the law was already too lax. The changes will provide for 24-hour abortion facilities, do away with pre-approval procedures and permit all nurses — instead of just midwives — to terminate pregnancies.
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/ 7 February 2008
Liliesleaf Farm in Rivionia, north of Johannesburg, will reopen in June 2008 for people wanting to tour the former secret headquarters of the African National Congress’s Umkhonto we Sizwe. The farm was purchased in 1961 by the South African Communist Party, according to the Liliesleaf Trust.
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/ 7 February 2008
The rand is back to being one of the world’s worst-performing currencies in 2008 after a brief respite last year, and there appears nothing, for now, to halt its slide. A chronic energy crisis that is likely to slice into economic growth, political uncertainty and a gaping current-account deficit paint a gloomy picture for a currency prone to volatility.
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/ 7 February 2008
President Thabo Mbeki will strive to show he is still in charge of the country on Friday when he makes his first State of the Nation address since being ousted as leader of the ruling party in December. Jacob Zuma, front-runner to succeed Mbeki as head of state, has already begun to eclipse his rival through control of the party.