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/ 6 February 2008

‘The horror film that is life in Kliptown’

The Kliptown Concerned Residents group on Wednesday took the media on a tour of the area to highlight the damage caused by recent heavy rains. Organiser Sipho Jantjie said the settlement in Kliptown had no electricity and used the bucket system. As the media walked around the settlement, raw sewage was seen flowing out of a manhole.

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/ 5 February 2008

Energy minister has made her bed

Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on Tuesday denied advising South Africans to go to bed early as a means of conserving electricity. ”That speech didn’t say ‘Go to bed, go to bed, go to bed’,” she said at a media briefing at the launch of the department’s national energy efficiency campaign.

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/ 5 February 2008

ANC branch meeting ends in blows

A number of African National Congress (ANC) members at Alice in the Eastern Cape have sustained injuries after a branch meeting ended in an exchange of blows, it was reported on Monday. Reports said a group of party supporters arrived at Khayalethu village during the registration process for an AGM and called for its dissolution.

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/ 4 February 2008

ANC: Mbeki backers won’t be purged

African National Congress (ANC) leaders who supported President Thabo Mbeki in the build-up to the party’s elective conference in Polokwane will not be victimised, the party’s newly elected leadership said on Monday. The ANC said fears that there would be a purge were baseless as the party had no intention to change its traditions.

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/ 4 February 2008

Ramaphosa pulls out of Kenya talks

South African business tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa, chosen by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to head long-term mediation efforts in Kenya, pulled out on Monday because of reservations expressed by the Kenyan government. ”Kofi Annan reluctantly accepts the withdrawal of Cyril Ramaphosa from the role of chief mediator,” a UN official said.

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/ 3 February 2008

Nzimande launches stinging attack on City Press

South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande has accused City Press newspaper of adopting an ”extremely hostile attitude” towards African National Congress president Jacob Zuma. Nzimande tears into the paper in an open letter published on Sunday for ”deliberately” writing about the party in a ”provocatively factionalist, divisive and highly subjective manner”.

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/ 3 February 2008

ANC MPs seen as loyal to Mbeki fear the axe

Fear now stalks the corridors of African National Congress (ANC) power as the party’s new president, Jacob Zuma, asserts his authority in Parliament, the provinces and the party structures, the Sunday Times reported. ANC MPs made their anxiety known in a closed meeting of the ANC’s parliamentary caucus on Thursday.

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/ 2 February 2008

ANC MP backs down on prostitution comments

An African National Congress (ANC) MP on Friday apologised to women for his comments that prostitution be legalised ahead of the Soccer World Cup. ”I wish to submit my profound and unreserved apology to all women of South Africa for the manner in which these comments in the portfolio committee were attributed,” said George Lekgetho.

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/ 1 February 2008

ANC eyes improved attendance at Parliament

Dealing with poor attendance by African National Congress (ANC) members at parliamentary and caucus meetings would be one of the year’s priorities, the party’s chief whip said on Friday. Nathi Mthethwa said: ”Inculcating a culture of discipline among some of the organisation’s public representatives in this institution will form part of the priorities.”

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/ 1 February 2008

Ramaphosa summoned by Annan to help in Kenya

Prominent South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa was expected in Kenya later on Friday to help mediate in talks between the government and the opposition aimed at ending a month of post-election violence. Ramaphosa led the African National Congress in negotiations with the National Party to end apartheid in the early 1990s.

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/ 1 February 2008

Zuma reduces claims against media

A host of defamation claims lodged by the African National Congress president Jacob Zuma against several publications were on Friday slashed to ”approximately R12-million”, a spokesperson for Zuma said. Liesl Göttert said: ”Mr Jacob Zuma will instruct his media legal team to drop the defamation component of all media claims that he instituted against some media.”

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/ 1 February 2008

Selebi case postponed to June

Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi was charged with three counts of corruption and one of defeating the ends of justice in the Randburg Regional Court on Friday. He also faced an alternate charge of receiving an unauthorised gratification ”by a person who is party to an employment relation”. The case was postponed to June 26.

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/ 31 January 2008

Rustenburg mayor under investigation

A multiparty committee has been set up to investigate allegations involving the mayor of Rustenburg, Matthew Wolmarans, the municipality said on Thursday. Municipal manager Andries Boschoff said a motion of no confidence was passed against the mayor on Tuesday during a council meeting.

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/ 31 January 2008

Zuma pulls out of Tyson banquet

African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma cancelled his controversial speaking engagement at a Mike Tyson charity banquet outside Johannesburg on Wednesday. About an hour-and-a-half before the event, the hosts said Zuma had to attend to urgent ANC business.

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/ 31 January 2008

Govt: No investment threat from power cuts

South Africa’s crippling power crisis will not put off investors nor limit its ability to stage the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. Rolling power cuts have plagued homes, businesses and the mining industry in South Africa for weeks and are likely to continue for about five years, according to state power utility Eskom.

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/ 30 January 2008

Disbanding of Scorpions ‘sends wrong signals’

The African National Congress’s (ANC) drive to close the Scorpions is ”myopic and dangerous”, political analyst Professor Adam Habib said on Wednesday. Speaking at the University of Pretoria’s African Dialogue Lecture series, both Habib and fellow academic and analyst Professor Stephen Friedman said the move sent out the wrong signals.

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/ 30 January 2008

Mike Tyson shows his soft side in South Africa

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, once nicknamed ”The Baddest Man on the Planet”, isn’t about to set foot in any hotspots on his first trip to Africa. Tyson, whose career has been marred by controversy, including a prison term for rape and the infamous ear biting incident in a title fight with Evander Holyfield, says he has mellowed.

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/ 29 January 2008

Presidency denies Minto award nomination

The Presidency on Tuesday denied that anti-apartheid activist John Minto had been nominated for a prestigious national order, which Minto said he would decline on the grounds that the situation in South Africa was worse than under white rule. Minto published a letter to President Thabo Mbeki on his website.

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/ 29 January 2008

Prepare for a month of load-shedding

South Africans can expect current load-shedding by Eskom to continue, if not worsen, for at least the next four weeks. Eskom, which met major industrial customers and the six metro mayors on Tuesday, proposed a three-phase recovery period that would include load-shedding, at least in the initial phase.

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/ 29 January 2008

ANC calls on all South Africans to save power

It is critical that South Africans respond to the energy-saving proposals made by the government for industrial, commercial and residential consumers, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Tuesday. ”The success of the programme taken by the government … depends on the contribution of all South Africans and sectors,” the ANC said.