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/ 19 February 2008

Student protest ends classes in Tshwane

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

Man avoids life sentence for robbery, murder

A Pretoria High Court judge ruled on Monday that a murderer and robber did not deserve life imprisonment because of his disadvantaged background. Acting Judge Legodi Phatudi sentenced 35-year-old Jeffrey Mogatla of Mamelodi East to 40 years imprisonment, of which he effectively has to serve about 19 years — for the murder and robbery of Mariana Bothma.

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/ 18 February 2008

New fund to combat poverty among women

The newly established Isivande Women’s Fund is a step towards reducing poverty among women, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Monday. Unveiling the fund logo to business and media at the presidential guest house in Pretoria, the deputy president said it will help mainly black woman entrepreneurs.

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/ 18 February 2008

Schools to teach new Bill of Responsibilities

South African schoolchildren will be taught a Bill of Responsibilities along with the Bill of Rights, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Pretoria on Monday. Unveiling the Bill of Responsibilities, Pandor said: ”It is to say how we exercise rights, with the understanding that rights come with responsibility.”

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/ 18 February 2008

SA mulls Kosovo independence

The South African government is still deciding whether to recognise Kosovo as an independent country, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday. It is expected that the decision would have to be taken soon as it would again be discussed by the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday afternoon.

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/ 14 February 2008

DA: ANC subscribes to the ‘big-lie’ theory

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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/ 8 February 2008

Bomb shock for Soshanguve police

Police at the Soshanguve police station, north-east of Pretoria, were unpleasantly surprised on Friday afternoon when a scrap-metal dealer brought a live mortar round into the station. ”He just walked in with the bomb, saying he was suspicious when he found it on a heap of scrap metal that he recently purchased,” said Captain Solly Marindi.

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/ 8 February 2008

Media24 sales figures adjusted downwards

The circulation figures of some magazines published by Media 24 were adjusted downwards, the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) said on Friday. This follows an audit the ABC did on all Media24 magazines after it was found that the circulation of some of the company’s women’s magazines were fraudulently inflated between April 2006 and June 2007.

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/ 8 February 2008

YCL: Use of old SA flag in Ghana ‘an insult’

The Confederation of African Football and the Ghanaian local organising committee should apologise for using the old South African flag on Africa Cup of Nations posters, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Friday. The YCL said it was ”flabbergasted” and ”despises” the posters put up in Ghana, symbolising South Africa but sporting the old flag.

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/ 7 February 2008

YCL blames media over Mboweni comments

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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/ 6 February 2008

Tshwane outlines power-saving plans

All traffic lights at the 788 controlled intersections in Pretoria are to be retrofitted with light-emitting diodes and later backed up to solar power, the Tshwane metropolitan council said on Wednesday. This followed meetings between mayor Gwen Ramokgopa and big business outlining the council’s plans to deal with the electricity crisis.

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/ 6 February 2008

Reservists call for integration into SAPS

About 300 police reservists handed over a memorandum of grievances to the Presidency in Pretoria on Wednesday. The two-page memorandum called for the ”immediate and unconditional” integration of 8 000 reservists into the South African Police Service (SAPS). It also called for the remuneration of reservists.

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/ 5 February 2008

Nuclear trial: Swiss engineer given suspended sentence

A second member of an international nuclear smuggling ring, Swiss engineer Daniel Geiges, was given a suspended sentence by the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. Judge Willie van der Merwe sentenced Geiges, who is gravely ill with cancer, to a total of 13 years’ imprisonment but suspended the sentence for five years in terms of a plea-bargain agreement.

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/ 4 February 2008

Sales of new vehicles dip in January

Sales of new vehicles were down by 9,4% in the first month of the year to 47 296 sold compared with the 52 212 sold in January last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa said on Monday. New car sales were down to 30 483, or 14,6%, in January this year compared with 35 687 sold in the same month last year.

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/ 4 February 2008

Dalton case struck from the roll

The attempted murder case against former Springbok rugby player James Dalton was struck from a Pretoria court roll on Monday. He can now only be prosecuted again for this alleged offence once the state is issued with a certificate from the National Director of Public Prosecutions.

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/ 3 February 2008

Young SA soccer stars down the Danes

South Africa’s national Under-23 soccer team beat their Danish counterparts 2-0 at a packed Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday. A much-improved performance by Steve Komphela’s side saw the hosts comfortably win the second game of this two-match international friendly series.