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/ 11 January 2006
The African Christian Democratic Party in the Free State on Wednesday urged the African National Congress and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) in the province to sort out their differences. Sanco in the Free State on Tuesday said it would contest the forthcoming local government elections alone.
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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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/ 11 January 2006
Organisers of the Hansa Powerade Dusi are working long days and nights to ensure that they are ready for the 55th running of the event next week. ”Close on 2 000 paddlers have already entered and we expect more between now and the race,” said Cameron Mackenzie, chairperson of the organisers.
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/ 11 January 2006
The Mamelodi Sundowns management has accepted that results speak for themselves and appointed former Bafana Bafana captain Neil Tovey and Argentinian Miguel Gamondi as joint coaches until the end of the current Premier Soccer League season.
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/ 11 January 2006
Metal pioneers Metallica will be in South Africa in March to perform in one of the biggest international music festivals the country has so far seen. They are the sixth international act to confirm their attendance of the festival, with youth icon Karen Zoid and Fokofpolisiekar already added to the local line-up, organisers said on Wednesday.
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/ 11 January 2006
An animal welfare group is to urge the government to impose strict legislation on the sale of fireworks. The Wet Nose Animal Rescue centre said on Wednesday it will send a letter to President Thabo Mbeki asking him to intervene. The situation has become ”untenable”, chairperson Gerda Kruger said.
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/ 11 January 2006
A police officer was injured during violent protests by Soshanguve residents over poor service delivery, Pretoria police said on Wednesday. Inspector Lucas Sithole said five people were also arrested for public violence and malicious damage to property. ”Residents went on the rampage shortly after midnight,” he said.
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/ 11 January 2006
An electrical fire in an underground cable system caused a power failure in some parts of the Johannesburg CBD on Wednesday morning, emergency services said. Spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said firefighters were extinguishing burning cables in underground chambers below Commissioner Street.
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/ 11 January 2006
South Africa recorded average house-price growth of 21,9% in 2005, down from the rapid 32,2% average growth seen in 2004, according to the latest Absa house-price index, released on Wednesday. Banking group Absa is expecting house-price growth to slow further in 2006, to between 10% and 12% year-on-year.
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/ 11 January 2006
Clearly those who hailed the African Nations Cup draw as a godsend for Bafana Bafana when it was made in Cairo in November 2005 were barking up the wrong tree — and South Africa can expect three testing opening-round matches against Tunisia, Zambia and Guinea.
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/ 11 January 2006
Listed clothing and food retailer Woolworths has reported a 16,3% rise in sales for the six-months to end-December 2005 compared to the same period a year earlier. In a trading statement released on Wednesday, Woolworths said trading over the festive season had been in line with expectations.
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/ 11 January 2006
The African leg of the World Social Forum kicks off next week in the Malian capital, Bamako, with a host of issues on the agenda: war and militarism, global trade and debt, to name just a few. The conference website where these topics are listed makes no direct mention of Aids, however, or the need for good governance in African states.
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/ 10 January 2006
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s family ”gravy plane” holiday in Abu Dhabi would have cost the taxpayer at least R700 000, Democratic Alliance MP Gareth Morgan said on Tuesday. He was reacting to a report that she and her family flew to the United Arab Emirates for a five-day holiday at the end of December on the SA Air Force Falcon 900 jet reserved for VIPs.
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/ 10 January 2006
The Democratic Alliance paid its own city manager a R196 000 bonus just three years ago, Cape Town mayor Nomanidia Mfeketo said on Tuesday. She was replying to Democratic Alliance mayoral candidate Helen Zille, who revealed earlier in the day that four of the city’s current top managers earned bonuses last year that pushed their before-tax earnings to over a million rand each.
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/ 10 January 2006
Three people died and four were injured in a rockfall at AngloGold Ashanti’s TauTona mine near Carletonville on Tuesday, the company said in a statement. The fall was caused by a seismic event with a magnitude of 2,4, which occurred about 3km below the surface at 11.37am.
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/ 10 January 2006
Four Johnnic Holdings Limited directors resigned from the company’s board on Tuesday following a change in its controlling shareholder. ”… We feel it is only proper to resign to enable the new controlling shareholder to appoint a new chairman and their own directors,” said Johnnic’s outgoing chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa.
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/ 10 January 2006
One of South Africa’s top runners, Collin Khoza (25) will run through extreme temperatures, overwhelming humidity and centuries of history when he takes part in the Mumbai leg of Standard Chartered Bank’s Greatest Race on Earth on Sunday in India.
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/ 10 January 2006
Ekurhuleni mayor Duma ka Nkosi says the process of renaming the Johannesburg International Airport to OR Tambo International is at an advanced stage, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday. Ka Nkosi said a formal request had already been submitted to the departments of transport and arts and culture to effect the name change.
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/ 10 January 2006
The countdown for South Africa’s 2006 municipal elections, set to be held on March 1, started in earnest on Tuesday with the publication of the electoral timetable in the Government Gazette, according to chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula, head of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
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/ 10 January 2006
Ten years after the first significant planting of genetically modified (GM) crops there are no apparent benefits for consumers, farmers or the environment, a report made public on Tuesday said. The African Centre for Biosafety and Friends of the Earth Nigeria said that despite the promises of the biotech corporations there had been no impact on hunger and poverty.
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/ 10 January 2006
South Africa has been ranked number six in the top 10 world travel destinations in 2005, breaking into the top 10 for the first time to date, as determined by an annual survey by iExplore, a United States-based online seller of adventure and experiential travel.
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/ 10 January 2006
Resilient Property Income Fund has agreed to acquire Highveld Mall, a retail centre in Witbank that is now under construction, for R270-million, the company said on Tuesday. The 40 000 square metre centre, which is due for completion in April 2007, will be anchored by branches of retailers Edgars, Woolworths and Pick ‘n Pay.
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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.
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/ 10 January 2006
A late red card to Senegal and a 90th-minute strike by Gift Leremi propelled South Africa’s Under-23 soccer team to a hard-fought 1-0 win at the Katlehong Stadium on Monday afternoon. The teams were locked 0-0 at the break after a bruising opening 45 minutes with neither side backing down.
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/ 10 January 2006
South African taxpayers paid about R400 000 to send Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and her family on holiday to the United Arab Emirates in December, Afrikaans daily newspaper Beeld reported on Tuesday. A presidential spokesperson confirmed that Mlambo-Ngcuka had not been on official business.
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/ 10 January 2006
Rollersport South Africa president Willie van Heerden and his wife, Madeleine, have been identified as the couple killed in Monday’s bus crash in the Free State. Van Heerden was one of South Africa’s top sport administrators, Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile said.
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/ 10 January 2006
Environmental group Earthlife Africa on Monday attacked power utility Eskom’s lack of clear identification and disclosure of the problems at South Africa’s only nuclear power station, Koeberg. Electricity supply in the Western Cape was disrupted four times in November last year — on November 11, 16, 24 and 25.
The government is strongly committed to implementing the no-fee school policy in 2006, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Monday. ”KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have already proceeded to identify schools that will be declared no-fee schools as agreed by the Council of Education Ministers in 2005,” Pandor said.
The government is pressing ahead with legislation that will bar all courts from suspending the coming into force of an Act of Parliament, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development confirmed on Monday. The provision is contained in the Constitution 14th Amendment Bill.
A political novice and former switchboard operator was named on Monday as the Independent Democrats’ mayoral candidate for Cape Town. Simon Grindrod (35) was elected unanimously by the party’s 105 candidates in the metropole. In his first foray into politics, he will contest the municipal elections against seasoned politicians.
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.
Three people were killed and 23 injured when a tour bus overturned on the N1 south of Springfontein in the southern Free State on Monday, police said. Captain Elsa Gerber said the bus was carrying tourists from Cape Town to Johannesburg. The passengers were from New Zealand, Italy and The Netherlands.