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/ 27 December 2005
A child died in a fire that destroyed about 60 shacks in an informal settlement off Lansdowne Road in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on Monday, city fire-control spokesperson Gregory Carolissen said. A fire in the same area early on Monday morning razed about 200 shacks.
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/ 27 December 2005
”Many years ago, in a second-hand bookshop, I found a children’s first learner textbook in Yiddish. It was published in Vilna, Lithuania, in 1930 and with its owner must have escaped destruction by emigrating south. When I picked up the book with its frayed yellowing pages, I noticed immediately that I could read Yiddish in its original Hebrew script,” writes Matthew Krouse.
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/ 26 December 2005
Firefighters were still combating a brush fire at Melkbosstrand on Monday afternoon, Cape Town’s chief fire officer, Piet Smith, said. About 200 shacks were destroyed in a fire in an informal settlement at Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats on Monday morning, disaster-management services spokesperson John Brown said.
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/ 26 December 2005
Cape Town residents were asked on Monday to use water sparingly after the city’s main pipeline burst. The pipe — 1,6m in diameter — feeds water to the city’s reservoirs from the Voëlsvlei dam, said City of Cape Town spokesperson Charles Cooper. More than 30 years old, there are bursts on the pipeline every now and then, he said.
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/ 26 December 2005
A 55-year-old man arrested in connection with the murder of a six-year-old boy in Plettenberg Bay has confessed to the crime, police said on Monday. Inspector Elgin Antonie said the man confessed on Christmas Day. He was arrested on Christmas Eve.
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/ 26 December 2005
Firefighters appear to be getting control of the brush fire that has been raging in the Melkbosstrand area north of Cape Town since Saturday, city fire chief Piet Smith said on Sunday evening. The four helicopters that had been water-bombing the blaze were called off at 8pm, but ground crews would stay on the job.
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/ 25 December 2005
South African cellphone providers are looking back on a bright year. MTN and Vodacom, the country’s largest two mobile operators, have acquired or are finalising offers estimated at more than -million in Africa this year, placing them at the top of the market.
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/ 25 December 2005
From the slums of Durban, a new movement is giving voice to millions of South Africans living in shacks and increasingly feeling forgotten by the post-apartheid government. Abahlali Base Mjondolo, the Zulu name for shack dwellers, is the largest group to emerge from South Africa’s informal settlements that have mushroomed near cities.
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/ 25 December 2005
Fires raging on Table Mountain in Cape Town since Saturday were brought under control on Sunday morning, the city’s disaster-management services spokesperson John Brown said. Two houses had been totally gutted by late on Saturday night, three had been totally destroyed and at least six had suffered damage.
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/ 24 December 2005
Firefighters were starting to get control by Saturday evening of the blaze that gutted one house and damaged nine others on the slopes of Table Mountain, Cape Town fire chief Piet Smith said. ”We haven’t got it fully contained yet, but we’re slowly getting it under control now,” he said.
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/ 24 December 2005
A case of the right time, the right place and the right circumstances for all the parties concerned was how agent and former Orlando Pirates coach Mike Makaab on Wednesday night described the signing of Bafana Bafana striker Siyabonga Nomvete by the Buccaneers.
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/ 24 December 2005
Brilliant attacking batsmanship by the Titans brought them a superb six-wicket victory over the Warriors in their Standard Bank Cup limited-overs cricket match at St George’s Park on Friday. The Titans were faced with the challenging total of 247 to win after the Warriors made 246 for three in 45 overs.
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/ 24 December 2005
The Bafana Bafana honeymoon came to an abrupt halt for Ted Dumitru on Friday as startling revelations emerged regarding two of the players the caretaker coach has selected for next month’s African Nations Cup tournament. According to media reports, top striker Benni McCarthy wants to be excused from the tournament.
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/ 24 December 2005
The Cape Cobras slithered to an all-time low as they suffered a humiliating 39-run defeat in their Standard Bank Cup match against the Lions at Newlands on Friday. On a pitch where bowlers were always in command, the home team could not even salvage the bonus point in chasing a low target.
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/ 24 December 2005
The Matatiele-Maluti mass action group has filed an urgent application with the Constitutional Court asking to be excluded from Friday’s legislation on municipal boundaries, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reports. The legislation will transfer the Matatiele area from KwaZulu-Natal to the Eastern Cape.
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/ 24 December 2005
Police have arrested a 16-year-old youth in the KwaZulu-Natal town of Paddock in connection with the murder of teenager Kalin Jooste in nearby Margate this week, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reports. The young man was arrested following a tip-off from the public, according to the report.
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/ 23 December 2005
The public has been warned not to use borehole or groundwater between Brits and the Roodekopjies dam after a large release of a toxic substance into the Crocodile River. The deputy regional director for water resource management in the North West said there was a large release of toxic chromium-6 into the river below Brits.
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/ 23 December 2005
Former Cabinet minister Chris Heunis was in a stable but ”still critical” condition in the Vergelegen medi-clinic in Somerset West on Friday, his daughter said. She said her father has had long-term kidney problems, and was admitted on Tuesday suffering from dehydration.
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/ 23 December 2005
Black Leopards refuted the old adage that leopards never change their spots with a rejuvenated 2-2 Premier Soccer League (PSL) draw against Kaizer Chiefs at a jam-packed Thohoyandou Stadium on Wednesday afternoon in the wake of their recent 5-1 pummelling at the hands of Mamelodi Sundowns.
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/ 23 December 2005
The Bafana Bafana squad announced on Wednesday for the African Nations Cup will play warm-up matches against a Premier Soccer League (PSL) XI in Johannesburg and Durban — but while the game at the coast will be open to the public, Johannesburg soccer fans will be shut out from the match at the Johannesburg Stadium.
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/ 23 December 2005
Supersport United took a leaf from the goal-scoring fortunes of their city rivals Mamelodi Sundowns when they drowned Bush Bucks with an avalanche of goals at Loftus Versfeld on Thursday evening. United were in no festive mood as they recorded a clinical and comprehensive 6-0 victory over the bottom-of-the-log Bucks.
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/ 23 December 2005
The African National Congress has retained all serving metro mayors on its local election candidate lists — despite earlier speculation that there could be wholesale changes. The provisional list was drawn up at the ANC’s national list conference on Wednesday last week.
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/ 23 December 2005
After a series of about-turns, the justice ministry on Thursday afternoon abandoned its attempt to embargo the news that former security police officer Gideon Nieuwoudt has been refused amnesty. Nieuwoudt, who died of cancer in August, applied for amnesty for his role in the 1989 Motherwell car-bomb killing.
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/ 23 December 2005
A man was arrested after he allegedly set fire to a house, killing four people in Bez Valley, Johannesburg, on Friday morning. Three of the victims were children, said Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson Steven Kirk. The man allegedly started the fire shortly after midnight after having an argument with his girlfriend.
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/ 23 December 2005
Roger Kebble has resigned from the board of Simmer and Jack mines, it was announced on Thursday. Kebble told the gold-mining company his decision was prompted by the need to spend more time with his family following the murder of his son Brett in September.
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/ 23 December 2005
A North West man had both his hands amputated after a hand grenade he was playing with exploded on Wednesday afternoon, police said on Thursday. ”Apparently he picked this device up in the veld and had been playing around with it for the past two weeks,” a police spokesperson said.
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/ 23 December 2005
Another South African has been killed in Iraq, South African Broadcasting Corporation television news reported on Thursday. Jan Strauss (36) was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Thursday morning while driving a car, alone. The former police officer has been working in the country for two years as a bodyguard.
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/ 22 December 2005
Four youths killed when lightning struck an initiation school in the Mqanduli area of Transkei last week were buried on Thursday in an emotional ceremony attended by hundreds of people. Seven other would-be initiates were injured in the third fatal lighting strike at an initiation school in the region in three years.
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/ 22 December 2005
Residents barricaded a street in Lethabong near Rustenburg on Wednesday to protest the condition of roads in the area, said police. They blocked part of Seripe Street near Noka ya Lerato Primary School with rocks and dug trenches across the road, said North West police spokesperson Captain Thabo Makhafola.
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/ 22 December 2005
South African urban-area domestic workers must earn R5,11 an hour — up from R4,10, while their rural counterparts must earn R4,15 — up from R3,33 — if they work more than 27 hours a week, says Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana. The determination took effect on December 1, according to a government notice of November.
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/ 22 December 2005
A series of dropped catches by the home team enabled the Eagles to run out victors by four wickets in their Standard Bank Cup cricket match at Kingsmead on Wednesday night. Chasing 182 runs to win, the Eagles scored the runs with just five balls remaining.
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/ 22 December 2005
The Castle Premier Soccer League derby between Ajax Cape Town and Santos at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town on Wednesday ended in 1-1 draw. Both goals were scored in the second half. Ajax supporters were surprised to see Moeneeb Josephs in goals, as he had been suspended for six months for an alleged drug offence.