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/ 3 November 2005

Manuel looks to close tax-avoidance gaps

Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel says the tax revenue lost through avoidance schemes "clearly runs into billions" of rand and the South African authorities are fine-tuning a mechanism to close existing gaps. He was speaking at the release of a South African Revenue Services discussion paper on tax avoidance.

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/ 3 November 2005

Orlando Pirates not so happy

Orlando Pirates, the self-proclaimed ”Happy People” of the Premier Soccer League, on Wednesday found themselves looking more like the ”Harassed People” as an assortment of problems descended on the glum Buccaneers camp. The increasingly shaky log leaders’ woes started with a defeat against Lamontville Golden Arrows.

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/ 3 November 2005

Katongo guides Cosmos to victory

If Jomo Cosmos want to stay in top-flight football, they will have to keep their fingers crossed that their Zambian striker Christopher Katongo stays fit. Katongo proved a handful as he guided his visiting Cosmos side to a morale-boosting 3-0 victory over Supersport United in their Castle Premiership encounter on Wednesday evening.

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/ 3 November 2005

TAC threatens action against Rath

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has threatened to take legal action against vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath within days if the authorities do not move to halt his activities. The Rath Foundation advocates its vitamin products as a treatment for HIV/Aids. It claims anti-retrovirals are toxic.

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/ 2 November 2005

Soccer ‘sick leave’ to hit economy hard

The 2010 Soccer World Cup will probably cost companies R750-million in worker absenteeism, a report said on Wednesday. It is predicted that at least one in three South African employees will take time off — disguised as sick leave — to watch soccer, according to the report by absentee management company AIC Insurance.

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/ 2 November 2005

‘The dead are being dumped like dogs’

”The funeral industry is not as clean as they pretend to be,” says Johan Rousseau, a founding member of the United Funeral Association of South Africa (Ufasa). On Wednesday, the South African Council of Churches and Ufasa called on the government to regulate the industry at the Funeral Indaba towards Regulation in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

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/ 2 November 2005

Companies lose Gautrain BEE court bid

A court application by two companies wanting to be declared the black economic empowerment (BEE) partners in the Gautrain project was dismissed with costs in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday. The application was to decide whether the companies held a 25% stake in the preferred bidder for the Gautrain project.

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/ 2 November 2005

Baxter mixes youth and experience

There was little or no sentiment when Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter named his 19-man Bafana Bafana squad on Wednesday for the tussle against Senegal in the Nelson Mandela Cup in Port Elizabeth next weekend. Baxter picked an evenly balanced side of experience and youthful exuberance.

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/ 2 November 2005

Fica may have more clout in future

The government may amend the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica) to give it more stringency in the fight against money laundering and international terrorism. The justice, crime prevention and security cluster of ministries is to strengthen counter-measures against money laundering and the funding of international terrorism.

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/ 2 November 2005

Seal-bite woman to get new nose

A woman whose nose was bitten off by a seal on Sunday, will undergo reconstructive surgery on Thursday. ”I’m feeling alright,” Elsie van Tonder said on Tuesday from her bed in Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town. ”The doctors are going to reconstruct my nose on Thursday.”

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/ 2 November 2005

Baxter ponders Vilakazi inclusion

When coach Stuart Baxter on Wednesday reveals the Bafana Bafana squad for next Saturday’s Nelson Mandela Cup game against Senegal in Port Elizabeth, the decision whether to include Orlando Pirates’ mercurial midfielder Benedict Vilakazi will be his and his alone.

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/ 2 November 2005

Gibbs, Boje dropped from one-day line-up

South Africa dropped Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje on Tuesday from their final two one-day internationals against New Zealand. Team management wants to play their replacements for this month’s tour of India. Gibbs and Boje withdrew from the tour on Monday because they may be arrested in India on match-fixing charges.

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/ 2 November 2005

Eight bids for 2010 African Nations Cup

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has received eight bids for the hosting of the final tournament of the African Nations Cup in 2010. Angola, Libya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe each put in a bid to host the event, while Equatorial Guinea and Gabon submitted a joint bid.

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/ 2 November 2005

Eastern Cape fires under control

A number of fires in the Humansdorp area of the Eastern Cape were extinguished by 8.15pm on Tuesday, fire-department official Andrew Pietersen said. ”The Jeffrey’s Bay fire and the St Francis fire have been extinguished,” he said. Earlier, he said fires were ”jumping from one place to another”.

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/ 2 November 2005

Govt ‘rejects’ oil-for-food insinuations

The ministry of justice is studying the United Nations report on the corruption-riddled Iraqi oil-for-food programme and will advise the government on the best course of action, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs — but the Democratic Alliance says the government has adopted a ”head-in-the-sand approach” to the report.

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/ 2 November 2005

Standard Bank fends off phishing attack

Standard Bank on Tuesday said it had successfully shut down fraudulent websites of an international syndicate trying to rob thousands of customers of their money. ”No Standard Bank customers lost any money in the latest attack,” said the bank’s information technology security director, Louis Lehmann.

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/ 1 November 2005

ANC threatens Beaufort West activist with expulsion

Beaufort West human rights worker Vuyisa Jantjies faces expulsion from the African National Congress if he carries on accusing its provincial leadership of being soft on corruption, an ANC disciplinary panel has warned. But Jantjies, a staffer at the Karoo Centre for Human Rights and one of the most vocal opponents of the town’s controversial municipal manager Truman Prince, has no intention of backing down.

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/ 1 November 2005

Manuel takes arms deal critic to court

If Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has his way, arms deal critic Terry Crawford-Browne’s drive to court in his rusty Fiat Uno on Wednesday morning will be one of the last trips he makes in the car. Manuel’s bid to sequestrate Crawford-Browne, a vocal opponent of the multibillion-rand arms deal, will be heard in the Cape High Court on Wednesday along with a string of counter-claims by Crawford-Browne.

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/ 1 November 2005

Diamonds Bill passed by Assembly

The Diamonds Amendment Bill would not introduce nationalisation in the diamond industry, Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy Lulu Xingwana said on Tuesday. The Bill was passed by the National Assembly with objections noted from the official opposition Democratic Alliance, the African Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus.