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/ 29 September 2005
The 18th World Petroleum Congress has been a ”resounding success” and a demonstration of the increasing cooperation between African governments, the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Lindiwe Hendricks, said on Thursday, the last day of the congress in Johannesburg.
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/ 29 September 2005
”The Independent Democrats in Gauteng have lost their engine room,” the Democratic Alliance’s provincial leader in Gauteng, Ian Davidson, claimed on Thursday. According to a statement released by the DA, 11 leading ID office-bearers — including provincial chairperson Peter Batchelor — are joining the DA.
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/ 29 September 2005
The South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union said on Thursday it was disappointed at the government’s decision to close down a domestic skills project. The project was a sector education and training authority initiative targeting the country’s estimated 1,5-million domestic workers.
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/ 29 September 2005
The long-term insurance industry is in good health with the industry now managing assets in excess of R913-billion for the year to June 2005, a 19% increase on the year before, the Life Offices Association said on Thursday. The total new business premium inflow was up 14% on the comparable six month period in 2004, to R21-billion.
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/ 29 September 2005
Johannesburg’s City Power chief executive, Mogwailane Mohlala, will leave the utility in January, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday. The announcement comes shortly after the National Electricity Regulator released a report critical of the company and repeated power outages in the city.
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/ 29 September 2005
Theories and speculation on why and how mining magnate Brett Kebble was killed on Tuesday this week abounded in South African media on Thursday. Newspapers probed Kebble’s diamond interests in Angola and Lesotho, assassination theories and his tax affairs, while police said why they think he was killed in a botched hijacking.
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/ 29 September 2005
Like Samson reduced to a pretty ordinary guy in biblical times when shorne of his hair by Delilah, a listless Kaizer Chiefs seemingly lost their strength when deprived of traditional ”people power” in the goalless Premier Soccer League draw against Black Leopards at the FNB Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
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/ 29 September 2005
The Benedict Vilakazi rape case on Wednesday saw his 15-year-old accuser’s innocence brought into question as it was shown she may have deceived her family and lied about her age. Defence counsel Ike Motloung said the girl’s guardians at the time had been ”led up the garden path to believe she was a virgin” when she was not.
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/ 29 September 2005
A witness to an alleged assault on farmworker Nelson Chisale, who was fed to lions, will be called back to the stand in the lion murder trial in the Phalaborwa Circuit Court on Thursday to be cross-examined on his evidence by counsel for his former employer, Mark Scott-Crossley.
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/ 28 September 2005
Schoolchildren in the Eastern Cape should not have to bear the brunt of the province’s poor budget planning, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. The DA’s Helen Zille appealed to the minister of education to intervene to stop the province from implementing proposed severe budget cuts to the school feeding scheme.
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/ 28 September 2005
The teenager accusing Orlando Pirates midfielder Benedict Vilakazi of rape did not worship the soccer player, her aunt told the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Defence lawyer Ike Motloung informed the court his client will testify the girl had been a nuisance and ”was after him”.
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/ 28 September 2005
Western Province have made four changes — three enforced through injury — to their starting line-up for Saturday’s Currie Cup match against the Sharks in Durban. Egon Seconds and Gus Theron will be on the wings as Zhahier Ryland and Tonderai Chavhanga have been forced on to the sidelines with injuries.
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/ 28 September 2005
South Africa must handle its self-assessment in terms of the African Peer Review Mechanism in a way that will benefit the rest of the continent, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. ”It is natural that the rest of the continent will watch this process very carefully,” Mbeki said in Midrand.
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/ 28 September 2005
Financial website Moneyweb reported on Wednesday that murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble was in the wrong place at the wrong time and said it appeared that his death was the result of a failed car hijacking, and not an assassination. Earlier, reports quoted business partner Andile Nkuhlu as saying Kebble had been the victim of a callous, premeditated crime.
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/ 28 September 2005
The oil industry may be underestimating to its own peril the potential of renewable energy in the decades to come, the World Petroleum Congress in Johannesburg heard on Wednesday. The president of the Worldwatch Institute, Christopher Flavin, said the perception that ”real energy men don’t do renewables” is changing.
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/ 28 September 2005
On the day Benedict Vilakazi’s rape accuser laid a charge against him, his wife SMSed the girl pretending to be the soccer star, the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court heard on Wednesday. The girl earlier in the week told the court that if Vilakazi’s wife had not found out about the rape, the secret would have died with her.
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/ 28 September 2005
The community of Acornhoek has evicted the family of Simon Mathebula, who was found guilty in April of killing farm worker Nelson Chisale, the Phalaborwa Circuit Court heard on Wednesday. Mathebula was convicted in April of acting in concert with Mark Scott-Crossley in committing the premeditated murder of Chisale, who was thrown to lions.
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/ 28 September 2005
Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) has been named one of South Africa’s top three leading business-school brands in the Markinor/<i>Sunday Times</i> Top Brands survey for 2005, released this week. It achieved third place in the survey.
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/ 28 September 2005
Listed diversified black economic empowerment (BEE) company Mvelaphanda Group (Mvela) will acquire a further effective 2,47% stake in banking group Absa, the company said on Wednesday. This follows an agreement with Mvelaphanda Holdings and BEE group Batho Bonke.
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/ 28 September 2005
Women aged 15 to 24 in South Africa are substantially more likely to be HIV-positive than their male counterparts, according to a study.
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/ 28 September 2005
Diplomatic relations with North Korea are only seven years old but are steadily strengthening, South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said in Pyongyang on Tuesday. His visit was part of a three-nation trip to central and east Asia that included South Korea and China, comes in the context of South Africa’s commitment to consolidate relations with all countries of the South.
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/ 27 September 2005
A fifth person has died from typhoid after an outbreak in Delmas, a spokesperson for the Mpumalanga premier said on Tuesday. ”Twenty-three-year-old Alfred Thombeni died last night [Monday] at Bernice Samuel Hospital,” Lebona Mosia said. Since the outbreak was identified on August 22, 594 cases have been confirmed and 3 318 people have been treated for diarrhoea.
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/ 27 September 2005
The number of people employed in the formal non-agricultural business sector increased by about 131 000 from March to June, according to Statistics SA’s quarterly employment statistics released on Tuesday. Employment in this sector increased from about 6 945-million to about 7 076-million or 1,9%, it said.
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/ 27 September 2005
The Johannesburg Metro Police Department on Tuesday launched a computerised network system to enable officers to re-issue summonses and warrants of arrest to offenders on the spot. The system is aimed at dealing with the legal issues that have arisen regarding the arrests of motorists for outstanding fines without showing them a warrant.
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/ 27 September 2005
Fires that have killed two people and ravaged large areas of land have largely been contained, but now the provinces are starting to count the costs. Crews from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have been fighting fires since September 23.
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/ 27 September 2005
Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini were both honoured for a record-equalling fourth time at the launch of the 2005 Mutual & Federal South African Cricket Annual in Gauteng on Monday. Kallis and Ntini were among the five Mutual & Federal annual cricketers of the year named at the function.
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/ 27 September 2005
After admitting having had sex with a 15-year-old girl he is accused of raping, soccer star Benedict Vilakazi told her uncle he was ”sorry” and he ”knew it was wrong”, the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court heard on Tuesday. The girl’s uncle said he had never discussed his niece’s age with Vilakazi until the incident had happened.
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/ 27 September 2005
More than one million children, mostly from poor homes, are to be affected by cuts in the Eastern Cape’s school-feeding scheme, the Herald Online reported on Tuesday. The programme will be scaled down from five to three days a week because the education department does not have money to run the scheme every day.
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/ 27 September 2005
The world has sufficient oil resources but needs capacity to explore and deliver the product, Saudi Arabia’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources said on Tuesday. ”There will be no scarcity of petroleum in the foreseeable future,” he told the 18th World Petroleum Congress in Johannesburg.
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/ 27 September 2005
The Fourth National Swedish Pension Fund said on Tuesday it will reject the R38-billion offer by South African insurer Old Mutual to purchase Skandia Insurance Company, making it the second state pension fund to do so after Skandia’s board would not recommend the offer the shareholders.
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/ 27 September 2005
South Africa confirmed on Tuesday that talks with Zimbabwe are continuing on possible loan assistance to its troubled northern neighbour. ”We have not broken off discussions,” National Treasury spokesperson Logan Wort said in Pretoria. ”Zimbabwe has not rejected assistance.”
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/ 27 September 2005
Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has admitted to thinking long and hard over making changes for what amounts to a face-saving exercise against the Democratic Republic of Congo on October 8. Bafana need a draw against the DRC to qualify for the African Nations Cup in Egypt.