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/ 15 February 2005
After two years in the wilderness after a drugs test that went sour, talented Sharks flyhalf Herkie Kruger is back in the frame and the controlling body has once again got his signature on paper. A delighted Sharks coach Kevin Putt said: ”He is now available to play and this is hugely exciting for us.”
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/ 15 February 2005
Financial services group Investec has raised R1-billion via its public offer of preference shares, increasing the number of new shares issued from five million to 10-million to help meet demand for the shares. Combined with its previous private placement totalling R1,3-billion, the group has raised R2,3-billion via preference share issues.
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/ 14 February 2005
Former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka denied on Monday having promised politician and convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni a maximum R5Â 000 fine in exchange for a guilty plea. ”This is a distorted version of the truth,” Ngcuka, now a businessman, said through spokesperson Sipho Ngwema.
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/ 14 February 2005
The City of Pretoria no longer exists, the African National Congress’s Tshwane region said in a statement issued on Monday. The statement was released after the party’s strategic planning lekgotla (meeting) at the weekend, attended by its women’s league, youth league and alliance partners.
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/ 14 February 2005
The South African Football Association (Safa) is planning to use 10 stadia for the 2010 Soccer World Cup instead of 13, the association’s CEO, Danny Jordaan, said on Monday. ”In the bid book, we submitted 13 venues. We are now looking at 10 venues. Fifa wants eight,” Jordaan said.
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/ 14 February 2005
A senior South African military law officer is to help the United Nations investigate allegations of sexual abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Commander Gordon Wardley has served for six months as legal adviser to the UN force commander in the DRC and for nine months as the UN force commander’s legal adviser in Liberia.
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/ 14 February 2005
The City of Johannesburg is treating complaints about faulty traffic lights, which have caused several accidents, with the ”utmost urgency”, it said on Monday. This follows threats by motorists that they may take the city to court if it does not ensure that Johannesburg’s many defective traffic lights are repaired.
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/ 14 February 2005
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) on Monday released a document on draft licence conditions for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in which the regulator stated that it wants SABC stations to increase local programming while promoting indigenous languages.
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/ 14 February 2005
Politician and convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni has accused former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka of reneging on a deal guaranteeing him a maximum R5Â 000 fine in exchange for a guilty plea. Yengeni, who faces a four-year prison term, claims the agreement was struck at a meeting between himself, Ngcuka and then justice minister Penuell Maduna.
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/ 14 February 2005
Businesses could be denied government contracts if they are known to donate money to opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. This was one of several objections the DA made on Monday in response to a Cape High Court application seeking to compel four political parties, including the DA, to disclose the identities of private donors.
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/ 14 February 2005
Sakhikamva Investments, a broad- based black empowerment (BEE) investment company with shareholders including The Big Issue and the Black Sash Trust, has declared its third dividend of R200 per share to its shareholders. Sakhikamva was established in 2001 to facilitate broad-based, grassroots participation in the empowerment process.
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/ 14 February 2005
Every year, thousands of Africans fleeing war and economic hardship journey towards the tip of the continent — their sights set on a better life in South Africa. Along with hope for the future, many also bring with them the Aids virus, and South Africa is already grappling with the challenge of providing anti-retroviral drugs to its own citizens.
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/ 14 February 2005
There were some sterling performances in the second-day events for individuals at the 32nd Halfway Telkom Midmar Mile at the popular Midlands resort on Sunday. Keri-Anne Payne of the United Kingdom — who was the junior champion in 2001 before her family relocated to Sheffield, England — brilliantly defended the senior women’s title she won last year.
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/ 11 February 2005
South Africa is on track concerning the implementation of the country’s broad macroeconomic policies as developed over the past few years and outlined in his State of Nation speech a year ago, according to President Thabo Mbeki. He was addressing MPs in his annual State of the Nation address on Friday.
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/ 11 February 2005
The Pretoria High Court dismissed an appeal on Friday by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and broker Addy Moolman against their fraud convictions. Moolman sought leave to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein to challenge his 58 fraud convictions and four-year prison sentence, and Madikizela-Mandela wanted to appeal her suspended sentence on 43 counts.
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/ 11 February 2005
The Competition Commission recommended conditional approval on Friday of the merger between mining groups Harmony and Gold Fields. Due to the hostile nature of the proposed takeover, the commission found it difficult to assess the effect of a merger on jobs, and therefore attached the retrenchment conditions to its approval.
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/ 10 February 2005
A police officer probing alleged sex crimes against Pretoria advocate pair Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo was accused on Thursday of having a grudge against Prinsloo after he laid a complaint against her. Piet Coetzee, for Prinsloo, told the court his client had laid a complaint against Superintendent Daleen du Plessis long before his arrest.
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/ 10 February 2005
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s support for the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) proposal to sell gold reserves is ”worrisome”, the National Union of Mineworkers said on Thursday. The union also said it supports Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s opposition to the proposal.
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/ 10 February 2005
The African National Congress on Thursday stated the party’s unqualified opposition to corruption in all it forms, but refused to bow to pressure for public scrutiny of who its private funders are. The Institute for Democracy in South Africa is seeking to compel the ANC and other parties to open their books for public scrutiny.
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/ 10 February 2005
More than 53Â 000 South African Police Service members have been charged with some form of criminal offence since 2000, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. This is according to statistics released by Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula on Thursday in reply to a question in Parliament in December.
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/ 10 February 2005
The hostage taker at Monte Video Primary School in the Cape Town suburb of Montana has been shot dead, police confirmed shortly after noon on Thursday.
Captain William Reid said a situation occurred where the life of a child hostage was threatened. Earlier reports said a teacher was shot during the hostage drama.
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/ 10 February 2005
Nominated for two Grammy Awards, the voices of South Africa’s most famous Zulu group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, are as much in demand today as they were 40 years ago. The Zulu group’s Raise Your Spirit Higher has been nominated in the best traditional world music and best surround sound categories of the Grammys, to be awarded on Sunday.
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/ 10 February 2005
African National Congress Youth League president Fikile Mbalula was stung into action this week after the Mail & Guardian raised concerns that politics and big business make uneasy bedfellows. Mbalula said that, according to the M&G, ”comrades are … not entitled to participate in the country’s economy”.
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/ 10 February 2005
Begging on street corners will soon be a thing of the past for Johannesburg street children and beggars in general, the Gauteng social services department said on Thursday. The department has begun a drive to register street children for birth certificates and identity documents.
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/ 10 February 2005
A superb Scott Chipperfield goal earned Australia a 1-1 draw with South Africa in a lively friendly in Durban on Wednesday. The second-half substitute for Danny Tiatto struck after 71 minutes, pouncing on a headed clearance from Quinton Fortune and slamming the ball over recalled goalkeeper Calvin Marlin into the roof of the net.
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/ 10 February 2005
Diversified mining group Kumba Resources is willing to participate not only in the financing of rail infrastructure but also the operation of the rail system for the transport of its iron ore and coal products, if necessary. If Kumba does get involved in the financing, it will result in an adjustment to the rail tariff it pays, Kumba CEO Dr Con Fauconnier said.
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/ 9 February 2005
The case between the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) and four political parties being heard in court on Thursday seeks to make public the records of donations in excess of R50Â 000 to these parties. Idasa wants the parties to disclose their private donors, the amount involved and conditions under which the donation was made.
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/ 9 February 2005
Pik Botha (72), long-time minister of foreign affairs in the apartheid government, is free of further cancer, preliminary tests have shown. Unitas hospital spokesperson Karin Lindeque confirmed this on Wednesday afternoon after speaking to his surgeon, Heinrich Schwalb.”Since he heard the news, his spirits are soaring,” Botha’s wife said.
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/ 9 February 2005
The commitment of an Afrikaans-medium school to the traditions of the ”volk” came under scrutiny in the Cape High Court on Wednesday. The governing body of Mikro Primary School in Kuilsriver is asking the court to overturn a Western Cape education department ruling that it provide an English-medium class.
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/ 9 February 2005
Couples wanting to marry should be required to undergo a compulsory Aids test before the wedding ceremony, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. He was speaking at a Cape Town Press Club luncheon on Wednesday. More has to be done to curb the pandemic, including declaring Aids a notifiable disease, he said.
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/ 9 February 2005
Security at all Gauteng public hospitals will be reviewed, the province’s health department said on Tuesday, after the alleged rape of a terminally ill elderly woman in her hospital bed in a gynaecological ward at the Pretoria Academic hospital. The patient’s subsequent death was probably more to blame on her illness than the attack, the department said.
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/ 9 February 2005
South African cricket coach Ray Jennings said on Tuesday that he will apply for the position of coach if the players want him to. The position of coach is to be advertised later this week. Jennings was originally appointed on a short-term basis, until after the tour of the West Indies in March.