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/ 16 December 2004
President Thabo Mbeki gave South Africa’s reconciliation process a glowing report card on Thursday, saying black and white citizens are standing up for freedom together. ”We have begun to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood,” he said at Reconciliation Day celebrations in Pretoria.
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/ 16 December 2004
In the past two weeks, two controversial issues hit the South African National Blood Service hard.
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/ 16 December 2004
The safety of single-dose nevirapine is not in question, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) reiterated on Wednesday, following comments by the Department of Health. The Aids action group was concerned that ”misleading” comments by the department could result in people discontinuing their treatment, and suffering harm.
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/ 16 December 2004
A dispute over non-payment of the rental of a refrigerated container with medical waste inside on Wednesday caused a hospital group in East London, Afrox Healthcare, to end its medical waste-removal contract with a nationally based company. Last Friday, an electrician cut the power supply to a container in which medical waste had been stored.
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/ 16 December 2004
Survivors of this week’s horror smash in Flagstaff were still in shock on Wednesday after a runaway truck cut a swathe of destruction through the town, killing five and injuring at least 13 people. Speaking from his bed in the St Elizabeth hospital in Lusikisiki, Mphikelwa Mgoduka, a father of four, said he still cannot believe that he survived.
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/ 16 December 2004
Robin McGregor, former chief executive of well-known South African businessman Tony Cotterell’s Kempston Group, will finally face fraud charges four years after he was first arrested. McGregor is currently dealer principal of the Johannesburg-based Peugeot Commercial Centre, a division of Cotterell’s Ancott Trust.
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/ 16 December 2004
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has been the subject of a heated debate in the United States and Europe in recent weeks, accused of an oversight in handling the Iraq oil-for-food programme. Allegations of conflict of interest in the Annan family concerning the initiative have also been made. Annan’s critics allege that he should take responsibility for the matter, as it happened on his watch.
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/ 15 December 2004
Shoddy service at the Yeoville police station in Johannesburg — experienced first-hand by a Gauteng provincial minister last month — is being attended to, the department of community safety heard on Wednesday. The minister had to intervene personally before a nine-year-old rape victim was helped, and her rapist arrested.
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/ 15 December 2004
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it has been excluded from the investigation into the deaths of seven miners at the Hernic Ferrochrome mine at Brits on Tuesday. The company is unwilling to engage with the union on details of the disaster, NUM spokesperson Moferefere Lekorotsoana said in a statement on Wednesday.
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/ 15 December 2004
The number of road deaths so far this December appears about the same as last year, the Department of Transport said in Pretoria on Wednesday. ”This is incredibly disappointing for us,” said the department’s chief director of land transportation regulation, Wendy Watson.
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/ 15 December 2004
Lawyers in South Africa for Mark Thatcher have appealed against a decision that would force the Briton to answer questions about his alleged role in a coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, his legal counsel said. His lawyers have repeatedly denied his involvement in the alleged coup.
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/ 15 December 2004
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk told delegates to an international conference in Buenos Aires on Wednesday that temperatures could rise between 1% and 3% by 2050 in South Africa. He was speaking at the 10th conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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/ 14 December 2004
The body of the woman who was swept away by a swollen Braamfonteinspruit in Parkhurst on Monday was recovered in Bryanston, Johannesburg, early on Tuesday afternoon. Two police sniffer dogs located the body of 36-year-old Jennifer Manale 15km down the spruit a day after she was overwhelmed by floodwaters.
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/ 14 December 2004
The Democratic Alliance, the official opposition, has asked that Parliament be reconvened in a special session to debate what it calls the ”secret arms deal”. On Tuesday, DA leader Tony Leon said: ”DA chief whip Douglas Gibson, MP, has written to the Speaker of Parliament to ask that Parliament be reconvened.”
Suspend ‘secret’ arms deal, says DA
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/ 14 December 2004
Eastern Cape emergency workers struggled to clear a scene of carnage on Tuesday after a runaway truck ploughed through a taxi rank in the town of Flagstaff, instantly killing four and injuring 10 others, two critically. It appears the articulated truck was speeding through the town centre when it lost control.
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/ 14 December 2004
Responding to a Pretoria High Court judgement on Tuesday awarding limited legal costs to the organisation, the Treatment Action Campaign said the court’s decision sends a ”very strong signal” that the government should ”act in a constitutional manner” and not ignore calls for access to information.
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/ 13 December 2004
The government has made R4,2-billion rand available over the next three years to improve police salaries, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi announced on Monday. He said the ”long overdue” salary improvements are intended to boost morale and improve service delivery to the public.
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/ 13 December 2004
An attempted escape at Boksburg prison, which resulted in warders being taken hostage, has been brought under control, a warder said on Monday. By 3pm, the held warders had been freed and the group of prisoners had been reincarcerated, said a warder at the prison, who did not want to be named.
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/ 13 December 2004
Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan has dissolved the board of the National Arts Council (NAC) with effect from December 14, he announced on Monday. He said the NAC as presently constituted has lost the confidence of the arts community and is not in a position to carry out the responsibilities assigned to it.
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/ 13 December 2004
Citizens who received social grants to which they are not entitled have until the end of March to apply for indemnity. Those who fail to do so will face ”drastic measures”, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said in Pretoria on Monday. He said about 37Â 000 people are apparently illegally enjoying benefits.
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/ 12 December 2004
Three people burnt to death in a shack fire that broke out in Nyanga, Cape Town, shortly after midnight on Saturday. Western Cape police spokesperson Inspector Elliot Sinyangana said 68 shacks burnt down before emergency services workers put out the fire.
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/ 12 December 2004
The brother of Laura Walker, the South African found dead in a Thailand hotel this week, said his sister was ”a highly talented, intelligent, compassionate and loyal person”. Walker was working for the World Bank at the time of her death, and the bank’s security team is working with Thai authorities in the investigation.
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/ 12 December 2004
A new Guinness world record was set when an electrical-engineering student solved the most Rubik’s cubes to date in one hour in Johannesburg on Saturday. Mitchell Brom (21) solved 42 cubes at Sandton City Camera Land, his sponsor, Prima Toys, said in a statement.
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/ 12 December 2004
Nine occupants of a minibus taxi burnt to death when the vehicle rolled and caught fire on the M1 South near the Corlett drive offramp on Saturday. Six other occupants of the vehicle were critically injured, another four seriously, Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said.
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/ 11 December 2004
The International Bar Association has accused Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe of conducting a reign of terror and said he should not be allowed to elude international justice. In neighbouring countries, human rights groups protested the Zimbabwe Parliament’s approval of legislation seeking to curb the activities of NGOs there.
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/ 11 December 2004
Cape Town’s water-resource situation remains of crisis proportions, despite the city’s water-restrictions campaign entering its third month. The city will be intensifying measures to ensure that the targeted water savings are achieved through measures including heightened awareness and media campaigns.
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/ 11 December 2004
The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) has unconditionally apologised to President Thabo Mbeki for infringing his dignity and that of his office. ”The breakdown of procedures to protect the confidentiality of donor and medical information is deeply regretted,” the SANBS chairperson said on Friday.
Apology for Mbeki blood slip-up
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/ 10 December 2004
Resolution of South Africa’s ”national question”, centred on building a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa, is essential to avoid conflict, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The controversy relating to the operations of the South African National Blood Service has highlighted the racist legacy that continues to blight South Africa.
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/ 10 December 2004
Less than 100 people carrying placards gathered outside the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria on Friday to protest against ”human-rights abuses and repressive legislation” in that country. The group sang protest songs such as We Shall Overcome and Sangena (We Are Arriving).
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/ 10 December 2004
Mark Schmidt came home last week. He is back in Tzaneen, Limpopo, after being in prison in Equatorial Guinea for eight-and-a-half months.
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/ 10 December 2004
South Africa ranks low in the bribery stakes, according to an international survey published by Transparency International — but it joins the majority of surveyed countries in the consensus that political parties are most affected by corruption. The survey was conducted among 50 000 respondents from 62 countries.
South Africa will sign a deal for a fleet of new military aircraft worth R8-billion before Christmas. The Department of Transport released a press statement on Thursday afternoon confirming the deal, after the Mail & Guardian had already gone to print with its report on the acquisition.