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/ 27 October 2004
The Democratic Alliance believes the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was shockingly treated in Zimbabwe, party chairperson Joe Seremane said on Wednesday. Seremane was referring to Tuesday’s summary deportation of a 13-strong Cosatu fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe.
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/ 26 October 2004
Grocers Shoprite Checkers have launched a chain of discount pharmacies called MediRite, joining the growing number of retailers adding pharmacies to their portfolio, the group confirmed on Tuesday. The group successfully applied to the Department of Health for a pharmacy licence.
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/ 26 October 2004
The South African Police Service (SAPS) may be disarmed of its service pistols if no police officer is killed over a two-year period, said National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi on Tuesday. Selebi also said he will shortly turn schools into gun-free zones where not even police officers will be allowed to enter with their weapons.
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/ 26 October 2004
Self-confessed coup plotter Deon Crous testified on Tuesday in the Boeremag treason trial in the Pretoria High Court that he and five of the Boeremag accused had decided to assassinate Mandela with a home-made bomb after reading in a newspaper that he would open a school near Tzaneen in Limpopo.
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/ 26 October 2004
Politicians and economists have reacted to Tuesday’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, tabled by Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel in Parliament on Tuesday. George Glynos, market analyst at Econometrix Treasury Management, said: "One has to say that it was a relatively optimistic and fair speech."
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/ 26 October 2004
The attorney general of Equatorial Guinea lied when he applied to the South African government for Mark Thatcher to undergo questioning, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday. Advocate Peter Hodes was arguing Thatcher’s bid for the overturn of a subpoena ordering him to answer questions on an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
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/ 26 October 2004
Medicine pricing was thrown into further confusion on Tuesday when the Pharmacy Council confirmed it is scrapping its guidelines for fees charges on top of legislated dispensing fees. The fees were introduced on October 15 in a bid to cover operating costs not covered by the maximum R26 dispensing fee.
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/ 26 October 2004
Investigators have found that allegations of matric examination papers leaked in Gauteng were ”baseless and unsubstantiated”, the provincial education department said on Tuesday. It was alleged on Monday that a business economics paper was leaked in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg.
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/ 26 October 2004
Zimbabwe home affairs officials expelled 13 members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Tuesday, the day after they arrived in the capital, Harare. The Cosatu delegation was present for discussions with its Zimbabwean counterparts in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
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/ 25 October 2004
In a precedent-setting judgement, a full bench of the Cape High Court ruled on Monday in favour of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) request to televise Mark Thatcher’s civil case on Tuesday. Thatcher has been implicated in a botched coup in Equatorial Guinea and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
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/ 25 October 2004
Only 200 of an expected 5 000 residents marched on the Natalspruit hospital in Katlehong on Monday afternoon to demand a response to a memorandum handed to the hospital’s management last month. One of the marchers, Patricia Mkani, said nothing seems to be going right at the hospital.
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/ 25 October 2004
A self-confessed Boeremag coup plotter told the Pretoria High Court on Monday he felt ”uncomfortable” with plans to annihilate the ”enemy”, who had been identified as all blacks, coloureds and Indians. He said the Boeremag had plans to shoot holes into electricity transformers, causing them to blow up and leave people without electricity.
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/ 25 October 2004
A witness told the Schabir Shaik trial in Durban on Monday that Shaik believed his political connections would enable his company to get a slice of the multibillion-rand arms deal. He said French firm Thomson CSF regarded political connections as important in the adjudication process of the arms deal.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124329">Shaik trial tracks ‘the tailor'</a>
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/ 25 October 2004
Provision of anti-retroviral therapy to people living with HIV/Aids in Botswana is progressing at a steady rate, resulting in fewer deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday. ”The overall mortality of patients on treatment is less than 10%,” says a report compiled by Botswana’s Health Ministry and WHO experts.
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/ 25 October 2004
The most important issue that Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel should address in his medium-term Budget policy statement — to be delivered in Parliament on Tuesday afternoon — is economic growth, says South Africa’s opposition leader Tony Leon.
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/ 25 October 2004
General Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement says Deputy President Jacob Zuma should ”vacate” his position and thereafter he should be prosecuted. At the party’s national council in Pretoria at the weekend, the party passed a resolution noting the trial of Zuma’s business adviser Schabir Shaik.
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/ 22 October 2004
Two more South Africans will be released from prison in Zimbabwe on humanitarian grounds due to ill health, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. Pius Kanjowa and Lenatu Eselumu were convicted in a trial relating to an alleged plot to overthrow the leadership of Equatorial Guinea earlier this year.
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/ 22 October 2004
The spat between President Thabo Mbeki and the Democratic Alliance over his reply to a question in the National Assembly on Thursday continued on Friday, with both Mbeki and DA leader Tony Leon referring to the matter in their respective weekly newsletters.
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/ 22 October 2004
Defending the government’s recent signing of trade deals with Israel, Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Friday they are designed to benefit the entire Middle East region. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with South African President Thabo Mbeki briefly on Friday at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Tony Leon welcomes Israeli visit
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/ 22 October 2004
Five minerals and energy ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region have reaffirmed their commitment to ensure sufficient capacity within the region, South African government news agency BuaNews reported on Friday.
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/ 22 October 2004
Foreign business chambers falling under the Bilateral Chamber Consultative Committee — an umbrella body representing 21 private-sector business groupings — have a high level of confidence in the South African economy. This was the message delivered on Friday to the National Assembly trade and industry committee.
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/ 22 October 2004
Adverse weather conditions continued to delay the start of oil-transfer operations from the BBC China, the cargo vessel stranded off the Eastern Cape Coast, authorities said on Friday. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said the ship has about 120 tonnes of oil on board.
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/ 22 October 2004
Below-normal rainfall is likely until February next year, Rand Water said on Friday. It said the Vaal Dam is 37% full. Under normal conditions, a 37% water level would not be a problem. The South African Weather Service, however, has warned that rainfall will be below average over the next four months.
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/ 22 October 2004
The Durban High Court heard on Friday that Deputy President Jacob Zuma accompanied Nkobi group director Schabir Shaik on a visit to Malaysia in 1995. This is according to a report by forensics expert Johan van der Walt from the KPMG accounting and auditing firm.
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/ 22 October 2004
The man suspected of abducting and killing Johannesburg student Leigh Matthews will remain behind bars more than a month after his bail application was postponed indefinitely in the Wynberg Regional Court on Friday. The case itself was postponed to December 3. This follows the termination of the services of Donovan Moodley’s lawyer.
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/ 22 October 2004
The South African Presidency is not yet ready to make an announcement on the salary adjustments for judges and MPs, said President Thabo Mbeki’s spokesperson Bheki Khumalo on Friday. This comes amid speculation that the president will not accept the advice of a 7% increase recommended by the Moseneke Commission.
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/ 21 October 2004
A witness in the Boeremag treason trial, former Bela-Bela farmer Deon Crous, described on Thursday preparations for a coup attempt, including renting cars for car bombs, stockpiling ammunition and making petrol bombs with beer bottles and government-issue condoms.
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/ 21 October 2004
The lawyer representing the man accused of kidnapping and killing Johannesburg student Leigh Matthews has withdrawn from the case, the prosecution confirmed on Thursday. Randburg senior prosecutor Pieter Erasmus said he had received a fax from Louis Weinstein on Wednesday indicating that he had withdrawn from the case.
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/ 21 October 2004
Almost two years after the diamond industry committed itself to preventing trade in conflict diamonds, retailers in the world’s biggest markets are failing to live up to their promise, according to two international NGOs. A new report is based on a survey of the diamond jewellery retail sector’s implementation of self-regulation in line with the Kimberley Process.
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/ 21 October 2004
Small retail pharmacies will soon be extinct in South Africa unless new regulations governing medicine pricing and dispensing margins are changed, according to the group leader of listed health and beauty retailer New Clicks Holdings, Trevor Honneysett. He also said the legislation has not succeeded in reducing medicine prices.
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/ 21 October 2004
President Thabo Mbeki deflected a question about the relationship of rape and the spread of HIV/Aids by accusing a Democratic Alliance MP of not understanding the scourge of racial oppression. In a lively debate in the National Assembly on Thursday, Mbeki repeatedly accused DA health spokesperson Ryan Coetzee of not listening.