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/ 7 September 2004
A total of R72-million is to be set aside in the budget for LandCare programmes in the coming financial year, a deputy director in the national Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Tuesday. He was speaking at Elsenburg outside Stellenbosch at the two-yearly LandCare national conference.
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/ 7 September 2004
Disney Enterprises has lost its bid to set aside an attachment order against its South African-registered trademarks, enabling the family of musician Solomon Linda to sue Disney for royalties in a South African court. Pretoria High Court Judge Hekkie Daniels on Tuesday dismissed Disney’s application against the executors of Linda’s estate.
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/ 7 September 2004
Three Telkom unions accused the telephone monopoly on Tuesday of undermining the government’s mandate to create jobs and fight poverty by threatening to retrench workers and charging excessive call rates. The unions refuse to believe that the company is following ”the mandate of government” as claimed by Telkom’s management.
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/ 7 September 2004
Plans to eradicate alien weeds infesting Southern Africa’s rivers have been ”indefinitely” derailed by administrative delays, a World Bank official confirmed on Wednesday. A multimillion-dollar Southern African Development Community anti-infestation project was due to start last year, but has been delayed.
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/ 7 September 2004
The operating profit of petrochemical giant Sasol fell by 22% owing to the strength of the rand, the company said at its annual results presentation on Tuesday. The negative effect of the rand was cushioned by the beneficial high oil prices and management initiatives to streamline the business, Sasol chief executive Pieter Cox said.
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/ 7 September 2004
President Thabo Mbeki and a number of people instrumental in the South African peace process met delegates from the Israeli Likud party in Pretoria on Tuesday. ”It’s not a governmental delegation but a South African delegation,” Mbeki told Israeli Minister of Industry and Trade Michael Ratzon.
Israeli attack on Hamas activists kills 14
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/ 6 September 2004
Public-sector unions decided on Monday to embark on strike action following their rejection of the government’s 6% wage increase offer, said labour caucus chairperson Fikile Majola. All members of the eight unions will strike, except essential services. The unions represent 700 000 public-service employees.
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/ 6 September 2004
Pharmacists across the country are introducing a range of new charges now that they are limited in the prices they can ask for drugs, players in the industry said on Monday. ”We can charge for any service. Everything that you do for the patient, the patient must pay for,” said a pharmacist in Pretoria North. ”This is very sad.”
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/ 6 September 2004
The Democratic Alliance on Monday welcomed another six municipal councillors to its ranks, bring its total countrywide to 1 022. In a speech prepared for delivery to a meeting of the DA’s Cape Town Unicity caucus, Leon said 40 councillors have now crossed over to the DA in the two-week floor-crossing period.
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/ 6 September 2004
South Africa’s Justice and Constitutional Development Ministry has given permission to Equatorial Guinea’s authorities to question Mark Thatcher on his alleged role in a coup plot in that country, a ministry spokesperson said on Monday. The spokesperson added that there has been no discussion of extradition.
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/ 6 September 2004
Employers can no longer retrench workers to make way for better-skilled employees without making adequate training opportunities available, the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) said on Monday. On Friday, a judge found that South African Breweries (SAB) had wrongly dismissed 115 Fawu members in 2001.
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/ 6 September 2004
Eastern Cape finance minister Enoch Godongwana was fired on Monday, Premier Nosimo Balindlela’s office said. ”Both the suspension of the finance superintendent general, Monde Tom, and Godongwana’s dismissal come after a probe into financial irregularities in that department,” a spokesperson said.
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/ 6 September 2004
Former Gauteng finance minister Jabu Moleketi was not involved in finalising the details of a contract that allegedly contravenes the Public Finance Management Act, the province’s current finance minister said on Monday. ”The former MEC was briefed, but not involved in the final shareholders’ agreement that established the company [Capstone 518],” he said.
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/ 6 September 2004
The death toll in an explosion at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, has climbed to seven, company spokesperson Johann van Rheede said on Monday. The explosion, which occurred last Wednesday, claimed the lives of four contractors and two Sasol employees. More than 100 people were injured.
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/ 6 September 2004
South Africa’s online publishing industry is attracting millions of highly educated, high-earning users, mostly from Johannesburg and under 34 years old, the Online Publishers’ Association announced on Monday. More than 3,5-million users supported the industry in August, clocking up 106-million page impressions.
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/ 3 September 2004
Film-industry worker Ronald Charles Grimsley, on trial for the murder of an 18-year-old woman, told the Johannesburg High Court on Friday he is not a violent person. Grimsley, from Fontainebleau, has admitted to having come around after a blackout to find his hands around the throat of Flowerday, who was not breathing.
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/ 3 September 2004
Police were mopping up streets in Intabazwe at Harrismith on Friday after three days of rioting that claimed the life of a teenager. Municipal workers helped to clear away burnt tyres, car wrecks and rocks left behind by demonstrators. The protests were sparked by what was termed poor service delivery.
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/ 3 September 2004
The Boeremag treason trial on Friday stopped unexpectedly when a state witness claimed he has proof that Boeremag leader Tom Vorster was a CIA and military intelligence agent. A defence advocate said the claims might result in the defence demanding a trial-within-a-trial to establish the truth of the claims.
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/ 3 September 2004
South Africa’s official opposition leader, Tony Leon, says that Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats and Pieter Mulder’s Freedom Front Plus are the handmaidens of one-party dominance by the African National Congress and accuses the two opposition parties of existing only through ”cannibalising the opposition”.
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/ 2 September 2004
The publication by ThisDay newspaper of a list of 136 MPs ”fingered” in the travel voucher investigation adds nothing of value to the public’s understanding of the issues involved, said South Africa’s ruling African National Congress on Thursday. ”The report borders on being malicious and slanderous,” said an ANC spokesperson.
Travelgate: R17m now owed
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/ 2 September 2004
The Department of Health is willing to negotiate its controversial dispensing fee regulations but will only do so if pharmacists withdraw their court action, the department’s Humphrey Zokufa said on Thursday. ”Yes, we will negotiate, but only if they withdraw their court action,” said Zokufa.
Cape pharmacies open after protest
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/ 2 September 2004
South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (Sadtu) members turned out in full force around the country to demonstrate their frustration with the government’s offer of a 5,5% salary increase. Sadtu spokesperson Jon Lewis said an estimated 30Â 000 people marched through the streets of Johannesburg.
Minister: Teachers’ strike ‘ill-timed’
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/ 2 September 2004
The strike by some South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) members is ill-timed and has the potential of disrupting learning and teaching in schools, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Thursday. Sadtu planned protest marches on Thursday in all nine provinces.
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/ 2 September 2004
More than 900 Spoornet employees may face retrenchment in the next 60 days, the company said in Johannesburg on Thursday. Spoornet acting general manager Vusi Mncube said the possible retrenchments are part of an effort to improve operational efficiency. Spoornet has started consulting unions on the possible retrenchments.
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/ 2 September 2004
South African media and entertainment group Primedia on Wednesday announced it has received regulatory approval for its proposed acquisition of 100% of the issued share capital of New Africa Media Holdings and, as a result, the acquisition of 66,5% of the entire issued share capital of KFM.
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/ 2 September 2004
Convicted serial child rapist Fanwell Khumalo failed on Thursday in his bid to have his conviction and jail sentence overturned. Khumalo unsuccessfully applied for leave to appeal in the Johannesburg High Court against his conviction and sentence of 42 life terms and more than 270 years in jail.
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/ 2 September 2004
A man shot dead his girlfriend, a 31-year-old schoolteacher, before committing suicide at the Newlands East Secondary School in Durban on Thursday. Police said the 35-year-old man went to the teacher’s classroom on Thursday morning, called her outside and shot her in the head before turning the gun on himself.
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/ 2 September 2004
A special initiative to rid Africa of vast stockpiles of poisonous, obsolete chemical pesticides posing serious health risks has been launched by the African Stockpiles Programme (ASP). ASP plans to get rid of an estimated 50 000 tons of toxic pesticides and waste, as well as tens of thousands of tons of contaminated soil.
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/ 2 September 2004
A 25-year-old construction worker was killed when the roof of Centurion Mall in Pretoria collapsed on Wednesday night, Pretoria police said on Thursday. Police spokesperson Captain Piletji Sebola said the man’s body was discovered in the rubble at about 10pm on Wednesday and retrieved at 1.30am.
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/ 2 September 2004
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on Thursday launched the Large Business Centre (LBC), which will cover 9 000 companies with a minimum annual turnover of R250-million. Manuel said that the LBC has been established to make it easier for large companies to comply with the law.
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/ 1 September 2004
The Democratic Alliance has welcomed the appointment of Silas Ramaite as the new acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, saying he has a tough crime-busting profile. Ramaite was formerly deputy to Bulelani Ngcuka, who vacated the national director post on Tuesday.
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/ 1 September 2004
Unjustified complaints about delays in the approval process of the controversial Roodefontein golf estate development made former Western Cape environmental director Ingrid Coetzee feel like she was being blackmailed, she told the Bellville Regional Court on Wednesday where she was under cross-examination for a second day.