The victory of African slaves over French rule in Haiti in the 1800s should be used by Africans to inspire them to address successfully the challenges facing them across the world, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. He was spreaking at the Sixth African Renaissance Conference in Durban.
There has been a strengthening of businesses in townships across South Africa over the past decade, Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin said during a small-business breakfast meeting in Langa on Friday. He urged Langa business people to come together to help establish a business centre.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>President Thabo Mbeki launched a scathing attack on the Democratic Alliance and Inkatha Freedom Party on Friday, saying voters will decide the fate of this "right-wing coalition". He accused the IFP of siding with various right-wing groupings to protect "white interests" since 1992.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33240">Haiti inspires Africans, says Mbeki</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Following this week’s approval by South Africa’s competition authorities, global energy group ExxonMobil and South Africa’s Engen Petroleum will be teaming up in a lubricants deal, under which Engen becomes the sole marketer and distributor of a range of ExxonMobil’s lubricants in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Academics and political analysts from around the world have gathered in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, for a conference on the achievements of the first decade of democracy in the country. "Post-apartheid South Africa has taught all of us that even those who are made into the worst enemies can overcome the trauma of such a tragedy," said Salim Ahmed Salim.
A pharmacy assistant’s dirty hands were the main reason why six babies died earlier this month in the Pelonomi hospital in Bloemfontein. Dr Victor Litlhakanyane, head of the Free State health department, told a news conference on Thursday that the assistant who prepared foodstuffs for the babies had washed his hands in a dirty basin.
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In a protest on Thursday against the unequal donation policies of big business during the elections, the Freedom Front Plus handed back R10Â 000 to Sanlam at its head offices in Bellville, near Cape Town. ”We don’t want this donation … it is humiliation,” FF+ leader Dr Pieter Mulder told journalists.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said on Thursday it was shocked by the announcement of further job cuts by Telkom at a time when parties were still negotiating alternatives. The CWU was reacting to a news report stating that Telkom planned to cut its workforce by between 7% and 10% a year over the next three years.
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South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande says the alliance of the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party represents the most backward elements created by apartheid. ”These two parties represent not only the interests of beneficiaries of apartheid but are reluctantly part of the new order,” he said.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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Western Cape Premier and New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk has emerged as the most popular premier candidate in that province in a Markinor poll conducted in January/February. In KwaZulu-Natal, the African National Congress’s top-ranking candidate for the legislature, S’bu Ndebele, won the popularity stake in the poll.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Caxton’s urgent interdict application against Naspers was dismissed with costs by the Competition Tribunal on Wednesday. The media group had hoped to prevent Naspers from buying out the minority shareholding in Electronic Media Network (M-Net) and Supersport International Holdings (Supersport).
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Wednesday responded to the Treatment Action Campaign’s call last week for her to authorise the immediate procurement of anti-retroviral drugs. The minister said a meeting agreed there should be an urgent accreditation of facilities that meet the requirements to provide quality care.
South Africa’s inflation outlook remains favourable for the next two years, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni told investors on Wednesday. ”Most analysts … expect CPIX inflation to remain within the inflation target range over the next two years,” he said.
Wesbank CEO Ronnie Watson on Tuesday announced a joint venture between the South African National Taxi Council and WesBank, to be called the South African National Taxi Finance Company. The primary aim of the joint venture is to facilitate the financing of new taxis under the government’s taxi recapitalisation plan.
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Ten percent to 12% of the vote — that is what Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille predicts her party will get in next month’s general election. The fiery party leader, called the one-woman-show by many of her opponents, on Tuesday introduced her provincial leaders and premier’s candidates to the media.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The first medicine-dispensing licences, allowing health-care practitioners to provide medicine to clients, were handed out by the Health Ministry in Pretoria on Tuesday. This follows a law promulgated last year to prevent doctors from dispensing medicine without the licences.
Ten years after South Africa ended apartheid and returned to the international arena, the country is a model of good governance, freedom and democracy, Kenya’s agricultural attache in South Africa, Bernard Kitheka, said on Tuesday at a World Meteorological Day function hosted by the South African Weather Service.
The Western Cape director of public prosecutions has decided not to prosecute three men arrested in connection with a fatal shootout last week in front of former president Nelson Mandela’s Constantia home, SABC radio reported on Tuesday. The three men had been facing charges of attempted murder.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will have to hold a formal hearing regarding a complaint lodged by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies concerning a broadcast on Muslim station Radio 786 that the board alleges was anti-Jewish.
South African Parliamentary Speaker Frene Ginwala hinted on Friday that she might not take up a senior post with the Pan African Parliament if the seat is given to South Africa. She said she personally believed that a seat or leadership of an international institution should not be placed in one country.
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The United Democratic Movement urged its supporters on Friday to remain ”calm and patient” after the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) published incorrect versions of the party’s candidates lists. Spokesperson Malizole Diko said the order of candidates on all of the party’s 19 lists was ”completely wrong”.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Gone are the weekends when Nolwazi would spend her nights calling family members and friends to ask whether they have seen her husband, while he’s out with friends clubbing the night away. Vodacom has initiated the new, location-based Look4me service on its cellular network, promising consumers peace of mind.
The two Sizzlers killers were found guilty in the Cape High Court on Thursday on nine counts of premeditated murder, one of attempted murder and one of armed robbery, all of which carry prescribed minimum sentences. On the murder charges, Adam Roy Woest and Trevor Basil Theys face nine prescribed life sentences.
President Thabo Mbeki had a midnight meeting with a delegation from Equatorial Guinea regarding the alleged mercenaries arrested in that country, he said on Thursday. Mbeki said the country has asked South Africa for help in ensuring that the trial of the arrested men is transparent and fair.
E Guinea, SA meet on coup attempt
Equatorial Guinea’s deputy foreign minister briefed the South African government on Thursday on developments in his country, where South Africans have been accused of being involved in preparations for a coup d’état. Sources said ”a message of gratitude” had likely been sent from the Equatorial president for South Africa’s role in foiling a coup attempt.
Airport baggage handlers on strike since December 18 said on Thursday they are prepared to settle for a pay increase of 6% to 7,5%, but will not accept worsened conditions of employment. Equity Aviation has proposed an increase in the number of hours worked per week from 40 to 45.
The Department of Labour plans to remove bogus trade unions and employer organisations from the job market, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Thursday after the Labour Court dismissed with costs an urgent application filed by the National Employers Forum challenging its deregistration.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The Democratic Alliance has rejected African Christian Democratic Party complaints about the DA’s election radio adverts that urge voters not to waste their vote on one of the smaller parties, saying the ACDP has missed the point.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32518">ACDP: ‘Greedy’ DA not playing fair</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
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The Democratic Alliance is showing its ”greed for power” by urging voters in radio adverts not to vote for other opposition parties, the African Christian Democratic Party said on Thursday. ”By telling voters that their vote will be wasted on a ‘smaller’ opposition party, the DA has once again showed its greed for power,” an ACDP MP said.
Special Report: Elections 2004
A mysterious third person may have been involved in the Sizzlers massacre that left nine people dead in January last year, the Cape Town High Court heard on Wednesday. Defence counsel Nehemiah Ballem, representing taxi operator Trevor Basil Theys, said his client was afraid of this third person.
The men arrested aboard a captured plane in Zimbabwe are all former South African National Defence Force soldiers from Unit 32, based in Namibia, a diplomatic source said on Wednesday. The source said the plane had indeed been transporting mercenaries to Equatorial Guinea.
It’s all a ‘misunderstanding’
Mercenaries ‘came to collect guns’
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad has landed in the Central African Republic and is expected to be asked by ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide for asylum in South Africa, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32453">SA envoys meet Aristide in Bangui</a>