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/ 10 February 2004
Consumers are likely to pay less for doctors’ services and come away from hospitals without paying an arm or a leg after the Competition Commission ruled that doctors and hospitals should set their own prices. The commission said on Tuesday an investigation of the health-care sector has found massive price rigging.
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/ 9 February 2004
The government gave out 270-million male condoms last year, which is an 80% increase from 1997 when 150-million were distributed, the Department of Health said on Monday. The department announced the figures at the launch of its Sexually Transmitted Infections/Condom Week, which runs from February 9 to 14.
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/ 9 February 2004
The General Council of the Bar of South Africa on Monday called a judgement by the Zimbabwe Supreme Court — requiring journalists to hold licences issued by the state upon pain of a mandatory two-year jail sentence without the option of a review — a double blow to justice.
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/ 9 February 2004
Sixteen African ministers responsible for mining in their respective countries have launched the African Mining Partnership, with the aim of championing and coordinating mining and mineral-related initiatives under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
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/ 9 February 2004
The Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) has suspended cooperation talks with the Pan Africanist Congress because it is unhappy with the lack of progress being made between the two parties, the party’s secretary general, Dan Habedi, said on Monday. ”After the first agreement … the PAC never came to the party,” he said.
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/ 9 February 2004
South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has pledged to stand by the troubled Caribbean country of Haiti, which has since Thursday been under siege by armed opponents to its president, arguing that the country needs to be assisted in its quest to establish a functioning democratic system.
Bloody uprising spreads in Haiti
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/ 9 February 2004
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) on Sunday accused the authorities of preventing vital information from reaching the public and vowed to fight for the right of journalists to protect their sources. Sanef said the organisation was concerned over the flow of information from the police to the media.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30864">The death of Zimbabwean journalism</a>
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/ 8 February 2004
Equity Aviation has given the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union a 5pm Monday deadline to accept its latest wage offer to striking baggage handlers, company spokesperson Herman Fleischman warned on Saturday. Failure to do so will lead to Equity considering to approach its staff directly, he said.
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/ 7 February 2004
The Mail & Guardian Online on Saturday confirmed that former Sunday Times editor Mathatha Tsedu has accepted the editorship of the weekly City Press newspaper. Tsedu was dismissed from the Sunday Times after being accused of underperformance.
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/ 7 February 2004
Doctors protesting in Cape Town on Friday against what they called the declining state of public health care were angered when they were prevented from marching to Parliament, as originally planned. The march was held to protest against, among other things, draft legislation that will prevent them from dispensing medication.
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/ 7 February 2004
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) commended President Thabo Mbeki on Friday for acknowledging South Africa’s problems but criticised him for implying government policies are unalterable. ”The speech also … identifies the massive problems confronting the majority of our people,” a Cosatu spokesperson said.
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/ 7 February 2004
Sudan’s peace process will collapse if Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army refuse to involve others in the talks that are under way in Kenya, political commentators have warned. A number of south Sudanese who are living in South Africa expressed impatience with the Darfur regional conflict.
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/ 6 February 2004
The Democratic Alliance has called for Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza to explain chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya’s statement that the government is considering a six-month extension for land claims in the Eastern Cape.
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/ 6 February 2004
Political reactions on Friday streamed in to President Thabo Mbeki’s opening of Parliament and State of the Nation speech in Cape Town. Tony Leon, leader of the official opposition Democratic Alliance, said: ”He [Mbeki] did not address the real failures of crime, unemployment and HIV/Aids.”
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/ 6 February 2004
The South African government will "soon" be inviting proposals for private-sector participation in certain port operations, starting with the Durban Container Terminal, according to Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe, who was speaking at the opening of the second African Intermodal conference in Cape Town.
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/ 5 February 2004
Penis size came under scrutiny on Thursday when the Jali Commission of Inquiry into prison maladministration probed claims by a former inmate that he was forced to perform oral sex on a warder through a window. The commission heard it would have been impossible for the warder to get his penis through that particular window.
De Kock named in prison corruption
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/ 5 February 2004
Anant Singh’s DreamWorld consortium has been confirmed as the successful bidder to establish a multimillion-rand film city outside Cape Town. Construction is expected to start in the first quarter of next year, and finish early in 2006. Singh told a media briefing the consortium planned an investment of R400-million.
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/ 5 February 2004
Former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock and Pretoria local prison head Nick Baloyi were accused on Thursday of fabricating evidence to discredit a witness before the Jali commission of inquiry into prison mismanagement. Baloyi was accused of asking a prisoner to give false testimony and De Kock was also implicated.
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/ 5 February 2004
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa has condemned the government’s threat to fire doctors who take part in a protest march after the opening of Parliament on Friday. Holomisa said the government was displaying a complete disregard for the doctors’ democratic rights.
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/ 5 February 2004
While the search for three-year-old Karabo Gwala who fell into an open sewerage manhole in Soweto on Monday continues, preliminary investigations by the Department of Labour have established that the company conducting maintenance work before the accident violated health and safety regulations.
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/ 5 February 2004
Johannesburg International airport’s new, R44-million transfer corridor will be operational in early April, the Airports Company South Africa said on Thursday. The airport expects an increase of three million commuters within the near future from the current 13-million passengers a year.
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/ 5 February 2004
The proposed protest march to the opening of Parliament on Friday by disgruntled doctors would be ”counterproductive” and could result in dismissals, the Ministry of Health said. A ministry spokesperson said that while dismissal could not be ruled out, the no-work-no-pay principle would probably be followed.
UDM hits out at govt threat
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/ 4 February 2004
Warders at Pretoria’s local prison seemed to have a ”bizarre fascination” with gay sex, a former prisoner told the Jali commission, which is investigation prison corruption, on Wednesday. Former inmate Louis Karp named the warders he claimed had made his stay in jail a misery one by one.
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/ 4 February 2004
Embattled High Court Judge Siraj Desai was given special leave by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Penuell Maduna on Tuesday. Desai was arrested on January 19 after Aids activist Salome Isaacs accused him of raping her in a Mumbai hotel room, but Isaacs later withdrew the charges.
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/ 4 February 2004
New regulations to compel the replacement of non-functioning emergency exits on South African buses and taxis will still take an indeterminate time to come into effect, it emerged on Tuesday. In the meantime millions of public transport passengers run the risk of meeting the same fate as the 51 Saulspoort bus disaster victims.
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/ 4 February 2004
South African official opposition leader Tony Leon has suggested that President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation speech should signal a return to the "rainbow nation" philosophy. Mbeki is to open Parliament on Friday with the annual State of the Nation speech.
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/ 4 February 2004
A third term of office for President Thabo Mbeki has never been posed within the African National Congress, ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe asserted on Wednesday. He was responding to a letter to Mbeki sent by Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, seeking clarity on the matter.
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/ 4 February 2004
Not everybody who is HIV-positive will get anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) from the state, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday. Speaking at the East London city hall, Tshabalala-Msimang said patients with a CD4 cell count below 200 will be the focus of the initial stages of the planned roll-out of ARVs.
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/ 3 February 2004
Pretoria treason trial Judge Eben Jordaan’s patience has been tried with yet more complaints from the 22 Boeremag trialists accused of plotting to overthrow the African National Congress government. ”I’m sick and tired. This trial must go on and finish. It cannot be railroaded by these small upsets,” he said on Tuesday.
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/ 3 February 2004
The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) intends recommending the minister of justice closes a loophole used to contest legislation that the AFU uses to assist other countries by freezing proceeds of crime hidden in South Africa. ”In many cases the international cooperation in criminal matters law is fairly ineffective,” said AFU head Willie Hofmeyr.
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/ 3 February 2004
South African impressionist and black comic Billy Prince has died after being injured in a car accident in November last year, Parker Leisure Management announced on Tuesday. Owner Joe Parker said Prince (42) was the first black comedian to appear on a white comedy programme in South Africa.