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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.
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/ 3 February 2004
Tension between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress had not been the cause of the IFP’s losing one of its three Cabinet posts, the presidency said on Tuesday. Former arts, culture, science and technology minister Ben Ngubane took up, from Monday, an ambassadorship to Japan.
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/ 3 February 2004
One of the United Kingdom’s fastest-growing insurance companies, the Budget Group, has announced its decision to set up a call centre in Cape Town, in an investment valued at R100-million. The call-centre industry in Cape Town already comprises more than 70 companies.
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/ 3 February 2004
The Road Accident Fund Amendment Bill of 2003 and its successor were deliberated in the parliamentary committee on transport from November 19 to October 3. Minister of Transport Dullah Omar said deliberations in the committee were useful and that it should proceed with aspects of the Bill that are not contentious.
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/ 3 February 2004
The Boeremag’s alleged plan to take over the country would have been financed by sheep, sunflowers, someone’s retirement package and the sale of bullets. This is according to police spy Johan Smit, who claimed to have infiltrated the Boeremag’s inner circle while secretly reporting to the police.
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/ 3 February 2004
The last two South Africans reported missing following a stampede in Saudi Arabia have been found alive, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. Spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the two had been found alive and well. All five South Africans originally reported missing have now been located alive.
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/ 3 February 2004
Former president FW de Klerk has lent his support to the cooperation agreement between the African National Congress and the New National Party, warning that the country’s transition has become a one-sided affair. South Africa requires a special political model based on genuine cooperation, he said.
FW de Klerk’s ‘kiss of death’
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/ 2 February 2004
With a nervous eye on land invasions in Zimbabwe to the north, South African farmers have taken fright at legal changes to boost their government’s land expropriation powers. But legal experts say the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill pose little reason for real concern.
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/ 2 February 2004
The national chairperson of the United Democratic Movement, Kingsley Masemola, defected to the African National Congress on Monday. Kingsley, who is also the Limpopo chairperson of the party, announced his defection at an ANC press briefing in Johannesburg.
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/ 2 February 2004
The Sizzlers gay massage parlour massacre, which claimed nine lives last January, was described in the Cape High Court on Monday as ”extraordinary, bizarre and weird”. Prosecutor Anthony Stephen said the fact that the incident claimed nine lives was ”in itself a record”.
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/ 2 February 2004
The South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights has called on prisoners, former prisoners and their families to boycott the forthcoming elections to show solidarity with prisoners who will not be allowed to vote. Only prisoners awaiting trial and prisoners given the option of paying a fine will be allowed to vote.
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/ 2 February 2004
Former South African president FW de Klerk’s expected endorsement of the pact between his former apartheid party, the New National Party, and the ruling black majority African National Congress has sparked a volley of arguments between opposition leader Tony Leon and the NNP.
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/ 2 February 2004
The vision that drives the New Economic Programme for Africa’s Development is not unrealistic, chairperson of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) steering committee Wiseman Nkuhlu said on Sunday at the opening of the first-ever African ministerial conference on open learning and distance education.
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/ 2 February 2004
The Hlobane waterfall near Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal is flowing again after more than 50 years. The waterfall stopped flowing decades ago due to mining activity at the underground Hlobane colliery. Now a mining subsidiary has developed a new technique — a world first — to fix the mining damage.
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/ 2 February 2004
South Africa’s Coega industrial development zone and neighbouring deepwater port of Ngqura outside Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape have firm funding commitments totalling about R7,4-billion from the public sector for their ongoing development.
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/ 2 February 2004
The South African province of the North West was the worst offender in spending or alternatively keeping track of its capital spending of South Africa’s nine provinces. In the first nine months of the fiscal year, the North West housing department spent only 2,6% of its capital expenditure allocation of R390-million.
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/ 30 January 2004
The Inkatha Freedom Party, which shares the provincial government in KwaZulu-Natal with the ruling African National Congress, said on Friday it was sorry about an incident in which South African President Thabo Mbeki’s motorcade was hindered by a number of its supporters.
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/ 30 January 2004
The Boeremag’s plans to take over the country included destroying the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) building in Johannesburg by blowing it up, the Pretoria High Court heard on Friday. Police spy Johan Smit testified that targets identified as part of a coup plan included the SABC, Radio Jacaranda and Radio Pretoria.
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/ 30 January 2004
The Democratic Alliance on Friday called for less state intervention in the mining sector, saying it should be allowed to get on with business without government interference. DA spokesperson Ian Davidson said the proposed royalty tax on mining operations in the draft Mining Royalties Bill should be opposed.
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/ 30 January 2004
The Athens 2004 Olympic torch relay brings for the first time the Olympic flame to the streets of Cape Town in June this year. Beginning in early June, the Olympic flame will embark on a 21st-century-style tour that circles the earth. More than 3Â 600 torch bearers will play a part in carrying the flame.
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/ 29 January 2004
South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Alec Erwin, has been tipped by an influential American journal as the favourite candidate for the director general’s post at the World Trade Organisation, which becomes vacant in September 2005. Erwin’s ministry has poured cold water on the speculation.
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/ 29 January 2004
The health ministers of South Africa and Angola signed an agreement on Thursday to cooperate in combating diseases such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. The pact paves the way for twinning of hospitals in the two countries, technical support to Angola and the exchange of health professionals and information.
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/ 29 January 2004
More women than men registered to vote during the voter registration drive of January 24 and 25, and 18- to 25-year-olds proved those accusing them of apathy at least partly wrong. The Independent Electoral Commission on Thursday announced the results of the country’s second voter registration weekend.
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/ 29 January 2004
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has moved to swiftly condemn the actions of what it said were opposition Inkatha Freedom Party supporters who tried to block South African President Thabo Mbeki’s entrance to an imbizo event in the troubled Tugela Ferry in KwaZulu-Natal earlier on Thursday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30353">IFP, ANC to discuss tension</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30339">IFP supporters block Mbeki</a>
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/ 29 January 2004
Public-service announcements featuring three “jive-talking, gaffe-prone condoms” are airing up to 20 times a day on South African television.
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/ 28 January 2004
Western Cape education authorities were hard at work on Wednesday trying to avert an impending education crisis in the province. Meanwhile, pupils, parents and organisations marched in various areas to highlight their unhappiness with the status quo.
Cape parents protest
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/ 28 January 2004
The General Motors (GM) bid to take over local car manufacturer Delta is a sign of confidence in South Africa’s political and economic stability, GM group vice-president Maureen Kempston Darkes said on Wednesday. GM is seeking to buy the remaining 51% of the Delta Motor Corporation, after purchasing the other 49% in 1997.
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/ 28 January 2004
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Valli Moosa says he is ”absolutely embarrassed” about a leopard that had to be put down after being injured in a trap on his family’s farm in the Western Cape. According to reports, the leopard was caught in a gin trap set by workers on Monday.
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/ 28 January 2004
South Africa’s Communal Land Rights Bill is unconstitutional and misconceived, according to human rights groups, legal practitioners and gender campaigners. The Bill, they say, will be impossible to implement. They say it will entrench and aggravate the existing inequality of women with regards to land rights.
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/ 28 January 2004
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance is "fuelling the fires of racism using the fig leaf of a strong opposition", the New National Party argued on Wednesday. In a raging set of pre-election volleys — the NNP and the DA have been at each other’s throats all week
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/ 28 January 2004
Inkatha Freedom Party leader and Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi has played down a meeting held with the ruling African National Congress this week, describing it as having "no bearing" on the coming elections.
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