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/ 16 October 2003
The Treatment Action Campaign is celebrating what it calls a ”ground-breaking” decision on Thursday by the Competitions Commission that found two giant pharmaceutical firms culpable of charging excessive prices for anti-retroviral drugs and abusing their dominant positions in the market.
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/ 16 October 2003
Western Cape premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk must go, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday after hearing that developer Count Riccardo Agusta pleaded guilty to donating R400 000 to the New National Party to pave the way for planning approval of the Roodefontein golf estate development near Plettenberg Bay.
Marais maintains innocence
Case against Marais strengthened
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/ 16 October 2003
The Department of Health has released details of a Bill that seeks to increase dramatically fines under the anti-smoking legislation. The fine for any person who fails to control smoking on his or her premises is to go up from R200 to R20 000 for a first offence and R100 000 for a second.
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/ 16 October 2003
The state’s case against the Western Cape’s former premier Peter Marais and former environment and development MEC David Malatsi, both facing corruption charges, appears to have strengthened with developer Riccardo Agusta’s plea bargain.
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/ 16 October 2003
Anti-apartheid activist Bram Fischer was reinstated to the Roll of Advocates on Thursday by a full Bench of the Johannesburg High Court. Fischer was welcomed back into the fraternity through the new Reinstatement of Enrolment of Deceased Legal Practitioners Act, also called the ”Bram Fischer Act”.
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/ 16 October 2003
The absence of detailed statistics relating to crime on tourism hampers efforts to get a true picture of the situation, says Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism Rejoice Mabudafhasi. The police’s administration system ”does not provide for a distinction between crime against tourists and crime against the general public”, she said.
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/ 15 October 2003
The Deputy Director General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mike Tshishonga, has been suspended from his position. Tshishonga has alleged that Minister of Justice Penuell Maduna abused his powers to land a friend lucrative liquidation appointments.
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/ 15 October 2003
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has come under fire for targeting small businesses under the Employment Equity Act. Democratic Alliance MP Charles Redcliffe on Wednesday said most companies affected by the Act could not afford the R500 000 fine for non-compliance.
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/ 15 October 2003
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Sipho Ngwema has accused African National Congress veteran Mac Maharaj and foreign affairs adviser Mo Shaik of delaying tactics. The first public hearing of the Hefer commission, appointed to investigate Ngwema’s boss, Bulelani Ngcuka, was adjourned on Wednesday within its first 15 minutes.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=22049">Hefer commission postponed</a>
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/ 14 October 2003
South Africans are renowned carnivores, but is the meat they are eating safe? This is the conundrum consumers face, with the National Federation of Meat Traders saying that the inability of the government to promulgate regulations relating to meat safety is a serious concern to the meat industry.
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/ 14 October 2003
South Africa can afford a higher inflation target than the 3% to 6% range currently set, and 5% to 7% would be ideal, Standard Bank group economist Dr Iraj Abedian said on Tuesday. ”If the target range cannot be adjusted upwards, at the least it should not be lowered,” he said.
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/ 13 October 2003
Financial services company Alexander Forbes has said no claim for payment of any amount had been made against it regarding alleged fraud during the apartheid era, following reports that American lawyer Ed Fagan is to file a -billion lawsuit against at least five companies accused of defrauding South African workers in the apartheid era.
Ed Fagan files bn SA lawsuit
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/ 13 October 2003
The Hefer commission said on Monday it has no mandate to inquire generally into the exercise of Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna’s powers. This is particularly in regard to liquidations and other matters affecting the office of the Masters of the High Court.
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/ 13 October 2003
The Hefer Commission of Inquiry’s investigation would be incomplete without hearing evidence from Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. ”The deputy president is inextricably linked to the investigation,” DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said.
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/ 13 October 2003
The African National Congress says it is surprised by Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna’s announcement that he will not be available for Cabinet nomination next year.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=21812">’The ANC is hurting bad'</a>
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/ 13 October 2003
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has rejected a report that there is a rift between him and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali. The controversy follows a speech in which Buthelezi reportedly described Mtshali as a man who "seems not to have had the wisdom or prudence to follow the leadership which I gave him".
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has extended the deadline for obtaining capital gains tax (CGT) valuations to September 30 2004, auditing firm KPMG said on Thursday. KPMG also reminded its customers that valuations of assets acquired before October 1 2001 had to be done before September 30 2003.
The Department of Defence has denied discriminating against people living with HIV/Aids, saying there is no ban on such individuals doing civilian jobs in the military. Some organisations have expressed outrage over a statement by Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota that the army could not accept people living with HIV/Aids.
South Africa effectively has two economies and interventions made in the last nine years of democracy have addressed only one of these, said South African President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday. Speaking at a Black Management Forum conference, Mbeki used a double-storey house as a metaphor for the South African economy.
Mining magnate Brett Kebble announced on Thursday he is instituting legal action against Bulelani Ngcuka, following allegations of fraud made against him by the head of the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions. He said the allegations stem from a July 24 meeting Ngcuka held with editors.
South Africa’s ”democracy deficit” is increasing as the African National Congress focuses on grabbing more and more power for itself, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. Writing in his newsletter, Leon said while the ANC had committed itself to transparent government in 1994, it has become accountable to no one but itself.
Opposition parties want the minister of transport to send the government’s taxi recapitalisation programme back to the drawing board, saying the ”wheels have come off” the programme. This follows a court interdict granted on Wednesday to stop the signing of a memorandum between the government and the South African National Taxi Council.
Aids drug lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) lost 100 of its leaders to the disease over a four-month period, chairperson Zackie Achmat said on Thursday. Most of those who died were women younger than 24. Only one was taking anti-retroviral drugs.
The emergence of the Group of 20+ developing countries at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun was an "important moral and political victory" that strengthened the bargaining power of developing countries, according to South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel.
The South African Department of Public Works is to spend millions of rands this year to upgrade various museums around the country, including the renovation of the Kruger House museum in central Pretoria. More than R20-million is also to be spent on the harbour at the Robben Island museum complex.
The Pretoria High Court has granted an urgent interdict to stop the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the government and the South African National Taxi Council on the taxi recapitalisation programme barely 40 minutes before the signing ceremony was to take place at 3pm on Wednesday.
Witnesses summoned by the Hefer Commission of Inquiry — which is investigating spy allegations against National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka Bulelani Ngcuka — may not refuse to testify or refuse to answer any question, commission secretary John Bacon said on Tuesday.
There is no alarm in South Africa about Aids, Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota said on Tuesday. "All of this noise every day about HIV/Aids and so on … is really unfounded," he told senior foreign envoys in Pretoria. Lekota said programmes run by the government will enable it to contain the disease.
Vaal Rand police have identified 10 sports journalists and the driver involved in an accident on the R59 outside Alberton on Saturday that claimed the lives of six reporters. Fourteen journalists and a driver were returning after covering the Masakhane games in Vanderbijlpark.
Crash claims lives of six journalists
Mining giant Anglo American has announced a R30-million community partnership project to help accelerate the provision of comprehensive HIV/Aids services in about 200 public clinics, especially those in rural areas. The overall goal would be to enhance the health-sector response to the pandemic at community level.
South Africa has condemned an Israeli airstrike on a suspected militant base in Syria, saying it would inflame the situation in the volatile region. "I think we are sitting on a powder keg right now," said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=21507">Syria opts for diplomacy</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=21482">Israeli jets hit Syria camp</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/CContent/l3.asp?ao=21475">Israel strikes back</a>
Two sports journalists are still in a serious condition and one is stable following an accident on the R59 outside Alberton on Saturday that claimed the lives of six reporters. Fourteen journalists and a driver were returning after covering the Masakhane games in Vanderbijlpark.