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/ 22 February 2008
The City of Cape Town has begun providing water and toilets for evicted occupants of homes in Delft, and has earmarked a site for them to move to, mayoral committee member Dan Plato said on Friday. Many of them have been living and sleeping in the open since the evictions on Monday.
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/ 22 February 2008
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Friday said her efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle — including responsible drinking habits — among South Africans were not hypocritical. Speaking to the media at the launch of ”the Healthy Lifestyle Day” in Port Shepstone, she questioned why the media linked her recent liver transplant to her promotion of a healthy lifestyle.
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/ 22 February 2008
Chairperson of the 2010 Local Organising Committee Irvin Khoza has a week to apologise for using the word ”kaffir” at a media conference or he will be taken to court. During the conference Khoza told a journalist to: ”Stop thinking like a kaffir because you are contriving and misleading about something that is not there.”
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/ 22 February 2008
The South African National Editors’ Forum has slammed the decision of the new Forum of Black Journalists to exclude white journalists from their meeting in Sandton on Friday. African National Congress president Jacob Zuma was to deliver an off-the-record address at the inaugural imbizo.
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/ 22 February 2008
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille has accused the Public Protector of abusing his office for party political purposes in attacking DA MP Mike Waters. She declared that in the six years since his appointment, Lawrence Mushwana, a former ANC MP, has succeeded only in protecting the ANC from the people.
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/ 22 February 2008
The government remains committed to protecting and strengthening the role of traditional leaders in South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Addressing the opening session of the National House of Traditional Leaders in Cape Town, he said the major challenge revolved around the implementation of legislation and programmes across the country.
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/ 22 February 2008
The Western Cape government may join in a contemplated R20-million lawsuit claim against a Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor it claims is behind the illegal occupation of houses at Delft on the Cape Flats. Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Friday that his administration has been given ”preliminary” legal advice that it could sue the DA as well.
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/ 22 February 2008
Eskom wants the country’s energy regulator to raise a 14,2% tariff hike it granted the utility last year, citing escalating coal prices as it battles a nationwide power crisis. Eskom, which generates most of its electricity from coal, said on Friday it wants tariffs hiked even more than the 18,7% it had initially requested last year but which was rejected by the regulator.
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/ 22 February 2008
Clothing retailer Truworths posted on Thursday a 20% rise in half-year sales, at the low end of its expectations, as seven interest rate hikes crimped consumer spending. Truworths said group sales grew to R3,018-billion in the 27 weeks to the end of December, up 20% from the same period the previous year.
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/ 22 February 2008
Profit-taking helped the JSE catch its breath on Friday after its good rally on Thursday, which led the bourse to dip 0,82% by midday. The platinum-mining index gave up 2,09%, resources lost 1,11% and the gold-mining index eased 0,09%. Industrials weakened 0,69%, financials shed 0,17% and banks picked up 0,15%.
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/ 22 February 2008
Zimbabwe could save up to 300MW of power daily if consumers become more responsible and switch off lights and other gadgets when not needed, the state-controlled Herald reported on Friday. ”Zimbabwe … is in the middle of a severe power crisis. On two occasions already this year, the entire nation was completely switched off,” the Herald said.
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/ 22 February 2008
A formal inquiry by the Department of Labour into the exposure of poisonous fumes at a Cato Ridge manganese company will begin on Monday. The inquiry follows six cases of manganism that were reported at the Assmang plant. Manganism is acquired by overexposure to airborne manganese.
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/ 22 February 2008
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma is to deliver an off-the-record address at the inaugural imbizo of a forum exclusively for black journalists in Sandton on Friday. Chairperson Abbey Makoe said the Forum of Black Journalists was an association ”who would politically in the South African context be defined as of African descent, coloureds and Indians”.
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/ 22 February 2008
The controversial consulting company embroiled in an alleged 2010 stadium tender irregularity in Nespruit now faces a strike by its sub-contractors. The sub-contractors working on the construction of the 2010 Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit have threatened to strike next week because they haven’t been paid R9-million due to them.
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/ 22 February 2008
With Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya recently intimating that the child-support grant would eventually be extended to include children up to the age of 18 hopes had been raised in the child advocacy sector. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s capping of the grant at 15 was met with criticism from NGOs and lobby groups.
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/ 22 February 2008
The government has promised Anglo American that its mining rights will be renewed under new rules governing the industry — even as data summarised in the budget shows just how badly regulatory barriers continue to limit South Africa’s ability to cash in on the biggest commodities boom in living memory.
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/ 22 February 2008
The government’s R60-billion capital injection for Eskom will come with strings for the parastatal’s management, and added pressure on the regulator to raise prices sharply. Director General in the National Treasury Lesetja Kganyago says the final package will probably combine an ordinary loan, a subordinated loan, a loan guarantee and cash.
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/ 22 February 2008
Analysts say that Transport Minister Jeff Radebe has made all the right noises about public transport being the legacy of the 2010 World Cup and, if the budget is anything to go on, the Cabinet fully endorses his view. Trevor Manuel has allocated R6-billion to building public transport infrastructure over the next three years.
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/ 21 February 2008
The KwaZulu-Natal health department has dropped a misconduct charge against rural doctor Colin Pfaff, following a storm of protest, the doctor confirmed on Thursday. Pfaff faced the charge for administering dual therapy — two antiretroviral drugs — to prevent the infection of babies born to HIV-positive mothers.
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/ 21 February 2008
The dance establishment is benefiting from some new recruits. Matthew Krouse reports on the FNB Dance Umbrella’s 20th birthday bash.
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/ 21 February 2008
A 23-year-old man convicted of raping an elderly woman was sent to jail for 18 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday. Judge Andre Erasmus, who sat with two assessors, told Sicelo Tyatyeka, of Lingelihle, Cradock, that he would have imposed a life sentence had the victim suffered more serious injuries.
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/ 21 February 2008
Moving South African television broadcasting from analogue to digital signal is on track and ahead of most countries in the world, the Communications Department said on Thursday. Spokesperson Albi Modise said the digital signal will be activated on November 1 this year.
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/ 21 February 2008
DRDGold said on Thursday that it will push ahead with South African gold mining as well as dump-retreatment projects despite power concerns. The government, Eskom and key consumers should cooperate to find workable solutions to the power dilemma, said chief executive John Sayers in announcing the company’s latest financial results.
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/ 21 February 2008
A 20-year-old man accused of raping a two-year-old girl and charged with three counts of assault was found guilty of all charges in the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday. Judge Johan Froneman rejected the evidence of Thulani Jafta (20), of Madukeni Sada, Cathcart, as ”inherently improbable and contrived”.
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/ 21 February 2008
Financial misconduct in the 2006/07 financial year has cost the country more than R130-million, the Public Service Commission (PSC) announced on Thursday. The total loss stood at R130 615 994,82. National departments accounted for 370 cases and provincial departments reported 672 cases.
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/ 21 February 2008
Though the country’s focus was firmly on Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget this week, another important event should not go unnoticed.
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/ 21 February 2008
Ten students were arrested on various charges at the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State after a group took part in a ”disruptive march”, Free State police said on Thursday. Captain Chaka Marope said police had ”a hard time” on Wednesday night, until early on Thursday morning, containing the situation.
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/ 21 February 2008
A man who allegedly murdered his wife with an axe and buried her in another person’s grave in Soshanguve did not appear in the Pretoria North District Court on Thursday, as he had been sent to Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital earlier this month. Godfrey Macheke (37) was arrested in January last year.
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/ 21 February 2008
In order to generate electricity efficiently, Eskom will need to buy 45-million tonnes of coal over the next two years, the power utility said on Thursday. Eskom’s financial director, Bongani Nqwababa, said 30-million to 34-million tonnes have already been contracted and only South African suppliers will be used.
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/ 21 February 2008
The Gauteng National Taxi Alliance tendered an apology on Thursday to the woman who was assaulted at the Noord street taxi rank, allegedly by taxi drivers, and called on all taxi associations to investigate and suspend drivers implicated in the attack. It condemned the incident ”in the strongest possible terms”.
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/ 21 February 2008
Scores of schoolchildren, their teachers and parents marched silently in Johannesburg on Thursday in a moving protest against crime. The protest, sparked by the killing of Emily Williams (12) during a robbery in Fairland last week, took place on Beyers Naude Drive in north-western Johannesburg.
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/ 21 February 2008
In an unusual show of unity, the two secretary generals of the two factions of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have described the dialogue that was meant to resolve the country’s meltdown as ”dead”, painting a dire scenario for Zimbabwe after its upcoming elections.