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/ 15 February 2008
Artist Michael MacGarry’s new exhibition subverts stereotypes of the "darkest" continent, writes Niren Tolsi.
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/ 15 February 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille, the mayor of Cape Town, is once again going to challenge the authorities by marching against gangsterism and drugs in a community where the drug lords are thriving. She announced that on Sunday she would conduct a march through the streets of Macassar in the east of the city, near Somerset West.
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/ 15 February 2008
Helen Zille, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, on Friday challenged African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma to pledge his own allegiance to the Constitution, and to declare that loyalty to the Constitution is more important than loyalty to the ANC.
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/ 15 February 2008
South Africans ought to be angry at the violent and senseless loss of precious lives affecting the country, Father Owen Franklin told mourners at the funeral of slain schoolgirl Emily Williams on Friday. The 12-year-old was killed by a bullet fired in a stand-off between robbers and security guards at a house in Fairlands, Johannesburg, on Tuesday morning.
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/ 15 February 2008
With only weeks to go before the Zimbabwean elections, there has been no let-up in the slanted coverage of the campaign by the country’s public broadcaster, according to the independent Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe. It said that it noted with concern that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation showed no sign of observing Zimbabwean law.
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/ 15 February 2008
South Africa’s left is riding high as the government prepares to unveil a budget that is expected to raise spending on social programmes and shift policy more towards fighting unemployment and poverty. Powerful trade unions and the South African Communist Party have recently seen their influence within the ruling African National Congress rise.
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/ 15 February 2008
The Ginwala Commission of Inquiry on Friday received a submission from suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli. The submission was delivered to Ginwala’s offices before midday. It was Pikoli’s response to a government submission received by the commission in January.
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/ 15 February 2008
Eskom on Friday put out requests for proposals for cogeneration projects as part of its plan to bolster faltering electricity supplies. Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger explained that ”cogeneration” is when industrialists sell waste by-products that can be used to generate electricity.
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/ 15 February 2008
The Jeppestown massacre trial was postponed in the Johannesburg High Court on Friday to allow a defence attorney to recover. The court had to adjourn on Thursday morning after defence counsel Sibusiso Mbatha complained of pain. He had fallen down the stairs at his house on Wednesday night.
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/ 15 February 2008
The world’s fifth largest gold miner, Harmony Gold, said on Friday that its production for the March 2008 quarter would decrease. ”In the light of Eskom’s electricity-supply disruptions and with mines operating only at 90% of Harmony’s previous power supply, the company’s production for the March 2008 quarter will decrease,” it said in a statement.
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/ 15 February 2008
Sport Minister Makhenkesi Stofile’s attack against former Springbok rugby players is an attempt to distract attention from the government’s ”transgression of international sports regulations”, AfriForum said on Friday. Stofile on Thursday sharply criticised AfriForum after a group of former Springbok rugby players called for an end to ”racial discrimination in rugby”.
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/ 15 February 2008
Pointing out that Thursday February 21 is International Mother Language Day, the president of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has called for the new schools’ pledge drawn up by the Department of Education to be recited in the different languages of the country — depending on the region.
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/ 14 February 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille is to request a meeting with African National Congress president Jacob Zuma to discuss the future of the Scorpions, she said on Thursday. ”I intend to put this challenge to him. I will write to Mr Zuma and request an urgent meeting to state unambiguously the disastrous consequences that disbanding the Scorpions will have for South Africa.”
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/ 14 February 2008
The release of figures showing that 830 KwaZulu-Natal law enforcement officers were under investigation would be probed, the Independent Complaints Directorate boss announced on Thursday. Patrick Mongwe said that statistics could not be released with out having been ”audited and verified”.
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/ 14 February 2008
Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile on Thursday slammed the ”re-emergence of the erstwhile ambassadors of apartheid” in South African rugby. Stofile was responding to a public campaign calling for an end to political interference in the sport.
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/ 14 February 2008
The winners of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) will get a colossal R10-million first prize. This was announced by league sponsor Absa at the Carlton Centre on Thursday. Just more than R29-million will be shared by the 16 PSL clubs at the end of the season.
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/ 14 February 2008
The African National Congress’s decision to disband the Scorpions is to be deplored.
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/ 14 February 2008
South African power utility Eskom will consider buying back ”significant” amounts of power from industrial customers in order to ease an energy crisis, CEO Jacob Maroga said on Thursday. Maroga also said industry had responded well to an appeal to cut electricity consumption by 10% after gold and platinum mines were forced to halt production.
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/ 14 February 2008
South Africa should continue supplying its neighbours with power, African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday at the launch of the party’s Energy Efficiency Campaign. Mantashe said he did not want South Africa to be an ”island of prosperity in a sea of poverty”.
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/ 14 February 2008
The power situation has eased somewhat over the past few days and there has been no load-shedding since February 4, Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga told reporters on Thursday in Sunninghill, near Johannesburg. Maroga was announcing measures to be taken by Eskom to resolve the country’s electricity crisis.
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/ 14 February 2008
The government intends acquiring five million hectares of land next year in an effort to have 30% of agricultural land in the hands of black farmers by 2014, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana said in Cape Town on Thursday. Currently, black farmers own 4,7% of farm land, she told a press briefing.
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/ 14 February 2008
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma has asked the Constitutional Court to strike down a court ruling allowing seized documents to be used against him in a corruption case. Zuma and his lawyer Michael Hulley argued that prosecutors and investigators had acted illegally when they raided and seized documents.
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/ 14 February 2008
The Department of Health on Thursday released a revised policy and guidelines clearing the way for dual therapy in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. At the same time, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang dismissed claims that her department was reluctant to implement the new regime.
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/ 14 February 2008
”A disgrace”, ”Answers needed” and ”Crushing more than the Scorpions” was how some newspaper editorials reacted on Thursday to Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula’s announcement in Parliament that the Scorpions would be dissolved.
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/ 14 February 2008
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday dismissed claims that her department was reluctant to implement dual therapy for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. ”I was the first person to express concern about mono therapy … but we had to make sure that we had enough time to examine the implications of dual therapy,” she said.
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/ 14 February 2008
The case against a journalist who was arrested by Durban’s metro police was thrown out by the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after the control prosecutor declined to prosecute the case. Mhlaba Memela of the Sowetan newspaper was arrested on Wednesday evening by an eThekwini metro police officer.
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/ 14 February 2008
Lindiwe Hendricks, the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, on Thursday denied that South Africa is facing a water crisis. "I can categorically say that we are not facing a water crisis, or a water-contamination crisis," she told a media briefing in Parliament. "The water that comes out of our taps is among the best in the world."
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/ 14 February 2008
Four men accused of killing 12-year-old Emily Williams were held at a high-risk detention facility in Johannesburg overnight and preparations were being made on Thursday to take them to court. Williams died when she was hit by a stray bullet in a stand-off between robbers and security guards on Tuesday morning.
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/ 14 February 2008
An internet scam offering free dogs has come to light, the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) said on Thursday. The NSPCA said one recent scam offered free puppies and included photographs of the animals.
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/ 14 February 2008
South African families are grossly underinsured, by an estimated R10-billion, according to an independent study commissioned by the Life Offices’ Association. The Insurance Gap Study is aimed at measuring the life and disability insurance shortfall for South African households.
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/ 14 February 2008
The Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) did not act improperly as suggested by the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana said on Thursday. The ANCYL lodged a complaint with his office stating that the Scorpions held an ”inappropriate” meeting.
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/ 14 February 2008
Grade progression was poorly linked to actual ability and learning among black high-school pupils, research has found. Economic Research Southern Africa’s survey found evidence of ”significant racial differences” in secondary school grade progression.