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/ 4 February 2008
The Department of Home Affairs wasted more than R56-million in detaining illegal immigrants who did not exist, according to its 2007 annual report. The department had to pay a contractor for a fixed number of immigrants, regardless of the actual number detained, wrote the Auditor General in the report.
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/ 4 February 2008
Gauteng municipalities are switching off their lights to help prevent load-shedding. All 14 municipalities in the province on Monday committed themselves to a 10% reduction in electricity use, and to improve communication with residents and businesses on when and how long they will be affected by load-shedding.
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/ 4 February 2008
Sales of new vehicles were down by 9,4% in the first month of the year to 47 296 sold compared with the 52 212 sold in January last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa said on Monday. New car sales were down to 30 483, or 14,6%, in January this year compared with 35 687 sold in the same month last year.
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/ 4 February 2008
The attempted murder case against former Springbok rugby player James Dalton was struck from a Pretoria court roll on Monday. He can now only be prosecuted again for this alleged offence once the state is issued with a certificate from the National Director of Public Prosecutions.
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/ 4 February 2008
South Africa’s power crisis may already have damaged economic growth, even though the country’s mines have bounced back after electricity shortages brought production to a halt. The longer it takes Eskom to boost energy output for industry, the greater the chances that 2007 could have marked the end to four years of brisk economic growth.
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/ 4 February 2008
About a hundred shacks were destroyed in a fire on Sunday evening at the Joe Slovo informal settlement near Langa on the Cape Flats, Cape Town disaster risk management said. ”We were very fortunate that we have fire-detection cameras and the alarm was sounded,” said spokesperson Greg Pillay.
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/ 4 February 2008
President Thabo Mbeki must save democracy in South Africa by speaking out against the collapse of the boundary between party and state when he makes his State of the Nation address on Friday, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Monday.
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/ 4 February 2008
The African National Congress was not aware of any imminent visit to its Johannesburg headquarters by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, a spokesperson said on Monday. Rasool’s spokesperson Shado Twala also said she did know about the reported visit.
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/ 4 February 2008
Silence Mabuza showed why he is considered to be South Africa’s finest pound-for-pound boxer, when he halted a game but outclassed Eden Sonsona in the eighth round of their IBO world bantamweight title bout at Emperors Palace on Saturday night.
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/ 4 February 2008
The JSE had been lifted into the black by noon on Monday as firmer world markets and advances in the bank sector helped enliven the bourse after its soft opening. By noon, the broader all-share index had gained 0,92% to 29 016,26 points. Banks perked up 2%, while financials advanced 1,63% and industrials collected 1,66%.
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/ 3 February 2008
There were cheers and tears as Herschelle Gibbs hit a century and helped South Africa cruise to a eight-wicket victory over the West Indies in the fifth MTN one-day international on Sunday, as thousands of fans flocked to the Wanderers to say goodbye to Shaun Pollock, who was playing his last match in green and gold.
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/ 3 February 2008
South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande has accused City Press newspaper of adopting an ”extremely hostile attitude” towards African National Congress president Jacob Zuma. Nzimande tears into the paper in an open letter published on Sunday for ”deliberately” writing about the party in a ”provocatively factionalist, divisive and highly subjective manner”.
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/ 3 February 2008
South African education is in crisis mode, according to a Finweek report published this week. The report reveals not only a shocking skills shortage 13 years into post-apartheid South Africa, but also a fundamental crisis in an education system sorely lacking resources to equip a nation adequately for future growth.
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/ 3 February 2008
Fear now stalks the corridors of African National Congress (ANC) power as the party’s new president, Jacob Zuma, asserts his authority in Parliament, the provinces and the party structures, the Sunday Times reported. ANC MPs made their anxiety known in a closed meeting of the ANC’s parliamentary caucus on Thursday.
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/ 3 February 2008
South Africa is on the brink of a water-contamination crisis, potentially as bad as the electricity fiasco of the past few weeks, the Business Times reported on Sunday. In an alarming report, the National Nuclear Regulator has confirmed evidence of contaminated crops and water.
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/ 3 February 2008
South Africa’s national Under-23 soccer team beat their Danish counterparts 2-0 at a packed Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday. A much-improved performance by Steve Komphela’s side saw the hosts comfortably win the second game of this two-match international friendly series.
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/ 3 February 2008
In the wake of much bravado preceding what was termed the ”Gauteng Challenge”, Mamelodi Sundowns and Moroka Swallows edged home on penalty kicks against Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United respectively in what were no more than gloried friendlies at Atteridgeville’s Super Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
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/ 3 February 2008
Hundreds of spectators and competitors attending the third of four events in the Billabong ”Girls Get Out There” Summer Surf Series event at Tableview in Cape Town on Saturday enjoyed an ideal beach day with blazing sunshine, light winds and gradually dropping 1m waves.
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/ 3 February 2008
He conceded that it left a lump in the throat that they were back in South Africa at this early juncture of the Africa Cup of Nations, but worldly Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said it was heartening and encouraging that many positives had emerged in spite of South Africa’s opening-round elimination.
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/ 3 February 2008
IBO bantamweight champion Silence Mabuza showed why he is the only South African boxer rated in the top ten by Ring magazine, and former heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders’s ring career must now be over. That much emerged on Saturday evening at Emperors Palace.
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/ 3 February 2008
Marguerite Sabamahoro, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, remembers the moment she was woken at her home in Kigali on April 7 1994 by the sound of gunfire and bombing as if it were yesterday. ”I lost aunts, uncles, cousins and friends to the genocide,” Sabamahoro tells visitors to a new genocide exhibition at the Apartheid Museum.
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/ 3 February 2008
There are serious legal concerns over the treatment of immigrants who were arrested this week at the Central Methodist church in the Johannesburg CBD, the Legal Resource Centre said on Saturday. Detainees were apparently delayed in receiving medical and legal assistance and were allegedly asked for bribes by police.
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/ 3 February 2008
Rescuers have confirmed that no one else remained trapped in the rubble at the Carnival City shopping complex near Brakpan on the East Rand of Gauteng, where three people were killed and two injured on Saturday evening when part of the complex collapsed into a parking area.
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/ 2 February 2008
Emergency personnel were on Saturday still searching for survivors after part of the Carnival City shopping complex near Brakpan on the East Rand in Gauteng partially collapsed into a parking area, killing three people. Netcare 911 spokesperson Mark Stokoe said an exterior wall of the mall had collapsed on to a car.
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/ 2 February 2008
Radioactive levels three times higher than permitted have been found in vegetables grown in wetlands in the Wonderfonteinspruit area between Randfontein and Potchefstroom, Beeld newspaper reported on Saturday. The revelations are contained in a report by the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation.
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/ 2 February 2008
South Africans need to defend the notion of a fair trial in relation to Jacob Zuma, said African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee member Mathole Motshekga at an ANC party gathering at Polokwane in Limpopo, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Saturday.
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/ 2 February 2008
Factions within the African National Congress (ANC) are bringing the entire country into disrepute and causing uncertainty among investors, said United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa on Saturday. He was addressing the UDM provincial council in Standerton, Mpumalanga.
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/ 2 February 2008
An Eastern Cape police captain charged with the possession of stolen goods was released on bail by the Qumbu Magistrate’s Court on Saturday. The charges relate to the possession of unlicensed firearms, ammunition, stolen vehicles and stock cards, as well as defeating the ends of justice.
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/ 2 February 2008
Millions of rands of international donor funds intended to be used by the Red Cross Society in KwaZulu-Natal have disappeared.
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/ 2 February 2008
The second meeting of the Yellow Pages Ultimate Athletics series, held at the PUK McArthur Stadium in Potchefstroom, was an evening of mixed fortunes. The weather played a huge part as a fierce wind and dust storm caused several events to be cancelled while others were interrupted and completed later in the evening.
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/ 2 February 2008
AB de Villiers struck a confident 77 while Shaun Pollock bid an emotional home town farewell as South Africa beat the West Indies by five wickets at Kingsmead on Friday to maintain a perfect record in the one-day series. Pollock delighted a capacity crowd by hitting the winning boundary to seal South Africa’s win.
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/ 2 February 2008
A truck driver was shot and wounded by a man in a car with which he had collided in Randburg on Friday, said Netcare 911. Spokesperson Nick Dollman said the truck driver apparently went through a red traffic light, colliding with the passenger side of a family car. A mother and her two young children were injured in the collision.