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/ 12 February 2008
The North West department of health on Tuesday rejected suggestions that young people were trained to become sex workers. ”The three complainants from Schweizer Reneke were invited to attend a workshop in Mmabatho to teach the youth about HIV, drug abuse and crime,” said a spokesperson.
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/ 12 February 2008
After a five year contract that kept her in Las Vegas, pop diva Celine Dion is keeping a promise she made to former South African president Nelson Mandela by kicking off her world tour in South Africa, she said at a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
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/ 12 February 2008
The head of Adcock Ingram Critical Care, Tiger Brands’s healthcare division, has been suspended following allegations of collusion by the Competition Commission, the company said on Tuesday. Tiger Brands non-executive chairperson Lex van Vught said the company is ”devastated” by the allegations.
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/ 12 February 2008
Independent Democrats (ID) leader Patricia de Lille on Tuesday moved a motion calling on President Thabo Mbeki and his Cabinet to resign over the energy crisis. Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, she said the ID has lost confidence in the government and its leaders.
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/ 12 February 2008
English Premiership champions Manchester United will once again square off against Premier Soccer League giants Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs in the 2008 Vodacom Challenge championship. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said on Tuesday he is going to bring the best available squad for the tournament.
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/ 12 February 2008
Former mineworkers on Tuesday listened during the resumption of former miner Thembekile Mankayi’s bid to secure R2,6-million from AngloGold Ashanti after he contracted silicosis. One of the group, Willie Fuledi, said he hoped the court would make a ruling for other mineworkers seeking a payout for the disease.
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/ 12 February 2008
A man trying to outrun police in a stolen tractor was arrested in the Eastern Cape early on Tuesday. East London police spokesperson Superintendent Mtati Tana said police were told the tractor had been stolen from a farm in the Blue Water area outside East London at about 4am.
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/ 12 February 2008
Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Sandra Botha tabled a notice of motion in the National Assembly on Tuesday calling for Parliament to be dissolved. Speaking during debate on President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, she said in order to tackle the challenges currently facing South Africa, it is necessary to start from a clean slate.
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/ 12 February 2008
South Africa’s elite, FBI-style Scorpions anti-crime unit will be dissolved, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. ”The Scorpions … will be dissolved and the organised crime unit of the police will be phased out and a new, amalgamated unit will be created,” Nqakula told Parliament in Cape Town.
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/ 12 February 2008
Standard Bank said on Tuesday that it is issuing about 20 000 chip and PIN bank cards a month as part of an ongoing exercise to match international standards and sharply improve card security. The group said in a statement that card skimming is again on the rise.
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/ 12 February 2008
A shocking new range of price increases were announced on Tuesday as Zimbabwe’s world-record hyperinflation spun further out of control, with charges for cellphone calls soaring by nearly 1 700%. The official National Incomes and Prices Commission said international calls were up to Z,2-million from Z 400 per minute.
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/ 12 February 2008
Billy Joubert, director of tax at Deloitte, said on Tuesday during a pre-budget seminar that no rate changes to personal income-tax rates are expected, while at best the corporate tax rate may be cut to 28% from the current 29%. Joubert noted that South Africa’s corporate tax rates compare favourably with other countries.
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/ 12 February 2008
The African National Congress’s (ANC) national working committee urged party members on Tuesday to refrain from undisciplined and divisive behaviour ahead of the ANC’s provincial conference season. Members were asked to ”desist from behaviour that threatened the unity and discipline of the movement”.
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/ 12 February 2008
South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa, said on Tuesday the country’s support for a planned aluminium smelter at Coega remained unshaken despite a power shortage. Eskom said in January that electricity intensive investment projects could be reviewed due to the country’s power shortage.
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/ 12 February 2008
The United Democratic Movement councillor for the Metsimaholo municipality in the Free State, who was shot in the face recently, has died in hospital, police confirmed on Tuesday. Isaac Mokgatla (38) was shot in the Tshepiso informal settlement after he collected his two children from a school on January 31.
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/ 12 February 2008
Cellphone operator Cell C expects full-year core profit to rise by over 30% as a turn-around plan pays off, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday. Newly appointed CFO Fabrizio Mambrini said the struggling firm expected growth in revenue to be ”quite outstanding”.
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/ 12 February 2008
An application for the judge presiding over the Jeppestown trial to recuse himself was dismissed at the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday. Judge Ratha Motkgoatleng said the application had no legal basis to suggest he would be biased when he had to decide on the merits of the case.
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/ 12 February 2008
Universities will receive R3,6-billion in government money for increasing graduates and improving infrastructure following a finding in 2004 that subsidy levels have been declining, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Cape Town on Tuesday.
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/ 12 February 2008
The case against alleged Skielik shooter Johan Nel was postponed to March 13 at the Swartruggens District Court on Tuesday. The case was postponed for psychiatric referral. Nel is accused of killing four people and wounding six others in the Skielik informal settlement near Swartruggens on January 14.
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/ 12 February 2008
A schoolgirl was killed by a stray bullet fired during a shoot-out between robbers and security guards at a house in Fairlands, Johannesburg, on Tuesday morning, said police. The three robbers have since been arrested, said Captain Siphiwe Ndlovu.
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/ 12 February 2008
The JSE held on to gains at midday on Tuesday as investors chased after bargains following Monday’s sharp losses amid strong metal prices and firmer overseas markets. By 11.59am, the broader all-share index had added 0,82% to 27 860,790 thanks to a 3,27% gain in the platinum-mining index.
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/ 12 February 2008
President Thabo Mbeki failed to take action despite being told South Africa’s police commissioner faced prosecution over his alleged links to organised crime, the Star newspaper reported on Tuesday. The paper quoted an affidavit filed on Monday by Mokotedi Mpshe, the acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority.
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/ 12 February 2008
Tiger Brands has appointed Peter Matlare as its new CEO from April 1, the company announced on Tuesday. ”We believe he will bring a diverse set of skills and leadership abilities to Tiger Brands,” Tiger Brands’s non-executive chairperson Lex van Vught said in a statement.
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/ 12 February 2008
Chief economist at First National Bank Cees Bruggemans said on Tuesday that the apparent large-scale escalation in emigration intentions among talented professionals and managers is a major threat to the economy, especially when combined with the impact of the electricity crisis.
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/ 12 February 2008
The Blue Bulls have refused to allow South Africa lock Bakkies Botha to join French second division Toulon. Ian Schwartz, media spokesperson for the Blue Bulls, said on Monday that Botha would not be released from his contract. ”We had no option but to decline his request,” Schwartz was quoted as saying.
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/ 12 February 2008
South Africa number eight Pierre Spies is expected to return to full training at the end of February after spending seven months on the sidelines. A statement issued by the Blue Bulls on Monday said the province’s doctor was satisfied with Spies’s recovery and as long as everything went to plan he would start to take part in contact sessions at the end of the month.
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/ 12 February 2008
Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns turned the tables on AmaZulu and gained a timely 2-1 victory at the King Zwelithini Stadium on Monday night to avenge a home defeat by a similar margin against the Durban team earlier in the season.
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/ 12 February 2008
Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Monday announced the team that Proteas coach Mickey Arthur and the national selectors wanted, but the dispute in South African cricket is far from over. The team announced after a week’s delay resulting from the bitter row between Arthur and CSA president Norman Arendse was the one that Arendse had twice vetoed.
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/ 12 February 2008
There has been no decision by the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) to call for the reinstatement of party president Jacob Zuma as deputy president of the country, the league’s spokesperson said on Monday. ”If there was a decision, it would have been communicated,” said spokesperson Zizi Kodwa.
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/ 11 February 2008
The Competition Commission has referred three pharmaceutical companies to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution after they were found to be colluding when bidding for government tenders, it said on Monday. ”Collusive behaviour would undoubtedly be one of the contributing factors to higher prices in healthcare,” said competition commissioner Shan Ramburuth.
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/ 11 February 2008
An African National Congress (ANC) MP on Monday denied being booted off a South African Airways (SAA) flight after an alleged drunken argument with another passenger. Frans Tlokwe Maserumule said he left the plane willingly after the incident, which took place before the flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town took off.
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/ 11 February 2008
South Africa announced their squad to tour Bangladesh on Monday after a week of disagreements among the country’s cricket officials. The squad, which is scheduled to leave for Bangladesh on Wednesday, was due to have been named last Tuesday. Disputes between the selectors and the president of Cricket South Africa, Norman Arendse, held up the process.