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/ 1 February 2008
The Polly Parade reaches its climax this weekend when veteran all-rounder Shaun Pollock plays his last matches for South Africa at Kingsmead on Friday and at the Wanderers on Sunday. With an unassailable three-nil lead over the West Indies in the five-match one-day international series, the Proteas will be looking for a series whitewash.
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/ 1 February 2008
Mines had their power levels increased from 80% to 90% on Friday but they still needed a guarantee of a reliable power supply, the Gold Fields mining company said on Friday. On Thursday, Eskom backtracked on an undertaking when it promised to provide 90% of its normal power supplies to mining companies.
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/ 1 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s inflation hit a record 26 470,8% in November 2007, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said in a monetary policy statement on Thursday. The figure rose from 7 982,1% in September. Zimbabwe’s Central Bank produced no inflation data for October.
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/ 31 January 2008
Free State farmers were on Thursday asked by Eskom to cut their power consumption by 10%, mainly during the ”red periods” of between 6pm and 7pm every day. ”This is with immediate effect,” Free State Agriculture president Louw Steytler told journalists in Bloemfontein.
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/ 31 January 2008
The African National Congress Youth League should act to stop the possibility of an ANC president running for a third term, ANC president Jacob Zuma said on Thursday. Zuma, speaking at the league’s national executive committee meeting in Vanderbijlpark, said the first president of the ANC after apartheid, Nelson Mandela, had only served one term.
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/ 31 January 2008
Press photographers were again barred from attending a press conference where South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Tito Mboweni announced the latest repo-rate decision on Thursday. It is the second time that photographers have been barred from taking pictures of Mboweni at the SARB press conference.
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/ 31 January 2008
Understandably, in a time of crisis someone has to carry the blame.
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/ 31 January 2008
Central Methodist Church Bishop Paul Verryn has condemned the heavy-handed way in which police arrested up to 1Â 500 refugees housed at his church in the Johannesburg CBD. The arrests were made during a late-night raid on Wednesday. The church is seen as a sanctuary for Zimbabwean refugees.
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/ 31 January 2008
An Eastern Cape man accused of three counts of rape and two of attempted rape is to be referred to a doctor specialising in erectile dysfunction. Mcebesi Noji (28) of Nkululeko, Barkly East, has pleaded not guilty to the five charges before judge Elna Revelas.
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/ 31 January 2008
The government is looking at the possibility of introducing roadworthiness tests for private vehicles every two years, a senior traffic official said at the launch of a national road safety campaign in Durban on Thursday. Thabo Tsholetsane said government was ”doing a study” to see how often roadworthiness tests could be carried out.
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/ 31 January 2008
It will likely be a short first appearance for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi in the Randburg Regional Court on Friday, a member of his legal team said. Selebi would be present at the court but it was likely that his case was going to be postponed, advocate Fanus Coetzee said on Thursday.
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/ 31 January 2008
Counsel for the defence in the Jeppestown murder and robbery trial on Thursday objected to what it termed a ”hybrid identification procedure” that it believed could prejudice the 13 accused. ”This is a hybrid procedure that buttresses the memory of the witness,” said Sidwell Ford in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday.
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/ 31 January 2008
A one-month delay to consider a new United Nations Security Council draft resolution that would punish Iran for moving ahead with its nuclear programme would not be a disaster, a South African official said on Thursday. The Security Council’s five permanent members, along with Germany, have circulated a draft that would toughen existing sanctions on Iran.
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/ 31 January 2008
In a surprise move, South African electricity utility Eskom has withdrawn its authorisation for the mining industry to increase its electricity use from 80% to 90% on Thursday. News of the decision came from Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-largest gold producer, which informed the media in a statement.
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/ 31 January 2008
A multiparty committee has been set up to investigate allegations involving the mayor of Rustenburg, Matthew Wolmarans, the municipality said on Thursday. Municipal manager Andries Boschoff said a motion of no confidence was passed against the mayor on Tuesday during a council meeting.
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/ 31 January 2008
A weaker rand drove mining shares higher on the JSE by midday on Thursday, lifting the bourse 0,88% into the black. By noon, the platinum-mining index was 2,74% higher, while the gold-mining index advanced 2,36% and resources were up 2,04%. Industrials edged up 0,16%, but financials and banks were off 0,66% and 1,24% respectively.
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/ 31 January 2008
Dozens of police officers and members of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union converged at a Durban school on Thursday, 48 hours after a former pupil went into the school and threatened teachers and pupils with a gun. The matter was only reported to police on Wednesday afternoon.
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/ 31 January 2008
A game of soccer between cars. A troupe of cars performing ballet. Unbelievable as it may sound, these were some of the events that thrilled audiences at last year’s MPH car show. Now, MPH 2008 ”Live Motoring Theatre” has arrived in South Africa for a second year.
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/ 31 January 2008
The labour minister has welcomed the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to prosecute two Sasol employees in connection with an explosion in 2004 in which ten people were killed. ”We are happy that our recommendations for prosecution have resulted in someone having to account for the flouting of … laws,” said Membathisi Mdladlana on Thursday.
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/ 31 January 2008
Several Durban rivers are polluted with health-threatening levels of E. coli bacteria, sometimes at levels hundreds of times over the recommended safety limits for drinking, washing, swimming or canoeing, the Mercury reported on Thursday. The eThekwini municipality has been singled out as one of the ”most significant” polluters.
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/ 31 January 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe may have dealt a fatal blow to Pretoria’s "quiet diplomacy" by calling an election in the middle of mediation efforts by his South African counterpart, say analysts. President Mbeki was handed the poisoned chalice of mediating between Mugabe and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change last April.
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/ 31 January 2008
Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-largest gold producer, on Thursday warned that it may be forced to close shafts and restructure as a result of Eskom’s request that the mining industry reduce its power use by 10%. Gold Fields CEO Ian Cockerill warned that the power shortages in South Africa would affect production in the March quarter.
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/ 31 January 2008
South African police have raided a church that was a sanctuary for Zimbabwean refugees, arresting scores of suspected illegal immigrants, the South African Broadcasting Corporation said on Thursday. The raid occurred at about midnight on Wednesday at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, which has become a virtual refugee camp for those fleeing Zimbabwe.
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/ 31 January 2008
When Kabelo Thibedi finally reached breaking point and pulled a gun on a civil servant at South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs, his act of desperation achieved instant results. ”If I had not done so … I would not have gotten my ID book. It was delivered to me that same day with the age error in it corrected,” recalls the 23-year-old.
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/ 31 January 2008
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African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma cancelled his controversial speaking engagement at a Mike Tyson charity banquet outside Johannesburg on Wednesday. About an hour-and-a-half before the event, the hosts said Zuma had to attend to urgent ANC business.
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/ 31 January 2008
South Africa’s crippling power crisis will not put off investors nor limit its ability to stage the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. Rolling power cuts have plagued homes, businesses and the mining industry in South Africa for weeks and are likely to continue for about five years, according to state power utility Eskom.
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/ 30 January 2008
Power failures could be a thing of the past if metropolitan areas cut their electricity usage by 10%, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. ”If we can do that, we can avoid even planned load-shedding,” he told MPs during Parliament’s special joint sitting to discuss the electricity crisis.
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/ 30 January 2008
The final countdown has started for Bafana Bafana as they take on Senegal in the last first-round fixture of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana on Thursday night with only a soccer miracle seemingly able to earn them a place in the quarterfinals. Senegal, meanwhile, are in the same precarious position as South Africa.
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/ 30 January 2008
A task team will be established to investigate a series of recent rapes and killings similar to the work of a serial killer who had operated in and around Pietermaritzburg in the 1990s, police said on Wednesday. The team will comprise six experienced detectives.
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/ 30 January 2008
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille was not guilty of any wrongdoing in connection with the city probe into councillor Badih Chaaban, an independent inquiry into the matter has found. ”The allegations around the investigation into councillor Chaaban have been nothing more than a smear campaign,” Zille said on Wednesday.
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/ 30 January 2008
Prosecution procedures into alleged price-fixing by certain South African milk producers will begin next week, the Competition Commission said on Tuesday. Eight dairy companies investigated for alleged price-fixing will be involved in pre-hearings next week, said the commission’s head of enforcements and exemption.
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/ 30 January 2008
South Africans can save electricity by going to sleep earlier and boiling less water, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on Wednesday told a special sitting of Parliament to discuss the power crisis. Nationwide power cuts began again at 3pm on Wednesday, said electricity provider Eskom.