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/ 20 January 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) has laid down the law to President Thabo Mbeki following two days of discussions between its national executive committee and the Cabinet, the <i>Sunday Times</i> reported. The ANC was also moving to get Mbeki to appoint Kgalema Motlanthe as a second deputy president in government.
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/ 20 January 2008
President Thabo Mbeki is to meet the management of electricity utility Eskom to ascertain the depth of the current power-supply crisis and the company’s remedial plans, the Presidency said on Saturday. Mbeki will table the matter before the forthcoming Cabinet lekgotla (meeting) that begins in Pretoria on Tuesday.
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/ 20 January 2008
At least 10 people were killed, 10 critically injured and another 23 seriously injured in a bus accident on the R34 near Ulundi on Saturday, KwaZulu-Natal emergency services reported. The accident, involving a Greyhoud bus, took place on the R34 between Melmoth and Vryheid at the turn-off to Ulundi.
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/ 19 January 2008
It has been many years coming, but finally the Hansa Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon has delivered a black winner. Seven-time winner Martin Dreyer paddled into Durban’s Blue Lagoon with Michael Mbanjwa, clocking seven hours, 33 minutes and 24 seconds for the three-day haul from Pietermaritzburg.
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/ 19 January 2008
AfriForum has laid a charge against an African National Congress MP and all other organisers of a demonstration held outside the Swartruggens Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, the organisation said on Friday. Johan Nel (18), who allegedly shot and killed three people in the Skielik informal settlement, was appearing in court on at the time.
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/ 19 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has come out in support of the chief prosecutor of Pretoria’s decision to withdraw charges against advocate Gerrie Nel, head of the Scorpions in Gauteng, it said on Friday. The Pretoria Regional Court this week withdrew charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice against Nel.
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/ 19 January 2008
For the second successive match, striker Tarryn Bright spared South Africa’s blushes when she landed the winning goal in her side’s 1-0 win over Ireland on Friday in the third Test played at Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. Bright also scored the lone goal in South Africa’s close-shave 1-0 victory over the tourists on Tuesday.
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/ 19 January 2008
Shaun Pollock’s farewell tour of South Africa started in triumph when he steered his team to victory in a Twenty20 international against the West Indies at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Friday. Pollock top-scored with 36 not out off 25 balls as South Africa won by four wickets with four balls to spare.
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/ 19 January 2008
South Africa’s Ashleigh Simon and Laurette Maritz were seven shots behind leaders Korea after the first day’s play of betterball at the Women’s World Cup of Golf at Sun City on Friday. Korea’s Ji-Yai Shin and Eun-Hee Ji carded a bogey-free, 11-under-par 61 to lead France by one stroke with Canada in third at eight-under.
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/ 19 January 2008
Three trains were set alight in Pretoria by angry commuters, police said on Friday. Captain Prince Mokhabela said the first train was burnt in Pretoria North at 6pm. ”There was a power failure and commuters got angry as trains were not moving. People also burned trains at Walmerton and Winterveld,” he said.
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/ 18 January 2008
Cases of murder, armed robbery and theft against seven men and a woman were on Friday postponed in the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court, Mpumalanga police said. The eight are accused of killing businessman Sihlangoma Solomon Hlongwane, whose tongue was tied with a string and pulled out until he died.
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/ 18 January 2008
It was unclear on Friday whether President Thabo Mbeki will attend the African National Congress’s (ANC) three-day national executive committee lekgotla (meeting) in Midrand. Presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said he could not comment on whether Mbeki would be attending.
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/ 18 January 2008
A 28-year-old prisoner was allegedly beaten to death by Department of Correctional Services officers at the instruction of a senior prison officer at Pietermaritzburg’s New Prison, the Witness newspaper reported on Friday. An investigation has been launched into the death of the prisoner.
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/ 18 January 2008
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk has called on the United States to assume a ”fair share of responsibility” in reducing world greenhouse-gas emissions. He was delivering a speech in Cape Town at a climate-change round-table discussion.
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/ 18 January 2008
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma’s attack on the print media on Friday, in his ANC Today online newsletter, reveals a ”hostile state of mind towards the media”, says the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef). It contains ”wild generalisations encompassing the media as a whole”, Sanef said.
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/ 18 January 2008
Three Pretoria High Court judges have described the ”insensitivity” of Hoërskool Ermelo and its governing body to students who did not want to be taught in Afrikaans as ”shocking”. The judges last year dismissed the school’s application to set aside a decision to revoke the powers of its governing body to determine language policy.
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/ 18 January 2008
Two intrepid adventurers are planning to swap extreme cold for extreme heat after becoming the first South Africans to walk unsupported to the South Pole. Speaking only hours after completing their epic 1 113km journey, Alex Harris said on Friday that he and his teammate, Sibusiso Vilane, had now decided to take on a desert.
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/ 18 January 2008
Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane met representatives of political parties in Pretoria on Friday to discuss the subject of presidential pardons. The discussions at the Union Buildings dealt with applications from perpetrators of alleged political crimes committed before June 16 1999.
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/ 18 January 2008
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota was on Friday sentenced to a R5Â 000 fine or 12 months’ imprisonment for reckless and negligent driving. Wearing a dark suit, glasses with gold frames and accompanied by his bodyguard, Lekota pleaded guilty to exceeding the national speed limit. Last Sunday Lekota was arrested for driving at 189km/h in a 120km/h zone.
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/ 18 January 2008
There is a ”rising tide” of corruption in the South African Police Service [SAPS], Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille alleged on Friday. ”Minister of Safety and Security [Charles Nqakula] and the leadership of the SAPS need to find the political will to acknowledge the grave threat that police corruption poses to our country,” she said in her weekly newsletter.
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/ 18 January 2008
Chief economist of Citigroup in South Africa Jean Mercier says foreigners see more political risk in South Africa now than they have over the past few years, and will be keenly monitoring any "new faces", especially in the key finance and Reserve Bank positions, as these people may be untested at high-level economic decision-making.
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/ 18 January 2008
Having taken it over last week from his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, newly elected leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Jacob Zuma is giving up his weekly pulpit in the ANC’s online newsletter, <i>ANC Today</i>. The weekly sermon was an opportunity, much prized by Mbeki, to deliver often literary admonishments to individuals or organisations.
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/ 18 January 2008
Chief economist of Citigroup in South Africa Jean Mercier says he expects a South African growth rate of 4% in 2008, but adds that it should start stabilising towards the second half of the year and then have a bit of a pick-up in 2009. He foresees growth of 4,5% in 2009, with it picking up towards the soccer World Cup in 2010.
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/ 18 January 2008
South African stocks fell over 3% on Friday on increasing fears that the United States economy could be hit by a recession. By 8.55am GMT the top-40 index had crept back from a session and stood 2,76% weaker at 23 936,98 points, off the day’s worst level of 23 816,5.
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/ 18 January 2008
Shaun de Waal samples the works of three South African poets as they get out of town.
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/ 18 January 2008
Despite their cheesy name, the South Jersey Pom-Poms are quirky, eclectic and cool, writes Niren Tolsi.
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/ 18 January 2008
South Africa is still behind when it comes to sampling music for free, writes Lloyd Gedye.
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/ 17 January 2008
Two South Africans made history on Thursday when they became the first team to walk unsupported and unassisted to the South Pole. ”They did make it. It’s just divine,” Nadia Harris, wife of one of the pioneers, said after 6pm. The expedition of Alex Harris and Sibusiso Vilane started in November last year.
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/ 17 January 2008
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) said on Thursday that it was outraged by the arrest of an Oudtshoorn journalist. The arrest took place on Tuesday. ”We are outraged at the arrest of the Kaapse Son‘s journalist, Hein Coetzee …,” said Sanef chairperson Raymond Louw.
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/ 17 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, who is facing corruption charges, will appear in court on February 1, prosecutors said on Thursday. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Tlali Tlali said Selebi would appear in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court. He gave no further details.
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/ 17 January 2008
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma is claiming R5-million from Rapport for defamation and crimen injuria, his spokesperson Liesl Gottert said on Thursday — a day after he reached a R50Â 000 out-of-court settlement with the same paper for a previous defamation and crimen injuria claim.
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/ 17 January 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday made an about turn on its earlier concerns over comments made by Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, issuing a statement confirming its confidence in the integrity of the courts. ”Having listened to Justice Moseneke’s account … the ANC accepts that no ill was intended,” an ANC statement said.