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/ 15 December 2007

TB patients make a run for it

Eastern Cape authorities are searching for TB patients who escaped from the Jose Pearson Hospital in the Nelson Mandela municipality. The Eastern Cape Health department said it was believed that 29 multidrug-resistant and 20 extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis patients cut through three of the hospital’s perimeter fences to make their escape.

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/ 15 December 2007

Scorpions reveal new Zuma evidence

<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>New allegations against African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma have been included in an affidavit before the Constitutional Court, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Friday. Johan du Plooy, a senior special investigator for the Scorpions, said investigations had uncovered substantial new evidence against Zuma.

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/ 14 December 2007

Norman grumbles about Open course

Greg Norman fired a second-round two-under-par 70 at the South African Open on Friday and then criticised organisers for changes to the Pearl Valley course after the first round. The former world number one is on one-over-par for the tournament, three strokes behind leader James Kingston of SA.

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/ 14 December 2007

Zuma-led ANC will cost IFP dearly

A Jacob Zuma-led African National Congress will have a major impact in KwaZulu-Natal, analysts and politicians in the province said on Friday. They agreed the ANC’s popularity in the province would increase at the expense of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) if Zuma was elected the party’s new leader in Polokwane next week.

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/ 14 December 2007

Winnie meets Zuma, Mbeki

African National Cngress veteran Winnie Madikizela-Mandela held meetings with both the party’s deputy president Jacob Zuma and its president Thabo Mbeki on
Friday afternoon. Madikizela-Mandela has suggested Mbeki and Zuma retain their current party positions for the next five years, but that Zuma assume the country’s presidency in 2009.

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/ 14 December 2007

Nurses receive welcome salary boost

South African nurses have received significant salary increases including back-pay of up to six months, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday in Bloemfontein. She said the increases form part of an agreement with unions of an occupational-specific dispensation for nurses signed in September this year.

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/ 14 December 2007

Mbeki: Stay true to ANC goals

In an eleventh-hour appeal before the African National Congress’s (ANC) national conference starts on Sunday, President Thabo Mbeki on Friday urged delegates to remain faithful to the party’s revolutionary goals. He said it is important that delegates fully understand the responsibility they carry on their shoulders.

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/ 14 December 2007

If you wear crocodile shoes, have an elephant leather wallet, or possess an ivory chess set, you will have to have a permit to own them from February 1 2008. If you have a cycad in your garden and you want to give it to your neighbour, you will also have to have a permit.

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/ 14 December 2007

Corrupt tender costs Post Office R60m

The South African Post Office has been ordered to pay R60-million in damages due to contamination of a tender, according to Business Report on Friday. Judge Willie Hartzenberg found the Post Office had confirmed a corrupt tender in 2002 despite the fact that senior managers had been made aware of flaws in the process.

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/ 14 December 2007

New rape laws to help protect victims

After a protracted delay, South Africa’s tough new laws against sexual abuse will finally enter force on Sunday. The Justice and Constitutional Development Ministry said on Friday that the Sexual Offences Amendment Act will at last give greater protection to victims of sexual crimes.

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/ 14 December 2007

JSE softer as banks fall on concerns

A weaker bank sector forced a positive JSE to pull back into the red by midday on Friday, leaving the all-share index 0,14% lower at noon. The JSE’s bank index was down 1,38% at midday as local and international traders questioned whether the move by the central banks to inject liquidity into financial markets was enough to settle global credit concerns.

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/ 14 December 2007

It’s your party and I’ll cry if I want to

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool says he was ”disinvited” to speak at Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane’s farewell dinner on Thursday. ”I was most astounded when my office was informed that, under instruction from the Mayor of Cape Town [Helen Zille], I had been disinvited to speak at your farewell,” Rasool wrote.

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/ 14 December 2007

Investors fear jump to left under Zuma

Investors will closely eye the African National Congress’s election conference next week, fearing a victorious Jacob Zuma would chart a leftist course. Maarten-Jan Bakkum, an economist at ABN Amro Asset Management, said the thought of Zuma governing Africa’s economic powerhouse left many investors uneasy.

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/ 14 December 2007

An unstoppable Zunami

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>A casino might seem a perverse setting for a presidential hopeful to address anybody, let alone what purported to be a gathering of the KwaZulu-Natal legal fraternity in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday evening. The Golden Horse Casino is a succinct answer to those who wonder what has gone wrong in our society.

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/ 13 December 2007

A big day dawns for Ntini

Friday will be a big day for Proteas fast-bowler Makhaya Ntini, recently voted the most popular sports hero in South Africa. His invitation team, consisting mainly international cricketers, take on the might of the West Indies touring team at Buffalo Park on Friday in a 25-overs benefit clash.

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/ 13 December 2007

Amakhosi fans hope for magic

No place in South African soccer is more intense, electric and immersed in a downright feverish atmosphere these days than Bloemfontein’s Seisa Ramabodu Stadium when the city’s revered Bloemfontein Celtic cross swords with one of the supposed glamour teams of the Premier Soccer League.

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/ 13 December 2007

Joe Slovo ‘relocation’ in court’s hands

The proposed relocation of residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement is a bid to reverse century-old wrongs, the Cape High Court was told on Thursday. Cape Judge President John Hlophe was hearing an application by provincial authorities for permission to relocate the community, currently living in shacks alongside Cape Town’s N2 highway.

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/ 13 December 2007

Pikoli inquiry now awaiting submissions

Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Brigitte Mabandla has until January 15 to file her submissions with the Ginwala commission of inquiry into National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli. According to the rules and timeframes for the inquiry, Pikoli has until January 31 to do the same.