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/ 6 December 2007
Opposition parties have lamented the increases in crime detailed in the latest statistics for April to September, which were released on Thursday. It was deplorable and made a mockery of Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula’s assurances that the crime rate was under control, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Diane Kohler-Barnard said.
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/ 6 December 2007
The Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town is to deliver judgement on Monday in the second bail application launched by Najwa Petersen, who goes on trial in the Cape High Court next year for the alleged murder of her famous husband, Taliep. Her senior counsel on Thursday urged the court to ”be bold and release her on bail.
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/ 6 December 2007
South Africa will not include maize in the initial stages of the country’s biofuels policy in order to keep a lid on high food prices, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Thursday. The decision followed the South African Cabinet’s approval of a long-awaited biofuels plan, which officials hope will revive the ailing agriculture industry.
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/ 6 December 2007
Holding the reigns of the ox-wagon that is pulling his father’s coffin, Nkosinathi Biko sits alone and solemnly among the masses of people. Surrounded by a throng of supporters, angry and tearful, he cuts a figure of solitude. A hero of the struggle is dead — but now lives on through the work of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.
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/ 6 December 2007
Mobile operator Cell C could be next on the cards for local fixed-line operator Telkom after talks with another mobile operator, MTN, terminated in November. Growth in the telecommunications sector has been skewed towards mobile operators in the past couple of years.
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/ 6 December 2007
South Africa’s IT spend will increase from R52,2-billion to more than R67,2-billion over a forecast period between 2006 and 2011, according to a report by African information and communications technology market analysts BMI-TechKnowledge. The spending is set to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 5,2%.
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/ 6 December 2007
After a substantial increase during the third quarter, inflation expectations only ticked up slightly during the fourth quarter, according to the latest <i>BER Inflation Expectation Survey</i>. CPIX inflation expectations are now expected to average 6% (previously 5,9%) during 2007, 5,9% (5,8%) during 2008 and 5,6% (unchanged) during 2009.
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/ 6 December 2007
Online retailers will have generated about R200-million by the time stores close for Christmas this year, technology research group World Wide Worx said on Thursday. "We can already see which products are generating the most heat through the searches on our site," said Jump Shopping MD Albert Bredenhann.
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/ 6 December 2007
South African markets were expecting slightly more hawkish rhetoric by the South African Reserve Bank than transpired on Thursday and now feel inflation is fairly close to its peak. The bond market, especially at the previously sold-off short end, has reacted favourably.
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/ 6 December 2007
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The African National Congress will remain divided after its Polokwane conference, South African Communist Party chairperson Gwede Mantashe on Thursday. He was speaking at a public seminar about the future and challenges of the ANC. ”The ANC will come out more divided after Limpopo. Divisions will last longer if any of the main competing groups win.
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/ 6 December 2007
House robbery, business robbery and truck hijacking increased between April and September this year, the police announced in Pretoria on Thursday. House robbery rose by 7%, business robbery by 29,3%, and truck hijacking by 53,3%. There were 6Â 711 house robberies in the six months from April to September, up from 6Â 271 over the same period last year.
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/ 6 December 2007
About R100-million-worth of counterfeit cigarettes were seized by police and port security at the Durban harbour on Thursday. Head of Durban harbour security and protection services Superintendent Thembakazi Mase said about 4 400 boxes of Chelsea cigarettes were found in four containers and 2 100 boxes of Chicago cigarettes were found in two other containers.
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/ 6 December 2007
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said this week that Angolan soldiers have raped, beaten and tortured illegal Congolese migrant workers before deporting them across the border. The French humanitarian group said the rights abuses were occurring in the diamond-rich northern Angolan province of Luanda Norte.
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/ 6 December 2007
A miner was killed on Thursday when a rock fell on him at Kloof gold mine near Westonaria, Gold Fields spokesperson Andrew Davidson said. ”The accident, the result of a rockfall, occurred in a stope at number three shaft 2 936m below ground at 11am,” said Davidson. Another miner who was working in the stope was injured during the rockfall.
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/ 6 December 2007
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni on Thursday raised the repo rate by 50 basis points following a two-day meeting of the bank’s monetary policy committee. The increase pushes the repo rate to 11%, the prime overdraft rate to 14,5% and the tightening cycle that began in June last year to 400 basis points.
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/ 6 December 2007
President Thabo Mbeki took issue with the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) report on South Africa, which suggested that there was an unacceptably high level of violent crime in the country. This emerged when the APRM report was unceremoniously released as part of a post-Cabinet media briefing at the Union Buildings on Thursday.
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/ 6 December 2007
An overstretched judiciary is hampering attempts to prosecute those responsible for mining accidents, South Africa’s minerals and energy minister said on Thursday. Mining companies in South Africa, the world’s top source of platinum and gold, are under pressure to improve safety at mines, where about 200 workers have been killed this year.
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/ 6 December 2007
Three people were killed and the N3 to Durban was closed on Thursday morning after a truck veered into another lane, leading to a massive pile-up, a KwaZulu-Natal transport department spokesperson said. Zinhle Mngomezulu said a truck travelling to Johannesburg left its lane at about 6am and ended up facing the traffic that was heading to Durban.
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/ 6 December 2007
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Some of the most respected figures in the African National Congress (ANC) could be excluded from the party’s national executive committee should deputy president Jacob Zuma win the race for the ANC presidency, a media report said on Thursday.
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/ 6 December 2007
Urgent action is needed to improve South Africa’s education, economist Mike Schussler said on Thursday. The country’s education standards needed to be raised "dramatically", he said at the release of the sixth <i>South African Employment Report</i> by the United Associations of South Africa trade union.
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/ 6 December 2007
The Cabinet has approved an electricity master plan for the country to plug a gap that has led to criticism of the failure to plan energy needs over the long term. Elaborating on the plan at a media briefing on Thursday, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica said that the plan "is a high-level plan, and not necessarily a pronouncement of new policy".
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/ 6 December 2007
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A member of the African National Congress has launched a legal bid to postpone the party’s conference this month, citing divisions over its leadership and breaches of the Bill of Rights, local media said on Thursday. Lawyer and ANC member Votani Majola would seek an interdict at the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday.
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/ 6 December 2007
The klebsiella death toll at Durban’s Prince Mshiyeni Hospital has risen to six. This follows the deaths of five other babies at the hospital two weeks ago. The deceased’s mother, Lungile Ngema, said that nurses had taunted her, saying mothers who gave birth at home brought the disease to the hospital.
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/ 6 December 2007
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s office did not want to comment on the plea bargaining and 10-year suspended sentence for drug trafficking handed down to Glenn Agliotti on Wednesday. Spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said: ”You must have noticed it was a Scorpions’ case so you will have to phone them.”
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/ 6 December 2007
Teasers boss Lolly Jackson has become a victim of crime for the fifth time in three years, he said on Thursday. One of the strip club owner’s homes in Bedfordview was robbed on Wednesday, when two armed men accessed the secure property and held the women living there at gunpoint.
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/ 6 December 2007
The JSE posted strong gains in early trade on Thursday ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee’s interest rate decision expected later in the afternoon, with higher world markets adding some incentive for buying interest. At 9.21am, the all-share index was up 0,73% as the platinum mining index gained 1,19%.
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/ 6 December 2007
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President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday he hoped the African National Congress (ANC) would discuss floor-crossing at its national conference in Polokwane this month. Speaking in a South African Broadcasting Corporation radio interview, he said the ANC had been opposed to floor-crossing when the issue was first raised by opposition parties.
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/ 6 December 2007
Life seemed to be starting all over at 42 for former Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana legend John ”Shoes” Moshoeu when he scored the equalising goal for AmaZulu against his old club in a 1-1 PSL draw at a rowdy King’s Park in Durban on Wednesday night.
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/ 6 December 2007
Robert Mugabe, a largely unwelcome guest of the European Union at a summit this weekend, is a hero in the eyes of many Africans for daring to stand up to the West and seize land from white farmers. Many in Europe have been left scratching their heads over how Zimbabwe’s president since independence still commands respect.
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/ 5 December 2007
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The outcome of the African National Congress’s (ANC) leadership contest is up to its membership and the contest should not be seen in a negative light, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. The people nominated were ”not nominated because they are enemies”, and should not treat one another as such.
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/ 5 December 2007
A reported spat between Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota was an indication of how the divisions within the African National Congress (ANC) were running through the Cabinet, a political analyst said on Wednesday.
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/ 5 December 2007
The Erasmus Commission of Inquiry probing Cape Town’s ”spy saga” is calling for public submissions on the matter. The commission, headed by Judge Nathan Erasmus, has already started studying all available documentation relating to the issue, commission secretary Zithulele Twala said on Wednesday.