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/ 7 December 2007
Parliament’s transport portfolio committee has tabled a scathing report on the country’s transport preparedness to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The report, circulated in Parliament on Friday, says that at present there is only one senior official, a chief director, who is working full time on 2010 in the Department of Transport.
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/ 7 December 2007
South African taxpayers should brace themselves for scant relief when the Budget is announced in February next year as analysts feel Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is likely to be very cautious due to the cyclical risks underpinning the economy. Analysts also feel that the Budget needs to be better harnessed to improve effective expenditure.
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/ 7 December 2007
Axed <i>Sowetan</i> sub-editor Llewellyn Kriel will on Monday appeal against the findings of the disciplinary hearing that made him the first South African fired for blogging. Kriel was dismissed when he was found to have brought the company’s name into disrepute through a blog on the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i>’s <i>Thought Leader</i>.
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/ 7 December 2007
Platinum-mining stocks were propping up the JSE in noon trade on Friday, enhancing gains driven by Wall Street in the morning session. By 11.58am, the JSE all-share index lifted 0,7%, supported by a 3,24% advance in the platinum-mining index. Resources collected 0,94% but the gold-mining index dipped 0,87%.
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/ 7 December 2007
Serial rapist Mongezi Jinxela was found guilty in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday on 220 charges of rape, kidnapping, robbery and assault, the National Prosecuting Authority said. Spokesperson Tlali Tlali said Justice George Maluleka found Jinxela guilty of raping 57 women — making him one of the country’s worst serial rape offenders.
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/ 7 December 2007
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Aides of Jacob Zuma have drawn up contingency plans to try to force his rival President Thabo Mbeki out of office early, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Friday. If Zuma was elected party leader at the African National Congress’s five-yearly conference, he would insist on being privy to big government decisions.
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/ 7 December 2007
The KwaZulu-Natal health department on Thursday evening denied reports that a sixth baby had died from the klebsiella at Durban’s Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital. Department spokesperson Leon Mbangwa said a sixth baby had indeed died, but not from the klebsiella which it had earlier contracted.
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/ 7 December 2007
Police are investigating charges of corruption and obstruction of justice against a senior Cape Town policeman involved in Tony Yengeni’s alleged drunk-driving saga. Provincial police spokesperson Novel Potelwa said that Goodwood station commissioner, Senior Superintendent Siphiwe Hewana, had also been suspended without pay, and faced an internal disciplinary hearing.
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/ 7 December 2007
Tiger Brands chief executive Nick Dennis has advised the company’s board of directors that he intended to take early retirement. He would also resign as a director of the company with effect from the conclusion of the annual general meeting of shareholders, scheduled for February 19 2008.
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/ 6 December 2007
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Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has declined a nomination as African National Congress (ANC) chairperson but has accepted a nomination for deputy president. This emerged on Thursday when the ANC released its long-awaited consolidated list of nominations for its national executive committee.
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/ 6 December 2007
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Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi will not accept a nomination to the national executive committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC), Cosatu said on Thursday. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the congress was seriously concerned about leaders who embraced ”patronage”.
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/ 6 December 2007
Government ministers have changed their minds about referring the forensic report on the affairs of the Land Bank to the police. According to Cabinet spokesperson Themba Maseko, they did so after hearing that a number of board members and senior executives of the bank had challenged statements in the report.
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/ 6 December 2007
The South African Police Service (SAPS) was not involved in reviewing the arrest warrant for its National Commissioner, Jackie Selebi, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Thursday. However, he confirmed that the warrant was indeed the subject of review.
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/ 6 December 2007
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The African National Congress (ANC) group that applied unsuccessfully to the Johannesburg High Court to have the party’s imminent conference postponed would appeal the decision, their lawyer said on Thursday. ”We are definitely going to appeal,” said Votani Majola.
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/ 6 December 2007
The so-called ”boot killer”, Daniel van der Walt, was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years’ imprisonment for brutally beating and strangling a frail young prospective employee. Van der Walt, a powerfully built blockman who used to work at a butchery, admitted that he had in February last year murdered petite Marlene Mauer (20).
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/ 6 December 2007
A late start after lunch and an early closure because of fading light left the Dolphins with the upper hand on the first day of their SuperSport Series cricket match against the Highveld Lions at the Sahara Stadium, at Kingsmead in Durban, on Thursday. Heavy rain made play impossible before lunch.
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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.