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/ 24 November 2007

Zuma gets another vote of confidence

African National Congress deputy president Zuma was named as the preferred presidential candidate of the Mpumalanga ANC general council, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Friday. Zuma polled 263 votes at a the council meeting held at Waterval Boven on Friday.

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/ 24 November 2007

Journalist demands apology from Gevisser

Journalist Charlene Smith on Friday demanded a public apology from Mark Gevisser, author of the book Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred, saying he had published ”serious inaccuracies”. She was referring to an article by her, published in the Washington Post, that Gevisser quoted in his biography of Mbeki.

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/ 24 November 2007

Miner dead in Harmony rockfall

One miner has died and another was injured following an underground accident at Harmony Gold’s Elandsrand mine on Friday, the company said. ”He succumbed to his injuries after he was trapped underground for four hours. His body was discovered in the afternoon,” said chief operating officer Alwyn Pretorius.

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/ 24 November 2007

Fifa chief savours Africa’s first World Cup

With South Africa set to stage the qualifying draw for the 2010 World Cup, Fifa president Sepp Blatter is claiming a personal victory. ”I am very happy to be here in Durban, South Africa — [in] my continent,” he said. The Fifa leader claims credit for making sure Africa finally gets to host soccer’s biggest championship.

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/ 24 November 2007

SuperSport, Wits get the points

SuperSport United beat Moroka Swallows 2-1 in their Premier Soccer League game played at Germiston Stadium on Friday night, and Bidvest Wits beat Bloemfontein Celtic 2-0 in their match. Part of the game in Germiston was played in heavy rain and referee Robert Smith was forced to stop the match for 15 minutes.

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/ 24 November 2007

Rain halts Sundowns, Cosmos clash

Lightning resulted in Daniel Bennett halting the goalless Premier Soccer League game between Mamelodi Sundowns and Jomo Cosmos a minute after half-time at a sparsely filled Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Friday night — and after a rain inspection 20 minutes later, the referee called off the proceedings.

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/ 24 November 2007

SA snatch win from New Zealand

An undefeated 52 by AB de Villiers helped South Africa to a three-wicket victory over New Zealand in the Standard Bank Pro20 at the Wanderers on Friday night. Needing 130 to win, South Africa made 131 for seven, with a ball to spare. New Zealand will rue their dropped catches, especially a De Villiers drop.

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/ 23 November 2007

One dead, one missing in Southern Cape flooding

A 12-year-old boy drowned and a 65-year-old man is missing in flooding caused by heavy rains in the Southern Cape, police said on Friday. Captain Malcolm Pojie said the young boy from Harkerville, about 5km to 10km outside Plettenberg Bay, was playing with friends along the banks of a river swollen by rain when he was swept downstream.

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/ 23 November 2007

Bafana coach casts his net wide

Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has been hoarding candidates for the South African squad to participate in the African Nations Cup in Ghana early in the new year. On Friday, he added to his not inconsiderable collection when he introduced a host of new names in the squad to play Lesotho on Tuesday night.

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/ 23 November 2007

Zuma speaks out against crime in SA

South Africans must speak up if they want the death penalty back, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma said on Friday. Speaking to about 250 people at an anti-crime rally at Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats, he also called for ”extraordinary measures” against crime.

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/ 23 November 2007

Report: Mbeki gets pay rise

The South African Parliament officially closed for the year on Thursday with MPs voting for a 7,6% salary increase for President Thabo Mbeki, to R1,27-million a year, backdated to April 1. It was far short of the nearly 60% increase from R1,18-million to R1,89-million recommended by the independent Moseneke Commission in its review of salary packages for public office-bearers.

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/ 23 November 2007

Soccer was more than just a game on Robben Island

While sporting attention is turned to the draw for the preliminary round of the 2010 Soccer World Cup this weekend, a different view of soccer in South Africa is being premiered in front of a celebrity audience on Friday. Director Junaid Ahmed’s film More Than Just a Game tells the story of how political prisoners on Robben Island used soccer as one of the means of survival.

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/ 23 November 2007

Implats shuts Clapham shaft at Marula after death

Impala Platinum (Implats), the world’s second-biggest producer of platinum, shut one of two shafts at its Marula mine after a worker was killed in an incident, an official at Implats said on Friday. Clapham is one of two shafts at Marula and produces half of the Marula mine’s total output of 6 000 ounces of platinum per month.

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/ 23 November 2007

Harmony says miner missing at Elandsrand mine

Harmony Gold said on Friday one worker was injured and another was missing after a rockfall at its Elandsrand mine, which re-opened on Monday after it was shut down in early October following an accident. An official at Harmony said the mine had not been shut again after Friday’s accident, which took place about 3km underground at about 10.30am.

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/ 23 November 2007

Record TV audience expected for World Cup draw

A record television audience is expected to watch the 2010 Soccer World Cup preliminary draw when it takes place in Durban on Sunday afternoon. World Soccer governing body Fifa spokesperson Nicolas Maingot said on Friday that while television viewer figures would be hard to estimate, there would be 34 television channels broadcasting the draw live.

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/ 23 November 2007

Govt launches plan to improve road safety

A ”Rolling Enforcement Plan” was launched by the Department of Transport at the Heidelberg traffic control centre on Friday to improve road safety during the festive season. ”The main aim of this event is to promote cooperation between different law enforcement agencies,” said Mawethu Vilana, speaking on behalf of Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.

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/ 23 November 2007

ANCYL throws weight behind Zuma

The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has thrown its weight behind Jacob Zuma for president of the ANC, with current president Thabo Mbeki not featuring on its list of 66 nominations released in Johannesburg on Friday. ”We didn’t support him [Mbeki] for president of the ANC,” said ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula.

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/ 23 November 2007

Student faces high-court trial for murder of parents

A gay psychology student who in July allegedly shot dead both his parents to spare them the grief of his own suicide, is to go on trial in the Cape High Court next year on two charges of murder. Grant Harris (23) on Friday made his seventh appearance in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, before magistrate Hafeeza Mohamed, since his arrest in August for the double murder.

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/ 23 November 2007

SA mining union plans safety strike

The National Union of Mineworkers plans to ask its members to down tools on December 4 to protest against a spate of deaths in the country’s mines, the president of the union said. Senzeni Zokwana unveiled the date of the planned action in a speech at a congress of global miners’ unions, which started in Thailand on Thursday, a statement said.

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/ 23 November 2007

SA looks to silence sceptics at World Cup draw

South Africa’s ability to stage the world’s most widely watched sporting event will undergo intensive scrutiny on Sunday when it hosts the qualifying draw for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Thousands of football administrators and journalists will be present in Durban, with hundreds of millions more watching on television, for an extravaganza designed to silence the sceptics.

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/ 23 November 2007

World markets boost a recovering JSE

World markets injected some life into the JSE at midday on Friday as the all-share index lifted 0,90%, led by a 1,78% gain in resources. By noon the gold mining index collected 0,35%, but the platinum mining index was up a slight 0,06%. Financials advanced 0,51% and banks inched up 0,28%. Industrials were 0,09% in the black.

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/ 23 November 2007

Prison escapee dies in shoot-out

A Qalakabusha prison escapee died on Friday morning after a shoot-out with law enforcement officials, KwaZulu-Natal police said. Police spokesperson Captain Jabulani Mdletshe said the incident took place at 2am in Mtubatuba. Xolani Ngobese and nine other convicted criminals escaped from the prison in northern KwaZulu-Natal on August 4 this year.

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/ 23 November 2007

Heavy rains lash southern Cape, roads closed

About 1 000 people have been evacuated from their homes and sections of the N2 near George has been closed, as heavy rains continued to pelt the southern Cape on Friday. Disaster official Gerhard Otto said the Red Cross was assisting with blankets and mattresses for those affected, mainly from low-income areas in Knynsa, Sedgfield and Plettenberg Bay.

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/ 23 November 2007

McBride’s metro cops resign

Two of the three metro cops implicated in Robert McBride’s alleged drunk-driving cover-up have resigned, Ekurhuleni metro police said on Friday. Spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said Itumeleng Koko and Patrick Johnson resigned earlier this week. It has been reported that the men received indemnity from prosecution by turning state witness against metro chief McBride.

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/ 23 November 2007

More than just a game

The Soweto derby, between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, has captured the imagination of football lovers since 1970. The fixture has become the showstopper of the South African football calendar. This weekend’s match in Durban will export the passions of South African fans to Europe and those parts of Africa where it will be televised live.