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/ 7 November 2007
After bouncing back to 98,7 in October, the SACCI Business Confidence Index (BCI) dipped to 96,9 in October, which is its lowest level since June 2004. The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that businesses were becoming concerned about international economic developments as well as local adjustments.
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/ 7 November 2007
South African investment firm Mvelaphanda Group (Mvela) said on Wednesday that it was in talks that may affect its share price if successfully concluded, sending its stock price higher. Mvela said the cautionary was not related to the deal in which the firm said it had agreed with fund management group Allan Gray to buy up to 30% of Johnnic Communications’ media unit.
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/ 7 November 2007
Members of Parliament on Wednesday heard a plea from the troubled state airline, South African Airways (SAA), for an injection of R744,4-million to pay for one-off labour restructuring costs. The cash, they were told, is needed before the last day of November.
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/ 7 November 2007
Sports and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile ruled out racial quotas for national teams on Tuesday after the mainly white Springboks’ recent victory in the Rugby World Cup reignited the debate over transformation. ”Quotas are out,” Stofile told a parliamentary sports committee. ”Let us put our resources into the development of talent.”
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/ 7 November 2007
The JSE was a touch higher at midday on Wednesday, lifted by miners on soaring metal prices, but weaker overseas markets and the stronger rand dampened the overall mood. At noon, the all-share index was up just 0,12% higher, thanks to a 2,31% and 1,70% gains by the gold and platinum mining indices.
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/ 7 November 2007
South Africa plans to extend its crackdown on mine safety and may prosecute mine managers if fatal accidents are caused by negligence. ”I don’t think the mine managers are doing enough to ensure the safety of workers,” said Sandile Nogxina, director general of the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs.
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/ 7 November 2007
The trial within a trial to decide on the admissibility of certain evidence in the drunk-driving case of Pretoria High Court judge Nkola Motata begins on Wednesday. Last month magistrate Desmond Nair ruled that the authenticity of the recordings needed to be determined before they could be used by the prosecution.
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/ 7 November 2007
An injury report from Moroka Swallows’ medical staff 24 hours before the crunch Premier League game against Kaizer Chiefs at King’s Park on Wednesday night conjured up a picture of the wounded limping back in pain from the Crimean War. Five Swallows players who ostensibly would be first-choice selections for the Sowetan ”Derby-by-the-Sea” are unavailable.
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/ 7 November 2007
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Tuesday he was committed to the north-south peace deal that ended Africa’s longest civil war and there would be no return to hostilities after a crisis threatened the pact. ”I would like to assure you there will be no return to war whatsoever,” he said at a state banquet with South African President Thabo Mbeki.
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/ 6 November 2007
A 21-year-old man was handed a life sentence by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday for raping and killing his sister-in-law. Judge Nambitha Dambuza, who sat with two assessors, also sentenced Themba Ngxokongxa, of Siviwe, Komga, to 20 years for rape and 15 for robbery with aggravating circumstances.
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/ 6 November 2007
Sudan has asked South Africa to mediate on Darfur, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Tuesday as attempts to end a conflict that has killed more than 200 000 and forced 2,5-million from their homes appeared to founder. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir met President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday.
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/ 6 November 2007
Premier Soccer League (PSL) board members deserve to be rewarded with millions of rands for their role in securing the controversial Absa soccer sponsorship deal, MPs heard on Tuesday. ”They have done the best for football … and have acted in the best interest of the PSL,” league chairperson Irvin Khoza said.
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/ 6 November 2007
African National Congress (ANC) chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota has rejected allegations by Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille that the ANC and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund benefited inappropriately from the arms deal. De Lille on Tuesday said such allegations had been speculation up until now.
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/ 6 November 2007
South African medical authorities need to start thinking about tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/Aids as a single epidemic, rather than treating them separately, a TB expert said on Tuesday at a media briefing ahead of a major international conference on lung health, which begins in Cape Town on Thursday.
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/ 6 November 2007
An application for the mayor of the Lekwa municipality to repair a Great Trek memorial that had allegedly been damaged by the municipality was postponed in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. The hearing, due to start on Tuesday, was set down to begin on May 22 and 23 next year.
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/ 6 November 2007
Inequality in South Africa has increased since 1996, the South African Institute of Race Relations said on Tuesday. Figures from the institute’s latest South Africa Survey indicate that the country’s inequality has increased in all the country’s race groups with the exception of whites.
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/ 6 November 2007
More South African police officers were killed in the 11 years since the end of apartheid than in the previous period, a new study that highlights one of the world’s highest crime rates showed on Tuesday. The South African Institute of Race Relations said 1 894 police officers were killed between 1995 and 2005.
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/ 6 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court, regarded as a handpicked ally of President Robert Mugabe, has backed controversial legislation that allows the government to take farm equipment belonging to white farmers, in the name of the regime’s often-violent campaign to seize white-owned land.
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/ 6 November 2007
Jomo Cosmos and Orlando Pirates clash in round eight of the Absa Premier Soccer League at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Wednesday night, and Owen da Gama wants his charges to take all three points. Pirates are 11th on the league table with nine points from seven outings, and Da Gama wants the best result against Cosmos.
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/ 6 November 2007
The mining industry does not knowingly and willingly send people into mines to die, Chamber of Mines outgoing president Lazarus Zim said on Tuesday. Speaking at the chamber’s annual general meeting, Zim said the mining sector shares concerns about the escalating accident and fatality rate at South African mines.
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/ 6 November 2007
The South African Reserve Bank said on Tuesday in its latest <i>Monetary Policy Review</i> that the breach of the 3%-to-6% inflation target is of "significant concern" to the monetary policy committee. The bank added that some of the key inflation risks have proved "persistent" since the previous review was published in May.
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/ 6 November 2007
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said on Tuesday in its latest <i>Monetary Policy Review</i> that in light of the risks around the subprime crisis in global markets, it is important to maintain a stable and transparent monetary policy regime. Authorities in some emerging markets have been advised to strengthen surveillance.
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/ 6 November 2007
President Thabo Mbeki remains an ”Aids dissident” who has told a biographer that he regrets bowing to pressure from his Cabinet to ”withdraw from the debate” over the disease ravaging South Africa. According to a long-awaited biography by Mark Gevisser, the president feels aggrieved that he was deflected from continuing to question the causes of the epidemic.
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/ 6 November 2007
Ithafa Secondary School in Ermelo has won R60Â 000 in an annual Mpumalanga schools’ competition on global warming and climate change, the province’s department of agriculture and land administration said on Tuesday. Learners were competing in areas such as poster design, drama production and a model design.
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/ 6 November 2007
Very few prisons test newly admitted prisoners for contagious and communicable diseases such as tuberculosis or Aids, according to the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons’s 2006/7 annual report. The document also strongly criticises strip searches carried out on newly admitted prisoners.
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/ 6 November 2007
Two robbers and two security guards were shot dead during an attempted cash-in-transit heist and subsequent high-speed chase and shoot-out on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast near Port Shepstone on Tuesday morning, police said. A third robber, a police officer and a police dog were also wounded in the attempted heist.
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/ 6 November 2007
Former Orlando Pirates midfield star Steve Lekoelea is now fit and well and ready to run out for Platinum Stars. This was announced on Tuesday when Stars’ CEO Larry Brookstone explained why the signing of Lekoelea had taken nearly four months to complete.
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/ 6 November 2007
The issue of floor-crossing should be resolved within months, says MP Vytjie Mentor, who chairs a parliamentary committee dealing with the matter. ”We don’t think that floor-crossing strengthens democracy. We have not seen empirical proof that it strengthens democracy,” she told a joint meeting with the home affairs committee on Tuesday.
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/ 6 November 2007
Major retailer Clicks announced on Tuesday that it has crushed more than 56 000 of the conventional light bulbs it stocked and is now only selling energy-efficient bulbs. While this comes at some cost to Clicks, it will help conserve energy and protect the environment, the company said in Johannesburg.
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/ 6 November 2007
The Springbok rugby selectors, who on Tuesday sat down to pick the side for the two-match tour of Wales and England later this month, will not have included loose forward Bob Skinstad in the touring team. The 50th Springbok captain has retired with immediate effect. It is unlikely that Skinstad will be replaced for the short tour.
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/ 6 November 2007
Athletics South Africa (ASA) has ratified four new national records following a meeting of the ASA executive board last Saturday. Louw Smith of Boland province clocked 13,73 seconds to set a new South Africa junior men’s 110m hurdles record. He achieved this landmark on April 13.
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/ 6 November 2007
The government plans to hold countrywide public hearings early next year on the issue of name changes, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said on Tuesday. Addressing a media conference in Cape Town, Skweyiya said public hearings on the standardisation of geographical names in South Africa will be held in March 2008.