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/ 28 October 2007

Cosatu: Alliance won’t survive Mbeki re-election

The tripartite alliance will not survive if Thabo Mbeki is re-elected president of the African National Congress in December, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Sunday. ”A status quo will see the destruction of the alliance itself,” he told what was in essence a Jacob Zuma election rally in Kimberley.

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/ 28 October 2007

Vietnamese embassy official shot

An official of the Vietnamese embassy to South Africa was shot and seriously injured in a robbery at his Pretoria residence at the weekend, police said on Sunday. The man, believed to be in his late forties, was shot in the stomach in a scuffle with one of five intruders who surprised the official, his wife and two children at home on Saturday evening.

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/ 28 October 2007

Slowdown takes shine off SA’s mini-budget

As South Africa’s economic growth slows and inflation heats up, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel will present a medium-term budget on Tuesday with decidedly less to smile about than six months ago. While analysts expect Manuel to be more cautious in his revenue predictions, they believe past prudence has left him with enough room for manoeuvre.

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/ 27 October 2007

Cheetahs edge Lions in Currie Cup thriller

Three yellow cards, two of them on the advice of the touch judges, played a huge part in the Absa Currie Cup final played at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday, which saw the Free State Cheetahs beat the Lions 20-18. The Cheetahs, with the victory, retained their hold on the Currie Cup that they had shared with the Blue Bulls in the 2006 final.

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/ 27 October 2007

Boks thank Madiba for his magic

South Africa’s nationwide Rugby World Cup tour continued on Saturday with a visit to Soweto followed by an audience with former president Nelson Mandela. The Nobel Peace Prize winner greeted the team wearing the Boks’ gold and green shirt that he had famously worn to mark their first World Cup win in 1995.

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/ 27 October 2007

Free State turns orange ahead of Currie Cup final

The Free State may have lost the ”Orange” part of its name in the new South Africa, but Bloemfontein was a sea of orange as the city prepared for the Currie Cup final between the Cheetahs and the Lions on Saturday afternoon. Almost every vehicle in the city streets sported an orange Cheetahs flag, and orange was the colour to wear.

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/ 27 October 2007

Soweto residents cheer on the Boks

Soweto residents left their houses to cheer on the Springbok rugby team on its victory parade through the Johannesburg township on Saturday morning. A handful of cheering residents, some still in their night-gowns, braved the rain to greet the Rugby World Cup winners as they passed the Maponya Mall in an open-top bus.

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/ 27 October 2007

Sundowns shine in the rain

Those in Pretoria might have ignored the inclement weather in massive numbers to pay homage to the triumphant Springbok rugby players, but Mamelodi Sundowns’ recent sketchy form was enough to keep the fans indoors on Friday night as the Premier Soccer League champions regained much of their poise and form in beating Thanda Royal Zulu 3-1.

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/ 26 October 2007

Minister: SA totally opposed to nuclear weapons

South Africa remained totally opposed to all weapons of mass destruction, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday. The country had called for their total elimination in all international forums, she said. Suggestions that South Africa had made a U-turn on its nuclear stance were a ”figment of the imagination”.

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/ 26 October 2007

Cheer for the Hot Beans — or the SA Penguins

”Hot Beans” is one of the many names suggested by readers of a daily newspaper for Bafana Bafana after President Thabo Mbeki this week questioned the distinction of the national senior soccer team’s name. The Springboks’ recent Rugby World Cup victory inspired some fans to name the team after their coach, Jake White.

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/ 26 October 2007

Buthelezi slams KZN parliamentarians

The sitting of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZ) government in Vryheid earlier this week, which was aimed at ”taking parliament to the people”, was a scandal, said Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Friday. ”It is scandalous for parliamentarians to hold a glitzy imbizo [meeting] to tell the electorate what a fabulous job they are doing,” he said.

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/ 26 October 2007

ANC is making steady progress, says Mbeki

President Thabo Mbeki on Friday said the African National Congress (ANC) government was making steady progress in meeting the basic needs of poor people, despite attempts to discredit it by the ”left alternative”. Writing in the ANC’s weekly newsletter, he said the Community Survey 2007 showed there had been an improvement in meeting basic needs since 2001.

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/ 26 October 2007

AG: Discipline key to avoiding qualified audits

Simply enforcing financial operating disciplines will go a long way towards reducing the high number of qualified audit reports received last year by government departments, said Auditor General (AG) Terence Nombembe on Friday. He highlighted measures adopted by other countries that were successfully applying accrual accounting.

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/ 26 October 2007

Eskom: Load shedding could extend into next week

Load shedding could be extended to the weekend and Monday if electricity demand is not reduced and the supply situation not normalised, Eskom said on Friday afternoon. Eskom said initial investigations at the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric project indicated there was a supply problem on the Mozambican side because of poor weather conditions.

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/ 26 October 2007

China digs deeper into Africa with bank deal

China has served notice it is accelerating its investment drive in Africa towards full throttle with the planned ,6-billion cash purchase of a major stake in Standard Bank by Beijing’s biggest lender. China’s ICBC bank said on Thursday it is to buy 20% of Standard Bank, the biggest foreign acquisition by a Chinese commercial bank to date.

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/ 26 October 2007

Cosatu says there’s no ANC wish list

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has not compiled a ”wish list” of candidates for the national executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC). This follows the Mail and Guardian publishing a list on Friday that it said named the 57 people Cosatu wanted as ANC leaders.

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/ 26 October 2007

Rain doesn’t stop Bok parade

Thousands of people in Pretoria turned up in rainy weather on Friday for a parade to celebrate the Springboks’ victory in the Rugby World Cup a week ago. They were due in Johannesburg later in the day — and in Soweto on Saturday, after a public outcry over the initial cancellation of that leg of the victory tour.

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/ 26 October 2007

Manto criticises EU plan to attract health workers

A European Union scheme to attract health workers will hurt developing countries, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday. ”Many developing countries are already struggling with the migration of health workers. We cannot afford schemes that seek to cream the very limited health skills we still have in developing countries,” she said.