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/ 15 October 2007
About a third of the workforce at Sasol Mining near Secunda have begun a protected strike over wage increases, Sasol said on Monday. Sasol spokesperson Johann van Rheede said workers downed tools at Sasol’s five mines in Mpumalanga last Friday, continuing on Monday. The workers are members of the United People’s Union of South Africa.
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/ 15 October 2007
Burundi rebels will rejoin a truce-monitoring team they quit in July, the facilitator, South African Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula, said on Monday, boosting efforts to bring a lasting end to a decade of conflict. ”The stalled Burundi peace process will be resumed on Saturday October 20,” Nqakula told a news conference.
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/ 15 October 2007
The man who sold Najwa Petersen’s family an allegedly encrypted police interview tape is a repeat fraud offender, it emerged on Monday in the Wynberg Regional Court. The tape, which the family believed would help prove her innocence, turned out to be blank, the court heard.
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/ 15 October 2007
Salary negotiations in the platinum mining sector stalled on Monday with Solidarity rejecting a 9% increase offer by Lonmin Platinum. ”Solidarity members are demanding 10% plus a housing subsidy of R5 500,” the union’s mining spokesperson, Reint Dykema, said in a statement.
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/ 15 October 2007
The public’s response to the South African Revenue Service’s (Sars) call on tax returns is satisfying but nowhere near what is desired, Sars said on Monday. ”We are satisfied, but it would have been better if we had gone as far as registering four million,” said Sars spokesperson Adrian Lackay.
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/ 15 October 2007
The University of Johannesburg is to tighten security on all four of its campuses, management said on Monday. Vice-chancellor Ihron Rensburg said a group of sixty students disrupted a test that was in progress at the Doornfontein campus in the morning. ”We will not tolerate that sort of misconduct. They signed an agreement not to disrupt classes.”
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/ 15 October 2007
Police dispersed a group of Zimbabwean asylum seekers outside the Department of Home Affairs refugee offices in Cape Town on Monday. The group of about 100 Zimbabweans were protesting against the department’s reluctance to issue them with refugee-status documents.
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/ 15 October 2007
Investigations into fraud, corruption and maladministration in South Africa’s social-grant system have saved the government about R7,7-billion since inception, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said on Monday. ”There has been a dramatic turnaround in the social-grant system,” Skweyiya said.
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/ 15 October 2007
The new National Lottery operator, Gidani, has recorded eight million ticket transactions despite all the hiccups that saw the game suspended for more than seven months. "This was clearly a sterling performance," Gidani’s public affairs corporate executive Thembi Tulwana said Monday.
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/ 15 October 2007
The Congress of South African Students on Monday expressed shock at African National Congress chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota’s stance against singing liberation songs outside court buildings during criminal cases. The student body was also disturbed at Lekota’s view on the wearing of T-shirts bearing certain political slogans.
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/ 15 October 2007
International superstars Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox will again top the bill at the 46664 concert in Johannesburg in December, it was announced on Monday. They will be joined on stage by Ludacris, Corinne Bailey Rae, the Goo Goo Dolls, Razorlight and Jamelia.
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/ 15 October 2007
The leaders of emerging powerhouses South Africa, India and Brazil will meet in Pretoria this week to bolster trade and energy ties as well as flex their collective muscle on world affairs. All three countries see their alliance, known as Ibsa (India-Brazil-South Africa), as an opportunity to push the concerns of developing countries in the southern hemisphere.
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/ 15 October 2007
African Diamonds has applied for a diamond-mining lease for a one-million carat-a-year mine in Botswana and is due to start production by late 2009, managing director James Campbell said on Monday. Botswana is the world’s biggest diamond producer by value, and several other junior companies are prospecting in the Southern African country.
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/ 15 October 2007
More than 220 managers will have left South African Airways (SAA) by the end of the month as part of the national airline’s restructuring strategy, its spokesperson said on Monday. "SAA has approached the issue of labour in a phased manner, starting with management," said Robyn Chalmers, spokesperson for SAA.
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/ 15 October 2007
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) plans to ask the Public Protector to investigate whether the Scorpions’ investigating unit has a political agenda and is abusing its power, the league said on Monday. Spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the ANCYL was in the process of making an appointment with the Public Protector to discuss its concerns.
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/ 15 October 2007
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has expressed outrage at alleged political and police action regarding Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and deputy managing editor Jocelyn Maker, likening it to apartheid-era conduct.
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/ 15 October 2007
Eskom officials breathed a sigh of relief on Monday after making it through the weekend, and South Africa’s crucial rugby victory against Argentina, without any power cuts. ”We all got to enjoy a good game of rugby,” said spokesperson Fani Zulu. He said there may have been small localised interruptions due to technical problems caused by storms and heavy rain.
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/ 15 October 2007
A 20-year-old man who allegedly offered matric exam papers to friends on Facebook was taken into police custody for questioning on Sunday, Primedia Broadcasting said. Captain Dennis Adriao said that police had received an anonymous SMS tip-off.
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/ 15 October 2007
What South African soccer officials had naively viewed as a formality on Sunday turned into failure as Amaglug-glug went down 3-1 to Ghana’s Black Meteors at the Elwak Stadium in Accra and surrendered all hope of qualifying for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
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/ 15 October 2007
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Sunday announced that he would not be available for re-election in 2009. Delivering his keynote address during the party’s general conference in Ulundi, Buthelezi unexpectedly told delegates that he would step down in 2009.
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/ 15 October 2007
A lawyer for Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and deputy managing editor Jocelyn Maker has said they would hand themselves over to police in Cape Town this week, instead of waiting to be arrested for the alleged possession of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical records.
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/ 15 October 2007
A former crime journalist was shot and killed while leaving church in Woodlands on Sunday, Pietermaritzburg police said. Superintendent Henry Budhram said Elaine Anderson -– a former crime reporter for the Witness newspaper — was allegedly leaving church in her car when she was confronted by two armed men on Sunday night.
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/ 14 October 2007
Opposition parties and the South African National Editors’ Forum have expressed concern at reports of police plans to arrest Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and journalist Jocelyn Maker over the theft of Health Minister Manto-Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical records.
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/ 14 October 2007
Ponte City, one of Johannesburg’s most famous landmarks — and a notorious slum — is getting a facelift, boosting urban renewal efforts in one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Gray and drab, the cylindrical concrete apartment block towers 173m above the flatlands of Hillbrow.
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/ 14 October 2007
Following a tip-off from a member of the public, about 100Â 000 unused defective condoms were found scattered at an illegal dumping site in the Ntande area near Etafuleni in Inanda, north of Durban, on Saturday, the provincial department of agriculture and environmental affairs said.
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/ 14 October 2007
The Titans had a slender first-innings lead of 10 runs with four wickets in hand when bad light stopped play on the third day of their SuperSport Series match against the Cape Cobras at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Saturday. In Johannesburg, the Lions were playing the Warriors.
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/ 14 October 2007
The Ntini fishing vessel docked at Mossel Bay on Saturday, nearly a week after its crew reported sighting an iceberg south-east of St Francis Bay, said the National Sea Rescue Institute. Spokesperson Craig Lambinon said that despite rumours to the contrary, no one on board had taken photographs of the iceberg.
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/ 14 October 2007
Several KwaZulu-Natal organisations were honoured for their role in heritage restoration, a conservation agency said on Saturday. Amafa Heritage KZN spokesperson Barry Marshall said the fifth annual Amafa Heritage Awards, held on Friday, were to honour everyone who had worked to protect the heritage of the province.
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/ 14 October 2007
Students of the University of Johannesburg are set to continue their protests over fee increases, the university’s Student Representative Council (SRC) said on Saturday. ”Protests will continue. We want 0% increment … during the meeting the management negotiating team resorted to an all-or-nothing approach,” said the SRC president.
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/ 14 October 2007
Six names of the nine South African National Defence Force soldiers who died during a training accident at the South African Army Combat Training Centre in Lohatla, Northern Cape, were released on Saturday. The Department of Defence has appointed a high-level board of inquiry to investigate the accident.
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/ 13 October 2007
Like Australia and New Zealand in the World Cup last weekend, the Sharks somehow contrived to squander 30 minutes of total supremacy and then allowed the Golden Lions — who defended like Trojans in the second half — to score three unanswered tries against them and advance to the Currie Cup rugby final.
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/ 13 October 2007
The Free State Cheetahs advanced to the Absa Currie Cup rugby final against the Lions when they beat the Blue Bulls 11-6 in Bloemfontein on Saturday. The soggy underfoot evened out the odds, with the Cheetahs running on as favourites after losing only one of their 14 league matches.