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/ 28 September 2007
A three-bedroom house in Khutsong, near Carletonville, caved in as a result of a sinkhole on Friday, the Merafong municipality said. Spokesperson Seabo Gaeganelwe said nobody was injured as the occupants had moved two months ago. A survey in 1997 found that 90% of Khutsong fell within extremely high-risk zones.
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/ 28 September 2007
A seaman aboard the SA Agulhas died on Friday morning in an incident involving other crew members. ”Following a non-work related incident … in the early hours of this morning, we regret to advise of the death of one of the crew members, 22-year-old Edward Robert Hulley,” a statement said.
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/ 28 September 2007
Municipal workers would oppose the City of Johannesburg’s attempt to interdict them from embarking on a strike on Monday, a union said on Friday. The South African Municipal Worker’s Union (Samwu), which represents over 10Â 000 municipal workers, planned to strike on Monday over wages.
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/ 28 September 2007
After an absence of six months, the National Lottery would make its comeback with a jackpot prize of R15-million, newly appointed Lotto operator Gidani announced on Friday. Tickets for the first draw which would take place on October 13, would go on sale at 7Â 000 retailers across the country from October 5.
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/ 28 September 2007
Meet Max, the Stud Butler. He’s an oversized, flesh-coloured ventriloquist’s dummy with a bow tie and hard-on — the world’s first hands-free sex toy, available at South Africa’s first sex expo, the Sexpo. However, he won’t fit discreetly into the underwear drawer, and will probably require a cupboard all to himself.
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/ 28 September 2007
The Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Tito Mboweni, said on Friday that while credit problems in the United States have given the global imbalance issue some impetus, South Africa also has its own imbalance with the current-account deficit at about 6% of GDP.
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/ 28 September 2007
AltX-listed independent power producer the Ispa Group on Friday said it intends to bring its 1 600MW combined cycle gas turbine power plant in Coega on stream as fast as possible "to meet the desperate need for power in South Africa".
The United Kingdom-based company is expected to spend more than R2-billion on the plant.
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/ 28 September 2007
The retail price of 91 unleaded and 93 unleaded and lead-replacement petrol will rise by 9 cents a litre on Wednesday October 3, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. The price of 95 unleaded and lead-replacement petrol will increase by 10 cents a litre. The wholesale price of diesel — all grades — will rise by 23 cents a litre.
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/ 28 September 2007
Heavy storms hit North West province on Wednesday and Thursday, damaging dozens of houses and killing livestock, said the provincial department of local government and housing on Friday. In Gauteng, several areas suffered power failures on Thursday as gusting winds and heavy rainfall swept through the province.
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/ 28 September 2007
Over half of South Africa’s current maths and science teachers are not properly qualified, contributing to the country’s massive skills shortage. ”This is a real problem, as we need more than 1 000 engineers with five years’ relevant experience,” said the Minister of Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena.
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/ 28 September 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has called for a special meeting next week to ”discuss and finalise” the fate of its president Willie Madisha, a media report said on Friday. Earlier this month, Madisha came under fire from his own executive for the way he handled the matter of a R500Â 000 ”donation” to the South African Communist Party.
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/ 27 September 2007
Several areas in Gauteng suffered power cuts on Thursday as gusting winds and heavy rain swept through the province, City Power said. ”There are no major outages, but houses and businesses have been affected,” said spokesperson Louise Pieterse.
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/ 27 September 2007
A warrant of arrest has been issued for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reported on Thursday. The state broadcaster said it had reliably learnt that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) obtained the warrant. NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali would not comment on the report late on Thursday afternoon.
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/ 27 September 2007
It was a day of wrangling over evidence in the drunken-driving trial of Judge Nkola Motata at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. The court adjourned on Thursday afternoon after prosecutor Zaais van Zyl attempted to enter five recordings made by Baird on his cellphone, allegedly of Motata using derogatory language.
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/ 27 September 2007
A man staggering and groping like a blind man and swearing like a sailor. That was the picture painted of Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata this week.
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/ 27 September 2007
Allegations that South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board deputy chairperson Christine Qunta is involved in a company selling medicines purported to cure HIV/Aids were ”irresponsible and defamatory”, her lawyer said on Thursday. Athol Gordon was responding to a comments by Zachie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
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/ 27 September 2007
Festival-goers at the Aardklop National Arts Festival, under way in Potchefstroom, were forced to abandon the afternoon shows half way through on Thursday when the electricity went out in most of the town. It was not immediately clear what caused the power failure but several shows were interrupted and later scrapped as performers and audiences alike waited for the power to return.
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/ 27 September 2007
Work resumed on Cape Town’s 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium in Green Point on Thursday after a week-long strike. ”Work resumed this morning. It’s been a normal working day and we are very pleased,” deputy project director Ray Gamble said. He declined to comment further on the stoppage that has cost contractors Murray & Roberts and WBHO five days’ work.
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/ 27 September 2007
Unsustainable human settlements were part of apartheid planning, the KwaZulu-Natal local government department said on Thursday at the start of a two-day housing summit in Durban. ”We can no longer romanticise about human settlements …,” said provincial minister of local government Mike Mabuyakhulu.
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/ 27 September 2007
As you enter the gates of Soweto’s biggest shopping mall, you are welcomed by a majestic statue of an elephant. The elephant is seen to represent Richard Maponya as being part of the "big five" of business and retail in Soweto, but the actual symbolism of the stature has nothing to do with the man’s businesses.
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/ 27 September 2007
Developing countries are willing to do more when it comes to tackling climate change, but the ”trigger” has to come from the North, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Thursday. In a speech prepared for delivery in Washington, he said participants in such efforts had to include the United States.
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/ 27 September 2007
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has criticised the South African soccer authorities for not showing more concern in his quest to shape up his team for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. ”We are hosting the World Cup in two-and-a-half years and people don’t seem to understand the urgency in preparing the team for it,” said Parreira.
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/ 27 September 2007
The giant stone found last month in the North West has still not been verified as the ”world’s largest diamond”. President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses Ernest Blom said on Thursday that he still had not seen the stone. He remains the only person permitted to examine the stone.
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/ 27 September 2007
Denel has sold 237ha of land adjacent to OR Tambo International Airport for R606-million to Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), the arms manufacturer said on Thursday. The sale formed part of a broader plan to re-focus Denel on its core business and to optimise its assets.
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/ 27 September 2007
Western Cape police were involved in a plot to plant agents provocateurs within an organisation waging peaceful protest marches against drugs, Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said on Thursday. Zille, who recently participated in People against Drugs, Liquor and Crime (Padlac) marches, said she had information confirming that police were intending to infiltrate Padlac.
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/ 27 September 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Thursday said that South Africa being ranked the third least safe place out of 48 countries on the African continent indicates that the country is critically unsafe. ”South Africa’s safety and security performance is utterly abysmal,” said the party’s spokesperson on safety and security, Dianne Kohler-Barnard.
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/ 27 September 2007
The Department of Science and Technology is to help establish a national Nuclear Manufacturing Centre, Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena announced in Durban on Thursday. He was speaking at the National Society of Black Engineers conference in Durban’s Elangeni Hotel.
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/ 27 September 2007
South Africa is moving backwards in key development areas such as economics and safety and security, says the Democratic Alliance (DA). ”When considering year-by-year positions on various indices, South Africa is actually backsliding rather than improving,” says a DA survey, launched by DA parliamentary leader Sandra Botha on Thursday.
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/ 27 September 2007
The construction cranes towering and the cacophony of concrete churning and trucks rumbling are the sights and sounds of a business boom in South Africa’s most famous township. Black South Africans are reaping the benefits of a growing economy, and at the heart of it all is Soweto, the huge township south-west of Johannesburg.
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/ 27 September 2007
Good buying interest was seen across the board on the JSE on Thursday and by midday the all-share index was up 224 points, with one trader speculating that it could close above the 30 000 level. A trader said the JSE was approaching its all-time high of 30 046,3, reached on Tuesday.
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/ 27 September 2007
The state would try to admit cellphone audio and video recordings in the drunk-driving trial of Pretoria High Court judge Nkola Motata being heard in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. The recordings were made by Richard James Baird, into whose wall Motata allegedly crashed in Hurlingham, Johannesburg, on January 6.
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/ 27 September 2007
Suspect on the bigger stage in Africa, but continuing to reign supreme in South Africa, current Premier Soccer League (PSL) and Supa8 champions Mamelodi Sundowns sauntered to a 3-0 victory over Golden Arrows in the opening game of the lucrative Telkom Knockout Cup at Loftus on Wednesday night.