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/ 7 September 2007
South African media company Sabido, the holding company of locally based television station e.tv, has acquired 49% of Gaborone Broadcasting Company (GBC), e.tv said in a statement on Friday. Fifty-one percent of GBC was held by Mike Klinck, a Botswana banker, who acquired the station four years ago.
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/ 7 September 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is looking at the legality of the Tshwane metro council’s reported ban on ”white businesses”, and the matter could even end up in the Constitutional Court, DA leader Helen Zille said on Friday. ”Such a resolution amounts to naked racism and flies in the face of the Constitution,” she said in her weekly online newsletter, SA Today.
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/ 7 September 2007
Most professional football teams are making unemployment insurance fund (UIF) payments but they are still contravening the Act, the Labour Department said on Friday. Department spokesperson Kgomotso Sebetso said 90% of employers were submitting a bulk sum in payments each month but not the breakdown of the players’ details.
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/ 7 September 2007
Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad is not yet pursuing his opinion that the government should pull advertising from the Sunday Times, presidential spokesperson Mukhoni Ratshitanga said on Friday. He said that Pahad was only expressing a personal view and that it was not government policy.
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/ 7 September 2007
The JSE all-share index gave up earlier gains of just over 0,5%, trading at just 0,21% in the black shortly before midday on Friday. "It hasn’t been an exciting day, we are up slightly. We initially saw gold stocks up on the stronger gold price, which supported the rest of the market," said a local trader.
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/ 7 September 2007
South Africa’s net gold and foreign exchange reserves increased slightly to ,449-billion in August, data showed on Friday, as the softer rand currency slowed the pace of reserves build-up. The figure rose from ,965-billion at the end of July.
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/ 7 September 2007
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No issue must be ”taboo” for debate in South Africa if its people want to succeed with reconciliation and nation-building, African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma said on Thursday. ”Debate in the country must be promoted,” Zuma said in delivering the annual public management commemorative lecture.
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/ 7 September 2007
During the question-and-answer session at the launch of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class in Mpumalanga, a journo asked how he was supposed to fit all the info about the new model into a 750-word story. We all laughed and agreed that that was a challenge: trying to summarise how much the C-Class had changed and what it had to offer.
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/ 6 September 2007
Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi is waiting for more technical information before deciding on action on Khutsong’s sinkholes, his ministry said on Thursday. The minister was waiting for more detailed information on Khutsong, said the minister’s acting spokesperson, Thokozani Mtshali, when asked about the government’s position on the situation.
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/ 6 September 2007
About five million condoms supplied by Zalatex have been collected since a recall and an additional 7,5-million condoms quarantined at the company’s warehouse, the Health Department said on Thursday. This follows charges that Zalatex bribed an official at the South African Bureau of Standards to approve inferior condoms.
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/ 6 September 2007
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Former South African president Nelson Mandela met the Springboks in Paris on Thursday, his office announced. ”Mr Mandela wished the Springboks well after receiving a Springbok jersey from the team,” said Mandela’s spokesperson, Zelda la Grange, in a statement.
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/ 6 September 2007
Mittal Steel South Africa will have to fork out close to R700-million after it was fined on Thursday by the Competition Tribunal for price-fixing. A statement released by the tribunal said that it had fined Mittal R691,8-million and imposed ”behavioural remedies” on the company in terms of the Competition Act.
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/ 6 September 2007
Preparation for the 2010 soccer World Cup in South Africa has entered its ”operational phase”, chief executive officer of the local organising committee Danny Jordaan said on Thursday. ”The 1 000-days countdown signals to us now the beginning of the operational phase”, he told a press conference ahead.
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/ 6 September 2007
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The African National Congress Youth League has vowed to stick by Jacob Zuma as its candidate for president of the country, even if new criminal charges were brought against him. ”He is innocent until proven guilty … until such time we will continue to support the deputy president,” league president Fikile Mbalula said on Thursday.
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/ 6 September 2007
Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Mike Waters has been suspended from Parliament following his outburst in the National Assembly on Wednesday. At the start of proceedings in the House on Thursday afternoon, speaker Baleka Mbete described his conduct of the day before as ”outrageous, disrespectful and grossly disorderly”.
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/ 6 September 2007
Former leader of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Juan Uys has thrown his weight behind the newly created National People’s Party (NPP). He said on Thursday that he had also taken up a post as personal assistant to controversial Cape Town city councillor Badhi Chaaban. He said that the NPP appointed him as its media liaison officer this week.
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/ 6 September 2007
South Africa’s automobile industry was a leader in the government’s radical expansion of the manufacturing sector, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday in stressing that it be encouraged and supported. It was self-evident that the automobile sector would play a significant role in ensuring the country achieved the higher rates of economic growth it needed.
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/ 6 September 2007
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told Parliament on Thursday that total spending by all three spheres of government in the financial year to March was R5,3-billion rand less than had been appropriated. Much of the underspending was blamed on lack of capacity.
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/ 6 September 2007
After years of waiting, thousands of people who lodged a claim to have their land at Wallmansthal, north of Pretoria, returned to them will on Saturday receive the deeds of their stands. The land set to be restored measures 4 186ha. Approximately 4 270 people will benefit from the settlement, the Land Claims Commission said on Thursday.
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/ 6 September 2007
The Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has demonstrated — through its upgrade of the George terminal — that its airport facilities meet world-class standards, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Thursday. He was speaking at the opening of the R43-million George Airport upgrade.
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/ 6 September 2007
Standerton residents, AfriForum and the mayor of the Lekwa municipality, Queen Radebe-Khumalo, will face off in the Pretoria High Court in November over a damaged Great Trek memorial. The Standerton Action Committee and AfriForum have asked the Pretoria High Court that Radebe-Khumalo be ordered to rebuild a Great Trek memorial that she ordered to be destroyed.
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/ 6 September 2007
Community members who are furious at the lack of sufficient housing and service delivery in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, have met ward councillors to discuss their frustrations, which had led to public protests and the occupation of government-built homes earlier in the week.
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/ 6 September 2007
Something is stirring in the South African blogosphere, says electronic-media analyst Arthur Goldstuck. This year will probably be remembered as a time when blogs came of age, with more than 600 000 internet users visiting blogs by their fellow South Africans in just one month.
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/ 6 September 2007
The majority of the members of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) walked out of the National Assembly on Thursday after speaker Baleka Mbete officially suspended one of them for five days. Health spokesperson Mike Waters upset the speaker on Wednesday when he challenged her ruling that a question directed to Manto Tshabalala Msimang was out of order.
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/ 6 September 2007
The newly formed National People’s Party (NPP) on Thursday claimed that five former members of the Independent Democrats (ID) had crossed the floor, bringing their Cape Town metro seats with them. However, the ID said two of the five — Abdulla Omar and Aaron Kallie — were expelled from the party before the floor-crossing window opened.
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/ 6 September 2007
Efforts to rejuvenate the South African Army will see 3 000 new recruits being taken in next year, with the figure shooting up to 7 000 in 2009, it was announced on Thursday. ”We need a young and fit group of soldiers,” army chief General Solly Shoke told reporters in Pretoria.
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/ 6 September 2007
The South African Cabinet was concerned about the level of fraud that led to the distribution of faulty condoms that might have exposed people to HIV. ”All those implicated in the scam will face the full force of the law,” government spokesperson Themba Maseko told the media on Thursday.
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/ 6 September 2007
Elna Moolman of Barnard Jacobs Mellet was voted the Reuters Economist of the Year, it was announced on Thursday at a breakfast in Sandton. Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Tito Mboweni presented Moolman with her prize. Moolman said: ”It is a big surprise and it is a great honour.”
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/ 6 September 2007
The South African Cabinet has appointed Eskom as the ”only” buyer of power from independent power producers. Briefing the media on Thursday, the day after Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the Cabinet had resolved that Eskom become the only buyer.
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/ 6 September 2007
Kempton Park matric students were held up at gunpoint five minutes before the end of a preliminary exam, it was reported on Thursday. Oxford Combined School principal Pierre de Lange said that 54 students, supervised by four staff members, were nearing the end of their accounting exam on Wednesday when they were held at gunpoint while the school was robbed.
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/ 6 September 2007
The mystery gem discovered in the North West last week has been certified as a diamond, according to a report in the <i>Mining Weekly</i> on Thursday morning. According to the weekly trade publication, verification of the gem, which is believed to be the largest diamond discovery in the world, has been completed and a certificate was expected to be available by 1pm.
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/ 6 September 2007
The JSE all-share index held onto its gains at midday on Tuesday, with the resource index shining brightly — underpinned by good buying interest in resource stocks Anglo American and BHP Billiton. By noon, the all-share index rose 0,50%. Resources advanced 1,25% and the gold mining index edged up 0,38%.