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/ 4 September 2007
South Africa’s Constitutional Court convened on Tuesday to examine the right of a woman to be the chief of her tribe, a position formerly held by her father. Tinyiko Nwamitwa-Shilubana is claiming the position of chief, or hosi, of the Valoyi in Limpopo, currently held by her cousin, Sidwell Nwamitwa.
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/ 4 September 2007
Government incompetence and not apartheid is to blame for the Land Bank’s woes, says the Freedom Front Plus (FF+). ”Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulama Xingwana’s accusation that the current problems of the Land Bank are the direct result of apartheid is a lame excuse,” FF+ agriculture and land affairs spokesperson Pieter Groenewald said on Tuesday.
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/ 4 September 2007
The proposed compulsory disclosure of race and nationality for all property registrations is re-racialisation and bad for the economy, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. ”Re-racialising land ownership will hamper investment and misses the point,” DA spokesperson on land affairs Maans Nel said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2007
The SAS Manthatisi has become the first naval submarine in the world to be brought into a new class by the International Classification Society, Germanischer Lloyd, the South African Navy said on Tuesday. ”Through the certification of SAS Manthatisi, the SA Navy adds another ”world first” to its long list of achievements,” Captain Digby Thomson said.
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/ 4 September 2007
Members of the Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee in Alexandra on Tuesday occupied a construction site in the northern Johannesburg township to protest against a lack of service delivery and housing. The committee’s chairperson, Frieda Dlamini, told the Mail & Guardian Online that people are desperate for houses.
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/ 4 September 2007
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has ruled out fixing the price of bread in South Africa. ”If we try and cap prices here we will create all manner of difficulties for ourselves,” he told MPs in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Manuel was responding to a call from Pan Africanist Congress MP Motsoko Pheko to fix the bread price.
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/ 4 September 2007
The South Africa National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has expressed ”alarm” at the apparent attempted assassination of a newspaper editor last month. ”Though it has no evidence that this was an assassination attempt, the fact that Media24 has taken precautions based on that assumption requires the media industry to sound a stern warning,” Sanef said on Tuesday.
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/ 4 September 2007
A divorced father of four was sent to jail for 25 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday for raping and sodomising a mentally-ill girl of 13. ”The crimes were as bestial as they were heinous,” Judge Andre Erasmus told 44-year-old Mlandeli Mvandaba, of Zola township, Bathurst.
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/ 4 September 2007
Corruption continues to be a serious problem at the Department of Home Affairs, its director general said on Tuesday. Speaking after his first 100 days in office, Mavuso Msimang said he hopes to root this out by motivating staff, putting in place better technology and improved facilities. He conceded that the department continues to be ”sick”.
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/ 4 September 2007
The world’s top platinum producer, Angloplat, launched a R35-billion black economic empowerment (BEE) deal on Tuesday to sell mines to two black-led firms and hand out shares to its mostly black workers. The deals will forge two new major players in South Africa’s platinum sector, the world’s largest, and burnish credentials of Angloplat.
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/ 4 September 2007
South African opening batsman Loots Bosman will miss the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup after he was ruled out with a back injury on Tuesday. Bosman injured his back when he dived into the boundary boards during a one-dayer against Zimbabwe last month.
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/ 4 September 2007
White women should be struck off a list of groups recognised as previously disadvantaged in terms of the employment equity legislation, the Black Management Forum said on Tuesday. In its written submission, the forum requested that the current employment equity legislation be amended to exclude white women as beneficiaries.
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/ 4 September 2007
The extent of illegal border crossings from Zimbabwe into South Africa has been exaggerated, according to a migration-studies report released on Tuesday. The report said: ”Recent statements by officials and media reports exaggerated the numbers of Zimbabweans moving across into South Africa or already in the country.”
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/ 4 September 2007
A South African court sentenced a German man to 18 years in prison on Tuesday but suspended the jail term after he pleaded guilty in a case involving a global black market in atomic weapons technology. Gerhard Wisser, an engineer living in South Africa, was accused of having ties to a network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan.
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/ 4 September 2007
The embattled Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has suffered a further blow with the defection of its deputy president Themba Godi and two MPLs to the newly formed African People’s Convention (APC). Godi’s move to the APC was announced by National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete at the start of proceedings on Tuesday.
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/ 4 September 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Young Communists League took issue on Tuesday with African National Congress national chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota over his remarks about those singing the freedom song, Umshini Wami. ”We respect comrade Lekota’s views but we disagree with them strongly,” Cosatu said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2007
Former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha and his two co-accused, software specialist Muziwendoda Kunene and IT specialist Funokwakhe Madlala, had their fraud case postponed in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday. The case was postponed to October 1 for trial and plea.
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/ 4 September 2007
Former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie has decided not to testify in his murder trial in the Cape High Court. His advocate, Koos Louw, closed his client’s case on Tuesday morning without calling any witnesses. Staggie is charged with the August 1996 killing of taxi driver Mogamat Ryklief, allegedly in revenge for the slaying three days earlier of Staggie’s twin brother.
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/ 4 September 2007
Privileged to the end, the grand re-entry of Benni McCarthy into the Bafana Bafana squad for Sunday’s African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia at Newlands Stadium will materialise on Wednesday — a day after the remaining South African players are due to be ensconced in their Cape Town camp.
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/ 4 September 2007
The JSE was a bit firmer by midday on Tuesday as a number of local deals buoyed sentiment for buyers. The local bourse was also getting positive direction from the FTSE, which was down in early trade, but recovered during the morning. By midday on the JSE, the all-share index was up 0,30%.
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/ 4 September 2007
A man who was recently released on bail, charged with allowing dog fights at his home, on Monday almost landed back in Pollsmoor Prison for arriving late at court. When Cape Town prosecutor Miriam Motsoahae called Wayne Browers’ name, he did not respond.
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/ 4 September 2007
South African international midfielder Gift Leremi (22) was killed after he lost control of his car and was flung out of his vehicle, Ekhuruleni Metro police said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Inspector Jimmy Maboko said Leremi was driving his BMW along the R556, between Vaal Road and Brackendowns, Alberton, at 9pm on Monday, when he lost control.
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/ 4 September 2007
South African banking group FirstRand plans to reduce its stake in health insurer Discovery Holdings, giving its shareholders a direct stake in the company, it said on Tuesday. The unbundling, for which FirstRand will seek shareholder approval, will improve Discovery shares’ liquidity on the Johannesburg bourse.
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/ 4 September 2007
The Gauteng branch of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) will go to the police to find out whether Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya applied for amnesty over political activities during apartheid, the organisation said on Monday. Earlier this month, Sanco asked the National Prosecuting Authority whether Makhanya had applied for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
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/ 4 September 2007
Sol Plaatje 2007: Relocated Mandelaville residents still live in shacks clinging to a hillside facing the Durban Roodepoort Deep mine dump — an aged, yellowing scar on the landscape. There is no electricity here, no direct access to clean water and no municipal services such as rubbish collection. But the view from Sol Plaatje is finally looking up.
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/ 3 September 2007
United Nations agencies urged governments in Southern Africa on Monday to draw up legislation to combat frightening levels of human trafficking, saying action was vital ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Specific legislation to tackle the issue was needed to help law enforcement agencies get to grips with the situation.
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/ 3 September 2007
A strike by some workers at Angloplat refineries and smelter has not curbed output, the world’s biggest platinum producer said on Tuesday. Other employees were still on the job after 1 500 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) downed tools
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/ 3 September 2007
A nine-year-old girl was raped during a burglary in Monument Park on Monday, Pretoria police said. Captain Tessa Jansen said two men in their 20s broke into a 35-year-old woman’s house around 1am. They gained access by breaking a window and once inside they threatened the woman at knife-point.
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/ 3 September 2007
Measures to curb or control foreign ownership of land in South Africa are proposed in a government-commissioned report, a copy of which was obtained on Monday. A panel of experts call in the document for a two-year moratorium on foreign ownership of land.
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/ 3 September 2007
South Africa’s Telkom said on Monday it was in talks with Britain’s Vodafone and MTN, sparking talk it wants to sell its fixed-line business and its stake in cellphone operator Vodacom. Telkom gave no further details. Vodafone and MTN — sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cellphone operator — said separately the talks were at a ”very preliminary stage”.
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/ 3 September 2007
Police officers who reportedly took part in a meat free-for-all near King William’s Town last month have been cleared from any charges. The incident followed an accident in which a truck loaded with pigs overturned. Onlookers apparently then killed the pigs and police officers at the scene allegedly did not take any action.
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/ 3 September 2007
The former Auditor General (AG) of South Africa, Henri Kluever, has died, the office of the Auditor General announced on September 3. He had served in the post from 1993 to 1999 during transition in the country and at the time the institution gained independence and autonomy from the public sector.