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/ 28 February 2007
Africa needs a ”fair break” from the rest of the world and the determination to address its own problems, former president FW de Klerk said on Wednesday. In a lecture at the University of Pretoria, De Klerk said there is an unfair perception that Africa is lagging further and further behind in the global race.
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/ 28 February 2007
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang remains in the high-care unit at Johannesburg Hospital, where her condition is improving, her spokesperson said on Wednesday. ”Her doctor indicated that she is getting better,” said Sibani Mngadi. ”However, she remains in the high-care unit of the hospital in order to facilitate appropriate haemodynamic monitoring.”
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/ 28 February 2007
South Africa fully supports the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s decision to seek summonses for two suspects accused of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region, a top government official said on Wednesday. But Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad warned it was too early to tell what effect the ICC action would have on long-term peace prospects in Sudan.
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/ 28 February 2007
The Scorpions continued a search of the JCI offices in Johannesburg on Wednesday afternoon as part of their investigation into the murder of businessman Brett Kebble. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lucinda Moonieya said investigators were looking through the company’s financial affairs for documents that would offer evidence of fraud and money laundering.
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/ 28 February 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday expressed its ire at the ”preferential treatment” extended to Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata on Tuesday. Court officials had bent over backwards to ensure that Motata’s court hearing was shielded from the public, DA spokesperson Sheila Camerer said.
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/ 28 February 2007
Corruption undermines growth and development by diverting resources away from development programmes, thus increasing poverty and inequality, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Wednesday. She was speaking at the African Forum on Anti-Corruption in Johannesburg.
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/ 28 February 2007
South Africa can meet the United Nations’s Millennium Development Goals for children as long as it prioritises spending, the UN Children’s Fund country representative told Parliament on Wednesday. Macharia Kamau said South Africa had the finances available to reduce its child mortality rates by two-thirds and its maternal mortality by three-quarters.
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/ 28 February 2007
South Africa recorded a trade deficit of R11,94-billion in January after posting a surplus of R388-million in December, the South African Revenue Service said on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Reuters last week had forecast a deficit of R3,3-billion, but the data is notoriously volatile.
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/ 28 February 2007
South Africa on Wednesday unveiled a new policy to manage its swelling elephant population, including resuming a controversial cull of the animals if needed. Government experts have been pushing for a targeted slaughter of some of the country’s 20 000 elephants as well as a birth control programme to preserve land endangered by the voracious eaters.
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/ 28 February 2007
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille is indulging in political grandstanding over the Green Point Stadium, mayoral committee member Simon Grindrod has suggested. He has also criticised what he says is the city’s ”inability to drive such a high-profile initiative”. In a statement issued on Wednesday, his office said he was extremely concerned at the latest halting of the project.
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/ 28 February 2007
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been given the go-ahead to seize assets worth millions of rands from a businessmen facing cigarette smuggling. NPA spokesperson Lucinda Moonieya said the case against Hendrik Delport was ”one of the biggest asset-forfeiture orders ever obtained in South Africa”.
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/ 28 February 2007
South Africa looks set to reintroduce culling as one of a range of options for managing the country’s fast-growing elephant herds. Launching a set of draft regulations on Wednesday, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk stressed this would not ”immediately lead to the wholesale slaughter of elephants anywhere”.
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/ 28 February 2007
The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) on Wednesday condemned the violent protests by angry North West residents over poor service delivery. Although Sanco has been behind some of the protests, the organisation’s provincial secretary, Gabriel Nkgweng, said the organisation did not condone the violent nature that had characterised certain of the protests.
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/ 28 February 2007
South African diversified transport and logistics group Imperial increased first-half headline earnings per share by 21% and said on Wednesday it saw good full-year earnings growth. The group also said chief executive officer Bill Lynch will leave on November 1 and that the board is now looking for a new CEO.
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/ 28 February 2007
There was no evidence linking African National Congress heavyweight Saki Macozoma to any foreign intelligence agency, said the inspector general of the National Intelligence Agency, Zolile Ngcakani. Ngcakani was testifying in the Hatfield Community Court on Tuesday where former spy boss Billy Masetlha was appearing.
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/ 28 February 2007
An audit report on corporate governance and management issues within the South African Post Office (Sapo) has been delayed due to ”matters needing verification”, the Department of Communications said on Tuesday. The report, which follows an investigation into activities of Sapo’s management and board members, will be released in March rather than at the end of February.
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/ 28 February 2007
A prestigious Eastern Cape high school is embroiled in a legal battle after refusing to accept a teenager because of her alleged ”bad” behaviour, the Dispatch reported on Wednesday. The classroom drama pits the 14-year-old girl, her parents and the Education Department against Queenstown Girls’ High School.
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/ 28 February 2007
Justice department officials were unable to explain on Tuesday why a Pretoria judge appeared in a magistrate’s chambers, instead of an open court, in connection with a drunken-driving incident. ”It is unusual in a criminal matter for the case to be heard in chambers. It is usually heard in an open court,” spokesperson Zolile Nqayi said.
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/ 28 February 2007
After her father was murdered, Vanessa Lynch started a fund-raising initiative called the DNA Project to help the South African Police Service build up an efficient DNA database that can be used to identify criminals or to eliminate suspects. She explains how the project works and what its benefits are.
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/ 28 February 2007
A proposal to impose a windfall tax on mining companies is a totally unexpected development and it will be opposed, the Chamber of Mines said on Wednesday. Chief executive Mzolisi Diliza said the industry was confronted with a planned tax burden in the form of royalties.
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/ 27 February 2007
Ismael Ayob, former lawyer to Nelson Mandela, will repay R700 000 to the Nelson Mandela Trust Fund.
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/ 27 February 2007
The disregard for Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s right to privacy is cause for deep concern, the Registrar of the Health Professions Council of South Africa said on Tuesday. Registrar Boyce Mkhize voiced his concern about the ”indiscriminate insensitivity and wanton disregard” of the minister’s rights.
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/ 27 February 2007
Business in low-cost air travel appears to have boomed in the months since the airlines concerned embarked on a no-holds-barred tariff war. On Tuesday kulula.com announced that it would be replacing its entire fleet of aircraft by the end of the year with new Boeing 737-400 aircraft, adding 160Â 000 additional seats to the market a year.
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/ 27 February 2007
South Africa supports Iceland’s wish to join the United Nations Security Council, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in Pretoria on Tuesday. ”South Africa has a seat in the UN Security Council for the first time, so we would be very happy to support their wish to join,” she told reporters.
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/ 27 February 2007
The Eastern Cape’s health services brain drain is being turned around with more than double the number of health professionals recruited than resigned in the past year, the provincial health department said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the Eastern Cape had managed to recruit about 3 600 new employees, mostly clinicians, in the financial year now ending.
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/ 27 February 2007
There is no meaningful transformation in the South African auctioneering industry, the South African Auctioneering Transformation Action Group (Saatag) said on Tuesday. Black-owned auctioneering enterprises account for less than R20-million of the estimated R2-billion revenue generated yearly by the auctioneering industry.
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/ 27 February 2007
A long-awaited report by a Dutch Reformed Church task team on homosexuality and gay relationships is ready for publication, the Kerkbode reported on Tuesday. It said part of the report is based on consensus, but there are various recommendations on which the general synod will have to decide.
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/ 27 February 2007
The government’s insistence on securing credible evidence for the listing of terrorists before acting against its citizens was lent support by a group of the country’s Muslim leaders on Tuesday. Last month, the United States listed a Johannesburg dentist and his cousin as suspected terrorists with links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
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/ 27 February 2007
Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata appeared briefly in a magistrate’s chambers in the Hillbrow courts on Tuesday morning in connection with an alleged drunken-driving incident, instead of in open court. Magistrate H Visser said Motata will appear again in court three in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on April 13.
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/ 27 February 2007
De Beers, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, says it will seek offers for its Cullinan diamond mine (which includes its C-Cut diamond resource) and portions of Kimberley (including the dormant underground mines). "The move continues De Beers’s drive to position itself for future growth," said the company in a statement.
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/ 27 February 2007
Democratic Alliance (DA) CEO Ryan Coetzee has put paid to rumours he might make himself available for election as DA leader when incumbent Tony Leon relinquishes the reins in May. In a terse statement on Tuesday, Coetzee said only: ”In response to ongoing speculation I wish to confirm that I will not be standing for the leadership of the DA.”
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/ 27 February 2007
Another cyclone was making its way towards Southern Africa on Tuesday, threatening further destruction in the flood-ravaged region, while the cash-strapped United Nations World Food Programme announced it was cutting food rations to half a million Zambians.