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/ 15 February 2007
A Department of Transport contract with one of fraud convict Schabir Shaik’s companies hangs in the balance, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday. An announcement on the department’s dealings with Prodiba, which had been manufacturing credit-card format drivers licences on behalf of the government since 1998, was expected next week.
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/ 14 February 2007
The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday rejected moves by predominantly Afrikaans parents of Newcastle High School to retain the Christian form of religious worship. The chairperson of the school governing body, Dr Prithipaul Ramkissoon, said in court papers that the school’s religious policy is intolerant of religions other than Christianity.
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/ 14 February 2007
Deported Pakistani Khalid Rashid’s lawyer on Wednesday claimed he had new information suggesting the South African government is hiding information about the man’s whereabouts. Attorney Zehir Omar, acting for Rashid’s family, this week filed an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court, requesting the court to accept an affidavit containing the ”new facts”.
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/ 14 February 2007
There is nothing to suggest that the Department of Correctional Services has any real fears that an escape plan allegedly hatched by former Boeremag escapees Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws will actually be carried out if they are held in the same section of the C-Max prison, a high court judge said on Wednesday.
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/ 14 February 2007
With investors, perception often counts for a lot more than reality. And that appears to be the case in South Africa, which said on Tuesday it had stepped up a campaign to hand more land to black people and announced its first state-ordered farm sale, hitting a nerve with those wary of the thorny issue of land reform.
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/ 14 February 2007
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is a province ”on the move” despite a high crime rate and high incidence of HIV/Aids, Premier S’bu Ndebele said in his State of the Province address in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday. Speaking at the Royal Show Grounds, Ndebele labelled 2007 as the year that KwaZulu-Natal is ”building the economy through partnerships”.
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/ 14 February 2007
The Bloemfontein flying squad has been ”beefed-up” with a new leadership team following allegations of members watching pornography on TV instead of answering duty phones. Superintendent Sam Makhele on Wednesday said Free State police Commissioner Amon Mashigo made the changes during the recent restructuring process within the police.
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/ 14 February 2007
The teenager among the accused in the baby Jordan murder trial was offered R20Â 000 by his own advocate if he did not testify, it was alleged in the Cape High Court on Wednesday. The youth, who may not be named, disclosed this at the end of his testimony, led by his new defence counsel, Caryl Verrier.
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/ 14 February 2007
South Africa’s retail-sales growth braked to 7,2% year-on-year in December, official data showed on Wednesday, but the slowdown was seen unlikely to sway the central bank’s pending decision on interest rates. Sales growth eased from a downwardly revised 12% in November, leaving growth for 2006 at 9,7% at constant prices.
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/ 14 February 2007
Details of how the alleged coup in Equatorial Guinea was to be staged were revealed for the first time in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday. Equatorial Guinea’s President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, was to be lured to the airport with the promise of new 4X4 vehicles.
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/ 14 February 2007
Lower-income earners take more sick leave than white-collar workers who have higher job satisfaction, statistics compiled from 60 companies have revealed. Johnny Johnson, chief executive of Corporate Absenteeism Management Solutions, said on Wednesday: ”Generally, higher absence is positively correlated with lower-income earners.”
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/ 14 February 2007
Opposition parties have accused the government of exploiting the schooling and legal systems and of wanting to take control of every single school in South Africa. ”The minister of education [Naledi Pandor] is exploiting the schooling system and the legal system to lead an ideological crusade against Afrikaans,” Democratic Alliance spokesperson Desiree van der Walt said on Wednesday.
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/ 14 February 2007
A luxury business express-train service is set to hit Soweto’s tracks in March, Metrorail said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Brenda Motau said the 530-seat train is being launched by Metrorail to run between Soweto and Johannesburg. ”It is expected to begin a trial phase in March and be fully operational by April,” said Motau.
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/ 14 February 2007
Electricity supply in South Africa will remain uncertain for the next five years, with a reserve margin of just over half of what it should be, Parliament heard on Wednesday. Anton Eberhard, a professor at the Graduate School of Business, said one of the main reasons for this was a Cabinet decision not to allow Eskom to build new generating capacity.
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/ 14 February 2007
The strike at the Modikwa Platinum mine entered its 20th day on Wednesday with an estimated loss in revenue of about R100-million. Modikwa Platinum, a joint venture between Anglo-Platinum and African Rainbow Minerals, has been in a dispute with employees belonging to the National Union of Mineworkers over continuous operations since January 26.
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/ 14 February 2007
Fidentia executive chairperson Arthur Brown and his cronies are responsible for reducing R2-billion in other people’s savings to a meagre R8,5-million. This claim emerged on Monday night when one of the curators of Fidentia, forensic accountant George Papadakis, said that about R8,5-million is left in the company’s ”larder”.
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/ 14 February 2007
The United States should not get involved in stabilising war-torn Somalia, where Washington’s motives could be questioned, South Africa’s Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Wednesday. ”Given the history of the US in Somalia, it would seem to me that it would have been better … to introduce … countries that do not come with historical baggage,” Lekota said.
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/ 14 February 2007
South Africa cannot make the meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe its ”own property”, South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Wednesday. Asked at a media briefing whether the Zimbabwean economic meltdown and general crisis does not rate at all for South Africa, Lekota argued at some length that a multilateral approach has to be taken on Zimbabwe.
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/ 14 February 2007
Companies in Zambia are reaching into their pockets to help victims of recent flooding in the Southern African country, which according to officials on Wednesday has claimed the lives of at least five people and left about 50Â 000 homeless.
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/ 14 February 2007
Veteran South African bowler Shaun Pollock, who has just joined the ranks of the all-time great all-rounders, said on Tuesday that a victory in the fifth MTN one-day international against Pakistan at the Wanderers on Wednesday will be a huge confidence booster for the team ahead of the Cricket World Cup, which begins in the West Indies in March.
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/ 14 February 2007
The father fights back tears while describing his model son’s metamorphosis into a thieving, violent drug user -– one of a rising number of South African teens falling prey to crystal methamphetamine. ”I am very sad, desperate. We are going through hell,” he says, dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief.
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/ 14 February 2007
South African government ministers on Tuesday turned on citizens bemoaning rampant crime and fleeing a country where about 50 people are murdered every day. ”What we need is partners in the battle against crime, not these eloquent spectators speaking from exaggerated comfort … elsewhere,” Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told Parliament.
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/ 13 February 2007
The decision to build a second nuclear power station was made without public participation, Earthlife Africa Cape Town said on Tuesday. Environmental and socio-economic assessments were also ignored, according to Maya Aberman, the organisation’s campaign coordinator.
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/ 13 February 2007
Most municipalities in the Eastern Cape are in chaos, a provincial government lekgotla (meeting) agreed on Tuesday, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported. Provincial minister Sam Kwelita said participants agreed that the government needs to take action on the condition of municipalities.
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/ 13 February 2007
From the doorway, it looked as though Inge Lotz was asleep, lying motionless with her brown hair tumbled over the arm of the couch. It was only from closer that the full and bloody horror of what had happened to the 22-year-old Stellenbosch student became apparent.
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/ 13 February 2007
The furore surrounding the slaughtering of a bull by former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni was a political issue that had nothing to do with animal cruelty, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) said on Tuesday.
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/ 13 February 2007
A successful HIV vaccine is at least a decade away, the International Aids Vaccine Initiative for Southern Africa (IAVI) said on Tuesday. Dr Wayne Koff, senior vice-president of the IAVI, spoke of the latest challenges and the future direction of HIV-vaccine development at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg.
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/ 13 February 2007
South African state-owned rail group Transnet and power utility Eskom on Tuesday invited offers for the purchase of IT firm arivia.kom, the groups said. Transnet and Eskom invited interested bidders to submit an expression of interest by March 14 as part of the bidding process for arivia.kom. The winning offer will also secure five-year outsourcing contracts with Transnet and Eskom.
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/ 13 February 2007
South Africans could face sanctions 20 years from now for being the only democracy left in the world — if the country looks after its democracy, Evita Bezuidenhout said in Johannesburg on Tuesday. ”And that’s worth fighting for,” she said in announcing her candidature for the presidency in 2009 at a press conference.
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/ 13 February 2007
South Africa plans new measures to lure its overseas academics and skilled workers back home as the country seeks to tackle a skills gap that threatens economic development, a government minister said on Tuesday. An economic giant on the African continent, South Africa nevertheless faces massive skills shortages in critical areas.
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/ 13 February 2007
A state witness could not deny on Tuesday that the eight accused in the Equatorial Guinea coup trial may have been ignorant of the plot. Cross-examined in the Pretoria Regional Court on Tuesday, James Kershaw (27) said he himself only found out about the alleged coup two days before the group flew out of South Africa.
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/ 13 February 2007
Former president Nelson Mandela met Princess Caroline of Monaco at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on Tuesday.