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/ 6 November 2006
Monday’s judgement of the Supreme Court of Appeal upholding the conviction of Schabir Shaik, financial adviser to former deputy president Jacob Zuma, now gives the National Prosecuting Authority the moral high ground to continue with its case against Zuma, say opposition politicians.
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/ 6 November 2006
Durban businessman Schabir Shaik’s appeal against his fraud and corruption convictions has been dismissed. Reading the judgement in Bloemfontein, Supreme Court of Appeal Judge President Craig Howie said there were also no grounds to change Shaik’s effective prison sentence of 15 years.
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/ 6 November 2006
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has denied seeking to seize control of the country’s HIV/Aids programme while the health minister is recovering from an illness. A weekend report said Mlambo-Ngcuka and Deputy Health Minister Nizizwe Madlala-Routledge had begun steering the HIV/Aids programme in a new direction since Manto Tshabalala-Msimang fell ill last month.
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/ 6 November 2006
Theft and the illegal sale of military equipment are rife at Five SA Infantry battalion in Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal, Beeld reported on Monday. It said bullet-proof jackets from a military supply store have been sold for R500 each — apparently for use in cash-in-transit heists.
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/ 6 November 2006
Judgement in Schabir Shaik’s appeal against fraud and corruption convictions will be delivered on Monday from about 9.30am, the Supreme Court of Appeal said. Analysts said the judgement might make or break former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s chances of becoming president.
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/ 5 November 2006
A South African inventor claims to have found a solution to a common romantic mood spoiler — putting on a male condom. A Capetonian is marketing his Pronto condom as an answer to the annoyance of tearing off condom wrappers and figuring out the right way up, saying his patent can be donned in less than three seconds.
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/ 5 November 2006
National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi believes a smear campaign is being waged against him to remove him from his post. ”I don’t do crime; I am not corrupt,” Selebi reacted to newspaper reports implicating him, his Deputy Commissioner Andre Pruis and other senior police officers in criminal activity.
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/ 5 November 2006
Political inequality in South Africa may be a thing of the past, but the racial and gender divide appears very much intact when it comes to the boardroom, a new book shows. ”It is a hell of a slow pace … Not much of an improvement,” says Renee Bonorchis, co-author of Executive Pay in South Africa — Who Gets What and Why.
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/ 5 November 2006
Self-proclaimed Premier Soccer League ”Cup Kings” Supersport United were shown the exit from the Telkom Knockout by an enterprising Black Leopards at Thohoyandou on Saturday afternoon as their hopes of securing the new competition’s record winners’ prize of R4,25-million bit the dust.
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/ 5 November 2006
South Africa’s standing in the international golf rankings is set to rise a notch or two in January next year with the launch of the inaugural Jo’burg Open. A public-sector partnership has rallied round the first staging of the multimillion-rand event, to be hosted at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club from January 11 to 14.
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/ 5 November 2006
The generous tributes paid by the first two black presidents of South Africa to one-time arch foe PW Botha have left many compatriots bemused and warning against a rewrite of apartheid’s history. Botha, regarded as an international pariah during his 11-year leadership of a whites-only government, died last week.
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/ 5 November 2006
As summer descends on Cape Town, visitors and locals are swapping bikinis for ponchos at the coastal city’s latest and undoubtedly coolest attraction — a cocktail lounge made entirely of ice. Sixty tonnes of frozen water have been used to construct the Ice Lounge in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront complex.
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/ 5 November 2006
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is outraged at planned retrenchments at De Beers Kimberly Mines, an official said on Saturday. ”We are particularly angered by the company’s decision to close down without proper consultation with the unions, especially the National Union of Mineworkers,” a spokesperson said.
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/ 5 November 2006
The body of two Mozambican men were found in Limpopo on Saturday, one inside the Kruger National Park and one just outside the park’s fence, police said. Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe said the men were crossing the park to get from Mozambique to South Africa illegally.
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/ 5 November 2006
In another deadly weekend on Gauteng’s roads, at least five people were killed in three serious accidents, and two cars caught fire on the busy N1 highway, causing huge traffic jams. A Volkswagen Golf exploded on the N1 while travelling from Roodepoort to Pretoria on Saturday night, ER24 said.
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/ 4 November 2006
It was no more than poetic justice as Wits University moved into third position in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) log with an entertaining 1-0 win against Bloemfontein Celtic before 5 000 enthusiastic spectators at Bidvest Stadium on Friday night. The fixture was originally played two weeks ago but was postponed due to a storm.
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/ 4 November 2006
Train surfing in the memory of friends who died playing the deadly sport proved fatal when a 15-year-old died in Soweto on Friday. ”The group of boys said they were train surfing in memory of three friends who died doing the same thing last Friday. One boy fell off the train and died on the scene,” said an emergency services spokesperson.
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/ 4 November 2006
The military will not be used to help cash-in-transit teams, but business and the government will work together to battle the heists, said Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula on Friday. ”There are other ways which this particular problem can be attended to,” Nqakula told a press briefing in Johannesburg.
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/ 3 November 2006
The Directorate of Special Operations of the National Prosecuting Authority has raided two homes of former Limpopo premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi, he said in a statement on Friday. The raids relate to allegations made against him with respect to alleged corruption in Limpopo, he said.
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/ 3 November 2006
The pilot of a light aircraft was killed when his plane crashed into a house north of Durban on Friday afternoon. Witnesses at Sgodiphola, 40km north of Tongaat on the R614 road to Greytown, said the plane was already in flames before it hit the house in foggy weather. It is believed that the aircraft took off from Virginia airport in Durban.
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/ 3 November 2006
The two men accused of the murders of actor Brett Goldin and fashion designer Richard Bloom will go on trial in the Cape High Court in March next year, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Friday. Magistrate Hafeesa Mohamed remanded Clinton Davids (22) and Shavaan Marlie (25) to December 14.
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/ 3 November 2006
Black economic empowerment (BEE) business deals worth R285-billion have been concluded in South Africa in the past 10 years, the government said on Friday, but details on the beneficiaries were scant. Critics contend that these deals benefit a small black elite representing faceless beneficiary groups.
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/ 3 November 2006
The deal brokered in Cape Town by Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi this week was little more than a face-saving mechanism for the African National Congress, acting Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Kraai van Niekerk said on Friday in DA leader Tony Leon’s internet column.
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/ 3 November 2006
New Springbok manager Zola Yeye has moved from being Jake White’s strongest critics to possibly one of his closest allies. The two men showed a united front at Yeye’s first press conference after being appointed as Springbok manager, though White admitted that he and the players had been sceptical of Yeye before the appointment.
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/ 3 November 2006
A strike by Metrobus drivers scheduled for Monday has been temporarily suspended after intervention by the Johannesburg municipality, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Friday. Samwu members accused employers of failing to pay them their accumulated sick leave, among other grievances.
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/ 3 November 2006
The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday granted the state leave to appeal against the voiding of the search-and-seizure raids by the Scorpions on Jacob Zuma’s properties and that of his attorney, Michael Hulley. The application for leave to appeal was not opposed by Zuma’s legal team.
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/ 3 November 2006
Fees charged on savings accounts discourage people from saving, who then make use of more credit, the National Credit Regulator said on Friday. Chief executive officer Gabriel Davel, testifying at the public hearings of the Competition Commission’s Banking Enquiry in Pretoria, said that with the exception of one financial institution, the returns on all entry level savings accounts were negative.
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/ 3 November 2006
More than 300 prisoners sentenced to life behind bars and who had served 15 years could be considered for parole, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday. This emerged at a high-level meeting between correctional services authorities, parole officials and some judges.
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/ 3 November 2006
With a R4,25-million winners’ prize dangling in front of them, the competing teams in the weekend’s Telkom Knockout games will be pondering the monetary implications of winning and losing. But for Orlando Pirates, the game against Maritzburg United could be more a case of courting their myriad supporters for love, not money.
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/ 2 November 2006
South African Afro-fusion band Freshlyground walked away with an MTV Europe Music Award on Thursday evening for best African act. Singer Zolani Mahola, looking slightly overwhelmed, accepted the award on stage with a brief thank-you message. Held in a chilly Copenhagen, Denmark, the glitzy awards were hosted by Justin Timberlake.
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/ 2 November 2006
The Karoo Array Telescope (Kat) will focus on leading-edge astronomic discoveries and help boost South Africa’s Nobel prize hopes in physics, Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena said on Thursday. ”The Kat will focus on such leading-edge discoveries and push our understanding of the space frontier even further.
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/ 2 November 2006
The nine provinces have vastly improved their spending patterns in the first six months of 2006/07, the National Treasury said on Thursday. They spent on average 45,2% or R82,7-billion of their combined budgets of R183-billion. ”This represents a spending increase year-on-year of 11,4% or R8,4-billion higher than for the same period last year,” the Treasury said in a statement.