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/ 2 November 2006
PW Botha will be remembered with ”hatred and disgust” as a brutal dictator who presided over a system that denied the majority all their basic human rights, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday. ”His hands were stained with the blood of hundreds who were murdered …,” Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said.
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/ 2 November 2006
Over 8Â 000 health practitioners have been struck off the roll after failing to pay their annual fees, the Health Professionals’ Council of South Africa (HPSCA) said on Thursday. ”A total of 8Â 593 health professionals have been struck off the roll after failing to meet the deadline,” said HPCSA spokesperson Tendai Dhliwayo.
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/ 2 November 2006
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula and several Cabinet colleagues in his cluster will meet with the Big Business Working Group on Friday to discuss their joint programme to fight crime. The meeting in Johannesburg comes only weeks after the two groups agreed on ways to fight crime.
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/ 2 November 2006
The Sunday Times has a ”revolutionary plan” to start a free daily newspaper, to be launched by March next year, media analyst Anton Harber says on his blog. The paper will apparently be delivered for free to Sunday Times subscribers — a unique way of launching a free newspaper.
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/ 2 November 2006
Renaming the Union Buildings — the seat of government in Pretoria — could take years, said the Ministry of Arts and Culture on Thursday. ”That could, as in the case of the OR Tambo [International airport] name change, take up to three years,” said ministry spokesperson Sandile Memela.
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/ 2 November 2006
A state funeral for ex-president PW Botha is an insult to African people, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) said on Thursday. Botha died on Tuesday, aged 90. ”The offer to give PW Botha a state funeral is naked appeasement to the forces of apartheid. It is … an insult to the intelligence of the African people,” said PAC MP Motsoko Pheko.
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/ 2 November 2006
South Africa’s two biggest opposition parties , the Democratic Alliance (DP) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), are sceptical of Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula’s proposal to lengthen the 48-hour period before an arrested suspect has to appear in court. The DA said on Thursday it was outrageous for Nqakula to call for the constitutionally enshrined detention period to be extended.
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/ 2 November 2006
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday urged Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to intervene in a strike by workers at meat-distributing outlet Karan Beef. The company was ”arrogant” and had made it clear it was not going to meet with the workers, charged Cosatu Gauteng general secretary Siphiwe Mbcina.
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/ 2 November 2006
The number of children in foster care this year has risen by more than 75 000 and the number of foster families by nearly 50 000, the Department of Social Development said on Thursday. Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said more than 375 647 children were in 239 553 foster families.
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/ 2 November 2006
While banking in South Africa is competitive there is a need to bring down bank costs, Nedbank’s retail managing director Rob Shuter said on Thursday. Nedbank became the first of the big four banks to testify in front of the competition commission’s banking inquiry public hearings into bank fees and the national payment system.
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/ 2 November 2006
The Revenue Laws Amendment Bill introduced to the National Assembly on Thursday provides for complete tax relief on imports by Fifa-related organisations in the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Introducing the measure, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said these organisations could import inventory for sale at designated sites.
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/ 2 November 2006
A record number of new cars were sold in October, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) said on Thursday. There were 37 311 sales, 3 973 (11,9%) more than the 33 338 new cars sold in October last year, Naamsa said in a statement.
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/ 2 November 2006
Lower oil prices have eased inflation risks in South Africa but it remains vulnerable to a rebound in the cost of crude and changes in global-investor sentiment, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Thursday. South Africa’s Reserve bank has hiked interest rates by 150 basis points since June to tame rising inflation, stemming from fuel and food costs and robust consumer spending.
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/ 2 November 2006
The Star newspaper has hit back at Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota’s ”scathing attack” on a report on missing equipment and supplies worth millions in Burundi. ”Get your facts right, Mr Lekota,” was the newspaper’s headline in response to Lekota’s remarks at a press conference in Pretoria on Wednesday.
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/ 2 November 2006
Andre Petim, the Ajax Cape Town goalkeeper, secured a place for his side in the next round of the Telkom Cup knockout competition by saving two penalities against the Golden Arrows at Greenpoint Stadium on Wednesday night. Ajax won 4-2 on penalties when the game was forced into extra time.
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/ 2 November 2006
"I was arrested a dozen times," notes Tapera Kapuya, a student leader at the University of Zimbabwe between 2001 and 2002 who says he was the target of both police and the Southern African country’s intelligence agents. "In November 2001 I was abducted from my room in the university by state agents and tortured for three days," he told Inter Press Service in South Africa, where he lives in exile.
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/ 2 November 2006
South Africa has two choices in its economic future, but the Democratic Alliance feared the country was on the wrong course, party leader Tony Leon said on Wednesday. Addressing the South African Business Club in London, Leon said South Africa could retain market orthodoxy or go backwards towards a statist command economy based on an outmoded Stalinist model.
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/ 1 November 2006
The judgement of the Supreme Court of Appeal on Durban businessman Schabir Shaik will be final, unless there are found to be constitutional aspects to the case, a law expert said on Wednesday. ”If there is no constitutional issue found to be involved, then the matter ends …,” said Professor Tom Coetzee, lecturer in criminal law at the University of North West.
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/ 1 November 2006
The remaining two Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) ministers in the KwaZulu-Natal cabinet were fired on Wednesday and replaced with stalwarts from the African National Congress (ANC). KwaZulu-Natal premier Sbu Ndebele also axed the ANC’s Gabriel Ndabandaba, the agricultural and environmental affairs provincial minister.
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/ 1 November 2006
Fundamental changes to power given to land claims commissioners will streamline and speed up the restitution process, said Limpopo commissioner Mashile Mokono. ”The minister [of agriculture and land affairs] has agreed to delegate some powers to approve and finalise land claims to the chief land commissioner, as well as regional land claims commissioners,” said Mokono.
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/ 1 November 2006
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has welcomed the ministerial review commission on intelligence announced by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils on Wednesday. ”In particular, we are pleased with the clearly transparent process and public involvement,” DA spokesperson Paul Swart said in a statement.
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/ 1 November 2006
Former president PW Botha, who is to be laid to rest next week, will not have a state funeral, according to a spokesperson for the church where his memorial service is to be held. He died on Tuesday night at his home in the Western Cape. The news follows a visit on Wednesday by Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane to Botha’s wife Barbara at the couple’s home in the coastal town of Wilderness.
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/ 1 November 2006
Tougher enforcement measures had to be agreed on to eradicate conflict diamonds, De Beers said on Wednesday. Governments needed to be more pro-active in the enforcement of diamond import and export controls, De Beers Group chairperson Nicky Oppenheimer said ahead of next week’s meeting of the United Nations-mandated Kimberley Process in Botswana.
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/ 1 November 2006
The Red Cross unveiled ambitious plans on Wednesday to help 50-million people in Southern Africa combat the scourge of Aids, as it appealed for hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the programme. The Geneva-based organisation said it needed -million to pay for its campaign to battle the disease in 10 countries in the south of the world’s poorest continent.
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/ 1 November 2006
Flying from Johannesburg to Cape Town for less than R200 makes South Africa’s newest low-cost airline, Mango, seem very attractive. But does the airline believe in itself? Mango has registered a list of derogatory variations on its internet domain name, Flymango.com, in an attempt to ward off websites that could be launched by its competitors.
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/ 1 November 2006
Tricksters are using people’s belief in witchcraft to rob them off their possessions in Johannesburg’s city centre, police said on Wednesday. A black substance is smeared on the arm of the victim by a passer-by and a ”good Samaritan” then approaches them telling them they have been cursed.
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/ 1 November 2006
The first public hearings into banking in South Africa started in Pretoria on Wednesday. The banking inquiry of the competition commission of South Africa will investigate aspects of competition in banking and the national payment system. Inquiry manager Charles Frank said the commission received about 215 submissions from the general public.
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/ 1 November 2006
Security guards were locked in a car boot as a heist gang looted their vehicle on the road between Polokwane and Tzaneen in another Limpopo cash-in-transit heist on Wednesday, police said. ”According to information, the suspects used four vehicles to force the vehicle off the road while firing several shots,” said Superintendent Ronel Otto.
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/ 1 November 2006
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota reacted with outrage on Wednesday to reports that the defence force had lost millions of rands worth of equipment and vehicles during peacekeeping operations in Burundi. ”The disturbing thing about this report is that it is so grossly inaccurate as to suggest bad faith,” he told journalists in Pretoria.
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/ 1 November 2006
The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the city of Cape Town has noted and welcomed the agreement reached between Western Cape local government and housing minister Richard Dyantyi and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, saying it should reduce tension and instability in the city.
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/ 1 November 2006
Amnesty International bestowed its most prestigious honour — the Ambassador of Conscience Award 2006 — on former president Nelson Mandela.
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/ 1 November 2006
It has created a wealthy black elite but has been decried for leaving millions of people behind; advocates say it has helped redress the economic wrongs of apartheid but critics argue it is deeply flawed. South Africa’s black economic empowerment (BEE) policy was supposed to bring the black majority into the mainstream economy but as opponents grow more vocal, there are signs the government may be ready for a rethink.