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/ 17 October 2006
South African municipalities will raise up to R20-billion to fund major infrastructure projects over the next three years, a National Treasury official said on Tuesday. South Africa is planning massive capital expenditure to help push economic growth to at least 6% by 2010 in an attempt to cut widespread poverty.
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/ 17 October 2006
A Port Elizabeth man was expected to appear in the Uitenhage Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday following a hostage drama in Despatch, Eastern Cape police said. The man, in his 40s, allegedly locked a woman in his house at Azilia Park about 11am on Monday, said spokesperson Inspector Marianette Olivier. The man panicked when he saw police vehicles and neighbours gathering around the house and started shooting at bystanders.
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/ 17 October 2006
South Africa’s Presley Chweneyagae has won the award for an outstanding performance by an actor in a leading role for Tsotsi at the Black Movie Awards in Los Angeles, News24 reported on Monday. Chweneyagae was up against Denzel Washington (Inside Man), Cuba Gooding Junior (Shadowboxer), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots) and Tyrese Gibson (Waist Deep).
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/ 17 October 2006
A Limpopo schoolgirl was fatally stabbed 28 times by her boyfriend as they walked home from school, police said on Tuesday. Superintendent Ailwei Mushavhanamadi said a manhunt had been launched for the 21-year-old youth, who attacked 17-year-old Pinky Maduwa with a sharp instrument on Monday.
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/ 17 October 2006
He was arguably the finest striker produced in South African soccer. The legendary Thomas Hlongwane, known by the descriptive and singular nickname of ”Who’s Fooling Who?” is no more. He died in the early hours of Saturday morning in his mid-40s at his home in Mabopane.
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/ 17 October 2006
The 13-month-old Malawian boy who United States pop diva Madonna hopes to adopt has arrived in Britain on Tuesday on a private plane from Johannesburg, British media reported. Earlier, a private jet had whisked the boy from Malawi to Johannesburg after Malawian authorities waived local rules to grant Madonna an interim adoption and issued the boy, David Banda, with a passport.
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/ 17 October 2006
South Africa was honoured to be elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council on Monday and would work for peace and to reform the UN, said Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Delighted officials in Pretoria labelled it ”the opportunity of a lifetime”.
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/ 16 October 2006
The South African Communist Party (SACP) stood by its general secretary Blade Nzimande on Monday in his criticism of the African National Congress, but called for an end to public spats within the tripartite alliance.
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/ 16 October 2006
Over 60% of the Jali Commission’s recommendations have either been or are in the process of being implemented by the Department of Correctional Services, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said on Monday. Briefing the media at Parliament, Balfour said he welcomed the commission’s findings and recommendations, as they affirmed the department was on the right track.
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/ 16 October 2006
With South Africa set to take up its first-ever seat on the United Nations Security Council in New York on Monday night, officials in Pretoria labelled this ”the opportunity of a lifetime”. They said they had been busy for months, analysing international hotspots and sharpening diplomatic pencils in readiness for South Africa’s role at the world body’s most powerful organ.
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/ 16 October 2006
Police undertook on Monday to explore all avenues to ensure that cash-in-transit security guards are able to transport money in a safer environment. ”Our main objective will be to create a safe and secure environment for the cash-in-transit guards,” said national police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo in a statement.
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/ 16 October 2006
Fourteen current and former African National Congress MPs were convicted and fined on Monday after pleading guilty to theft and fraud charges stemming from abuse of parliamentary travel vouchers. The sentencing, carried out in the Cape High Court in terms of plea-bargain agreements with the Scorpions, came only a day ahead of their next scheduled court appearance in the case.
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/ 16 October 2006
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was not responding to any form of pressure in condemning the Young Communist League (YCL) for calling President Thabo Mbeki a dictator, the league said on Monday. ”The ANC did not pressure us to issue a statement condemning the YCL,” the organisation said in a statement.
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/ 16 October 2006
The number of patients awaiting antiretroviral (ARV) treatment is significantly lower than speculated, the Department of Health said on Monday. ”About 178Â 635 people had been initiated on antiretroviral therapy in the 262 accredited facilities in the country by June this year,” said spokesperson Charity Bengu.
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/ 16 October 2006
The National Development Agency (NDA) is tightening up its systems to prevent a repeat of an R8,8-million misappropriation of funds discovered in a recent forensic audit. It has also begun criminal proceedings against the former NDA employee allegedly at the centre of the fraud, NDA chief executive Godfrey Mokate said in Johannesburg on Monday.
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/ 16 October 2006
Correctional services is strengthening its ”onslaught” against fraud, corruption and unethical behaviour by publicly naming those found guilty and dismissed since the institution of various interventions. Briefing the media at Parliament on Monday, Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour released the first list of correctional officials dismissed after being found guilty of various charges.
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/ 16 October 2006
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday urged Eskom chief executive Thulani Gcabashe to make public the KPMG report on the R129-million fraud scandal at the state electricity utility. Media reports indicate the report has been known by Gcabashe since May, but he and Eskom’s senior management have chosen ”to keep it under wraps,” DA spokesperson Gareth Morgan said.
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/ 16 October 2006
There will be ”far-reaching negative consequences” if government abandons the willing-buyer, willing-seller approach to land reform, the Democratic Alliance (DA) warned on Monday. The party was reacting to media reports that government is considering radical changes to its land-reform policy.
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/ 16 October 2006
Cash-in-transit security guards will go on strike if the government does not take steps to protect them from armed robberies, the Motor Transport Workers’ Union (MTWU) warned on Monday. ”We will not hesitate to strike if something is not done to stop this carnage and murder, thus leaving ATMs empty, and shops and banks stranded,” said MTWU general secretary Emily Fourie.
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/ 16 October 2006
Discipline problems in many schools cannot be solved by departments of education or by teachers working on their own, the president of a teachers’ association on Monday. ”It is, however, essential that the Department of Education should take the lead in beginning to find solutions,” said Dave Balt, president of the Professional Teachers’ Association of South Africa.
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/ 16 October 2006
The Randburg Regional Court refused bail to senior Scorpions advocate Portia Kgantsi on Monday. She was arrested earlier this month for bribery, corruption, extortion and defeating the ends of justice. Key to the magistrate’s decision was Kgantsi having falsely claimed in an affidavit that she had handed in a valid passport when it was in fact an expired passport.
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/ 16 October 2006
The PetroSA plant outside Mossel Bay was calm on Monday morning after it was hit by a strike last week, Southern Cape police spokesperson Captain Malcolm Pojie said. He said police had set up a joint operations centre along with the parastatal at the plant, which has been shut down for annual cleaning and maintenance, to monitor the situation.
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/ 16 October 2006
South Africa and Mozambique plan to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Samora Machel with a ceremony this week at the site of the plane crash that killed the Mozambiquan leader. South African President Thabo Mbeki and Mozambiquan President Armando Guebuza will pay tribute to Machel at a memorial on an isolated hillside outside Mbuzini in South Africa.
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/ 16 October 2006
Bloemfontein Celtic maintained their unbeaten home record when they beat Ajax Cape Town 2-1 in a Premier Soccer League game in front of a capacity crowd at the Seisa Ramabodu Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Celtic lead 2-0 at the break. From the start, Celtic players were merciless as striker Thapelo Liau scored as early as the fourth minute.
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/ 16 October 2006
All that was in tune for Moroka Swallows during their late 2-1 Premier League defeat against Jomo Cosmos at Germiston Stadium on Sunday afternoon was the club’s brass band. While the Birds only seemed to play with urgency and purpose while trailing, the young ensemble in the stand kept up an incessant musical rapport throughout the 90 minutes — but to no avail.
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/ 16 October 2006
The police don’t have the facts on attacks on the Somali community and should get these, said Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon on Sunday. Leon said representatives of the Somali community claimed that 40 Somalis had been killed in the past three months alone.
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/ 16 October 2006
The Highveld Lions beat the Warriors by nine wickets with more than 10 overs to spare in their Domestic Championship match at Sedgars Park in Potchefstroom on Sunday. The Lions innings was interrupted by a heavy downpour just five runs short of victory, but they returned an hour later for Stephen Cook to score the winning runs.
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/ 16 October 2006
Twenty-two charges of rape were laid against police officers between April 2005 and March this year, media reports said on Monday. This, according to an Independent Complaints Directorate report, was the highest such figure in the past six years.
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/ 16 October 2006
Workers on three wine farms in the Western Cape will take ownership of one of the farms, said the owners on Sunday. ”An innovative empowerment deal will transform employees on the three Franschhoek-based Solms properties into land owners after generations of tilling vineyards on which they had no claim,” said Paula Wilson, the spokesperson for the farms.
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/ 15 October 2006
Former president PW Botha was discharged from the George medi-clinic on Saturday, after going in for a ”routine check-up”, the hospital said. ”The family has asked not to reveal the nature of the tests but all results were good,” said hospital manager George Schutte.
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/ 15 October 2006
African leaders need to set an example and test for HIV/Aids in public if they want to demonstrate their determination to fight the disease. Around 6 500 Africans are estimated to die every day from HIV/Aids but the stigma that continues to surround the disease means that members of the political elite are all too often reluctant to talk openly about it.
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/ 15 October 2006
A fundraising dinner in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, has raised more than R500 000 for African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Sunday. Among those attending were the provincial leadership of the ANC, provincial ministers, mayors and business people.