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/ 4 December 2007
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In the fierce debate raging around the man tipped to become South Africa’s next president, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, there are few neutrals. With less than a fortnight to go before the ruling party’s national conference in Polokwane, reports show a country split over the politician.
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/ 3 December 2007
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South African President Thabo Mbeki and his arch-rival, Jacob Zuma, have both officially confirmed they are candidates for party chief of the African National Congress (ANC), their offices said Monday. ”Mr Jacob Zuma signed the ANC nomination form over the weekend in London,” Zuma’s spokesperson, Ranjeni Munusamy, said.
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/ 30 November 2007
Nationwide’s aircraft will remain grounded until the airline has fixed deficiencies in its maintenance section, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Friday. The CAA suspended approval for the airline’s aircraft maintenance organisation from midnight on Thursday, said CAA chief executive officer Zakes Myeza.
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/ 26 November 2007
Phone lines have been cut at East Rand offices of the Department of Home Affairs — allegedly due to unpaid phone bills, a home affairs official said on Monday. Regional home affairs manager for Springs Themba Ndebele said the lines had been out of order since last week. ”This is crisis point,” said Ndebele. ”We can’t function.”
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/ 26 November 2007
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African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma leads the race for nominations for the post of party president with five provinces supporting him, to President Thabo Mbeki’s four, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Sunday.
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/ 25 November 2007
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African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma is ”ready” to be the country’s president if asked to do so, the Sunday Times quoted him as saying. ”If I am asked I will be ready for the task,” he told a function for black businessmen in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Friday.
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/ 23 November 2007
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South Africans must speak up if they want the death penalty back, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma said on Friday. Speaking to about 250 people at an anti-crime rally at Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats, he also called for ”extraordinary measures” against crime.
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/ 22 November 2007
A final decision on which country will host the giant Square Kilometre Array radio telescope is now expected in 2011, the Cabinet announced on Thursday. South Africa was confident it would win the bid, government communications head Themba Maseko told a media briefing at Parliament on Thursday, following the Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting the day before.
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/ 21 November 2007
A police officer was killed and eight others seriously injured in a South African Air Force helicopter crash in the Free State on Wednesday, the military said. Seven other people suffered minor injuries. The Oryx helicopter was carrying 19 people when it crashed at about 11.40am near the Lesotho border.
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/ 20 November 2007
The City of Cape Town’s spy saga took another turn on Tuesday with Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille deciding on legal action against controversial expelled councillor Badih Chaaban. De Lille met police on Tuesday afternoon in connection with the alleged illegal surveillance of politicians in the city.
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/ 20 November 2007
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has blamed ”overeager” members of his own party for a report that President Thabo Mbeki has intervened to defuse a row over Rasool himself. Rasool, a member of the African National Congress (ANC), was accused in an official report last week of knowingly making incorrect statements to the legislature.
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/ 20 November 2007
Ben Mafani never met Piet Koornhof, who died this week at the age of 82. But he hopes to come face to face with Koornhof in the life hereafter, because he has a question for the apartheid-era Cabinet minister. Mafani wants to know why he, his family, and thousands of other people were forcibly removed from ”white” South Africa three decades ago.
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/ 19 November 2007
European Union agriculture experts have recommended a ban on South African ostrich meat, but the Department of Agriculture says it has no official knowledge of this threat to the R1,2-billion export industry. ”As I speak now, I don’t have any official correspondence [from the EU],” the department’s chief communications director said on Monday.
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/ 15 November 2007
Piet Koornhof, who died in a Stellenbosch frail care centre on Monday at the age of 82, following a stroke, was a man of contradictions. Seen as a ”verligte” in successive apartheid-era Cabinets, the posts he accepted carried responsibility for some of apartheid’s most bizarre and inhumane policies.
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/ 13 November 2007
Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata was given another chance on Tuesday to try and block a lower court from hearing recordings of his alleged drunken diatribe after a car accident. This was after Nkola’s drunken-driving trial was postponed in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s court until July 2 2008.
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/ 13 November 2007
A new group chief executive officer has been appointed at Alexander Forbes after the resignation of Peter Moyo, the company said on Tuesday. Bruce Campbell — previously chairperson of the company — has been appointed as group CEO. Moyo apparently left the company because of differences with the board.
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/ 2 November 2007
The Department of Home Affairs has ditched the South African Post Office (Sapo) as the distributor of its documents because of inefficiency. Initially, the Sapo contract with the department to deliver documents went very well, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told a media briefing at Parliament on Friday.
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/ 31 October 2007
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South African President Thabo Mbeki has repeated his willingness to stand for re-election as leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) if the party asks him, state radio reported on Wednesday. ANC branches have started the process of nominating candidates for party president ahead of a party conference in December.
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/ 31 October 2007
The Cape Town City council on Wednesday upheld the metro disciplinary committee’s recommendation that leader of the National People’s Party (NPP) Badih Chaaban be expelled as councillor. Chief whip of the council Anthea Serritslev said a full sitting of council voted in favour of Chaaban’s expulsion.
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/ 31 October 2007
A toy gun was used in a six-hour hostage drama in Lenasia on Wednesday, police said. ”The gun that was used looked very real,” said police spokesperson Captain Julia Klaassen. ”Negotiators did their job well. We are just thankful and relieved that the situation is now over.” The hostages’ ordeal occurred when a 20-year-old Durban man held up the family of four at their home.
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/ 31 October 2007
A 20-year-old Durban man who held a Lenasia South family hostage for nearly six hours on Wednesday has given himself up. Donovan Naidoo had earlier released two of the hostages, 23-year-old Denise Bathman and her one-year-old son Jodash. He later released the other two hostages, 27-year-old Gerald Bathman and 16-year-old Praise Archary.
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/ 31 October 2007
A 42-year-old Mpumalanga man has developed breasts after he was enrolled in the government’s antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programme, a media report said on Wednesday. The resident of Standerton’s Sakhile township said doctors and nurses at Standerton’s TB hospital had refused to listen to him.
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/ 29 October 2007
Former president Nelson Mandela was at the Ellis Park stadium on Monday to greet the South African artists who had agreed to perform in his fifth 46664 concert aimed at fighting HIV/Aids. Johnny Clegg, Arno Carstens, Loyiso and the Soweto Gospel Choir are just some of the local stars scheduled to appear at the 46664 concert later this year.
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/ 25 October 2007
A man who may have been the victim of a money scam was arrested by police outside the United States embassy in Pretoria on Thursday. The man, who is in his early 40s and who was initially reported to have been planning an attack on the embassy, was praying and chanting across the street from the embassy when police were alerted.
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/ 24 October 2007
More than 20 teachers were held at gunpoint at a Durban school on Wednesday as two classes were about to write a matric paper, KwaZulu-Natal police said. The incident took place at Chatsworth’s Savannah Park Secondary School at 7.40am, Chatsworth police spokesperson Captain Edmund Singh said.
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/ 24 October 2007
The fifth man arrested in connection with the murder of historian David Rattray appeared briefly in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court on Wednesday, KwaZulu-Natal police said. Zwelihle Mtshali (21) had his case postponed until Thursday, when he would appear in the local high court, police spokesperson Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu said.
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/ 24 October 2007
A case of assault has been opened with the police in Vryheid on Tuesday after a daughter of Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi was struck by chairs during a KwaZulu-Natal legislature session. African National Congress and IFP leaders clashed over issues of service delivery moments before the chair throwing occurred.
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/ 23 October 2007
Metrorail may suspend its KwaZulu-Natal train services if rampant train vandalism and assaults on staff members continue unchecked, said Metrorail regional manager Sisa Mtwa at a media briefing in Durban on Tuesday. The worst-affected areas are KwaMashu and Umlazi — an area that carries 80% of Metrorail’s passengers.
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/ 19 October 2007
A disciplinary committee of the Cape Town city council has recommended that controversial councillor Badhi Chaaban be removed from office. The disciplinary hearings — which Chaaban claimed were a kangaroo court — followed claims that he sought to bribe councillors to cross the floor to his National People’s Party.
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/ 18 October 2007
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Nelson Mandela urged the Springboks on Thursday to emulate their 1995 World Cup victory when his appearance in a gold and green jersey became one of the iconic images of the post-apartheid era. The ageing former South African president said in a pre-recorded video message to the team he was convinced that they would return home triumphant.
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/ 17 October 2007
There has been an ”alarming” increase over the past year in the deadly dust disease silicosis among workers on South Africa’s gold and platinum mines, MPs heard on Wednesday. Mine doctors submitted 1 031 cases of silicosis to the Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases in 2005.
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/ 16 October 2007
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Former president Nelson Mandela will give the Rugby World Cup final in France a miss on Saturday, his spokesperson Zelda la Grange said. ”Because of his age, it is very difficult for Madiba to undertake long trips,” she told the South African Press Association on Tuesday.