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/ 22 February 2008
The government’s R60-billion capital injection for Eskom will come with strings for the parastatal’s management, and added pressure on the regulator to raise prices sharply. Director General in the National Treasury Lesetja Kganyago says the final package will probably combine an ordinary loan, a subordinated loan, a loan guarantee and cash.
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/ 22 February 2008
"We are in this together," Trevor Manuel told Parliament repeatedly on Wednesday, but to many, the song that came to mind might have been <i>My Way</i>, as the Finance Minister rallied investors, bureaucrats, politicians and citizens to the standard of macroeconomic stability and investment for growth.
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/ 22 February 2008
The government has promised Anglo American that its mining rights will be renewed under new rules governing the industry — even as data summarised in the budget shows just how badly regulatory barriers continue to limit South Africa’s ability to cash in on the biggest commodities boom in living memory.
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/ 22 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel showed his green fingers in this year’s national budget with a new levy for coal-fired electricity usage, funding for renewable energy and energy conservation, and a barrage of other incentives under consideration.
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/ 22 February 2008
A friend in the United States who watches Barack Obama tells me that he, unusually for a politician, has Mandela-like qualities in that he acts as a unifying force, finding common ground on which to build consensus on the way forward. We could well do with someone with Mandela-like qualities now.
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/ 22 February 2008
The poverty of understanding racism in South Africa was recently exposed by the Skielik killings. The four murders were depicted by the media as being caused by the temporary insanity of a troubled young man. The murdered victims simply disappeared into the sprawling squatter camp, as we were bombarded with psychosocial profiles of the perpetrator proving that he was the actual victim.
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/ 22 February 2008
If you’re one of the lucky ones who has managed to buy your own generator, your Eskom-free future might not be as bright as you’d hoped if your generator is lost, stolen or damaged. Finding out whether your generator is insured under your current policy could mean the difference between a bright or dark future.
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/ 21 February 2008
<b>ON CIRCUIT:</b> Tarantino’s <i>Death Proof</i>, <i>Michael Clayton</i> and Halle Berry in <i>Things We Lost in the Fire</i>.
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/ 21 February 2008
Though the country’s focus was firmly on Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget this week, another important event should not go unnoticed.
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/ 21 February 2008
The Legal Resources Centre, a public-interest law firm working on land issues, expressed scepticism on Thursday at the claim in Wednesday’s national budget that the land-restitution process is nearing completion. An extra R1-billion will be set aside over the next three years to settle outstanding land-restitution claims.
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/ 21 February 2008
The 2008 national budget took a "business as usual" approach in failing to carry through President Thabo Mbeki’s commitment to change all South Africans’ lives for the better, the People’s Budget Coalition said on Thursday, adding that the government will not be doing anything fundamentally different from what it has done in the past.
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/ 21 February 2008
A spokesperson for about 1 800 people evicted from unfinished homes in Delft on Thursday appealed for water and food for the group, now living on a site adjacent to the land. "It’s like a state of emergency," said Ashraf Cassim, a spokesperson for the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.
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/ 20 February 2008
Stripped of its polemical verbosity, Philip Dexter’s article (January 25) simply argues that the electoral contest against Thabo Mbeki’s leadership was just about personal power to pursue egoistic interests. The newly elected leadership will use its power to pursue these interests, including purging those who differed with them towards the national congress, writes David Masondo.
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/ 20 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget charts a pragmatic course that offers hope for better times ahead, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Wednesday. The budget has a definite business-friendly undertone, Citadel chief investment officer Jan van Niekerk said.
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/ 20 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation vaulted to 100Â 580,2% in January to set a new world record, but it is still unlikely to cause sleepless nights to President Robert Mugabe’s government facing elections in about five weeks’ time. The jump in inflation is alarming even in the context of Zimbabwe’s extraordinarily collapsing economy.
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/ 20 February 2008
Landowners who opt to preserve habitats and biodiversity on their land are set to receive an income-tax deduction for their efforts, according to the Budget Review tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, 726 trees, almost 37 tonnes of paper, were used for the paperwork and the documents of the national budget.
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/ 20 February 2008
Over R10-billion will be spent on strengthening the police force and judiciary over the next three years, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in his budget speech on Wednesday. There would be more than 200Â 000 police officers by the end of March 2011, up 22% from the 163Â 000 police officers in 2006/07.
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/ 20 February 2008
The age limit for the child-support grant will be raised by one year to include 14-year-olds as from January next year, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced on Wednesday. He also said the qualifying age for men for the state old-age pension would be reduced from 65 to 63 this year, to 61 in 2009, and 60 by 2010.
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/ 20 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that recent political developments within the African National Congress (ANC) made the drafting of the 2008 budget difficult. "I never had any concerns on whether there will be difficulties in these areas," he said.
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/ 20 February 2008
The government will fund embattled electricity producer Eskom to the tune of R60-billion over the next five years, according to national budget documents tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday. At the same time, it will introduce a levy in a bid to get consumers to save electricity.
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/ 20 February 2008
Despite global economic turmoil, South Africa’s economy remains robust and the longer-term outlook favourable, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. "It is time for neither gloom nor panic," he said in his 2008/09 budget speech to the National Assembly.
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/ 20 February 2008
More than two million people have registered as descendants of Confucius, tripling the size of the celebrated Chinese philosopher’s family tree, state media reported on Monday. The new list, which was last updated in 1930, has rocketed by more than 1,3-million, the Confucius genealogy compilation committee said.
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/ 20 February 2008
Hong Kong health officials on Tuesday warned would-be slimmers not to consume parasitic worms in an attempt to lose weight following adverts for products containing worm eggs. The Health Department said there is no scientific evidence that infestation with ascaris, a parasitic worm that lives in the intestine, is a way to lose weight.
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/ 20 February 2008
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd revealed on Wednesday that he is battling the bulge, while his deputy, Julia Gillard, was stunned to be voted one of the country’s sexiest women. Rudd said it is difficult to maintain a fitness regime while coping with the responsibilities of office.
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/ 20 February 2008
Australia’s postal service has increased the maximum weight for its delivery staff after struggling to attract applicants weighing less than 90kg, local media reported on Tuesday. The old limit was designed to allow "posties", as they are known here, to carry 40kg of mail on their small motorcycles for a total load of 130kg.
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/ 20 February 2008
A group of Chinese alcohol producers is trying to overturn a ban on government officials enjoying a lunchtime tipple that has seen a fall in restaurant trade, state media reported on Wednesday. Officials in several cities in central Henan province were banned from drinking during their lunch break in an effort to improve government efficiency.
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/ 20 February 2008
Eskom is not as concerned about the domestic availability of sufficient coal as it is with the speed at which it could be mined, <i>Business Day</i> reported on Wednesday. The national power utility is also worried about logistical problems in transporting the coal to power stations.
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/ 20 February 2008
The first microbicide to reach the final phase of testing has failed to prevent HIV transmission, researchers announced this week.
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/ 20 February 2008
Former Absa CEO and chairperson Dr Danie Cronje has been appointed as the independent non-executive chairperson of Sappi, the global pulp and paper group announced on Wednesday. He succeeds Eugene van As, whose impending retirement as chairperson and from the board was announced earlier.
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/ 20 February 2008
This year’s categories for Greening the Future include the Companies and organisations with innovative environmental strategies that improve business performance. This category is sponsored by Rhodes University.
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/ 20 February 2008
I kickstarted 2008 with what I believed was a noble resolution: to pay a fair price for everyday luxuries such as chocolate and coffee. These two products often have a high toll on the environment, as virgin forests are cleared away to make way for new coffee or cocoa plantations, writes Jocelyn Newmarch.
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/ 19 February 2008
The first of South Africa’s long-planned "new generation" prisons should be completed by February next year, MPs heard on Tuesday. The R662-million Kimberley Correctional Centre was more than one-third completed by the end of last month, prisons commissioner Vernie Petersen said.