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/ 27 January 2008
As SRC officials and African staff at the University of KwaZulu-Natal we consider it necessary to indicate our position on the alleged rape of an American student at UKZN — and specifically to reply to "On race and rape at UKZN" (November 6) by Lubna Nadvi. We condemn the rape of any student or staff member, regardless of their race or class.
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/ 25 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party described a decision on Friday by President Robert Mugabe to call general elections for March 29 an "act of madness", but stopped short of calling for a boycott. "It’s an act of madness and arrogance," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said.
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/ 25 January 2008
It is likely to be a tale of two halves for local and global financial markets and investors this year, with conditions tough during the first half of the year but markets beginning to factor in a better 2009 during the second half based on the positive impact that lower global interest rates will have.
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/ 25 January 2008
Six months ago, everything was rosy — robust global growth fuelled by seemingly limitless demand from China and India, strong corporate balance sheets, record prices across most asset classes, and enormous infrastructure spend anticipated in South Africa. Now appetite for risk has disappeared and any bad news stokes further panic.
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/ 25 January 2008
In the month since the ruling party’s national conference, ANC members and South Africans in general have expressed a variety of emotions, impressions, hopes and fears about the results of that meeting. While a particular slate of individuals emerged victorious in the leadership elections, there was significant support for the alternative, writes Phillip Dexter.
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/ 25 January 2008
Stand up, the real Gwede Gwede Mantashe, the ANC’s new secretary general, is commendably frank about the way the ANC thinks it is going to achieve the impossible — meeting the widespread expectations from within its own ranks for radical change while not spooking the market (‘What now for the ANC?” January 11). Mantashe expects […]
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/ 24 January 2008
Why, in God’s name, do the Scorpions need to be dissolved into the South African Police Service?
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/ 24 January 2008
The admission by French bank Société Générale on Thursday that a single trader had defrauded it of €4,9-billion ($7,15-billion) is just the latest example of how a rogue operator can blow a huge chunk of a company’s assets sky high. What rogue bankers have in common is that they are experts in making money.
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/ 23 January 2008
South African business leaders on Wednesday met the management of Eskom to thrash out ways to cope with an electricity crisis that has caused chaos in factories and offices. Businesses have lost hundreds of millions of rands since South Africa began being hit by rolling power cuts, lasting for up to four hours, about three weeks ago.
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/ 23 January 2008
The number of black buyers of vehicles has doubled in the past five years, making up 34% of South Africa’s largest vehicle lender Wesbank’s book from 17% in 2003, it said on Wednesday. However, Wesbank painted a grim picture for the vehicle market in the next 12 months.
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/ 23 January 2008
Indian companies are considering investing R16-billion in projects at the Coega Industrial Development Zone outside Port Elizabeth, the Coega Development Corporation said on Wednesday. These investments cover projects in the metals and automotive sectors.
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/ 23 January 2008
No sign advertises the availability of voluntary HIV counselling and testing at the family planning centre in Port Sudan.
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/ 23 January 2008
Residential property is the asset most South Africans would buy if they had R1-million to invest, according to a recent poll by online property portal <i>Propertygenie.co.za</i> — and a wine estate in Paarl is the dream property most South Africans would buy if they had R25-million to spend.
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/ 23 January 2008
Public- and private-sector employers are unwittingly facilitating identity theft by giving detailed personal and financial product information on payslips. An urgent review of payslip practice is necessary at large employers, says life assurer Liberty Life. The "great payslip slip-up" has worried anti-fraud experts for some time.
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/ 22 January 2008
South Africa’s young constitutional democracy is now facing serious challenges that threaten to unmake a great beginning. In managing the contradictions within and between the ruling party and the state, and among state institutions, fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law must be the starting point, writes Shadrack Gutto.
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/ 22 January 2008
The savage gridlock that has characterised power failures in major centres recently could soon be a thing of the past if the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) plan to install solar-powered traffic lights comes to fruition. Thousands of traffic lights have been earmarked for solar-power installations in a number of cities and towns.
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/ 22 January 2008
The United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday slashed benchmark US interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in an emergency bid to lend support to a US economy some fear is on the verge of recession. The Fed’s action took the key federal funds rate, which governs overnight lending between banks, down to 3,5%.
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/ 22 January 2008
He recorded some of pop music’s most acclaimed solo albums, helping in the process to create a style that came to be called Americana. Still, throughout his career John Stewart would always remain best known as the man who wrote the Monkees’ most enduring hit, <i>Daydream Believer</i>.
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/ 22 January 2008
Two Australian thieves were labelled "a pair of fools" by a judge on Tuesday as he jailed them over a bungled restaurant robbery in which one shot his female accomplice in the buttocks. Donna Hayes was shot by her former boyfriend, Benjamin Jorgensen, during an attempt to rob the Cuckoo Restaurant in Melbourne on April Fool’s Day last year.
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/ 22 January 2008
Stocks plummeted across the world on Monday amid fears of a global recession, with markets in Europe suffering their biggest one-day losses since the September 11 attacks on the United States. Dealers said a major new plan by President George Bush to prevent a United States recession was not enough to offset the stream of bad news from banks.
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/ 21 January 2008
An 81-year old man in the small Chilean village of Angol shocked his grieving relatives by waking up in his coffin at his own wake, local media said on Sunday. When Feliberto Carrasco’s family members discovered his body limp and cold, they were convinced that the octogenarian’s hour had come, so they immediately called a funeral home, not a doctor.
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/ 21 January 2008
Somalia’s new government on Monday pledged to put an end to a crackdown against journalists in the Horn of Africa country and vowed to restore press freedoms. Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein made the promise as he was taking part in a national press freedom-day ceremony in the capital, Mogadishu.
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/ 21 January 2008
South African median home prices were flat in December last year after moderating to 6,5% year-on-year (y/y) in November from 10,2% y/y growth in October, the Standard Bank’s property gauge showed on Monday. In level terms, the median house price was recorded at R550 000, bringing the five-month moving average growth rate to 5,6% y/y.
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/ 21 January 2008
Almost 60% of Australians are either members or want to join the ‘mile-high club’ — where membership is gained by having sex on an aircraft. Asked whether they would consider making love at altitude, almost half of the 1 110 surveyed by a travel website said they would but had not yet satisfied their desire.
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/ 18 January 2008
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has died of an unspecified illness, a spokesperson for the late champion said on Friday. He was 64. Fischer, who beat Russian Boris Spassky in 1972 to become world champion, was considered by some chess experts to be the greatest player of all time.
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/ 18 January 2008
An eight-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, the Health Ministry said on Friday, bringing the toll to 97 in the nation worst hit by the H5N1 virus. The boy was the seventh person from the Jakarta satellite city of Tangerang to die of the disease since October. He died at 4am local time in a Jakarta hospital, the ministry’s bird-flu centre said.
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/ 18 January 2008
Publishers of a popular Zimbabwean daily, which was ordered to close more than four years ago, have been invited to apply for authorisation to begin publishing again, government-run media said on Friday. The <i>Daily News</i> was a virulent critic of President Robert Mugabe’s government before being closed down in September 2003.
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/ 18 January 2008
South African stocks fell over 3% on Friday on increasing fears that the United States economy could be hit by a recession. By 8.55am GMT the top-40 index had crept back from a session and stood 2,76% weaker at 23 936,98 points, off the day’s worst level of 23 816,5.
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/ 18 January 2008
Poets are especially at risk if people do not know and respect copyright law, writes Wendy Cope.
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/ 18 January 2008
The Spier Poetry Exchange with a Dutch writers’ network promises a celebratory discovery of new voices, writes Brent Meersman.
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/ 18 January 2008
The past week was particularly bad for business and consumers who experienced repeated power cuts across the country. Gautrain’s head offices in Johannesburg, where one of the country’s biggest infrastructure projects is being planned, experienced three power cuts on Monday between 8am and 8pm, writes Jocelyn Newmarch.
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/ 17 January 2008
Anglo American, the world’s second-largest resources group, on Thursday strengthened its iron-ore portfolio by announcing a $5,5-billion (R37,9-billion) deal that will see it take control of key projects in Brazil. The group is holding exclusive negotiations with Mineração e Metálicos’s controlling shareholder, Eike Batista.