Zuma in talks over ANC paper
/ 30 April 2010

Zuma in talks over ANC paper

The Gupta group, regarded as close to President Jacob Zuma, is considering launching a daily newspaper that sources say will be broadly sympathetic to the ANC. Speaking on behalf of his brother, Atul, who is abroad, Tony Gupta said: “Yes, there is a feasibility study we are doing — we have hired some advisers, but […]

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/ 18 January 2007

Now Agliotti faces drugs charges

It’s official: Glenn Agliotti is the "Landlord" accused by the Scorpions of being a boss in one of the country’s "most prominent syndicates" involved in the smuggling of drugs and other contraband. Agliotti appeared in the Alberton Regional Court on Thursday to be joined as an accused in a R200-million drugs trial.

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/ 15 December 2006

Who is John Stratton?

"He was the tungsten tip of the drill bit, and Kebble was the great, flabby weight behind it." That’s how one Brett Kebble associate who dealt with John Stratton described the man who was regarded as Kebble’s right-hand man and the nearest thing the mining magnate had to a friend.

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/ 1 September 2006

Meet the Kebble ‘witness’

The homeless man who was arrested on Wednesday after claiming in a radio interview to have witnessed Brett Kebble’s murder, earlier gave the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> a description of the "killer". Lesego Amos Yekane (24) was interviewed by the <i>M&G</i> on Tuesday. He described the alleged killer as a "huge man with a bald head".

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/ 25 August 2006

Donen demands answers

The Donen Commission investigating abuse of the Iraqi oil-for-food programme is on the comeback trail. It is demanding testimony including how African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe intervened with Saddam Hussein’s regime on behalf of the central figure in the Oilgate saga, Sandi Majali.

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/ 18 August 2006

Arms deal: The truth no one’s telling

What is it that "Silver Fox" Kessie Naidu told former justice minister Penuell Maduna and Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy about the "encrypted fax" detailing Jacob Zuma’s alleged bribe demand — but that neither will disclose? Affidavits detail extraordinary off-the-record negotiations between the state and French arms group Thales.

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/ 12 May 2006

Oil inquiry on the skids

There are fears that the Donen commission investigating South African abuse of the Iraq oil-for-food programme may not regain momentum after public hearings were abandoned as they were about to start. The commission backed down in the face of a Pretoria High Court challenge by a witness it had subpoenaed to testify first. Bad drafting of its powers left it little choice.

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/ 24 March 2006

SA’s nuclear bazaar

As Germany mounts the first prosecution targeting an international nuclear contraband ring, details are emerging of how South Africa was a key base for supplying pariah states. Authorities as far afield as Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Pakistan and South Africa were jolted into action after October 2003 when a cargo ship, the <i>BBC China</i>, was searched at an Italian port in a United States-British intelligence operation.

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/ 31 January 2006

M&G wants Oilgate report overturned

On Wednesday, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> filed a court challenge to Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s findings on the Oilgate scandal, seeking to have his report overturned and redone. Last July, Mushwana released the report that avoided probing parts of the scandal, but exonerated government and the parastatals involved.

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/ 9 December 2005

Govt sits on UN report

The government has yet to decide how to handle the fallout from the United Nations inquiry into the world body’s controversial Iraqi "oil-for-food" programme.
The report of the UN Independent Inquiry Committee, released in October, points fingers at thousands of companies for having allegedly flouted provisions of UN sanctions against the government of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

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/ 16 September 2005

PetroSA: We should have …

PetroSA, the state-owned enterprise at the centre of the Oilgate scandal, admitted to the auditor general that it should have conducted a due diligence investigation before advancing R15-million to Imvume Management in December 2003.
As the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> revealed earlier this year, Imvume passed on R11-million of the advance to the African National Congress, which was suffering a cash-crunch at the time.