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/ 2 February 2008
An Eastern Cape police captain charged with the possession of stolen goods was released on bail by the Qumbu Magistrate’s Court on Saturday. The charges relate to the possession of unlicensed firearms, ammunition, stolen vehicles and stock cards, as well as defeating the ends of justice.
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/ 27 January 2008
‘We’re running out of oil!” We’ve been hearing this warning at least since the 1970s oil shocks, but recently it has been proclaimed with increasing insistence. The idea goes back to 1956, when Shell geologist M King Hubbert declared that the world had enough oil for only about 50 more years, writes Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero.
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/ 25 January 2008
The cars we buy and the service we get are still getting better and better each year. That’s the conclusion reached in the fourth JD Power & Associates/<i>Car Magazine</i> 2007 South Africa customer satisfaction index (CSI) study released earlier this week.
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/ 22 January 2008
Embattled South African power utility Eskom warned on Tuesday that current electricity prices were unsustainable and South Africans should expect steeper price increases in the near future. Eskom’s statement comes as the country faces a crisis in the wake of national power cuts.
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/ 14 January 2008
Toyota will produce a small fleet of plug-in hybrids by 2010, the Japanese automaker’s chief said on Sunday. The plug-in hybrid will go head-to-head with United States rival General Motor’s Chevy Volt, which is also expected to hit the road in 2010.
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/ 13 January 2008
After years of crisis, the big three United States automakers face another brutal year with demand expected to dip again due to an economic downturn threatening to snuff out 2007’s timid recovery. The world’s major automakers will exhibit upcoming models and the concept cars of the future from Sunday as media previews kick off for the Detroit motor show.
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/ 10 January 2008
India’s Tata Motors unveiled the world’s cheapest new car on Thursday, bringing car ownership closer for millions of poorer consumers in emerging markets but raising environmental concerns. The four-seater Nano, with an engine of 625cc, will have a dealer price of 100 000 rupees ( 500), about half the cost of the cheapest car on today’s market.
Only 10 years ago, Tata Motors unveiled its first car, a hatchback, that established the truck maker’s credentials as a car maker. On Thursday, the company unveils a car that will sell for just  500, less than half the cheapest car on the market.
A Sri Lankan minister was killed by a roadside bomb planted by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels north of the capital on Tuesday, the second MP killed in a week as a protracted civil war escalates. Nation Building Minister DM Dassanayake died on the operating table, said the deputy director of the government teaching hospital.
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/ 25 December 2007
Had I been two shades lighter, I would have turned red with embarrassment when strangers inquired if I was ”Ronnie Pillay’s daughter. You’re that reporter at the Natal Witness newspaper. How was your scholarship to America?” they asked. It was the late 1990s and my father had been telling his friends about his eldest daughter’s exploits.
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/ 24 December 2007
Heidelberg police are searching for the driver of a yellow Toyota Cressida that was involved in an accident in which one person died, Ekurhuleni police said on Sunday. The Toyota Cressida — bearing the number plate CJM 710 GP — collided with a white Hyundai three-tonne truck, leaving the driver of the truck dead.
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/ 28 November 2007
Oil fell below a barrel on Wednesday, pinching some of Asia’s top resource stocks, while nagging fears that a credit market squeeze will sap global growth weighed on the dollar and the region’s exporters. News that top United States bank, Citigroup, got a ,5-billion capital injection from Abu Dhabi’s investment arm on Tuesday buoyed US stocks.
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/ 24 November 2007
Seven people were killed and seven others seriously injured in a head-on collision on the N12 near Fochville on Friday, North West police said. Meanwhile, 22 passengers were injured when their bus crashed over the side of a bridge in Pretoria North on Friday, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
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/ 8 November 2007
The 37-year-old mayor of a KwaZulu-Natal South Coast municipality was killed in a car crash, police said on Thursday. Police spokesperson Zandra Hechter said Mfundo Lushaba, the mayor of Umzumbe, was found dead in his Toyota Hilux double-cab about 10m from the Ifafa offramp on the N2 near the resort town of Hibberdene.
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/ 5 November 2007
Former Tshwane mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa was admitted to hospital on Monday after the vehicle in which he was travelling collided head-on with a Toyota Tazz in Pretoria, Tshwane metro police said. Spokesperson William Baloyi said the accident occurred at about 9am at the corner of Pretorius and Church streets.
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/ 5 November 2007
A Durban motorist shot a hijacker on Sunday night when a gang pounced on him, police said on Monday. Police spokesperson Captain Debbie O’ Brien said several armed men had attempted to hijack a man in Sandhurst Road in New Germany at about 9:30pm.
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/ 5 November 2007
Johannesburg police arrested a man on Monday in connection with an armed robbery at a Pick ‘n Pay supermarket in Mulbarton over the weekend. Police spokesperson Captain Julia Claasen said the man was found in a ditch where he had been hiding since the robbery on Sunday evening.
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/ 5 November 2007
Five robbers were arrested — four of them with gunshot wounds — after a shoot-out with the police after a robbery at the Checkers supermarket in Bryanston, north of Johannesburg, on Sunday. Johannesburg police spokesperson Captain Julia Claassen said the five-man gang robbed staff and customers of an undisclosed amount of money and cellphones.
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/ 29 October 2007
Five men who were arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a Lansdowne man last week were expected to appear in court on Monday. The men — between the ages of 20 and 40 — were arrested last Thursday following an investigation into the death and kidnapping of a 21-year-old man.
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/ 25 October 2007
Ten men and a sangoma are to appear in the Westonaria Magistrate’s Court after they were arrested for the murder and armed robbery of a Jagfontein man, Gauteng police said on Thursday. The 70-year-old owner of Ashvalley Bricks and Sand was shot in the upper body while his wife and son were tied up.
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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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/ 21 October 2007
Kimi Raikkonen seized his first Formula One title by a single point after a stirring victory in Brazil that shattered Lewis Hamilton’s dreams. The Finn’s unexpected title triumph, leading Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa in a one-two finish, ended Briton Hamilton’s bid to become the youngest champion in his debut season.
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/ 21 October 2007
Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old physics undergraduate in northern Nigeria, takes old cars and motorbikes to pieces in the back yard at home and builds his own helicopters from the parts. ”It took me eight months to build this one,” he said, sweat pouring from his forehead.
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/ 15 October 2007
The public’s response to the South African Revenue Service’s (Sars) call on tax returns is satisfying but nowhere near what is desired, Sars said on Monday. ”We are satisfied, but it would have been better if we had gone as far as registering four million,” said Sars spokesperson Adrian Lackay.
The new Toyota Corolla appeals at a more primal level than pure logic dictates. It’s better looking by far than its predecessor, having lost that chunky styling, and it’s fun to drive. The car feels like a quality European offering, and even the base model is pretty well specced. Gavin Foster reports.
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/ 25 September 2007
Last week, at the Gauteng launch of its reborn Uno, Fiat kicked off proceedings by setting us loose on a section of the Carnival City casino off-road route. This seemed a little strange until we heard that the Italian company now includes a raised-body version of the Brazilian-built hatch in its line-up, intended to make it more suitable for those pesky African and South American dirt roads.
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/ 22 September 2007
Talks to end a strike that has halted production at South Africa’s major car-manufacturing plants will continue on Saturday, Retail Motor Industry executive director Jakkie Olivier said on Friday. Workers in the motor-components industry went on strike on September 12 over wages.
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/ 20 September 2007
Talks to end the motor-components industry strike were to resume at 6pm on Thursday, the Retail Motor Industry’s (RMI) spokesperson Jakkie Olivier said. ”We made good progress on Wednesday and we’re set to begin talking at 6pm this evening. I think an agreement is imminent,” he said.
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/ 19 September 2007
Volkswagen South Africa is ”on the brink of disaster” because of the motor-industry components strike, MD David Powels said on Wednesday. The six-day-old work stoppage has so far cost the company a production loss of 500 cars per day. Volkswagen’s Uitenhage plant has been brought to a standstill.
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/ 17 September 2007
Negotiations in a bid to resolve a crippling motor-industry strike will resume on Monday night, the Retail Motor Industry said on Monday. The four-day strike has seen several motoring-manufacturing plants temporarily closing their doors as parts became unavailable.
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/ 14 September 2007
Across South Africa there is a feeling of dissent growing. As men gather around the television, grumbling wives are eyeing uncut grass with concern. They know there are still weeks to go before their men even think of looking at a lawnmower, let alone use one.
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/ 10 September 2007
More than 50 000 South African vehicle-component workers are set to go on indefinite strike on Wednesday after a breakdown in wage talks, the main metalworkers’ union said on Monday. Mziwakhe Hlangani, spokesperson for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, said in a statement the strike would affect automotive-component suppliers.