Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has won his high court bid to stop an activist claiming he is guilty of corruption over the arms deal. The ruling was handed down on Thursday morning. The court ordered that Terry Crawford-Browne be interdicted and restrained from ”publishing any matter in which it is alleged that the applicant is corrupt”.
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/ 28 February 2008
Legsaan Levember can only pray for better days as he huddles with 12 family members in a roadside tent, another victim of South Africa’s spiralling housing backlog. The family uses a plastic sheet to extend their tiny tent, which perches precariously on the slope of a small dune and is regularly blown away by Cape Town’s relentless south-easterly winds.
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/ 26 February 2008
South African government plans to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014 appeared increasingly at risk on Tuesday as official statistics confirmed fears of a downturn in economic growth. Figures released by Statistics South Africa showed a drop in gross domestic product growth to 5,1% last year from 5,4% in 2006.
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/ 25 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel should have considered asking for an apology rather than a gagging order against arms-deal activist Terry Crawford-Browne, the Cape High Court was told on Monday. Manuel is seeking an urgent interim order to stop Crawford-Browne from continuing to publicly accuse him of criminal conduct in signing loan agreements for the deal.
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/ 21 February 2008
The KwaZulu-Natal health department has dropped a misconduct charge against rural doctor Colin Pfaff, following a storm of protest, the doctor confirmed on Thursday. Pfaff faced the charge for administering dual therapy — two antiretroviral drugs — to prevent the infection of babies born to HIV-positive mothers.
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/ 21 February 2008
In order to generate electricity efficiently, Eskom will need to buy 45-million tonnes of coal over the next two years, the power utility said on Thursday. Eskom’s financial director, Bongani Nqwababa, said 30-million to 34-million tonnes have already been contracted and only South African suppliers will be used.
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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
There would be some very ”tough negotiations” with Eskom over the repayment of its R60-billion loan, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in Cape Town on Thursday. ”The terms will have to be worked out, it’s not in our interests to try to squeeze a short-term return,” he told a breakfast meeting.
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/ 20 February 2008
The raising of the age ceiling for child-support grants to 15 — announced by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in his national budget on Wednesday — leaves many children between the ages of 15 and 18 vulnerable, the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society said.
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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
Overwhelmingly positive or mediocre? Economists on Wednesday had a variety of impressions to share of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget, tabled in Parliament earlier in the day. Colen Garrow, economist at Brait, said: "There was nothing in it for the embattled consumer."
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/ 20 February 2008
Keeping prices down had to remain the key objective of monetary policy, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in his budget speech on Wednesday. ”A policy stance that accommodates higher inflation cannot be consistent with a government that is intent on reducing poverty,” he said.
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/ 20 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel played his cards close to his chest on Wednesday when questioned about his future during a media conference before his delivery of the national budget in Parliament. "I have said in the past that I serve. I can’t say what will happen," he said.
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/ 20 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, while delivering his national budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday, made a point of replying to a number of South Africans who had sent budgetary suggestions to him under the "Tips for Trevor" programme.
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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
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
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
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
South Africa is sitting on gold, platinum and other minerals that are selling at record prices on world markets, yet its economy is, quite literally, underpowered. The rand, the worst performing currency this year, has lost 12% against the dollar in the past month since the country was hit with electricity shortages that kept mines from working.
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/ 19 February 2008
Looking at the options available to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel when he delivers his national budget in the National Assembly on Wednesday, the experts of the Old Mutual Investment Group reckon that he could have as much as R25-billion to play with. But how would he spend it?
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/ 19 February 2008
The People’s Budget Coalition has reiterated its call for a basic income grant as part of its national budget wish list. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel tables the national budget on Wednesday. The coalition comprises the Congress of South African Trade Unions, South African National NGO Coalition and the South African Council of Churches.
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/ 19 February 2008
South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is expected to announce the usual sin-tax increases on alcohol and tobacco when he makes his national budget speech on Wednesday. Economists said on Tuesday that they wouldn’t be surprised to hear Manuel announce an increase in taxes on these products.
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/ 19 February 2008
Brait economist Colen Garrow says that while the government’s inflation-targeting and exchange-control policies are overdue to be fine-tuned, it is unlikely that any tangible announcement will be made on Wednesday in Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s budget speech.
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/ 18 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget on Wednesday should "turn talk into action", the Independent Democrats (ID) said on Monday. "Our economy is faced with a number of constraints, from the looming threat of a global recession … to the domestic energy crisis," ID spokesperson Schalk Lubbe said.
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/ 18 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel should make good on expectations of a higher age limit for the child support grant, the Black Sash said on Monday. Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya told a media briefing last week that the grant would be extended to the age of 18 and the means test recalculated.
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/ 18 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget speech on Wednesday is even more keenly anticipated this year in view of the electricity crisis and its anticipated negative effects on the economy, and Democratic Alliance spokesperson Kobus Marais has urged Manuel to tackle the crisis head-on.
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/ 12 February 2008
In the second instalment of his interview with Kgalema Motlanthe, Ebrahim Harvey speaks to the ANC deputy president about healing division in the party, unity among the alliance partners and the Polokwane ‘revolution’.
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/ 27 January 2008
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Jacob Zuma, who survived rape and corruption charges to become the president-in-waiting, has harsh words for Kenya and Nigeria, where recent elections were marred by alleged fraud, violence and disputed results. ”What has happened in Kenya I think is absolutely not right,” Zuma said on Saturday.
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/ 22 January 2008
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma will be spending the rest of this week at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. ”He has been invited there in his capacity as president of the ANC,” party spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said on Tuesday.
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/ 21 January 2008
It is almost inconceivable that the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) Monetary Policy Committee would raise interest rates in the current atmosphere, according to strategist for Investec Securities, Brian Kantor. "I would not have raised the last two times. It is quite clear now that the last increase was over the top," he said,