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/ 4 November 2007

Mbeki takes flak as ANC battle nears finale

After eight years at the helm of Africa’s economic powerhouse, Thabo Mbeki cuts an increasingly lonely figure as the battle for the reins of the African National Congress (ANC) approaches its finale. As well as taking fresh blows from his political foes, the president has also become the target of senior ANC party members.

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/ 2 November 2007

Deadly TB, HIV merge into co-epidemic

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and HIV have merged into a double-barrelled pandemic that is sweeping across sub-Saharan Africa and threatening global efforts to eradicate both diseases, according to a report released on Friday. Overburdened health systems are unable to cope with the epidemic and risk collapse, says the report.

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/ 19 October 2007

Activists urge MPs to push through children’s Bill

Children’s rights activists on Friday urged MPs to push through a Bill that will ban corporal punishment of children, saying it was vital that children be protected from violence. The social development portfolio committee on Thursday postponed deliberations on the measure after members of the African National Congress’s parliamentary caucus reportedly objected.

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/ 15 October 2007

Ibsa meeting likely to bolster trade ties

The leaders of emerging powerhouses South Africa, India and Brazil will meet in Pretoria this week to bolster trade and energy ties as well as flex their collective muscle on world affairs. All three countries see their alliance, known as Ibsa (India-Brazil-South Africa), as an opportunity to push the concerns of developing countries in the southern hemisphere.

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/ 9 October 2007

Report of iceberg sighting off St Francis Bay

Ships have been put on alert after an iceberg was spotted floating off St Francis Bay in the Eastern Cape, the Cape Argus reported on Tuesday. The large white mass, said to be about 35 nautical miles offshore, is estimated to be 25m long and 20m high. It was reported by a single vessel, the Ntini, which was sailing in the area on Monday night.

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/ 16 September 2007

Women, the state and Africa

As South Africa debates the political challenges associated with the ANC’s year-end conference at Polokwane, this is perhaps a good moment to think beyond immediate struggles and to consider what women have achieved beyond the borders of this country.

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/ 13 September 2007

Mbeki: Crime a symptom of ‘rapacious individualism’

The prevalence of corruption and other forms of crime in South Africa reflected a society that had embraced a culture of individualism, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. Delivering the eighth annual Steve Biko memorial lecture at the University of Cape Town, Mbeki said social ills such as corruption represented society’s rejection of positive moral values.

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/ 10 September 2007

Africa gets biotech boost against killer diseases

South African President Thabo Mbeki opened an international biotechnology centre on Monday that aims to develop vaccines for HIV/Aids and other diseases that kill thousands of Africans daily. The Cape Town-based branch of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology will focus on infectious diseases including malaria and tuberculosis.