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/ 18 February 2008
The KwaZulu-Natal health department has identified a quiet rural doctor as a troublemaker, charging him with misconduct for "wilfully and unlawfully without prior permission of [his] superiors rolling out prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission dual therapy to pregnant mothers and newborns".
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/ 18 February 2008
A winter without enough electricity looks likely. But as government proposes switching energy sources to alternative fuels, such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG), problems in pricing and supply will hamper any major roll-out of LPG for the domestic market. LPG, supplied and marketed by major gas companies can be used as an alternative fuel source to heat water and cook in the home.
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/ 17 February 2008
Pity the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). Fifteen years ago this court — then led by the chief justice — was the highest court of appeal in South Africa. The prestige and standing of the judges serving on this court were unchallenged among the majority of influential South African lawyers and judges, and academics pored over their decisions and wrote learned articles about their decisions.
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/ 15 February 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille, the mayor of Cape Town, is once again going to challenge the authorities by marching against gangsterism and drugs in a community where the drug lords are thriving. She announced that on Sunday she would conduct a march through the streets of Macassar in the east of the city, near Somerset West.
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/ 15 February 2008
South Africa’s left is riding high as the government prepares to unveil a budget that is expected to raise spending on social programmes and shift policy more towards fighting unemployment and poverty. Powerful trade unions and the South African Communist Party have recently seen their influence within the ruling African National Congress rise.
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/ 14 February 2008
The Department of Health on Thursday released a revised policy and guidelines clearing the way for dual therapy in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. At the same time, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang dismissed claims that her department was reluctant to implement the new regime.
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/ 13 February 2008
At least 830 of KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) law-enforcement officers are under investigation for a host of crimes ranging from assault through to rape and murder, figures released by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) revealed on Wednesday.
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/ 13 February 2008
South Africa’s five Super 14 teams will have to produce some of their best rugby yet if they are to retain the title they so famously won, for the first time, last year. After years of being denied the title by the Australian and New Zealand teams, South Africa’s Northern Bulls finally went all the way in 2007.
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/ 11 February 2008
The Erasmus commission, appointed to look into the Cape Town city council ”spy” saga, has suspended its hearings following a request on Monday by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, who says he is seeking legal advice on the inquiry. Rasool’s request was prompted by objections from Cape Town mayor Helen Zille.
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/ 11 February 2008
The Independent Democrats (ID) on Monday dismissed as false claims by Cape Town mayor Helen Zille that the Democratic Alliance (DA) did not sanction the bribery of ID councillor Sheval Arendse. Simon Grindrod, ID caucus leader for the city, said it was clear that the bribery was done with the full blessing of the DA leadership.
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/ 8 February 2008
Some of the 17 fires that were raging through the Western Cape on Thursday were under control in the evening, said Cape Town chief fire officer Ian Schnetler. ”Firefighters are still battling the blaze at Naval Base as the winds are making the situation worse,” he said.
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/ 7 February 2008
Seventeen runaway fires were ravaging the Western Cape on Thursday afternoon, with the two most serious blazes at Simonstown, Cape Town chief fire officer Ian Schnetler said on Thursday. The two fires were reported at Redhill at 9am and at Naval Base at 11am and were burning strongly, he said.
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/ 7 February 2008
The Erasmus commission appointed to look into the Cape Town city council ”spy” saga is ”unlawful and unconstitutional”, city mayor Helen Zille said on Thursday. Zille said she had written a letter to Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool asking him to reconsider the commission on the grounds that it was a ”gross abuse of power”.
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/ 6 February 2008
Pandemonium broke out in the Cape High Court on Wednesday after Judge Deon van Zyl granted an order for the eviction of people illegally occupying houses still under construction in Delft on the Cape Flats. The homes are intended for residents at the Joe Slovo informal settlement, who are to be relocated to Delft.
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/ 6 February 2008
Over half of South Africa’s public dams, including the biggest — the 5,3-billion cubic metre Gariep Dam — do not fully comply with modern-day safety standards, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Wednesday. ”As at October [last year], 160 of the 294 dams do not comply with current dam safety standards,” the department said.
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/ 5 February 2008
The disciplinary hearing of a suspended Western Cape police officer linked to the alleged drunken-driving arrest of Tony Yengeni began on Tuesday, police said. Senior Superintendent Billy Jones said Goodwood station commissioner Senior Superintendent Siphiwe Hewana would face internal misconduct charges.
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/ 4 February 2008
Cycling in South Africa received yet another boost on Monday when it was announced that MTN has become the title sponsor of the country’s premier and only international road-cycling stage race, the Giro del Capo. The five-day stage race takes place yearly in the Western Cape.
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/ 4 February 2008
The African National Congress was not aware of any imminent visit to its Johannesburg headquarters by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, a spokesperson said on Monday. Rasool’s spokesperson Shado Twala also said she did know about the reported visit.
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/ 3 February 2008
Fear now stalks the corridors of African National Congress (ANC) power as the party’s new president, Jacob Zuma, asserts his authority in Parliament, the provinces and the party structures, the Sunday Times reported. ANC MPs made their anxiety known in a closed meeting of the ANC’s parliamentary caucus on Thursday.
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/ 1 February 2008
A doctor who spoke out about medical conditions at Pollsmoor Prison while working there has been redeployed to another clinic, the South African Broadcasting Corporation said on Friday. Paul Theron withdrew his court application to return to the correctional facility on Friday.
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/ 30 January 2008
Prosecution procedures into alleged price-fixing by certain South African milk producers will begin next week, the Competition Commission said on Tuesday. Eight dairy companies investigated for alleged price-fixing will be involved in pre-hearings next week, said the commission’s head of enforcements and exemption.
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/ 28 January 2008
Eskom’s monopoly was the main cause of South Africa’s electricity problems and the solution lay in independent power producers (IPP), the DA said on Monday. While provision was made for IPPs to generate up to 30% of South Africa’s total electricity output, it had to be sold to Eskom and not to other users, party MP Hendrik Schmidt told journalists.
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/ 28 January 2008
African National Congress (ANC) premiers and mayors who refuse to take instructions from the organisation will be removed from their position, ANC treasurer general Mathews Phosa said on Sunday. Phosa said there was no ANC leader who was above the organisation.
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/ 27 January 2008
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said on Sunday that the death of Don Pasquallie (41), the union’s deputy general-secretary, was a ”profound loss” to the organisation. Pasquallie died in a car accident in Napier, near Bredasdorp in the Western Cape, at about 6am on Sunday morning.
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/ 27 January 2008
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said on Sunday that the death of Don Pasquallie (41), the union’s deputy general-secretary, was a ”profound loss” to the organisation. Pasquallie died in a car accident in Napier, near Bredasdorp in the Western Cape, at about 6am on Sunday morning.
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/ 27 January 2008
A guard in a surgical mask patrols a wire fence designed to keep dozens of patients with a lethal form of tuberculosis at Cape Town’s Brooklyn Chest hospital isolated from the rest of the world. Sufferers of extreme drug resistant tuberculosis, a near untreatable strain, battle boredom, depression and the side-effects of a daily palmful of pills.
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/ 26 January 2008
Three people were injured after cash-in-transit security guards were robbed in a Manenberg mall, Western Cape police said on Saturday. Spokesperson Inspector Bernadine Steyn said on Friday morning that Coin security guards did a cash pick-up at a shop in the Nyanga Junction Mall in Manenberg.
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/ 25 January 2008
The Nigerian method of low-budget movie-making is set to take off in South Africa if an upcoming producer has his way, writes Percy Zvomuya.
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/ 25 January 2008
South Africa has plenty of energy available. The problem is, we don’t have enough power. Some of the country’s biggest businesses have been queuing up to sell power to Eskom. The potential power on the table — all 5 000MW of it — is almost equivalent to two Koeberg-sized nuclear power stations.
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/ 24 January 2008
Thieving staff members caused losses worth R2,5-million in the Western Cape provincial administration in the last 12 months, the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court heard on Thursday. The deputy director in the administration’s Forensic Investigation Unit, Rajendra Naidoo, testified at the trial of a former staff member, Melanie Otto.
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/ 24 January 2008
HIV/Aids prevalence in the private security industry is at 15,9% and in the legal services industry it is at 13,8%, a study compiled by the Human Sciences Research Council has shown. Research was carried out among 2Â 787 participants from private security services in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
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/ 23 January 2008
Activists and doctors on Wednesday accused the government of backsliding on promises to provide more effective treatment to prevent mothers passing on Aids to unborn children. The Treatment Action Campaign said that more than 60Â 000 babies are infected with HIV yearly in South Africa, most of them in the womb.