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/ 27 November 2007
The Mail & Guardian publishes the text of Joel Netshitenzhe’s stunningly frank assessment of the deep rifts that have opened up in the ruling party, presented at last weekend’s national executive committee meeting.
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/ 26 November 2007
The possible breach of the parole conditions of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni was under investigation after he was arrested for drunken driving, the Correctional Services Ministry said on Monday. Yengeni was arrested in Cape Town on Sunday evening on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, police said.
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/ 26 November 2007
Absa and the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to speed up the provision of housing in several provinces. Absa has committed R2,6-billion for the building of 100Â 000 units by 2010. The bank has also committed an additional R150-million for project preparations.
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/ 26 November 2007
Exchanges on Monday between Najwa Petersen’s senior counsel and Najwa’s sister-in-law, Tagmieda Johnson, during cross-examination in Najwa’s bail application provided lively scenes in the Wynberg Regional Court. Najwa is in custody, awaiting trial, for the alleged murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep.
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/ 26 November 2007
The African National Congress Women’s League is to finalise its nominations for the party’s leadership on Monday. Earlier, it was reported that the women’s league favoured Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. The league, however, refuted this saying it would ”speak for itself” once it had consolidated the provincial nominations.
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/ 26 November 2007
African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma leads the race for nominations for the post of party president with five provinces supporting him, to President Thabo Mbeki’s four, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Sunday.
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/ 26 November 2007
Severe floods along South Africa’s southern coast killed two people and caused millions of rand in damage near one of the country’s top tourist attractions, officials said on Monday. Police said a 62-year-old man and a 12-year-old boy drowned as rivers burst their banks and roads were washed away in Eden District municipality.
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/ 25 November 2007
The African National Congress (ANC) in the North West has come out in support of President Thabo Mbeki to retain his position as the party’s president, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday. Mbeki also received the Western Cape’s support.
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/ 24 November 2007
Western Cape Premier Ibrahim Rasool on Saturday met emergency personnel after a killer storm left two dead and damage estimated at around R600-million. An official of the devastated Eden district municipality said storms that ravaged the Cape have caused damage estimated between R500-million and R600-million to the Poort area.
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/ 23 November 2007
A gay psychology student who in July allegedly shot dead both his parents to spare them the grief of his own suicide, is to go on trial in the Cape High Court next year on two charges of murder. Grant Harris (23) on Friday made his seventh appearance in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, before magistrate Hafeeza Mohamed, since his arrest in August for the double murder.
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/ 22 November 2007
As Piet Koornhof quietly shuffled of this mortal coil last week, an Eastern Cape man said he still had a question for the apartheid-era Cabinet minister.
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/ 20 November 2007
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has blamed ”overeager” members of his own party for a report that President Thabo Mbeki has intervened to defuse a row over Rasool himself. Rasool, a member of the African National Congress (ANC), was accused in an official report last week of knowingly making incorrect statements to the legislature.
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/ 19 November 2007
Finance ministers and central banks chiefs from the G20 grouping of largest economies meeting near Cape Town expressed ”deep concern” over the effect of climate change on global food prices and forecast a modest slowdown in global economic growth.
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/ 17 November 2007
A University of Cape Town (UCT) commercial law professor was stabbed to death during a robbery in Rondebosch on Friday, Western Cape police said. Police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana said the professor was walking down Roslyn Road between 6pm and 6.30pm on Friday evening. He was then approached by two men who tried to grab his bag.
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/ 16 November 2007
Thousands of farmworkers will hold marches in various rural towns across the country on Saturday, the Food and Allied Workers’ Union said on Friday. The marches are in protest against poor working and living conditions, concerns for workers’ safety, and the negative effects of the huge hike in food prices, the union said.
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/ 15 November 2007
An official inquiry has concluded that Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled his legislature, a source in the legislature said on Thursday. The multiparty inquiry was set up to investigate contradictory statements last year on spending on security upgrades to the home of community safety minister Leonard Ramatlakane.
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/ 15 November 2007
The Nazier Kapdi drug case in the Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town deteriorated into acrimonious exchanges on Thursday, with a defence lawyer saying the trial was ”disgustingly unfair”. The chaos erupted over a technicality involving documents that prosecutor Greg Wolmarans should have handed to the defence team.
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/ 14 November 2007
The 2007 Community ÂSurvey conducted by Statistics South Africa gives an impressive account of our developmental progress, concluding that ”today is better than yesterday”. The survey also makes it clear that our society is undergoing massive changes. From the most intimate relations to the most abstract levels of social interaction, communities are in flux.
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/ 14 November 2007
The death toll from Tuesday’s accident involving a truck crammed with farmworkers has risen to eight. The news came as the Western Cape government vowed to crack down on the way farmworkers are transported. The accident happened in the Boland, when the truck, reportedly carrying about 70 farmworkers, overturned.
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/ 14 November 2007
Tiger Consumer Brands, which owns Albany Bread, did not profit from the fixing of the price of bread, the company said on Tuesday. "The company did not benefit from the price-fixing. I don’t know who did, but we did not," said spokesperson Jimmy Manyi.
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/ 14 November 2007
Slain musician Taliep Petersen described his marriage to Najwa as a ”nightmare” the Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town heard on Tuesday. Taliep’s sister Tagmieda Johnson took the stand after the lunch break, at Najwa’s second bail application before Western Cape Regional Court president Robert Henney.
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/ 12 November 2007
The Western Cape government is winning the war against drugs, Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Monday. ”Considering that this financial year is only halfway through, police have already arrested 374 high flyers … confiscated 37Â 558 grams of mandrax, 6Â 499 grams of methamphetamine [tik] and 4Â 447 grams of heroin,” he said.
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/ 12 November 2007
Tiger Brands has been ordered to pay a R98,7-million penalty by the Competition Commission after admitting to participating in bread and milling cartels, the commission announced on Monday. Tiger Brands also agreed to assist the commission in prosecuting remaining cartel members who have not cooperated with the commission.
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/ 12 November 2007
Severe poverty levels in South Africa have doubled in the last 10 years, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Monday. A survey released by the SAIRR this month showed that poverty in the country increased ”dramatically” between 1996 and 2005, said researcher Marius Roodt.
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/ 12 November 2007
The 45-year-old driver accused of causing a bus accident on Friday appeared briefly in the Piketberg Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Western Cape police said. Ten farm workers died when their bus went over a cliff near Piketberg in the Boland, and seven remain in a critical condition in hospital.
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/ 12 November 2007
Erecting 200 houses in a week might sound improbable. Erecting 200 houses, a community centre and creating a communal garden in just seven days sounds downright impossible. But 1 380 international volunteers from the Niall Mellon Township Trust aim to do just that. The ”building blitz”, taking place in Mitchells Plain in the Western Cape this week, follows three similar campaigns the charity has undertaken.
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/ 10 November 2007
The driver of a bus that went over a cliff near Piketberg in the Boland, killing nine people, has been charged with culpable homicide, news reports said on Saturday. The bus was taking 42 agricultural workers back to their homes when the driver apparently lost control of the vehicle on Friday night.
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/ 7 November 2007
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund is ”unaware” of having received any money from German arms manufacturer Thyssen-Krupp during the arms deal. Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Patricia de Lille said the African National Congress and the children’s fund benefited inappropriately from the arms deal.
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/ 3 November 2007
The African National Congress (ANC) is prepared to use the police, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Public Protector to silence dissent in the media and the opposition, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Saturday. Zille said state institutions were not fulfilling their mandate and being manipulated by the ANC in pursuit of its own political agenda.
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/ 2 November 2007
More than R7-billion later the Coega Development Corporation appears to be close to securing its first anchor tenant. The Mail & Guardian has learned that PetroSA chief executive Sipho Mkhize and department of minerals and energy director general Sandile Nogxina were set to visit the CDC late this week to discuss housing PetroSA’s mooted R39-billion crude-oil refinery.
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/ 1 November 2007
I recently had the pleasure of spending a mid-week getaway at one of the Western Cape’s finest hotel/spa complexes. The Arabela Hotel and Spa, about an hour from Cape Town near Gansbaai, boasts fynbos-fringed fairways leading to a golf-course clubhouse with views of the Bot River lagoon and the Kogelberg mountains, writes Zodidi Mhlana.
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/ 1 November 2007
The release on bail of Najwa Petersen, accused of the murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep, was essential to save her young daughter from long-term emotional damage, Cape Town psychologist Rosa Bredenkamp told the Wynberg Regional Court on Thursday. Petersen has launched a second bail application after her first was rejected.