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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.
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/ 1 November 2007
A <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> reader, Simon van Gend from Cape Town, ran into trouble with his geyser last week after he followed national electricity supplier Eskom’s advice to switch his geyser off each day, to help save electricity and prevent load shedding. But is Eskom really at fault?
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/ 31 October 2007
Closing specialised police units may result in a loss of informer networks, expertise and team spirit, a seminar on policing in South Africa heard on Wednesday. ”To destroy this is a very serious thing that needs to be thought through,” said a senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, Johan Burger.
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/ 31 October 2007
The Cape Town City council on Wednesday upheld the metro disciplinary committee’s recommendation that leader of the National People’s Party (NPP) Badih Chaaban be expelled as councillor. Chief whip of the council Anthea Serritslev said a full sitting of council voted in favour of Chaaban’s expulsion.
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/ 31 October 2007
According to research, 70% of young children who have a parent in jail develop emotional problems, the Wynberg Regional Court heard from a psychiatrist on Wednesday. Rosa Bredenkamp was testifying before Western Cape Regional Court president Robert Henney in support of Najwa Petersen’s second bail application.
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/ 31 October 2007
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund announced on Wednesday it would not participate in this year’s Nelson Mandela Invitational Golf Tournament. ”As a result of our withdrawal the tournament can no longer be called the Nelson Mandela Invitational and should not be marketed as such in any form whatsoever,” the fund said in a statement.
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/ 31 October 2007
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Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa refused to be drawn on his nomination as African National Congress president on Wednesday night at the launch of a fund-raising campaign for the University of Venda. He was hounded for an answer from the minute he set foot through the door of Gallagher Estate, in Midrand.
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/ 31 October 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Tuesday it would approach the Cape High Court on Wednesday for an interdict to stop the government from implementing an abalone fishing ban that would impact on poor fishing communities.
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/ 30 October 2007
A senior Cape Town advocate, Geoff Budlender, is to head the inquiry into the City of Cape Town’s ”spy” affair. The appointment was announced on Tuesday afternoon by mayor Helen Zille, who said she was taking out full-page advertisements in three local newspapers to explain her position on the matter.
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/ 30 October 2007
A 37-year-old man has been arrested for arson after a family of four burned to death in Khayelitsha on Tuesday, Western Cape police said. Spokesperson Constable Siphokazi Mawisa said the house at Hempe Street in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, burned down at midnight.
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/ 30 October 2007
A two-year-old boy abducted by his father in mountainous terrain around Beaufort West was found unharmed on Monday afternoon, Western Cape police said. ”Jaylin Muller was found safe and sound between the hours of 3pm and 4pm today [Monday],” said Captain Malcolm Pojie.
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/ 29 October 2007
A two-year-old boy abducted by his father in mountainous terrain around Beaufort West was found unharmed on Monday afternoon, Western Cape police said. ”The boy was found safe and sound between the hours of 3pm and 4pm today [Monday],” said Captain Malcolm Pojie.
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/ 29 October 2007
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille has asked the police to let her listen to tapes related to the city’s ”spy” affair. Her request, in a letter to provincial Commissioner Mzwandile Petros on Monday, comes after police played some of the tapes to journalists. She said in a statement that Petros had also ”presented” the tapes to Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool.
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/ 29 October 2007
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Groutville, the party branch founded by former African National Congress (ANC) president Albert Luthuli, has nominated Thabo Mbeki for ANC president, the Daily News reported on Monday. Arch-rival Jacob Zuma did not even make the branch’s list of its top six preferred candidates.
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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.