The licence to operate the national lottery has been awarded to Gidani, Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa announced on Wednesday. Mpahlwa told journalists in Pretoria — at a briefing beamed to Parliament in Cape Town — that it had a significant black economic empowerment component and government was a 20% shareholder.
Former Western Cape Premier Peter Marais was on Wednesday found not guilty in the Belville Regional Court on two counts of corruption. His co-accused, former Provincial Environment MEC David Malatsi was however convicted one count of corruption.
The high rate of credit extension in South Africa had become a major concern for the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), the bank’s Governor Tito Mboweni said on Monday while addressing trainee chartered accountants in the Western Cape. "Consumer spending through credit-card lending has recorded year-on-year growth of 38,6% to a level of R36,9-billion at the end of July 2006.
Parts of the Western Cape can expect heavy rain and snow on Monday, Weather SA warned on Monday. ”Heavy falls of rain are possible in the Overberg, Breede River Valley, Ruens, Garden Route and the Little Karoo,” said Weather SA. ”Very cold, wet and windy conditions are expected on the high-ground areas of the Western Cape province and western parts of the Northern Cape province.”
The past year has provided myriad opportunities to reflect on South Africa’s future. Many of us are still hung over from the euphoria of the celebrations of 2004. We also feel the increasing confidence that comes with growing up. We no longer debate the merits of the African renaissance because we have found a way to declare unwavering allegiance to the continent with the same tongue with which we speak xenophobia.
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/ 28 September 2006
Many schools are urban war zones, with teachers struggling to cope with unruly pupils, some of whom are armed, the South African Human Rights Commission was told in Cape Town on Thursday. Violence at schools varied from blunt assault to human bite wounds and firearm-related injuries, the director of the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Southern Africa said.
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/ 27 September 2006
Judgement is to be given on Monday in the Roodefontein corruption case, in which former Western Cape premier Peter Marais and his then-provincial minister for environment, David Malatsi, face two charges of corruption. The Bellville Regional Court case stems from two alleged corrupt donations that were given to the then-New National Party as sweeteners to expedite approval for a golf estate.
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/ 26 September 2006
Multimillionaire Italian Count Riccardo Agusta has never attended a single day of the marathon corruption trial of former Western Cape premier Peter Marais and his environment provincial minister David Malatsi. Yet as the hearing entered its final stages on Tuesday in Cape Town’s Bellville Regional Court Two, his shadow lay over proceedings as surely as if he had been there in person.
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/ 23 September 2006
Cape Town executive mayor Helen Zille is calling for a municipal poll to decide how the city should be governed, media reports said on Saturday. Zille’s call came after Western Cape local government minister Richard Dyantyi sent a letter to the city notifying it of a proposed change to the municipal structure by replacing Cape Town’s executive system with a executive committee.
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/ 22 September 2006
President Thabo Mbeki is behind African National Congress (ANC) plans to replace Cape Town’s executive mayoral system with an executive committee, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. If successful, the plan will strip the city’s DA mayor, Helen Zille, of her powers.
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/ 20 September 2006
The L&R Consortium, which has British, South African and Dubai elements, has been named by Transnet as the successful bidder for the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (V&A) in Cape Town. The bid came in at R7,04-billion. Among leading South African black business leaders involved in the project are Vincent Maphai and Hassan Adams.
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/ 19 September 2006
Western Cape provincial minister of local government Richard Dyantyi’s move to change Cape Town’s system of government is a blatant abuse of power with serious implications for South Africa, city mayor Helen Zille said on Tuesday. She was reacting to a letter Dyantyi sent her earlier in the day, announcing that he was considering scrapping the current mayoral committee system.
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/ 19 September 2006
Western Cape provincial minister of local government Richard Dyantyi has taken the first step in his bid to strip Cape Town mayor Helen Zille of her executive powers. He sent a letter to Zille on Tuesday giving her notice of a ”proposed amendment” to the form of government the city has.
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/ 19 September 2006
A 40-year-old Somalian was shot dead and his colleague seriously injured after three armed men robbed their store in Delft in the Western Cape, police said on Tuesday. Captain Randall Stoffels said Yusuf Abdille, a shop-owner, was parking his car at his house at Mango Street in Delft South on Monday night when three armed men approached the vehicle.
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/ 18 September 2006
The T-shirt tells the story of the South African clothing industry and the struggle to maintain local production against the wave of cheap imports from China. T-shirts rose from 1% to 7% of total textile and clothing imports from China between 1995 and last year, according to Quantec data.
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/ 17 September 2006
Refugees who fled war-torn Somalia in search of safety and a better life in South Africa now fear becoming the next victims in a string of murders of their compatriots in the Cape peninsula. ”I ran from the bullet to find violence here,” said Malyun Aden, who ran a clothing store at Masiphumelele, near Cape Town, until it was trashed in mob attacks last month.
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/ 17 September 2006
One of the most popular, and ridiculous, arguments put forward to justify apartheid, was that it provided ”for separate but equal” opportunities and was therefore fair and just. So it is sad and surprising that an ANC Cabinet has approved legislative proposals providing for ”civil unions” between same-sex partners that replicate this bankrupt logic.
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/ 16 September 2006
There is a tendency in South Africa to think that the future is dependent on what happens in the political domain. We debate the prospects of long-term political stability and economic growth as a question of the future of the tripartite alliance, economic policy and globalisation. This is all very important. Yet it draws attention away from an area of South African society that may be equally important.
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/ 15 September 2006
Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s alma mater said on Friday it is launching an internet archive with thousands of documents and audio tapes on the life of the South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The £4,5-million project will provide a free, interactive digital resource about his humanitarian teachings and South Africa’s struggle for democracy, King’s College said.
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/ 13 September 2006
Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, Dumisani Ximbi, was rushed out of a public meeting last week after a warning of a plot to assassinate him, his office said on Wednesday. Ximbi’s spokesperson Wesley Douglas said the incident happened on Thursday evening, but was kept under wraps until the city’s VIP protection unit had completed a report.
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/ 13 September 2006
The implications would be ”grave” should the Western Cape provincial government succeed to alter Cape Town’s mayoral system, incumbent mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday. ”It will undermine international confidence in the future of democracy,” she said.
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/ 12 September 2006
One in five pregnant women are testing HIV positive in the Western Cape’s public health antenatal clinics, according to a survey released by the department provincial health on Tuesday. The HIV prevalence is highest in women aged 25 to 29 years, with an infection rate of 20,1% of the 8 656 people examined at 400 facilities in the province’s 25 health districts.
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/ 8 September 2006
South Africa’s largest privately owned independent call-centre operator, Dialogue Group, expects to raise R51-million via a pre-listing private placement of 51-million shares at R1 a share, the group said on Friday. The JSE has granted Dialogue Holdings a listing for a maximum of 210-million ordinary shares on the Alternative Exchange (AltX).
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/ 6 September 2006
An invitation to Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to address a full council meeting of the Cape Town city council has been turned down, according to Mayor Helen Zille. In a statement on Wednesday, the mayor’s office noted that on August 31 the council adopted a motion to invite the minister to address a full council on the government’s plans to combat HIV/Aids.
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/ 6 September 2006
Labour regulations and official red tape tops a list of key constraints hampering South Africa’s economic growth, a Bureau for Economic Research survey showed on Wednesday. Other constraints identified are state leadership and capacity (policy support and municipal services), infrastructure deficiencies and costs and labour skills.
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/ 4 September 2006
More children are attending and finishing school but more are vulnerable due to poverty and the death of at least one parent, said an Education Department report released on Monday. The report found that the demand for high school and higher education institutions would probably grow strongly while demand for primary schools would grow more slowly.
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/ 1 September 2006
Kwaito star Zola, Tsotsi actor Presley Chweneyagae and actresses Shaleen Surtie-Richards and Nina Swart are among South African celebrities who have come out in support of a new emblem for Parliament. In August, Parliament called on all South Africans to take part in designing its new emblem.
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/ 1 September 2006
Analysts say widespread poverty in South Africa and a large African immigrant population has bred jealously, making Africa’s biggest economy rife for xenophobia. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, jostling for limited jobs and adding to already high crime rates, have sparked distrust and hatred of legitimate refugees.
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/ 1 September 2006
Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni is being pampered in Malmesbury prison, according to a Cape Town tabloid newspaper. The newspaper reported this week that Yengeni, who was sentenced to four years jail for fraud, had been moved to the prison’s hospital section so that he did not have to be with other inmates.
Three African National Congress (ANC) councillors may face disciplinary action after trying to force their way into a council meeting, injuring a security official, Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said on Thursday. The meeting’s doors were closed to allow a vote on whether the city supported the Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) HIV/Aids plan.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool will ask President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday for the rain-ravaged Eden district to be declared a disaster area, Rasool’s office said. ”The premier will today [Thursday] speak to the president and ask for him to declare it a disaster area. This will immediately free extra funding to do repairs,” said Rasool’s spokesperson, Shado Twala.
South Africa’s dams are 92% full, according to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s records. The department reports on its website that the dams were only 65% full this time last year. This week, dam levels in the provinces ranged from overflowing in the Northern Cape to 72% full in Limpopo.