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/ 27 September 2005
The African National Congress in the Western Cape is acting against branches and members involved in a series of violent scuffles at party meetings in Khayelitsha on Sunday. At least eight party members have been suspended and face further disciplinary action after a branch meeting in Khayelitsha turned violent on Sunday.
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/ 26 September 2005
Wildfires began claiming lives — both human and animal — on Monday as they ran unabated across the hot, dry countryside, fanned by heavy winds. A six-year-old girl, Bonakele Ngema, burnt to death in a house where she was trapped while seeking refuge from a roaring blaze that bore down on her in Mntanenkosi reserve, KwaZulu-Natal.
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/ 26 September 2005
Firefighters were put on standby in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape on Monday after fears that blazes in four other provinces could spread, a public-private firefighting organisation said. Working on Fire spokesperson Val Charlton said fires are raging in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and Mpumalanga.
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/ 26 September 2005
The Government Printing Works (GPW) which prints identity documents and passports could collapse if state departments failed to pay about R150-million that it is owed, media reports said on Monday. GPW chief executive Tom Moyane warned of the possibility of closure, saying ageing printing machinery needed millions of rand to replace.
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/ 16 September 2005
Jeffrey’s Bay, the well known Western Cape surfing destination, is to be the site of a new R1,2-billion commercial and residential development being planned by Buchner Propvest, the company said on Friday. The first phase of the development, targeting 150ha of the total 600ha site, is due to start later this year.
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/ 15 September 2005
Fifty-two Western Cape government officials will appear in court on Thursday and Friday, the national and regional departments of social development said in a joint statement on Wednesday. ”The 52 will be appearing in court for allegedly defrauding the social-grant system,” said spokesperson Lakela Kaunda.
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/ 14 September 2005
The Independent Democrats suffered a setback on Wednesday with the defection of two of its seven MPs, Cecil Burgess and Chris Wang, to the African National Congress. Western Cape MPL Mzwandile Manjiya also defected to the ANC along with Burgess and Wang.
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/ 14 September 2005
Western Cape police are investigating cases of murder, assault, arson and public violence after a crowd turned violent in St Helena Bay on Tuesday evening. The violence followed a gathering by about 300 people in Laingville, St Helena Bay, at about 6pm, Inspector Bernadine Steyn said.
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/ 14 September 2005
The ostrich industry in South Africa has welcomed Tuesday’s announcement by Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza, declaring the country free of avian influenza. However, it warned that this does not translate into an automatic resumption of ostrich-product exports.
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/ 14 September 2005
The Cape High Court on Wednesday overturned a decision of the United Democratic Movement to expel seven of its members, including deputy leader Malizole Diko. The ruling means that two MPs and five MPLs can cross the floor before the floor-crossing period ends at midnight on Thursday evening.
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/ 14 September 2005
South Africa’s chief rabbi emeritus Cyril Harris succumbed to cancer on Tuesday in Hermanus in the Western Cape, a Jewish Board of Deputies spokesperson said on Tuesday. ”His body will be taken to Jerusalem and buried either on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning,” Zev Krengel said on Tuesday night.
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/ 14 September 2005
The finances of most Eastern Cape municipalities are in such a poor state that they cannot calculate how much they are owed in arrears, media reports said on Wednesday. Local government MEC Sam Kwelita said only two municipalities out of more than 40 had received unqualified audit reports from the auditor-general.
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/ 13 September 2005
South Africa has been declared free of notifiable avian influenza, says Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza. The disease was discovered in ostriches in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape in July last year. ””This extremely serious threat to the whole poultry industry has thus been curbed,” said Didiza.
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/ 9 September 2005
Six police officers implicated in taking bribes from illegal immigrants at Booysens police station, in Johannesburg, in a recent television documentary have finally been suspended — five days after Gauteng police management were alerted to the alleged corruption.
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/ 9 September 2005
Listed clothing manufacturer and retailer Rex Trueform Clothing Company has reported a jump in headline earnings per share for the year to the end of June 2005 to 62,5 cents from a restated 19,3 cents a year earlier. The board declared a dividend of 25 cents per share for the year, up from 20 cents in 2004.
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/ 8 September 2005
The African National Congress won two wards and the Democratic Alliance one in Wednesday’s ward elections in the Western Cape, the ANC’s provincial spokesperson said on Thursday. Lionel Adendorf said the ANC won the Witzenberg municipality, which was previously held by the DA.
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/ 8 September 2005
Change your partner, two by two. We have had a week now, to watch our elected representatives doing their dosi-do across the legislature floor. And our worst expectations have largely been confirmed. The case of Louis Marneweck, sole representative of the Freedom Front Plus in the Mpumalanga legislature, is emblematic.
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/ 5 September 2005
SA’s black winemakers are making huge strides as wine farm owners, but are still facing the challenge of expensive capital outlays.
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/ 3 September 2005
A teenager charged with the murder of baby Jordan Leigh Norton claimed he tried to comfort the distressed infant moments before she was stabbed in the neck, a Cape Town magistrate heard on Friday. The macabre disclosure was made during a bail application by taxi driver and shebeen owner Sipho Mfazwe.
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/ 2 September 2005
A Cape High Court matter about Independent Democrats deputy leader Themba Sono’s cessation of party membership because of failure to pay a R10 membership fee was on Friday postponed to next Wednesday. Friday’s court proceedings against Sono follow a gruelling legal battle with ID dissident Lennit Max.
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/ 2 September 2005
At least four municipal managers received remuneration packages exceeding R1-million last year — closely matching or exceeding that of President Thabo Mbeki, according to Treasury statistics released on Friday. The municipal manager of eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal received a package of R1,091-million in the 2004/05 financial year.
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/ 2 September 2005
Credit card payments by Camp’s Bay businessman Andrew Stofberg, allegedly for child pornography, formed part of an international investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday.
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/ 1 September 2005
The 15-day floor-crossing window for MPs and MPLs to change parties without losing their seats got under way on Thursday and brought some surprise defections. Among these were African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) MP and Chief Whip in the National Assembly Louis Green, and ACDP KwaZulu-Natal MPL and leader Reverend Hawu Mbatha.
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/ 1 September 2005
Make institutions work Christopher Caudwell, in Studies in a Dying Culture, picks on Rousseau to expose the fallacy in the idea that human beings lose their freedom because of institutions. “Unfortunately, not only is man not good without institutions, he is not evil, either. He is no man at all; he is neither good nor […]
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/ 1 September 2005
Four New National Party MPLs have crossed the floor to the African National Congress, giving the ANC an outright majority in the Western Cape legislature, while former Western Cape police commissioner and member of the Western Cape legislature Lennit Max has crossed the floor to the DA.
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/ 1 September 2005
Diversified South African industrial company Barloworld on Thursday announced it has signed heads of agreement with the owners of Midas Paints, trading as Midas Earthcote, to acquire the company for a cash consideration of approximately R40-million. The deal will see Midas become part of Barloworld’s South African coatings operations.
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/ 1 September 2005
Cape High Court judges worked overtime on Wednesday to deal with a barrage of legal action ahead of the midnight opening of the political floor-crossing window. The United Democratic Movement on Wednesday expelled six MPs and MPLs from the party, and the Independent Democrats gave the boot to its deputy leader and Gauteng MPL Themba Sono.
High-level expulsions rocked the United Democratic Movement on Wednesday, just hours before the doors were to open for South African politicians to switch parties. The floor-crossing window is open from September 1 to 15, and South African politicians spoke to the Mail & Guardian Online about its pros and cons.
The United Democratic Movement has expelled six of its senior members, including deputy leader Malizole Diko, with immediate effect. On Tuesday, Cape High Court Judge Basheer Waglay reversed the suspensions of the six, saying the party had not followed its own constitution in suspending them.
The Independent Democrat’s Lennit Max won another round of his marathon legal battle with the party on Wednesday afternoon. However, the way is not yet clear for him to cross the floor to the Democratic Alliance at midnight. Earlier, he won a court order barring the ID from filling his seat in the Western Cape legislature.
The former Western Cape leader of the Independent Democrats, Lennit Max, won a high court order on Wednesday preventing the party from filling his seat in the provincial legislature. Judge Dennis Davis also declared that Max’s expulsion from the party, ordered after an internal disciplinary hearing, be suspended until his appeal is finalised.
Helen Zille speaks to the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> about perils of floor-crossing and changes to South Africa’s education laws.