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/ 30 December 2003
South Africa’s 2003 national matriculation pass rate has improved by 4,4% to a total of 73,3%, Education Minister Kader Asmal announced on Tuesday, up from 68,9% in 2002, 61,7% in 2001 and only 48,9% in 1999. Asmal said the results ”clearly show that the tide has turned” for South Africa’s education system.
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/ 24 December 2003
As the government announced additional drought relief measures on Tuesday, hopes remained dim for substantial rains in the near future. A comprehensive drought mitigation programme has been put in place following an urgent meeting called on Monday, the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government said.
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/ 23 December 2003
Frogs. Most of us have caught them, some of us even reared them from their infant tadpole stage in glass containers, only to crudely dissect them on tables. A comprehensive frog atlas compiled by the University of Cape Town’s avian unit is currently at the printers and sounds a warning to all frog lovers of the dire straits these amphibians are in.
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/ 22 December 2003
The list of celebrity visitors has been growing ever since the Western Cape became a favourite location for filmmakers and commercials directors, and it comes as no surprise to learn that Cape Town is a regular body double for Los Angeles, Monterey and San Francisco.
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/ 18 December 2003
The Scorpions have arrested 11 members of another major perlemoen syndicate in the southern Cape town of Gansbaai. They were released on bail ranging from R5 000 to R50 000 for the alleged leader of the syndicate, Daniel Otto. They will appear again on February 16.
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/ 18 December 2003
"Computer training for the unemployed and workers" read the adverts for the Resource Action Group (RAG) courses in three of Cape Town’s community papers distributed on the Cape Flats and in townships. But anyone who thinks the eight-week courses are simply about getting a paper qualification is mistaken.
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/ 17 December 2003
Representatives of the fruit and vegetable canning industry meet organised labour for talks on Thursday as the threat of layoffs looms large in the Western Cape. This follows an announcement that a task team has been set up to find ways of dealing with the growing crisis in the deciduous fruit industry in the province.
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/ 10 December 2003
The Jockey Club of Southern Africa confirmed on Wednesday that the highly contagious equine influenza has broken out in the Western Cape. Cub chief executive Tony Barnes said the last time there was an outbreak of equine influenza, in 1986, horse racing was affected for up to three months.
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/ 9 December 2003
Senior police management should take notice of some disquieting perceptions among police reservists contained in newly compiled research, as the South African Police Service (SAPS) considers making more use of reservists. The research delves into the impressions of active police reservists and their role in the SAPS.
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/ 9 December 2003
More than eight percent of 10 699 pupils in grade 8 to 11 who participated in a nationwide survey reported having forced someone to have sex with them. There was no significant difference in the prevalence among boys and girls, according to the first Youth Risk Behaviour Survey, which was released in Pretoria on Tuesday.
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/ 4 December 2003
The battle for the heart of the official opposition Democratic Alliance has begun with old National Party adherents, old Democratic Party followers, and former coloured Labour Party interests fighting it out for key positions on the Western Cape provincial lists for the legislature and Parliament.
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/ 3 December 2003
In South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, a train wound its way through the undulating hills. On board, six young people with HIV or Aids, along with celebrities from local soap operas, television and radio were doing their bit to raise Aids awareness.
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/ 1 December 2003
U2 lead singer Bono made a surprise appearance at a sparsely attended Aids Day rally organised by the Treatment Action Campaign and Cosatu in the Cape Town city hall, and told HIV-positive people they were "the real heroes".
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=24282">Good news, devastation predicted</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=24272">Take the test</a>
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<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=24270">NGOs challenge govt on rape drugs</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=24253&t=1">China crisis</a>
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/ 1 December 2003
The African National Congress is to meet a delegation from the Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Monday. The delegation will be led by the LTTE Peace Secretariat Secretary General S Puleedevan, the ANC said in a statement.
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/ 1 December 2003
South Africa’s University of the Western Cape (UWC) has received funding of R1-million to be used to upgrade its infrastructure and finance ongoing training and development initiatives of its department of science and biotechnology from global bioinformatics company Electric Genetics.
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/ 28 November 2003
Two of the country’s foremost media personalities squared off at a Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa tribunal on Friday. <i>Mail & Guardian</i> columnist Robert Kirby had lodged a complaint against SABC broadcaster Jeremy Maggs, following remarks made by Maggs on air in September.
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/ 27 November 2003
The Cape Town metropolitan municipality and the Overstrand local municipality, both in the Western Cape, have each received a prize of R1-million for being the cleanest towns in South Africa. Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Valli Moosa handed over the prizes to the winners of the cleanest town competition in Cape Town on Thursday.
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/ 27 November 2003
After two weeks of testimony and 10 witnesses, the Roodefontein corruption trial was on Thursday adjourned to June 21 next year. Bail of R10Â 000 each was extended for former Western Cape premier Peter Marais and his provincial environment minister, David Malatsi.
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/ 27 November 2003
Former Western Cape provincial minister of environment David Malatsi told developers he was prepared to approve their projects without seeing the environmental impact assessments required by law, the George Regional Court heard on Thursday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=24134">Roodefontein trial postponed</a>
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/ 26 November 2003
The Department of Labour has visited more than 250 business sites in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Northern Cape and Western Cape as part of the nationwide blitz inspections to check on employers’ adherence to the Employment Equity Act.
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/ 25 November 2003
The South African economy grew by 1,1% in the third quarter of this year, Statistics SA reported on Tuesday. It said this compared to real annualised growth rates of 0,9% in the first quarter (revised from 1,5%) and 0,5% in the second one (revised from 1,1%).
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/ 25 November 2003
Former Western Cape environment and development MEC David Malatsi once told a meeting that he was a black person, not a ”greenie”, and that his people did not eat fynbos, the regional court in George heard on Tuesday.
Let the grilling begin
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/ 25 November 2003
Last Monday should have been formally named ”National Corruption Day” or perhaps, better, ”Corruption Awareness Day” — which has the advantage of an appealingly apt acronym. But Monday’s haul represented not so much a few bites as a trawler load.
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/ 25 November 2003
Wind-generated energy "could and should" play an important role in South Africa’s energy economy and sustainable development, according to Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, with the first draft of the country’s Renewable Energy Strategy expected in February 2004.
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/ 24 November 2003
A provincial official faced probing cross-examination on Monday on why he complied with a superior’s instruction to draft an approval of the proposal for the Roodefontein development when he himself felt it should be rejected.
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/ 24 November 2003
Judging by coverage of the black empowerment workshop for the wine sector, slickly hosted in Cape Town last month by the South African Wine Industry Trust, the unthinkable is happening. The fragmented, conservative and insular wine industry, dominated for so long by bastions of Afrikaner power such as the KWV, is embracing change.
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/ 21 November 2003
Tensions in the Roodefontein corruption trial boiled over on Friday when, in a heated exchange, Scorpions prosecutor Bruce Morrison ordered former Western Cape premier Peter Marais to behave in court.
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/ 19 November 2003
The African National Congress will win a two-thirds majority in next year’s general elections, in the process increasing its seats in Parliament from the current 266 members to 271 in 2004. This was the prediction from the Human Science Research Council on Wednesday, when a comprehensive survey was unveiled.
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/ 19 November 2003
At least 51 people sustained serious and minor burn wounds during a gas explosion at Ratanga Junction theme park in Cape Town on Wednesday, Western Cape police reported. The blast occurred moments after a chef noticed a gas leak in one of the kitchens.
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/ 19 November 2003
The professional team driving the Roodefontein development ”set up” an official of the Western Cape’s environment and planning department — Dr Steve du Toit, who dealt with the development — to expose his personal interest in the matter, the regional court in George heard on Wednesday.
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/ 18 November 2003
Former Western Cape premier Peter Marais intervened directly to ensure provincial environment officials made a decision on the Roodefontein golf estate development, the regional court in George heard on Tuesday. Marais and David Malatsi are accused of being bribed to smooth the way for approval of the project.