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Guptagate Why Waterkloof report wont fly
Though the government released a comprehensive timeline of events that led up to and immediately after the landing of a chartered plane at Waterkloof Air Force Base in late April, major holes remain in the official narrative. Chief among those is why at least two officials would risk their careers by lying about the involvement of "Number One", who they claimed had wanted arrangements ...
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MEC mum on transfer from shady builder
The head of the Northern Cape health department, Gugulethu Matlaopane, this week refused to explain a mysterious R1-million transfer to her account from a building contractor who allegedly accepted millions in municipal payments for houses that he failed to build. ...
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Parliament not given say on e-tolls
ANC MPs made a dramatic about-turn this week, caving in to pressure from members of the executive and withdrawing a bold proposal to give Parliament more say in the determination of road toll fees. The ANC rescinded its own proposed amendment to the Transport Laws and Related Matter Amendment Bill [e-tolls Bill] on Tuesday, which, if adopted, would have obliged Transport Minister Ben Martins to ...
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Matthew Wolmarans vows to clear his name
Wolmarans was released on bail after calling into question the way the state convicted him and his mayoral bodyguard Enoch Matshaba for the murder of Rustenburg councillor Moss Phakoe. The two were last year convicted of killing Phakoe, but were released on May 10 after successfully challenging their conviction at the Supreme Court of Appeal. The supreme court ordered the North West High Court ...
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Controversy over government link in Independent Group deal
The consortium due to buy South Africa's biggest newspaper group has come out fighting, blaming rising desperation among competitors for questions around its shareholding and intentions. Irish shareholders are due to decide the fate of the local Independent Group in a little less than a month, a decision that will bring major changes to daily media in the country, one way or another. ...
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John Block co-accused gets top health post
The allegations flow from his earlier tenure as the department’s head. Deon Madyo, now serving under provincial health MEC Mxolisi Sokatsha, faces fraud and corruption charges in the Northern Cape High Court, alongside ANC provincial chairperson John Block and Uruguayan businessman Gaston Savoi. With several others, they have been accused of graft involving about R112-million, in a case ...
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NUM not threatened by Amcu says Seshoka
Is your high wage increase is nothing but a strategy to prevent more of your members from joining the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu)? It is not true that we are doing it to stop members from leaving the union. It is pure nonsense by political commentators who simply want to see the demise of our union by spreading ...
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Cosatu leaders in ugly dash
The were debating whether a proposed inquiry into the embattled federation general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi should continue. "The meeting got so ugly," a senior Cosatu leader who was present at the meeting told ...
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Threatened metro manager calls for back-up
She has blamed political interference and intimidation. Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela has complained that interference by the executive mayor Nkosinathi Benson Fihla and deputy mayor Thando Ngcolomba is making her job unbearable and putting her security at risk. In a letter requesting the intervention of the MEC for local government and traditional affairs, Mlibo Qoboshiyane, Msengana-Ndlela said: ...
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Zuma warns about wildcat strikes
A seemingly relaxed President Jacob Zuma addressed the National House of Traditional Leaders in Parliament on Thursday, a day after a heated debate in the National Assembly about the landing of a plane carrying Gupta wedding guests at the Waterkloof Air Force Base. Zuma stayed away from the debate on Wednesday, where he was accused by opposition MPs of being the root cause of the Waterkloof ...
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Cape Town Working it out at Frankies
Locals call it Gaza, a term used on the Cape Flats for bloodshed - and there are definite similarities. The suburb of Rusthof is a place that is strafed by poverty, unemployment and almost perpetual violence. The hot, sandy and windblown streets are where people socialise because the houses are small and tightly packed together. The names of gangsters are scrawled along vibracrete ...
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Poor whites Penury goes beyond the pale
'SStupid people shouldn't breed," shouts a sun-glassed man through the open window of his white BMW. The heavy-set woman doesn't blink. She's standing near the robot in the burning sun, holding a cardboard sign: "Four children, no work, all gifts welcome, God bless." You see them at robots, at stop streets, in parking lots. Weathered looks and blank ...
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Crossing the language barrier
Every thinking white South African must have at least toyed with the idea of learning to speak an African language. Few, however, have made the effort. Now it seems their children will be learning one. The department of basic education said this week it finally intends to make an African language compulsory in all primary schools, perhaps as soon as next year. Last week, the University of ...
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PetroSA boss iced Thabos boys
Former acting PetroSA chief executive Yekani Tenza faces tough questions over his role in the allegedly irregular awarding of a R720-million contract for a gas drilling project off the south coast of South Africa. After Tenza made a case against it, a bid by a company seen as close to former president Thabo Mbeki's administration was sidelined. Instead, PetroSA offered the contract ...
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PetroSA suspends top exec after R1bn scandal
Ghana deal . The Hawks police unit is investigating PetroSA, and a probe by the Central Energy Fund, its holding company, is said to be ...
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Cosatu hesitant about Fridays e-toll protest
"We are still trying to get a decision on whether it will go ahead legally," spokesperson Patrick Craven said in Johannesburg on Thursday. "We are just waiting for a decision." By 5pm, the Cosatu had failed to get permission for the drive-slow, planned for Friday. "Authorisation has not been given," said Johannesburg Metro police Chief Superintendent Wayne ...
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Zuma says no to dropping his name
However, Zuma stopped short of calling for action against those who name-drop. "We call for vigilance and urge all our officials who are entrusted with managing state institutions not to succumb to pressure from name-droppers," the president said on Thursday. "They should immediately report to their superiors and to law enforcement agencies, anyone who behaves in this ...
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Mapisa-Nqakula honours two unsung CAR heroines
13 soldiers who died in clashes with the Seleka rebels in March, the South African government on Thursday highlighted civilian Susette Gates and medic Alphina Moletana Nkoana. The two women got a special mention from Defence Minister Mapisa-Nqakula while she delivered her department's budget to Parliament, for their bravery during the battle of Bangui. Mapisa-Nqakula told Parliament how ...
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Under-fire minister attacks killer MPs
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Thursday. She made the accusation during a heated debate on her budget vote in the National Assembly. "At a time when some of you were conducting raids and maiming and killing women and children in the frontline states, I was there in the trenchesfighting for liberation in this country," Mapisa-Nqakula said, pointing at opposition party benches. She ...
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Kleinfontein segregation not about race
Kleinfontein - The Afrikaners-only community Kleinfontein outside Rayton, east of Pretoria, insisted in a debate with the DA on Thursday that the criteria for its residents were not based on race. The community, which has existed for 21 years but came under the media's spotlight this week, merely wanted to live out their values in seclusion, said controlling body chairperson Jan Groenewald. ...
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Dept must pay up over teacher axing
Johannesburg - The Northern Cape has been ordered to compensate a teacher fired for refusing to alter a pupil's marks, the education department said on Thursday. "Indeed, as the department, we have received the award regarding this case," provincial spokesperson Sydney Stander said. According to a statement by Solidarity, the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) ruled that ...
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Ministry worries over police gang links
Johannesburg - Reports of collusion between police and criminals in the Western Cape are a serious allegation, the police ministry said on Thursday. "Should they be proven true, they could compromise and derail efforts of crime reduction, not only in the Western Cape but the whole country," spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said in a statement. The department was responding to a report that ...
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11-year sentence for Kruger trespassing
Johannesburg - A man was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment by the Nelspruit Regional Court on Thursday for trespassing and carrying out a restricted activity in the Kruger National Park. Abel Mfana Mashabane, 26, from Phalaborwa, pleaded guilty to charges of trespassing in a designated area, after he and his friends were caught walking through the park at Houtboschrand on 17 May 2012. Mashabane ...
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Initiation a touchy topic in Mpumalanga
Kwamhlanga - In Mpumalanga's Nkangala district, where 30 initiates have lost their lives so far this winter, ritual circumcision, known locally as Ingoma, is a taboo subject. After meeting the grief-stricken Motsepe family whose son, Collen Modisha, 16, died at an initiation school in Verena, a Sapa correspondent visited the local police station to find more cases and possibly arrange to ...
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South African Miners Demand Salary Increases
Pretoria, May 23 (Prensa Latina) The National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa has demanded a wage increase of 15 percent for employees and skilled miners who work both underground and on the surface, local television published today. The request, which implies a minimum salary of 7.000 rand ($ 750 USD) for gold and coal miners, increased the fears that the strikes spread to the rest of the ...
South Africa Focus
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South Africa's small but growing cruise industry
The South African cruise industry has grown considerably in recent decades, recording an expansion of over 100% in recent years. The greatest growth came between the 1990s and 2010, led predominantly by Starlight Cruises, a household name in South Africa and the owner of the market share in the South African cruise industry.
The South African cruise industry is a growing one, in comparison to more developed countries it is tiny, with just one ship (sometimes two) that grace the coasts of South Africa once a year between November and April. Read more
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