Bloemfontein Celtic eased their relegation troubles when they hammered struggling Jomo Cosmos 3-1 in an Absa Premiership match at the Seisa Ramabodu Stadium on Wednesday. This was Celtic’s second win in a row following their 3-0 victory over relegation-haunted Thanda Royal Zulu last weekend.
South African double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius should know within three weeks if he can compete at the Beijing Olympics, an official for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Wednesday. ”We have been asked to deliver a decision as soon as possible,” CAS secretary general Mathieu Reeb said on the last day of Pistorius’s two-day hearing.
The increase in the retail price of petrol by 55 cents per litre will result in a ”period of anguish” for South African households, an economist said on Wednesday. Absa economist Chris Hart said the increase would cause food prices to rise and fuel inflation. Hart said the country was expecting a hike in electricity prices as well as an increase in the rate of taxes.
President Thabo Mbeki has withdrawn his application to oppose a Johannesburg businessman’s bid to stop the disbanding of the Scorpions. In his answering affidavit filed in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday, Mbeki’s said: ”The first respondent hereby withdraws his opposition to the application.”
Trade unions have to make sure that this year’s wage demands fully compensate workers for the drop in their real standard of living in the past year, the Congress of South Africans Trade Unions (Cosatu) said in its May Day message on Wednesday.
Forcibly installing prepayment water meters was ruled to be unconstitutional by the Johannesburg High Court, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) said on Wednesday. Stuart Wilson, spokesperson for Cals, said the meters were found to infringe the constitutional rights of people to have access to sufficient water.
More than 900 people have been killed in clashes between militiamen and security forces in Baghdad’s Sadr City, which broke out last month, a senior Iraqi official told reporters on Wednesday. ”There were 925 martyrs in Sadr City and 2 605 others have been wounded”, said Tehseen Sheikhly, a spokesperson for the government’s Baghdad security plan.
Water contamination was a factor in the death of nearly 80 babies in the Eastern Cape, the provincial government said on Wednesday. An interim report acknowledged that a ”multiplicity of causes”, including ”systematic failures affecting water quality”, were to blame for the deaths of the babies, said the provincial government in a statement.
Hillary Clinton appeared on Wednesday to be gaining on Barack Obama in two key primary states, after her Democratic foe tried to quell another damaging uproar sparked by his fiery former pastor. The White House rivals fought another day of fierce turf battles in mid-western Indiana and North Carolina, which hold Democratic primaries on Tuesday.
Nationwide Airlines has been placed under provisional liquidation, an attorney for the company said on Wednesday. "We applied yesterday [Tuesday] at 3pm and were placed under provisional liquidation," said Haroon Maher. On Tuesday passengers were stranded when the airline announced that it had ceased operations due to cash-flow problems.