Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, the conscience of South Africa, celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday with a gala dinner attended by 1 200 guests, including former president Nelson Mandela. The celebrations for his birthday have lasted for weeks. On Friday, he was guest of honour at a ceremony at the University of South Africa.
South Africa will be ready to host the World Cup in 2010, organisers insisted on Tuesday, seeking to dispel worries over transportation, accommodation and stadiums. Danny Jordaan, head of the organising committee, said South Africa was ahead of schedule in its preparations and should relish the opportunities offered by the soccer showcase.
As South Africa takes on the responsibility of organising the next World Cup, exuberance — and not necessarily efficiency — appears to be paramount. World soccer governing body Fifa kicks off the journey to the 2010 World Cup at a July 7 ceremony in Berlin. Dubbed Africa’s Calling, it will be attended by South African President Thabo Mbeki. But will South Africa be ready?
HIV/Aids is increasingly regarded as a disease of the poor, blunting the enthusiasm of the rich and powerful to develop tools such as a virus-killing gel that could save millions of lives, delegates at an international conference said on Monday. Speakers at the conference said development of a microbicide gel that could be used by women to prevent the spread of the virus was slow.
Rheinhold Rau, a German-born taxidermist who regarded it as his moral duty to reverse the extinction of the quagga, a zebra-like animal, has died. He was 73. The South African Museum, where Rau worked for more than four decades and well into his retirement, confirmed his February 11 death but gave no cause.
South Africa’s last white president, FW de Klerk, threw a 70th birthday party on Friday attended by fellow Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela, the man he freed from prison as apartheid crumbled. ”Around the world people recognise you as a historic peacemaker and nation-builder,” Mandela said.
President Thabo Mbeki has shared the writings of Deng Xiaoping with his spy service, intoned Duke Ellington to oil executives, astounded astronomers with Shakespeare and preached the Bible to lawmakers. Presidential spokesperson Murphy Morobe puts it mildly: ”He is extremely well read.”
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/ 26 January 2006
South African gun lobbyists were launching a new organisation on Thursday to press their case that more — not fewer — weapons are needed to curb crime in a country notorious for murders and armed robberies. South Africa’s 45-million people own an estimated 3,7-million licensed guns and many more illegal ones.
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/ 4 November 2005
A top United Nations Aids envoy this week said poorer nations are doing better than South Africa in the fight against Aids, and accused Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang of preventing him from working in the country with more HIV/Aids sufferers than any other in the world. ”Only the most energetic, uncompromising political leadership can turn this thing around,” he said.
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/ 22 October 2005
Wildlife experts and government officials from South Africa and Cameroon wrapped up talks on Friday on the future of four rare gorillas claimed by both countries. The Western Lowland gorillas were smuggled out of Nigeria through South Africa and to Malaysia’s Taiping Zoo about three years ago.