Fullback Leon MacDonald scored two tries as the Canterbury Crusaders booked a place in the Super 14 rugby final for the 10th time with a 33-22 win over the Wellington Hurricanes on Saturday. MacDonald’s tries either side of halftime rewarded massive advantages of territory and possession and kept the Crusaders on target for their seventh championship title.
If this is the autumn of Trevor Manuel’s political career, he has a strange way of showing it. This week he laid another plank in what is taking shape as a platform for economic reform to boost growth, increase employment levels — and perhaps forestall the kind of violence that has racked Gauteng townships this week.
The battles raging on the streets of Jeppestown on Sunday couldn’t crack my journalistic composure, but Mohamed made me cry. He’s seven years old, beautiful and sparky and he’s been driven from his home because he has a Tanzanian father.
As the attacks fanned across Gauteng, <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reporters and photographers followed the story. Here, in their own words, are some of the heartbreaking, and heartening, situations and people they encountered.
South Africa’s security chief on Friday accused rightwingers linked to the former apartheid government of fanning xenophobic violence that has spread to Cape Town, the second largest city and tourist centre. At least 42 people have been killed and thousands driven from their homes in 12 days of attacks.
The government and Eskom were criticised for the present energy crisis at Friday’s National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) hearings into the power utility’s request for a proposed 53% tariff increase. Eskom chairperson Valli Moosa and CEO Jacob Maroga said the increase was needed as the system was tight and the reserve margin was very low.
Kenya must stop forcibly returning internal refugees displaced by post-election violence that saw hundreds of thousands flee their homes, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday. More than 1Â 200 people were killed and 300Â 000 left their homes after ethnic clashes hit swathes of the country following a disputed election in December.
City Press has successfully appealed against a press ombudsman finding over the accuracy and fairness of a report on African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, the Press Council Appeals Panel said on Friday. The article, headlined ”Cracks in Zuma’s NEC”, reported that Zuma became angry at a national executive committee [NEC] meeting on January 8.
The African Union on Friday urged Sudan and former rebels in the south of the country to exercise restraint and seek a political settlement after clashes left at least 22 soldiers dead in a flashpoint region. "The Commission of the African Union is greatly concerned over the renewed hostilities between the parties," the AU said in a statement.
South Africa’s aspirations to lead the continent are being shredded by the xenophobic mobs who have hacked, shot and beaten to death at least 42 African migrants in the land where apartheid was defeated. The mobs accuse the immigrants of depriving South Africans of scarce jobs and fuelling crime.