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.
The internet company Yahoo! has postponed its annual meeting as it grapples with the prospect of a shareholder rebellion in which as many as 30 candidates may try their luck in getting elected to its board of directors. A potentially rowdy gathering in California was due to be held on July 3 but Yahoo! has put it off to an unspecified date ”expected to be around the end of July 2008”.
The question of whether the government or the public should finance Eskom dominated the first day of hearings on Friday on the utility’s proposed 53% tariff increase. Eskom’s non-executive chairperson Valli Moosa opened the debate at the National Energy Regulator of South Africa public hearings, saying fiscal injections from government were needed.
Burundi’s last resisting rebel group has said it will stop sporadic fighting with the government to give a stalled peace deal a chance. Burundi’s government and the Forces for National Liberation (FNL) rebels signed a pact almost two years ago to end a persistent insurgency. But the FNL pulled out from a truce monitoring team over objections to parts of the agreement.
Investigators at Société Générale believe that rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel was aided by an assistant who processed a large number of his transactions during the fraudulent trading spree that cost the bank â,¬4,9-billion. They suspect the accomplice of registering almost 15% of the fictitious trades used by Kerviel to disguise his suspect positions.
South Africa’s government admitted on Friday it was aware of the potential of anti-immigrant sentiment to explode into violence. ”Of course we were aware there was something brewing. It is one thing to know there is a social problem and another thing to know when that outburst will occur,” said Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.
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.