Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club on Saturday announced that, effective from June 1, Nike South Africa will be the official technical sponsor of the club for a period of four years. Nike partners with the world’s most successful players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney as well as Benni McCarthy and Aaron Mokoena.
The Free State Cheetahs secured their place in this year’s Vodacom Cup semifinals by beating the Boland Cavaliers by 35-20 at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein. The home side led the Cavaliers 24-10 at the break, but the visitors never gave up. Wilton Pietersen, South African under-20 fullback, scored a brace of tries and didn’t put a foot wrong on the night.
Up to 15 illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa were trafficked every day through Maputo’s Mavalane International airport to South Africa, the Mozambican media reported on Saturday. O PaÃs said that this was done with the involvement of officials from the police, airports security, immigration and customs officials, and private airport security guards.
Singer Amy Winehouse spent the night in custody after being arrested on suspicion of assault, police said on Saturday. The 24-year-old handed herself in at a police station in central London on Friday to face questioning by detectives. It was not clear when she will be questioned.
Zambia’s main opposition leader Michael Sata was in a stable condition in Johannesburg’s Milpark hospital on Saturday after having a heart attack. ”He is in the cardiac care unit …,” said hospital spokesperson Amelda Swartz. ”He is going to have an angiogram this afternoon.”
The Blue Bulls guaranteed themselves a place in the semifinals of the Vodacom Cup with their 51-7 victory over the Lions at Loftus on Friday. The Bulls scored a total of seven tries, five of which came in the first half, and led 36-7 at the interval. The hosts were first to draw blood with a Braam Gerber try in the first minute, followed by a Burton Francis penalty in the eighth minute.
The death toll from a bomb that ripped through a bus outside the Sri Lankan capital rose to 26 on Saturday after two more passengers died of their injuries, police said. The bomb exploded inside the overcrowded bus, blowing off its roof, as it pulled out of the Piliyandala terminal into rush-hour traffic on Friday.
Suspended National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss, Vusi Pikoli, will not ”at this stage” make public his submissions to the Ginwala commission. ”Mr Pikoli remains committed to doing so at the appropriate time,” said Deneys Reitz, attorneys acting on behalf of Pikoli, in a statement on Friday.
A judge in New York on Friday cleared three detectives on all charges involved in the killing of Sean Bell, the bridegroom who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a nightclub hours before his wedding. Outside the crowded courtroom, where demonstrators carried signs reading ”50 shots isn’t justice”, there were shouts, tears and anger.
Almost on the stroke of midnight last Sunday, a giant of the liberation struggle — but also a top-class mathematician and a trained traditional healer — drew his last breath. Lieutenant General Andrew Masondo, or ”Comrade Dillinger”, as he was widely known, finally succumbed to long illness.