Gale-force winds destroyed informal housing, leaving hundreds destitute in Cape Town on Saturday, said disaster management officials. Worst affected were Delft residents living in tents on the N2 Gateway project after being evicted, said spokesperson Wilfred Solomons.
Under-fire Queensland Reds bounded out of the Super 14 rugby doldrums with a 40-8 demolition of fading champions the Northern Bulls of South Africa in Brisbane on Saturday. The Reds cashed in with five tries for their first bonus-point victory in the southern-hemisphere competition in four years.
Sierra Leone’s military chiefs are working on means to downsize from its current 10 000 soldiers to 8 500, Defence Minister Palo Conteh said on Friday, according to a state radio report. ”We cannot allow a large army …We have to downsize to a lean army that can react quickly to a given situation,” he said.
Animal rights activists declared themselves human shields on Saturday and vowed to prevent authorities from killing kangaroos that have overrun a Canberra military base. Last week, the Australian government enraged animal lovers by approving the killing of about 400 kangaroos at risk of death from starvation.
The pressure of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics for world indoor long-jump champion Khotso Mokoena is over after he carded a leap of 8,24m with his first dash at the board on the first day of the South African Track and Field Championships at Coetzenburg on Friday.
The Free State Cheetahs emphasised that they are top contenders to lift the Vodacom Cup title this year with a solid 34-20 win over the Pumas in Witbank on Friday night. In other matches, the Wildebeest beat the Griffons 33-7 in Welkom and a brace of tries by Wylie Human sealed another victory for Western Province.
The Warriors will contest the final of the MTN Domestic Championship after a comprehensive 42-run victory over the Eagles in the first of the two semifinals at Buffalo Park in East London on Friday. They now need to wait until Sunday to see whether they will play the Titans or the Cape Cobras on Wednesday in the final.
Former bouncer Jonathan Street was convicted of murder and attempted murder by the Johannesburg High Court on Friday. He is to be sentenced on March 26. Judge Nico Coetzee found that Street shot and killed Kyle Norris (18) in the Max-X club in Edenvale on the East Rand on November 19 2006.
Two men who shot and killed a two-year-old baby during a house robbery last year were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years by the Johannesburg High Court on Friday, police said. Steve Hlongwane (18) and George Nyangale (22) broke into a house in Lyndhurst on April 12 last year.
The African National Congress’s (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) was locked behind closed doors on Friday at its second meeting since the Polokwane national conference in December, media reports said. The aim was to rid the party of internal wrangles simmering since its policy conference.