African National Congress (ANC) MPs with disabilities have threatened to embark on protests if the quality of service rendered to disabled people at South African airports is not improved. Briefing the media on Thursday, ANC MP Maxwell Moss said the Airports Company South Africa, as well as airlines, had failed to attend to the needs of disabled passengers.
Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton expects conditions for this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix to be the toughest he faces this year. Days after his brilliant win for McLaren at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, where the race-time temperature was 39 degrees Celsius, he said it could be even more sweltering at the Sepang circuit.
Attacks on four villages in West Darfur in January and February by the Sudanese armed forces amounted to a ”deliberate” military strategy. The attacks resulted in at least 115 deaths, according to a report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN African Union Mission in Darfur.
British actor Paul Scofield, famed for his Oscar-winning portrayal in A Man For All Seasons, has died aged 86 of leukaemia, his agent said on March 20. Agent Rosalind Chatto said Scofield died peacefully at a hospital near his home in southern England.
A third state witness, testifying in the Pretoria Regional Court on Thursday, described his former boss, Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, as ”the mafia” and ”a liar”. Former metro police officer Patrick Johnston also said McBride was someone he was afraid of.
South Africa will send a delegation of 55 observers to Zimbabwe’s general elections, the government said in Cape Town on Thursday. ”The South African contingent will comprise representatives from civil society, business, religious leaders, members of Parliament and government officials,” spokesperson Themba Maseko told journalists.
Low-income households and small-to-medium enterprises will be shielded from proposed electricity tariff hikes of up to 60%, the government said on Thursday. A differentiated tariff structure would be put in place to ensure that these sectors of society were protected, government spokesperson Themba Maseko told journalists in Cape Town.
The Cabinet has dismissed renewed allegations of President Thabo Mbeki’s involvement in arms-deal corruption as baseless and mere speculation. Wednesday’s fortnightly Cabinet meeting had noted media reports regarding the investigation by German authorities into the allegations of corruption in the arms deal.
Football folk make the kind of throwaway remarks that would be alarming coming from anyone else. ”Some people think football is a matter of life and death,” Bill Shankly, the late Liverpool coach, once said. ”I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.”
Her eyes flicker with excitement when she talks about the game, clearly her first love. Kass Naidoo, the newly appointed commercial manager for Cricket South Africa, looks small as she sits behind her table, papers lying scattered on her desk. When asked about the game she does not know where to start: ”I’m a cricket fan who just cannot get enough of it.”