The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has had enough of the 2010 stadium labour disputes and has now asked Fifa president Sepp Blatter to intervene. There have been a number of strikes over wage disputes by construction workers working on the Green Point stadium in Cape Town, Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium and the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit.
Orlando Pirates striker Gilbert Mushangazhike may be the symbol of a new wave of players trekking down to South Africa in search of Absa PSL’s hundreds of millions. A free agent after a stint in China with Jiangsu Shuntian, it is safe to conclude his decision to come to South Africa was as much professional as financial.
While Robbie Hunter was first across the line at Sunday’s Pick n Pay Cape Argus cycle tour, the next face of South African cycling may well be the slightly obscured young development rider we saw flanking Hunter’s right at the finish. If he had his way, Nolan Hoffman (22) would have been born with a bicycle between his legs.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor ordered his militias to eat the flesh of captured enemies and United Nations soldiers, a former close aide testified on Thursday at Taylor’s war crimes trial. ”He [Taylor] said we should eat them. Even the UN white people — he said we could use them as pork to eat,” said Joseph ”ZigZag” Marzah.
Tim Modise’s days at the 2010 local organising committee (LOC) are numbered and the only questions are whether he will fall on his own sword or be axed, say informed sources close to the LOC and in the government. The sources told the Mail & Guardian the one-time star broadcaster is struggling with his role as chief officer of communications and marketing.
Dale Steyn used to be a well-scrubbed bloke who wore a goofy grin that wobbled harmlessly under starry, starry eyes. He was polite and cheerful, and he could bowl a bit. He probably never said ”Well, golly gee.” But if he did, we would have chuckled heartily and ruffled his hair as if the lot of us were in a Spur commercial.
For one spring evening in a blue-tiled mosque just south of Tehran, it sounds and feels as though the hour of the Iranian reformists has come again. The mosque is packed with men and boys chanting the name of Mohammad Khatami. They push and shove in the hope of catching a glimpse of the former president who tried to smooth some of the sharp edges of the Islamic republic.
Kidnappers of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop found dead in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul had demanded a -million ransom, a senior police official said on Friday. Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, 390km north of Baghdad, was abducted on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car and killed his driver and two guards.
Albie Morkel took four wickets and Johan Botha three to help South Africa bundle out Bangladesh for a paltry 143 runs on Friday in the third and final one-day international, moving them closer to a clean sweep of the series. Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful sent his side to bat after winning the toss, but they started losing wickets from the 10th over.
Eskom is to begin with ”pre-emptive load-shedding” on March 31, chief executive Jacob Maroga said on Friday. These deliberate power failures would last no more than two hours and would take place between 6am and 10pm. ”The system remains tight,” he told reporters in Midrand.