The Mpumalanga man who decapitated his Siberian Husky puppy with a chainsaw earlier this year has died in a car accident, according to newspaper reports. Phillip Matthysen (31) was thrown from his black Toyota Land Cruiser when it rolled several times on the R50 to Delmas in the early hours on Sunday.
Jacques Kallis has resigned as South Africa’s vice-captain following his omission from the country’s Twenty20 world championship squad. He also said on Monday he was considering his playing future in the wake of his non-selection. Selection convenor Joubert Strydom said Kallis was being rested for the tournament, which will be played in South Africa in September.
Mzamo Xala disavows the term ”black diamond” — conferred on members of South Africa’s booming black middle class who now hold nearly a third of the country’s buying power. The expression implies superiority, he protested, which offends the collective-mindedness of his cultural background.
Two progress reports on BEE in the past week appear to come to startingly different conclusions. Is the empowerment glass half-full or almost empty? Still, it is encouraging that a start has been made on measurement. Recently, <i>Business Report</i> quoted the Presidential Black Business Working Group, which met President Thabo Mbeki last Friday, as finding established companies’ BEE performance wanting.
"Wherever I go, I make friends," says Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard’s South Africa operations, and I can’t help but believe her. I’ve just witnessed her charming a waitress with such effortless sincerity that I ask if they know each other. "You’ve got to do what makes you content. I love what I do. I thrive on it," she says.
On the west coast of Madagascar there is a breathtakingly beautiful place that people from all over the world travel to see. They take long plane rides from Japan and France and the United States, suffer spine-jarring trips over bad roads and endure extreme heat and humidity to see this natural wonder. And then they take photos and go home.
When exercisers complain they are not losing any weight, fitness instructors and medical professionals usually conclude that they are either lazy or kidding themselves about how much consistent effort they are putting in. But a growing body of research is suggesting that we don’t all respond to exercise in the same way.
Iraq’s politics, as opposed to Iraq’s grim daily ground-floor reality, increasingly resembles a game of illusions which those involved conspire to maintain or prolong. It is an Alice in Wonderland world — except there are no white rabbits disappearing down holes, let alone being pulled from hats.
The African National Congress (ANC) on Monday condemned what it said was ”abusive ranting” by union leader Zwelinzima Vavi on Cabinet ministers. Vavi, who is the general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, said at the weekend that some ministers were ”deadwoods who remain untouchable”, and that some were ”dying on duty”.
United States troops in Iraq launched a major assault against al-Qaeda-linked militants and alleged Iranian-aided extremist groups on Monday as a Sunni leader accused Iran of plotting genocide against his people. Operation Phantom Strike, the military announced, was being waged nationwide to disrupt Shi’ite extremist networks and insurgents affiliated to al-Qaeda.