Tickets for South Africa’s 2010 Soccer World Cup will bear both the apartheid-era names of cities and the new ones, reflecting the nation’s evolution while avoiding confusing visitors. South Africa’s government has been changing the names of some cities since the end of apartheid in 1994 but the new names are often not known abroad.
Pollution intruded on celebrations to mark the one-year countdown to Beijing’s Olympics on Wednesday when Games chief Jacques Rogge said events might have to be rescheduled if air quality is not up to scratch. The International Olympic Committee president said he was happy with preparations but that some competitions might have to be moved.
South African insurer Liberty Group increased interim headline earnings per share, adjusted for the effects of a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal, by 51,5%, the company said on Wednesday. Liberty, 30% owned by Standard Bank, said BEE normalised headline EPS in the six months to end-June was 583,1 cents.
Six new species, including a bat and two frogs, have been discovered in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in an eastern area off limits to scientists for decades because of violence. The Wildlife Conservation Society said researchers conducted a survey of a forested region just west of Lake Tanganyika.
The next object of liberation in South Africa must be the national economy, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Tuesday. ”Our people have been given political rights, but they still lack the freedom to participate fully in the market economy,” he said in an online letter.
Food stalls attached to Beijing’s public toilets will be removed in good time for next year’s Olympics, state media said on Saturday. Complaints over toilets with poor sanitation and toilet operators turning them into commercial operations led to the ban, which comes into force in October.
The PSL’s once-feared Kaizer Chiefs on Tuesday listed six frontline squad members for transfer in a bid to halt a losing streak that got under way last season. Players placed on the transfer list include erstwhile club heroes Emmanuel ”Scara” Ngobese, Patrick Mayo, Gert Schalkwyk, David Radebe, Siphiwe Mkhonza and Serge Djiehoua.
Ernie Els, coming off a fourth-place effort at the British Open, is struggling to find the finishing touches of form that would make the difference between good rounds and a fourth major title. The 37-year-old South African prepares to tee off on Thursday in the 89th PGA Championship with a sense that he is playing well but not quite well enough.
Government investigators found a ”strong probability” on Tuesday that the strain of virus behind an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain came from two research labs near the site of the infection. The foot and mouth outbreak poses an immediate threat to Britain’s livestock industry, whose meat exports are worth more than -billion a year.
The mayor of Mpumalanga’s Govan Mbeki municipality is expected to appear in court on Friday on charges of killing his deputy, police said. Sipho Nkosi will appear in the Evander Magistrate’s Court charged with Thandi Mtsweni’s murder, said Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi on Wednesday.