Eddie Jones is enjoying his present ”consultation period” with Jake White’s Springboks — but the former Wallaby coach has stressed that he is not in South Africa to coach the national team, he is simply here to ”exchange ideas”. Jones — who coached the Queensland Reds during the 2007 Super 14 — raised a few eyebrows when he turned up at training in full Bok kit.
Veteran Cameroon President Paul Biya’s ruling party routed the opposition in parliamentary elections on the weekend that his main opponents have already denounced as a sham, provisional results showed on Tuesday. Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement secured a crushing majority of 152 of the 180 National Assembly seats.
Since the much-hyped iPhone isn’t expected in South Africa before November this year, cellphone manufacturers are fighting fiercely for the rands of potential South African smartphone buyers. The <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> looks at three smartphones currently available on the South African market.
The United Nations on Tuesday appealed for -million to help Somalis fleeing renewed violence and said the overall number of people uprooted in the Horn of Africa country was now estimated at 500Â 000. More than 10Â 000 people fled the capital, Mogadishu, last week, many of them now living in ”deplorable conditions”.
The fate of more English cities, towns and villages hung in the balance on Tuesday as emergency crews built up defences against rising waters during Britain’s worst floods in living memory. The government’s crisis-response committee met late on Monday and again on Tuesday as some rivers topped levels reached during the floods in 1947.
Johannesburg beat rival bids from Cape Town and Durban to host the international broadcast centre for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the tournament’s organising committee recommended Johannesburg, which is part of South Africa’s industrial and business heartland.
South Africa’s rand has firmed to levels that may add to central bank concerns about the current account deficit and raise doubts about the wisdom of pushing through more interest rate hikes. Raising rates further could enhance South Africa’s carry trade credentials among investors hunting for higher yields, and so bolster the rand.
A 35-year old policeman who was severely burnt in a fire at a Durban police residence died in the early hours of Tuesday morning, police said. The policeman, Sergeant Craig Roach, suffered burns to 65% of his body in a blaze in his 13th floor flat in the South African Police Service’s Natalia building on Monday morning.
Rescue teams struggled on Tuesday to reach parts of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island where about 60 people were feared dead and 8 000 displaced by landslides and floods caused by days of torrential rains. Days of heavy downpour have caused landslides and floods up to three metres high.
The National Civilian Safety and Security Action (Nacissa) lobby group on Tuesday urged South Africans to deduct expenditure on private security from their taxable income this year. Spokesperson Conrad Beyers said a substantial portion of South Africans’ income tax should be used by the government for safeguarding its citizens.