Tazmin Brits, number one on the javelin world list and South Africa’s best candidate for a gold medal, qualified in style for Sunday’s final when the IAAF World Youth Athletics Championships continued in the Czech Republic on Saturday. Willem Voigt, of South Western Districts, was one of the sensations of the high-jump competition.
In a real thriller, the Border Bulldogs gave the Golden Lions a scare in their compulsory friendly rugby match at the Absa Stadium on Saturday before going down 35-31. By half-time, the Lions had built a handy 21-11 lead, scoring three converted tries to one, and after the break scored another two goals to extend the gap to 35-14.
Phil Mickelson put his recent troubles behind him to take a one-shot lead at the Scottish Open on Saturday. The American, whose injured left wrist caused him to miss the cut at the United States Open at Oakmont, leads from Frenchman Gregory Havret. England’s Steve Webster is in third place.
This weekend the mosque is overcrowded, the café grubby, the social centre and offices scruffy and uncomfortable. Not for long, hopes Kilic Iqbal (27), who works for the Turkish religious and cultural association that runs the complex. Germany’s biggest Islamic centre is to be built in a suburb of Cologne.
Springbok captain Johann Muller said referees are afraid of sin-binning All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw following his team’s 33-6 Tri-Nations defeat on Saturday. He said referee Stuart Dickinson should have yellow-carded the All Black captain for an identical offence to one that later led to the sin-binning of South Africa’s Pedrie Wannenburg.
South African politician-turned-tycoon Tokyo Sexwale said on Saturday the country’s president has a tough and thankless job, shying away from saying if he would make a run for the presidency. ”It’s not an easy job to do. Look at Thabo Mbeki. It’s a tough job … and a thankless job,” Sexwale said.
Japan’s capital braced for a powerful typhoon on Sunday that killed five people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate across the country. Authorities warned that Typhoon Man-Yi, packing sustained winds of 108km/h and gusts of up to 162km/h, could continue to wreak havoc as it moved up the Pacific coast toward Tokyo.
Nine young girls have been found dead around South Africa in the past seven months after they had been reported missing. The nine comprise the most widely publicised cases. The most recent find was the decomposed body of Elizabeth Martin (13), found in a water tank at a farm in Leeu-Gamka in the Western Cape.
Religious groups protested against late-night pornography screened on e.tv outside the broadcaster’s Cape Town offices on Saturday. ”We have had enough! Porn on free-to-air national television is outrageous,” said Taryn Hodgson, the international coordinator of the Christian Action Network.
Three Cabinet ministers and two deputies were nominated for the central committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) at the party’s 12th national congress on Saturday. Meanwhile, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma told the congress that the ”revolution is going through a test”.