Abandoned in a bar as a baby and given just weeks to live by doctors seven years later, Tommy Jarvis is living proof Aids is no longer an automatic death sentence for youngsters in South Africa. Tommy, now a strapping 13-year-old who spends his spare time riding his bike and practising karate, makes light of the day that medics gave up on him.
The 12Â 000 runners in the 2007 Comrades Marathon were sent on their way at 6.30am on Sunday from outside the Pietermaritzburg City Hall to the sounds of a Zulu praise singer and the traditional Chariots of Fire theme music. The first runners were expected at the Sahara Stadium in Durban at about 11am. A fast time was anticipated in both the men’s and women’s races.
The ambition of Manuel Santos Uribelarrea is written in big black letters on the side of machines reaping the plains of South America: MSU. It is harvest time and the state-of-the-art behemoths bearing his initials have a mission to revolutionise agriculture, change the world’s eating habits and make their owner very, very wealthy.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to commit British troops to battle in Iraq in the full knowledge that Washington had failed to make adequate preparations for the post-war reconstruction of the country. The disclosures come in a new television documentary about Blair’s decade in Downing Street.
As children, we used to play a game of hide-and-seek called ”black mampatile”. One of us was asked to look the other way while the others would quickly scatter in search of a place to hide. Another version of the game involved hiding an object; to know that s/he was looking in the right direction, the searcher would be guided by those who knew the location of the object.
Years ago I had a conversation with somebody in Cape Town who was helping to develop a tourism marketing plan. She told me that the largest number of tourists to South Africa came from the continent and that they spent the most money. None of this was the result of a plan — at least up to that point.
Replacement back Francois Steyn knocked over two late drop goals to give South Africa a nail-biting 22-19 win over Australia at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday in the Tri-Nations opener of 2007. Trailing 10-19 after 44 minutes, the Springboks rallied to score 12 unanswered points in the second half.
At Youth Day celebrations in East London on Saturday, President Thabo Mbeki questioned whether this generation is living up to the tradition of past youth leadership. Also, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma called on the party’s youth to go to its upcoming policy conference and be clear on what they want.
The development and empowerment of South Africa’s youth must form one of the focal points of the country’s reconstruction and development programmes, President Thabo Mbeki said in his weekly online letter. But, he questioned whether the youth is well organised to play the role of drivers of progressive change.
More than 2Â 000 jobs in road construction and maintenance in Gauteng will go to young people, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa told a Youth Day rally at the Johannesburg Stadium on Saturday. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change said the ”spectacular courage” shown by the youth of South Africa on June 16 1976 inspires Zimbabwe’s youth.