The elimination of the defending champions and a spirited performance against the odds were two of the features of a thrilling final weekend of league fixtures in the Vodacom Cup competition, which enters its quarterfinal stage this weekend. Holders the Valke went down 17-8 to the Blue Bulls last Friday.
Hulks of stepped, golden sand — looking from the air like rows of pre-Colombian pyramids — have long been part of Johannesburg’s cityscape. Now, they are fast disappearing as mining companies cash in on high gold prices and reprocess the mountains of what they once dumped as waste. Even dumps containing the lowest-grade ore are proving to be, well, gold mines.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Lam Akol, said on Monday that Khartoum has fully accepted the second phase of a United Nations plan to bolster a peacekeeping operation in Darfur, including the deployment of helicopter gunships. Sudan’s acceptance ”opens the door to new phases”, he said.
Durban fraud convict Schabir Shaik was on Monday admitted to the city’s Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital suffering from hypertension and depression. A KwaZulu-Natal health official said the Department of Correctional Services had "requested us to manage their patient who is suffering from hypertension and depression".
Japan’s leading toilet maker, Toto, is offering free repairs for 180 000 bidet toilets after wiring problems caused almost 30 units to catch fire or send up smoke, the company said on Monday. The electric bidet accessory of Toto’s Z series caught fire in three separate incidents between March last year and March this year.
A powerful spring storm expected to be the worst of its kind in almost 15 years pounded the East Coast of the United States on Monday, bringing relentless rains, flooding rivers, and prompting evacuations from New Jersey to West Virginia. It was blamed for eight deaths across the US.
The son of a senior Eastern Cape politician has been arrested for theft from a Bisho ministerial residence, the Dispatch Online reported on Monday. It said the grade-10 student (19) is suspected of breaking into the ministerial-complex home of MPL Pemmy Majodina at the Easter weekend.
It appears there has been ”substantial maladministration” in the finances of the troubled United Independent Front (UIF), the Cape High Court has been told. The deputy leader of the party makes the claim in an affidavit submitted as part of a bid to block party disciplinary proceedings against him and a fellow party official.
The board of Eskom has elected Jacob Maroga as its new CEO, Eskom said on Friday. Maroga will take over from current CEO Thulani Gcabashe, whose term ends on April 30. Gcabashe will remain at Eskom to lead a project intended to leverage the economic benefits resulting from the utility’s capital-expansion programme.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned at what it calls the lack of progress in the case of Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, it said at the weekend. McBride was involved in a car accident in December last year and it has been alleged that he was drunk at the time. His blood was not tested on the scene, reports said.