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Glenn McGrath believes Australia are a class apart as they chase an unprecendented third successive World Cup title. The reigning champions, winners in 1999 and 2003, as well as 1987, have won their last 22 World Cup matches and fast bowler McGrath cannot see a reason for that run to end in the Caribbean.
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New Zealand overcame a rocky start to reach 179 for three and beat West Indies by seven wickets on Thursday. After bowling out West Indies for 177 at Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, the Kiwis lost opener Peter Fulton to the second ball of the innings but still reached their target with more than 10 overs to spare.
Regulation is in the news this week, as we reflect in this edition:in steel, air travel, alcohol and, yes, toilet paper. Steel producer Mittal, part of the international steel empire owned by the fabulously wealthy Lakshmi Mittal, has been found guilty by the Competition Tribunal of excessive pricing. National carrier SAA, projecting a R650-million loss for the year.
South Africa’s insurance industry is waiting with bated breath as claims roll in for damage caused by the freak tides that hit the KwaZulu-Natal coast recently. More than 300km of the KwaZulu-Natal coastline needs to be reconstructed after it was devastated by 8m waves that struck in the early hours of March 19
Two months had passed since the awful flight from the rooftop of their Harare citadel and the gentle, gilded rhythms of wealth and privilege, ticking over like tumblers in a Swiss vault door, had soothed the Mugabes into something resembling normalcy. Indeed, that very morning Grace had awoken hungry for the first time in weeks.
The fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo last week has thrown South Africa into the midst of that country’s most serious crisis since the elections last year. Amid heavy fighting between government troops and those loyal to former vice-president and presidential rival Jean-Pierre Bemba, Bemba last week sought refuge in the South African compound.
Grey-shoe and red-tape salary structures in the public service are set to be dropped as government battles to fill vacancies. Gone are the days of rigid career progression and set-in-stone pay scales, says Lewis Rabkin, spokesperson for Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.
ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma’s lifelong confidant and political ally, KwaZulu-Natal Finance Minister Zweli Mkhize, has defended Zuma, saying the former deputy president was capable of leading South Africa and taking the ANC into its centenary. In a no-holds barred briefing with newspaper editors in Durban, Mkhize said Zuma remained a strong and capable contender for the position of ANC president.
A United States military tribunal at Guantànamo formally convicted Australian David Hicks on Friday on a charge of providing material support for terrorism. The tribunal’s judge accepted Hicks’s guilty plea as part of an agreement that limits his sentence to seven years, in addition to the five years he has already been detained at the Guantànamo prison.
With less than nine months to go before the ANC national conference, which will choose a new leadership, adversaries Jacob Zuma and President Thabo Mbeki are using very different strategies in their attempts to win support. Last weekend was a case in point.