You have to love the Italians, don’t you? If they didn’t exist someone would have to invent them, and just think what sort of tortured imagination it would take to dream up such improbably complex concepts as the Papacy, the Borgias, the Mafia, Niccolo Machiavelli, Silvio Berlusconi, Leonardo da Vinci and the great Juventus referee-fixing scandal.
One coach makes eight changes and confidently expects to win, the other makes five changes and hopes not to lose by too many. There will come a time when Graham Henry’s attempt to introduce the squad system at international level will come a cropper, but this Saturday is not that moment.
Burger King’s claim to be ”the home of the Whopper” has been challenged by Johannesburg in the past couple of weeks. Although the United States fast-food chain’s advertising slogan refers to its trademark huge hamburger, Egoli’s bid for the title is based on a different meaning of ”whopper”: that of a great big fib.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, who quit his post as head coach of Brazil on Wednesday following the South Americans’ poor showing at the World Cup, has agreed to come to South Africa to take charge of Bafana Bafana. A source on the South African Football Association (Safa) executive says Parreira has agreed to the financial terms. All that is required now is his signature.
The grim state of public education in South Africa highlights the fact that — in spite of "pretentious rhetoric" about a national-democratic revolution and transformation — the African National Congress has failed to facilitate access to opportunity for most South Africans, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
South Africa’s first black cricket captain Ashwell Prince says his team is not worried about playing in violence-wracked Sri Lanka on the current tour. ”Prior to the tour, a team of security experts visited Sri Lanka and submitted their observations,” Prince told a media conference in Colombo late on Thursday.
Wendell Sailor’s troubled rugby career took a turn for the worse on Friday. The Australian Rugby Union said Test winger Sailor had been suspended for two years after testing positive for cocaine and that his contract had been terminated. Sailor’s contract was due to expire at the end of 2007.
The insurance and investment giant Old Mutual has raised a Chinese wall over the bidding process associated with what could be Africa’s largest commercial property sale — the V&A Waterfront — for which multibillion-rand bids close on Monday for the parastatal Transnet’s property in Cape Town.
Ernie Els, one of the world’s great golfers and a sportsman supposedly as relaxed as he is gifted, looks suitably devoid of stress in his baggy shorts and cool sandals. He cracks the odd joke, says ”mate” a lot and even laughs on cue. But it does not take long to detect something less settled lurking beneath the familiar Els facade of an amiable swinger with the sweetest of games and most laconic of lifestyles.
A United States federal judge temporarily stopped construction on a -million irrigation project on Thursday, saying the work could disturb the habitat of a woodpecker that might or might not be extinct. Scientists had thought the woodpecker was extinct until a kayaker said he had seen one in early 2004 in the woods of eastern Arkansas.