”Our backs are broken but we are still alive,” seethed Felix Nge’tich as he scoured the ruins of his shebeen at Nakuru in central Kenya. Security forces and furious members of the public continued to raid drinking dens across the country this week following the deaths of 52 people who consumed the illegal alcohol, known locally as chang’aa.
Over the past two weeks, the contrast between two related ”global” events has been salutary. The first was the World Tribunal on Iraq held in Istanbul; the second the G8 meeting in Scotland and the Make Poverty History campaign. Following the media in Britain, you would know nothing about the Istanbul meetings.
A hard-hitting study has found that trade union investment companies have a prodigious R2-billion asset base but, in general, lack a ”union agenda”. The findings were presented at a Cosatu central executive committee meeting in May and have been kept under wraps. However, a preliminary copy was leaked to the Labour Bulletin, which will print them this week.
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The remains of five men who fought the apartheid regime in the 1980s and whose fate remained unknown until this year were returned to their families on Sunday during a moving ceremony that paid tribute to them as ”giants” in South Africa. About 400 people attended the ceremony held at Freedom Park in Pretoria.
Juan Pablo Montoya soaked up the pressure of championship leader Fernando Alonso to secure victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday and claim his first success for the McLaren team. The McLaren driver beat home series leader Alonso of Spain in a Renault, while Finn Kimi Raikkonen was third.
Bunches of flowers and an array of candles sat above London’s ”Underground Zero” site on Sunday, where deep beneath the earth the twisted wreckage of a train lay buried with up to 20 bodies still onboard.
Lance Armstrong survived his first big challenge on the Tour de France but admitted he suffered on the first climbing stage of the race after countering an attack from one of his main rivals, Alexandre Vinokourov. However, the 33-year-old American admitted he did not expect to suffer so much.
The Free State Cheetahs held off a determined Border Bulldogs XV to win their Currie Cup match 18-12 at the Absa Stadium. In other matches, the Mighty Elephants beat the Falcons and the Blue Bulls maintained their stronghold in the Currie Cup competition at home ground Loftus by beating the Boland Kavaliers.
It exceeded all Stuart Baxter’s expectations as Bafana Bafana secured one of their most auspicious scalps since returning to the international soccer fold in 1992 by beating the world’s sixth-ranked Mexico 2-1 with a makeshift combination in the Concacaf Gold Cup clash on the outskirts of Los Angeles on Friday night.