Soweto’s spacious Ubuntu Kraal will be abuzz with ”cheeky noses” and ”extraordinary finishes” when Soweto’s first wine festival runs from Friday to Sunday. As part of the South African Wine Industry Trust’s (Sawit) drive to promote wine locally, the festival will be an ”elegant introduction to the juice of the Earth”, Sawit chairperson Gavin Pieterse said at a media launch on Monday.
Hurricane Katrina pounded vulnerable New Orleans with howling winds on Monday, damaging the roof of the Superdome stadium where thousands had sought refuge, knocking out power, flooding streets and threatening a wide swath of the United States Gulf Coast.
The Gauteng department of public transport, roads and works announced on Monday that it will be increasing the pace of conversion of minibus taxi permits to operating licences. In the next few months, it plans to convert 40 000 permits to operating licences in the province.
The author of a book that helped trigger the 1998 sacking of former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim died on Monday of diabetes, the official Bernama news agency said. Khalid Jafri was the author of <i>50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Be PM</i>.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Herbert Murerwa, on Monday said week-long talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is mulling expelling Harare for debt arrears, are by no means over. Officials from the lending arm of the World Bank began talks with Zimbabwean officials last Monday over its debt arrears.
Tens of thousands of unmarried Swazi girls performed a final dance on Monday culminating a week-long celebration of chastity as Swazi authorities moved to defend the centuries-old ”reed dance” from international ridicule. Every year, tens of thousands of girls from across the country gather to participate in the dance.
Ferrari’s seven-time formula-one world champion Michael Schumacher believes he will struggle to get a place on the podium at this Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Schumacher has shown signs of frustration at the Italian team’s lack of competitiveness this season.
The bodies of two teenage boys who drowned in Blaauwpan dam near Kempton Park were found on Monday afternoon, North Rand police said. Five boys between the ages of 13 and 16 allegedly stole a pedal-powered boat at about 4pm on Sunday and went out on to the dam near Bonaero Park.
Fear ripped through the largest emergency shelter in New Orleans on Monday as rain from Hurricane Katrina seeped through the roof of the Superdome sports arena. ”The Superdome management assured us this would be the safest place in New Orleans,” a clearly shaken reporter told a local radio station.
Zimbabwean lawyers on Monday urged President Robert Mugabe’s government to scrap a Bill that will prevent white farmers from legally challenging land grabs, saying it makes a mockery of the law. ”This a direct and undisguised frontal attack on the independence of the judiciary,” the Law Society of Zimbabwe said.