South Africa held off defending champion New Zealand 16-12 on Tuesday and will play Australia in the weekend final of the world under-21 rugby championship. Australia defeated France 28-16 in the other semifinal. South Africa controlled the ball early and Cedrik McKize broke through the centres to score a 19th-minute converted try.
Malawi has launched a comprehensive welfare plan to mitigate the impact of poverty and HIV/Aids on its estimated one million orphans.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation is almost too bulky to run and now it’s going to get even bigger. The 900-pound gorilla gained formal approval from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa last week to put on extra weight. Thus, implementing government policy, the regulator has given the green light for SABC TV 4 and 5, pending funding — probably from Parliament.
The United States army has bought 35 more ”Chubby” mine-hunting systems from Dorbyl RSD. The system, already in use by the US army corps of engineers, detects mines and improvised explosive devices using ground penetrating radar. The deal is thought to be worth about ,5-million (R350-million).
President Thabo Mbeki is expected to name South Africa’s new deputy president on Wednesday. Government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said Mbeki would make a ”relevant announcement” with regard to changes in his Cabinet. When asked if the announcement would include that of a new deputy president, Khumalo said: ”I assume it will.”
Plans by De Beers to expand its diamond retail empire with the opening of a new shop on Wednesday on Fifth Avenue in New York will be dogged by controversy after a human rights group called for a boycott. Survival International said it had enlisted the American feminist Gloria Steinem to join a picket line urging people not to enter the shop.
Exactly 41 years to the day after three young civil rights activists disappeared in Mississippi, Edgar Ray Killen, a Ku Klux Klan member and part-time preacher, on Tuesday became the first person convicted over their killing.
It was the boldest of innovations. A chance for the mainstream media to strike back against the upstarts of the online world. On Friday the Los Angeles Times — an unwieldy broadsheet newspaper — launched its ”wikitorial”, an interactive device allowing readers to contribute to and rewrite its editorial column.
In the industrial landscape around the Johannesburg inner city, about 24 000 migrant men live in single-sex hostels. A further 15 000 men and women live in informal settlements. Sixty-eight percent of the men and 80% of the women unemployed. But a programme called Mpilonhle-Mpilonde is upgrading the quality of life in hostels and informal settlements through group-based learning.
Absa bank stands to be the biggest loser should the Competition Commission start an investigation into banking fees in South Africa, and this could have implications for Barclays if the deal goes ahead. The Falkena report, which analysed competition in local banking, has called for increased competition but it is unlikely the Barclays deal will start a price-cutting war.