US Open champion Retief Goosen on Wednesday waded into the debate over women being invited to join men’s golf tournaments, saying they should be made to qualify like their male counterparts. The South African world number five said most male players think handing out sponsors’ invites to women is unfair.
Thomas Bjorn on Wednesday hit back at critics who branded him a choker after a dismal final round ruined a promising US Masters. The Dane, playing in his first major since throwing away the 2003 British Open in a final-round tragedy worthy of Hamlet, was third after three rounds at Augusta and just four shots off the pace.
Top-seeded Andy Roddick needed just 58 minutes to beat qualifier Matias Boeker 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday in the first round of the US Clay-Court Championships. Defending champion and third-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany also won, beating Kristof Vliegen of Belgium 6-3, 7-5.
The first snow of winter has dusted peaks in the Western Cape. Hex River valley resident Andries Brown said that in the wake of the cold front that moved in on Tuesday, the Matroosberg had a fair coating of snow. Above Tulbagh, there was light snow on the Groot Winterhoek peak on Tuesday.
While women make up 52,1% of the adult population and 41,3% of the working South African population, they make up only 19,8% of all executive managers, 10,7% of all directors and 6,2% of chief executive officers and board chairs in the country, a survey has shown.
Gert Domroch has lived in the Nama village of Kuboes in a remote corner of South Africa’s Northern Cape Province for all of his 75 years. From his backyard, the old man gestures with his pipe to the surrounding expanse of windswept desert against a backdrop of jagged volcanic mountains: "This is the land of our forefathers and we’ve been dispossessed." The land he is referring to is known as the Richtersveld.
A man who fell ill on an aircraft from Angola on Tuesday night and was feared to have Marburg fever appears only to have malaria, the Department of Health said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Solly Mabotha said the man will be held under observation in an isolation ward at the Johannesburg hospital for ”a while longer”.
Police on Tuesday questioned the editor of a privately owned Zimbabwe weekly newspaper after it published an article alleging a scandal over ballot boxes and papers from last month’s elections. The editor was summoned to Harare’s main police station to answer questions about an article stating that police arrested a district administrator found with seven ballot boxes and ballot papers at his home.
World number three Ernie Els said on Wednesday that he was itching to get back into contention for golf’s biggest prizes after a disappointing United States Masters where he finished a distant 47th. The triple major-winner, launching his bid to become the first three-time winner of the Johnnie Walker Classic, said he would use the tournament to correct the ”technical faults” which plagued him at Augusta.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Wednesday said it is still consulting with its lawyers on whether to go ahead in seeking a court interdict to stop gold-miner Harmony Gold from retrenching workers. An NUM spokesperson said the union is still not sure whether it will go ahead in seeking the interdict against the company.