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Once again the shortcomings of the Natal Sharks were cruelly exposed at the Absa Stadium on Saturday as they slid to a second successive Vodacom Super 12 defeat against the Waratahs of New South Wales going down 36-13. The visitors led 16-13 at the break.
Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan paid tribute to Professor Mazisi Kunene in Durban, the winner of the SA National Laureate Prize, for his role in the preservation of African literature and history through poetry. Kunene went to exile as an ANC political activist after completing his Master’s Degree.
South Africa’s favourable balance sheet offered an opportunity for boldness in the economy, President Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday. ”Let’s move forward faster… let’s perform better, because we’ve got the basis to perform better,” he said after a meeting of a high-level government-convened International Investment Council.
Traditional Zulu Indunas (leaders) and thousands of their followers marched through Durban city centre on Saturday calling for their roles to be recognised and legitimised in the KwaZulu-Natal constitution. ”The Zulus are ready for marching and taking to the streets, not for war” said one of the Indunas, Nkosinathi Mkhize.
The southern hemisphere comfortably defeated the northern hemisphere 54-19 in the International Rugby Board (IRB) Rugby Aid tsunami fundraiser at Twickenham on Saturday. The south outscored their opponents eight tries to three with New Zealand fly-half Andrew Mehrtens landing all six of his conversion attempts.
The Hurricanes maintained their unbeaten record in the 2005 Vodacom Super 12 with a polished 45-32 victory over the Cats at Ellis Park on Friday night. The Hurricanes ran in six tries to four for the Cats as the home team was left with much food for thought for the rest of the season.
Disputes involving academics are usually hammered out in obscure journals or debated over wine and cheese. But the battle triggered by Harvard’s president Larry Summers has met a different fate. It has become The Story That Will Not Die – and all because Summers asked the question: why can’t a woman be more like a man?
Scientists have dug up the remains of a primitive apeman which they believe could be the first of our ancestors to have walked upright. The discovery is critical to understanding human evolution. Researchers are still unsure why our ape-like ancestors left their four-legged gait and their homes in the trees to walk upright.
British Chancellor Gordon Brown has made an impassioned call to end the ”outrage” of suffering in Africa, warning that fears of corruption should not become an excuse to do nothing. He has called for a similar rescue effort in the stricken continent to the plan devised for rebuilding Europe after World War II.