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.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday announced a staggered withdrawal of his troops from the Lebanon in a historic move that ends three decades of military presence. Assad said troops would withdraw first to the eastern Bekaa area of the country and then to the Syria-Lebanon border.
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.
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.
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?
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) has no intention of becoming a political party or of turning its leaders into politicians, its general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Saturday. ”We have no business whatsoever of being ambitious to become politicians. We have no political ambitions,” Vavi said.
Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie kept the Euro/Africa Zone, Group One Davis Cup tie alive on Saturday when they won the doubles rubber at the Standard Bank Arena. The SA duo downed Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler 6-3 7-4 (7-4) 7-5 in an encounter that lasted two hours and 10 minutes.
South Africa achieved the expected crushing victory over Zimbabwe in the first Test at Newlands, wrapping up the tail 45 minutes before the scheduled close of play on Saturday. It was the 18th time in the history of the game that a Test was completed within two days.