Smarting after the setbacks in New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England, the senior cricketers of South Africa’s national side are getting ready for the November visit to India and will be warming up in the opening round of the new Supersport Series matches this week. The pick of the crop is set for the Sahara Stadium (Kingsmead) in Durban from Thursday to Sunday as the relatively inexperienced KZN Dolphins line up against the might of Western Province-Boland.
If American businessman Malcolm Glazer wants to buy Manchester United, he’ll have to overcome fierce opposition from fans of the famous English soccer club.
Worried about higher ticket prices and loss of the club’s British heritage, fans’ groups mobilised on Monday to block any takeover by the multimillionaire Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner.
Vincent Hogg, former chief executive of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, is to drop a bombshell into the International Cricket Council’s investigation of racism within the sport in Zimbabwe. Hogg will inform the ICC’s investigators, Indian solicitor-general Goolam Vahanvati and Justice Steven Majiedt, this week about several incidents involving black ZCU directors.
Four years after Zimbabwe’s land reform campaign turned violent, South Africa and Namibia are facing the same conundrum, struggling to redress imbalances from British and German colonial rule. As in Zimbabwe, the vast majority of land in South Africa and Namibia is owned by white farmers, descendants of settlers who under colonial rule were given choice land.
”Oh, we’re post-gay” — that was a reported comment in the wake of the recent lesbian and gay Pride parade, from a couple who didn’t attend. It was doubtless said light-heartedly, and may have expressed no more than a lack of any desire to go parading. But ”post-gay” is also a new addition to the heap of slippery terms people use to define their sexualities.
World champion Australia begins the first of a four-Test battle on Wednesday to end a 35-year drought, but the battlefield in India is a dry, grass-less pitch that threatens to crack quickly and suit the hosts better. ”It’s pretty dry,” both the Australians and the Indians said after a preliminary inspection of the pitch early this week. But the Indians were delighted as it will help their spinners get the ball turning big and early.
Israeli troops pressed on with their offensive in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the United Nations was set to vote on a resolution calling for a halt to the onslaught that has killed almost 80 Palestinians. The death toll mounted further as a Palestinian gunmen was killed by an Israeli tank shell fired at the Jabaliya refugee camp.
50 000 trapped by Israeli assault
Barclays Bank’s potential purchase of a controlling stake in Absa puts into perspective parochial talk of ”big empowerment deals”. The R20-billion bandied about as the price is almost the total spent on black economic empowerment (BEE) deals in 2003. That a foreign bank wants to put such serious money into a South African operation supports the view that BEE does not necessarily deter foreign direct investment.
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A 32-year-old man was arrested on Monday morning in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Johannesburg student Leigh Matthews. The man was a former student in Matthews’ class at the Bond University and had apparently fallen in love with her. Acting National Police Commissioner Hamilton Hlela said the man was cooperating with detectives and was expected to appear in court on Wednesday.