It’s only two years since South Africa last played Wales but it seems like a lifetime. Then, as now, the Springboks played the first two games of the season in Bloemfontein and Cape Town and, perhaps more pertinently, they were also looking ahead to a brave new world under a new coach.
Auf Wiedersehen. Arrivederci. Ciao. Yes, it’s good night from our friends in Germany, Italy and Spain, three of the world’s established footballing powers.
This sad trio, all ranked in Fifa’s top 10, are going home. The Czech fans were singing Auf Wiedersehen long before Milan Baros scored the winner at the Jose Alvalada Stadium in Lisbon on Wednesday night.
South African soldiers attached to the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are among the 3 700 troops now deployed on that country’s tense eastern border. More than 20 000 DRC troops have massed on the eastern border with Rwanda, say UN officials.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has never visited South Africa, has missed three African presidential inaugurations and the launch summit of the African Union. This has led to mounting criticism of Egypt’s role in Africa. Mubarak has even stayed away from meetings of the five-man New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) steering committee.
Kenenisa Bekele, the 22-year-old Ethiopian who is set to emerge as the glittering star of the track at the Olympic Games in Athens, hides his face in his hands. The laughter takes hold of him. He rocks gently back and forth, unsure whether he is more embarrassed or exhilarated to be asked if his mentor, Haile Gebrselassie, has recovered from having two of his world records smashed.
Click on image for full-size view.
Click on image for full-size view.
Naledi Xhosa won an out-of-court settlement this week when she sued her former employer for unfair dismissal after Xhosa tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis B. Xhosa was immediately dismissed on the grounds that she posed a health risk to the employer’s infant and family. The court case shows how HIV/Aids challenges
the relationship between domestic workers and their employers.
The Road Accident Fund has no plans to force the government to increase the petrol price by 25 cents per litre. RAF board acting chairperson Saths Cooper was responding to a report that the RAF and the Law Society of South Africa would force the government to increase the petrol price by 25c/litre in order to remedy the RAF’s ”terrible financial situation”.
South African Aids activists sang and danced through the streets of Cape Town on Thursday as part of a worldwide campaign to get the United States government to reduce military spending. Some 500 marchers made their way to the US consulate in central Cape Town to deliver a letter addressed to President George Bush calling for less spending on the military and more on fighting diseases such as HIV/Aids.