”This uncertainty was worse than staring death itself in the face. Life or death was easy to deal with. Black or white is how I preferred things to be. The damned uncertainty and constant anxiety were excruciating.” Fourteen years ago this week South African security police murdered two ANC guerrillas, whose arrests exposed Operation Vula. Dipak Patel recounts the day he discovered they had disappeared.
The upgrading as well as the building of new stadiums in the country will cost about R1,8-billion and 13 South African towns and cities will have to observe a deadline of June 2008 to meet a Fifa deadline for the infrastructure to be in place, says 2010 Soccer Bid Company CEO Danny Jordaan.
Hell hath no fury like a Mugabe minion maddened, judging by an official outburst in Zimbabwe’s government-owned media last weekend. In his vituperative column in the Herald newspaper, columnist ”Nathaniel Manheru” was in a particularly unforgiving mood about outgoing Zimbabwe Independent editor Iden Wetherell, whose paper has been an unrelenting critic of Robert Mugabe’s regime.
Britain’s Greg Rusedski, Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer and Cyril Saulnier of France advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mercedes-Benz Cup on Wednesday. Rusedski ran his winning streak to seven matches with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2) victory over Karol Beck of Slovakia.
Seven seconds. That may not seem much. But in the three-week Tour de France, the advantage Lance Armstrong gained over two rivals on Wednesday by sprinting at the finish of the first mountain stage could be an important step toward the Texan’s hoped-for record sixth crown.
Godfrey Khotso Mokoena, South African junior long- and triple-jump record holder, became South Africa’s first medal winner of the 10th IAAF World Junior Athletics Championships in Italy on Wednesday when he finished second in the long jump with an excellent new South African junior record distance of 8,09m.
he International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Wednesday that it has proposed a dispute-resolution process to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union and the Zimbabwean players that will see that current dispute in that country quickly resolved in Zimbabwe by Zimbabweans.
Free State and KwaZulu-Natal were the big winners on the third day of the Coca-Cola Craven Week in Nelspruit on Wednesday. Free State beat the hosts, the Pumas, 21-10 in the final game of the day, while the Young Sharks were too strong for the Griffons, beating them 45-14 in an earlier game.
The South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) has issued a stern warning to clubs and individuals associating themselves with the Rugga SA organisation. In distancing itself from what it termed the ”rebel grouping”, Sarfu said clubs and players linking themselves to Rugga SA could face serious consequences.
Ernie Els, this year’s pre-tournament favourite to win the British open at Troon in Scotland, found out that what Royal Troon gives, it takes back in spades. Els made a hole-in-one on the infamous eighth, but then dropped two shots on the par-three 17th as he closed his round with a two-under 69.