Two airline crashes in Africa this past fortnight have added to the continent’s dismal air safety record. On December 25 113 people were killed when a Beirut-bound Boeing 727 clipped a building on the end of the runway at Cotonou, the commercial capital of Benin and ended up in the Atlantic Ocean.
The decision by the oldest Burundian rebel group to start talks with President Ndayizeye is more than a light at the end of the tunnel for that war-torn country. Before emerging into daylight, however, Burundi faces problems of implementing the ceasefire. This in turn poses tough questions for South Africa and other members of the African Mission in Burundi.
The ”big news” to emerge from Thursday’s emergency SA Rugby board meeting in Cape Town is that the appointment of the newest Springbok rugby coach will not take place on Friday January 30 as originally announced. At this stage, no date has been set for the official appointment.
Tennis great Martina Navratilova said on Thursday she plans to stick with a decision to retire for good at the end of the year. In a stunning career that has spanned over two decades, Navratilova won 167 singles titles — more than any man or woman — and 173 doubles titles.
Double champion Hiroshi Masuoka on Thursday ruled out his dream of a third successive Dakar Rally crown when his Mitsubishi was struck down by gearbox trouble. The Japanese veteran, who had started the day in front, lost more than an hour-and-a-half on the 355km eighth stage.
Stuart Appleby went four years before returning to the winners-only Mercedes Championships. The way he played on Thursday, he might not have to wait that long. As the Kona winds fooled Tiger Woods and made it difficult on the elite field, Appleby recovered from a tough start to the new season.
On a mission to spread love, four-time world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield said on Friday he had forgiven Mike Tyson for biting his ear in an infamous 1997 bout and would even forgive terrorist leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11 2001 attack on the United States.
After 1990, South Africa was described as a society in transition towards democracy. This raises a number of questions. When will this transition end? When will a ”normal society” be a reality? There are several ways of answering such questions. Democracy is not a state but a process, argues Vincent Maphai in the first of a series on the end of South Africa’s transition.
What is the ‘real reason’?” leaders of some of the opposition groups asked in a press release to the world’s deaf and dumb press, ”why South African soldiers, armed to the teeth, are so present on Haitian soil, in Gonaives and Port-au-Prince, in particular? The recent Haiti fiasco has left us with egg on our face.
The Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) is taking the state to court to prove that it has a duty of care towards children at school, especially young girls. If the action succeeds it will set a precedent establishing that the state is liable for protecting children while at school. This could have wide-ranging reverberations in a country where almost a third of girls are raped at school.