Australia embark on their quest to become the first team ever to successfully defend the World Cup when they kick off rugby’s six-week extravaganza against Argentina on Friday. The Wallabies, winners of the tournament in 1991 and 1999, will be desperate for a convincing victory over the Pool A underdogs.
Springbok captain Corne Krige will miss the opening World Cup match against Uruguay as a precaution after suffering an injury in training. Coach Rudi Straeuli said Krige would return to the side for South Africa’s crunch pool C match against England next week.
Australian Aborigines and refugee groups have announced plans to protest outside Rugby World Cup grounds, comparing themselves with anti-apartheid demonstrators who dogged tours by South Africa’s Springboks in the 1970s. They plan to line the streets to protest the government’s policy of locking up asylum seekers.
Bafana Bafana scored an easy 3-0 win over Lesotho in a friendly international played at the Sethoto stadium in Maseru on Wednesday. Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba was all smiles after his charges outclassed Lesotho, who were using the match to prepare for their World Cup eliminator against Botswana in Gaborone.
Hosts Nigeria shot to second place on the overall All-Africa Games medals table after some superlative performances on the wrestling mat and powerlifting event on Wednesday. South Africa have consolidated their dominance at the games by so far winning 19 gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze medals.
South African captain Graeme Smith said his side is confident about squaring the one-day series against Pakistan in Friday’s fourth game in the five-match series. The tourists go into Friday’s match at Rawalpindi down 1-2, with the final match in the series on Sunday also to be played in the city.
The South African Department of Public Works is to spend millions of rands this year to upgrade various museums around the country, including the renovation of the Kruger House museum in central Pretoria. More than R20-million is also to be spent on the harbour at the Robben Island museum complex.
The Pretoria High Court has granted an urgent interdict to stop the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the government and the South African National Taxi Council on the taxi recapitalisation programme barely 40 minutes before the signing ceremony was to take place at 3pm on Wednesday.
The rand may not be the ‘weak’ currency it was. Most of the factors leading to a structurally weak rand are now a matter of history and it may not be as volatile, nor as guilty of infecting South Africa with inflation as it has been, says Investec at a presentation on the company’s view of the global economy.
The African National Congress reacted sharply on Wednesday to comments made by satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys. According to a newspaper report, Uys called President Thabo Mbeki a liar and called for the president’s resignation over his views on the causes of Aids, but the ANC criticised Uys’s "grandiose posturing".