An uplifting short film based on the classic <i>Heidi</i> is doing the rounds — but this time the little girl is African. The Alps are the hills of KwaZulu-Natal and the grandfather is replaced by a mother dying of Aids, writes Matthew Krouse.
A few weeks ago the Springbok rugby team swept into the little hamlet of Ceres to shoot a television advertisement for the World Cup, which is apparently happening quite soon. The action was standard stuff, Saving Private Ryan in white shorts, and then they signed some balls, piled into the bus and burnt rubber back to the big smoke.
It’s been Gary Kirsten’s decade, no doubt. As a young man in his early twenties, as youth would want, his journey of self-discovery involved numerous highways, waterways and airways.
Prospects are ”not particularly bright” for progress in trade liberalisation at next month’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Mexico, says South Africa’s chief negotiator Xavier Carim.
Heavyweight resources stocks Anglo American and BHP Billiton were propping up the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa in thin noon trade on Friday. Overall, the market’s performance was stodgy, with decliners outnumbering advancers on the Top 40 index by two to one.
Jacob Zuma’s support in the ANC is waning.
Bulelani Ngcuka has finally fulfilled his detractors’ greatest fears — or so some legal minds believe. He, they say, has put politics before the law. Durban attorney Saber Ahmed Jazbhay said businessman Schabir Shaik may have a constitutional case against the Scorpions in terms of the right to equality before the law.
South African Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has appointed former trade unionist and business leader Herbert Mkhize as the new executive director of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
The deputy president sang for his supper, if charges against arms dealer are to be believed.
A solution to the Korean nuclear crisis seems remote after talks ended in Beijing on Friday with the United States and North Korea showing no inclination to compromise. Although the six-party talks ran their course with no dramatic walk-outs, the absence of any high-profile signals of commitment to future talks was more significant.