A large crowd converged at Beyers Naude Square in Johannesburg on Monday to join the Congress of SA Trade Unions’ protest against unemployment and job losses. Singing struggle songs, members of the red T-shirted crowd carried posters reading ”Yes to local procurement. No to Edcon group” and ”Stop casualisation and racism”.
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A traditional circumcision surgeon was arrested and 28 young boys rescued from his house in Libode in the Eastern Cape on Sunday, a spokesperson for the provincial health department said. ”The suspect allegedly used one unsterilised knife to circumcise all the boys,” Sizwe Khuphelo said.
As he stepped blinking into the glare of the cramped courtroom, a crowd of bereaved mothers confronted Nurpashi Kulayev, the last surviving militant from the gang that seized School Number One in Beslan, screaming: ”Beast! Child-killer!”
Thousands of people cheered when former deputy president Jacob Zuma arrived at the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in Soweto on Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. A large TV screen above the square showed Zuma smiling and hugging people as he arrived at the venue.
Roger Federer is desperate to clinch a third successive Wimbledon title to erase the misery of his 2005 Grand Slam flops at the Australian and French Opens. The top seed has captured seven titles this year and has lost just three times in 57 matches. But still the 23-year-old is not satisfied.
New Zealand will ask Britain and Australia to support its call for the International Cricket Council to ban Zimbabwe from competition because of the Mugabe regime’s human rights abuses. The New Zealand Cabinet, when it meets on Monday, will consider banning the Zimbabwe cricket team from entering the country later this year.
South Africa defeated Australia 24-20 to win the under-21 Rugby World Championship on Saturday, fending off a late challenge by the Australians. South Africa dominated most of the way but nearly threw its advantage away in the final minutes when Australia pressed near the tryline.
Is Papillon alive and well and living in retirement in the northern Paris suburbs? The extraordinary claim surfaced after a French newspaper recently reported the 104th birthday of Charles Brunier, a former inmate of the Devil’s Island penal colony, said to be seeing out his days at the Val-de-France old people’s home in Domont, about 20km outside the French capital.
Harry Potter fever is gripping book stores across the world in the countdown to next month’s launch of the sixth volume in the boy wizard series, which looks set to become the biggest-selling novel to date. Multimillionaire author Joanne ”JK” Rowling is due to unveil Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland, at midnight on the morning of July 16.