Schabir Shaik’s supporters have long claimed that the case against him is political. In particular, they argue that it is driven by a desire to tarnish the reputation of Deputy President Jacob Zuma. Few of them, however, have been willing to go public about the shadowy figure they believe to be behind this alleged vendetta.

Sir Alex Ferguson has done his best to heap the pressure on title rivals Chelsea and Arsenal by warning they have still to travel to Aston Villa after seeing Manchester United side go third in the Premier League with a hard-fought 1-0 away win against the Midlands club.

New Zealand cricket executives were faced with the tough decision on Wednesday of whether to call off the tour by Sri Lanka as the full horror of the Asian tsunami devastation emerged. Several players were directly affected by the disaster, although none had immediate family killed.

South Africa snatched three wickets in the first hour and a half of the fourth day of the second Castle Lager/MTN cricket Test at Kinsgmead to make some inroads into the English batting order on Wednesday. England went to lunch on 366 for four, with a lead of 173 runs.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday it was sending 31 tonnes of food to assist about 2 000 people in Somalia’s northern Hafuni island, which was battered by surging waves spawned by the mammoth earthquake off Indonesia.

Tidal waves that hit Africa’s east coast, unleashed by a massive earthquake in southern Asia, killed at least 111 people – most of them in Somalia. The tidal waves hit East Africa’s shores on Sunday, triggered by a magnitude-9 undersea quake centered off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, about 4 500 kilometres across the Indian Ocean.