The Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has distanced itself from a South African Press Association (Sapa) report on a speech by Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Monday. Sapa’s report was issued under the headline: ”High crime levels driving tourists away: Van Schalkwyk.”
A new alliance of Darfur factions urged rebel leaders on Monday to forego personal interests and unite to make peace with the Sudanese government. In a statement issued in the Eritrean capital of Asmara, the United Front for Liberation and Development demanded ”equal representation” for all rebel movements battling the Khartoum regime in Sudan’s western Darfur.
Former African National Congress chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe could face jail for failing to appear in court for a maintenance hearing, media reports said on Sunday. Justice Ministry spokesperson Lazarus Mothupi said neither Goniwe nor his lawyer had informed the court of his absence. A warrant of arrest was issued.
Manchester United will tour South Africa in 2008 after admitting that Africa and Asia, rather than the United States, are the regions where their fan-base is most fanatical. The Premiership champions, currently in Asia on a four-leg pre-season tour, were due to land in Macau on Saturday after wowing fans in Tokyo and Seoul.
Getting all South Africans to agree on how to tackle affirmative action and build a non-racial society was one of the bigger challenges facing the country, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. He said the problem was ”we cannot get everyone to sing from the same hymn sheet on the important question of how to build a non-racial South Africa”.
The African National Congress (ANC) has expressed disquiet at rumours reflected in a documentary on President Thabo Mbeki linking him to the 1993 assassination of South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani. ”The suggestions, made without any reference to any evidence in any form, are deeply hurtful and patently irresponsible,” the ANC said on Thursday.
South African Robert Hunter of the Barloworld team won a wind-battered 11th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday after 182km of drama-filled racing between Marseille and Montpellier. The 30-year-old won a sprint finish just ahead of Swiss Fabian Cancellara and Brazilian Murilo Fischer to claim his, South Africa’s and his continent’s first-ever win in the race.
South African Robert Hunter won a crash-hit bunch sprint to take the 182,5km 11th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday. The Barloworld rider beat Swiss Fabian Cancellara of the CSC team by half a wheel. Brazil’s Murilo Fischer came home third for the Liquigas team. ”It is very important to me to win a stage on the Tour de France. I am speechless,” said Hunter.
Tony Blair’s one-time press officer Alastair Campbell’s confessions of a Svengali at the court of King Blair are mind-bogglingly tedious. A great diary should be true to its moment. Censor it into a work of political propaganda and it ceases to be a first rough draft of history, and becomes a first rough distortion.
Osama bin Laden praises martyrdom in a new videotape posted on a militant website on Sunday by al-Qaeda’s media-production wing. The Bin Laden clip, which lasted less than a minute, was undated and part of a 40-minute video featuring purported al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan paying tribute to fellow militants who had been killed.