The Stormers disintegrated in spectacular manner for the second week running when they blew a 24-0 lead to go down 37-24 to the Blues in their Super 12 match at Newlands on Saturday evening. What made the defeat extraordinary was that the Stormers played champagne rugby in the first 20 minutes.
Though President Thabo Mbeki had one orchid named after him in Singapore this week, there are already about 200 Zuma orchids on the International Orchid Register. Unfortunately for the deputy president, most of them seem to be named for California’s Zuma Valley, an orchid-growing centre.
Satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys has launched a biting attack on President Thabo Mbeki’s stand on Aids and nutrition. ”Most of the black people who have died of Aids in South Africa were too poor to even phone for help, let alone pizza delivery,” Uys said in a statement on Friday.
Limpopo economic development, environment and tourism minister Collins Chabane says small business is to receive special attention in his province. In a report by the government news agency, BuaNews, on Friday, he is quoted as telling the provincial legislature that small businesses has a high potential for job creation.
The share price of gaming and hospitality group Peermont Global jumped 4,26% or 30 cents in early trade on Friday after the group revealed it had made it to the next stage in the process of selecting a successful candidate to introduce and operate the first casinos in Singapore.
Liberation struggle veteran and company director Paul Langa has been appointed as new head of the Robben Island Museum. Langa, who studied political science at the University of the Witwatersrand before leaving the country to join Umkhonto weSizwe, served a 14-year sentence on Robben Island.
The financial performance of the Clicks chain of health and beauty stores, owned by New Clicks Holdings, has been dented for the six months to the end of February by continued "shrinkage" — the retail industry’s term for theft — and losses in its pharmacy operations.
South Africa is backing former Zimbabwean finance minister Simba Makoni in the upcoming election of the new president of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the multilateral development finance agency focusing on the African continent, the AfDB said on Wednesday.
The Cape High Court has ruled that political parties in South Africa should not, as a matter of principle, be compelled to disclose details of private donations made to their coffers. In a landmark ruling by Judge BM Griesel on Wednesday, he dismissed the application by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa.
The first snow of winter has dusted peaks in the Western Cape. Hex River valley resident Andries Brown said that in the wake of the cold front that moved in on Tuesday, the Matroosberg had a fair coating of snow. Above Tulbagh, there was light snow on the Groot Winterhoek peak on Tuesday.
Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu may need further cancer treatment, a statement issued on his behalf said on Tuesday. ”I am fit and healthy at present and my doctors will monitor my condition closely. They may need to introduce further treatment in the future,” the cleric said in the statement.
The wide-ranging black economic empowerment (BEE) transactions unveiled on Tuesday by Old Mutual involving the sale of an overall 12,75% stake in its South African operations to BEE participants will be the "full arrangements" that will be made by the group in terms of BEE ownership.
South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sue van der Merwe on Monday officially congratulated Zimbabwe on its 25th year of independence from Britain, praising it for its role in fighting apartheid. She did not mention the concerns of Zimbabwe’s official opposition about the fairness and freeness of the March parliamentary election.
Listed supermarket group Pick ‘n Pay is expected to report a 21% increase in its headline earnings per share for the year to the end of February this year, to 135 cents from 111,6 cents the previous year, when it announces its final results on Tuesday morning, according to a consensus of seven investment analysts.
Feuding taxi organisations in the Western Cape have pledged peace as provincial transport minister Mcebisi Skwatsha announced the reopening of violence-racked taxi ranks closed a week ago. Skwatsha also said he has not been facilitating negotiations with a gun against his head.
Three yacht crew members on a pleasure cruise had a lucky escape when a container ship weighing more than 13Â 000 tonnes grazed their vessel. The incident on Sunday occurred in clear weather about 10 nautical miles north-west of Robben island, said National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson Craig Lambinon.
The Crusaders turned in a powerful second-half performance to humiliate the Stormers 51-23 in their Super 12 clash at Newlands on Saturday evening. After trailing 6-3 at the break, the New Zealanders rattled in seven second-half tries to leave home fans dumbfounded.
Kaizer Chiefs kept up the pressure on Orlando Pirates when they beat Ajax Cape Town 2-1 after leading 2-0 at the interval in a Castle Premier Soccer League game played at Newlands on Sunday afternoon. Chiefs are now six points behind the log leaders with a match in hand.
Common roots tying them to Africa with an emotional bond make it possible for the ANC and the Afrikanerbond to work together, and for members of the New National Party to join the ANC, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Mbeki said the decision to dissolve the New National Party and the meeting between the ANC and the Afrikanerbond constituted an important stride forward.
Former Independent Democrats Western Cape leader Lennit Max on Thursday sought to link the party’s national leader, Patricia de Lille, to the Travelgate affair. De Lille heatedly denied any wrongdoing, and said that as one of a number of clients of one of the implicated travel agencies, she had given her full co-operation to investigators.
A planned media briefing on Friday morning to articulate the latest developments surrounding taxi violence in the Western Cape was called off at the last minute to accommodate a march by one of the protagonists, Codeta. Provincial transport minister Mcebisi Skwatsha decided to postpone the meeting to allow all parties a chance to express their concersn.
International adoptions of South African children are in a state of legal limbo, with legislation to give effect to an international convention signed in 2003 not yet enacted. ”In effect, we have a legal anomaly. We have acceded to a legal convention, but everything that we are doing is ultra vires because it’s not part of our law … We are operating extra-judicially, can you imagine the implications?” asked a family-law specialist.
A goal in each half by Brent Carelse saw Ajax Cape Town defeat Wits 2-1 in their Castle Premier League match at Newland on Wednesday. Ajax led 1-0 at the break. Wits came back strongly in the second half, but solid defence by the Ajax defenders kept them out.
Campaigners wanting to see lower fuel prices in South Africa should call on the public to use fuel more efficiently, rather than inviting the public to join a "national campaign to reduce the petrol price" by boycotting certain petrol products, according to the South Africa Petroleum Industry Association.
Child-rights activists on Wednesday called on Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool to ensure controversial Central Karoo municipal manager Truman Prince is removed from office. Prince, who has been embroiled in a series of controversies, including involvement with child prostitutes, was suspended and then reinstated last month.
Stormers coach Gert Smal is giving Schalk Burger until Friday to prove his match fitness for Saturday’s Super 12 clash against the Crusaders at Newlands. The 2004 International Rugby Board player of the year strained a calf muscle in last week’s 15-13 win over the Reds. Smal wants to play him at number eight.
The creditworthiness of the South African banking system as a whole remains stable despite the socio-economic pressures it faces, global rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) has concluded in its latest report on the country. At the end of 2004, South Africa had 21 registered banks, two mutual banks and 15 local branches of foreign banks.
Water restrictions will remain in place in the Cape metropolis where dams were below their normal levels because of drought when torrential rains struck at the weekend, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio reported on Wednesday. This is in spite of good rain in the catchment areas of major dams.
The Western Cape transport department is open to resolving the taxi conflict in the region amicably, provincial transport minister Mcebisi Skwatsha said on Tuesday. He was responding to a memorandum handed over after a march earlier in the day by disgruntled taxi operators and drivers.
Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo complained on Tuesday that she has been the victim of racial profiling by immigration officers at the city’s international airport. She made the claim at the launch in Cape Town of the Department of Home Affairs’ immigration branch, an upgrading of what was previously only a chief directorate.
A crowd of taxi drivers and operators besieged the Western Cape transport ministry building on Tuesday to protest against a proclamation closing several violence-wracked taxi routes. The proclamation, in effect since midnight on Monday, was issued by the provincial transport minister after months of shootings between rival taxi associations.
The Western Cape government has been asked to airlift food parcels to thousands of families affected by torrential rains in the Overberg region, particularly Arniston and Napier. Rivers burst their banks and towns were cut off from the outside world in Sunday and Monday’s deluge, with Bredasdorp among the worst hit.