Butcheries and bottle stores across Durban did a roaring trade on Friday afternoon and expected a manic Saturday morning ahead of the Super 14 final clash between the Bulls and the Sharks. Beer and braai packs were most in demand. ”There are huge braai orders,” said Chris Giani, the manager of Dirk’s Meet Market in Davenport Square.
Durban is generally touted as the country’s surf capital. But such is the hype surrounding the upcoming Super 14 clash between the Sharks and the Bulls that even the surfers are talking rugby. The city’s two English-language daily newspapers have devoted pages and pages to the upcoming clash.
A long-awaited report into an incident where President Thabo Mbeki was heckled, allegedly by Jacob Zuma supporters, at last year’s reburial of former African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Moses Mabhida has been sent to the party’s secretary general, Kgalema Motlanthe.
In what may be a first for South Africa, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Tuesday announced that it had launched a beauty pageant in KwaZulu-Natal. And the search for Miss IFP KwaZulu-Natal has already received overwhelming interest, according to the IFP’s Sipho Mbatha, the organiser behind the event.
A number of the Sharks rugby front-runners took a sabbatical from the first training session on Monday ahead of Saturday’s final against the Bulls in Durban. The major concern, though, for coach Dick Muir and the Sharks management was the state of health of two key players.
Thugs in a KwaZulu-Natal community are robbing people living with HIV/Aids of their antiretroviral (ARV) drugs — and then smoking them to get high. Patients collecting their ARVs at St Mary’s Hospital outside Pinetown have complained to community outreach coordinators that criminals are stealing their Stocrin.
South Africa recalled former captain Bob Skinstad and included four uncapped players in a 46-man World Cup training squad on Saturday. The 30-year-old Skinstad came out of retirement earlier this year in a bid to win a place in the Springbok squad for the first time since 2003.
The Coastal Sharks scored 20 unanswered points in the final quarter here against the Auckland Blues on Saturday to romp to a thrilling 34-18 win in a Super 14 semifinal clash to qualify for the final next weekend. The Sharks led 14-6 at the break and will now host the southern hemisphere inter-provincial rugby competition final for the first time.
Everything to play for and to the victor the spoils as the Sharks prepare to topple the Blues of Auckland to earn a home Super 14 rugby final in their tough-as-nails semifinal at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday afternoon. As a consequence, rugby hype is at its utmost frenzy as 52 000 spectators are set to fill the stadium to its rafters.
The editor of the Mercury newspaper was shot and wounded in an attempted hijacking at his Durban home. Superintendent Danelia Veldhuizen said the attack happened as David Canning was driving up the driveway of his house in Durban’s Kloof suburb around 9.30pm on Tuesday.
The African Union’s three-day retreat began on Tuesday at Zimbali Lodge north of Durban amid calls to resolve the continent’s conflicts and to further the aims of the AU. The three-day AU foreign ministers’ retreat is being held in preparation for the upcoming AU summit of heads of state and government scheduled for Accra, Ghana, in July.
Letters of protests against proposed name changes to Durban’s streets have been delivered to the incorrect address following confusion over the street name, the Daily News reported on Tuesday. The letters were delivered to a home in Margaret Maytom Avenue, instead of 41 Margaret Mncadi Avenue.
At least 39 people were killed when a bus carrying textile-factory workers collided with a truck in Lesotho’s Leribe district, police said on Tuesday. Lesotho mounted police spokesperson Inspector Pheello Mphana said the bus, which was carrying 103 people, collided with the truck and trailer at 7pm on Monday evening.
Carol Erasmus, the 32-year-old KwaZulu-Natal engineer on the stricken Australian yacht Cowrie Dancer, had never seen such huge waves as those she faced in the southern ocean except ”in the movies”. Erasmus said she and Australian sailor John Blackman had been trying to secure the broken mizzen — the rear mast — when a huge wave hit the yacht on Monday.
Ongoing tensions over the proposed changes of street and building names in Durban prompted the national Cabinet on Thursday to dispatch two ministers to the city in a bid to resolve the heated situation. The announcement follows a march that saw 10Â 000 people converge on the Durban City Hall in protest against the proposed changes.
Spending by South Africa’s provincial governments dramatically improved in the past year as they managed to spend 98,7% of their budgets in the 2006/07 financial year, the National Treasury reported on Thursday. The provinces spent R185,6-billion of their combined adjusted budgets of R188-billion.
A motorist who used his cellphone to film KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele’s speeding motorcade in January has denied accusations that he is a racist, the Witness newspaper reported on Thursday. On Tuesday, provincial transport minister Bheki Cele issued a statement to the media justifying speeding VIP convoys.
Former KwaZulu-Natal premier Lionel Mtshali on Monday said there had never been an ”unprecedented outcry” over provincial ministers’ speeding vehicles during his tenure. ”During my time as premier, there were no road accidents involving government vehicles with blue lights,” said Mtshali.
The Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party will have to account for damage caused during May Day’s march against name changes in Durban. This is according to eThekwini Municipality’s municipal manager, Michael Sutcliffe, who said on Wednesday that the ”thuggery, looting and criminal behaviour” would be dealt with.
The Sharks scored four tries to earn a valuable bonus point when they beat the Lions 33-3 in Durban at the Absa Stadium on Saturday. The victory took the men from Durban into second place on the Super 14 points table and kept alive their hopes of hosting a home semifinal in two weeks’ time.
KwaZulu-Natal’s transport minister, Bheki Cele, on Friday accused the Witness newspaper of being manipulated by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the ongoing issue of provincial ministers’ vehicles speeding with blue lights. IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango said: ”He’s talking absolute rubbish.”
Motorists caught speeding because they are late for meetings will face the full wrath of the law, KwaZulu-Natal traffic authorities said on Friday. Asked whether motorists who are caught speeding will be able to have their fines quashed, eThekwini metro police spokesperson John-Thomas Tyala said: ”We can’t allow that. The Act [National Road Traffic Act] does not allow for that.”
The Witness newspaper on Thursday said it would not hand over the details of a motorist who used his cellphone to provide the newspaper with video footage of KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele’s convoy doing 160km/h. Witness deputy editor Yves Vanderhaeghen said: ”We have spoken to our lawyers. Our lawyers have advised them that we cannot do this.”
Organisers of the Comrades Marathon have fielded a string of complaints as a result of the decision to hold the country’s premier marathon on a Sunday, the Mercury reported on Thursday. According to the newspaper, more than 100 churches on the route will be affected by road closures as a result of the marathon.
Opposition parties are set to march through Durban on Workers’ Day on May 1 in protest against the eThekwini municipality’s proposed name changes of streets and buildings. Announcing the march in Durban on Tuesday, the Inkatha Freedom Party’s eThekwini caucus leader, Themba Nzuza, said the party would be marching ”against the blatantly flawed” process.
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African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma and French arms-maker Thint have been granted leave to appeal a Durban High Court ruling that Mauritius can be asked to provide documents relating to alleged arms-deal corruption, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Monday.
A Durban policeman was shot dead on Thursday morning, apparently accidentally, by a man seeking revenge against two suspects the policeman had arrested. Zakhele Nxumalo of the organised crime unit was shot as he was driving away from the house of the two suspects in Dube Village.
It was all about Paul Canning on the morning of day two of the Quiksilver Pro Africa at Durban’s New Pier on Tuesday. Surfing in the last heat of the round of 192, ”PC” went ballistic in his heat to win convincingly against Australian Paul Parkes in a high-scoring heat. The Durban goofy-footer found form and won convincingly.
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Jacob Zuma has lodged an application for leave to appeal against the Durban High Court’s decision to request documents from Mauritius that may relate to arms deal corruption. The African National Congress deputy president, who celebrated his birthday with a lavish party in Durban at the weekend, lodged the application on Monday.
Sophie Edington of Australia picked up six gold medals at the 2007 Telkom National Aquatic Championships, which ended at the Kings Park pool in Durban on Sunday night. She took both the 100m and 50m freestyle medals, the 50m butterfly, and the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke races in her stride.
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There is no truth in media reports that Cosatu leaders have ”dropped” their support for Jacob Zuma as a candidate for the African National Congress (ANC) presidency, the union federation said on Sunday. According to the Sunday TImes, Cosatu leaders had expressed reservations with regards to Zuma becoming ANC president.
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Hundreds of people converged on Durban’s International Convention Centre on Friday night for the 65th birthday of African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma. Those attending included South African Communist Party secretary general Blade Nzimande and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.