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/ 16 April 2008

Winter is on the way, says weather service

Wintry weather conditions are expected to appear this weekend, the South African Weather Service said on Wednesday. ”The first outbreak of cold weather this year will occur from Saturday, taking more effect on Sunday,” said forecaster Puseletso Mofokeng. He said rain-free conditions were expected until Friday.

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/ 15 April 2008

Sundowns and the curse of the top eight

It afflicted Kaizer Chiefs and, for some time this season, it looked as though Mamelodi Sundowns were poised to be struck down as well by what has been called the curse of the top-eight competition. But currently out of the top eight, Sundowns have no intention to fall foul of the curse.

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/ 11 April 2008

Weekend to confirm Vodacom Cup contenders

The final eight teams that will vie for the R1-million prize for winning the 2008 Vodacom Cup will be confirmed after this weekend’s final round of league matches. Though Griquas and Western Province are certain of their places in the quarterfinals, at least eight teams remain in contention for the six remaining play-off spots.

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/ 10 April 2008

Win propels Wits up league table

A solitary goal by Clive Moyo-Modise gave Wits a jump from seventh to fourth place on the Absa Premiership table as they beat Free State Stars 1-0 at the Bidvest Stadium on Wednesday night. Wits leapfrogged Stars, Golden Arrows and Orlando Pirates into the top-five slot.

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/ 8 April 2008

The abuse of transformation

There can be little doubt that all South Africans need to commit themselves to transformation. The recent racist video taken at the University of the Free State and the persistence and extent of racialised patterns of poverty are just two of the more obvious reasons it is necessary to keep working to change society and to remove the legacy of apartheid.

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/ 7 April 2008

Cycling champ Lange in fine form

Current South African road cycling champion Malcolm Lange continued to fine-tune his form in preparation of the defence of his Elite national title in East London next month when he won the Maluti Challenge in Bethlehem at the weekend. The seasoned MTN Energade professional outsprinted a strong field.

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/ 6 April 2008

Two in running for ANCYL presidency

Two candidates were nominated for the vacant post of African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president at the organisation’s national congress in Bloemfontein on Sunday. A spokesperson also confirmed that some delegates had been ”barred” — by provincial structures — from the conference following incidents of disturbances and ill-behaviour.

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/ 4 April 2008

Flying the flag for wheelchair tennis

”Prodigious” is the only word that can describe the performance of Kgothatso Montjane, the South African female wheelchair tennis champion. Unlike many sporting personalities who started playing sport at an early age, the 21-year-old, who hails from Seshego, Polokwane, has only been playing wheelchair tennis since 2005.

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/ 3 April 2008

Mbalula tells Pityana to wake up and smell the coffee

Outgoing African National Congress Youth League president Fikile Mbalula on Thursday criticised University of South Africa rector Barney Pityana for making ”a clown of himself” regarding his comments about ANC president Jacob Zuma. Mbalula said the league condemned the continued slander by self-imposed political commentators on the integrity of Zuma.

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/ 3 April 2008

Delegates in Bloemfontein for ANCYL conference

Hundreds of delegates arrived at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein on Thursday for the national conference of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). Although the programme for the day had not started by 11am, delegates already inside and outside the Callie Human Centre were dancing and singing songs, waiting for proceedings to start.

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/ 3 April 2008

ACDP: Govt has failed Free State farmers

Free State Agriculture had to take the government to court to ensure the safety of farmers and farm workers because the government had failed them, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) said on Thursday. ”Safety is a constitutional right. A Constitution not being applied is not worth the paper it is written on,” said the ACDP.

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/ 31 March 2008

Govt to probe extent of racism in education

The Department of Education is to investigate the extent of racism and other forms of discrimination in higher education, it said on Monday. A ministerial committee is expected to look into discrimination based on gender, ethnicity and disability, with a particular focus on university residences, said spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele in a statement.

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/ 29 March 2008

Metaphorically speaking …

Once considered to be a device only of the poetic, metaphors have proved to stake a much deeper claim. Take the recent discourse on the national schools pledge: most people do not even realise that the notion of a "pledge of allegiance" rests on a metaphorical basis.

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/ 24 March 2008

SuperSport storm to league top spot

A full moon seemed to smile benignly on SuperSport United as they thrashed Free State Stars 6-1 at the Super Stadium in Atteridgeville on Sunday night and took the Premier Soccer League log lead from Ajax Cape Town. SuperSport’s new-found potency was nothing less than stunning.

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/ 23 March 2008

Two die in Free State plane crash

Two men died when their light aircraft crashed on a farm near Van Reenen on Saturday afternoon, said Free State police. The two-seater light aircraft went down approximately 45km south of Harrismith, near the N3 freeway, said ER24 spokesperson Riana Beech. According to witnesses on the scene, the aircraft had completed several flights during the day.

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/ 20 March 2008

March 20 to 27 2008

Are SA women fair game? The recent attack on miniskirt wearers at a taxi rank in Limpopo, days after the assault on Nwabisa Ngcukana at the Noord Street rank in Johannesburg, is very scary. In Durban last year women were assaulted and humiliated for wearing pants, and again there was not enough of an outcry […]

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/ 19 March 2008

Sundowns hammer Leopards

Mamelodi Sundowns ensured that Limpopo-based Black Leopards remained deep in the relegation zone when they hammered them 3-0 in a fast, entertaining Absa Premiership game at Thohoyandou Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. There was no score at half-time.

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/ 18 March 2008

Oz official: Use the card, not the whistle

A senior Australian Rugby Union official agreed on Monday with aspects of a written complaint about South African referee Willie Roos’s performance during the ACT Brumbies’ loss to the Wellington Hurricanes on Friday night. Peter Marshall said Roos’s decision to award 39 penalties and free kicks had a negative impact on the game.

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/ 17 March 2008

It’s Chiefs vs Sundowns

All the talk before Monday’s Nedbank Cup draw centred on a potential final between Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns — with the gnawing proviso, of course, that the Premier Soccer League glamour clubs were not pitted against each other in the last-16 round. But the improbable did occur, amid gasps of amazement and disbelief.

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/ 17 March 2008

What to do with Reitz hostel?

The University of the Free State on Monday asked for proposals on the future of its Reitz men’s residence from various affected parties. A racist video surfaced at the institution last month, made by former students living in the Reitz hostel. The video features black university employees on their knees eating food that had apparently been urinated on by a white student.

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/ 17 March 2008

Triumph for Free State Stars’ Khumalo

The long wait ended in a fairytale triumph for Walter Khumalo when Free State Stars’ veteran goalkeeper came off eight months on the bench to instigate a tense and taut Nedbank Cup penalty shoot-out victory against Platinum Stars at Goble Park in Bethlehem on Sunday afternoon.

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/ 17 March 2008

A neglected moral vision

The fierce struggle to combat apartheid in the years before its demise and in the ongoing fight against its residual effects sometimes, however, loses sight of the fact that the root causes of apartheid evil lay deeper than its manifestation. Human greed, exclusion and unbridled power continue to manifest themselves, writes Charles Villa-Vicencio.

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/ 15 March 2008

SA athletes battle against heat

The pressure of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics for world indoor long-jump champion Khotso Mokoena is over after he carded a leap of 8,24m with his first dash at the board on the first day of the South African Track and Field Championships at Coetzenburg on Friday.

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/ 15 March 2008

Cheetahs in fine form in Vodacom Cup

The Free State Cheetahs emphasised that they are top contenders to lift the Vodacom Cup title this year with a solid 34-20 win over the Pumas in Witbank on Friday night. In other matches, the Wildebeest beat the Griffons 33-7 in Welkom and a brace of tries by Wylie Human sealed another victory for Western Province.

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/ 14 March 2008

Union members march to UFS over racism

Nationalising the University of the Free State (UFS), ”to protect the national asset”, must start immediately, the African National Congress and its alliance partners said on Friday. About 1 000 workers from various unions marched to the UFS to hand over the demand, contained in a memorandum on racism at the institution.

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/ 14 March 2008

March 14 to 19 2008

Racism alive and well The University of the Free State race video should not have surprised so many people. The truth is that racism is alive and well, and is aided and abetted by the government, which insists on classifying everybody according to their ”race” — as defined by the apartheid regime. The beneficiaries of […]