Jake White’s Springboks defied the odds and their critics with a hard-fought 27-13 victory over the French at the EPRU Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday afternoon.South Africa led 20-6 at the break. The win means the Boks clinch the two-Test series 1-0 after the first Test was drawn 30-all in Durban last weekend.
Jake White, the national rugby coach, has reportedly threatened to resign over selection issues. White is said to be frustrated with interference in his team selections from several quarters in SA Rugby and has reportedly issued an ultimatum.
It’s make or break time for Jake White’s Springboks when they face France in the series-deciding second Test in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. The result in this Test will determine the outcome of the series and may have massive bearing on the fortunes of the Springboks as they attempt to defend their Tri-Nations crown in the next couple of months.
Experienced French prop Sylvain Marconnet should be able to resume full training on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s second Test against South Africa. The 28-year-old Stade Francais stalwart has been suffering from a right thigh injury picked up during the thrilling 30-30 draw with the Springboks in the first Test last Saturday.
More than R130-million will be made available for housing in the Nelson Mandela metropolis following four days of protests over slow housing delivery. Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela announced this on Thursday while appealing for calm. ”We shall not abandon the poor,” said Balindlela.
More roads were blocked in Port Elizabeth on Thursday as angry residents ignored the Eastern Cape premier’s call for calm, taking to the streets for the fourth day this week to protest against slow housing delivery, police said. A police spokesperson said the main roads in the suburb of New Brighton have been blocked.
The owners of the hake trawler that collided with a container vessel killing 14 people near Port Elizabeth on Sunday are still investigating ways to reach the trawler with the aim of recovering bodies that might be trapped in the wreckage. This is according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Mossel Bay municipality.
The captain of the Ouro do Brasil will be questioned on Tuesday about a collision between his ship and a fishing trawler that has left 14 fishermen missing at sea. The Ouro do Brasil and the Lindsay, a hake trawler, collided off the coast near Port Elizabeth early on Sunday morning.
France completed their South African safari with a flourish when they registered a resounding 4-1 win in the fourth and final men’s hockey Test at the Gelvan astro in Port Elizabeth on Thursday to share the series. Down 2-0 after the opening games in East London, the Frenchman were deserved winners on Thursday.
France pulled one back in the four-match men’s hockey series against South Africa in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, winning the third Test 3-1 to keep alive their hopes of squaring the series. Going into the fourth match at the same venue on Thursday afternoon, the visitors trail the home team 2-1.
The Warriors produced a fantastic performance in the field to reach the Standard Bank Pro20 Series cricket final, beating Free State Eagles by eight runs in a tension-filled finish to their semifinal at Sahara Oval St George’s on Friday. Spinner Johan Botha led a brilliant bowling performance.
Tyron Henderson blazed his way to another match-winning innings to send the Warriors to their second successive victory when they defeated the KwaZulu-Natal Dolphins by six wickets in their Standard Bank Pro20 Series cricket match at St George’s Park on Wednesday.
General Motors South Africa has been awarded an R18-billion contract to manufacture and export the United States-designed Hummer H3 vehicle, the company said on Wednesday. Production of the Hummer H3 2006 model will start in the fourth quarter of 2006 at the Struandale plant in Port Elizabeth.
Justin Kemp played a batting role slightly different from his normal explosive nature as he guided South Africa to a clean sweep in their three-match Standard Bank one-day international cricket series against Zimbabwe at St George’s on Wednesday.
World number one tennis player Roger Federer toured Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, visiting the Imbewu Community Volunteers, which he sponsors. This was the Swiss-based player’s first opportunity to meet the organisation’s workers, and many of the children he has sponsored for the past year.
A very different South African team from the one that beat Zimbabwe in the first two Standard Bank limited-overs matches will take the field at St George’s Park on Wednesday for the third and last match. South Africa barely raised a sweat in winning the first two matches by huge margins.
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/ 27 February 2005
President Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela heaped praise on the late Raymond Mhlaba at his funeral in Port Elizabeth on Sunday. ”Raymond Mhlaba was one of the most committed comrades I had the honour to know and work with in my many years in the liberation struggle,” Mandela told mourners.
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/ 25 February 2005
Dolly the dolphin has followed Max the gorilla into animal history, after Port Elizabeth’s famous bottlenose died on Thursday, aged 36. The oldest Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphin to be born and bred in captivity died at Port Elizabeth’s Bayworld oceanarium late on Thursday afternoon, Bayworld spokesperson Eluise Matthys said.
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/ 5 February 2005
Graeme Smith registered his maiden limited-overs international century to lead South Africa to a series-levelling three-wicket win over England in the third Standard Bank one-day cricket match at Sahara Oval St George’s on Friday. It was a terrific effort by the South Africans after some poor results this summer.
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/ 30 December 2004
Former president Nelson Mandela has paid a visit to ailing former Eastern Cape premier Raymond Mhlaba at his Summerstrand home in Port Elizabeth, SABC news reported on Wednesday. Mandela was accompanied by his wife Graca.
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/ 29 September 2004
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt has not made a full disclosure regarding his role in the 1989 Motherwell car bombing incident, advocate Kessie Naidu told an amnesty hearing in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Tuesday. South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported Naidu, who represented the victims’ families, as saying Nieuwoudt came with ”a lot of baggage and in his bag of
tricks was lots of lies”.
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/ 28 September 2004
Gideon Nieuwoudt fully disclosed his role in the 1989 Motherwell bombing, his counsel said in closing arguments of his amnesty application in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Monday. The former security policeman’s actions were politically motivated, and the orders to kill had been in the interests of national security, his lawyer said.
Former police commissioner Johan van der Merwe has rejected allegations by former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock that he is protecting police generals of the apartheid era, it was reported on Thursday. De Kock testified in the amnesty rehearing of Gideon Nieuwoudt and two others regarding the death of the Motherwell Four.
Eugene de Kock, the former Vlakplaas commander, testified on Monday that former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt showed malicious intent in detonating the Motherwell car bomb himself. De Kock was testifying at the TRC amnesty hearing of Nieuwoudt and two other former security policemen who are seeking amnesty for the Motherwell murders in 1989.
Gideon Nieuwoudt’s amnesty hearing was adjourned on Wednesday because convicted murderer Eugene de Kock was too tired to testify, SABC radio news reported. The former Vlakplaas commander had driven from Pretoria by road, leader of evidence Mokotedi Mpshe told the Port Elizabeth High Court.
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt on Monday finished testifying at the re-opened Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings on the 1989 Motherwell car bombing of three policemen and an askari, SABC radio news reported. Nieuwoudt and two others are seeking amnesty for the killings in December 1989.
A Chinese man has handed himself over to Port Elizabeth police following one of the biggest illegal perlemoen busts in the Eastern Cape. Police on Friday raided a smallholding and recovered more than a ton of perlemoen as well as equipment used to process the shellfish for illegal export. Three people were arrested.
There is enormous potential for shark eco-tourism in the Eastern Cape, according to British shark researcher Matt Dicken. A marine biologist based at Bayworld at present, Dicken was speaking at an international marine seminar and expo at the University of Port Elizabeth last week.
A two-hour boat ride across windswept Algoa Bay from Port Elizabeth lies Bird Island, the site of the largest breeding colony of gannets in the world. Bird Island is managed by SA National Parks, which also looks after three smaller adjacent islands — Stag, Seal and Black Rocks. They estimate there are 169 000 gannets on the island.
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt is receiving treatment for health problems and will not be able to continue testifying at his amnesty hearing this week, his lawyer, Jan Wagener, said on Tuesday. He said Nieuwoudt would ”hopefully” be able to take the stand again during the next session of the hearing.
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A row has broken out over a claim by President Thabo Mbeki that a Democratic Alliance councillor in Port Elizabeth refused to walk in squatter areas for fear of getting her feet dirty. Mbeki made the allegation on Friday during a day of campaigning in the Nelson Mandela metropole.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt was cross-examined at length on Wednesday on his reasons for killing the so-called Motherwell Four in a 1989 car-bomb explosion. At one point Advocate Kessie Naidoo, representing the families of three of the four, accused him of pretending not to understand a question.
Nieuwoudt would have lied under oath