AmaZulu shocked Telkom Knockout champions Platinum Stars when they beat them 1-0 in a lukewarm game in front of 8 000 fans at the King Zwelithini Stadium on Sunday. AmaZulu led 1-0 at half-time. The only goal of the match came in the 16th minute when Mpho Maleka beat Wyne Sunderland with a low shot after he received a neat pass from Dumisani Ngwenya.
The JSE remained firm by midday on Monday but according to traders was drifting, lacking direction from world markets. By noon, the all-share index had edged up 0,16%, as industrials increased 0,84%. Banks advanced 0,67% and financials were 0,54% firmer.
South Africa’s unit of the world’s top diamond producer De Beers said on Monday it expects to produce 14,7-million carats in 2007, and saw a decline in output of 2-million carats in 2008. ”Very soon we will level at 12-million carats into the future,” said David Noko, managing director of De Beers Consolidated Mines.
A woman has been arrested with human tissue in her possession at a Durban hospital, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Sunday. Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu said the 33-year-old assistant nurse was caught with a baby’s umbilical cord in the hospital’s parking lot at 2.15pm.
Hundreds of University of Johannesburg students were protesting on their campuses on Monday morning, Gauteng police confirmed. Police spokesperson Constable Sefako Xaba said police had been called to the campus on Bunting Road where about 200 students had gathered.
An underground fire has claimed the lives of 23 miners illegally working a disused shaft of the St Helena mine, in Welkom, on the Free State Goldfields, police said on Sunday. A number of illegal miners were feared to have suffocated or burned to death while trapped underground by the fire — which was thought to have started last month.
South African President Thabo Mbeki came under mounting pressure over the weekend to explain his suspension of the country’s top prosecutor, a controversial move weeks before a crunch vote on his leadership of the African National Congress (ANC).
Another decomposed body of a woman was found in the sugar-cane fields surrounding Umzinto’s Shayamoya township, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Sunday. Superintendent Zandra Hechter said the body was discovered on Saturday when police were busy with their investigations in the area.
An underground fire has claimed the lives of 23 miners illegally working an unused shaft of the St Helena Mine, in Welkom, Free State police said on Sunday. Their bodies were discovered on Sunday morning and brought to the surface by colleagues who had been arrested when the fire forced them to leave the mine on Tuesday.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it is disgusted by the out-of-hand rejection of MP James Selfe’s draft Bill by the chairperson of the select committee on private member’s legislative proposals and special petitions, Vytjie Mentor. The Bill seeks to expunge from the record crimes committed during the apartheid era that would not be crimes today.
Isidingo actor Thami Afrika is out on R3 000 bail, reported Sunday World. Afrika, who plays the role of a lawyer in the television soapie, was arrested on Wednesday for possession of suspected stolen goods. He appeared in the Germiston Regional Court with a Nigerian co-accused on charges of theft.
War veterans in Zimbabwe are planning to stage a ”million-man” march through the streets of the capital, Harare, in support of President Robert Mugabe, state radio said early on Sunday. Veterans of the 1970s war against white minority rule are among the 83-year old Mugabe’s most loyal supporters.
Seven tries in the first half and a score of 47-0 at the break against the Boland Cavaliers on Saturday ensured the Golden Lions of third place on the Absa Currie Cup log after the last round of the season. The Lions’ comprehensive win of 75-0 will see them play the Sharks in Durban next Saturday in the first of the Currie Cup semifinals.
A wet and slippery Newlands set the scene for Western Province’s final Currie Cup match in 2007. Province were still in with a chance at the play-offs — however, the team had to score 102 points to qualify. Against Griquas this was always going to be an impossible task.
It started off as no more than a stroll in the park for the Sharks at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday. But in the end it became a struggle for the weakened KwaZulu-Natal side to overcome a determined bottom-placed Valke in their final round-robin Absa Currie Cup rugby match.
A goal of sheer magic and another of clinical precision from Katlego Mphela gave SuperSport United a 2-1 Telkom Knockout win against Santos at a desolate, mainly deserted Athlone Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Apart from the decisive influence of the goal-hungry SuperSport striker, the teams were evenly matched throughout.
The battle for the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) is becoming ever dirtier and fuelled by paranoia in the final weeks before delegates vote for the as-yet undeclared candidates. The challenge on the surface appears a straight contest between incumbent Thabo Mbeki and ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Climate change is already happening in South Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday during a visit to a biodiversity centre in Cape Town. ”You can see that climate change is already a reality here,” said Merkel, as she visited Biota Africa, a centre where German and South African scientists conduct research on African climate change.
Forsaking high office in order to build the organisation should be the highest honour for members of the African National Congress (ANC), said the ruling party’s national treasurer Mendi Msimang on Saturday. ”Election to high office in the ANC should not be regarded as a stepping stone to government position or the accumulation of wealth,” he said.
Legendary golfer Gary Player has come under fire in South Africa over his company’s business ties with Burma, where a golf course he designed is allegedly used by members of the brutal ruling junta. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for a boycott of all foreign companies doing business in the Asian country.
Another body was found on Friday in the sugar-cane fields surrounding Umzinto’s Shayamoya township, police said on Saturday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Zandra Hechter said skeletal remains of a woman were found by workers who were burning the sugar-cane fields at the time.
An 8% ”overall range” of price hikes was confirmed by the University of the Witwatersrand council, the institution said on Saturday. This followed three days of protests at the university over increases in the upfront fees payment students are expected to make in 2008, and against students having to pay for their own accommodation.
Municipal officials in the uThukela district were accused at President Thabo Mbeki’s imbizo (meeting) near Ladysmith of asking for political party cards before serving residents. An estimated 8 000 people packed the tents at the Uitval sports grounds near Ladysmith to meet Mbeki and hundreds lined up to have their chance to complain.
The Free State Cheetahs pulled off the double over the Blue Bulls with a near-clinical 29-17 victory at Loftus Versfeld on Friday evening. The Bulls had begun with plenty of gusto but soon found themselves running out of steam and handing the game to the Cheetahs.
Jomo Cosmos beat Bidvest Wits 2-1 in an almost farcical and drama-filled Telkom Knockout Cup last-16 match at the Bidvest Stadium on Friday night. As expected, the game started off drearily, but all hell broke loose after Cosmos went 1-0 up from an Anthony Laffor header in the 65th minute.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday called for a broader political inquiry into the suspension of the director of the National Prosecuting Authority, advocate Vusi Pikoli. ”This has now become more urgent than ever,” spokesperson Patrick Craven said.
German Chancellor Angel Merkel on Friday dismissed fears of crime derailing the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Doomsayers had triggered heated debate in Germany with their criticisms over its hosting of the soccer spectacular in 2006 and she was sure the same ”may well happen in South Africa”.
President Thabo Mbeki steered clear on Friday of the furore over suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli, opting to devote his weekly newsletter, ANC Today, to eye-care awareness week. As readers remained in the dark on Mbeki’s own views on the controversy, he began this week’s column with: ”Those who have eyes to see, let them see!”
President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses Ernest Blom has withdrawn from the verification process of a ”7 000-carat diamond” found in the North West in August. ”I withdraw from the process completely and disassociate myself from any further press statements made by anyone but myself,” Blom said on Friday in a statement.
The lack of legislation regulating the conduct of judges has resulted in Cape Judge President John Hlophe getting away with a ”slap on the wrist”, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday. DA spokesperson on justice Sheila Camerer said Hlophe’s case highlighted the need to expedite the passing of such legislation.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup is an opportunity to create a new image for Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Thabo Mbeki on Friday. The two leaders met at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where Mbeki hosted Merkel for talks as part of her official state visit to South Africa.
President Robert Mugabe presides over a disaster in Zimbabwe but should still be entitled to attend a forthcoming Europe-Africa summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday. Summing up talks in Pretoria with President Thabo Mbeki, Merkel said she made clear her disquiet about the situation across South Africa’s northern border.