Table of contents for 2023-10-27 in Cape Times

BALWIN Properties, the JSE-listed developer of more than 70 large scale sectional title estates, passed its divi- dend for the six months to August 31 compared with the 9 cents payout at the same time a year ago, because challeng- ing conditions in the housing market caused its revenue to slide by 25%. CEO Steve Brookes said in a telephone interview that during times of cyclical lows in the property market, he was glad of their brand, as it was respected, well loved and a good asset to have in the weak markets being experienced. The group’s estates have a focus on high quality, environmentally efficient, affordable apartments with innovative lifestyle offerings. Brookes said an indication of the quality of property development available in South Africa and the group…

THE Gauteng High Court, Pretoria heard arguments yesterday, from the Helen Suzman Foundation to enforce the court’s June order that the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) remains valid while the Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi conducts a fair and rational inquiry into the impact of its termination. The foundation turned to court in a bid to give ZEP holders a lifeline. “When the minister first signalled his intention to appeal the court’s June 2023 judgment, the foundation asked him to leave the ZEP in place until he exhausted the appeal process. The Minister refused,” said Nicole Fritz, executive director of the foundation. The court held earlier this month that the minister’s appeal had no prospects of success. Home Affairs then decided to turn to the Supreme Court of Appeal. The…

pride, is the Springboks’ ability to unite the country. “My son and I, we decided to make TikTok videos, most of them are related to the Springboks because he recently also started to play rugby and he loves rugby, so we bond on our love for the team. Even though the game usually starts at 9pm, when we wake up, we put on our t-shirts and walk with it on all day. We bring the excitement to the whole family, extended family and friends.” Klaarstroom resident, Juwayne Arries, 26, said he has alweays been a proud Springbok. “I’m confident that the bomb squad is going to change the game, and I hope the guys give their absolute best. “We have a family park with braai spots, where the whole town…

Your story “More than half a million IDs remain uncollected at Home Affairs offices” in Monday’s edition refers. I am one of the half million South Africans whose ID cards remain uncollected at a Home Affairs office. When I renewed my South African passport some months ago, the Caledon Home Office suggested I also apply for the new so-called “smart ID card”, which I did. But when I went to collect it, I waited nearly two hours before noticing that customers with higher ticket numbers than mine were called up to the collection counter before me. I left my seat to query this, and was peremptorily ordered by the woman at the counter to return to my seat, with no explanation for the discrepancy in the numbers. I tried to…

A 40-year-old Du Noon man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of a minor relative, also infecting her with an HIV strain. He will be back in court next month for the rape of another young relative, allegedly perpetrated while he was out on bail. The man was handed a life imprisonment sentence for rape, and 10 years for attempted murder at the Cape Town magistrates court this week. According to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, sexual offences prosecutor, Ruwayda Badrudeen, told the court the accused raped the then seven-year-old victim, as she lay on the couch watching television. “She did not tell anyone about what happened, as she saw him as her uncle. A few weeks later, she was taken to a local clinic…

POLICE have arrested four Bangladeshi men for allegedly kidnapping a fellow Bangladeshi national in Touws River for ransom. Police said the 19-year-old man was abducted and rescued on Wednesday. Provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said the suspects are expected to appear in court in due course. “Following the kidnapping of a 19-year-old Bangladeshi man on Monday in Touws River where after a ransom was demanded, members of the Western Cape Multidisciplinary Kidnapping Task Team sprung into action in pursuit of vital information and descended on a location in the area where they rescued the hostage on Wednesday afternoon. “Four suspects, also Bangladeshi men, were subsequently arrested and are facing kidnapping and extortion charges. The rescued man was taken to a medical facility for an assessment,” he said. Bangladeshi national…

Endurance sportswoman Leozette Roode has blasted the stereotype that athletes must eat meat to keep up their strength. Over the past two years, she has participated in four Ironman 70.3 races. The last one was in Rwanda in August, and all on a vegan diet. A typical 70.3 ironman race consists of a 1.9km swim, 90km bike ride and 21.1km run. When Roode started her vegan journey there wasn’t much information or recipes in the public domain but, she says, more South Africans have become aware of the health benefits of a vegan diet, as well as the positive impact it can have on climate change and animal welfare. “Veganism is becoming more mainstream and more trendy, and they see the benefits,” she said. Almost 10 years ago, she signed…

Lack of honest coverage by Western media: Gaza has been under siege for years WE HAVE seen widespread protests across South Africa in light of the recent violence and escalation in the Middle East. In Cape Town and Johannesburg, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian supporters took to the streets to make their voices heard – to stand in solidarity in the wake of the bombardment of the Gaza strip by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) following an attack by Hamas militants. Before I begin, I want to offer my sincerest condolences to the families on both sides who have lost loved ones in the conflict, and who are suffering. Israel released a statement declaring that it had dropped more than 6 000 bombs on the densely populated Gaza strip – more bombs…

Israel sent tanks, troops and armoured bulldozers into the Gaza Strip in a “targeted raid” overnight that destroyed multiple sites before withdrawing from the Hamas-ruled territory, the army said yesterday. Black smoke billowed into the sky after a blast in the grainy night-vision footage the military released hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared preparations for a ground war were under way. On the 20th day of Israel’s deadliest Gaza war yet, launched in retaliation for the bloody October 7 Hamas attacks, the army said its forces had hit “numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts”. The operation in northern Gaza came in “preparation for the next stages of combat”, it said. The black-and-white video showed a column of armoured vehicles moving near Gaza’s border fence. Other footage…

Ukraine has suspended the use of its new Black Sea grain export corridor due to a possible threat from Russian warplanes and sea mines, the Kyiv-based Barva Invest consultancy and a British security firm said yesterday. Ukraine has been using the shipping corridor to try to revive its seaborne exports without Russia’s blessing, defying threats from Moscow which quit a UN-brokered deal in July that had allowed some food exports to flow despite the war. Chicago wheat futures Wv1, a global price benchmark, turned higher on the news to recover from an earlier two-week low. Wheat futures had been pressured this week by hopes that Ukraine would expand grain exports, as well as rain relief in dry crop belts worldwide. Barva Invest, which specialises in Ukraine’s agriculture sector, said a…

ROME: Births in Italy are heading for a new record low this year, according to preliminary data that points to a deepening of the country’s long-standing demographic crisis. Between January and June there were 3 500 fewer births than in the same period of 2022, the data from national statistics bureau showed. In 2022 as a whole, births fell 1.7% to 393 000, a 14th consecutive drop and the lowest number since the country’s unification in 1861. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni this month earmarked around e1 billion (R28bn) to address the crisis, and considered a national emergency for the euro zone’s third largest economy. | Reuters…

London: A much-anticipated “new” Beatles record, created with the help of artificial intelligence, will be released next week on November 2, former band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr said yesterday. Now And Then, first written and sung by late ex-Beatle John Lennon and developed by the rest of the band, has now been finally finished by McCartney and Starr – and AI – decades after its original recording. McCartney, 81, announced its release in June, in what has been dubbed “the last Beatles song”. The track will be unveiled on November 2 by Apple Corps, Capitol and Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), with a music video. | AFP…

Former Springbok assistant coach and fullback Ricardo Loubscher believes it will be tight but that South Africa will eventually reign supreme in tomorrow’s World Cup final against the All Blacks. Loubscher helped coach the Boks during the Heyneke Meyer era and captain-on-the-day Fourie du Preez’s team narrowly lost to the All Blacks 20-18 in the 2015 semi-final at Twickenham. The two nations will go one step further tomorrow (kick-off 9pm) when they face off for the Webb Ellis Cup for only the second time in history. “I’m not good with predictions,” Loubscher, who is currently the backline coach of the Lions, said yesterday from Edinburgh, “but just looking at the game, it is a massive opportunity. “Congratulations to the Boks – the players and staff – for making another final.…

In this fast-paced world of T20 franchise cricket that dominates the domestic cricket landscape, there is almost no place for the romantic any longer. But Western Province captain Kyle Verreynne is old-fashioned like that. Having come through Cape Town’s highly competitive youth set-up and played for every age-group team before making his professional debut, he has WP’s blue blood running through his veins. Aged 26, Verreynne would also have been part of a generation that grew up coming to Newlands with his Wynberg Boys’ High schoolmates when the old dame hosted three consecutive Cricket SA One-Day Cup finals between 2014 and 2016. And it’s for this reason that Verreynne wants his WP team to bring back the glory days when they meet the North West Dragons in tomorrow’s final at…

the mighty All Blacks, including the late great powerhouse of a human being Jonah Lomu. In Paris in 2007, at the very stadium of tomorrow’s clash, it was the turn of John Smit’s Boks to triumph against England, and again in 2019 when Siya Kolisi’s team, bomb squad and all – walloped a hapless England side in Yokohama in Japan, making history by becoming the first Black player to lift the William Webb Ellis Cup. Even in seeming adversity, Amabokoboko made history when they lost to the All Blacks in a first round match in RWC 2019 in Japan, but went on to becoming the first nation to lift the World Cup after losing an opening round match. Beyond the history of the winner becoming the first nation to win…

“We are playing for the Nation,” declared Siya Kolisi in his usual soft-spoken way as the Springboks prepare to take on arch rival, the New Zealand All Blacks, in the Rugby World Cup (RWC) final at the majestic Stade de France, Saint-Denis on the northern outskirts of Paris. What the nation expects and what the Boks will deliver, we will know tomorrow evening. Pressure? What pressure? Amabokoboko fans (that means the overwhelming majority of South Africans) always set the bar at the highest of levels. Its a “win-or-die” situation. But then they have been spoilt over the years! Success, however, begets success and higher expectations. For whoever wins tomorrow will be history makers. The Boks have history making sequenced in their rugby DNA, for post-apartheid rugby is littered with…

LET US be crystal clear: if you are ambivalent about your support for the Palestinian people, or the need to condemn the Israeli leadership for the genocide currently inflicted on the former, the world, now and beyond, will read that as an unequivocal endorsement and support for the barbaric warmongers and war criminals posing as “respected” World Leaders. History will list you amongst those and treat you harshly. However, the Israeli and western media machine may wish otherwise, through their massive propaganda output, the historical record will stand resolutely on the side of righteousness and the victims. “Israel has a right to defend itself.” Israel, like all other countries, has no right to commit War Crimes or any other Crimes against Humanity. If you dispute this, then your world is…

WHEN humans reach young adulthood they invariably get to a place where they are asked what they would have done differently. In such times people address things like their education, health, career, and the brave few would suggest a different choice of life partners. Assuming the presumptuous activist position, I would not have given our political negotiators as large a blank cheque as we did at the turn of 1994. It is important you appreciate I am not against politicians but I am the first to admit that what really happened at the political settlement of 1994 is the people’s power was hijacked and cashed in for a political democracy. Academics would like us to believe that what was established was political centralism. What we gained was an overwhelmingly politically…

Four Bonnievale murderers have been sentenced to life time imprisonment after their recent convictions. The sentences have been hailed by Agriculture MEC Ivan Meyer, who said the 2019 murder of farmer Tool Wessels and the attempted murder of his now widow was still devastating. “The guilty verdict and lengthy sentences imposed by Judge Dereck Wille of the Circuit High Court sends a strong message that attacks on our rural communities will never be tolerated. I am still however devastated by this loss of life and my heart still hurts for Tool, his family and loved ones. An attack on anyone in our agricultural sector is an attack on our rural economy,” said Meyer. Ntabanyane Ntali, Thabiso Ramollo, Moeketsi Hlaudi and Keketso Matsabisa were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, 10…

Backstage Peter Strangeways Peter Strangeways’ novels are ‘factual fiction’ in the sense that they are based almost entirely on real events and real people. Everything in his novels actually happened and in Backstage he reportedly deliberately omitted some material as it taxed credibility to an extreme. What remains, seen through the eyes of his protagonist Jim Slater, is surprising and hilarious enough. In this first novel, Jim blunders quite by chance into a job working backstage on a tacky Christmas review being mounted in a small Durban theatre. Set in the ‘sixties’ at a time when theatre had not changed materially since Shakespeare's time, Backstage is an affectionate tribute to this old-style theatre of grease paint and curtain calls, syncopation of orchestra and dancers and witty lines delivered with impeccable…

Shrines of Gaiety Kate Atkinson Loot.co.za (R256) Penguin Random House reviewers: beryl eichenberger & orielle berry THE glittering stores of Regent Street are the frontispiece to the sleazier Soho – tucked behind the teeming shopping area of London’s finest and revealing a side of the city that is the heart of entertainment, dope dealing, nightclubs and girls on the beat and the dirty secrets of its residents. Always an attraction to a tourist, exploring these streets reveals a tawdry, seamy side of city life that is constantly awake for pleasure, selling and anything that might take your fancy. Back in the mid-1920s one of the most notorious of the clubs, “43” on Gerard Street, was owned and run by a Mrs Kate Meyrick who spent not a little of…

IN THE vast expanse of the universe, Earth stands alone as humanity’s shared home. Yet, this singular planet, essential for our survival, confronts a multitude of crises, both predictable and unforeseen. These crises force us to question the sustainability of human civilisation, and many are realising that the pursuit of material wealth pales in importance to the search for a sustainable blueprint for the future. A decade ago, President Xi Jinping introduced the concept of building a global community of shared future, providing an answer to the pressing question of humanity’s trajectory. This proposal has become a beacon in these uncertain times, outlining China’s commitment to the collective well-being of the world and the shared task of preserving our planet. The vision encapsulates the essence of interconnected destinies and urges…

Hundreds of police fanned out across Maine yesterday looking for a US Army reservist with a history of mental health issues sought in connection with mass shootings at a bowling alley and a bar in the city of Lewiston, with death toll reports ranging from 16 to 22 and dozens more wounded. Officials said there were multiple casualties in the Wednesday evening attacks, but declined to provide figures. Police told residents to stay indoors and schools across the area were closed yesterday. State police identified Robert Card, who reportedly had been committed to a mental health facility over the summer, as a person of interest. They circulated photographs of a bearded man in a brown hooded sweatshirt and jeans at one of the crime scenes armed with what appeared to…

At least 27 people died due to Hurricane Otis and four others were still missing, Mexico’s government said yesterday after one of the most powerful storms to hit the country smashed into the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco early the day before. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the government was working to re-establish power and clean up the devastation wrought by the Category 5 hurricane that tore through the southern state of Guerrero, leaving Acapulco incommunicado. Otis flooded streets, ripped roofs off homes and hotels and severed communications, road and air access. Downed phone service and electricity lines made it hard for officials to quickly assess the extent of the damage. Nearly 8 400 members of Mexico’s army, air force and national guard were deployed in and near Acapulco…

Rabat: Two people were found dead yesterday aboard a boat intercepted off Western Sahara by Moroccan coast guards with over 270 West African migrants on board, a military source said. Among the rescued migrants were “200 Senegalese, 66 Gambians, three from Guinea, two Malians, and one Sierra Leonean,” the source said. The two dead were transferred to a hospital in the Western Sahara city of Dakhla while the surviving migrants received care before being handed over to authorities. Their boat, intercepted 290km south of Dakhla, took off from Senegal six days ago in an attempt to reach the Spanish Canary Islands. | AFP…

New York: The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial fined the him $10 000 (about R190 000) yesterday for violating an order not to criticise court staff. Judge Arthur Engoron imposed the fine, saying comments he made violated a partial gag order. Engoron slapped a limited gag order on Trump on October 3 after he insulted the judge’s principal law clerk. The latest fine came after Trump said Engoron is a “very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him”. | AFP…

The Proteas departed for the 50-over World Cup in India with the intention of sticking to their traditional strengths – which has always been fast bowling. Even taking into account the loss of Anrich Nortjé and Sisanda Magala on the eve of the tournament, the emphasis remained on the quicks to put them on the front foot. And so far it has proved to be a recipe for success. The Proteas have three fast bowlers – Kagiso Rabada, Gerald Coetzee and Marco Jansen – all among the leading wicket-takers at the tournament with 10 wickets each. However, with the tournament stretched far and wide across India, they also spoke about being adaptable and able to play the conditions that confront them on the day. They will need to showcase this…

THE government is still barred from donating R50 million to Cuba after the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, this week overturned the decision following a review application brought by AfriForum. The civil rights organisation AfriForum successfully stopped the government’s intended R50m donation to the Cuban government by the Department of International Relations and Co-operation. Last year, AfriForum obtained an urgent interdict to prevent the department from donating the R50m. The government’s attempt to appeal was dismissed. In the review application, AfriForum asked for the donation to be set aside, that the decision made by the National Treasury to approve the donation be set aside, and the decision to send the money may not be allowed. Furthermore, that any future donation to Cuba may not be allowed without parliamentary approval as written…

CIVIL society group #UniteBehind has welcomed the sanction to be recommended by the parliamentary ethics committee against former transport minister Dipuo Peters for breaching the code of ethics while she was in the executive. It also said the sanction of suspending Peters for one term of Parliament fell short and that the committee did not investigate an important aspect of its complaint. “#UniteBehind welcomes this finding as some semblance of accountability for state capture, corruption and maladministration at Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa),” the organisation’s legal officer Joseph Mayson said yesterday. Mayson noted with concern that the committee did not recommend any further sanctions such as a penalty, a deduction of pay, an apology or greater sanctions within its Committee. “Further, the committee failed to investigate an important…

SOUTH Africa is only a day from becoming the first country to win the Webb Ellis Cup four times if they overcome the mammoth task that their Old Foe, the All Blacks will bring when the two rivals clash in what promises to be an epic World Cup final at the Stade de France tomorrow (9pm SA time). “It can’t get bigger than this,” said captain Siya Kolisi as the Boks bid for back-to-back World Cup titles. “It will mean so much to South Africa — we've seen what’s happening back at home — we get all the videos doing the rounds and we watch them on a big screen in our hotel. It’s huge, I can't explain it.” One of the most popular Springboks, Faf de…

THERE are 55 719 people who are experiencing homelessness, according to Census 2022. Even though the data might be questionable, it should be seen as a motivator to change South Africa’s homelessness trajectory. Every person who experiences homelessness has a story. We should not be so fixated on statistics that we forget that everyone is valuable, no matter their socio-economic background. According to the census, the number one reason that leads to homelessness is loss of job/no job or no income, which is at 41.3 %. Thirty years ago, people who were unemployed could go to a factory or shop without a CV and be hired immediately. Today, with technology, most job applications are done online. The solution would be to go to a library. The person who is sleeping…

ACTIVISTS yesterday decried the dismal conviction and sentencing rate of alleged gender-based violence (GBV) perpetrators, which stands at only 2%, according to the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Response Fund’s second Integrated Annual Report. The report, released yesterday, found that out of 9 941 GBV cases opened, only 34% of the alleged perpetrators were charged, and of these, 2% were convicted and sentenced. “These challenges underscore the ongoing importance of supporting community-based organisations (CBO's) and enhancing grassroots-level approaches to ensure survivors can access efficient and survivor-friendly criminal justice services. Nonetheless, there has been significant progress in securing protection with, 61% having been granted (1 051 out of 1 730 applied for) to GBV survivors. “By extension, CBO’s have played a crucial role in offering comprehensive post-violence response, care support and healing…

LACK of government involvement and oversight has allowed farmers to exploit the Farmworker Equity Scheme (FWES), to the detriment of workers. This is according to activists following a report titled “Land Corruption and Discrimination” by Corruption Watch, which included a case study focused on equity schemes, a policy programme that was rolled out by the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development (DRDLR) from the late 1990s until the 2010s. The research report based its findings on interviews with a range of experts who highlighted the weak implementation of land reform programmes, the fragmented legal framework that creates obstacles for those whose rights have been violated, and perceptions of pervasive corruption in the sector. Farm worker equity schemes were designed to raise up disadvantaged workers, but few participants felt that…

Sisters under the rising sun Heather Morris Loot.co.za (R275) Zaffre A novel of resilience and survival from author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris. Amid World War II, an English musician, Norah Chambers, places her eight-year-old daughter Sally on a ship leaving Singapore, desperate to keep her safe from the Japanese army as they move down through the Pacific. Norah is left with the heavy responsibility of caring for her husband and elderly parents, aware that she may have the chance to reunite with her daughter again. Sister Nesta James, a Welsh Australian nurse, has enlisted to tend to Allied troops. But as Singapore falls to the Japanese, she joins the terrified cargo of people, including the heartbroken Norah, crammed aboard the Vyner Brooke merchant ship. Only two…

Unstoppable Mark Hughes Loot.co.za (R289) Headline No Hollywood scriptwriter could possibly have envisioned the breathless, adrenaline-pumping climax to the 2021 Formula 1 season. On the last lap of the final race of an unbelievably arduous and controversial season, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen nervelessly overtook the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes to clinch the first place that thrust the young prodigy to the narrowest of victories and to his first World Drivers title. He followed up by taking the 2022 title as well. Verstappen may be only 25 but the Dutch motorsport sensation has an incredible record in F1. The young man has left an indelible mark on the sport. The son of F1 driver Jos, Verstappen junior quickly stepped out of his father's shadow: his youthful charisma, ferocious…

The Springboks have had 12-year gaps between their previous three Rugby World Cup triumphs. They won their very first tournament on home soil in 1995, when Joel Stransky slotted that extra-time drop goal against the All Blacks at Ellis Park, which led to the iconic moment when Tata Madiba handed the Webb Ellis Cup to captain Francois Pienaar. Bok fans had to wait until 2007 to see their team hoist the little golden trophy again, when skipper John Smit’s band of warriors saw off England at the Stade de France in Paris. Then it was another 12-year itch to 2019, when Siya Kolisi and his Boks made history by becoming the first team to lose a pool-stage match and go on to clinch the title – again beating England 32-12…

Inexperienced and untested, the new speaker of the US House of Representatives faces a baptism of fire as he contends with a pile-up of deadlines, a razor-thin majority and a raucous right wing that is unlikely to allow him an extended honeymoon period. Mike Johnson -- a committed Donald Trump acolyte and an instinctive fiscal and social conservative to his core – almost certainly harbours ambitions to drastically rein in spending and government regulation. But his first days as speaker are concerned with averting a government shutdown that will bite on November 17 unless he can find a compromise with the Democratic-controlled Senate. President Joe Biden is also seeking rapid action on a $106 billion security package that couples additional aid for Ukraine and Israel with increased spending on US…

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan yesterday gave a last warning to all immigrants in the country illegally, including hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals, to leave voluntarily before a November 1 deadline, the country’s caretaker interior minister said yesterday. Pakistan announced the move earlier in October. It says it took the decision after Afghan nationals were found involved in crimes, smuggling and attacks against government and the army, including 14 out of 24 suicide bombings this year. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans moved to Pakistan to escape war and conflicts. Islamabad alleges the militants use Afghan soil to train fighters and plan attacks inside Paki-stan, a charge Kabul denies. | Reuters.…

ABUJA: Nigeria’s Supreme Court yesterday upheld President Bola Tinubu’s election win, bringing to an end a legal challenge brought by his two main rivals, who argued that his victory was marred by irregularities. The ruling will give Tinubu, 71, a clear mandate to govern Africa’s most populous nation, which is grappling with double-digit inflation, foreign currency shortages, a weakening naira, widespread insecurity and crude oil theft. Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999 after three decades of military rule, but accusations of ballot-rigging and fraud have followed its electoral cycles. The judgment follows a pattern seen in previous presidential elections. | Reuters…

LONDON: UK opposition leader Keir Starmer is facing increasing pressure over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war, testing his leadership mettle to become Britain’s next prime minister. The 61-year-old is battling to dampen tensions within Labour’s ranks over remarks he made about the Israeli response to Hamas’s October 7 attack and his refusal to call for a ceasefire in the conflict. The war has reignited old divisions in the centre-left party, which Starmer had been credited with unifying, as it bids to return to power in a general election expected next year. Labour has led the ruling Conservatives by double-digit margins for over a year in most opinion polls. Cracks in Labour’s united front started to show after Starmer suggested Israel had the “right” to cut off water and energy…

The biggest rugby game the world has seen. That is how Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber views tomorrow night’s World Cup final against the All Blacks in Paris (kick-off 9pm). The Springbok squad left South Africa in early August on a World Cup journey that has seen them play games in London and Cardiff, undergo a training camp in Corsica and latterly, they have played pool games and play-offs in France against Scotland, Romania, Ireland, Tonga, the hosts and England. “This will never happen in our lifetime again,” Nienaber said of the epic journey his team has been on. “Rather than thinking this final might be the end or not, you have to just stay in the moment. “It’s probably the biggest occasion that we will ever be part of and…

The Proteas will turn their sights to Pakistan, a team placed just outside the semi-final spots of the 10-team 50-over World Cup, in Chennai today (10.30am start). Both teams have world-class cricketers fit and available for selection. We selected two match-ups to look forward to at the MA Chidambaram Stadium ... Quinton de Kock v Shaheen Shah Afridi The tournament’s leading run-scorer, Quinton de Kock has struggled against left-arm quicks in the past. He seems to have a recurring problem of being dismissed either bowled or trapped lbw by skilful left-arm fast bowlers. But in this tournament, the opening batter has held his own extremely well when faced with quality left-arm quicks, including Australia’s Mitchell Starc and Sri Lanka’s Dilshan Madushanka. De Kock’s three centuries in five matches attest to…