Latest news with #TeamSA
eNCA
3 days ago
- Sport
- eNCA
James Moloi re-elected president of Athletics South Africa
KEMPTON PARK - J ames Moloi was re-elected as president of Athletics South Africa. Moloi's re-election comes with most of the board he's worked with. READ: Team SA wins big at World Relay Championships John Mathane from Gauteng North takes over as vice-president from Shireen Noble and Kesaoleboga Molotsane from Athletics Free State (AFS) replaces Hendrick Mokganyetsi as the athletes' representative. ENCA's sports editor spoke spoke to SASCOC's president, Barry Hendricks.
Eyewitness News
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Eyewitness News
Akani Simbine snatches a 3rd Diamond League win
Palesa Manaleng 26 May 2025 | 12:29 Diamond League Akani Simbine FILE: South Africa's Akani Simbine at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo: Jewel SAMAD / AFP JOHANNESBURG – Akani Simbine claimed his third 100m Diamond League win of 2025 in Rabat on Sunday., The 31-year-old sprinter stretched his unbeaten 100m record to five international meets. His pace over the final 30 or so metres was too much for the field as he streaked to an easy win, clocking 9.95sec ahead of Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala (10.05) and Olympic bronze medallist Fred Kerley of the US (10.07). "I feel great, I feel confident, I am happy that I could take the win today and that I can finish this month strong and healthy. Another sub-10 in the bag, so slowly we go down in time which is really great. I am looking forward to the rest of the season and going back to training in Italy to get ready for the next Diamond League' said Simbine to reporters afterwards. READ MORE: Akani Simbine sprints to a world-leading time at Botswana Golden Grand Prix Akani Simbine burns rubber at the Diamond League series in Xiamen Akani Simbine continues to dominate 100m with win at Atlanta City Games Simbine's 9.90 seconds from the Botswana Golden Grand Prix in April remains as the official world lead for 2025. "It's amazing to have this kind of competition in Africa. I wish we had so much more of them. Look at the stands, people love watching sports. It's really great to run on this continent, showcasing African talent and show the world that we can host great meets." The Olympian has won three 100m Diamond League events this season and a medal at the World Indoors and anchored Team SA to gold in the 4x100m World Relays. Pure Power 💥 Akani Simbine 🇿🇦 continues to lay down the law in the men's 100m, dropping a cool 9.95 seconds ⏱️ last night at #RabatDL 🇲🇦#DiamondLeague 💎 — Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) May 26, 2025
The Citizen
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The Citizen
SA's own goal in US: Crime narrative backfires
A's delegation to the US painted a high-crime image, deterring potential investors despite their good intentions. Ramaphosa and Trump met at the White House in Washington on Wednesday morning. Picture: Screengrab. South Africa's detractors have often described our country as the crime capital of the world. And, in their mission to reset frosty bilateral ties with Washington, President Cyril Ramaphosa and his team took time, one after the other, painting a picture of a crime-riddled society that is simply too much of a high risk to invest in. Team SA was attempting to debunk the AfriForum-led lie of genocide against the Afrikaner community, especially farmers. But in that turbocharged performance, the president and his team unfortunately ended up shooting themselves in the foot, drawing a picture of pervasive crime for which they asked their host, US President Donald Trump, for technological assistance to curb it. Violence and crime against the Afrikaner community was always going to be high on the agenda during Ramaphosa's meeting with his unpredictable US counterpart. Ramaphosa was armed with credible players in his team to dispel the Afrikaner genocide myth. However, in the sudden accentuation of SA's crime epidemic in general, in attempting to counter the false narrative of Afrikaner farmer genocide, our president revealed that SA's crime was not discriminatory. ALSO READ: Why Cyril Ramaphosa failed in the US We all have endured a fair share of it, he and his team argued, without coercion. Afrikaner billionaire Johann Rupert, a member of the Ramaphosa delegation and a close friend of Trump, added two very crucial, but equally self-harming details about crime in SA. The Cape Flats in the Western Cape, which is under the governance of Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen's DA party, experiences the bulk of their crime from gang warfare. Second, according to the highly esteemed Rupert, the wine farmlands experience most of the crime from marauding illegal foreigners. Now, what this means is that the illegal foreigners are untraceable. Unless caught in the act, there is no way to investigate their whereabouts. They have no fingerprints in the home affairs database, no source revealing who they are, their age, gender, how long they've been in the country and what else they do for a living other than steal, kill and maim. ALSO READ: 'WhatsApp about Gauteng and American Embassy shutdown fake and misleading', police say In front of the president and a few of his Cabinet ministers, Rupert was telling the White House and international community at large that SA's borders are porous and immigration systems accordingly in shambles. The border patrol authorities are not winning against illegal fence-jumpers – others go under the fence, or simply through it – and the picture Rupert painted was of a chaotic free-for-all. Trump recently sent packing dozens of Venezuelan gang members, declaring them undesirable aliens in the US. Rupert painted a picture of the Western Cape that is infested with gang wars that constantly claim innocent lives and have turned life into hell for the multitudes. Ramaphosa was determined to strike a trade deal that involved all sorts of assistance, including crime fighting technology. But even the most ordinary US police officer listening to the SA Team's presentation would shake in their boots and resign from the force rather than being deployed to SA. And yet, that was not the end of the story. ALSO READ: WATCH: Malema not 'intimidated' by Trump's call for his arrest One of the professional golfers in Ramaphosa's team, Retief Goosen, told Trump and his people about the hellish life his family endures in Polokwane, Limpopo. His elderly mother lives in constant fear of being attacked and raped. His brother struggles with the safe-guarding of the family business that involves parttime farming. 'My family lives behind high electric fences,' the man affectionately known in the golfing circles as 'The Goose' told Trump. For a moment, I wondered which team Goosen was playing for – Trump or Ramaphosa? Ernie Els, the former world No 1 golfer and the two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen, who are both good friends of Trump, formed part of Ramaphosa's delegation to the White House. ALSO READ: WATCH: Issues raised by Trump will be 'duly addressed properly' Ramaphosa says Then the 'Big Easy', Ernie Els, also painted a picture of a SA riddled by an indiscriminate wave of crime. All these performances, mark you, come in an effort to dispel the false narrative that the Afrikaner farmers are exclusively targeted in a reign of terror, or genocide, as the White House believes. We are trying to build a country together, but there are some who are working against transformation. The objectives for an inclusive society are noble, but crime is a nightmare, to paraphrase Els. Even Congress of South African Trade Unions president Zingiswa Losi added her own labour spice to the over-arching, albeit unintended, theme of crime to the exchanges between Washington and Pretoria. SA needs US companies to invest, but the US needs to assist SA in the efforts to push back against the runaway crime, otherwise the environment would not be conducive for US investment, she reasoned. ALSO READ: Sudan denies using chemical weapons after US imposes sanctions This unfortunate message of a South Africa under the throes of criminality went out globally from the horse's mouth. Every foreign investor into our economy must be evaluating their options. As for potential investors, they must have thought coming from the lips of the country's head of state, his ministers, SA's wealthiest man in Rupert and a couple of professional golfers who are not into politics, SA must sure be a hell of an unsafe destination to do business in.
The South African
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The South African
BUSHWHACKED! How Trump's sneaky sortie against Ramaphosa went down
Bushwhacked …is the only way to describe how POTUS Donald Trump 'Zelensky'ed' Cyril Ramaphosa and Team SA in the Oval Office last Wednesday. The word goes back to the good ol' cowboy days of the wild wild west, when bushwhacking was a common form of guerrilla warfare (and stagecoach robbery) – particularly during the American Civil War when Confederate irregulars took to the woods for cover, from where they launched well-coordinated surprise attacks on the military. In the 'land of the free, home of the brave', the word has become synonymous with… Which is exactly what dozens of MSM headlines are screaming right now, in perfect sync, about the ill-fated Trump-Ramaphosa rendesvouz. However, 'bushwhacked' is probably more fitting here because in the scenario we just witnessed in the White House on Wednesday…those who got 'whacked' in the Oval Office, in front of the whole world, are from the metaphoric 'bush'…that is S'Africa. And…who saw THAT move coming? I know I didn't. But then, when you think about it…it was a shrewd, strategic, obvious move – begging to be made. I wonder whose idea it was? Trump, the showman? Vance, the writer-producer? Musk, the mad scientist? CIA spooks? A Hollywood studio executive? Perhaps the first sign, or omen, that things may go tits up and pear-shaped at the White House meeting was the fact that Ramaphosa and Team SA…were apparently half an hour late. If true and unexcused, NOT a good start. Once inside the Oval Office, the meet-and-greet warm-up chinwags were cordial and pleasant enough. Trump and Ramaphosa chatted and bantered about golf – and Volodymyr Zelensky. Personally, I did think that Cyril spoke a little too long during his intro. He forgot that Trump has the flighty, mercurial, attention span…of a five-year old. If I were directing that roadtrip, I would've kept that intro and everything else Cyril said short, sweet and simple (and ambiguous) as possible. Especially if you know damn well that, coming up soon, just like Lucy Ricardo…you got some serious s'plainin' to do. Still, at least the conversation was polite, affable and mutually respectful, for now. There was, however, a slightly awkward moment when Ramaphosa had to turn and ask his team how to pronounce 'respirators'. Which was kinda ironic…and foreboding…given that just a few minutes later Cyril would be looking like he desperately needed one. Because, eventually…that big, white, Afrikaner elephant in the room…was going to make itself heard. The implosion fuse was lit by a (South African) reporter who asked Trump: 'What will it take for you to be convinced that there is no white genocide in South Africa?' Now, all Ramaphosa has to do here…is keep his mouth shut and let Trump answer that difficult, thorny, controversial, explosive, unanswerable question. Instead, before Trump could respond, Ramaphosa intercepted. 'Well, I can answer that for the president,' he said. Eish… There's another reason why that was not a good idea. Trump doesn't strike me as the kinda narcissist who likes other people answering questions directed at him. But if he did mind, he didn't show it. Instead, he whispered loudly to the press, while playfully hiding his mouth from Cyril with his hand, 'I'd rather have him answer it.' Addressing the reporter directly, Cyril straightened up and said: 'It will take…President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends and are here, when we have talks between us around a quiet table.' 'If there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen (billionaire businessman Johann Rupert, and champ golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen) would not be here. My minister of agriculture (John Steenhuisen) would not be with me. So, it will take President Trump listening to their (Saffer's) stories, and to their perspective,' he added. 'That…is the answer to your question', Ramaphosa concluded confidently, beaming a big grin at the reporter. After hushing the rowdy press, Trump leaned in slightly, and quietly said to Ramaphosa, 'Mr President I must say that we have thousands of stories talking about it. We have documentaries, we have news stories. I could show you a couple of things…and it has to be responded to.' Then, Trump called for his aides to bring some articles to him, and asked for the lights to be turned down. And that's when the Team SA pleasure cruise went from smooth sailing…to choppy waters…to white squall. The lights dimmed. It was show and tell time. Or, to quote Beetlejuice…'Showtime!' Then, Trump asked Johann Rupert to 'put it on'. Rupert hit the play button. And immediately, a daunting chant now familiar to all South Africans and much of the world began to fade up; that now widely common comp video – that's gone viral several times over – of Malema (and Zuma), along with thousands of their constituents, singing 'Kill the Boer'. Well, if there were a few million or billion people who had no idea who Malema and Zuma were…or had never seen that video before…they were just brought up to speed by the White House. If Malema and Zuma were notorious for those songs before 21 May 2025…Trump just made them both superstars – in a Charles Manson and Idi Amin kinda way. Anyone watching Cyril closely during those infinite agonising minutes, while that video played, would've noticed that he could hardly bring himself to look at the screen. He just sat there looking around the room, slow-blinking, visibly wincing, gripping and fingering the armrest on his chair, with a sickly half-smile on his face. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green later posted: 'Why is the President of South Africa SMIRKING AND SMILING while President Trump plays a video of racist calls to kill white farmers in South Africa??!!!' I don't think she realised it wasn't a smile…or a smirk. It was a shock-induced, fear-gripped, purse-lipped grimace. But if the Malema-Zuma macabre music video was Trump's left jab to Cyril's jaw…a right hook to the nose was en route. At the end of the video was a climan, if not most South Africans, have seen. It's an aerial (helicopter) shot looking down on double rows of white crosses flanking a winding rural road, lined with hundreds of vehicles attending a memorial. 'These are the burial sites right here,' Trump said of the footage. 'Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there's approximately a thousand of them. They're all white farmers, the family of white farmers. Those people are all killed', Trump added. (If he really wanted to rub Cyril's nose in the blood-soaked facts, Trump could've lamented the fact that many of the victims were horribly tortured before being murdered.) Here, however, Trump f**ked up. He claimed the crosses were burial sites. They're not. As reported by ABC and other outlets, that video shows a protest that took place on 5 September 2020, near Normandien. According to the local news outlet, Newcastle Advertiser, the protest was called after farmers Glenn and Vida Rafferty were murdered at their home in the area, days earlier. Hermann Pretorius, a spokesperson for the Institute of Race Relations – who produced a video of the event – told ABC News : 'Those crosses are not graves, they are commemorating farm murder victims', he said. 'They were displayed temporarily as part of a protest.' Pretorius said the crosses were removed afterwards. I didn't think there was anybody in SA who had not seen those crosses on that road. Turns out there is at least one person in the country that hasn't. Cyril Ramaphosa. Cyril squinted his eyes at the video for a few seconds, then, appearing befuddled and perplexed, half turned to Trump without looking at him, and asked: 'Have they told you where that is, Mr President?' Trump shook his head: 'No.' 'No', Ramaphosa echoed, turning back to the screen. 'I would like to know where that is, because…this, I've never seen,' he said. (Hmmm…I wonder if Cyril's ever seen or heard of Witkruis Monument? If he has, he didn't mention it to Trump). After a lengthy pause, Trump said, a little too loudly: 'It's in SOUTH AFRICA, that's where.' Ramaphosa turned away from the screen and said: 'But…okay. We need to find out.' Then he straightened his jacket and shifted in his seat, in a theatrical, business-like way that said; 'Ja, nee, enough of this. Let's get back to parley, Mr President ' . It didn't work. Trump didn't move or flinch or even acknowledge him. His eyes were still locked on the screen. All Cyril could do is stare at the floor for a few seconds, then he shook his head briefly and briskly, as if trying to wake himself from this awful African fever dream. (Go back and watch that part of the meeting again. Find a camera angle that captures Ramaphosa head-on while they're watching that video. And tell me you don't see a man that looks like he's just been kicked in the nuts…by someone wearing steel toe-capped jackboots.) So, at this point, Cyril had the choice of continuing to stare at the floor, the ceiling, around the room at the judgemental faces glaring back at him, or…turn back to that darn, damning video and pretend to be interested – which was what he opted for. Finally, to Cyril's visible relief, the video ended. But Trump wasn't done sticking it in, breaking it off and rubbing salt in the wound. Not just yet. Next, Trump pulled out that fat wad of articles that he called for earlier, articles reporting on farm murders. He flitted through them in front of Ramaphosa, the press and everyone else in the room, holding each one up for all to see. 'Look', he said. 'These are articles over the last few days. Death…of people. Death. Death. Death. Horrible death. Death.' When Trump was finally done waving those awful images around, Cyril furtively tried to explain himself and the situation in SA. Trump didn't look too interested in what he had to say. (And, unfortunately, name-dropping Madiba doesn't appear to have quite the weight and gravitas that it used to, say…back in the 90s? And don't think Cyril didn't try.) While Cyril was scrambling to do damage control with verbal diarrhoea, Trump gathered up all those articles and dumped the bundle in Cyril's hands while he was talking. Quite the symbolic move, huh? 'All that blood's on your hands, buddy.' If Ramaphosa was hoping that his golfing pals, Els and Goosen were going to dig him out of this diplomatic hole, he was wrong. That backfired. In fact, according to some, it was Johann Rupert who 'saved the day'. Because he affirmed once and for all what every South African knows…that there IS in fact a genocide happening in South Africa, just NOT exclusively against white people. It's against us. All of us. South Africans, 'across the board' as Rupert put it, are being genocided by violent crime, wholesale, in numbers that rival a country at (civil) war. (Twenty thousand plus murders a year? That's GOT to be a no-bullshit, hands-down genocide – in anybody's books.) Then again there are those that believe Els and Goosen are the true heroes of the day, and Rupert is a 'traitor'. Regardless, what happened in that Oval Office on Wednesday 21 May 2025, was a politically seismic moment that will go down in history. It is interesting to note that, in that entire meeting (in public and private), Trump did not pressure Ramaphosa or SA to drop the International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel. (Made all the more interesting by Trump's recent reported rift with Bibi Netanyahu.) On his way out the White House door, just before getting into the limo, Ramaphosa told reporters the meeting went 'very well'. Wtf else could he say… Let us know by leaving a comment below or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
Eyewitness News
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Eyewitness News
Simoné Kruger and Mpumelelo Mhlongo win big at Regional Annual Sports Awards
READ MORE: PARALYMPICS 2024: A look back at Team SA's standout performers PARALYMPICS 2024: Simoné Kruger keeps promise and bags discus gold PARALYMPICS 2024: Mhlongo claims bronze medal and breaks second World Record On Saturday, Kruger was named Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability, and named Mhlongo Sportsman of the Year with a Disability. The pair were part of the 2024 Paris Paralympics team, which brought home six medals - two gold and four bronze medals - two world records, four Paralympic records, 14 African records and numerous personal best performances. One of the medals was grabbed by Simoné Kruger in the Women's F38 discus, where she broke the Paralympic record and won South Africa's second gold medal with a throw of 38.70m. In May 2024, the 19-year-old won South Africa's second gold medal and broke the world record in the women's discus with a throw of 38.82m at the Kobe 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Japan. Meanwhile, at the Paris Games, Mpumelelo Mhlongo set two World Records for South Africa. In the Men's 200m T44 event, Mhlongo set the world record with a time of 22.62, claiming a bronze medal. The T44 athlete was running in a higher category, and he set a new world record in the 200m at 22.62, breaking his Tokyo Paralympics world record of 22.81. In the men's long jump T44e event, Mhlongo set the world record with a jump of 7.12m. The Team SA flag bearer at the Paris Games dominated the men's T44 100m when he won South Africa's first medal, a gold in a time of 11.12 seconds.
