norway

It was action all the way at the opening round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Pietermaritzburg on the weekend. In the downhill, triple world champion Greg Minnaar had to settle for third place as the USA's Aaron Gwin put in a flawless run to claim the victory.

It was action all the way at the opening round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Pietermaritzburg on the weekend. In the downhill, triple world champion Greg Minnaar had to settle for third place as the USA's Aaron Gwin put in a flawless run to claim the victory.

Lithuania have announced their best possible squad to face South Africa in a crucial Europe/Africa Zone Group 2, round two, Davis Cup tie at the Irene Country Club in Centurion outside Pretoria in April.

Leading South African golfer Lee-Anne Pace is eager to turn a string of fine performances over the past month into a maiden Sunshine Ladies Tour victory at the inaugural R300 000 Investec Cup for Ladies this weekend.

Norway-based Scatec Solar has completed its 75 MW solar PV power plant in Kalkbult in the Northern Cape three months ahead of schedule, making it first project under South Africa's renewable energy programme for private producers to be grid connected and operational.

The Centre of Memory will keep alive Mandela's ideals and principles. It is a store of his history, and a space for dialogue on the present and future. The Children's Fund is investing in that future, through various programmes focused on the poor and vulnerable.
• Mandela posters show world's respect

South African couple Stan and Sally Hannath are driving 28 000 kilometres, from Norway back to their home in Cape Town, to raise awareness and funds for the construction of the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital in Johannesburg.

South Africa climbed two places in the World Economic Forum's latest Global Information Technology Report, from 72nd to 70th out of 144 countries surveyed, scoring strongly for factors such as its regulatory, business and innovation environments, but poorly for other factors, particularly for quality of education.

Some R800m has been set aside for the Aquaculture Development and Enhancement Programme, to promote the growth of aquaculture, which has been identified as a key growth industry given the falling fish stocks in the wild.
• Boost for food processing sector

South Africa ranks second in the world for the transparency and accountability of its budget processes, according to the latest Open Budget Index Survey by the Washington-based International Budget Partnership.