Johannesburg, Dec. 4 : Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola has said that the controversial selection policy on coloured players is set to be scrapped in three years after the resounding success within the national side, which now fields top performing non-white players ranked among the world''s best.

Plans have been made to continue the "target transformation policy" - often referred to as a "quota system" - for the next three years before discarding it for merit-based selection.

"The goal is to get merit-based selection at all levels of cricket," Majola told the Sydney Morning Herald last night.

Johannesburg - Two South African Nobel Peace Prize laureates have petitioned President Kgalema Motlanthe to establish a commission of inquiry into a controversial multibillion-dollar arms deal, The Star newspaper reported Wednesday.

In a letter dated December 1 and delivered by hand to Motlanthe's Cape Town office on Tuesday, former president FW de Klerk and archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu called on the president to appoint the commission by December 10.

Johannesburg - The nine South African cities hosting 2010 World Cup matches will bear the brunt of a 3.2-billion-rand (315 million dollars) cost overrun in the construction and upgrading of stadiums for the event, Business Day newspaper reported Tuesday.

The local organizers of the World Cup have been warning since July that the stadiums are likely to overshoot the original budget by more than 3 billion rand.

Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile confirmed the amount of the overrun in a written reply to a question in parliament from the opposition Democratic Alliance.

Johannesburg - South African Deputy President Baleka Mbete told people at a World AIDS Day event in Durban on Monday they should use a condom with each partner and each time they have sex.

Speaking at the Sahara Stadium to some 2,000 people, she said "always use condoms with all your partners."

Mbete said that having sex under the influence of alcohol increased the risk of infection, the SAPA news agency reported.

She said women should insist that their partners take HIV tests before they start a sexual relationship.

Durban - South Africa's 125-year-old Agnes gold mine in the south of the Kruger National Park is to be auctioned next month, according to a report Friday.

The historic mine is being put on offer along with buildings and equipment by its owner African Pioneer Mining (APM), now in liquidation.

The mine, located near the town of Barberton in the northern Mpumalanga province, was part of Moodies Gold Camps that dates back to the gold rush of 1883.

APM had bought the mine in April 2001 for around 34 million rands (3.4 million dollars), The Mercury newspaper reported.