Vienna  - Hartmut S., the Austrian-born man who kept his 8- year-old son prisoner in South Africa's biggest city Johannesburg for 4 years, died Wednesday, Austria's Foreign Ministry confirmed Thursday.

The boy was discovered alone at home on November 17, when he managed to ask employees from a business across the road to get him something to eat.

His father, a 68-year-old former airline pilot, had collapsed five days earlier and was taken to hospital.

Johannesburg - The chief executive officer of the South African local organizing committee (LOC) of the 2010 World Cup, Danny Jordaan, on Wednesday called on his fellow South Africans to serve the country by supporting the event.

Jordaan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa late Wednesday, that while many South Africans had served in the army under apartheid, the way to serve the country now was to be behind the World Cup.

Johannesburg- The number of visitors to Cape Town is expected to
dip this southern summer season as the international financial crisis
grounds many Western travellers, South Africa's Business Day reported
Wednesday.

South Africa's "Mother City", with its spectacular Table Mountain
backdrop, sandy beaches and nearby vineyards, is the country's top
tourist destination.

The city is particularly popular with moneyed Europeans. In 2007,
1.7 million people visited Western Cape province, where Cape Town is
located, according to the provincial tourist authority, Cape Town
Routes Ltd.

Johannesburg, Nov. 26 : As South Africa gets ready to take on Bangladesh in the second Test at the Centurion Park, one of the oldest cricket grounds in South Africa, South African skipper Graeme Smith is looking ahead to the tour of Australia, and has warned that the class of exciting Proteas pacer Dale Steyn will be on full display.

A much mellowed Smith said that his team and he would arrive in Perth next month with the most potent South African pace attack since Allan Donald struck fear into the hearts of Test batsmen in the mid-1990s.

Johannesburg  - The South African Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the 2010 World Cup said Tuesday that they were happy with arrangements for both the World Cup and next year's Confederations Cup.

Addressing a media briefing during a LOC board meeting the LOC CEO Danny Jordaan said that they were happy with the way things are going.

"Since ticket sales started for the Confederations Cup on the weekend, we have already had 30,000 hits on the website. It is too early to say how the sales are going at other outlets, but we are hoping the stadiums will be full."

Jordaan said that the Board had approved a budget of 4.018 billion Rand (386.5 million dollars) for the two tournaments.

Johannesburg - South Africa's economy grew at its lowest rate in ten years in the third quarter of this year, slowing dramatically to 0.2 per cent from 5.1 per cent in the second quarter, public radio reported.

Statistics South Africa reported three out of ten sectors actually shrunk over the quarter - mining, manufacturing and retail.

The slowdown was more acute than had been predicted. Analysts were expecting GDP growth to reach 0.4 per cent in the quarter. The quarterly growth rate is the slowest recorded since 1998, SAfm public radio reported.