Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen

Sasol's sale of the world's biggest oxygen production site gets thumbs up

 


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The Competition Commission is recommending the approval the sale of Sasol's 16 air separation units in Secunda.
The Competition Commission is recommending the approval the sale of Sasol's 16 air separation units in Secunda.
Gallo/Getty images

The Competition Commission has recommended the approval of Air Liquide South Africa’s acquisition of Sasol’s 16 air separation units (ASUs) in Secunda.

Together these units form the world's biggest oxygen production site, which produce oxygen and other gasses mainly used by Sasol in its production of fuels.

Sasol will earn R8.5 billion from the deal, which it will use to help settle its massive debt burden of more than R120 billion. Sasol has sold a number of its assets, including a 30% stake in a natural gas pipeline between Mozambique and South Africa, in recent months to stabilise its precarious financial position.

Air Liquide supplies industrial gases to different industries in South Africa, including the health sector, and the Competition Commission found that its takeover of Sasol's oxygen units was unlikely to result in the prevention or lessening of competition in the market.

But the commission does have some prerequisites for the deal, including that Air Liquide must commit to substantially reduce carbon emissions from the site in the next ten years. Also, it must agree to an agreement to buy 900 MW in renewable energy.

Other requirements include that it must invest in training affected employees, as well as in localisation, and it must provide surplus liquid oxygen to the healthcare sector, particularly to public facilities. The commission also have requirements around promoting diversity of ownership, and procuring services and products from small businesses and black-owned enterprises.

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