Shocking new research exposes some of the South Africa’s drug rehabilitation centres as poorly run institutions where physical and psychological ill treatment of patients is rife. ”The government needs to take responsibility. They need to pay attention to the programmes that are offered at the centres and not just concentrate on clean kitchens and toilets as some of the main criteria,” says a researcher.
About 200 000 traditional healers are regularly consulted by at least 70% of South Africans. To date, there has been no single statutory body to control these practitioners. But efforts are under way to integrate traditional medicine into the health-care system through legislation, albeit gradually.
Half of the country’s population does not participate in the economy because they cannot afford the hefty bank charges to run a savings account — built-in insurance against ”high-risk” clients. In the first of a series examining the apparent cartels that increasingly dominate our lives, we look at banking — an essential service from which millions are excluded.
There are 35 000 genes in the humble coffee bean. So say scientists in Brazil, after studying 200 000 strands of DNA and drinking an unspecified amount of the brew itself. This genetic research will lead to better-tasting coffee — significant news for Africa’s embattled coffee producers.
Grahamstown will in September host the eighth annual Highway Africa three-day conference — the largest annual gathering of the continent’s media professionals. Information and communication technologies policy makers, journalists, academics and students will debate new media possibilities in Africa.
They’re big, thirsty and deadly to pedestrians. Maybe those of us who make a point of darting scornful, venomous looks at 4×4 drivers, should learn to live and let live.
So what is it about SUVs that so many drivers love? We find out.
Two South Africans acquitted by a Zimbabwean court of charges related to the alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea are to be questioned on Monday by the South African authorities. Harry Carlse and Lourens Horn were cleared of trying to buy weapons in Zimbabwe when their British leader, Simon Mann, was convicted. They were freed on Saturday and flew back to South Africa.
Local politics could shift fundamentally during the upcoming 15-day municipal defection window — and parties are not letting the opportunity to attract a few more councillors slip past. In the week before the floor-crossing period started, the Independent Democrats (ID), for example, has e-mailed or sent SMS messages to about 3 000 of the approximately 9 000 councillors countrywide.
Africa’s last absolute monarch, Swaziland’s King Mswati III, has lashed out at being named one of the world’s 10 worst dictators, a Mbabane-based newspaper reported on Sunday. The all-powerful king, who has ruled by decree since his coronation in 1986 at the age of 18, rejected a report by the Daily Mirror in London last week listing him as one of the 10 worst dictators.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for United States President George Bush to be removed descended on to the streets of Manhattan on Sunday, on the eve of the Republican party convention. But as the demonstrators marched, Republican delegates arrived in town hoping to open a significant lead over the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, for the first time this year.