Former Zimbabwe opposition lawmaker Roy Bennett said on Sunday he has finally won asylum in neighbouring South Africa, becoming the first senior government figure to achieve the political feat. The ”happy” Bennett — who has been in the country for over a year — told the media that the Home Affairs department granted him the asylum papers on Friday.
The Zimbabwe government plans to expand the controversial youth training programme, the recruits of which have been criticised for serious rights violations, reports said on Monday. The announcement by Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere in Monday’s official Herald newspaper comes less than a year ahead of crunch presidential and parliamentary polls.
The prospects of a rapport between President Thabo Mbeki and the new opposition leader, Helen Zille, should be much better than they were in Tony Leon’s time. Both appear to be deniers of major ills that afflict our society. Mbeki’s denialism, on HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, Zimbabwe and arms deal corruption, is well known, writes Fikile Moya.
A Johannesburg-based teacher has come up with an affordable, user-friendly teaching and learning tool that could revolutionise the teaching and learning of spelling and maths while keeping children fit at the same time.
Choosing a career by Trevor Waller and Debbie Nafte
The governments "no fee" policy has set alarm bells ringing at the country’s poorest schools, with some of them finding that they are now even poorer.
I could swear I saw French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy wince a couple of times as a small woman with a big voice launched into the French national anthem right after his acceptance speech. Amplified to fill the open air stadium where Sarkozy’s supporters had gathered in rapturous self-congratulation, the woman belted out the words that had been born out of the bloody French revolution of 1789.
The government imbizos (meetings) held in April were heavily criticised. While they are meant to be an opportunity for government to engage with the broader community, only a limited number of people are able to make it to the venues, there is limited time for discussion and issues are often focused on the area of expertise of the government official that is being hosted.
The global rush to switch from oil to energy derived from plants will drive deforestation, push small farmers off the land and lead to serious food shortages and increased poverty unless carefully managed, says the most comprehensive survey yet completed of energy crops.
The government of Côte d’Ivoire said on Monday that China has written off 40% of the debt it was owed by the West African state, during a visit by the Ivorian foreign minister to the Asian economic giant. The cancelled debt amonuted to €18-million and Beijing also extended a new €10-million gift to the country, the Ivorian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.