When a class of 40 newly graduated Swazi nurses left the country en masse a few years ago, the government decided it had to find an effective way to stem the loss of this precious human resource. The solution was to create the Swaziland Wellness Centre, a place where healthcare workers receive medical attention themselves.
The Human Rights Commission has been asked to investigate the KwaZulu-Natal minister of health after she used her budget speech to the provincial parliament to allege that rural doctors in the province were racist and had abused staff. In her speech this week health minister Peggy Nkonyeni detailed seven allegations against Mark Blaylock and some of his colleagues at Manguzi Hospital.
Suspended prosecutions boss Vusi Pikoli was instructed by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Brigitte Mabandla, acting on President Thabo Mbeki’s orders, to cancel the Scorpions’s investigation of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Jacob Zuma has a new defender, perhaps even more embarrassing than the army of praise-singers the ANC has been struggling to bring under control. Zuma’s polygamy “is part of African culture”, writes Dr Moss Mashamaite in his self-published apologia, The Moving Finger Writes – Jacob Zuma.
After fleeing persecution or economic meltdown in their home countries, up to a third of refugee children in South Africa are denied the right to an education. New research suggests that schools turn away refugee children who don’t have required documentation, such as birth certificates or enough money for school fees.
As IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi threatens to challenge a new KwaZulu-Natal law in court, the provincial government has released correspondence showing that only last year he demanded that same law be enacted. The law in question will make the position of chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal House of Traditional Leaders permanent, and Buthelezi will have to choose between his position as part-time chair of the house and his job as a national MP.
A day before Cabinet approved legislation that will shut down the Scorpions, the director general of justice and two Cabinet ministers stated under oath that “no decision has been taken by Cabinet to dissolve the DSO [Directorate of Special Operations]”.
Sudden leaks of election results by the government shortly before the verification of the results were an attempt to prepare Zimbabweans for a run-off between the two leading presidential candidates, according to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Two reports on Wednesday quoted government and election commission sources saying that President Robert Mugabe had indeed lost the presidential election.
If one were asked to distinguish between the local section of an Exclusive Books magazine rack today and its equivalent 10 years ago, one might be hard-pressed to find any significant difference.
The biggest challenge facing the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) today is how best to redefine what the role a traditionally militant youth organisation is supposed to be in a democratic South Africa. An inability to recalibrate its vision to current realities has made it susceptible to being used as a vehicle for personal aggrandisement.