Christina Scott
Guest Author
No image available
/ 2 March 2006

Global war rages against desert sand

Deserts threaten to expand across much of North and Southern Africa, with the Science and Development Network reporting that global warming is set to put the dunes of the Kalahari on the march, for example. But elsewhere in the world, one country has launched a major plan to reclaim 250 000 square kilometres of land it has lost to expanding deserts.

No image available
/ 20 January 2006

One in nine — it’s official

Two separate studies, using different techniques, have for the first time reached the same conclusion about how many South Africans are infected with HIV. The research has raised hopes of reconciling feuding government departments and eventually of a more effective war on HIV/Aids.

No image available
/ 6 January 2006

Cape Town’s children concerned about fire

Hundreds of Capetonians face 2006 homeless following fires in the Masiphumelele neighbourhood in the South Peninsula last week. Among them, undoubtedly, are schoolchildren who may now enter their new classes without uniforms, books and possibly without even school fees, let alone somewhere to study and sleep and eat.

No image available
/ 19 October 2005

The road less travelled makes all the difference

Traditionally, cash for fixing roads has been dished out on the basis of the number of vehicles travelling up and down that stretch of bitumen or concrete or gravel. After all, roads with lots of people travelling on them are clearly roads that are important to the economy. Right? Not quite, warns Samson Muradzikwa, a rural development economist from the University of Cape Town.