In British street slang, when something is good it’s ”diamond”. In Rustenburg, another underground treasure, platinum, is the adjective of prestige.
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/ 7 December 2008
Alex Mabizela is a poster boy for the lawless world of SA minibus taxis. Standing outside a taxi rank in Johannesburg, he cuts a hapless figure.
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/ 29 January 2008
After rain comes sunshine — if you’re willing to seize the chance of a new life. Mozambique is trying to convince tens of thousands of people in low-lying areas who fall victim each year to floods during the summer rainy season to permanently resettle on higher ground.
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/ 21 November 2007
Lazarus Tlhahane (69), a grandfather seven times over, is hoping to be adopted. He owns one of the 15 makeshift stalls that have sprung up across the road from the Soccer City stadium in Soweto. From his stall Lazarus serves up plates of pap and stew to some of the site’s 1 600 construction workers.
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/ 6 November 2007
The only fixed-line telephone for the first community television station in South Africa to get a year-long broadcasting licence is hidden away in an outdoor broadcasting van for fear of freeloading by staff and guests. When you call the station let it ring for a long time, publicist Deon Botha advises.
Soccer’s ruling body, Fifa, is preparing to send out a powerful message against racism this week through a string of events to mark the 89th birthday of South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon and former president Nelson Mandela. A star-studded line-up of football greats will tog out for a match in Cape Town on Mandela’s birthday.
An unseemly ”fit of pique” was how Aids activists in South Africa were on Wednesday describing the decision by controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to boycott an Aids conference in Durban this week over a perceived snub.
They say that when Zimbabwe sneezes, the whole region gets a cold. While observers were talking up the imminence of regime change in Harare, the country continued to haemorrhage economic migrants to neighbouring countries. The respected International Crisis Group think thank speculated that divisions with Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF over the 83-year-old leader’s bid to extend his term for a further two years represent ”a realistic chance” for change.