The implementation of the ceasefire agreement between the Burundian government and the rebel Palipehutu-FNL (FNL) reached an impasse last week after the FNL went underground, complaining of biased mediation and failed promises. The FNL said that a lack of progress with the Joint Verification Monitoring Mechanism (JVMM), set up under the ceasefire agreement signed last year, led it to abandon the process.
Kliptown in Johannesburg erupted recently — and poor service delivery was at the root of the disturbance. Following similar explosions in Deneysville and Metsimaholo in the Free State, Lenasia South, Eldorado Park and the Khutsong area, poor communities have taken to the streets to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with government’s perceived inability to minister to South Africa’s poor.
I drive through Braamfontein with a photographer looking for someone dragging a supermarket trolley loaded with scrap cardboard or plastic. I want to chat to one of these lonely figures — who really account for South Africa’s record as one of the top waste recyclers. We see a man of medium build relentlessly pulling a heavy flatbed piled high with grey bags along the pedestrian strip of the Nelson Mandela Bridge.
Gender activists have hammered the “suspended dismissal” of two Mpumalanga police constables who placed a woman overnight in a police cell with six men, who then gang-raped her. The officers, from Volksrust, were found guilty of gross misconduct last month over the incident, which took place in February this year.
How do you take an eyesore and an environmental liability and turn it into an asset that will have immediate economic benefits for the local community? Anglo Coal’s Aapiesdoorndraai, near Burgersfort in Mpumalanga, was up for the challenge. The company’s rehabilitation of an old magnesia mine, closed since 1978, and its transformation into a residential and industrial area, has a Cinderella aspect to it.
South Africa’s first water reclamation plant, the Emalahleni Water Reclamation Project, is expected to be up and running by July. The project is a brainchild of Anglo Coal South Africa and is this year’s winning project in Greening the Future’s category of companies with innovative environmental strategies that improve business performance.
Those who have suffered through recent power failures, courtesy of Eskom, may want to buy a copy of the new CD by the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), which rails against privatisation of basic services. It is a compilation of music to toyi-toyi to, capturing the songs chanted during APF marches over the years.
Norway hopes to follow in Sweden’s footsteps by criminalising the purchase of sexual services. This would keep prostitution legal but make pimping or buying sex illegal. By forcibly cutting demand, both countries are hoping to bring down the supply of prostitutes.
Backsberg Estate Cellars in the Western Cape is bragging about its green credentials after becoming the first wine producers in South Africa to do a full carbon audit of its product. It has subsequently reduced its carbon footprint by off-setting carbon emissions by planting 907 indigenous trees in the nearby Klapmuts community.
We have been warned about pirated CDs and DVDs, but now — shock! horror! — watch out for illegal toilet paper. It may sound ridiculous, but it’s true. You might be buying illegal toilet paper, even though you don’t know it. The South African Tissue Manufacturers’ Association (Satma) has announced that illegal toilet paper exists, and has been around for some time already.