Fed up with petrol pumps that often run dry, commuters in Zimbabwe’s capital are turning to an alternative way to get around — trading petrol power for pedal power. The humble bicycle is becoming a vehicle of choice as the Southern African country wrestles with its worst fuel crisis since independence in 1980, prompted by a severe foreign currency shortage.
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/ 28 September 2005
Despite his growing stature as one of Africa’s superstars, Oliver Mtukudzi remains a humble man.
South Africa’s car industry is expected to notch up record sales and exports this year, revved up by an increased purchasing power and a healthy economy, manufacturers and analysts say. More than 45 000 new cars were sold last month, up 19,4% from the same month in 2004, when new car sales hit an all-time high, from top-end imported ”supercars” to the cheapest models on the market.
More than 6,2-million South Africans were infected by HIV or Aids by last year, an increase of 700 000 from 2003, a new health ministry report said. Though women in their mid- to late-20s were the hardest hit by the pandemic, ”it was observed that there have been increases in prevalence across all age groups between 2003 and 2004”, the report said.
South Africa is gearing up to host Africa’s Live 8 concert with about 40 000 people expected to pack central Johannesburg on Saturday to raise poverty awareness on the continent. But despite South Africa’s biggest star, Nelson Mandela, giving his official blessing to the concert, organisers would not say whether he would attend the event.
Three musicians are recording a song about the killer Marburg virus in Angola — just one example of actions taken by ordinary citizens who want to stamp out the virus now claiming up to 10 lives a day. ”Marburg, leave our people in peace. We are going to kick you out of this country,” goes the song in Portuguese.
Health experts fighting the killer Marburg virus in northern Angola said on Monday they were facing denial from families who are refusing to send their sick to hospitals or are taking them out of the city, worsening the risk of contamination. Isolation of victims is the only way to slow the spread of the disease, for which there are no drugs or vaccine.
Fear stalked the streets on Saturday in the squalid northern Angolan town of Uige, devastated by years of civil war and now the epicentre of an outbreak of the killer Marburg virus, which has claimed 180 lives so far. In Uige province alone, 160 people have been killed by the virus, which has claimed 98% of those infected in the outbreak.
Angolan health workers in a slum outside Luanda were treating a new suspected case of the Marburg virus on Tuesday as a senior United Nations official warned that the outbreak of the Ebola-like epidemic is not yet under control. The virus has now also spread to Malenge province, which is on the border with Uige.
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/ 24 January 2005
South African jazz giant Hugh Masekela played here. So did piano maestro Abdullah Ibrahim. Former United States president Bill Clinton almost did, but declined at the last moment. But now, Kippies, with its high ceilings, arched windows and dark corners, where budding artists have gone on to become legends, is taking a bow.