Amandla! DaimlerChrysler has pulled its controversial campaign for the new Mercedes-Benz SLK AMG convertible after Mail & Guardian readers complained of its insensitivity. The half-page advertisment depicts an obviously impoverished, raggedly dressed woman caught in the slipstream of a vehicle that is no longer visible.
Crucial charities dependent on the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund for money have been hard hit by an extraordinary delay in the allocation of grants applied for last year. The Mail & Guardian spoke to six charities that bemoaned the fund’s silence on their applications.
Young people were often at the forefront of the struggle to liberate South Africa and 30 years on they are still leading the way, producing solutions to age-old problems that have long vexed their elders. The South African Bureau of Standards Young Design Achievers Awards celebrates youngsters with big visions and the tenacity to bring their ingenious ideas to fruition.
What do South Africa’s ”born frees” – who came into the world after the death of apartheid, or were too young to remember it – know about their country’s traumatic past? Have our children been changed by 12 years of democracy?
What do South Africa’s ”born frees” — who came into the world after the death of apartheid, or were too young to remember it — know about their country’s traumatic past? Do African high school pupils know or care about the suffering and sacrifices of their parents and grandparents?
There is no clear definition for the New Age movement. It is simply a term that lumps together a wide variety of beliefs, customs and practices, from acupuncture to astrology, Gnosticism, Wicca and various indigenous belief systems that have only recently been acknowledged in the West.
The fire in which 12 people died in Johannesburg’s CBD last week has highlighted the dangers faced daily by residents of the city’s numerous condemned buildings, who live without electricity or sanitation and are forced to cook on primus stoves and open fires.
The protesters outside court vouching for embattled Jacob Zuma were largely female. Women with his photo emblazoned across their chests. Women honking vuvuzelas in his support. Selling T-shirts to raise funds for his defence. Burning images of the woman who dared lay a rape charge against him.
Rescue workers were still battling on Thursday to find the eight miners believed to be trapped in a fire that broke out in the number 7 shaft at Buffelsfontein mine near Stilfontein late the previous night. And the fire has prompted a complaint from the National Union of Mineworkers that underground blazes are becoming a serious problem in mining.
Recently, elderly Katrina Mtsweni, of Delmas’s Botleng township, received a surprise visit from President Thabo Mbeki. Mtsweni, who lives in a dilapidated shack in the Mandela B section waited for a lull in Mbeki’s sweet talk before asking him to help repair her leaking, collapsing shack. The very next day, brand-new corrugated iron sheets arrived at her door.