In most supermarkets in the sprawling township of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, empty shelves and butcheries with no meat in the cold rooms tell of a desperate reality. Even chickens are hard to come by. The government’s crack price monitoring teams will soon have no jobs, because “there will be nothing to monitor as all commodities have disappeared from shelves”, says Mercy Tiripo (32) of Mabvuku township, about 20km east of Harare.
Hillbrow. The word conjures up images of high-rise slums and streets rife with crime. But in this week’s crime statistics, the Hillbrow police station was singled out as one of the country’s better stations. How has it raised its crime detection rate by 12% and notched up a 10% increase in the number of cases it brings to court?
If your sister or friend was killed in 2006, there is an 82% chance that you, or someone else they knew, did it. This is the implication of extraordinary statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) at the Union Buildings recently. They showed that at least two-thirds of all contact crimes occur between people who know one another.
Lynley Donnelly reports on what people can expect at the MTN Durban Fashion Week from Indian-born fashion designer, Vikram Phadnis.
Attacks on members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) rose by 67% between 2004/05 and 2005/06, according to a former policeman and now researcher for the Institute of Security Studies, Johan Burger. But only one more policeman died in the latter period than in the former. Burger said this indicated that the SAPS’s ”street survival” course, introduced in 2005, was bearing fruit.
”Metro is killing me,” cries informal trader Lydia Masongo. The sole provider for her family of eight, Masongo says continued harassment by the Johannesburg Metro Police Department in the inner city is making it impossible for her to eke out a living on the streets. Since 1994, she has travelled from the East Rand every day to sell fruit and vegetables in De Villiers Street in downtown Jozi.
What happens when ordinary people go that extra mile? Well, grade 11 learners at Weston Agricultural College in KwaZulu-Natal can tell you: they win awards, repeatedly. But, more importantly, they bring about real change for people living in their community.
Lynley Donnelly reports on the highlights of this year’s Audi Jo’burg Fashion Week.
A South African teenager, who takes care of her orphaned siblings, brought former United States president Bill Clinton to his feet with her commitment to bringing hope to the lives of other orphan girls in her community. Seventeen-year-old Zethu Ngecza addressed the Clinton Global Initiative in New York recently and received a standing ovation from delegates for her plans to establish support groups for children in her community.
The entrance of Moloi-Motsepe and yet another event to the country’s crowded fashion calendar has highlighted the plight of the beleaguered industry. Lynley Donnelly reports.