If it were not for the efforts of a group of hardy community volunteers, social grant beneficiaries, scraping a living below the poverty line in the North West province might well have been in for a rough winter. ”Paying the right social grant, to the right person, at the right time and place” boasts the motto of the new South African Social Security Agency.
For pragmatic reasons, police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s call to legalise prostitution for 2010 could be seen as a step in the right direction. The move was proposed as a way of relieving overburdened cops of the onerous task of policing the sex trade, which will undoubtedly blossom as lusty fans and foreign providers of sexual services start flooding into South Africa.
The fifth world summit on media and children has highlighted the need for government and the industry to better protect the rights of children in the media without limiting the opportunities for education and access to information the media can provide for them
Cosatu and the South African Communist Party’s strategy for getting ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma into the hot seat is to swell the ranks of the ANC. Once elected with the left’s support the allies believe that Zuma will be more amenable than President Thabo Mbeki to a radical programme of social change.
Lynley Donnelly reviews the second collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman titled Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders.
”The Google queen, they call me,” laughs Ingrid Coombs, as she sits in her office. The nationwide travel coordinator for a recruitment company, Coombs has been a quadriplegic since she was 22 years old. But 16 years later, thanks to her resourcefulness and to the flexibility of her employers, Coombs has maintained not only her independence, but also her career.
The arrest of anti-corruption activist Sarah Wykes in the Angolan province of Cabinda has highlighted Angola’s ruthless treatment of its critics. Wykes, who works for the international NGO Global Witness, which aims to increase transparency in extractive industries, has been accused of espionage by the Angolan authorities and is forbidden to leave the country.
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/ 27 February 2007
Every evening national power alert messages flash on to television screens across the country. If the alert is green, South Africans are in luck, and there is no imminent threat of being plunged into darkness. If it’s red or orange, we are expected to turn off non-essential appliances, including stoves, kettles and lights, in a bid to prevent power failures.
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/ 23 February 2007
The Gender Commission is hamstrung by internal strife and has dropped off the public’s radar, according to a damning report by the Civil Society Advocacy programme, funded by the European Union. The report — part of a review of Chapter 9 institutions — paints the gender watchdog body as long on talk but short on delivery.
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/ 23 February 2007
Yet another spat in the ongoing “catwalk catfight” has erupted between fashion designer Gavin Rajah and Dion Chang, director of Sanlam South African Fashion Week. In an article on the Women24.com website, Chang set more feathers flying by attacking as “ill-conceived” the selection of four black local fashion designers to attend Paris Fashion Week.