A war of words has erupted ahead of election day in Zimbabwe this Saturday, with the opposition saying the government has already rigged the vote. These elections were ”never meant to be an even playing field”, said Nkosana Moyo, coordinator of presidential hopeful Simba Makoni’s campaign, in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
In Johannesburg, getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy is as easy as ordering a chicken burger. A ”Dr Maria” is advertising her services on street poles in the inner city, promising: ”Quick Same Day Abortions 100% Guarantee [sic] Safe & Pain Free”. A Mail & Guardian team goes undercover to find out just how easy it is to get an illegal abortion.
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/ 5 February 2008
Most Mozambicans living in flood-prone areas have heeded calls to evacuate in the face of rising waters this year, but they’ll be back once the rivers subside. Françoise Le Goff, head of the International Federation of Red Cross told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> recently that even though the water levels were higher than the deadly floods in 2000 and 2001, only eight people had lost their lives.
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/ 23 January 2008
Psst! Heard the one about Eskom? Spare a thought for the electricity supplier. Anyone with access to email in South Africa over the past few weeks has probably received at least a few of the slew of Eskom-related jokes doing the rounds. But what happens if you actually work at Eskom?
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/ 18 December 2007
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Jacob Zuma is the new president of the African National Congress. The announcement was greeted by an outpouring of joy and ecstatic cheering by ANC delegates at the party’s conference in Polokwane shortly before 9pm on Tuesday. Thabo Mbeki received 1 505 votes and Zuma received 2 329.
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/ 20 September 2007
It seems one cannot, after all, do movies, gaming, education, business and music on Telkom’s broadband offering. The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled against Telkom’s "Do Broadband" advertising campaign in which it promises consumers that they can do all of the above internet activities using a one-gigabyte broadband package.
The scrap has well and truly begun for the precious subscription broadcasting licences that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) intends to issue. This week saw the launch of public hearings held by the regulator, which will allow it to whittle down the 18 applicants to those deserved few, who will be given an opportunity to make their fortune in the billion-rand pay-TV industry.
On Monday, the first of 12 days of hearings into who should be granted a pay-TV licence, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) submitted that successful applicants for the country’s new cable licence should carry the SABC’s own channels and pay the state broadcaster for its intellectual property.
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/ 22 February 2007
Intense Cyclone Favio, sweeping in after wreaking havoc in Madagascar, hit the coast of Mozambique on Thursday morning. Margie Toens, who lives on the beachfront in Vilankulo, south of Bazaruto, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday that the situation was ”horrible” and that trees were crashing down around her house.
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/ 26 January 2007
No, that distant rumbling is not the sound of fraud convict Tony Yengeni grinding his teeth; it’s the clash of cultures. The former African National Congress chief whip was thrust into the spotlight again this week after reports that he stabbed a bull with his family’s spear before it was slaughtered.