When Bongani Mbonani matriculated in 1998, he enrolled on a catering course, convinced he was equipping himself with marketable skills. After completing the one-year course, he spent the next two years filling in job application forms, faxing his CV and knocking on prospective employers’ doors.
Trade unions often complain that radio stations do not give them fair coverage, but now a new labour radio slot will ensure that they share their experiences and exchange views on air. The Labour Community Radio Project is a weekly one-hour radio programme broadcast on community stations that talks about the challenges workers face in their daily lives, and ways to address them.
When the now legendary Phelophepa train rolls into town people in surrounding villages flock to make use of its services, not only to have a tooth pulled or get a new pair of spectacles, but to learn much-needed primary health-care skills.
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Despite being disillusioned about the lack of service delivery in their area, residents of Diepsloot, a sprawling settlement on the outskirts of Johannesburg, turned out in their thousands to cast their votes on Wednesday. The voting mood was also fairly upbeat in Alexandra township in Johannesburg.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The elation that marked the 1994 elections was mostly absent on Johannesburg’s West Rand on Wednesday, 10 years later. Voting got off to a punctual start and queues, although long, did not resemble the kilometres of people waiting to cast their ballots in the first election. Several people in the queues commented on the elections.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Tony Leon, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, strode among voters at the Saxonwold Primary School in Johannesburg at 8.30am on Wednesday morning, saying: ”This is not a day for politicians, it’s a day for voting”. DA officials could still be seen putting up posters outside the entrance to the school. No other election posters were visible.
Karabo Mokwena (24) had been looking for a job since he passed matric in 2000. When he was offered a job by Fidelity Springbok Security Services in Pretoria last year, he thought his prayers had been answered. But in order to secure the job, Mokwena was expected to provide his own gun and promised an additional R300 tax-free in cash every month for doing so.
The distance between Johannesburg and Mafikeng has been shortened by more than two hours. It now takes only 45 minutes to travel between the two towns following last December’s resuscitation of the air route linking the two cities. The revival is funded with an investment of R5,8-million from the North West government.
A bold, new cultural intervention aims to shed light on the positive role fathers play in their children’s lives — using the work of the country’s finest photographers. On the eve of Human Rights Day, a new exhibition celebrates the joys of fatherhood, writes Mmanaledi Mataboge.
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”In 1955 the Freedom Charter was signed in Kliptown, near Soweto. It was the product of a dream of ”houses, security and comfort”. Forty-nine years later the only reminder of that dream is in the area’s Freedom Charter informal settlement. Voter apathy is rife in Kliptown where residents complain that politicians break their promises.