The campaign trail for Ghana’s general election in December is taking a detour through South Africa this week, with the visit of opposition leader John Evans Atta Mills. Addressing journalists in Johannesburg on Tuesday, the head of the National Democratic Congress sounded upbeat about his prospects in the poll.
The recent brutal murder of a university student and the shooting of a soccer coach by a referee have rekindled the long-running debate about gun control in South Africa. Gun-related violence claims about 10Â 000 people in South Africa each year, according to the campaign group Gun-Free South Africa.
Strong leadership, access to life-prolonging drugs and reducing infections will be the main challenges facing Southern Africa in the next decade, Aids campaigners say. About 70% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, with the majority of them in the 14-nation Southern African region.
"We must congratulate Rwanda for achieving 48,8% of women representation in Parliament. This is the highest in the world. It means gender parity is no longer a dream but a reality in Africa," told Lulu Xingwana, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy, more than 1 000 women in Pretoria this week.
Lesotho, surrounded by its giant neighbour, South Africa, is facing a third successive year of food shortages. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, a poor maize harvest earlier this year has meant that the Basotho are in for another hard winter.
Getting older in Africa isn’t what it used to be. While some of the continent’s senior citizens may, in years gone by, have enjoyed a relatively quiet retirement, this prospect has largely been wiped out by the responsibility of caring for grandchildren who have been orphaned by Aids.
Kenyan civil society activist Edward Oyugi says Africa’s relations with the developed world amount to the continent holding out a begging bowl. But, African leaders insist they have a partnership with wealthy nations — one based on investment in return for good governance. The claim came under discussion again last week during a meeting of the Group of Eight (G8).
Kenyan civil society activist Edward Oyugi says Africa’s relations with the developed world amount to the continent holding out a begging bowl. But, African leaders insist they have a partnership with wealthy nations. The claim came under discussion again this week during a meeting of the powerful Group of Eight.
While much of this year’s World Environment Day on June 5 will be spent discussing the fate of the oceans (the theme of the day is <i>Wanted! Seas and Oceans: Dead or Alive?</i>), something altogether smaller is also receiving attention in South Africa: the bee.
When Aids activists have locked horns with the South African government in recent years, it has often been over the provision of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to pregnant women — or adults living with Aids. The challenges of supplying the medicines to HIV-positive children appear to have received less attention. That may change as the national programme to provide ARVs gathers momentum.