Reading this collection of short pieces written by journalists based in foreign countries is like living life through their eyes. Largely made up of ”on the road” moments, this is a collection that can truly be appreciated by travellers, or fellow journalists, writes Nicola Mawson.
In an ironic twist to a major urban renewal project, families moved to make way for a Mandela heritage site in Alexandra are complaining that their new houses are inferior to their old ones — and have been built close to the Jukskei river floodline.
The 42 families were notified last November, after months of talks, that they had two days to pack up.
<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>
South Africa’s social delivery systems are facing a crisis and need urgent funding from the government, the National Coalition for Social Services (Nacoss) said in Johannesburg on Tuesday. It said there is inadequate funding and care for adults and children with HIV/Aids, while homes for children and for the elderly are closing.
While anti-gun lobbyists are applauding the South African Police Service (SAPS) for its efforts in recovering lost and stolen guns, it has emerged that the police are incapable of looking after recovered guns in their possession. This is one finding of research conducted by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) on behalf of Gun Free South Africa (GFSA).
Local residents sang ”Nkosi sikelele kaffirtjie” whenever they were around. Mine security guards roughed them up and white trainees were paid twice what they were. These are some of the accusations black engineering trainees have levelled against Durban Roodepoort Deep. As allegations of racism surface, the union maintains that racial abuse across the sector is ”the norm”.
The black economic empowerment charter on information communications technology (ICT), which was released in draft form on Tuesday, is not merely being implemented to create a black middle class, said Advocate Dali Mpofu, the chairperson of the ICT charter working group.
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/ 16 February 2004
Professor Robin Broadhead, dean of the Malawi College of Medicine, specialises in children infected with HIV/Aids. The avenue of research that he is currently pursuing is the prevention of mother-to-child infections, a task hampered by the fact that most Malawian mothers breastfeed — there simply is no alternative.
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/ 4 February 2004
South African cellphone users have been being encouraged to turn their phones off on Wednesday for 24 hours in a national protest against cellular network operators. An anonymous chain e-mail currently in circulation asks users to not support cellular networks in a protest against what it calls ”rate increases and poor service”.
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/ 30 January 2004
Children’s rights organisations are accusing education officials of failing to act on cases of sexual abuse at schools. Luke Lamprecht, manager of the Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg said that while schools are happy to report suspected cases of abuse that occur outside of the school environment ”when it happens inside the schools it’s a whole other story, there’s a big cover-up”.