South African maize prices have surged by up to 18% in the past week alone, and traders say the rally may still have some way to go after one of the driest seasons in years. An industry group has drawn comparisons with events five years ago, when soaring prices forced the government to provide aid to millions of poor South Africans for whom maize is a staple.
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/ 22 January 2007
South Africa should forcibly isolate patients infected with a highly drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis to stop the disease from spreading on the HIV/Aids-hit continent. The outbreak of extreme drug resistant tuberculosis, which has killed at least 74 people in the last several months, may force authorities to override patients’ personal rights.
Yanked from the sweaty crush, Victor Makhuvha puffs out his chest, throws a few bare-fisted jabs and minutes later finishes off his opponent with several rapid-fire blows. Makhuvha is unlikely to become a household name beyond a cluster of villages in Gaba, a lush part of Limpopo, a northern province in South Africa.
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/ 18 December 2006
Jozi-H, a new television series set in a fictional Johannesburg hospital, enters a crowded genre, but this medical drama offers something different — a glimpse at life in a society ravaged by violent crime. The production follows the same format dramas like ER, with breakneck editing, punchy dialogue and overlapping story lines that play out over several episodes.
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/ 12 December 2006
Scientists in South Africa unveiled the country’s most powerful weapon yet in their fight against Aids, malaria and tuberculosis when they switched on a new supercomputer dedicated to scientific research this week. The supercomputer is designed to process huge amounts of complex information and to deliver data with astonishing speed.
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/ 1 December 2006
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By sun-up, Valencia Mofokeng has her modest home in the ramshackle black township, Orange Farm, near Johannesburg humming like a well-oiled machine. Her six small children have bathed in a plastic washbasin, the dirt yard is swept, the bed is made and Mofokeng is dishing out a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese slices.
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/ 27 November 2006
In a country where HIV/Aids kills 900 people each day, full hospitals and beleaguered doctors are nothing new. But at one hospital in rural KwaZulu-Natal province, what could be a new public health nightmare is taking its toll as doctors and nurses grapple with a new, highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.
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/ 13 November 2006
When high school principal Velaphi Mthembu started to get death threats and found himself living in fear of violent skirmishes, he organised a fierce counterattack to protect his students and staff. Pupils at ED Mashabane Secondary School in Evaton near Johannesburg were recruited to expose troublemaking peers.
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/ 24 October 2006
A South African cultural rights group on Tuesday urged the government to establish legal ground rules for male circumcision rituals to prevent botched surgeries by traditional healers. Over the last decade 83 people have died — including 19 this year alone — in the Eastern Cape province as a result of the age-old practice that marks the passage of boys into manhood.
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/ 29 September 2006
Music star Zola, who played a gangster in the Oscar-winning film Tsotsi, has urged South Africa to back a United Nations-driven pact aimed at controlling weapons around the world. Zola said weak gun restrictions fed crime and drug addiction among teens in poverty stricken communities.