What is President Robert Mugabe up to? Two events in the past fortnight lay bare the wily octogenarian’s strategy. On Monday he attempted to play the statesman. In an act of showmanship, he tried to give opposition leaders tractors and other equipment. In the same week his Cabinet authorised a raft of constitutional changes, which point to a far more sinister strategy.
It’s 2pm and 16 degrees Celsius. Council workers in green overalls are side by side, unravelling rolls of kikuyu grass on to recently flattened earth. They are involved with what Johannesburg City Parks (JCP) — reality-show style — terms an ”X-treme park makeover” in Wilgeheuwel, near Roodepoort on Johannesburg’s West Rand. The 24-hour makeover is aimed at creating fanfare about the environment.
Last week John Perlman, the former host of SAfm’s morning show, started a new chapter at Gauteng regional radio station Kaya FM, hosting Today with John Perlman, a show he hopes to have a long-term commitment to. ”I’m not a dabbler. It’s not something I do,” Perlman said.
Zimbabwe’s government this week said it had signed a "social contract" with business and labour unions, a deal it says will effectively bring an end to years of political and economic crisis within the next six months. But one of the key partners denies ever agreeing to any such deal, while a 50% increase in electricity charges by the state power utility just days after the announcement means industry will find it impossible to keep its pledge to freeze prices.
With a new burst of local flavour, the long-anticipated musical, the Lion King, will officially open on Wednesday in Johannesburg. This is the tenth production of the musical worldwide, and the tenth year since it started its first run on Broadway. But many feel that with the South African run, the production has now come home.
Zimbabwe’s remaining foreign investors, who have chosen to ride out the world’s fastest economic decline, could see their patience rewarded with the seizure of at least half their assets if radicals in President Robert Mugabe’s government have their way. Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana is set to push a new law through Parliament whose ”various measures will accelerate the implementation of the indigenisation”.
Since the suspension of the national lottery in March this year, the estimated weekly average of R10-million spent on tickets and R2-million to R3-million spent on Sportstake — the lottery’s soccer betting game — has not been near a ticket counter. So how much of that money is now being channelled into other betting ventures?
Already translated into more than 40 languages, the latest version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser now sports an Afrikaans interface thanks to Translate.org.za, a non-profit organisation working to give local flavour to open-source software. The Afrikaans version was translated by one man and rigorously tested thereafter.
In Braamfontein, Johannesburg, under the M1 North highway, a group of street children huddles together for warmth. Metres away, seemingly oblivious to the morning traffic, a middle-aged homeless man lays down on the ground, adjusting the heap of white dustbin bags blanketed around him.
With a new plan to bury the nation in a few million books, a radio DJ is the latest to get on board to highlight the importance of reading for South Africa’s future. A book-distributing initiative has been launched by youth radio station 5fm’s Kevin Fine to deliver more than three million books to underprivileged schools and communities.