The constitutional right of access to free water was infringed by Johannesburg Water through its installation of prepaid meters in Phiri, Soweto, according to a ruling made by the Johannesburg High Court last week. Judge Moroa Tsoka declared that the rights of Phiri residents had been violated and said the prepaid meters were ”illegal and unconstitutional”.
It’s 6am and it’s already busy at the Bree Street taxi rank. Taxis are honking their horns, pavement entrepreneurs are hawking their goods and commuters are forming lines, waiting for their taxis. It may be early for some, but Zodwa Khumalo, one of only a handful of women taxi drivers, started her day at 3am.
It is a matter of hours to go before voting stations open for Saturday’s elections in Zimbabwe. The Mail & Guardian Online spoke to South African political parties and NGOs ahead of the controversial poll. ”Mugabe will rule again. It would be a miracle if he didn’t,” said the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Musa Zondi.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Lawyers’ Association has effectively been barred from observing Saturday’s Zimbabwean elections. The association filed an application to the Zimbabwean embassy in Botswana at the beginning of March, but has not received any formal response.
If you build it, they will come. When City of Johannesburg councillor Bongani Zondi looked at Soweto’s Arthur Ashe tennis courts, he didn’t see dusty tarmac and frayed nets. In his mind, a library stood there, welcoming Sowetans to a world of books and knowledge.
”Just because we are poor doesn’t mean our brains can’t function properly,” said Zandile Gamede (16) at a laptop handover ceremony in Kliptown, Soweto, on Thursday. It is the first time that the international One Laptop per Child initiative has come to South Africa.
South African high flyers are known to love their drink; how some of them handle it is a different story.
The perfect hangover cure has long been the Holy Grail for barflies and near-teetotallers alike.
Bestselling author Eoin Colfer, whose Artemis Fowl series of action-fantasy novels has sold more than nine million copies worldwide, may well wish to operate under a cloak of secrecy — as his famous teenaged creation does — when he arrives in South Africa this week.
In Johannesburg, getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy is as easy as ordering a chicken burger. A ”Dr Maria” is advertising her services on street poles in the inner city, promising: ”Quick Same Day Abortions 100% Guarantee [sic] Safe & Pain Free”. A Mail & Guardian team goes undercover to find out just how easy it is to get an illegal abortion.