According to the National Youth Victimisation Study 2005, 4,3-million youngsters were assaulted, robbed or sexually assaulted — or fell victim to other crimes such as housebreaking, theft or car hijacking — in the year since September 2004.
People in South Africa are scared of rampaging crime. Robbery, of course, is only one of many crimes over which South Africans obsess. With constant reports in the media of carjackings, rapes and murders, and with friends and family readily sharing their personal brushes with violence, it is no wonder that crime and safety issues are on many minds.
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The National Prosecuting Authority has expressed disappointment at Jacob Zuma’s acquittal on a charge of rape, while the Democratic Alliance said Zuma has emerged with his credibility as a leader severely damaged. Other parties have also called for a reform of rape laws.
South Africans are getting heavier as they take after the Western world in diet and lack of exercise. This was one of the conclusions in a report presented by the Medical Research Council (MRC) on Wednesday. According to the report, 17% of children between the ages of one and nine were either overweight or obese.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has rejected a claim by the Department of Health that it is reconsidering a government’s invitation to attend the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/Aids. After initially being barred from going to the special session, the TAC last week turned down the department’s offer to be one of 14 civil society organisations to join the South African delegation.
Robbie Williams ended the South African leg of his world tour with fireworks and a matching bang. Tisha Eetgerink was there.
"The educational system in this country should be Africanised," proclaimed Dr Mathole Motshekga this week at a seminar on cultural values within the human rights framework. "Our judgement is biased to the West and does not do justice to African culture and religion that is based on spirituality." Motshekga told an audience of commissioners and human rights workers.
"Not suitable for children under 17", says the box of the little Blow-Up dolls. Nothing to do with sex, the bright plastic figurines have a bomb-shaped head with a fuse, and angry eyes telling you they’re ready to blow up any minute. The display of Dunnys — little plastic creatures — on the same shelf states: "This is a work of art, not a toy."
Hip hop will be blasting from the speakers and aerosol fumes will thicken the air as the country’s most talented graffiti crews line up for the Write4Gold 2006 graffiti competition in Johannesburg next month. It is the first time that the Germany-based graffiti and aerosol art competition goes global. Write4Gold, a non-profit and previously pure European event, will visit 17 cities on four continents.
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma was playing with fire when he had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, says the CEO of loveLife, South Africa’s national HIV-prevention programme for youth. Zuma has been accused of raping an HIV-positive woman and is currently on trial in the Johannesburg High Court.