Libby Young `Salaam za Afajiri. Nawatakia wote siku nzuri yenye mafanikio mema tuu,’ says Nuru.” It’s just an ordinary statement in Swahili. But what makes it different is that it’s posted on the Internet. The Internet, we all know, is almost entirely colonised by English, or more accurately, American culture, the same one that has […]
Catherine Knox Teenagers as young as 13 and 14 were treated for drug overdoses at last weekend’s annual Splashy Fen music festival, near Underberg, in KwaZulu-Natal. Dr Grant Lindsay, who has been providing emergency services at the festival for the past seven years, said he treated seven to 10 people a night for overdoses or […]
As the Internet spreads like wildfire across the African continent, Mike Jensen assesses our relative connectivity levels The Internet has spread rapidly through Africa over the last 18 months. In May 1996 only 16 countries had full Internet access. Now more than three- quarters of the capital cities in Africa are online – 44 of […]
Andy Capostagno John Robbie is fond of saying, “There are only two kinds of people in the world. The Irish and people who wish they were Irish”. I found myself pondering those words while watching Catriona McKiernan burst from the pack, chase the leaders, reel them in and finally trot home in glorious isolation to […]
Special Mail &Guardian supplement on Internet connectivity in Africa Developing Africa’s information economy is of paramount importance, writes David Shapshak The Internet will finally take off in Africa in 1998. But taking the information age into the continent, which dramatically lacks the infrastructure needed for conveying the Internet and normal telecommunications, may prove to be […]
Tangeni Amupadhi While police statistics show a decrease and a ”stabilisation” in serious crime over the past four years, a research agency has predicted criminality will increase over the next seven years. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) says in the Nedcor/Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Crime Index that murder, burglary and rape could shoot […]
Mike Jensen Since the Internet depends on the quality of the underlying telecommunication infrastructure, the poor quality of the network remains a basic impediment to rapid growth in Internet use. While most African countries are extending and modernising their telecommunication networks, sub-Saharan Africa’s tele-density has stayed at less than one per 200 inhabitants. The telecommunication […]
If the international community wants to help Rwanda and its people in their recently declared process of reconciliation, the massive psychological impact of the genocide on the population of the country will have to taken into account. I cannot help but remember the speed with which the families of those who died in the crash […]
The food sector of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is overcrowded, with too few companies offering shareholders significant returns on their investments. In January 1996 the food index stood at 9 300. Within a year, it had fallen 100 points, recovered its losses and remained at this level until the October 1997 market correction. Between that […]
THURSDAY, 7.00PM: THREE people were killed and one injured on Thursday afternoon in a taxi that was attacked between Libode and Umtata in Transkei, while three people were injured in a taxi-related shooting in Mamelodi near Pretoria. Three people have been arrested in connection with the Mamelodi incident. Police in Mamelodi fired teargas and stun […]