The dominant representations of sex prove that local media’s pro-equality approach in August of every year is a big con. Professor Tawana Kupe argues that while women are seen as sexy, the jobs they do are not.
Zwelakhe Sisulu’s major goal is to create a significant TV platform across the African continent. It’s a tough proposition that requires he draws on the lessons of a lifetime in media. Kevin Bloom speaks to the former SABC chief executive.
Growing anger over lack of telecommunications access is mobilising poor communities who say they have sat and waited for long enough. Earlier this month at least 400 people from around the country came together at the People’s Forum on Communication Rights hosted by the Freedom of Expression Institute.
”The Bentley Flying Spur is just about as unostentatious as a 5m long, 2 300kg lump of perfectly tailored Bentley auto-mobile can be — which is to say, about as unostentatious as the Beckhams’ wedding. Asking a Bentley not to draw attention to itself is like asking the pope to loosen up,” writes Giles Smith.
Every week, the women in white can be found at Monrovia’s dilapidated old airfield, praying for the safety of the Liberian nation. They gather by the hundreds, braving torrential rain or blazing sunshine, determined that God would never forget them again.
Corruption is costing Africa’s oil industry billions of dollars annually, says Peter Eigen, founder and chairperson of Transparency International (TI) — a non-governmental group based in Berlin that monitors and fights graft. He made the comment to journalists at a gathering organised by TI South Africa in Johannesburg.
Stories to do with fishing rights seem to attract clichés like a vrot snoek draws flies, as Krisjan Lemmer might say. In the past few weeks, the Mail & Guardian has run several stories about the goings-on in this highly profitable industry, and headlines have been full of references to ”fishy deals”, people ”fishing in troubled waters” or ”trawling for politicians”.
A government task team is investigating ways to tighten control over provinces and local government, including measures to attach much tougher conditions to funding transfers in areas such as health, education and housing. But, for now, proposals being discussed in the Forum of South African Directors General seek to reallocate functions and soften the boundaries between spheres of government
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Heavy rains and floods from Tropical Storm Stan hit Central America over the weekend, killing 15 in El Salvador, four in Guatemala and four in Honduras, authorities said on Monday. In El Salvador, the driving rain sparked a number of mudslides that led the government to declare a national ”red alert”.