Ethiopians like to look spic and span. Whether in western suits or traditional white cotton shawls, their clothing is kept spotless. The same cannot be said for the sprawling slums of Addis Ababa. In just over a century, Ethiopia’s capital has grown from a royal village founded by an African queen to a metropolis of over three million people.
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Former deputy president Jacob Zuma has welcomed the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision to charge him on two counts of corruption. The ANC’s National Working Committee said it had accepted Zuma’s request to ”withdraw his participation from all ANC structures pending the completion of the legal process.” Zuma will however remain ANC deputy president.
Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa has emerged as the favourite to succeed Thabo Mbeki as president of South Africa in a survey. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel emerges as second favourite choice of South Africans and official opposition leader Tony Leon is in third place.
Encompassing subsidiary companies Nedbank and Mutual & Federal, Old Mutual’s black economic empowerment (BEE) deal, announced in April, was among the biggest and broadest-based ever. It also displayed some unusual and innovative features, such as a BEE holding in the London-listed company rather than the local company and the involvement of customers.
The residential property market is showing signs of stabilising as activity has dropped marginally. There is, however, robust growth from the middle-income houses, according to the second-quarter FNB Residential Property Barometer. According to Ed Grondel, CEO of FNB Homeloans, the drop in activity can be attributed to seasonality, as winter sets in and fewer houses come to market.
"I did not like doing this but the women would come to me crying, some saying that they already had ten children or more, and that they could not care for additional children," says Mariam, an abortion practitioner in Kenya. "One even threatened that if I refused, she would hang herself in my hut." Mariam’s story highlights the shortcomings of reproductive health care in refugee camps.
Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert’s position on Afrikaner culture, as influenced and reflected by the Afrikaans press, accords a unique perspective on a country in flux. Kevin Bloom questions the former politician on these matters, and gets his views on contemporary politics, media freedom and Caxton.
A website dedicated to questioning the motives and credentials of Moneyweb journalist Julius Cobbett has been uploaded by investment group Elan Suisse Capital. The site appears in the form of a letter in which the directors of the investment group focus on the journalist’s age, qualifications and experience.
Mixed messages from the Angolan government about the timing of elections have raised doubts about whether Angolans will indeed go to the polls in 2006, as promised by the government over the past year. Two senior officials responsible for the country’s first poll since 1992 recently made contradictory statements about whether election preparations were running according to schedule.
It was October 11, 2004, and the world looked beautiful to KMG Prinsika. She had given birth to her third child, a wide-eyed baby girl she and her husband named Pushmi Moonesha. The happy parents told the gynaecologist that they’d had enough children, and it was time for Prinsika to be sterilized. But on December 26, 2004, the world became a horror for the couple.