Thousands of Eastern Cape schools opened for the new school year late last month without essential stationery, including basics such as pencils and paper. A lack of planning by the province’s education department is to blame for the blunder.
"Don’t take teaching for granted! It’s what made me what I am today." Julia Grey spoke to Angie Isaks, the people and conservation officerat Augrabies Falls National Park.
In Part 1 of this article, published in the December issue of <i>theTeacher</i>, I described how Roy Killen of Australia and I applied the powerful OBE concept of "Outcomes of Significance" to South Africa’s 12 Critical Outcomes." William Spady looks to the future in Part 2.
What on earth were the hordes of South African observers doing in Zimbabwe? They certainly didn’t see the election we witnessed, if their reports are anything to go by. Living it up at the Meikles, no doubt, and probably shopping up a storm on their allowances. We should ask for our money back. It is true that there are none so blind as those who will not see, and the free and fair bill of health bestowed on the poll is a joke.
Three thousand more workers were served with retrenchment notices this week as the Congress of South African Trade Unions — Cosatu — suffered a double blow after government and business refused to accede to its demands aimed at stemming a "tidal wave" of job losses. This has raised fears that a crippling national strike is now inevitable.
In South Africa, 9% of all teen deaths are suicides. In fact, only car accidents and homicide kill more young people between the ages of 15 and 24. Lourens Schlebusch of the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in Durban is a world expert on suicide. Currently, he estimates there are at least 20 to 25 suicides per day in South Africa.
Ethnic clashes, blamed on competition for increasingly scarce water and grazing, are sweeping northern Kenya, as drought and famine intensify in the neglected region. Since the beginning of the year, more than 100 people have been killed in renewed violence perpetrated under the cover of long-simmering ethnic animosities, and fueled by the myriad conflicts which surround northern Kenya.
This week, Lemmer’s 1973 Escort is at the garage, so he’s been enjoying the subtle pleasures of breaking in a new pair of vellies. He was thus unusually affronted by a particularly snooty Arrive Alive radio advertisement that outlined what pests pedestrians are, before admitting grudgingly that ”pedestrians are here to stay”. Oom Krisjan imagines that if Jozi copywriters weren’t so busy paying off their Volvos they might have remembered that pedestrians were here first.
Gbagbo can tell angry supporters he is complying with a UN resolution rather than admit to caving in. The Pretoria Agreement on Côte d’Ivoire signed at the presidential guest house has all the high-pressure, belt-and-braces characteristics of a South African-brokered peace deal in Africa.
Cláudio Hummes, the Archbishop of Sao Paolo, is a potential successor for Pope John Paul II. One of 15 children, he is a former radical sometimes accused of trimming his views to further his career. As bishop of Santo Andre from 1975 to 1996, he opposed Brazil’s military regime and backed workers’ action. See the other candidates in line for the role of the 264th pope: