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/ 22 February 2005
In the fight against Aids, prevention still matters, but prevention programmes in Africa have so far largely failed. "Safe sex" messages promoting abstinence or condom use have been largely ignored. Most Africans, like most Europeans, have sex young, often and with a variety of partners. Few regularly use condoms.
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/ 22 February 2005
Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu is carrying the flag for her Cabinet colleagues. She is implementing President Thabo Mbeki’s <i>raison d’être</i> — to mesh the three levels of government to create jobs and halve poverty. Sisulu speaks
to Vicki Robinson about hard work, inspiration and a new approach to housing.
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/ 22 February 2005
Last Wednesday, after 13 years of negotiation, the Kyoto protocol on climate change came into force. No one believes that this treaty alone — which commits 30 developed nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 4,8% — will solve the problem. The reality of climate change is that the engines of progress have merely accelerated our rush to the brink.
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/ 22 February 2005
More than a decade after its last headcount, Nigeria is preparing to conduct the country’s fifth census this year. However, religion and ethnicity — long the bane of national life — appear set to bedevil the process. The eventual publication of statistics on religion and ethnicity could deepen existing divisions along these lines — and even lead to social unrest.
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/ 22 February 2005
In the annals of utterly shameless wartime propaganda, Britain’s casting of the Kenyan Mau Mau as bloodthirsty savages, and its own colonial administrators as heroic benefactors, is pretty much the gold standard. Now an Oxford scholar has unearthed new evidence of Britain’s ruthless response to the Mau Mau rebellion.
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/ 21 February 2005
It is understandable that the independent media should celebrate Jonathan Moyo’s political slide for he epitomised probably the worst form of abuse of power to settle both personal and state scores in recent times. As a Zimbabwean weekly noted, the information minister ”personalised his crusade against media freedom”.
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/ 21 February 2005
"They stand aside, and they say that these things just trickle off your tongue. To burn so bright, and to die so young. Phaswane Mpe never told us this, not in so many words, anyway, but what he was writing out was the process of his own possible dilemma." John Matshikiza writes about Mpe and K Sello Duiker.
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/ 21 February 2005
A bureaucratic hiatus is stalling plans to bring digitally interactive pay-television broadcasts to South Africa, while Namibia already enjoys this cutting-edge technology. The technology is proven also for South Africa, but there is no regulatory framework yet to run things.
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/ 21 February 2005
A constitutional duty rests on the state to prosecute alleged human rights abusers such as apartheid-era chemical and biological warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson, the Constitutional Court heard on Monday. The state is applying for leave to appeal against certain legal issues arising from Basson’s acquittal.