In the arid mountain ranges of the Little Karoo in the Western Cape, a remarkable vision is quickly becoming reality. In an area where the last big game was wiped out more than 150 years ago, a dedicated team of conservationists is reintroducing animals that once ranged across the vast plains in great numbers. <i>Earthyear</i> reports on an ambitious rehabilitation project with a big vision.
The intermittent debate around the role of black intellectuals, especially academics — whether they are absent from public debates and hence have minimal impact on critical policy issues — is apt and needs to be urgently addressed. Though these accusations are partly grounded in fact, there are gaps in the analyses that need to be confronted.
Attracting greater foreign direct investment may indeed be the key to South Africa’s future economic growth, but it is certainly no easy task. Perhaps the answer lies in South Africa’s reserves of human capital, the most striking of which are members of the country’s highly trained medical community. South Africa is well positioned to become a leading destination for outsourced medical services.
Three years ago John Assimwe knew almost nothing about Africa’s insect life. Like most Ugandans, he was more preoccupied with the tall task of making a living in spite of the country’s crushing poverty and sparse employment opportunities. But then he stumbled upon a dream money-spinner: collecting rare insects from the country’s lush tropical forests, pickling them and exporting them to wealthy private collectors.
"You may not like what he does, but are you prepared to give up his right to do it?" That is the tag line on Milos Forman’s 1996 movie <i>The People vs Larry Flynt</i>, which tells the story of how the bellicose founder of <i>Hustler</i> magazine defended his first amendment rights in courts across the US. If they made a movie about local porn king Joe Theron, the tag line wouldn’t be much different.
That’s what happens when the gentry try to behave like common people. They themselves become common. But unlike August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, the same could hardly be said of Jemima Goldsmith, until recently aka Haiqa Khan. Fresh from the talaq queue, the blond billionaire’s daughter is partying up a storm with celebrities and the like in some of London’s poshest clubs.
The eThekwini Council has discovered — through a forensic audit of contracts from the eThekwini municipality for Durban’s uShaka Marine World — that two directors of a joint venture that had won a tender were, in fact, salaried employees — who had no idea that they were directors and had not received any share of the profits. Suddenly, fronting, which has been around for a while, is in the news.
Protea Glen residents are to march on the Lenasia Office of the Sheriff on Wednesday to protest bond default evictions in the Soweto suburb, a local leader said. Protea Glen Residents’ Association secretary Tumi Kwuateng said a teenager, George Malatje, was injured by a police rubber bullet during protests on Tuesday.
Nathan Sharpe replaced injured George Gregan as captain and Chris Whitaker moved into the vacant scrumhalf spot in the Australian line-up announced on Wednesday for the series-opening Tri-Nations rugby union Test against New Zealand. Sharpe was the mainstay in the second row for the Wallabies last year, playing in 14 Tests.
Ernie Els isn’t going to beat himself up for shooting 80 in the final round of the US Open, which cost him a chance at a third title and the number-one world ranking. But he let the United States Golf Association have it — not only for the way Shinnecock Hills was set up in the final round, but for comments by a top official that Els gave up.