The average abused woman leaves her husband 37 times before she divorces him. After every lame excuse, every bunch of flowers and every empty promise, she takes him back again. And again. And again. Why? Women’s rights activists, social workers and clinical psychologists agree: abused women are kept in abusive relationships by a combination of fear, emotional or financial dependence, low self-esteem or a false sense of loyalty.
On May 19 1955, six brave women gathered the support of thousands of other women and marched in protest against the Senate Bill and the Separate Representation of Voters Act, which would finally remove the so-called coloured voters from the common voters’ roll. They wore black sashes, a symbol of mourning over the death of their constitutional rights.
South Africa has taken huge steps in the past few years to increase the rights of women in the public and private sectors and to change patriarchal attitudes. Still many gender experts believe the battle is far from won and some critics believe that in some instances women are being left behind.
In Freetown’s rubbish-strewn slums, where sick children defecate in sewers by pot-holed streets, music blaring from shops and taxis tells Sierra Leone’s youth that politicians have failed their war-ravaged country. The West African nation’s 1991 to 2002 civil war was infamous for drugged child soldiers who raped and mutilated thousands of civilians, but now young Sierra Leoneans hold in their hands the future of their country, one of the poorest on earth.
What do you do when you have a municipality that owes R56-million on its water bill and a company threatening to cut off water to 500 000 people? If you are Matjhabeng executive mayor Mathabo Leeto, you crack your whip, get it paid and avoid political embarrassment and disaster for your constituents.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi expressed shame on Tuesday over how an apparent disappearance of an South African Communist Party (SACP) donation had been handled. ”We think the whole matter is such a clumsy disgrace to our movement,” he said.
With pressure mounting on banks to make their products more comparable, a website that capitalises on the Competition Commission’s recommendations has been launched. The site, www.thinkmoney.co.za, reviews banking products and calculates comparative pricing based on the individual’s banking behaviour.
It took the human species about one million years to reach a population of one billion. Nowadays, we add another billion at the rate of every 14 years. Whereas a century ago, only 10% of the population lived in cities, by 2050 it will be closer to 75%. Tens of thousands of people migrate to cities every day. New megacities are sprouting, many of them on coastlines.
The United Nations resident representative in Sierra Leone on Tuesday warned that the war-scarred West African country cannot afford to fail to organise credible elections, ahead of weekend polls. Sierra Leoneans will vote on Saturday for the first time in five years, and only the second elections since the country emerged from a decade of war.
The discovery of a mutilated body on the N1 highway near Vanderbijlpark seven years ago resulted on Tuesday in three former police officers and a former reservist going on trial on charges of kidnapping and murder. The four have pleaded not guilty in the Pretoria High Court to charges of kidnapping and murdering 29-year-old Sandy Botomane in May 2000.