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/ 20 November 2006

Miracle in the Karoo

Out of the vast stretch of Karoo farmlands, surrounded by hills, emerges a cluster of simply elegant cream coloured buildings with grey corrugated iron roofs. They house, among other institutions, the Hantam Community Education Trust’s school, Umthombo Wolwazi (Fountain of Knowledge), built on 11ha of donated land on the farm Grootfontein between Colesberg and Steynsburg in the Northern Cape.

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/ 20 November 2006

Rich nations ‘blocking’ cheap drugs

Poor people are needlessly dying because drug companies and the governments of rich countries are blocking the developing world from obtaining affordable medicines, according to an Oxfam report released recently. Five years to the day after the Doha declaration — a ground­breaking deal to give poor countries access to cheap drugs — was signed at the World Trade Organisation, Oxfam says things are worse.

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/ 20 November 2006

Is it time to import talent?

No matter what excuses are made about player availability, poor preparation times and shambolic administration, 2006 will go down as a true annus horribilis for South Africa on the international soccer front. With the domestic game producing little in the way of international standard footballers, has the time arrived to look outside our borders for players?

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/ 20 November 2006

Mister BEE

Few people have had their fingers in more (black economic empowerment) transactions than Martin Kingston, a white male banker born in England. The investment adviser is one of the best wheeler-dealers in South Africa. A small man with strong features and close-cropped hair half-rises from his chair to greet me, writes Jocelyn Newmarch.

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/ 20 November 2006

The limits of top-down development

Thabo Mbeki aspires to crafting a "developmental state" capable of directing the economy on to a path of innovation, sustainable growth, redistribution and poverty reduction. Adopted as a goal in part because the level of private investment has been disappointing, the aspiration is otherwise built on the ANC’s admiration for the East and South-East Asian economies, where rapid economic growth over the past three decades has been guided by activist states.

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/ 20 November 2006

The sun is free in Africa

Kerosene lamps and sore eyes were once routine elements of grading student homework in Zimbabwe. Solar electricity has changed that. Caroline Hombe, a 35-year-old teacher in rural Mhondoro, can go through the pile of books stacked on her table without worrying that the onset of darkness will put an end to her work.