African leaders, farmers and heads of international development agencies will meet in Lagos on Friday hoping to bring a new lease of life to the continent’s degraded soil and so tackle food shortages affecting over 200-million Africans. The theme of the summit, which runs from June 9 to 13 is "Nourish the soil, feed the continent."
Do South Africa’s media avoid sensationalism? Do the media make a good contribution to addressing poverty and HIV/Aids in South Africa? What influence do the media have on South African society at large? This week, take part in an interactive quiz with 10 checkpoints to rate the health of South Africa’s media.
China said on Thursday it is battling a proliferation of new power plants that are being built without permission and threaten to upset plans for a more environmentally friendly energy mix. Local authorities have been moving ahead with new power plant construction to meet a serious electricity shortage in recent years.
It is the Cup of Dreams — and the Cup of Paradox. As hundreds of millions of people tune in for Friday’s opening of the football World Cup on the immaculate fields of Germany, there will be the temptation, if only for a moment, to forget the other reality: that 99% of soccer is played at amateur level.
The role of the South African government in the covert "rendition" of Khalid Mehmood Rashid is an affront to the foundational values of our democracy. The Constitution was written with the ghosts of those who had suffered arbitrary detention, torture or disappearance watching over its drafters with the expectation that never again would such abuses be allowed.
When the World Cup kicks off in Germany on Friday, millions of Vietnamese fans will combine two national passions — football and betting. Bars screening the matches, many of them after midnight, are tripling their beer and food stocks, anticipating a sustained, enthusiastic and noisy onslaught in one of the world’s most football-crazed nations.
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The Tafelsig anti-eviction movement on Wednesday called on residents in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, to boycott a by-election being held in the area. ”We don’t want to vote for anybody, because everybody sold us out,” claimed Ashraf Cassiem, chairperson of the anti-eviction movement in Tafelsig, part of Cape Town.
President Thabo Mbeki has reached new heights of public popularity, with current job-approval ratings matching the best ratings given to Nelson Mandela, the Afrobarometer survey said on Wednesday. According to the survey, conducted in January and February, nearly eight in 10 South Africans approved of the job Mbeki was doing as president. When asked about the way Mbeki had performed his job over the past year, 77% said they approved, with 28% strongly approving.
Dissident factions of two Darfur rebel groups that have rejected a peace deal for the troubled western Sudanese region are to sign onto the pact this week, African Union officials said on Wednesday. Splinter wings of the Sudan Liberation Movement and Justice and Equality Movement are to sign a specially prepared annex to the peace deal.