‘Half-naaitjies [little bastards].” This is one of the stinging labels that children of farm labourers in South Africa have endured for generations. Children like these have, for centuries, been denied any value beyond the cheap muscle-power they provide to farm owners.
Childhood is a stage of human development full of promise and endless possibilities. The influences that shape the mind and body of the young person have lasting effects. These include the obvious such as factual knowledge and conceptual thinking as taught in schools, as well as the general development of value systems and a sense of morality as shaped by family and society.
The next best thing to travelling to other countries is meeting foreigners in your own. So, even before the International Confederation of Principals (ICP) convention began earlier this month, I was relishing the prospect of gathering with more than 2 000 principals from 33 countries as diverse as Ghana, Canada and Singapore.
Just more than a decade ago, Cameroon drafted a law that was intended to regulate commercial use of the country’s forests. In spite of this, corruption and uncontrolled exploitation are putting forest areas at risk, say NGOs. The 1994 Law on the Regulation of Forests, Fauna and Fishing contains clauses that limit logging, with a view to protecting the environment.
Ask anybody who has made the most money out of empowerment and they will probably say Tokyo Sexwale, whose shares in Mvelaphanda this week were worth R400-million. Not far behind is Hosken Consolidated Investments’ John Copelyn, whose shareholding until recently was worth R358-million. Unlike Sexwale, though, Copelyn, is white.
Conserving and recognising a country’s natural and cultural heritage are important elements of nation building. This is especially true in South Africa where there has been an historical bias towards recognising and preserving European-based histories and landmarks, while indigenous cultures and forms of knowledge were systematically undermined.
One of eight recognised indigenous sports codes, jukskei is an all-South African game devised by white settlers as far back as 200 years ago. As they travelled across the land, they spent their spare time competing to see who could throw the pins of the yokes of the oxen closest to the target, which was a stick planted in the ground.
South Africa’s government considers tourism to be one of its main economic development strategies. In 2002, South Africa was rated the fastest-growing tourism destination worldwide, with a 12% increase in the third quarter of 2002 alone. In 2003, a 4,2% increase in overseas visits was recorded.
The Industrial Development Corporation can reflect on its results in one of two ways. It can bask in the glory of a robust nine-month period, as it did recently. The other view is to say that the stock market boom has given it considerable but artificial strength. The funder unveiled its results for the nine months to March as it prepares to move up a gear in its big project investments.
The life industry’s reputation has taken a mauling this year as pension fund adjudicator Vuyani Ngalwana issued a blizzard of rulings in favour of consumers. Many of these rulings force the life companies to reimburse clients who have been over-charged in violation of their own rules, or where customers have been penalised for requesting that their investments be transferred.