There’s modest growth in the broadsheets, but the really big circulation gains in local weekly newspapers are coming from the tabloids. Andy Davis unravels a segment that mirrors the international trends.
Throughout the developing world appropriate microfinance has helped address the poverty and vulnerability of millions of poor households in the informal sector. The United Nations has declared 2005 the Year of Microcredit. With a few exceptions, however, South Africa lacks the sort of poverty-oriented microfinance institutions common in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Why is this?
The week before last, Dr Anban Pillay made certain statements about pharmacists and pricing regulations ("Pills without frills"). The Department of Health is now in the unenviable position of having to deal with the aftermath of introducing a fee that, in the words of Judge Jeanette Traverso, appears to be a "thumbsuck". Lorraine Osman exercises her right to reply.
Smarting after the setbacks in New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England, the senior cricketers of South Africa’s national side are getting ready for the November visit to India and will be warming up in the opening round of the new Supersport Series matches this week. The pick of the crop is set for the Sahara Stadium (Kingsmead) in Durban from Thursday to Sunday as the relatively inexperienced KZN Dolphins line up against the might of Western Province-Boland.
If American businessman Malcolm Glazer wants to buy Manchester United, he’ll have to overcome fierce opposition from fans of the famous English soccer club.
Worried about higher ticket prices and loss of the club’s British heritage, fans’ groups mobilised on Monday to block any takeover by the multimillionaire Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner.
Vincent Hogg, former chief executive of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, is to drop a bombshell into the International Cricket Council’s investigation of racism within the sport in Zimbabwe. Hogg will inform the ICC’s investigators, Indian solicitor-general Goolam Vahanvati and Justice Steven Majiedt, this week about several incidents involving black ZCU directors.
Four years after Zimbabwe’s land reform campaign turned violent, South Africa and Namibia are facing the same conundrum, struggling to redress imbalances from British and German colonial rule. As in Zimbabwe, the vast majority of land in South Africa and Namibia is owned by white farmers, descendants of settlers who under colonial rule were given choice land.
”Oh, we’re post-gay” — that was a reported comment in the wake of the recent lesbian and gay Pride parade, from a couple who didn’t attend. It was doubtless said light-heartedly, and may have expressed no more than a lack of any desire to go parading. But ”post-gay” is also a new addition to the heap of slippery terms people use to define their sexualities.
World champion Australia begins the first of a four-Test battle on Wednesday to end a 35-year drought, but the battlefield in India is a dry, grass-less pitch that threatens to crack quickly and suit the hosts better. ”It’s pretty dry,” both the Australians and the Indians said after a preliminary inspection of the pitch early this week. But the Indians were delighted as it will help their spinners get the ball turning big and early.
Israeli troops pressed on with their offensive in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the United Nations was set to vote on a resolution calling for a halt to the onslaught that has killed almost 80 Palestinians. The death toll mounted further as a Palestinian gunmen was killed by an Israeli tank shell fired at the Jabaliya refugee camp.
50 000 trapped by Israeli assault