Percy Zvomuya reflects on two new books about Zimbabwe’s history.
Amini revolution seems to be taking place as customers leave the rarified air of banking halls to bank in a supermarket. Retailer banking is an idea that is catching on with an increasing number of customers, who are weary of high bank charges. Apart from the cost savings, there is also the revolutionary idea of a bank keeping retail hours.
Bruce Conradie, MD of Razor’s Wire Business Intelligence, broadly categorises loyalty programmes into three segments. The first is “loyalty currency”, which can be in the form of points, miles or bucks. These are accumulated and can be redeemed for rewards. Then there are loyalty programmes that offer the customer discounts on purchases.
It has been described at once as "historic," "symbolic" and an incident to be handled with caution. But what should really be made of the meeting of opposition leaders that saw rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara hugging and pledging to work together?
South Africa accounts for about half of the carbon emissions on the continent, says Richard Worthington of Earthlife Africa. He said the country has an "energy-intensive economy that produces among the highest rates of greenhouse gas emissions globally". For instance, South Africa produced 6,91 tonnes per person of fuel combustion carbon dioxide compared to Africa’s average of 0,86 tonnes per person.
A growing army of ragga lovers is pushing the music into the mainstream, writes Percy Zvomuya.
One of the catchy slogans from Zimbabwe’s former information minister Jonathan Moyo’s propaganda factory was "Zimbabwe shall never be a colony again". The wheel he set in motion continues to turn with the amendment of a section of the Witchcraft Suppression Act from 1899 that said witchcraft does not exist.
The Nigerian government’s handover of the hotly contested Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon two weeks ago concludes a quarrelsome chapter in the region’s history. The handover, brokered by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, followed a World Court ruling in favour of the territory being returned to Cameroon.
Wits University’s new policy of imposing a 10% levy on the income earned by academics for private work could benefit them, said Aubrey Blecher of the Wits Academic Staff Association this week. Blecher said having a large institution such as Wits at their side, rather than trying to negotiate as individuals with the corporate world, could work to the advantage of academics.
Chad and Sudan’s frosty relations are expected to plumb new lows following Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami’s statement that Sudan’s role in its conflict be investigated by the United Nations Security Council. The security council is no stranger to the conflict in Sudan.
A recently released report by Amnesty International says Norinco 9mm pistols, which are cheaply manufactured in China, are commonly used in cases of robbery, rape and other crimes in South Africa. The report notes that, despite South Africa’s stringent Firearms Control Act of 2000, firearms are filtering into the underworld after being lost or stolen.
The prospect of peace in the Darfur province of Sudan continues to recede as rebels fighting the Khartoum government dig in their heels. African Union mediators in the Nigerian capital of Abuja granted a second 48-hour extension recently to Darfur’s warring factions to consider an 85-page draft peace pact — this after United States Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick failed to persuade Darfur rebel groups to put pen to paper. (* stubborn)
The redistribution of posts to black people was a dangerous model of transformation, as it pitted blacks against whites and entrenched racial divisions, businessman and political gadfly Moeletsi Mbeki argued recently. Mbeki, the brother of President Thabo Mbeki, has repeatedly raised eyebrows through his criticism of government policies and actions, notably on Zimbabwe
The real test of a leader is not when to make a decision on turning north or south, but choosing which road will lead to one’s destination. For Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the new Liberian President, the dilemma is walking the road to reconciliation and economic recovery that may be barricaded by the indictment of Charles Taylor.
Sometimes our fate is written in our names. Never has this been truer for Morgan Tsvangirai, whose name means "sea dweller" and "the edge of sea". Tsvangirai talked up a storm at the congress of his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change as he tried to paddle his divided party to shore, warning the government of a "cold season of democratic resistance".
Attempts by Johannesburg City Council to sell the Huddle Park wetland in Linksfield, to an empowerment consortium for development before the completion of a thorough environmental impact assessment process may have dire environmental consequences for the residents of Alexandra township.
Banks are not usually seen as an easy touch for loans, usually requiring collateral that many would-be borrowers do not have. But in the case of student loans, leading banks say the only limitation is students who do not realise that money is available.
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/ 27 February 2006
Ten-year-old Zimbabwean Dianna Matika, who had a heart ailment, is one of the confirmed fatalities after an earthquake measuring 7,5 on the Richter scale hit Southern Africa in the early hours of Thursday morning. The girl from the eastern Zimbabwean city of Mutare died three minutes after the quake struck.
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/ 21 December 2005
The Movement for Democratic Change’s Paul Themba Nyathi had his passport confiscated on December 9 this year. He spoke to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> recently.
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/ 21 November 2005
With just more than a week to the controversial Senate elections in Zimbabwe, there is little sign of campaigning or of the traditional acrimonious exchange that normally occurs between the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
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/ 7 November 2005
The long-standing relationship between Movement for Democratic Change president Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy, Gibson Sibanda, is one of the casualties of the party feud over participation in the Senate elections. Their close and more than professional rapport for almost two decades of activism in the labour movement and the MDC has been irrevocably put on ice.
A new organisation called X-heid has been launched at the University of the Witwatersrand to initiate dialogue about transformation. But it has already stirred controversy on campus, with "offensive" X-heid posters having being pulled. One poster depicted a man urinating and was captioned "release it, speak out".
The living conditions of Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa have shocked a group of Zimbabwean pastors on a week-long fact-finding mission in the country. They have likened the Lindela Repatriation Centre, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, to a "concentration camp".
South Africa is often considered to be in the unfortunate position of having some of the world’s best laws and poli-cies to protect women and children but an inability to implement them. Take the roll-out of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for rape survivors to prevent HIV infection, a lot of dissatisfaction with the programme has been widespread.