"I have travelled throughout the country, and I have listened to people. In Nkayi, in Gutu, in Chiredzi, in Mudzi — everywhere I have been, it is evident that the people want change. They want a better life. People are desperate for a new beginning. They are desperate for national renewal and rebirth."
"One recent morning we had just arrived in Mbalabala in rural Matabeleland. We had stopped at a bus station where women waited for a bus. Some of them were roasting maize to sell. As we started the introductions, one of the women interjected: ‘I am sorry you have wasted your petrol and time coming here. We have already made up our minds to support you, Simba.’"
"’This country is no good. There is no electricity. I have got to get out of here …’ These words were spoken not by one of the many desperate residents of Harare West, the constituency for which I am campaigning as an aspiring MP, but by Vhene, my six-year-old son."
"I have lived in Mazowe West since July 1990, when I purchased a farm in the area after I was forced to retire at the age of 42 from Robert Mugabe’s government. I had been part of the first group of African senior civil servants responsible for the establishment and development of Zimbabwe from the first day of independence in 1980."
<b>ON CIRCUIT:</b> Julian Schnabel’s <i>The Diving Bell and the Butterfly</i>, as well as <i>The Game Plan</i> and <i>The Spiderwick Chronicles</i>.
Three men lounge on plastic camping chairs at what looks like a picnic site. Three of them are shirtless, their fat bellies sagging over their trousers.
JSE-listed City Lodge Hotels has concluded a broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction including its employees, the University of Johannesburg’s school of tourism and hospitality and black-controlled investment company Vuwa Investments, the company said late on Wednesday.
Since 2002, the Zimbabwean military has consistently threatened to veto any poll that goes against its preferred candidate. So what can voters do? How should the region react to an incumbent ruler who portrays the election campaign as little more than an attempt to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle?
"The loyalty to Mugabe of rank-and-file soldiers is by no means guaranteed. But among the army’s top brass, some powerful forces are not ready to contemplate defeat." Patrick Smith, editor of <i>Africa Confidential</i>, contemplates the shifting loyalties of politicians.
Credible elections in Zimbabwe were among the main objectives of the talks between the Zimbabwean government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last year. But despite new regulations, Zimbabwe’s polls are unlikely to be free or fair, writes Tiseke Kasambala.
Standard Bank has been selected as the best emerging-market bank in Africa, as well as in South Africa, in the annual <i>Global Finance</i> magazine’s <i>Best Emerging Market Banks in Africa</i> survey. In addition, Standard Bank Namibia and Stanbic Bank Uganda won top honours in their respective countries.
Chinese Olympic organisers are rushing to renovate bathrooms at flagship Olympic venues after complaints about a lack of Western-style sit-down toilets, an official said Wednesday. The problem emerged during a series of test events conducted over the past several months to determine whether venues were ready to stage the Games.
A senior manager at a world heritage African wildlife park was arrested on Tuesday as an investigation into the killing of 10 rare mountain gorillas gathered pace, a government minister said. Local environment experts said that "profound internal disagreements" within the conservation institute could lie behind the massacre.
Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 2 424 770 at noon on March 18 Mothers and children in South Africa are dying in alarming numbers. Far from being on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing child mortality by two-thirds, the country is among only a dozen worldwide where child deaths are rising. […]
The Democratic Alliance (DA) submitted parliamentary questions to President Thabo Mbeki on Monday, asking him to clear the air on his alleged involvement in the arms deal. The <i>Sunday Times</i> reported that business magnate Tokyo Sexwale had made an "impassioned plea" for Mbeki "to take the ANC into his confidence".
Share prices are tumbling and the yen is rising, but Japanese businessman on Monday got one thing to cheer — underwear to tame their bulging waistlines. Wacoal announced on Monday it was making a full entry into the men’s market with undergarments especially for men with a bit of flab.
The Airbus A380, the world’s biggest passenger plane, took off Tuesday from Singapore’s Changi Airport for its inaugural commercial flight to London, the jet’s first European destination. Flight SQ308, operated by A380 launch customer Singapore Airlines, departed Changi Airport’s new Terminal Three at 9.19am.
Senior African National Congress leader Tokyo Sexwale has called on President Thabo Mbeki to explain his involvement in the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal, a media report said on Sunday. Sexwale made an impassioned plea to a hushed ANC national executive committee meeting on Friday for Mbeki "to take the ANC into his confidence".
Jocelyn Newmarch speaks to Tom Eaton about his first foray into literary fiction.
Simon Njami on the show he has curated for the Jo’burg Art Fair and why he has called it <i>As You Like It</i>.
<b>ON CIRCUIT:</b> <i>Love in the Time of Cholera</i>, <i>One Missed Call</i> and <i>Step Up 2 the Streets</i>.
A study conducted in Uganda and published this month in the <i>Lancet</i> has found that home-based ARV therapy provided by trained lay counsellors could be the best option for HIV-infected people living in remote, rural areas. Mortality dropped more than 90% among HIV-positive participants and their families receiving home-based care.
For two months Zuma has addressed the business world, Afrikaners, the Jewish community and farmers, as well as granting interviews to the international media, in an attempt to articulate what he stands for. Other African National Congress leaders must be appalled by his repeated bouts of foot-in-mouth disease.
While most of the country’s challenges — political uncertainty, a downturn in the economy and power failures — are manageable, crime has emerged as the one factor which consumers and businesses feel powerless to tackle. Anecdotal evidence suggests that violent house robberies are increasing.
"About half the pupils in my class suffer in some way or another from the effects of alcohol abuse by their parents and people around them."
The apparent détente between the national Health Department and the Treatment Action Campaign is to be applauded, but will it stick?
In order to pursue a civil claim for damages in the high court, regional airline Comair is seeking an order from the Competition Tribunal declaring that an incentive scheme for travel agents that was run by South African Airways (SAA) was a prohibited practice in terms of the Competition Act.
Asian and European stock markets plunged on Thursday as investor sentiment was hammered by resurgent credit concerns, the plunging dollar and record high oil prices, dealers said. Global financial markets were also roiled after a troubled fund backed by United States private equity giant Carlyle said it expected its creditors to seize its remaining assets.
The Mail & Guardian takes a look at vehicles launched recently in South Africa: the Saab 9-3 (sensible and Swedish), the Peugeot 308 with its cool new features, the Renault Navigator (one of three new models newly introduced) and the Tata Xenon, which, as a double-cab lifestyle bakkie, is still quite a basic vehicle.
Asian and European equities surged higher on Wednesday, mirroring an overnight rebound on Wall Street after major central banks announced a massive cash injection for stressed financial markets. However, dealers voiced scepticism over whether the concerted central bank action would head off the global credit crunch and bring stability to choppy world stock markets.
South African prima ballerina Phyllis Spira has died at the age of 64 in Cape Town, news reports said on March 12. She died in Claremont’s Kingsbury Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Spira had been admitted to hospital earlier in the week for a routine vascular operation and complications set in after the surgery.
A study has found that home-based ARV therapy provided by trained counsellors could be the best option for HIV-infected people living in remote areas.