Africa

The great Afrikaans poet and South African playwright NP Van Wyk Louw once wrote a sonnet that described how with his little chisel he had cracked a rock and succeeded in splitting the universe right open. To me that’s always been one of those pictures that sticks in the mind …

Did you know there is such a person as a “removalist”? – and I don’t mean someone who helps you pack up your house and move on. No, a removalist is someone who specializes in cleaning up your internet presence. Your digital footprint can help or harm you in your …

The gross blunder of President Ramaphosa in foreign policy – silencing those in ANC ranks who condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – is going to cost South Africa dearly. Although the US Ambassador to this country says we will reason friends it’s perfectly obvious that the majority of nations look …

South Africa secures ‘watershed’ finance deal to reduce coal reliance by Onke Ngcuka, Daily Maverick November 3, 2021 The European Union, Germany, France, the UK, and the US have partnered to support South Africa’s climate action goals by helping finance the move from its heavy reliance on coal to cleaner …

What will a fair allocation of a COVID-19 vaccine look like in South Africa? An efficacious COVID-19 vaccine would undoubtedly be a global public good that, in the context of a pandemic, is urgently and synchronously required by the global community. These unique features make allocation of an approved COVID-19 …

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay By ALEX WELTE As of the time of writing (mid-October 2020), there is much talk in South Africa about a ‘second wave’ of COVID-19. In Europe, it is much more than talk, with COVID-19 diagnoses, hospital admissions, and deaths, not to mention ‘restrictions’, all …

By PENNY SWIFT Less than a week after publication of a heritage impact assessment (HIA) on an iconic haunted ghost house on the M4 near Durban, the building was razed to the ground. The demolition was ordered by the local eThekwini Council that had previously demanded the owner, Saantha Naidu Group of …

By PENNY SWIFT A controversial but much celebrated, award winning three-story floating school built on the Lagos Lagoon in 2013 has collapsed following torrential rain. Constructed as a prototype to show how floating buildings could improve the lives of the impoverished Makoko community, it was designed by Kunlé Adeyemi, a Nigerian …

Since the 1920s Charleston has been the name of a dance; a dance with roots in Africa, and made white and famous on Broadway. Now Charleston is the name of a massacre, the murder of nine people and the desecration of the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. About Charleston and …

By ALEXANDER O’RIORDAN Last night Sepp Blatter resigned after 17 years in the position as president of football’s global governing body, FIFA. The resignation was to be expected since American criminal investigators last week indicted a host of FIFA executives on charges related to corruption and wire fraud. Notably, these charges …