WikiLeaks founder to host Kremlin-funded TV show

Posted on February 3, 2012  /  No Comments

Kremlin-funded English language channel Russia Today has given WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange his own TV talk show, the station said last week. Filming for Assange’s television debut is already underway from Britain, where he remains under house arrest outside London while appealing an extradition order to Sweden, it said.

Russia Today – considered a Kremlin exercise in image enhancement by critics – said Assange will invite 10 “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries” for interviews on a show dubbed “The World Tomorrow,” due to air in mid-March. (more…)

Zambia’s mobile hospital plan a white elephant?

Posted on February 2, 2012  /  No Comments

In a country where the majority of people live hours from the nearest hospital and most doctors are concentrated in the capital, mobile health facilities seem like a good idea. But the Zambian government’s prestigious mobile hospitals, bought only months ago for 53 million dollars, faced fierce criticism and are now literally parked away. (more…)

Miracle tree combats malnutrition in Limpopo

Posted on February 2, 2012  /  No Comments

When a food crisis hits the continent, African countries tend to look to the international donor community to mobilise aid. But a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree with extremely nutritious leaves could help poor, arid nations to fight food insecurity and malnutrition on their own.

A 15-hectare plantation of the “miracle tree” with the botanical name Moringa oleifera has already started to make a positive change in the rural village of Tooseng, which is located in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces, Limpopo. (more…)

Ready to rumble: inside the African Wrestling Association

Posted on February 1, 2012  /  1 Comment

America’s well-oiled WWE superstars may dominate television wrestling, but they’ve got nothing on the style and spirit of South Africa’s local wrestling circuit, as Melany Bendix and photographer Jac Kritzinger discovered when they went deep into the bloody bowels of SA’s hardcore pro wrestling league. Get the latest edition of The Big Issue to read the full report and see more photos from this series.

All photos © Jac Kritzinger / www.relevantreality.co.za

Malawian street vendors lose customers after stripping women naked

Posted on February 1, 2012  /  No Comments

A campaign to stop people buying merchandise from street vendors is gaining momentum in Malawi’s main cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu after the small-scale traders went on a rampage and undressed women and girls wearing trousers, leggings, shorts and mini-skirts. (more…)

China seeks to unlock secrets of traditional medicines

Posted on February 1, 2012  /  2 Comments

Chinese legends have long extolled the benefits of the Tian Shan Xue Lian, a rare white flower found in snow-capped mountains that is revered as a panacea, an elixir so powerful it can supposedly bring the dead back to life.

But in laboratories in Shanghai and Hong Kong, scientists are poring over this cusped, wrinkly flower the size of an avocado, from which they hope to develop a new drug to treat irregular heartbeat, or atrial fibrillation, a serious disease that raises the risk of stroke. (more…)

Why SA shouldn’t bow to the East

Posted on January 27, 2012  /  No Comments

I read Stanley Kwenda’s report on the rising tension between Zimbabweans and Chinese investors and entrepreneurs in our neighbouring country in The Big Issue’s latest edition with a creeping sense of dread. Alarm bells began to ring as similarities between China’s business interests in Zimbabwe and the powerhouse’s dealings with our own country became ever more striking. (more…)

The end of the world as we know it…here’s hoping

Posted on January 16, 2012  /  No Comments

So, this is the year the world is supposed to end. I don’t quite believe “The End is Nigh” hysteria — and neither do most Mesoamerican experts. I’d wager the Mayans probably just ran out of clay to make another calendar beyond 2012. Or they reckoned they had made enough for a couple of centuries and needed a good old holiday. Maybe they even got unionised and went on strike. I can just picture those callus-handed workers, sick of painstakingly carving out all those symbols in circular stone slabs, downing tools and hitting the bargaining table: “Boss, we’ve made these damn calendars all the way to 2012, can’t we give it a break for a couple of years?” Little did the Mayans know they’d be wiped out before they had the chance to pick up their chisels again. (more…)

When private security becomes a public concern

Posted on October 21, 2011  /  1 Comment

I’m a big fan of the improvement district (ID) concept. It works like this: if the majority of property owners in an area vote for that area to be turned into an ID, they pay an extra levy via their rates. Those funds are then channelled from the city to the ID to be used for improving the designated area. Most of the IDs start off focusing on tackling “crime and grime” but, like the Muizenberg Improvement District which I live in, they move on to include beautification and greening projects and initiatives to promote business and tourism to the area, and generally make life a lot peachier for residents. (more…)

Patronising, brought to you by the SA government

Posted on September 27, 2011  /  46 Comments

The below column, published in The Big Issue in March 2011, won Sipho Hlongwane the Vodacom Columnist of the Year award for the Western region in the 2011 Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards

Sometimes I wish someone would take a big sjambok out and give South Africa a jolly good hiding. The amount of snotty-nosed stupidity this country can generate beggars belief. (more…)

Words may lead to sticks and stones

Posted on September 23, 2011  /  20 Comments

So, the Breitling-boasting Julius Malema has been found guilty of hate speech for singing Dubul’ iBhunu (Shoot the Boer). Wait, don’t move off the page, I promise I’m not going to join every other commentator in SA and debate the merits or demerits of the judgment. (more…)

Face-to-face with irrational shark fear

Posted on September 12, 2011  /  17 Comments

‘Why am I doing this, why am I doing this” is on loop through my head as my sweaty hands struggle to slip on my fins while I peer down into the tank below where dark shadows circle. My heart’s beating way too fast as I struggle to shove the Jaws soundtrack back into the 80’s playlist box in my brain, where it belongs under chain and padlock along with Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley. (more…)