REFUGEES: After the Struggle to Arrive in South Africa, a Struggle for Education

The effort to combine work and studies is taking its toll on Desiré Rwamagana, a Rwandan refugee who lives in South Africa’s commercial hub – Johannesburg.

POLITICS-SOUTH AFRICA: A Case of "Not Over Until It’s Over" for Zuma?

The long-running scandal over corruption in South Africa’s five-billion-dollar arms deal passed a milestone Tuesday with the sacking of Deputy President Jacob Zuma. However, it remains uncertain whether this dismissal has sounded the death knell for the official’s future in politics.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Opposition Leaders Press Ahead With More Mass Protests

Another eventful week in Zimbabwe; a two-day stay-at-home strike achieved very limited success that was blamed on poor leadership and mobilisation.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS Policy for Subsistence Farmers Underwhelms

Subsistence agriculture makes for a hard life, particularly in areas that are badly hit by HIV. Put farming and AIDS together, add drought or disease, and you have a diabolical mixture of circumstances.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: In the Midst of Restoring Order – Chaos

Government calls the operation "Murambatsvina", a Shona word meaning "to drive out rubbish". But, on the city streets where the campaign has been carried out, people describe it as Zimbabwe’s own "tsunami": a razing of informal settlements and markets that has left thousands homeless, and jobless.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: HIV Treatment Just Beginning for Children

Age offers little protection against AIDS; children are often the disease's unwitting victims. Yet for the young ones in Southern Africa, treatment is only just beginning.

FINANCE-SOUTH AFRICA: Rare Insights Into Poor People’s Bank

Xolile Mjobo is a highly respected undertaker, which provides a good business in the midst of one of the world's most severe AIDS epidemics.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Disabled at Greater Risk of HIV Infection

‘'Do you think I can go for an HIV test and be accepted?" Zitha scoffs at the suggestion.

DEVELOPMENT-SWAZILAND: Home-Grown Electricity Needed

A media scare in Swaziland about an imminent cut-off of the country's electricity by foreign suppliers has highlighted its near-total dependence on external power sources - and jump-started contingency plans to expand domestic power production.

CULTURE-SWAZILAND: Making a Bull Market for Cows

When is a cow considerably more than the sum of its parts? When the animal happens to live in one of a good many developing countries, probably – not least Swaziland.

ECONOMY-SWAZILAND: Small and Medium a Recipe for Big Hopes

For a country struggling with a stubborn unemployment rate of over 40 percent, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises seems a welcome solution to joblessness.

RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Truckers Contribute to the Spread of AIDS

For years, health surveys in the wake of southern Africa's AIDS pandemic have shown that itinerate occupations like truck drivers and seasonal agricultural workers pose a greater risk for workers of contracting and spreading HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY-ZIMBABWE: Less Press, Little Freedom

Last year, Zimbabwe earned itself a place on a list of the ‘World’s Worst Places to Be a Journalist’, published by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Twelve months on, little has changed.

INT’L LABOUR DAY: Unemployment Weighs Heavily on South Africa

More than a decade after apartheid was brought to an end, South Africa still basks in the glow of that political achievement. On the economic front, however, there is considerable anxiety about unemployment in the country.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: No Simple Path for ARV Delivery

Bonisiwe Maphumulo sits on a straight-backed chair in the sun outside her thatched, one-room home in rural Msinga. What she says next is, most probably, a lie.

CULTURE: Class, Not Race, War Grips Zimbabwe

Blamed, along with the opposition party, for a lot that has gone wrong in Zimbabwe, many among the white minority have packed their bags and left.

TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Textile Firms Fight for Survival

Southern African textile firms are feeling the effects of the quota system which was scrapped by the World Trade Organisation in January.

HEALTH-ANGOLA: Neighbours On Full Alert for Marburg Fever

There are fewer cases of Marburg fever being reported out of Angola this week, but medical experts say it is too soon to say this indicates the hemorrhagic virus is waning.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Teenage Suicides on Upswing

Passions of the heart rather than financial woes account for a growing number of suicides in Southern African nations as diverse as prosperous and well-developed South African and small, traditional Swaziland.

HEALTH: The Best Defence against AIDS, In the Long Run, Will Be Economic

If one wants to find out how AIDS is increasing hunger and malnutrition, one can expect to harvest an abundance of depressing information. But soon, this may change.

RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: The Missing Link in the Fight against AIDS

A group of traditional dancers, donning colourful artificial animal skins and headgears, formed a circle around a drummer, entertaining guests heading to an AIDS event.