RIGHTS: Let May 11 Be A Turning Point For A More Tolerant, Safe, and Prosperous South Africa

June 20 is World Refugee Day. Early this week, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) launched a report documenting just how far South Africa has to go in protecting the rights of foreigners in our midst.

Q&A: "There Has Been Xenophobia for a Long Time in This Country"

Young adults in South Africa increasingly feel government has let them down. They lament lack of access to employment opportunities, poverty and many have pretty much lost hope that their situation will improve within the next decade.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: "Getting People Participating Is a Process, Not an Event"

Amidst the turmoil surrounding the Jun. 27 presidential run-off in Zimbabwe, it is doubtless something of a challenge to muster enthusiasm for plans relating to the country's next general elections. Gender activists intent on having more women voted into office in 2013 are undaunted, however.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Free To Go Where I Like – Life Outside a Psychiatric Hospital

The wind has picked up and blows the sand, swirling in patterns, across the dirt roads and barren yards of Madadeni township. It batters relentlessly against the walls of Joseph Gumede’s* iron shack, rattling the windows, and he has to raise his voice to be heard above the din. But sheltered from the dust storm. Joseph feels that he has at last found his way home.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Government Blocks Aid for Six Million In Need

Sixty-six year old Gogo Lethiwe Ncube gazes at a distant truck cruising towards the Avoca Shopping Centre in Insiza, Matabeleland South Province and starts smiling.

DEVELOPMENT-ANGOLA: Stressing the Importance of Clean Water

A survey of Angolan households has revealed less than half of caregivers always treat water with a reliable method before giving it to children. And one third of those interviewed by Population Services International (PSI) believes water is blessed by God and does not need to be sterilised before use.

DEVELOPMENT-ANGOLA: Absorbing Lessons on Clean Water

Playing happily in the sand with her twin sister, it's hard to believe Vivia Paulino was only months ago on the brink of death.

RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Xenophobia Impacts on Mozambique

A month ago, 47-year-old Catarina Manungo was the owner of a two-bedroom house in Boksburg, where she lived with her four children and a grand-daughter. A few short weeks later, Manungo and her two youngest children find themselves living in a tent in the Maputo neighbourhood of Matola Garre.

ECONOMY-AFRICA: HIV/AIDS Reduces Children’s Education Chances

Children who live in communities with an HIV prevalence rate of 10 percent or more have half a year of schooling less than children in other communities.

ECONOMY-AFRICA: Informal Sector Also Needs Skills Training

Bringing basic skills training programmes to workers in the informal sector can help to bring down poverty and unemployment levels, while improving economic growth.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Children in the Path of the Pandemic

There is barely a path leading down the steep incline and through the dense bush to the Mabuyakhulu homestead. It would be easy to pass by without finding 13 year old Zanele* and her eight year old sister Andiswa who stay there on their own.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: "Dictatorship Is Temporary"

Fourteen members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, a Bulawayo-based human rights organisation, are being held in two prisons in the capital Harare. They were arrested while marching to demand that the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) intervene to end post-election violence; their case is just one illustration of escalating human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Critics Target U.S. Military Command

In just a few months, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) - Washington's latest military oversight structure for the continent - is expected to be fully operational.

Q&A: Malawian Aquaculture Initiative Gives Cause for Quiet Hope

From time immemorial, fishermen on Lake Malawi have depended on the chambo to help feed their families - all without upsetting the stocks of this fish species. Following the start of commercial fishing on the lake, however, the annual catch of chambo plunged, from 3,250 tonnes in 1985 to 207 tonnes in 2002.

DEVELOPMENT-BOTSWANA: Of Tourists, Bushmen – and a Borehole

A planned lodge development at the settlement of Molapo in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) has become a source of controversy.

RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: They Will Have to Shoot Me First

Thousands of foreign residents of Cape Town have sought refuge at police stations, churches, community halls and in camps set up by municipal disaster management services.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Suffer the Little Children

Located high in the Drakensburg Mountains of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa, Sterkspruit is a picturesque rural area that includes several tribal villages. In the midst of this natural beauty, however, a tragedy has been unfolding over recent months.

Q&A: "The Poor Have Turned on the Poor"

Upwards of 40 people are said to have been killed and some 15,000 displaced in South Africa during more than a week of violence directed mainly against foreigners.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Ruling Party Terrorises Voters

"It’s a very traumatized community. Their crime on the 29th March election, at that polling station called Chaona, there were about 80 votes for the MDC and 15 votes for ZANU-PF. So that is the offence they committed. This is the price they are paying. And that is what Retired Major Mhandu was saying. ‘You will have to learn’. Not only were the victims killed, their parents were also beaten, their wives were also beaten, their children were also beaten, so it was a very frightening operation. The community is still traumatized. It’s very sad."

Q&A: South Africa To Reconsider Its Trade Agreement With EU?

As a result of the free trade agreements with the European Union, called economic partnership agreements, regional integration in Southern Africa is in tatters (see accompanying article - link below). The question arises: what kind of integration would engender broad-based development?

DEATH PENALTY-ZAMBIA: Inmates Plead for Deliverance

The common prayer of those on Zambia’s jam-packed death row is for divine intervention to end their hell on earth and let the waiting hangman carry out his job speedily, according to a recently released inmate.