South Africa’s embattled health minister has bowed to pressure to step aside over corruption allegations, but analysts say President Cyril Ramaphosa still has a mountain to climb to cleanse the ruling party of graft. President Cyril Ramaphosa came to power in February 2018 on a ticket to root out the plundering of state coffers that…
Author: Linda Givetash
Linda Givetash is a Canadian-South African freelance journalist based in Vancouver, B.C. Her work has appeared in print, digital and broadcast media outlets around the globe.
After riots tear through South Africa, the nation wonders: What now?
DURBAN, South Africa — The sense of shock was palpable as a handful of residents stared at a shopping center in ruins. Windows were smashed, the parking lot was filled with debris, and “Free Zuma” was spray-painted on the facade of The Ridge, a once-pristine center that sits on Shallcross Road, a major thoroughfare in Durban,…
Arrest of Eswatini lawmakers condemned by international community
Rights groups have condemned Eswatini’s arrest of two lawmakers this week and the use of force against pro-democracy protesters. The southern African kingdom, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, has been rocked by protests since June. Protests re-ignited Thursday in Eswatini, previously known as Swaziland, as two pro-democracy members of parliament appeared in court. Mthandeni Dube and…
South Africa riots reveal political failures
This month’s riots across South Africa have underscored concerns about inequality and stability after nearly three decades of democracy. In Soweto, owners of pillaged shops accuse the government of failing them. Mahamadali Randera watched helplessly from outside his electronics shop at a strip mall in Soweto as determined looters broke through its heavy metal gate….
Riots in South Africa have left people hungry — it’s the poorest who are worst hit
DURBAN, South Africa — South Africa was already beset by rampant poverty. The pandemic exacerbated the struggle for many of the country’s poorest. Now weeks of riots have left stores torched, shelves empty and many hungry. President Cyril Ramaphosa has reassured the country that “immediate food relief” was being distributed in the wake of deadly unrest that saw access to food disrupted after…
Amazon Africa HQ site facing indigenous backlash
CAPE TOWN — A legal battle is looming over plans to build Amazon’s multi-million-dollar African headquarters on land cherished by South Africa’s indigenous Khoi San people. Amazon is setting up its African HQ in Cape Town — a project with the promise of thousands of jobs in a country where unemployment is cripplingly high. City…
Scholars grieve loss of priceless antiquities in Cape Town fire
CAPE TOWN — It was no ordinary library. The University of Cape Town’s Jagger Reading Room, destroyed by a runaway fire this week, was a beacon of African history and intellect. The African studies section of the 1930s library was engulfed by flames on Sunday when a fire sparked on the foothills of the city’s…
Cancer research another long-term casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists say
As the death toll from the coronavirus climbs, Karen Hilton, of Dalkeith, Scotland, sees herself and others fighting cancer as “collateral damage.” Hilton, 48, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer four years ago. After a double mastectomy, surgeries to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes that were also at risk of cancer…
‘No new worlds’: New artwork highlights darker side of Mayflower’s impact
“No new worlds.” These words stand emblazoned 20 feet tall at the Plymouth harbor, on England’s southwestern coast, from where the Mayflower set sail to establish a new life for its passengers in America. The art installation is one of several commemorations erected to mark the 400th anniversary of the transatlantic voyage Wednesday. The anniversary comes as…
Atomic bomb dropped on Japan’s Hiroshima 75 years ago still reverberates
Regular nosebleeds, three bouts with cancer and blinding cataracts. It’s been 75 years since the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima — marking the end of World War II and the dawn of the nuclear age — but survivors like Masaaki Takano still live with the consequences. “I’m mentally trying hard to…
Australian wildfires declared among the ‘worst wildlife disasters in modern history’
Nearly 3 billion animals were affected by Australia’s worst wildfire season that burned from last July through March, scientists announced Tuesday — a figure almost three times higher than original estimates. The report released Tuesday and commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature Australia said more than 46 million acres were scorched. An estimate in January said…
Preventing the next pandemic will cost $22.2 billion a year, scientists say
As the world grapples with the toll of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists are warning the funding needed to prevent the next zoonotic disease outbreak is severely lacking — leaving everyone vulnerable. The price tag for protecting and monitoring pristine forests and wildlife trade where diseases emerge is an estimated $22.2 billion to $30.7 billion, according to the report in…
It’s not poachers killing elephants in Botswana. That worries conservationists.
Botswana’s elephants are literally dropping dead. Hundreds of elephant carcasses have been found scattered across a remote, narrow region of the north — and poaching isn’t to blame. The mystery has dragged on for months, and experts say the slow response to the deaths has shed light on deeper issues in the country’s relationship with the prized creatures….
After the coronavirus, China moves to kick its exotic meat habit
Ou Yang is having a hard time finding snake to eat. “A very famous restaurant specialized in cooking snakes in my city already stopped providing such dishes,” Ou told NBC News from Foshan, in southern China, where snake has long been regarded as a delicacy. “They are all banned now.” As the world struggles to…
‘They’re so vulnerable’: Coronavirus hits tribes of isolated Andaman Islands
An indigenous tribe on India’s Andaman Islands, whose population hovers just over 50 people, is now threatened by the coronavirus and experts fear uncontacted people on nearby islands could be next. At least 10 people from the Great Andamanese tribe have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Friday and were being monitored in a hospital,…
A plague amid a pandemic: East Africa, West Asia combat locust outbreak
When the skies darkened suddenly over Michael Gatiba’s 10-acre farm in Nakuru County, Kenya, what came pouring down stunned him: millions of desert locusts. “It was like a storm,” Gatiba, 45, said by telephone. “It was like hail. They covered everywhere. Even there was no sun.” That was three months ago. Although Gatiba said he was lucky…
Critics question reparation offers from British corporations with slave trade ties
Too little, too late? As a number of British institutions and corporations respond to Black Lives Matter protests with pledges of reparations for their historic links to slavery and exploitative colonialism, some are asking whether their moves are no more than “empty gestures.” Calling it “an unacceptable part of English history,” the Bank of England…
Thousands take to London streets to protest racism, George Floyd death
LONDON — After almost a week of violence in cities across the United States following the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, thousands took to the streets of central London on Wednesday to protest racism and show solidarity with their American counterparts. On a gray and dreary day in Britain’s capital, the crowd met…
Health workers fighting coronavirus around the world threatened by violence
As Dr. Trupti Katdare and her colleague, Dr, Zakia Sayyed, traced the contacts of a patient who had tested positive for the coronavirus, a mob set upon them, yelling and throwing stones. “It was very scary,” Katdare said of the incident, which took place April 1 in the Indian city of Indore. “We didn’t understand…
U.N. warns of ‘hunger pandemic’ amid threats of coronavirus, economic downturn
While the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the head of the United Nations food agency warned on Tuesday that a looming “hunger pandemic” will bring “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.” Famine in as many as three dozen countries is “a very real and dangerous possibility” due to ongoing wars and conflicts, economic…