Features

South Africans on 8 May took to the polls to elect the sixth administration, 25 years since the advent of democracy, with much optimism.

It is often said that ‘a leopard never changes its spots’ - a phrase known to mean that changing one’s character is almost always impossible to do. However, as far as township economies go - the opposite is true, for these are being turned on their heads.

In its own quiet, no frills, no thrills way, a community-based care and protection intervention project has been providing a life line to South Africa’s orphaned and vulnerable children, as well as the youth, so much so that a large number have now become strong, successful individuals - contributing to their communities.

State land alone is simply not enough to redress land reform. In a country where the majority of the population is black – it is a bitter pill to swallow that only 1-2% of black farmers operate in the commercial space, writes Keamogetse Kgomanyane.

When apartheid negotiations reached a sensitive stage in the late 1980s, former President Nelson Mandela was taken to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. This was on 12 August 1988. Three months later, and after receiving treatment at two hospitals, the former statesman was then transferred to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl, where he spent the last 14 months of his imprisonment.

A popular idiom speaks of how it is darkest before dawn envelopes. It’s an expression of hope. It inspires the afflicted to persevere as reprieve looks to be on the horizon.

No amount of money in the world will change Makgathatso Lydia Maseko’s mind about what she wants to do with the rest of her life.