Government’s mishandling of the social security grant (SASSA) payment system has made the country peer into the abyss. The Concourt will hear the matter on Wednesday; the Minister best beware the Ides of March.
One the greatest challenges facing Africa today is migration. Among the major causes of voluntary movements of populations between national and International borders in recent years is the growing disparities in development globally. Can Africa halt the flight of its best resource: its people.
What lofty and enduring dream could sprout in us when we have become accustomed to squalor, habituated to decrepitude, made our peace with detritus? What hope is there for us when we fetishise Dubai and flaunt our expensive Louis Vuitton handbags, and yet fail to realise that our country has become—is—an endless open toilet, overflowing with septic sludge? Okey Ndibe chronicles his recent visit to Nigeria, which he describes as a “nightmare”.
I have said this before: one of the hardest tasks is to predict how Nigerians would react in any given situation. We are a perplexing bunch, able to defy the most skilled pontificator. Imagine, then, my constant frustration. As one who has written for years on Nigerian affairs, I am often asked—both by audiences in Nigeria and abroad—to pronounce on the likely turn of events in my country of birth.
The argument for a basic income grant can no longer be ignored.
Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the continent joins the world to observe the day. It is imperative to highlight and join hands to fight poverty, hunger, malnutrition, exclusion and destitution.
The amount of wealth flowing out of Africa is ten times the amount the continent receives in foreign assistance. This is the only argument African countries need to make when advocating for debt forgiveness. Through tax dodges like “transfer pricing”, big multinationals pay more taxes in the West than they do in Africa while carting away its resources. How long shall Africa allow this to continue?
If you’re looking for unsung African heroes working outside of the limelight to move the continent forward, you shouldn’t look any further than Dr. Kanayo Nwanze. The Nigerian is the winner of the inaugural the Africa Food Prize, a US $100,000 award created to recognise Africans leading the way in improving food security on the continent. Dr Nwanze said it was a shame that millions across the continent still go to bed hungry and dedicated his prize to women for their contribution to agriculture in Africa
Pablo Pinedo Bóveda’s artistically brave and daring documentary captures the birth of an informal settlement in Cape Town and immerses the viewer in the struggle a shack dweller faces as she resists the full might of the state, precariously clinging to the home she has erected on vacant but privately owned land.
In July 2016, a truck carrying 57 Malawian children was intercepted in South Africa – after the driver and his two accomplices had successfully navigated their way through the Mozambique and Zimbabwe border posts. Problem Masau probes deeper to find out about human trafficking in Malawi.
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