Category Archives: South Africa

‘It speaks to an ancient history’: why South Africa has the world’s most exciting dance music

Posted on by

Styles like afrohouse, gqom and amapiano are thriving – but with ‘half-baked white kids getting a lot more airplay’, South Africa’s inequalities still hold the dance scene back

Many people got their first taste of South African dance music this year via six Angolans dancing in their backyard, dinner plates in hand. Their viral video, with casual but masterful moves set to Jerusalema by South African producer Master KG, created a global dance craze; the track ended up all over Radio 1 this autumn and topped streaming charts across Europe.

Jerusalema is just one track amid what has now become arguably the most vibrant and innovative dance music culture on the planet. In South Africa, dance music is pop music, from townships like Soweto and KwaDabeka to cities like Durban and Cape Town. The country has 11 official languages, each with their own cultural practices, and even the national anthem of the so-called Rainbow Nation is comprised of the country’s five most commonly spoken: Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English. Out of this rich cultural heritage, and in a country that has long had distinct dance styles like jaiva, marabi, kwela and mbaqanga, has come wave after wave of astonishing work.

Continue reading...

Africa steps up fight against HIV with trial of new combination vaccines

Posted on by

African-led study expected to involve 1,600 people over next three years in Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa

The first trial in Africa to test two new vaccines to protect against HIV got under way in Uganda this week, raising hopes of an end to the epidemic that affects millions of people across the continent.

The African-led PrEPVacc study will test two experimental combination vaccines to see if they can provide any protection against HIV in people most at risk of infection.

Continue reading...

South Africa’s chief justice unrepentant for linking Covid vaccines to satanism

Posted on by

Concerns surface that people might avoid having jabs as result of comments by Mogoeng Mogoeng

South Africa’s chief justice has dismissed concerns that he may be endangering people’s health by linking coronavirus vaccines to a “satanic agenda”.

The comment by Mogoeng Mogoeng marked the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic that a senior judge had aired such preoccupations.

Continue reading...

Six in a row: winning numbers in South African lottery are: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10

Posted on by

Surprising winning combination sparks accusations of fraud as 20 people win share of jackpot

An unusual sequence of numbers drawn by South Africa’s national lottery has left players dumbfounded and sparked accusations of fraud after 20 people won a share of the jackpot.

The consecutive numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and a “PowerBall” number of 10 were the South African national lottery’s winning combination on Tuesday night.

Continue reading...

From Burna Boy to Beyoncé: how black culture is embracing its African roots – video

Posted on by

In recent years, Africans on the continent and in the diaspora have become leading voices in black culture – in music, film, fashion, social media, comedy and even our memes. When Grace Shutti was growing up, black culture usually referred to African Americans. But from Beyoncé's visual album, Black is King, to Marvel's Black Panther and musician Diddy executive producing the Nigerian pop star Burna Boy's album, the shift to embrace African art has been seismic. Grace investigates how this came about

Continue reading...

Jerusalema: dance craze brings hope from Africa to the world amid Covid

Posted on by

South African music track and dance steps created in Angola have caught the imagination of politicians, priests and millions more

A song from South Africa that has gone around the world and been endorsed by presidents and priests has become the sound of the pandemic for millions across southern Africa.

Last week the Jerusalema dance challenge was endorsed by President Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the country’s plan to open up to tourism on 1 October.

Continue reading...

Global preparation: how different countries planned for the second wave of Covid-19

Posted on by

Lockdowns brought temporary relief to some but, everywhere, test and trace is key

The first wave of coronavirus swept through a world unprepared. Authorities struggled to test for the disease, and didn’t know how to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Lockdowns brought the virus under temporary control in some places, including the UK, buying a window for the revival of education and the economy, and time to prepare for future waves that epidemiologists said were almost inevitable.

Continue reading...

Burglars beware: tech pioneers aim to make South Africa’s townships safer

Posted on by

Innovative community alarm system provides solution in places where violent crime and theft have become endemic

Ntsako Mgiba was sleeping at his aunt’s place in eMalahleni (previously known as Witbank) in Mpumalanga province when thieves broke in and stole hundreds of pounds worth of laptops, smartphones and other tech. The next morning Mgiba followed the burglars’ footprints – theirs was not the only home to be targeted. The police filed a report that afternoon, but any hope of tracking them down had gone.

Crime is a fact of life across South Africa. But while richer residents have access to one of the world’s largest private security industries – there are 2.57 security personnel for every police officer – poorer communities like that in eMalahleni, a town that leads the country in house break-ins, are left to fend for themselves. “In the townships you have burglar bars, dogs and lapsed alarm contracts,” says Mgiba, explaining that a couple of big security firms have tried and failed to enter the market.

Continue reading...

Southern hemisphere has record low flu cases amid Covid lockdowns

Posted on by

Data offers hope as winter looms in north and raises viability of eliminating future flu pandemics

Health systems across the southern hemisphere were bracing a few months ago for their annual surge in influenza cases, which alongside Covid-19 could have overwhelmed hospitals. They never came.

Many countries in the southern half of the globe have instead experienced either record low levels of flu or none at all, public health specialists in Australia, New Zealand and South America have said, sparing potentially tens of thousands of lives and offering a glimmer of hope as winter approaches in the northern hemisphere.

Continue reading...

George Bizos obituary

Posted on by
Human rights lawyer in apartheid South Africa who represented Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia trial

George Bizos, who has died aged 92, was the best known lawyer in South Africa. To many, his stout and slightly rumpled figure represented all that was best about the law, a man who was seemingly always there, attack or defence, when a wrong had been committed or human rights trampled on.

His most famous client was Nelson Mandela. At the Rivonia trial of 1963-64– in which the leadership of the African National Congress were tried for sabotage, a capital offence – Bizos made a small, but significant intervention, which may have saved Mandela’s life. It came when Mandela was preparing his famous statement from the dock with the help of lawyers and others. The statement ended with the words “it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”.

Continue reading...

George Bizos, Nelson Mandela’s lawyer and anti-apartheid icon, dies at 92

Posted on by

South Africa’s president hails ‘one of the architects of our constitution’ who helped save Mandela from expected death penalty

George Bizos, an anti-apartheid icon and renowned human rights lawyer who helped defend Nelson Mandela on treason charges for which he escaped the death penalty, has died aged 92.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced rights lawyer’s passing on Wednesday during a media conference. “I have just received news that legal eagle of our country George Bizos has passed away,” Ramaphosa said. “This is very sad for our country.”

Continue reading...

South African far left targets pharmacies in racism row over advert

Posted on by

Economic Freedom Fighters protesters damage some Clicks stores and force others to close

Protesters from a far-left party damaged pharmacies in South Africa on Monday and forced others to close during demonstrations over what they said was a racist advertisement.

The advert showed an image of African black hair which it described as “dry and damaged”, while an example of white hair was referred to as “fine and flat”. It was posted on the website of the Clicks chain of pharmacies on Friday, and removed the same day after uproar on social media. The firm apologised.

Continue reading...

Covering covid-19 in Africa: ‘The virus cannot stop this life and energy’

Posted on by

The Guardian’s Africa correspondent on life in a country that has fought and faced down more than one epidemic

In the evening I went for a run, down to the gate from my guesthouse, past a huddle of round huts and through the fields of sugar cane to the lake. A dog barked, a child howled, someone laughed, and tinny music played somewhere in the gathering darkness.

Eshowe, a small town in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, is a place of astonishing natural beauty. The run did not last long. I stopped and watched as weavers, glossy starlings and sunbirds swooped through the trees, catching the last rays of the sun. To the north, low dry hills lined the horizon. To the south, the breakers of the Indian Ocean crashed on miles of wild shore. Eshowe was memorable for something else too: the very human suffering I found there, and equally human hope.

Continue reading...

Does Netflix’s Blood and Water show the ‘real’ South Africa?

Posted on by

The streaming giant’s Cape Town-set series has been a huge hit. But do dramas of its ilk lack authenticity, or is their global feel the key to their success?

Neon lights dance across an infinity pool, while, inside an enormous mansion, couples canoodle in immaculate white corridors and the cool kids sneak away to smoke. At this kind of party, there are those who are recognised at the door and those who have to blag to get their name on the guestlist. As the birthday girl schmoozes with her guests, an awkward attendee does anything to escape the hubbub and keep her head down, as red cups pile up in the garden and a queue forms for the bar.

So far, so teen drama. But this isn’t London or LA: the two girls are Fikile Bhele and Puleng Khumalo, and the show is Blood and Water, set in South Africa. The second African series produced and released by Netflix, it focuses on the class divide between private Parkhurst school in Cape Town and its unnamed public counterpart, as well as Khumalo’s search for her missing sister. Like many dramas aimed at younger viewers, the first instalment kicks off in the midst of a debauched, booze-soaked gathering before branching out into the dark underbelly of popularity – think student-teacher relationships and moneyed parents wielding their power in the education system in the form of “donations”.

Continue reading...

South African conservationist killed by lions he reared

Posted on by

West Mathewson was attacked without warning by lions during one of their regular walks

A South African conservationist has been killed by lions he hand-reared. West Mathewson, 69, was walking two white lionesses on Wednesday when one of the animals attacked and killed him without warning, his family said on Thursday.

The incident took place on the premises of the family-owned Lion Tree Top Lodge, in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province.

Continue reading...

Unofficial world’s oldest man dies aged 116 in South Africa

Posted on by

Fredie Blom said earlier this year he had ‘lived this long because of God’s grace’

A 116-year-old South African man believed to be among the world’s oldest people has died, his family said.

Born on 8 May 1904, Fredie Blom told Agence-France Presse earlier this year he had “lived this long because of God’s grace”. South African media have described Blom as “unofficially” the world’s oldest man.

Continue reading...

Global report: WHO says world could rein in pandemic in less than two years

Posted on by

South Korea records most cases since early March; South Africa infections pass 600,000; Brazil on ‘downward trend’

The world should be able to rein in the coronavirus pandemic in less than two years, the World Health Organization has said, as South Korea reported the most daily infections since early March and expanded social distancing measures across the country.

The WHO’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, struck a partly optimistic note when he drew comparisons between the Covid-19 pandemic and the with the 1918 flu pandemic, saying technology could help end the spread.

Continue reading...

Beverley Ditsie: the South African woman who helped liberate lesbians everywhere

Posted on by

Growing up in 80s Soweto, Ditsie was immersed in the struggle against apartheid. But she knew racial oppression was only part of the fight – and organised the first Pride march in Africa

Beverley Ditsie first understood what the word “gay” meant while listening to Boy George. She was a teenager in the South African township of Soweto in the early 1980s, obsessed with the UK’s New Romantic movement. In South Africa, people were speculating about the singer’s sexuality, as they were all over the world, and when Ditsie heard that to be gay was to love someone of the same sex, she felt a shock of joy.

“I remember this confusion that I’d always had; I’d been trying to work out how I’d get over this thing. I always thought I was the only one,” says Ditsie. “I thought: ‘I’m just gay. Oh my God! I’m just gay, everything is OK. I’m just gay.’” For a fleeting moment, Ditsie felt free – something that was almost taboo in a country in turmoil as a result of apartheid. “As a child, you grow up being told you can’t use the word ‘free’ or ‘freedom’, because then you’re a terrorist and so will be taken, beaten, arrested, killed.” In the excitement of the moment, she ran to tell her family, who were having Sunday lunch, that she, too, was gay. She expected them to be pleased. “The look on their faces kind of said: maybe not,” she says with a wry smile and a raised eyebrow.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: new French cases surpass 3,000 for second day; Italy hits record cases since May

Posted on by

Italy closes all discos; Spain takes new measures as infections soar; New Zealand adds 13 infections to total

The UK government has said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Sunday, there were a further 1,040 lab-confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Overall, a total of 318,484 cases have been confirmed in the UK.

As of Sunday, 41,366 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19. This was up by five from the day before.

Ireland’s health chiefs will meet on Monday to decide if further restrictions are needed to slow a sharp increase in the spread of coronavirus that the government and officials have described as deeply concerning.

Ireland has reopened its economy at a slower pace than most EU countries but that has not prevented a jump in cases over the last two weeks that led to the first localised reimposition of some restrictions last week.

Continue reading...