Development

Katrina Charles says that over the last 15 years, 68 million people gained access to improved sanitation in urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa.

Charles, who describes this as a big achievement, says in the same period the urban population grew by an estimated 167 million, leaving an additional 99 million urban dwellers without access to improved sanitation.

The World Bank says tuberculosis (TB) in the mining sector in Southern Africa has reached crisis proportions and needs all relevant stakeholders to work together.
The World Bank, which has put aside over R1.6 billion to assist different governments in the region, address this pandemic, maintains that the current infection rate is at 10 times the level classified as an emergency.

In addition, it says that the number of TB patients and those at the risk of contracting it in the mining sector is growing at an alarming rate.

The United Nations Children’s Fund says about 11million children in Eastern and Southern Africa face hunger, disease and water shortages due to the strongest El Niño weather phenomenon in decades.

Food and water shortages brought about by drought and floods are causing malnutrition, which increases vulnerability to killer diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, cholera and dengue fever.

Telkom has said it is in talks to buy Cell C as it seeks to boost its fledging mobile phone business.

Mybroadband spokesperson, Jan Vermeullen, says Telkom’s plans to buy Cell C will be a good idea as it will gain a very significant mobile phone operator.

Buying Cell C, the third largest mobile telecoms network in Africa, to boost the fixed line operator’s fledging mobile phone business, would give Telkom about 20 million mobile phone users.

Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, says that illegal mining is behind 10 percent of the overall murder rate in the province.

Nkosi-Malobane says it is not only illegal immigrants who were involved, adding that, “There are those rich people who use some of the less fortunate people to mine illegally on their behalf.”

She argues that the kingpins are the ones that we need to act against in order to close this illegal market before we can deal with the small men on the street.

While university students fight for their rights, just over 50 percent of the country's youth are unemployed.

The Child Gauge 2015 report, released by the Children's Institute at the University of Cape Town, states that 51 percent of those aged between 20 and 24 are not employed or studying, while 21 percent are employed, 16 percent are still completing school and 12 percent are studying or training.