State vs State: The Powers Behind the MTN Nigeria Fine
[hr] When the Nigerian Communications Commission issued MTN, the South Africa-based multinational mobile telecommunications company, with a US$5.2 billion fine for “flouting” regulations in 2015, the global business media dismissed it as just another pitfall of doing business in Africa. Lindokuhle Nkosi goes behind the numbers to explore the “entangled steamy affairs of state and […]
No Easy Truce Between Africa’s Most Powerful Brothership
By Tolu Ogunlesi On a per-person basis, South Africans drink four times more beer than Nigerians; as a country, South Africa enjoys ten times more electricity that thrice-as-populated Nigeria. So, before leaving the starting blocks, that’s already two goals to nil, against Nigeria. South Africa’s universities are also better regarded, and are home to large […]
Soft Power South African Style
Sean Jacobs mediates the tensions between local pleasure, global capital and cultural imperialism through the desirous and politicised spectacle of satellite television. They say you can’t choose your family. Across the continent, in Africa, people have little choice over their satellite television provider. It’s almost as if DStv comes with the house; as long as […]
City Building in Post-Conflict, Post-Socialist Luanda
Burying the Past with Phantasmagorias of the Future By Anne Pitcher and Marissa Mo After food and water, everybody needs shelter. At least for the last century, politicians on the left or the right, in the East or the South, have vowed to supply it. The delivery of one million homes seems to […]
Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard
A Story About Cape Town’s Tanzanian Stowaways By Sean Christie Images by David Southwood 15 July 2011 Cape Town city gardener Karabo Moshoeshoe’s orders were that the grass embankments around the intersection of Oswald Pirow Street and Hertzog Boulevard were to be cut again, though the routine trim wasn’t supposed to happen for another week. All […]