People of the South

Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music from South Africa

Lala Ngoxholo, mama.

Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata

Miriam Makeba sings her most famous song Pata Pata during a performance in the Dutch TV-studios in Hilversum, september 1979. Joining her on stage towards the end of the song is her granddaughter Zenzi. Zenzi’s mother, Bongi Makeba, is one of the backing vocalists (in the blue dress)

via RaynerJM

Zenzi, granddaughter of Miriam Makeba, weeps while waiting in a car which carries the remains of the legendary singer in 2008. (Sapa)

Miriam Makeba’s family on Tuesday took their battle with her former manager over control of her legacy to the public, three years after the death of the anti-apartheid music icon.

Nelson Makeba Lee and his sister Zenzi accused Graeme Gilfillan of fraud, in a letter sent to Agence France-Presse on behalf of the singer’s foundation.

“We demand Mr Gilfillan to register … his long-awaited resignation as trustee of ZM Makeba Trust,” the letter said.

“It is unacceptable that the family of Miriam Makeba and her name be tarnished,” Lee said, referring to a South African tabloid article in which Gilfillan said Makeba did not trust her family to manager her affairs.

At stake are the intellectual property rights — and the royalties that go with them — from Makeba’s more than 30 albums, including songs like Pata Pata that became synonymous with South Africa’s liberation struggle.

Gilfillan, in a document sent to AFP, accused Makeba’s two grandchildren of “assassinating my character and denting my reputation”.

He insisted that Makeba wanted her grandchildren to be beneficiaries of the trust managing her affairs but not for them to serve as trustees.

“I explained to Ms Makeba that I was hoping that she would agree to Nelson and even Zenzi to be on the Trust and to them getting much more involved. Ms. Makeba flatly refused,” he said.

The Grammy-winning singer known fondly as “Mama Africa” collapsed after a performance in Italy three years ago and died of a heart attack a short while later in hospital. She was 76, having spent nearly half her life exiled by South Africa’s apartheid regime. — Sapa-AFP

MIRIAM MAKEBA DIVA - Khawuleza EN 1966 MUSIQUE SUD AFRICAINE

Miriam Makeba

(4 March 1932 – 10 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist.In the 1960s she was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music in the U.S. and around the world. She is best known for the song “Pata Pata”, first recorded in 1957 and released in the U.S. in 1967. She recorded and toured with many popular artists, such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela.

She actively campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. As a result, the South African government revoked her citizenship and right of return. After the end of apartheid she returned home. She died on 10 November 2008 after performing in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the Region of Campania

Zimbabwe launches health transition fund to revitalize care for children and women

In the last decade, Zimbabwe has witnessed a dramatic decline in health service delivery, resulting in a devastating increase in child and maternal mortality.

Join UNICEF correspondent Anja Baron as she reports on a new Health Transition Fund created by the Government of Zimbabwe in partnership with UNICEF, which aims to revitalize the national health care system and integrate maternal and child survival programmes.

(Source: unicef.org)

East 3 Route spans northern KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique and eastern Swaziland, and includes five trans-frontier conservation areas, writes Edward West

Hotel and other short-stay accommodation in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, has rivalled Durban’s, boasting of being fully booked since May, while the latter had an average occupancy rate of about 70%.While the global hotel and accommodation industry struggles with sluggish economic growth since the last recession, Mozambican Tourism Minister Fernando Sumbana attributes Maputo’s high rate of hotel reservations to people streaming into the city for business reasons. In Durban, hotel occupancies have been about 70% this year, better than the average occupancy rates seen in both Cape Town and Johannesburg, mainly as a result of Durban hosting more conferences.Mozambique is still one of the world’s poorest countries, with most of its people involved in subsistence farming. After the civil war, emigration and dependence on South Africa hindered growth between 1975 and the 1990s. However, its economy has grown faster since then, due to friendly foreign investment policies, foreign aid and other economic reforms. Gross domestic product grew 8,3% last year. “On our infrastructure there is much room for improvement … We are open to public- private partnerships, any investor who is willing to get involved, we welcome,” Mr Sumbana said last week at the launch of the East 3 Route, a tourism corridor that spans northern KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique and eastern Swaziland.The region includes five trans-frontier conservation areas, and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu-Natal, a World Heritage Site that is attracting an increasing number of local and foreign visitors.Mr Sumbana says the large number of business visitors to Maputo is drawn particularly from the gas, coal and agricultural sectors. The harbour is also “very busy” as the country explores business opportunities, he says, citing the agricultural sector as another attraction. “We have 36-million acres of arable land and only 4-million is being used.” There are tourist and infrastructure opportunities along the East 3 Route, which in Mozambique includes more than 100km of shoreline between Maputo and Ponto do Ouro near South Africa’s border that offers scope for beach tourism, he says. For instance, the Mozambican government is looking for public-private partnership or build-operate-transfer investors for a $300m toll road planned between Maputo and the border with South Africa. KwaZulu-Natal economic development and tourism MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu says the East 3 Route will be a special focus when SA markets its tourism destinations at the World Travel Market in London next month.”It is about marketing and positioning (the corridor) so that the route benefits all three countries,” he says.Swazi Tourism and Environmental Affairs Minister Macford Sibandze says tourism can help the economy in Swaziland emerge from crisis.The Swazi economy is in dire straits due to weak economic activity, lower income from the Southern African Customs Union and a view, among some in that country, that funds in the monarchy were mismanaged.Mr Sibandze says a five-year plan needs to be developed to stimulate interest in the East 3 Route. Increased “airlift capacity” from Europe is essential. However, he expressed concern about potential increases in airline taxes in Europe, saying that will have a negative effect on tourism markets for the region.South Africa’s minister responsible for performance monitoring and evaluation in the Presidency, Collins Chabane says 1-million people travelled from Mozambique to SA last year, while the figure for Swaziland was 600000. While these figures are “encouraging”, he says, more could be done to increase tourism from South Africa to its neighbouring countries.