Martin Zhuwakinyu

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Martin Zhuwakinyu

Martin Zhuwakinyu is Senior Deputy Editor for Engineering News and Mining Weekly. Dr Zhuwakinyu holds a PhD in communication (media studies) from the University of South Africa.

Stevie finds rhythm in Ghana

31st May 2024 I’m not a great music fan, but I would not be completely honest if I did not own up to my partiality towards Stevie Wonder, the US-born virtuoso of soul who has created music that has reverberated throughout the world, despite being visually impaired since infancy. It’s not only in the music... →

Myth of arbitrary boundaries

24th May 2024 Conventional wisdom has it that the political map of Africa as we know it today was solely determined at the Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885 by European actors who knew little about conditions on the ground, with the process involving no African input. For the uninitiated, the Berlin Conference... →

The great business retreat

17th May 2024 The announcement last week by oil giant Shell that it is to divest from downstream operations in South Africa seems to have been a godsend to the political opposition, which did not waste time in attributing the decision to failure by the governing African National Congress (ANC) to foster a... →

Slipping influence

10th May 2024 Africa may be the world’s poorest continent – hosting 33 of the 46 economies designated by the United Nations (UN) as the least developed – but it remains the target of courtship by the major powers. The bad news for Americans is that the Chinese and the Russians are doing a much better job of... →

A titbit about Tanzania

3rd May 2024 That the way many of Africa’s countries turned out had less to do with fate than the meddling of external players, especially during the Cold War years, has been well documented by many a scholar. But the “real story” behind the amalgamation of what was then Tanganyika and the island nation of... →

What the voters want

26th April 2024 As election day draws ever closer, political parties are pulling out all the stops in their quest to win the hearts and minds of South African voters. All manner of promises are being made – from a nigh-immediate end to loadshedding to the creation of millions of jobs in no time, free education... →

Rhian Capostagno

19th April 2024 This we profile Rhian Capostagno, a partner at Partners in Performance, a firm of management consultants →

Rhian Capostagno, a partner at Partners in Performance

Will the Zimbabwe Gold, or ZiG, restore currency confidence?

19th April 2024 The heightened sense of urgency within Zimbabwe’s government to act as the country’s currency crashed – losing 90% of its value since the beginning of the year – was there for all to see in the past few weeks. The latest tell-tale sign was the assumption of office of the new central bank governor... →

Rwanda’s rebirth

19th April 2024 The 100-day period from April 7 to July 15, 1994, will forever be etched on the memory of Rwandans and indeed the rest of humanity. That’s when armed militia from the majority Hutu ethnic group went on a rampage, killing an estimated one-million of their compatriots – mostly Tutsis. The backstory... →

Will the Zimbabwe Gold, or ZiG, restore currency confidence?

19th April 2024 The heightened sense of urgency within Zimbabwe’s government to act as the country’s currency crashed – losing 90% of its value since the beginning of the year – was there for all to see in the past few weeks. The latest tell-tale sign was the assumption of office of the new central bank governor... →

Spiral of silence around GBV

12th April 2024 →

President by default

5th April 2024 It was a birthday present Bassirou Diomaye Faye would not have dreamed of – being announced the President-elect of Senegal on March 25, the day he turned 44, and only weeks after his release from prison, where he was serving time for contempt of court and defaming magistrates. His release was... →

Tertius Zitzke

29th March 2024 This week we profile Tertius Zitzke, CEO of 4Sight Holdings, a diversified technology group whose strategic vision is digital transformation for businesses through seamlessly integrating the operational technology and information technology worlds with the business environment to achieve the... →

Tertius Zitzke, CEO of 4Sight Holdings

Fake but believed

29th March 2024 It’s surprising how easily news consumers fall for disinformation, or fake news, as it is now widely known since Donald Trump popularised the phrase during the US Presidency campaign in 2016. I say popularised because the phrase is as old as the hills, having been coined in the 1890s. But Trump’s... →

South Africa’s brain regain

22nd March 2024 East or west, home’s best. Many South Africans who have emigrated to foreign climes in the past two decades to escape the ills besetting this country can vouch for that. Some are coming back. And the returnees represent more than just a trickle, according to recent data from credible sources.... →

Fatima-Joyce Packery

15th March 2024 This week we profile Fatima-Joyce Packery, CEO of PF Africa Mining, which operates ferrochrome recovery plants →

Fatima-Joyce Packery, CEO of PF Africa Mining

Fare thee well, Prez Mwinyi

15th March 2024 Our neck of the woods, the Southern African Development Community region, last month lost two high-profile personalities, a sitting head of State and a Presidential has-been. While the former, Namibian President Hage Geingob, had significant name recognition in this country, many would battle to... →

Beasts of burden under siege

8th March 2024 Rhino and elephant poaching afflicts many African countries that are home to these endangered species, and the main driver behind this scourge is seemingly insatiable demand by the Chinese and other Asians for the tusks and other body parts of these giant mammals. Now the humble donkey, a... →

Flying Presidents

1st March 2024 What’s the common denominator between Kenyan President William Ruto and his Nigerian opposite number, Bola Tinubu? They both have a remarkable penchant for air travel. This has incurred the ire of detractors in their respective countries, and it’s difficult to dismiss the criticism, considering... →

West Africa’s Brexit moment

23rd February 2024 In a televised announcement on January 28, the West African nations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger let it be known they had ceased to be members of the regional bloc in that neck of the woods with immediate effect. Their gripes included the imposition of sanctions on the three nations after... →

Proudly artisan

16th February 2024 Mention of the word ‘welder’ conjures up images of someone wearing heavy-duty protective gear such as a big steel helmet to shield the face from sparks. You wouldn’t think the person behind the googles is highly educated, with a doctorate in engineering and a well-nigh two-decade career as an... →

Fake news and Elections 2024

9th February 2024 Disinformation by political actors is not a new phenomenon to South Africans. Six short years ago, Bell Pottinger, the Guptas’ now defunct UK communications consultancy, executed a spirited campaign to stir up racial tensions as its principals allegedly went about capturing the State and... →

Malaria milestone

2nd February 2024 Unless one is a football fan or a lover of the music of the late Manu Dibango, one will be hard pressed to say much that is positive about Cameroon, a 475 440 km2 country straddling Central and West Africa that is wedged between Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea,... →

Ructions in the Horn of Africa

26th January 2024 Ructions in the Horn of Africa Martin Zhuwakinyu →

Crystal-ball gazing

19th January 2024 It’s difficult to tell with any degree of certainty what lies in store for Africa this year, but there seems to be broad consensus that our continent will experience better fortunes on the economic front, with real gross domestic product (GDP) growth predicted by the Economist Intelligence Unit... →

Rethabile Melamu

19th January 2024 This week we profile Rethabile Melamu, CEO of the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association, a not-for-profit industry association that represents close to 700 actors along the solar photovoltaic value chain in South Africa →

Rethabile Melamu, CEO of the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association

The year that was

15th December 2023 This year has been quite eventful for the African continent, but for me the biggest story has been that, despite the progress made in the two decades to 2020, we don’t seem to have seen the last of military takeovers of State power. It’s a pity that our multilateral bodies – the African Union... →

Pieter du Preez

8th December 2023 This week we profile Pieter du Preez, CFO at Blyvoor Gold, a South African gold mining company that operates the Blyvoor mine, on Johannesburg’s West Rand →

Pieter du Preez, CFO at Blyvoor Gold

Malawiʼs tone-deaf President

8th December 2023 Last week I wrote about the latest African craze of exporting skilled citizens to other countries on the continent or abroad as a way of tackling unemployment, especially among the youth. While the continental average joblessness rate is estimated at a tame 7.11%, some countries – such as... →

Nitesh Singh

1st December 2023 This week we profile Nitesh Singh, communications media and technology lead for for Africa at Accenture, a global professional services company that helps businesses, governments and other organisations build their digital core, optimise their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance... →

Nitesh Singh, communications media and technology lead for for Africa at Accenture

New African export

1st December 2023 I’m in mourning as I pen this piece – it’s only hours after my beloved Bafana Bafana’s 2-0 defeat by football nonentity Rwanda in a qualifier for the 2026 World Cup tournament, to be hosted by Canada, Mexico and the US. Coach Hugo Broos mumbled something about the state of the pitch when... →

A refashioned threat

24th November 2023 A story claiming that a young mother had given birth to ten live babies in a Pretoria hospital in 2021 – which would have been a world record – not only captured the national imagination but also reverberated throughout the world when it was picked up by international broadcasters and other... →

Crime epidemic

17th November 2023 In a stranger-than-fiction incident earlier this month, Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga and two of her armed protectors were ambushed and robbed at gunpoint near Vosloorus, on Gauteng’s East Rand, in the wee hours of one morning. They were travelling on the N3, the arterial highway that... →

Russia’s Africa infowars

10th November 2023 Outrage is one of the criteria media outlets use when selecting the news to include in their coverage. The Russian embassy in South Africa appears to be alive to this, which seems to explain why, back in July, it posted on its website what it said was a screenshot from US newspaper Politico under... →

Sluggish renewal won’t wash

3rd November 2023 Save for several years after his unceremonious ouster as head of State, triggering what some have described as an understandable sulk, former President Thabo Mbeki has never been one to mince his words, even if his outspokenness is at the expense of the governing African National Congress (ANC),... →

Schalk van der Merwe

27th October 2023 This week we profile Schalk van der Merwe, GM of the industrial water tube division at John Thomson, is involved in the design, manufacture, building and maintenance of industrial and utility boiler plant, as well as the design, manufacture and supply of flue-gas cleanup and air-quality... →

Schalk van der Merwe, GM of the industrial water tube division at John Thomson

Balwin to develop new lifestyle estate in KZN

27th October 2023 JSE-listed large-scale residential property developer Balwin Properties announced on Wednesday that it has concluded agreements to develop a 1 260-apartment lifestyle estate in the larger Westown mixed-use development near Hillcrest, in the outer west of Durban. Comprising one-, two- and... →

Westown, where Shongweni Park is located, will not only integrate with existing outdoor and lifestyle activities and facilities in the area but also enhance them with the rehabilitation of sugar cane into an indigenous active green belt

Brutal peacekeepers?

27th October 2023 Haiti, an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea with a population of about 11.5-million people, should be fairly well known to the average South African. That’s partly because former President Thabo Mbeki had a soft spot for the country, which became the first former colony to gain independence on the... →

Ignatius Sehoole

20th October 2023 This week we profile Ignatius Sehoole, Southern Africa CEO and Africa chairperson at audit, tax and advisory professional services firm KPMG →

Ignatius Sehoole, Southern Africa CEO and Africa chairperson at KPMG

The bad and the good of AI

20th October 2023 ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot tool, has been around for just under a year, having been unveiled in November last year, yet it has become a major talking point, with the exchanges prompted by concern and optimism alike – almost in equal measure. In January, academics at some of... →

Andrew Middleton

13th October 2023 This week we profile Andrew Middleton, CEO of GoSolr, a solar systems installation company →

Andrew Middleton, CEO of GoSolr

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