Engineering News | 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.

West Africa’s Brexit moment

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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

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

Crystal-ball gazing

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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... →

The year that was

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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... →

Malawiʼs tone-deaf President

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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... →

New African export

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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),... →

Brutal peacekeepers?

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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... →

The bad and the good of AI

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 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... →

Empty chairs diplomacy

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 13th October 2023 It’s been a few weeks since the curtain came down on the seventy-eighth session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. Besides the many great speeches that were delivered, one of the takeaways for me was the recurrence of what I noticed at previous gatherings, and that’s the depleted... →

Unquitting Prez Ruto?

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 6th October 2023 When asked by a journalist to reflect on his ten years as Botswana’s President – from April 2008 to April 2018 – Ian Khama was succinct and unequivocal: “I didn’t enjoy politics. Everybody’s problems were put on you. It was a burden that you felt. And no matter who I met, where I met them, even... →

Economics of body weight

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 29th September 2023 The increased availability and consumption of unhealthy foodstuffs in South Africa – as is the case in many countries – has fuelled what one can only call an obesity or overweight epidemic, what with about half of all adults being sdudlas, a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, cancers and... →

Other Madame Presidents?

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 22nd September 2023 Female heads of State have been something of a rarity in Africa. Current and recent incumbents can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, who has been at the helm since March 2021, as well as Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Malawi’s Joyce Banda, both of whom... →

Keeping up with the coup-dashians

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 15th September 2023 Reality television lovers would be familiar with Keeping up with the Kardashians, the American series that focused on the personal and professional lives of the blended Kardashian-Jenner family and aired between 2007 and 2021. Since its inception about six years ago, this column has consistently... →

Refreshing awakening

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 8th September 2023 I know there is such a thing as an overkill and I would have stayed clear of Africa’s multilateral institutions this week, having highlighted a few weeks ago how difficult it is at times to be charitable towards them because of their all too frequent failings. But the no-holds-barred reaction of... →

Frontier for ESG investing

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 1st September 2023 As a concept, ESG – environmental, social and governance – has gathered much momentum in recent years, with a 2022 study by asset management firm Capital Group finding that 89% of investors are swayed by these metrics when deciding where to put their money. What’s more, $2.5-trillion is believed... →

Expedient pan-Africanist

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 25th August 2023 I have never warmed to Kenyan President William Ruto, who shot to prominence as an activist for the then governing Kenyan African National Union’s youth wing at the party’s most vicious in the 1990s – when its hold on power was threatened for the first time. He would later be implicated in a... →

Corrupt contestants

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 18th August 2023 As Kenyan-born public intellectual and pan-Africanist PLO Lumumba often reminds us, there is something distinct about Africans – we are too tolerant of corruption among those who govern us, unlike the Chinese, who insist on nothing less than capital punishment for rogue politicians and other bad... →

Bizarre obesity premium

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 11th August 2023 A couple of weeks back, I disclosed in this column how a nutritionist-designed diet and engaging in physical exercise daily had helped me shed tens of kilos, in the process taming my rampant blood cholesterol to within a healthy range. Sadly, owing to a lack of enlightenment, some still put a... →

Embarrassing talk shop

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 4th August 2023 Much as one may try, it’s not always possible to be charitable towards some of Africa’s institutions. The very unexceptional and scandal-prone Pan African Parliament (PAP), which has been hosted by South Africa since its inception in 2004, is one such body. The continental legislature’s president... →

AI’s antimalaria promise

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 28th July 2023 I recently read a magazine article where the writer remarked that he could not remember the last time he had phoned a company and was answered by a human being. This is but one illustration of how artificial intelligence (AI), the simulation of human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities... →

Uncivilised asylum plan

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 21st July 2023 I have never made any bones about my dislike for former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson – not after the racist comments about Africans that he made in newspaper columns during his time as a journalist. He had no qualms about calling us piccaninnies – an offensive term for a small black child... →

How I beat cholesterol

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 14th July 2023 A frequent experience for me during the past 18 months is acquaintances I haven’t seen in a while stealing furtive glances at me in a manner that betrays concern on their part about the state of my health. Some have been daring enough to ask if all is well with me. I understand their concern –... →

Inequality explosion

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 7th July 2023 South Africa has the unenviable distinction – nay, infamy – of being the most unequal country in the world, with a Gini coefficient of 0.65. This is little wonder, given the country’s unemployment scourge and the massive income chasm between the top earners and those on the lowest rung of the... →

A Covid reminder

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 30th June 2023 The ubiquitous face mask is now gone. So too have the rigid lockdowns that saw many of us work from home for the better part of the period from 2020 to early 2021. But not all reminders that our continent – as well as the rest of the world – was once ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic are gone.... →

Enduring hope

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 23rd June 2023 Following the sluggish 1990s, the early years of this millennium witnessed spectacular growth in sub-Saharan Africa, giving rise to the Africa Rising narrative – the notion that it was inevitable that the region and the continent at large were poised to continue on this trajectory. Sadly, much... →

Climate apartheid

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 16th June 2023 The term ‘climate apartheid’ has been bandied about to refer to wealthy nations’ ability to pay to escape the overheating, hunger and conflict that ensue from climate change while the rest of the world bears the brunt of this man-made scourge. ‘Climate apartheid’ might sound mere climate... →

Creeping misery

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 9th June 2023 Inflation, unemployment and punitive borrowing costs – read interest rates – are said by those in the know to be sure-fire determinants of whether the citizens of a nation are a miserable lot. With all three indicators having been the hallmarks of many nations last year, what with the lingering... →

Misplaced obsession

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 2nd June 2023 There has been much debate of late – in the media and elsewhere – about whether new Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda is capable of leading a city with a R70-billion-plus yearly budget, given his modest educational credentials. By many accounts, he dropped out of school after Grade 10. The... →

Africa Day – 60 years on

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 26th May 2023 Assuming you are reading this article on this edition’s publication day, the odds are you are nursing a hangover, unless you live in South Africa or in the other countries where Africa Day – May 25 – is not a public holiday, in which case you spent yesterday at the office instead of celebrating... →

Humanoid’s exciting journey

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 19th May 2023 It must be five years ago now. Or slightly longer. But whatever. Back then, I wrote in this column about a latter-day Melchizedek of sorts, who, unlike the Old Testament character, is female. I thought of checking in on her, and she definitely has had a very interesting journey ever since. For... →

Coalition era beckoning?

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 12th May 2023 I did not know of Thapelo Amad at all prior to his short-lived tenure as the mayor of Johannesburg. Just as I was beginning to form an opinion of him, he resigned, but that was not before I had concluded that he was seriously out of his depth as the city’s number one citizen and that those who... →

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