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.

Reprieve for Nairobi fig tree

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 4th December 2020 Bad news abounds these days – ranging from dictators who are clinging on to power by hook or crook to death on a wide scale as a result of Covid-19 and sagging economies, with the attendant impact on livelihoods. Instead of touching on any of that, I have elected to go light-hearted this week,... →

Deteriorating governance

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 27th November 2020 The bad news keeps piling up. Just when we thought we would see no further depressing headlines than those related to the toll that the coronavirus pandemic continues to take on lives and livelihoods alike, in mid-November, Africans woke to reports that the way in which they are governed has... →

Donald Trump: Good riddance!

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 20th November 2020 Donald Trump is such a sore loser. But, despite his bizarre claims that he was cheated out of victory, he will have to make way for Joe Biden as the new White House occupant, come January 20. I’m sure the majority of Africans are not going to miss Trump, the US’s first one-term President since... →

Covid: US must learn from us

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 13th November 2020 The predictions were dire. Owing to Africa’s weak health systems – which the continent’s well-heeled elites are known to eschew in the same way one would stay clear of the plague – millions upon millions of its sons and daughters were expected to be consigned to an early grave by the grim reaper... →

Targeted sanctions don’t work

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 6th November 2020 One of the major talking points in Africa currently is the fatal shooting by the Nigerian military of 69 young men and women demonstrating against the excesses of a police unit set up to combat robbery in the West African nation. When the shootings occurred, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad had... →

Election season in Africa

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 30th October 2020 In a few days, Americans will cast their ballots in an election that will either extend Donald Trump’s rule by another four years or see him leave the While House as the first one-term President since George Bush Snr. But the world’s media has been so fixated on the November 3 election that there... →

Influential Africans

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 9th October 2020 US news weekly Time’s eagerly awaited 100-strong list of the world’s most influential people in various fields of endeavour was released late last month. Proving that our continent is coming into its own, a few sons and daughters of the African soil made the prestigious list. None of the names... →

Presidents for life

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 2nd October 2020 The past few years have witnessed the departure of a few African Big Men who had dominated the political landscape in their countries for decades. The most notable are Angola’s Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who assumed the reins of power in Angola in 1979 and stepped down in 2017, and the late... →

Waste-averse Kenya under pressure

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 25th September 2020 Kenya has quite a high profile in Africa. It owes this visibility to several factors: it is East Africa’s economic powerhouse, its tourist attractions – which are patronised by visitors from across the world – are top class, and it is the home country of Hollywood star Lupita Nyong’o and renowned... →

Covid-19-induced famine

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 18th September 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic has had multiple impacts. Apart from hundreds of thousands of deaths, many economies are now shadows of their former selves, while scores of people have joined the ranks of the unemployed, with no prospect of finding another job any time soon. One could also add to the... →

Black tax’s longevity benefit

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 11th September 2020 The ‘black tax’ phenomenon is as common in Mzansi as it is elsewhere on the continent. This is where societal values demand that individuals who ‘have arrived’ – nay, who are fortunate enough to have a regular income, mostly through employment – support members of their families. This includes... →

Africa now polio free

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 4th September 2020 There is much depressing news around these days, from the havoc that the Covid-19 pandemic is wreaking on countries – in the health, economic and social senses – to tyrants continuing to ride roughshod over citizens in several African countries while multilateral bodies such as the African Union... →

Tough-talking Ecowas

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 28th August 2020 I have always admired the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). Unlike the regional body in our neck of the woods, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), it does talk – and act – tough when any individuals or groups within its member countries fail to toe the democratic... →

Tourism hit by Covid-19

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 21st August 2020 Tourism is an important economic sector in Africa, accounting for a sizeable chunk of the gross domestic product (GDP) of many countries. Mauritius’ tourism sector boasts the highest GDP contribution on the continent – a whopping 19% – followed by Morocco (12%), Egypt and Senegal (9% apiece),... →

Zimbabwe: more of the same

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 14th August 2020 When the much-hated Robert Mugabe was toppled by the military as Zimbabwe’s President in November 2017, there was hope that his successor would open up the democratic space and end the suffering of the country’s citizens. Indeed, Emmerson Mnangagwa projected himself as a leader who was intent on... →

My Covid-19 ordeal

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 7th August 2020 There was a time not so long ago when, for many in Mzansi, Covid-19 was something they watched on television. That’s no longer the case, with the virus having infected hundreds of thousands. Sadly, no fewer than 7 000 have passed on. My family’s Covid-19 ordeal started in early July. My wife, who... →

Congratulations, Malawi

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 10th July 2020 Jacob Zuma’s acerbic tongue is well known. Malawi was once at its receiving end when the former President, in an attempt to convince Gauteng residents to pay urban e-tolls, blurted: “We can’t think like Africans in Africa, generally. This is Johannesburg. It’s not some national road in Malawi.”... →

Unlamented dictator

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 3rd July 2020 Owing to the mediation role that South Africa played in conflict-prone Burundi, thus guaranteeing the Eastern African country a spot on our media agenda for many years, very few news-consuming citizens of Mzansi would need to be told who Pierre Nkurunziza was. The 55-year-old breathed his last in... →

Food security amid Covid-19

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 26th June 2020 It’s well known that Africa faces an imminent dilemma as far as food security is concerned: the majority of its farmers are in the twilight of their careers, aged 60 on average, and their offspring – who see farming as not being chic enough – are not too keen on taking over when they call it... →

Sophia the robot turns four

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 19th June 2020 In one of the earliest instalments of this column, I wrote about Sophia, the social humanoid robot that was granted citizenship – with a passport to boot – by Saudi Arabia in October 2017, becoming the first nonhuman to achieve this feat. Sophia was witched on in February 2016, which means she is... →

Bones tell slavery story

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 29th May 2020 How enslaved Africans were shipped across the Atlantic over centuries is a story that has been told ad nauseum, generating a wealth of knowledge about this massive blot on the history of mankind. Surprisingly, in Latin American countries like Mexico, African roots are well-nigh invisible in... →

Celebration-less Africa Day

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 22nd May 2020 In a few days, Africans at home and in the diaspora will be celebrating the fifty-seventh anniversary of Africa Day, which marks the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the antecedent body of the African Union (AU), back in 1963. Were it not for the physical distancing and bans... →

Fatal inaction

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 15th May 2020 With Covid-19 having shaped up into a health crisis of unprecedented proportions – with equally unprecedented economic implications – it is not inconceivable that governments and other stakeholders may be tempted to drastically scale down efforts to tackle existing health threats, preferring to... →

Nature’s fury

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 8th May 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic has hogged news headlines during the past couple of months, and understandably so. The upshot has been that other crises have received comparatively little attention from the media. A case in point is the scourge of climate change, which some say will cause a ‘climate... →

No laughing matter – really?

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 1st May 2020 The coronavirus disease – or Covid-19 – is dead serious business. According to the United Nations, the pandemic will likely consign 300 000 sons and daughters of the African soil to the grave, while slowing economic growth on the continent this year from a previous forecast of 3.2% to a paltry... →

Diminished productivity

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 24th April 2020 It has been about a month since President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered a national lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 – a decision that earned him plaudits far and wide, even from his political opponents. Only the Democratic Alliance (DA) attempted to rubbish the national response to the pandemic,... →

Trapped by Covid-19

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 17th April 2020 African elites are notorious for seeking medical care abroad, eschewing medical facilities in their own countries, many of which are in a sorry state, having been starved of cash for maintenance and the acquisition of modern equipment. That the continent’s healthcare professionals are poorly... →

Ubuntu lacking in our leaders

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 10th April 2020 I am a great admirer of Kenya’s PLO Lumumba, who is often on the speaking circuit in African capitals, preaching the gospel of African unity and good governance. The gist of what he says is that, divided, Africa will remain an economic backwater. To illustrate this point, the former law professor... →

‘Moo-ney’ deal

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 3rd April 2020 I become quite sceptical whenever the old argument that Africans must find African solutions to their challenges is invoked. The argument’s biggest proponents have been the many obnoxious dictators that our continent has been cursed with over the past few decades, who are wont to trot it out to... →

Let’s prioritise mathematics

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 27th March 2020 March 14 was celebrated live and online around the world as the International Day of Mathematics. This was the first time this happened and followed a decision by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), taken at its fortieth general conference, on November... →

Leadership deficiency

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 20th March 2020 Africa continues to face a paucity of political leaders whose democratic credentials are worthy writing home about. The latest evidence of this is the decision by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation not to name a recipient for the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership for 2019. Financed by... →

You can say ‘next tomorrow’ – and it’s correct English

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 13th March 2020 The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), described by some as “the last word on [English] words”, has been updated with 29 Nigerian English words and phrases. These include ‘severally’, as in “he reminded me severally about the issue”, ‘ember months’ (the final four months of the year), ‘next... →

Whither, SAA?

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 6th March 2020 I start with a disclaimer: the only discipline in which I received training is the art and craft of journalism. I have never been anywhere near a business school or a lecture hall where the economics of the aviation industry were unpacked. But even a lowly scribe can offer his two pennies’ worth... →

Dateline Harare

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 28th February 2020 My wife persuaded me to attend a wedding in Harare on the Saturday after Valentine’s Day. We got one of the earliest flights out of OR Tambo International Airport – just to make sure we would witness the proceedings from the word go. No sooner had we taken our seats than I realised that the... →

Shame on you, AU and SADC

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 21st February 2020 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni famously excoriated the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) as a trade union of dictators. That was in the mid-1980s. Back then, he was leading an insurrection against his country’s autocratic government. He was apparently frustrated by the seeming indifference... →

Second-generation Presidents

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 14th February 2020 As I have pointed out before, the flare-ups of anti-immigrant sentiment among some communities in our beloved Mzansi do not define South Africans – especially those at the base of the socioeconomic totem pole, where this sentiment mostly manifests – as inherently xenophobic. Rather, this is... →

No, we don’t love Trump

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 7th February 2020 That Patrice Motsepe is a jolly good fellow is beyond question. He has proved to be one of the world’s more benevolent billionaires, having joined The Giving Pledge in 2013. By so doing, he committed to giving half his wealth to charitable causes. But he is a mere mortal and is prone to... →

The more things change . . .

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 31st January 2020 Constantino Chiwenga’s name should be pretty well known – at least in Southern Africa. He is the army general who, in November 2017, led the coup that toppled the late Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s hitherto strongman President, who had just about run his country to the ground during his well-nigh... →

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