Photograph by: Simon Mathebula
She will be remembered as a graceful pillar of justice, who maintained a strong commitment to her family and country throughout some of the most chaotic times in South African history.
Her legacy lives on through the Albertina Sisulu Foundation and Albertina Sisulu Multi-Purpose Resource Centre
The possible hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo goes far beyond aesthetics Photo: Yooperannfracking, Flickr This article first appeared in the 15th edition of the Development Works Newsletter, which we just sent out. If you are not yet on our newsletter mailing list, please contact us.
The concern around the possible hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo goes far beyond aesthetics. While very few people want to see the Karoo transformed into a desolate moonscape of industrial craters and machinery, far more worrisome is the possibility of the permanent contamination of South Africa’s groundwater.
“Fracking” is a colloquialism for hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to extract oil and gas from prolific but challenging shale deposits. Source: The Wall Street Journal.
Given that South Africa is already a highly stressed environment when it comes to water, the potential for contamination of existing water supplies, and the massive quantities of water needed for fracking cannot be ignored. Josh Fox, in his Oscar-nominated documentary about the gas industry in the USA, href=”http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/”>GasLands, paints a frightening picture of the possibilities for disaster and long-term environmental and health problems resulting from industrial fracking.
The vast karoo landscapes currently under threat of hydraulic fracking.
These communities, many of which are small rural farming towns, are not only losing their livelihoods due to the rapid encroachment of frack sites, but are also living under the permanent threat of chronic health implications and even the total destruction of their homes.
This tunnel is then injected with truly staggering amounts of water and sand, which has been previously imbued with a wide variety of distressing chemicals, which creates cracks in the rock, thus releasing the gas deposits and allowing the cracks to remain open. (If you want a slightly more scientific explanation, go here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing).
Some organisations dedicated to ensuring that the Karoo does not end up fracked beyond all repair.Photo: Jacques van Niekerk
So, if you’re a thinking human, you’ll probably be musing something along the lines of: ‘toxic stuff being pumped into ground + gas leaking into aquifers + vast amounts of highly poisonous chemicals seeping into underground water sources does not equal a good idea!’
And you’d be entirely correct.
As of March 2011, five oil and gas companies, Shell, Anglo-American, Falcon Gas and Oil, Bundu Gas and Oil and a partnership between Sasol, Statoil and U.S energy giant Chesapeake, have been granted rights for exploration for shale gas in the Karoo. Civil society groups are fighting this tooth and nail.The difference, however, between South Africa and the U.S is that in the U.S, the owner of the land under which the gas lies is considered the owner of the gas, and can thus refuse the gas company’s application to drill. In South Africa however, our government holds the rights to underground mineral, gas and oil deposits.
In other words, if your house happens to sit on top of a vast natural energy reserve, you have absolutely no say in whether or not you allow drilling on your property. So it’s clear that any actions needs to be directed towards ensuring our government knows the inherent dangers in this practice, and convincing the powers that be that while fracking may bring some revenue into South Africa for a few years (anywhere between four and 40 depending on who you choose to believe), surely far more valuable is keeping your population as healthy as possible – which means not exposing them to unnecessary chemicals and ensuring that the little water we have is drinkable as long as it lasts!
Photographs: Jacques van Niekerk www.gustible.com
Luckily, there are numerous organisations dedicated to ensuring that the Karoo does not end up fracked beyond all repair. If you want to be involved, look up these folk:
Treasure the Karoo Action Group
www.treasurethekaroo.blogspot.com
Chase Shell Oil out of the Karoo (facebook group)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_185633661460206
www.fractual.org.za
Online resource full of useful info!
So, what do you think about this issue? Good for the country’s economic development or a fracking bad idea?Please leave a comment below
Check out this interesting article from The Times following a report made by the UN and the SA Human Rights Commission. The article discusses South Africa continues to neglect its most vulnerable, in particular, children, as they are negatively impacted by a lack of a proper home, health care and schooling.
Some of the report’s troubling findings include:
• 64%, or 11.9million, of the country’s 18.6million children live in poverty. Many of them are Aids orphans – about 5.5million people have HIV/Aids in South Africa, more than in any other country
• Only 54% of the HIV-positive children who should be on antiretroviral treatment are receiving it;
• More than 270 babies and their mothers die after birth on average a day, mainly due to HIV/Aids, and the maternal mortality rate has increased by 80% since 1990;
• 582000 children who should be attending high school are not – 28% don’t have the money for fees and 15% because “education is useless”;
• Of 56500 children who were victims of violent crime in 2009-2010, 27417 were raped or molested. Of those, 29% were aged between 0 and 10.
Read the full article below:
***
The Times: Young,hungry,helpless
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article986417.ece/Young-hungry-helpless
UN,USA
March 21st marked Human Rights Day on the South African calendar — a day where people commemorate the struggles suffered by those fighting for equality and justice. It also marks the anniversary of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in 1996, an organisation dedicated to continuously fighting for human rights.
We rejoice this day by appreciating the rights we have, which include the right to dignity, equality, education, and expression.
This year’s Human Rights Day brought a large number of people to participate in events hosted by the Equal Education (EE). The event’s main intention was to hand over a memorandum to the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, requesting her to ensure the Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure is signed into law, as promised in last year’s policy gazette. The memorandum is also similar to the National Policy for the Equitable Provision of an Enabling School Teaching and Learning Environment (NPEP).
Unfortunately, Motshekga wasn’t present to take the memorandum, but Dingani Ngobeni, the Chief of Staff in the Basic Education Ministry, accepted it on her behalf. There was a great turn-out at the event, including a number of youth who were also advocating for advancing their education.
According to the Cape Times, Yoliswa Dwane, Equal Education spokeswoman, was quoted as saying, “Young people in the province showed today that they have an interest in their education. They came in numbers and wanted their voices to be heard.”
(Note: A similar march is planned for March 31, to the Union Buildings in Pretoria)
Aside from Parliament, other areas in Cape Town were also celebrating Human Rights Day, but this time in the form of arts and performance. Gugulethu residents and surrounding areas enjoyed the rhythm of the Cape, as the Amy Biehl Foundation, in association with the City of Cape Town, Western Cape Musicians Association and the Department Cultural Affairs and Sports presented the Cape Township Jazz Festival.
The likes of Amy Biehl Youth Bands, Yolanda Yawa, Mtika, The Tribe of Benjamin and the Milton Academy Jazz Band played at the event. The admission was only R5, giving an opportunity for people of all areas to attend the event.
Through political lobbying, speeches, and performances, it was clear that Cape Town made a statement in the on-going fight for human rights. Though we celebrate our achievements, it’s equally important to focus on the future and continue paving the way for justice and fairness.
Human Rights Day is incredibly important in reminding us that despite our differences, we are at the end of the day, all human.
The Lowe family from Cape Town is inviting warm hearts to support their 10-year- old daughter, Natalie who was diagnosed with an unusual form of bone cancer, Chordoma on the 5 January 2011.
The family has done everything they can do to save their little girl’s life. Right now they have left for Boston, USA to get help from surgical doctors who will perform further surgeries.
She has had emergency surgery to lighten the pressure of the tumor on her windpipe but traveling abroad for further surgery that includes reconstruction of her spine has thrown her family into a financial crisis.
“At Massachusetts General Hospital Natalie will undergo pre-operative Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) – a specialised form of radiation. Surgery will follow some time in April, and once Natalie is rested and has recovered from the operation, she will have further PBT.”
The surgery and PBT treatment is very costly and their hospital insurance only covers essential expenses in South Africa.
Both surgery and the treatment will cost approximately R 2-3m and the family cannot afford such amount “So any support, however big or small, is deeply appreciated.”
Let’s open our hearts and offer a gift of life to our little friend.
To support Natalie go to: http://www.nataliescircleoflove.org/make-a-donation
