Lazarus Sauti

Lazarus Sauti According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014, African countries are poor at converting research into industry due to unfair technology transfer. Countries in the Southern African Development Community are also heavily affected. Sadly, this unfair technology transfer, according to William Bitton, an information officer in Zimbabwe, is hindering development in the region. “There is unfair technology transfer in SADC and as a result, member states are suffering. Furthermore, the culture of creating and protecting intellectual property as well as transferring it into industries is very weak in the region,” he adds. Bitton, therefore, urges SADC countries to convert research into industry as well as embrace technology transfer to effectively transform the region. “If technology transfer is managed well, it will enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the region. Countries must embrace technology transfer and u

Lazarus Sauti In team sports, home advantage describes the psychological advantage that the hosting team is said to have over the visiting team as a result of playing in familiar facilities and in front of supportive fans. With the backing of singing supporters, the home team, in most cases, is considered to have a significant advantage over the visitors. Playing at home can be a big bonus in sustainable soci0economic development too especially for Africa, the continent remarked by American business magnate, politician and philanthropist, Michael Rubens Bloomberg, as the ‘continent of the immediate future’. With its vast resources, the continent can establish a strong base that can catapult countries to greater economic transformation. Devakumar Edwin of Dangote, the hugely successful Nigerian conglomerate, believes that with vast natural and natural resources, the continent of Africa is at an advantage – playing with a home advantage in terms of the path to developm

Lazarus Sauti Countries within the Southern African Development Community are suffering economically due to problems associated with copper cable theft. Media platforms in these countries are awash with stories of such incidences. For instance, media in Namibia recently reported that Telecom Namibia is concerned about the growing incidents of cable theft from and vandalism of network infrastructure all over the country. Telecom’s Senior Manager for Corporate Communications and Public Relations, Oiva Angula, was quoted saying thieves have opened manholes at different points in the country to cut and steal copper cables. “Criminals are causing massive damage to Telecom Namibia networks through copper theft and sheer vandalism, resulting in downtime for customers and costing the company millions,” Angula said. In Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company, a subsidiary of Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, recently said “it is grappl

Lazarus Sauti Rosa Parks (1931 – 2005), one of the most significant people of the 20 th century, once said, and this humble pen quotes: “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” True to Rosa’s quote, racism is still with us, and recent incidents that happened in the football fraternity testify to this. Russian side FC Rostov’s coach Igor Gamula, Bordeaux coach Willy Sagnol and Italian football federation president Carlo Tavecchio recently made racial comments that are abusive, damaging, discrediting and offending to African players and the continent at large. Gamula allegedly made inflammatory comments about his African players as he labelled them as “things”. His comments came after he was asked whether he would sign Cameroonian player Benoit Angbwa, and Gamula responded by saying: “We have enough dark-skinned players; we’ve got six of the things.” Six things, seriously!

Lazarus Sauti In countries within and across Africa, cancer is a growing health burden that is ravaging societies. The diseases can no longer be ignored as it is killing more people globally than Human Immunodefiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Tuberculosis and malaria. The World Health Organisation, a specialised agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health, agrees that cancer figures among the leading causes of death worldwide, accounting for 8.2 million deaths in 2012. Further, the leading international public health organisation forecasts that the annual cancer cases will rise to 22 million within the next two decades from 14 million in 2012. Through its cancer research agency, International Agency for Research on Cancer, the World Health Organisation also asserts that lung, liver, stomach, colorectal and breast cancers cause the most cancer deaths each year. This means cancer requires urgent attention before i

Lazarus Sauti The 2014 Ebola epidemic is the largest and most serious outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in recorded history , affecting multiple countries in West Africa. Centred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the outbreak continues to worsen. Further, other countries including Ghana and Senegal are at greatest risk, according to Kamran Khan, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Division of Infectious Diseases and co-author of a new study on the likelihood of West Africa’s Ebola outbreak spreading oversees via air travel. This shows that this blight is respecting no boundaries and the human race is at risk. For instance, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health institute of the United States, estimates that some 9 000 people have contracted the disease so far. Heath officials put the death toll at around 4 500, meaning that one in two people who get Ebola in this outbreak die. Although the World Health Organ

Lazarus Sauti The murder of Orlando Pirates and South African national soccer team captain, Senzo Meyiwa, shocked the world and turned the spotlight once again on crime and the disrespect of human life in the country. In a clear case of a hen eating its own eggs, South Africa continues to disrespect human life as it retains rates of murder, rape and aggravated burglary that are among the highest in the world. South Africans and other citizens are not free in the country. This is sad. So sad in the sense that citizens do not respect the right to life as they are happy to kill; and the government is doing nothing to protect and promote the life of both powerful and powerless citizens. When it comes to crime, the most progressive country not only in Southern Africa but in the entire continent is in a mess. A crisis. Sadly, crime is cemented in the neurons of citizens as it has become socially acceptable. Worse still, South Africans do not even want to report a

Lazarus Sauti Matthew Arnold, English essayist (1822 – 1888), once said “our inequality materialises our upper class, vulgarises our middle class, and brutalises our lower class.” True to his assertions, inequality, simply the quality of being uneven, is brutalising and vulgarising Africa as this scourge is still pervasive in the continent. The rapid spread of the Ebola Virus Disease, for instance, points to the pain of inequality in Africa, the second largest continent in area and population, as it exposes the fragility of the health care. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, most affected countries, already rank at the bottom of the inequality adjusted Human Development Index – a measure of human development based on country level inequalities in health, education and income. Of 144 countries on the ranking, Liberia ranks at 135, Guinea at 138, and Sierra Leone 143. On Ebola and the scourge of inequality in Africa, Robert Walker of the Population Institute, an internati