South Africa

An entrepreneur uses his laptop near graffiti-decorated walls at Hubspace in the Khayelitsha township.

World News

Far From Silicon Valley, A Disruptive Startup Hub

11:14am April 06, 2015

In South Africa's townships, entrepreneurs lack the basic necessities of an office, such as electricity and water. Enter Hubspace. "Damn," one of them said on his first visit. "This is a cool space."

South African comedian Loyiso Gola performed at The Orbit, a club in Johannesburg, in February.

Advice For Trevor Noah From The 'Jon Stewart Of South Africa'

5:13pm March 31, 2015

by Don Boroughs

The Daily Show isn't the only fake news show around. South Africa has Late Nite News, starring comedian Loyiso Gola. We asked him how he feels about Noah's new job — and what advice he has to offer.

Students at the University of Cape Town are demanding the removal of the statue of British colonizer Cecil Rhodes.

World News

Why South African Students Say The Statue Of Rhodes Must Fall

1:47pm March 28, 2015

by Don Boroughs

Twenty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa is in its teenage phase: Questioning everything, including the statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes on the University of Cape Town campus.

Polina, 37, rests in a hospital bed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2011. She is severely malnourished and suffers from numerous diseases, including tuberculosis, hepatitis C and HIV.

'How Unromantic It Is To Die Of Tuberculosis In The 21st Century'

2:40pm March 23, 2015

by Salmaan Keshavjee

That's what a patient in Russia said a few years ago. In fact, 1.5 million people do die of the airborne infection each year. Here's what the world needs to do to fight this generally curable scourge.

These teens from the Xhosa tribe wear traditional garb and paint after their coming-of-age circumcision ceremony near Qunu, South Africa.

Botched Ritual Circumcision Leads To World's First Penile Transplant

5:02pm March 19, 2015

by Thomas K. Grose

The recipient is a 21-year-old from a tribe in South Africa, whose organ was amputated after complications from the circumcision. The hope is that transplants could be one way to aid other victims.

Thembi Jakiwe is a 12-year-old in South Africa who needs 180 very painful injections to get rid of her tuberculosis.

A 12-Year-Old Girl Shows Us What It's Really Like To Face TB

8:29am March 13, 2015

by Nsikan Akpan

After you hear her story, you'll never think the same way about the disease. That's the goal of Visual Epidemiology, a company that makes videos about individual battles instead of the big picture.

They're not just surfing for fun. Youngsters in Cape Town's Waves for Change are facing mental health problems. With the help of a surfing mentor and a counselor, they can learn how to cope.

If Everybody Had An Ocean, Could We Surf Our Way To Mental Health?

3:00pm February 06, 2015

by Anders Kelto

The teenager's dad was beating his mom. So the kid fell into a funk. His grades plummeted, he joined a gang, he got into fights. Then he discovered surfing therapy.

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Eugene De Kock a former Vlakplaas commander speaks to the judge at a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1999. De Kock, the apartheid regime's top assassin, asked the commission for amnesty for over 100 incidents of torture, murder and fraud.

South Africa Grants Parole To Notorious Apartheid-Era Death Squad Leader

7:00am January 30, 2015

by Eyder Peralta

The country's justice minister said he was ordering the release of Eugene de Kock in the interest of "nation-building and reconciliation." De Kock had been in jail for more than 20 years.

Cover detail of The Girl from Human Street.

A Memoir Of A Family's Diaspora, And A Mother's Depression

11:25am January 19, 2015

by NPR Staff

New York Times columnist Roger Cohen looks back on his life and asks: Could a family's constant movement — four countries in four generations — contribute to a mother's struggle with mental illness?

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S. African Prosecutors To Seek Murder Conviction Against Pistorius

2:21pm December 10, 2014

by Krishnadev Calamur

The double-amputee Olympian was convicted earlier this year of culpable homicide, or manslaughter, in the shooting death of his girlfriend. He is serving a five-year prison sentence.