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Pretoria

Job seeker Johannes Oveida looks over a brochure at a job fair at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. 

Open secret: Some international students in the US are going hungry

The price of higher ed

Community colleges are an attractive option for international students, in part, because they’re a fraction of the cost of four-year universities. But higher nonresident tuition fees, ineligibility for state or federal aid and limited options for work can still generate sticker shock for people when they arrive in the US.

Close-up of Saidy Brown wearing a gray shirt

At 14, she tested positive for HIV — now she calls herself an HIVictor

Sexuality
Protests at the Pretoria High School for Girls.

Until recently this school in South Africa told black girls to chemically straighten their hair

Education
Mavis, a housekeeper from the Pretoria township of Mamelodi, depends on her garden to help provide for her five children and seven grandchildren. But with this year's region-wide drought, her garden is just a dusty patch of seedlings. “I want rain every d

For one South African house cleaner, this year’s big drought means crying, hungry children

Environment
Olympic and Paralympic running star Oscar Pistorius stands during court proceedings at the Pretoria Magistrates court.

In a historic moment, Oscar Pistorius’ five-year sentence is handed down by a black female judge

Justice
South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius leaves the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on September 11, 2014.

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is acquitted of murder, but could face a lesser charge

Justice

After a long and very public trial, Oscar Pistorius will not be convicted of murder — but he could still go to prison for “culpable homicide.” Many South Africans were shocked by the acquittal for murder, since Pistorius did not come off well during the trial.

Nelson Mandela's former private assistant Zelda la Grange. Her memoir traces the 43-year-old's upbringing in an Afrikaans family that considered Mandela a terrorist to her improbable appointment to his office when he became president in 1994, and her clos

Here’s how a young white woman went from loving apartheid to being in Mandela’s inner circle

Global Politics

When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Zelda la Grange had no idea who he was. In her Afrikaaner family, he was simply a “terrorist.” She was in her twenties and would soon become Mandela’s personal assistant, and later, a close friend.When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Zelda la Grange had no idea who he was. In her Afrikaaner family, he was simply a “terrorist.” She was in her twenties and would soon become Mandela’s personal assistant, and later, a close friend.

Thabang Senekal during a performance of "Madiba: The African Opera" at South Africa's State Theatre in Pretoria on May 22, 2014. The opera focuses on Nelson Mandela's upbringing in the rural town of Qunu on the Eastern Cape and how and why he left that

What’s it like to portray Nelson Mandela in an opera? Amazing!

Arts, Culture & Media

If you’re in Pretoria, South Africa, one show you won’t be able to see is a new opera about Nelson Mandela. That’s because the show, “Madiba: The African Opera,” was cancelled after just three nights because of a lack of funding. The opera depicts Nelson Mandela’s early years in his native home of Qunu, on South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Thabang Senekal is the well-known South African baritone who played Mandela in the production. He describes what it’s like to play Mandela on stage.

Thabang Senekal during a performance of "Madiba: The African Opera" at South Africa's State Theatre in Pretoria on May 22, 2014. The opera focuses on Nelson Mandela's upbringing in the rural town of Qunu on the Eastern Cape and how and why he left that

What’s it like to portray Nelson Mandela in an opera? Amazing!

Arts, Culture & Media

If you’re in Pretoria, South Africa, one show you won’t be able to see is a new opera about Nelson Mandela. That’s because the show, “Madiba: The African Opera,” was cancelled after just three nights because of a lack of funding. The opera depicts Nelson Mandela’s early years in his native home of Qunu, on South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Thabang Senekal is the well-known South African baritone who played Mandela in the production. He describes what it’s like to play Mandela on stage.

Nelson Mandela, as a young man, before he gave his famous Rivonia speech

Why hearing Mandela’s Rivonia speech is so powerful. It’s not just the words, it’s the sounds behind them

Conflict & Justice

South Africa kept recordings of Nelson Mandela’s famous Rivonia speech. But no one could hear them because they were on dictabelts. And then South Africa’s last remaining dictaphone machine broke.