The Two Worlds in Africa

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Paul Schlehlein

–– Seth Meyers

The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Of the 80 members in the South African Tsonga churches, 15 members have full time jobs. Several of those 15 are informal jobs such as cleaning houses or selling snacks to school children, meaning that the pay is less than R2,000 ($110) per month or R66 ($3.70) per day. One man told me that he is 100% satisfied with the job he has had for a year because it pays R4,500 ($250) per month. Other members work from time to time doing hair, building, or cleaning when part time work presents itself.

But that should be compared with a friend in Johannesburg South Africa who told me that it would be hard for a family to live with less than R30,000 ($1,666) per month. How could it be hard to live with 10 times more than other Christians are making?

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TARIF: Oxen with Bad Reps as a Solution to Joburg Fires

Posted on September 5, 2023 by Paul Schlehlein

The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Today is Tuesday, September 5^th, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Paul Schlehlein and presented by Yamikani Katunga.

Oxen with Bad Reps as a Solution to Joburg Fires

In the early morning of August 31, flames erupted out in a five-story building in the CBD of Johannesburg, South Africa, eventually killing seventy-four people, including children, in one of the worst fire tragedies in recent memory. Some of the charred remains of bodies were laid in the public streets.

Residents, family members, and media outlets immediately expressed outrage, believing that the fire could have easily been avoided. The building apparently belongs to the city of Joburg, once used by the courts and later as a shelter for abused women. But the building had become an overcrowded, temporary housing unit for migrants, just like scores of other buildings throughout the city. Gangs have since hi-jacked the premises and now do the rent collecting themselves.

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TARIF: Hate Speech vs. Free Speech in South Africa

Posted on August 1, 2023 by Paul Schlehlein

The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Today is Tuesday, August 1st, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Tim Cantrell and presented by Yamikani Katunga.

Hate Speech vs. Free Speech in South Africa

Last Saturday in Johannesburg, in the massive FNB stadium in Soweto, Julius Malema (leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters political party) stood before a stadium of tens of thousands and gave us yet another perfectly blatant example of genuine hate speech: https://twitter.com/i/status/1685542774601371648 If shouting, “Kill the Boer (white Afrikaners), kill the farmer!” (while making gun sounds and hand-gun motions) is not hate speech, what is?² If “explicit words meant to incite violence”³ still has anything to do with hate speech, surely Malema should’ve been behind bars long ago.

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TARIF: Gas Explosion in Downtown Joburg and Towers of Siloam

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Paul Schlehlein

The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Today is Tuesday, July 25th, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Paul Schlehlein and presented by Yamikani Katunga.

Gas Explosion in Downtown Joburg and Towers of Siloam

On the 19^th of July, in downtown Johannesburg, an underground explosion tore through a long stretch of road in South Africa, killing one person and leaving two others critically injured. The blast happened during rush hour, just as people were gathering in the streets to catch mini busses and taxis for their return home. A surveillance camera shows the massive eruption lifting the paved road off the ground, breaking the asphalt to pieces and flipping over dozens of cars. Besides those that were killed or critically injured, another 34 people were harmed and taken to the hospital.

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