Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
City Power in Joburg was locked out in 2019, and cities all over the world have experienced this form of malicious software (malware) attack.
In ransomware attacks, malware encrypts files on a device or network, making the system inoperable. The people behind these types of cyberattacks typically demand a ransom in exchange for the release of data.
Security firm Kaspersky found that 42% – nearly half – of the South African ransomware victims paid the fee, hoping to get their data back. Whether they paid or not, only 24% of victims were able to restore all their files. Of all the attacks, 11% lost almost all their data.
weekly newspaper.
The phone rings with an impending sense of doom. My husband is calling to say his Covid-19 test has come back positive. He had been feeling ill for a few days and the previous night had had a temperature. As with any illness in these times, all we can think of is the frightening Covid statistics. I try to breathe through the panic.
While he’s on his way home, I race around the house moving things and making small changes so he can isolate in our room – and I try to prepare myself mentally to sleep on the couch while my partner suffers alone. Emails are dispatched to schools; children have to be in quarantine for 10 days. I count off the days till they can return and wonder about missing so much school again.
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
I keep having a recurring memory of the first time I felt terror. We were living in Diepkloof, Soweto. Just me, my parents and Dube, my beloved St Bernard. ‘My Kombi’, our lift club, picked me up to take me to school and my parents would drive to work together. On this one particular morning – I think I was nine years old – my parents left the house before me because My Kombi was running late and Sisi, the woman who capably took care of our home and of me, was on her way but had not arrived yet.
weekly newspaper.
They have torn down the barricades to the written, spoken and performed word. Everyone feels at home under the giant essenwoods with lush green grass underfoot. In sandals and shorts. Fedoras and doeks. The Durban Book Fair has been going strong for three years in the Mitchell Park animal sanctuary.
Authors, poets and playwrights gather piously every first Sunday of the month to launch new offerings from local wordsmiths. It’s a feast for local bookdealers and book collectors too. None of the fuss and funding of structured book festivals looking for celebrity crowd-pullers. Volunteers run everything from the programming to packing the chairs on the 120-year-old bandstand.
“Colour drains away to be replaced by darkness. What was once beautiful and vibrant appears dull and flat. Life feels unbearably hopeless and my life, within it, feels worthless. Small tasks, once done with love, require all my energy to complete. And as for the thoughts and memories … ther.