City on edge: immigrant businesses and the right to urban space in inner-city Johannesburg

Paradoxically, Johannesburg is a quintessentially migrant city and also ranks among the least immigrant-friendly cities in the world. Over the past 20 years, inner-city Johannesburg has been vacated and then reconstituted as a hive of informal trade networks and migration circuits that extends well beyond national borders. Research on immigrants in Johannesburg has contributed significantly to understandings of xenophobic sentiments and immigrant identities, but there remains a large gap in knowledge about immigrant entrepreneurship, economic enclaves and economic mobility. Our research is based on extensive fieldwork, discussions with immigrant organizations and in-depth interviews with immigrants and South Africans engaged in business in three prominent inner-city immigrant business enclaves: Jeppe/Delvers, Eighth Avenue and Raleigh Street. Our research shows that these immigrant business zones each operate differently and vary in the degree to which they connect to urban and national economic grids; some retain stronger ties to transnational networks that link dispersed spaces to Johannesburg, creating specific local milieus. We advocate for a more geographically sensitive and nuanced understanding of immigrant entrepreneurs and a reconsideration of their rights to the city

Selective laser trabeculoplasty versus 0·5% timolol eye drops for the treatment of glaucoma in Tanzania: a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Glaucoma is a major cause of sight loss worldwide, with the highest regional prevalence and incidence reported in Africa. The most common low-cost treatment used to control glaucoma is long-term timolol eye drops. However, low adherence is a major challenge. We aimed to investigate whether selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) was superior to timolol eye drops for controlling intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open-angle glaucoma. METHODS We did a two-arm, parallel-group, single-masked randomised controlled trial at the Eye Department of Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi, Tanzania. Eligible participants (aged ≥18 years) had open-angle glaucoma and an IOP above 21 mm Hg, and did not have asthma or a history of glaucoma surgery or laser. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive 0·5% timolol eye drops to administer twice daily or to receive SLT. The primary outcome was the proportion of eyes from both groups with treatment success, defined as an IOP below or equal to target pressure according to glaucoma severity, at 12 months following randomisation. Re-explanation of eye drop application or a repeat SLT was permitted once. The primary analysis was by modified intention-to-treat, excluding participants lost to follow-up, using logistic regression; generalised estimating equations were used to adjust for the correlation between eyes. This trial was registered with the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry, number PACTR201508001235339. FINDINGS 840 patients were screened for eligibility, of whom 201 (24%) participants (382 eligible eyes) were enrolled between Aug 31, 2015, and May 12, 2017. 100 (50%) participants (191 eyes) were randomly assigned to the timolol group and 101 (50%; 191 eyes) to the SLT group. After 1 year, 339 (89%) of 382 eyes were analysed. Treatment was successful in 55 (31%) of 176 eyes in the timolol group (16 [29%] of 55 eyes required repeat administration counselling) and in 99 (61%) of 163 eyes in the SLT group (33 [33%] of 99 eyes required repeat SLT; odds ratio 3·37 [95% CI 1·96-5·80]; p<0·0001). Adverse events (mostly unrelated to ocular events) occurred in ten (10%) participants in the timolol group and in eight (8%) participants in the SLT group (p=0·61). INTERPRETATION SLT was superior to timolol eye drops for managing patients with open-angle high-pressure glaucoma for 1 year in Tanzania. SLT has the potential to transform the management of glaucoma in sub-Saharan Africa, even where the prevalence of advanced glaucoma is high. FUNDING Christian Blind Mission, Seeing is Believing Innovation Fund, and the Wellcome Trust. TRANSLATIONS For the Kiswahili, French and Portuguese translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section