Hong Kong computer buffs are being urged to donate their old hardware to needy children in a South African town made famous in the 19th-century Zulu wars.
In a charity drive linked to Britain's Prince Charles and Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a Tsim Sha Tsui computer shop is collecting discarded equipment and Cathay Pacific has agreed to fly it to Johannesburg for free.
'In Hong Kong, people very much like keeping up with the latest technology and often they end up with old computers sitting in cupboards and they don't know what to do with them,' said Michael Gazeley, managing director of Star Computer City, in Star House, which is collecting and modifying donated machines.
'We're trying to talk to home users and also office users to see if they're willing to part with their equipment . . . this way we can benefit a nation where they're much less fortunate.'
The computers are destined for Isandlwana, in northern Kwazulu-Natal, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Zulu wars. About 25,000 Zulus descended on a British army camp on January 22, 1879, and killed more than 1,300 British soldiers.
Later that day, thousands of Zulus attacked a British supply camp at nearby Rorke's Drift but were repelled, after a battle lasting more than 11 hours, by just 139 British soldiers.
The Rorke's Drift showdown was the subject of the film Zulu, which starred Michael Caine.
