South Africa's Right to Know Campaign and Anti Eviction Campaign are demanding access to a government audit of a controversial Cape Town housing company.

Ronald Wesso reports on the Food Sovereignty Campaign in South Africa, which is taking steps towards agrarian reform and food sovereignty through land occupations.

Once again, millions of African citizens face famine and the destruction of their livelihoods. At this moment, 12 million men, women and children are in dire need of food, clean water and basic sanitation. The crisis is set to worsen and expand over the coming months. This suffering flies in the face of commitments made in continental, regional and national policy frameworks and human rights conventions.

Four of the authors of will be speaking at Rhodes University on Thursday 11 August and at an event at Duna Library in Joza Township with the Unemployed People’s Movement on Friday 12 August. Don’t miss the chance to hear them speak in person!

Nineteen people died in Malawi's recent protests. Public service union UNISON are asking for your support for a petition to President Bingu wa Mutharika.

This morning the eThekwini Municipality launched another armed raid on the Kennedy Road shack settlement to try and disconnect the people from electricity. As usual there was resistance, unarmed resistance, to this attack from the Municipality. The Municipality's security guards responded by firing live ammunition at the protesters.

An Israeli mission is being sent to five countries to do pro-Israeli propaganda work at campuses, says this statement on the blog 'The mission has been briefed and trained by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs. Furthermore, they have received funding from the Ben-Gurion University and Weizmann Institute of Science student unions. The mission’s main focus is South Africa in general and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) specifically - this is because of South Africa’s critical position on Israel and the growing support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel that it is coming from South Africa.'

Individuals and organisations are invited to endorse a petition registering concern about the Nigerian government’s proposed ‘Gas Revolution’ and calling for the 'total stoppage of routine gas flaring.’

The Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign reports on a spate of killings in Cape Town's notorious Blikkiesdorp and demands to know what the City of Cape Town is doing to address their circumstances.

All charges have been dropped against four activists from the South African town of Grahamstown, reports the Unemployed People's Movement. But it has taken six month's for justice since their initial arrest on 10 February.

On Friday, July 29, 2011 President Barack Obama will meet Mr. Alassane Ouattara at the White House. Although the meeting may fall into the normal US-Côte d’Ivoire bilateral relations, it is nonetheless questionable that it is to take place at a moment when Côte d’Ivoire is still suffering from the consequences of the tragic events, which followed the presidential election of November 2010 and to which the Obama administration contributed.

While members of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG) are shaken by a break in and robbery at their offices, FARUG director Kasha Jacqueline says a 'Hate No More Campaign' will go forward as planned. The campaign launches on 10 August before the possible reintroduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda’s Parliament by far-right extremists.

South Africa’s young democracy may have been a shining example to the rest of the world for a while, but dreams of real freedom of expression and of the media seem to be nearing the end of their usefulness to SA's ruling party says this article, which focuses on the province of Mpumalanga. 'There’s a shadowy force that threatens, arrests, assaults and otherwise intimidates reporters who ask inconvenient questions and publish uncomfortable truths. As Jacob Zuma’s fight to retain another term in office intensifies, the malevolence is spreading.'

There are several innovations to the research projects captured in this report. Firstly, it consists of studies of both xenophobic violence and community protests, drawing the links both empirically as one of collective action spawns or mutates into another, and theoretically through the concept of insurgent citizenship. Secondly, the research was conceived of, and conducted, through a collaboration between an NGO, The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) and an academic research institute, the Society Work and Development Institute (SWOP) at University of the Witwatersrand. This brought together scholars and practitioners, psychologists and sociologists, in a challenging and productive partnership to try to understand collective violence and its underlying social dynamics.

August is when Nchoo Ngochila would normally be gearing up for the traditional female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) season in her Ilchamus community in Kenya's Rift Valley Province. This year, however, Ngochila will spend her time trying to convince her community the practice should be abandoned. About a year ago, a campaign by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) urged FGM/C practitioners in the area to put down their razors and campaign for women's rights in their communities.

The Mandela Park Backyarders have issued a press statement detailing irregularities in the allocation of houses at the Mandela Park Housing Project in Cape Town, South Africa.

Inmates in Ugandan prisons are subject to brutal compulsory labour, frequent violence, miserable overcrowding, and disease, Human Rights Watch said in a report examining conditions in 16 prisons throughout the country. Over half of those in Ugandan prisons are in pretrial detention and may be held for years without having been convicted of any crime, Human Rights Watch said. Profits from prisoner labour often benefit individual prison officers, while prisoners suffer illness from inadequate food, water, and basic hygiene.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on 22 July 2011 joined Amnesty International-Ghana, Human Rights Advocacy Centre, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives (CHRI) and Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) to mark Gambia’s descent into tyranny. Over the years Amnesty International and its global partners including MFWA have been marking this so-called 'Freedom Day' annually with various campaign events to continue highlighting the grave human rights violations to the world for action.

The conditions agreed to by Walmart and Massmart as part of the Competition Tribunal’s conditional approval of their merger could be abandoned if the case has to be reheard by the tribunal. This is just one of the possible outcomes of what is increasingly being seen as a high-risk attempt by three government departments to extract additional concessions from Walmart and Massmart. Not only might the country lose the commitments that have been made by the merging parties but it is possible that Walmart could approach the US government and in turn the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if it is put under unacceptable levels of pressure to agree to additional commitments.

The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in US prisons serving two life sentences and 96 years, collectively, after being wrongly convicted in the US federal district court in Miami on 8 June 200l. The open letter - available at the link provided - authored by long time activists, Joan P. Gibbs, Esq. and Rosemari Mealy, JD, Ph.D., has been endorsed by over a 100 activists from throughout the United States and around the world.