17th October 2006 is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. It is also the day when the Mayoral Committee will discuss the By-law on Streets, Public Places and Prevention of Nuisances. The NGO Task Team will take the opportunity to highlight the plight of the poor and impact of the proposed By-law and consequences thereof on the lives of poor, unemployed and homeless people of Cape Town at a press conference.

The Department of Education has emphasised that communities also need to play their part in the efforts to make schools in the country safe. "In as much as we strive to make our schools safe havens, we also need parents and communities to play a major role in making our schools safer," spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said. He said pupils who became criminals came from communities and families, urging parents to be actively involved in their children's schooling.

Dozens of Somalis have allegedly been killed in South Africa's Western Cape Province in the past few months in what appears to be an escalating campaign of xenophobic violence. South Africa already struggles with some of the world's highest rates of violent crime, and is home to immigrant groups from throughout the continent. But Somalis in this region say the killings – as well as a string of brutal robberies and assaults – reflect a growing national trend fuelled in part by destitution and prejudice.

Western Cape Health MEC Pierre Uys has urged all women in South Africa to help increase awareness about breast cancer."I want to stress the point that early detection is very important and I would like the riders to educate people on how to do self-examination as they continue in their journey," he said.The MEC was speaking at the farewell function of 13 women who are riding motorbikes from Cape Town to Johannesburg to raise awareness about breast cancer.

The Freedom of Expression Institute is very concerned about the state of freedom of expression and academic freedom at the University of KwaZulu Natal. Free expression and academic freedom are in severe decline at the university. The latest incident causing concern is the matter of Fazel Khan, who is being hauled before a disciplinary committee.

Computer labs are a necessity to enhance effective mathematics and science learning but in many South African schools they don't exist or are sparsely resourced. This last week, however, three Dinaledi schools in the North-West province were supplied computer laboratories through a partnership between Inkululeko Technologies, the Shuttleworth Foundation, Sahara Systems, and the North West Department of Education.

Translate.org.za, which previously released OpenOffice.org in all 11 official South African languages has now created a South African keyboard. The keyboard can be used to type all characters of all the South African languages, including those needed by Venda, Northern Sotho, Tswana and Afrikaans. For English language speakers the idea that words or characters could not be reproduced on a computer is unthinkable.

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) is concerned about the "By-Law relating to streets, public places and the prevention of nuisances" that has been proposed by the City of Cape Town. While there are a number of concerns about how the proposed legislation disadvantages poor people, our main focus is its draconian section on gatherings and processions.

Cellphone operator MTN had not yet been able to meet its obligations to give away 2,5-million SIM cards and 125000 handsets to poor people, or to roll out internet access to 8000 schools, the company said recently. The social upliftment obligations were imposed as licence conditions when the cellular networks were awarded the 1800MHz spectrum and the high-speed third generation (3G) spectrum to boost their coverage.

In transferring land to black ownership as part of government efforts to right apartheid wrongs, South African officials have to balance the country's interests, IPS reports. In Zimbabwe, transfers away from thousands of white commercial farmers decimated the economy. South African officials hope to transfer 30% of land by 2014.

'Outside the Lines' is a radio drama about gay and lesbian lives in South Africa. The radio drama is available for broadcast. The drama may be used in its entirety, or in part as a segment in a programme about LGBTI issues or as a lead in to a call in show.

The public were being misled about the true intentions of the censorship provisions of the Film and Publication Amendment Bill, critics said on Friday. Public hearings on the amendment bill have been taking place countrywide under the auspices of Parliament's home affairs portfolio committee. An avalanche of opposition to the bill was unleashed by media houses and watchdog organisations when the censorship provisions became public.

The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition notes that the City has made much in the media of the fact that it intends to house homeless people in shelters, and "rehabilitate" jobless people who take the initiative to work outdoors, such measures are not contained anywhere in the By-Law itself, which instead sets out a system of heavy fines, unaffordable for unemployed and homeless people and casual workers.

SANGONeT and the National Development Agency (NDA) will host a national conference on 17 October 2006 in Johannesburg to coincide with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The theme of the conference is "Partnerships for Development - A Strategic Mechanism for Accelerated Progress towards Eradicating Poverty in South Africa".

“Water, gathered and stored since the beginning of time in layers of granite and rock, in the embrace of dams and the ribbons of rivers - will one day, unheralded, modestly, easily and simply flow out to every South African who turns a tap. That is my dream.” These were the words of poet Antjie Krog on the promulgation of South Africa’s post-apartheid national water policy in April 1997.

For the first episode in our series on trade justice, Pambazuka News talks to Sizani Ngubane of the Rural's Women's Movement based in South Africa where women continue to be thrown off their lands when their husbands die and how this intersects with trade justice. See the for more details.

"The FXI is disappointed with today's judgment of the Constitutional Court (CC) dismissing an appeal by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to broadcast the appeals of Schabir Shaik and others in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). The FXI has read the judgment and considers it to be retrogressive for media freedom and open justice in South Africa."

The post holder will be expected to conduct research, facilitate workshops and training sessions, and develop networks with civil society groups and research institutions in Africa. S/he must have strong writing and networking skills.

With overmatched police giving them free rein, the gangs in Cape Town's poor neighborhoods have grown in brutality and sophistication since the end of South Africa's apartheid era. They're better armed, have moved into lucrative rackets such as drug dealing — and increasingly seek out children as members.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has decried the inadequate representation of women within the leadership of the trade union federation and its affiliates. Speaking at Cosatu's 9th national congress in Midrand, he said: "We have not done very well when it comes to women.