The Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) is organising and hosting a conference from 12 – 15 June 2006 with the theme “South Africa’s Unemployment Crisis: Overcoming Unemployment – Strategies for giving effect to the Right to Work.” Participants will include activists from Right to Work Campaign Forums from 6 provinces, a host of older and newer social movements, international guests and individuals committed to eradicating unemployment. They will deliberate on mass unemployment – a key feature of neoliberal capitalist globalisation – and the strategies for combating unemployment in South Africa and internationally.

I have returned to the UK from a 3 week private visit to Cape Town. These are my observations. The patterns of social inequalities remain unchanged!

The Africans who live in the townships of Langa, Gulguletu and Khayalitsha are reminders that social justice has not been achieved.

I find it equally distasteful to see the ANC government paying land owners for land which they got for next top nothing. These landowners should be paying reparations.

Africans must demand reparations for the following reasons.

1) It would send a clear message to the colonialist/imperialist that they understand how capitalism works and, how wealth was accumlulated by the UK and others.

2) It would also show that Africans understand social-economic justice.

3) It would show that Africans take their humanity seriously.

4) It would also soothe the psychological/ emotional pain many Africans have been enduring for the last 300 years.

5) It would also make Franz Fanon and Thomas Sankara happy men. Let us make these young ancestors proud.

Thank you for reading my letter.

South African ICT market analysts, BMI-TechKnowledge (BMT-T), believes that over 12 million South Africans will be connected to the Internet by 2009. BMI-T's latest research report, The South African Internet Services Market report for 2006, predicts that spending on dial-up will decrease up to 2009, as users migrate to broadband. Dial-up will maintain a high share of connections, but spending on broadband will account for a larger proportion of the market's total value.

The Meraka Institute's Open Source Centre (OSC) will launch a Soweto office on Friday 12 May, which aims to expose open source talent in the sprawling township just south of Johannesburg. The initial focus of the project will be on creating a wireless mesh network in Soweto to get the township on the Internet.

"Publish or perish" is the warning given many academics at the start of their careers. But it's publication of a very particular kind that scholarly researchers crave. They hunger for their discoveries to achieve immortality in something seldom found on the shelves of your neighbourhood bookstore: specialised academic journals, speckled with footnotes and dense with terminology.

The African National Congress said on Monday (May 15) that its deputy president, Jacob Zuma, would be resuming his duties "without delay" after he stepped down from active duty while his rape trial was under way. Zuma was acquitted of rape in the Johannesburg High Court on May 8. The party also poured cold water on suggestions that any member of the ANC encouraged the complainant in the rape case to lay a charge against Zuma, reports the Mail and Guardian.

Former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma walked away from rape charges in a Johannesburg High Court this week, following a trial that has revealed deep rifts over the race for leadership in the county, but also exposed entrenched attitudes on issues of gender and HIV/AIDS. Judge Willem van der Merwe accepted Zuma's version that his accuser, a 31-year-old family friend who is HIV-positive, had participated in consensual sex. Zuma, whose supporters say charges against him are a plot to thwart his political career, now faces further charges on July 31 – this time on corruption. Should he clear these charges, his road towards presidential power could be unchecked. Pambazuka News has received a number of articles in response to the verdict, which we are reproducing in the entries below. The first article consists of a question and answer email exchange between Pambazuka News and Delphine Serumaga, executive director of People Opposing Women’s Abuse (POWA). In the following four articles, four South African women respond to the not guilty verdict. Sibongile Ndashe, Vanessa Ludwig, Nikki Naylor and Lindiwe Nkutha all express anger and disappointment over what the trial meant for South African women and victims of gender based violence. Next week in Pambazuka News, we will feature a series of articles on the theme ‘The fight for rights: Stories of sexual oppression’.

Pambazuka News: What is your assessment of the verdict in the trial of Jacob Zuma?

Delphine Serumaga: We feel that the verdict reflects the problems and constraints generally experienced by survivors of sexual violence. There is only a 7% rape conviction rate, and many of the reasons for this low rate were evident in this case. Some of the challenges include the legislative and policy framework, which still reflect institutionalized gender oppression. Also, the current definition of rape places a high burden of proof on the complainant/rape survivor. There is also still some application of cautionary rules in rape cases. The law becomes a tool for relentless cross-examination and secondary victimisation by defence attorneys. The Judge in this case seemingly subscribed to the defence's case and reasoning and characterisation of the complainant as being mad and incapable of telling the difference between consensual sex and rape. Women are routinely characterised as being mentally unstable, loose or of questionable morality during the course of rape trials. This reflects the patriarchal context within which courts operate. The stereotypes and misconceptions we heard inside the court were a reflection of the myths and misconceptions heard outside the court.

Pambazuka News: The judge said this would not have an impact on reporting of rape because the case was unique. What, in your opinion, does this judgment mean for women who have been raped and want to go through the legal system?

Delphine Serumaga: Prior to this judgment the conviction rate was low. Reasons for this include women's fears of experiencing secondary victimisation - particularly during cross-examination, low confidence in securing a conviction and the state's inability to protect women from violence and intimidation by the accused. There is no doubt this judgment will reinforce women's fears and low confidence levels in the criminal justice system, particularly if she has been raped before. This occurs even though statistics reflect that a) more women are raped by someone they know (acquaintance rape) than by someone they don't know (stranger rape) and b) multiple experiences of rape are extremely common.

Pambazuka News: The decision by the judge to allow questions about Kwezi's past sexual history resulted in some controversy, and in his verdict the judge spent some time justifying his permission for this. In general, feminist groups oppose the admittance of past sexual history in rape cases. What implications does the way the judge dealt with this have for future cases, if any?

Delphine Serumaga: There is a chance that this will be referred to in future cases. The new Sexual Offences Bill does propose tighter requirements and a set of criteria to be met before this evidence can be deemed admissible. The Bill, if passed as is, will still not be sufficient in protecting women from having their sexual history dragged into court. Once passed, gender activists will need to scrutinise the application of the new section.

Pambazuka News: The judge reserved some tough words for the media and the role of other special interest pressure groups, especially questioning the role of various women's organisations in their application to be friends of the court. In particular, he said "pressure groups should not jump to conclusions before hearing all the evidence". Is he correct? Why?

Delphine Serumaga: I think the Judge on more than one occasion used his position on the bench to make moral and other pronouncements. He did speak at length about pressure groups who he said were in breach of the sub-judice rule and who lodged the amicus brief. As gender violence organisations it is our key mandate to lobby for changes to unjust laws and practices, and to inform the public of the problems confronting survivors who engage the courts for justice. As made evident by the judgment, we were not jumping to conclusions. The very essence of the amicus brief was to provide expert evidence and to explain multiple experiences of rape (which he interpreted as being unlikely and therefore probably made up by the complainant).

Pambazuka News: What has the case shown about the rights of the rape survivor and her position in the legal system?

Delphine Serumaga: Overall rape laws and court processes surrounding rape cases continue to disadvantage rape survivors. Some of the aspects of this have been explained above, but additionally, the absence of legal representation for the complainant makes her vulnerable, as the prosecutor cannot be said to represent the complainant, but is there on the State's behalf.

Pambazuka News: Quite aside from the verdict and whether one holds the opinion that this was a good or a bad verdict, the trial has shown that in an environment where there is an entrenched protection for women, some very ugly attitudes have nevertheless been expressed. How has the trial reflected prevailing views in South Africa about women's sexual roles and rights?

Delphine Serumaga: This case has revealed commonly held myths and misconceptions about rape survivors that are still being held by many sections within society. This refers not only to those beliefs about women and rape, but also about HIV and AIDS. Myths and misconceptions about rape seek to maintain the current gender imbalance and reinforce male privilege and power. They further place the responsibility for the violence on the survivor (i.e. victim-blaming), effectively releasing the perpetrator from responsibility for his/her actions.

Pambazuka News: In some senses, women's rights and concepts of culture appear to have been diametrically opposed. Why have the two been so at odds in this context and how can the tension be resolved?

Delphine Serumaga: Culture is dynamic and subject to the interpretations of those with power. In South Africa we are the sum of many cultures but subject to only one Constitution. This Constitution was developed by all the people and was not imported or imposed. Much of the cultural norms about women's dress and so on are in fact imported notions of gender. Progressive interpretations of culture need to be promoted but those that run counter to this must be discarded.

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to

Links:

- Trial judgment
http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/lawclerks/zumajudgment.pdf

Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust, the Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women and partners would like to invite you to wear a skirt or white top on Friday 12 May 2006 to show your support for survivors of rape and gender-based violence and join us in asking HOW FREE ARE WE? We will also be gathering at 13h30, in Wale Street, Cape Town, outside St George's Cathedral to raise our voices in asking the question HOW FREE ARE WE?

Potential local investors meet German industrialists next week to discuss setting up a South African company to manufacture hi-tech solar energy panels developed by South African scientists. A German company has acquired the initial rights to make thinner and cheaper solar panels developed by local researchers led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) physics professor Vivian Alberts, and goes into full production next March.

Cash benefits for children are reducing the impact of poverty on school enrolment in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal, child support grants are helping children, particularly from the poorest families, to be educated. Families receiving such grants are more likely to send their children to school at earlier ages than other equally poor households.

This is a programme on M & E for Learning, Management and Accountability. Please contact Evangeline Govender for an application form or download from their website. Closing date for applications: 22 May 2006.

Government and civil society in South Africa are expecting to come to an agreement within two weeks on a plan of action to complete the country's African Peer Review Mechanism process. The new timetable comes after the governing council which oversees the process failed to meet last week's deadline. Civil society and government attributed the failure to the sheer scale of the task. Civil society has been pushing government on such issues as electoral reform, to improve services and to fight poverty. The programme of action will be presented to an African Union (AU) team expected to visit SA in July. It will form part of an AU report and be presented to heads of state at a special forum to consider the peer review reports.

The BarCamp formula of ad-hoc "open source conferencing" will hit South African shores this winter when BarCamp Cape Town gets underway in June. Running from 15 to 16 June, the BarCamp concept is based on FooCamp, an annual geek fest where leading technologists brainstorm, collaborate and generally have fun at O'Reilly headquarters in California, USA.

Despite the International Workers’ Day, many workers’ concerns remain unresolved and workers remain uninformed. As a response, labour NGO NALEDI and COSATU have collaborated to deliver the My Wage website. My Wage provides an online salary checker, a questionnaire that collects data for further research development by the Wage Indicator team, and a wealth of informative articles designed to help every South African achieve their goals of stable and satisfactory employment.

Hosted by the Community Development Resource Association, this five-day course is aimed at helping practitioners learn essential facilitation concepts and skills for working developmentally with groups of people in small group, workshop or training course settings.

A report detailing white South Africa's deadly military involvement during apartheid's dying days has been made public for the first time, the Sunday Independent reported. The Steyn report, compiled by a top apartheid general for South Africa's last white president, FW de Klerk, details how the army helped destabilise the country during the turbulent early 1990s.

A funded, three-month residential fellowship programme in Cape Town, South Africa, this programme is seeking approximately 12 professionals from select countries. Applications are invited from eligible individuals in any field (including but not limited to human rights advocacy, law, journalism, research, etc.).

In the context of the highly publicized trial of former deputy-president Jacob Zuma for rape, this article looks at the most troublesome facts and statistics behind the wave of sexual violence against women and children. South Africa is a country that is at peace yet has an incidence of rape that rivals the worst conflict zones.

On April 27th Durban will be mourning during its first "UnFreedom Day" event. Communities from throughout Durban's social movements join forces to mourn the denial of their collective rights, and to celebrate the strength that enables communities to work together, across barriers of race, during a day of cultural celebration and political action.

The Treatment Action Campaign will reject government's invitation to participate in the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS (UNGASS) at the end of May unless its ally, the Aids Law Project is also invited. TAC General Secretary Sipho Mthathi confirmed that a delegation from the TAC and ALP had met with Thami Mseleku, the director general of health in an effort to find a solution, after government objected to the TAC and the ALP being accredited for UNGASS.