The key performance areas of the job include:
1. Managing the Dopstop intervention programme and strategy through: Skills development and training; Facilitating supportive environments; Strengthening community action; Reorienting health services; Research; Public policy development and a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Trauma Centre.
2. Liaising with farmers, farm workers, NGO's, Government and all relevant stakeholders.
3. Fundraising and Financial management.
4. Public relations and communication.
5. Staff management and project supervision.
6. Ongoing organizational and programme development.

The Rath Foundation, which promotes its vitamins as a cure for AIDS and encourages HIV positive people to abandon their antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, has set its sights on the Eastern Cape. In the past few weeks, Rath Foundation pamphlets condemning ARVs as “toxic” have been distributed in Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals, according to a doctor working in the hospitals who asked not to be identified.

Africa's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — South Africa — unveiled plans for a research and development strategy to address climate change this week at a national conference in Midrand. But, although South Africa's Department of Science and Technology says the strategy will help the country produce locally relevant findings on climate change that can feed into national policies, some local scientists are unimpressed with the conference.

The Khulumani et. al. v. Barclays et. al. lawsuit goes to court on the 21st of November 2005. The South African Government will file an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the defendants, in other words, on behalf of the corporations and against the people. This is in direct opposition to the amicus curiae briefs signed by the TRC commissioners, South African civil society and labour organisations.

South Africa's ruling ANC is fighting to win back grassroots members in revolt over issues from a lack of jobs and crumbling municipal services to the graft trial of popular sacked Deputy President Jacob Zuma, reports Reuters. New hotlines at the party's Johannesburg headquarters have been taking calls from members across the country. And on Sunday President Thabo Mbeki took the lead, delighting rural audiences in the Vaal district with a speech denouncing corrupt local officials.

Two HIV-positive women presented to the media in June by the Dr Rath Health Foundation as examples of how its vitamins can reverse Aids have admitted that they were on antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs all along. A third woman, a high profile Rath Foundation agent who has been promoting the vitamins in Gugulethu, died a few months after rejecting ARVs.

South African society has changed from a predominantly rural society to an urban one. Thus the need to change and rethink the approach to land reform. The Centre for Development and Enterprise did a three year study and review of the South African land reform programme and makes a few suggestions on what new land reform policies should consist of.

A ground-breaking gender equality training course for local government officials has wrapped up in South Africa's financial capital, Johannesburg. "The course was the first of its kind in South Africa and the region involving gender and local government," said Colleen Lowe Morna, director of Gender Links: the non-governmental organisation headquartered in Johannesburg which organised the training. The programme was held amidst preparations for local government elections in South Africa, scheduled to be held within the next few months.

Energy access should be recognised as a fundamental human right, a parliamentary forum has recommended at a three-day international forum on energy legislation and sustainable development. The right to water, housing and food supplies are already recognised by the UN as a human right. "As these rights cannot be satisfied without access to modern energy services, we call for such access to be recognised as a human right and for the contents of such a right to be elaborated by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," delegates resolved.

Renewed calls for Government to take action against the controversial Dr Rath Health Foundation have come from a large group of health professionals working in the Western Cape's internationally acclaimed antiretroviral programme. In a strongly worded letter to the province's health minister Pierre Uys the 199 health professionals warned that the activities of Dr Rath Health Foundation were "the largest challenges our health services have ever been confronted with". Rath and his foundation, which includes agents from the South African National Civics Organisation, has since the beginning of the year been promoting high doses of multi-vitamins as an alternative to anti-retroviral drugs which they describe as toxic.

The former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma has appeared in a Durban court facing corruption charges. Mr Zuma, who was dismissed from his government post in June, maintains he is innocent. Hundreds of supporters waved banners and blew horns outside. No details of the charges were read out and the case was adjourned until 12 November for further investigations.

Refugees and civil society groups have reacted cautiously to statements by a high-ranking South African official condemning the treatment of refugees by police. In a meeting with refugee representatives held in the commercial hub of Johannesburg, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula acknowledged that police were harassing and soliciting bribes from refugees.
However, groups which deal with refugees are waiting so see whether Mapisa-Nqakula's comments will result in real improvement of South African attitudes towards refugees, who are often the targets of abuse and exploitation.

In South Africa, women are taking advantage of new laws promoting diversity to share and spread the country's wealth. When apartheid began to crumble in the early 1990s, Salukazi Dakile-Hlongwane returned from self-imposed exile in the United States to make her fortune at home in South Africa. Armed with a master's degree in development economics from a prestigious U.S. school and years of experience in international development organizations, Dakile-Hlongwane sensed opportunity. In 1996, two years after Nelson Mandela was elected president in South Africa's first multi-racial elections, she joined forces with six other South African women to create a woman-only investment company, Nozala Investments, which has attained a strong reputation in South Africa's financial world.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has prevented government from losing an estimated R3.527 billion through corruption. The unit also recovered R12 million government could have lost in this regard, this financial year, unit head Willie Hofmeyr said. Addressing the Pretoria Press Club this morning, Mr Hofmeyr said through their investigations, they were able to ensure 45 civil proceedings, 165 criminal proceedings and 207 disciplinary proceedings. "We aim to work more with government departments to assist them to fight corruption more effectively," he said.

On 29 September at Wits University, over 400 trade unionists gathered to pay tribute to 100 of their number who have successfully graduated from a demanding one year advanced trade union education programme. The programme, which is formally accredited by Wits University, is provided by the union-owned Development Institute for Training, Support and Education for Labour (DITSELA). Ditsela is Sotho for Pathways, and its slogan is 'Pathways to a Strong Labour Movement'. It is set to celebrate its tenth birthday next year, and has been responsible for providing training for literally thousands of worker leaders over this period. Though primarily funded by the Department of Labour, it is an independent learning institute that is owned and controlled by COSATU and FEDUSA, the two largest federations in the country.

The Star has suspended news reporter Alameen Templeton because he testified on behalf of the state in the so-called lion murder trial in Phalaborwa, according to a report in the newspaper. The paper is to investigate his decision to testify. His testimony on Thursday was led in sentencing deliberations during the trial of Mark Scott-Crossley and Simon Mathebula for the murder of Nelson Chisale, who had been thrown into a lion's enclosure and killed. Templeton was immediately pulled off the case because his impartiality had been compromised by his testimony.

The Soul Buddyz series is a television programme under Soul City Institute for Health and Development in South Africa and is aimed at young people (school going age) in South Africa. It explores critical topics and aims to educate and inform youngsters on issues such as peer pressure, sexuality, health, rights, discrimination and racism. Due to its success in reaching the youth, Soul City commissioned Jonathan Jansen to write a paper on Racism and Xenophobia in South African schools.

The UN refugee agency has been conducting training sessions for state officials hired as part of the South African government's drive to improve its capacity to tackle the huge backlog of asylum seekers. Although the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), which determines who is a refugee using criteria agreed by UNHCR, has been processing more asylum cases in recent months, this increase has been outstripped by the number of new applications, which totalled 32,558 in 2004. By the start of this year, the number of pending cases had climbed to some 115,000. The record number of pending asylum applications - far in excess of what the DHA staff could handle - prompted the government to launch a strategy that included dramatically improving its ability to tackle the backlog. UNHCR is providing training, advice and materials to support this effort to raise the capacity both of staff and their equipment.

Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi fired a broadside at Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and President Thabo Mbeki at the weekend, accusing them of failing to provide leadership in the fight against HIV. The minister's spokesperson has in turn accused Vavi of being irresponsible and ignorant. Follow the link to read the full speech given by Vavi to the Treatment Action Campaign Congress.

According to the World Health Organisation malnutrition is associated with about 60 percent of deaths in children under five years old in the developing world. The WHO has developed guidelines to improve the quality of hospital care for malnourished children in order to reduce deaths. The guidelines suggest ten steps for routine management of severe malnourishment. These will require most hospitals to make substantial changes.