The African National Congress launched what promises to be a bitter election campaign this week by promising to tackle the poverty and unemployment that plague South Africa 10 years after apartheid. Unveiling a sweeping election manifesto, the president, Thabo Mbeki, declared his party's intention to loosen its conservative economic policies by ramping up public spending. Poverty and joblessness would be halved by 2014 with the help of £8.7bn spent on roads, rail and air transport and telecommunications, he told 30,000 supporters in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province.

Durban has been at the forefront of South African efforts to honour Agenda 21 commitments made at the 1991 Rio Earth Summit. Has the city turned Agenda 21’s promise of sustainable urban development into reality? What lessons have been learned in overcoming scepticism and building support and consensus among stakeholders? Research from Durban’s eThekwini Municipality analyses the difficulties faced when sustainable development is applied to a city whose rapidly growing population is having a negative impact on the natural environment.

Educorp has launched an online store that sells educational software titles. The company offers educational software ranging from pre-school level through to matric. While the majority of titles on offer are imported, there are some that are locally designed. Products are mainly in English, but there are also Afrikaans and Zulu titles available.

At least 18 cases of corruption in government were reported to the North West premier in 2003, the government reported on Tuesday. Premier Popo Molefe established a corruption hotline at the beginning of 2003, and urged people to use it. Molefe said it was the role of the public to report "corruption or any deviations from clean and accountable governance" and warned people against being "passive".

The vote is still new to most of South Africa’s blacks, but after just a decade of democracy many of the poorest among them are already unconvinced of its power to deliver better standards of living. Veronica Rasi, a domestic worker in Cape Town says she has refused to register for next year’s elections because the government has not delivered on its promises. “What’s the use of voting – it hasn’t brought me any benefits. The ANC and the other political parties only know us when they need our votes – otherwise we don’t see them.”

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has given the N2 Wild Coast toll road the go-ahead. Director General Chippy Olver said his authorisation was subject to stringent conditions to ensure the possible negative impact of the road on the environment was minimised. Cathy Kay of the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA, said her organisation would challenge the decision on the basis that 'the whole process was fatally flawed'. She said by giving the road the green light Olver had indirectly sanctioned the mining of heavy minerals on the Wild Coast. Olver has denied the road had anything to do with facilitating mining and his department would remain 'vehemently opposed' to it. Appeals could be lodged with Environmental Affairs And Tourism Minister Valli Moosa within 30 days.

South Africa's new rugby bosses have cancelled an independent probe into alleged racism within the Springbok team, but said a Government commission would undertake a broader inquiry into "transformation issues". An inquiry was to have been held into alleged racism, including reports that white player Geo Cronje refused to share a room with black player Quinton Davids.

South Africa appears to receive the cream of African refugees seeking safe new homes, but their skills and experience go to waste, says a survey released last Thursday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. One-third of the 90,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa have some form of tertiary education. Two-thirds have a secondary certificate or equivalent and the same proportion had skilled jobs before coming to South Africa.

A voluntary repatriation agreement for Angolan refugees in South Africa was due to be signed in Pretoria on Sunday, allowing the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to prepare for the 13,000-strong community to return home. South Africa becomes the sixth and last country in the region to sign a tripartite agreement with the Angolan government and UNHCR. It joins Africa's largest repatriation programme, which will return 450,000 Angolans who had fled the country's civil war over the next two years.

"A few weeks ago the government revealed its operational ARV treatment plan. Now we celebrate five years of constant struggle with the announcement of a great victory for people living with HIV/AIDS and for public health - a momentous settlement agreement reached at the South African Competition Commission between pharmaceutical companies and AIDS activists. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), COSATU, CEPPWAWU, the AIDS Consortium, four people living with HIV/AIDS and four health-care workers have entered into settlement agreements with pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Boehringer Ingelheim (BI). In signing these agreements, AIDS activists have now concluded their complaint against GSK and BI. The terms of the agreements go well beyond what could conceivably have been won by pursuing the prosecution of the complaint under the Competition Act."
Background Link:
Companies To Allow Generic HIV/AIDS Drugs In South Africa

A South African judge who tried to bring perpetrators of the Rwanda genocide to justice and grassroots Rwandan women's groups that are aiding the victims of the massacres have been honoured with a new women's rights prize. A ceremony was held for the winners to coincide with Human Rights Day. Advisors for the private foundation that awarded the first Women's Rights Prize described Judge Pillay as "a hero for humanity and a special inspiration for women."

A new Johannesburg statue in memory of Mahatma Gandhi, the young human rights lawyer from India largely recognised for his struggle against white minority rule in South Africa at the turn of the last century, sparked a furore earlier this year. Critics slammed Gandhi for his alleged contemptuous attitude to black people. So was Gandhi a racist? Not so, says Anil Nauriya, a Pambazuka News reader from New Delhi in India.

The Conferences, Workshops and Cultural Initiative (CWCI) fund, a joint initiative of the National Treasury and the European Union in South Africa, is seeking proposals for conferences, workshops and cultural initiatives directly linked to the commemoration of "A Decade of Democracy in South Africa". The deadline for submission of proposals is Tuesday 27 January 2004 at 4pm.

“The Economic Development and Tourism Directorate of the City of Cape Town would like to announce the launch of its Donor Directory 2003/4, a publication aimed at supporting the fundraising activities of local NGOs and CBOs. In recognition of the important role that non-profit organisations play in our society, 4 000 copies of the Directory will be distributed free of charge to NGOs and CBOs.”

Mbeki's government has stumbled from one crisis to the next, argues Sipho Seepe, acting vice-chancellor of Vista university. There was the arms deal investigation, the plot hatched against senior members of his party, the controversy around HIV/Aids, heightened tensions within the tripartite alliance highlighted by embarrassing anti-privatisation protests, the Treatment Action Campaign against government and the continued stand-off between government and the media. And tendencies displayed by Mbeki show that a third term may not be out of the question.

“I'm quite willing to share the story of my "baby" brother Martin. Baby because he was the last born in our family of seven children with me being the only girl. Martin was more my child than my brother. I was responsible for him during his years at the Malawi Polytechnic. I had just graduated myself and had started teaching at a high school." Dr Loveness Kaunda, Dean of Students at the University of Cape Town, is one of a handful of South African leaders prepared to talk openly about HIV/AIDS. Here she shares the story of her younger brother and how his death affected her family.

The Democracy in Africa Research Unit (DARU) at the Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR), University of Cape Town, is offering research fellowships to established scholars from universities and research institutes in Africa and around the world. Visiting Fellows will normally spend six to twelve months at UCT. They will be expected to build local research and analytical capacity, conduct systematic research, analyse data and present findings to CSSR seminars.

Orphaned HIV-positive children in South Africa will be able to access antiretroviral (ARV) treatment more easily after a High Court ruled that permission for such an intervention can now be granted by their caregivers.

The Group of 20 will be working on a critical programme the following week, in a bid to spur the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha trade negotiations that collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, in September. The talks ended in a deadlock after developed nations and an alliance of developing nations failed to agree on key issues such as market access, domestic support and export competition in agriculture.

In South Africa, a large percentage of women face a system of entrenched discrimination as they seek to enter the work force. Most women at the community level have no access to economic rights or opportunities, and as a result rank among the poorest in their society. They are ruled by traditional cultural norms that leave them vulnerable to unchecked domestic and public violence. In a country where unemployment and poverty are rife, women are even more vulnerable than their male counterparts, and fight an uphill battle just to stay above the poverty line.