Earthlife Africa is offering a new service in monitoring GMO permit applications in South Africa. You can download the information for permit applications from around the country from the following website: http://www.earthlife-ct.org.za/ct/article.php?story=20030706151628708 You can then send the objections to the address advertised in the application notice. Please e-mail or fax Earthlife Africa a copy of your submission for the record. You can also subscribe to ELA Action alerts to be updated immediately there is an important environmental justice issue that emerges and requires action. This service can be subscribed to by sending an e-mail to: [email protected] Should you wish to participate in this project all you have to do is scan your local media for GMO application notices and then fax them to 0866728081 for posting on the web page.

Nine years after international outrage stopped the cull of elephants in the Kruger National Park, more than 3 000 of the beasts face the new threat of a death sentence -- because science has failed to come up with a cheap elephant contraceptive.

On 18 August 2003, at the opening of the Nthabiseng Thutuzela Care Centre at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna said the South African government would not comment on continuing allegations that Deputy President Jacob Zuma tried to solicit a bribe from a French defence contractor linked to South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal. Maduna also instructed government agencies and persons involved in the investigation not to comment on the issue.

One of the once heralded Seven Buildings project in Johannesburg was evicted on 26 August. The CEO of the building's new, alleged title holder was a member of the board of the project. The owner of the private security company contracted by the city to carry out the evictions was a member of the same board.

"I will never forget the fateful day I returned home sick from work. I got into bed and asked the people I was living with to help me and buy some Panado and Med-Lemon. I gave them R5 for the medicine, but they bought poison instead. When I took the tablets I immediately lost consciousness. That was when they threw the paraffin on me and set it alight. I woke up weeks later in the hospital's intensive care unit where I was kept alive with the support of oxygen, drips and blood. When I regained consciousness, the doctors told me both my legs had been amputated; it was the only way to save my life. I was shocked and sad, very sad. I wished to end my life. There was very little I could do. I tried to understand how this could have happened to me." Read the rest of Collin Emanuel's harrowing story by clicking on the link provided.

Afrikaner rugby hero Geo Cronje has been kicked out of the Springbok squad for refusing to share a room, or shower, with Cape Town's Quinton Davids. The bearded giant sparked a bitter racial row that has thrown South African rugby into turmoil just two days before the World Cup squad is announced.

Limpopo Health and Welfare MEC Sello Moloto has announced the launch of an innovative new programme to raise funds for HIV/AIDS projects in the province. The initiative will operate under the auspices of the Limpopo HIV/AIDS Trust Fund, established three years ago.

SABCnews reports that a new development co-operation agreement between South Africa and the European Union (EU) is about to be finalised. The agreement is worth R4.3bn over a period of four years (2003-2006).

Not a single cent of the R153 million allocated to RDP projects from the National Lottery Fund has been spent, reports the Sunday Independent. The issue of unspent RDP funds has been a subject of discussion between the Minister of Trade and Industry, Alec Erwin, and the Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, for a long time. No solution seems to be in sight. The closure of the Ministry of Reconstruction and Development (RDP) in 1996 left a vacuum in terms of an institutional mechanism to take forward the RDP programme and - in the current scenario - distribute RDP Lotto funds.

The Sowetan reports that the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF) is set to reach its target of raising R250 million, which is enough to guarantee the Fund's existence for eternity. NMFC's Chief Executive Officer, Sibongile Mkhabela, disclosed this during the Fund's 9th Annual General Meeting held recently.

Business Day reports that Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya, has ordered an investigation into allegations of irregular financial management and recruitment practices at the National Development Agency (NDA). The allegations surfaced after former Pan-Africanist Congress general secretary, Thami ka Plaatjie, was appointed as Senior Manager: Strategy and Policy Co-ordination at the agency. NDA staff members accuse NDA management of appointing Thami ka Plaatjie without advertising the position. At the same time, the Ministry of Social Development has indicated that allegations of serious irregularities around spending of NDA funds have been made.

South Africa is set to launch the Institute for African Traditional Medicines to research African herbs and evaluate their medicinal value as part of the government's campaign to fight HIV-Aids, tuberculosis and other debilitating diseases.

In 1994, the African National Congress swept to power on a tide of national and international euphoria and pledged to redistribute 30 per cent of all land seized during the apartheid era. Almost a decade later, only two per cent of land has been returned to its black owners. Land rights activist, Andile Mngxitama, believes the answer lies in the claim that racial exclusion has given way to economic exclusion. The Landless People’s Movement has evolved from the land struggles of the apartheid era and represents a growing number of rural communities that remain landless and disenfranchised by the clamour to implement neo-liberal economic policies to attract foreign direct investment (FDI).
Related Link:
* HEARINGS INTO RESTITUTION OF LAND RIGHTS AMENDMENT BILL STARTS
http://www.africapulse.org.za/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=14…

Residents of Vrygrond Phase 6 won an agreement from the Cape Town Unicity today that evictions would be put on hold for at least 3 months. This decision comes after members of the Vrygrond Action Committee (previously Vrygrond Anti-Eviction Campaign) presented research done within Phase 6 showing that the evidence presented to the Cape Town High Court by the Unicity's lawyers earlier this year was fatally flawed. Officials of the Unicity had been trying to move ahead with eviction orders on the basis of the fact that they claimed that most of the people who occupied houses in Phase 6 had moved to Vrygrond after 1998.

Non-Profit Resource Training invites registrations for the following workshops:
* Project Implementation & Management Workshop (J'BURG) 1-2 September
* Financial Management of Funded Projects and Programmes 10-11 September
* How to Write the Winning Funding Proposal (DURBAN) 17-18 September
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Joyce (021) 685 7726 or email: [email protected]

The socio-economic system underpinning apartheid in South Africa was based on the exploitation of black workers in the mines, the factories, the fields and the shops. It is widely recognized that the struggles of the South African black working class contributed decisively to the overthrow of the racist regime. In recognition of the power of organised labour, the democratic government elected in 1994 granted South Africa's unions unprecedented legal and constitutional rights. However, despite these gains, the country's labour movement has been facing a fresh set of challenges, from macroeconomic policy to the factory floor, many of them emanating from labour's political allies in Government. The purpose of this book is to examine how the South African labour movement is responding to these challenges in the new millennium.

The Landless People's Movement - an autonomous national movement of poor and landless people struggling for land reform – has condemned the six-week incarceration of seven youth leaders of the poor and landless in prison, following their arrest on 3 July on an alleged murder charge.

Xoli Nkosi, a South African musician, started his band from scratch with a few guys from the township. “I call my music Bokasie fusion, that is the name that my sisters came up with.” He enjoys performing around the country, from Gauteng to KwaZulu-Natal. He believes that this is his calling, a mission to speak to people’s hearts through music.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma will not be prosecuted over South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal, despite indications that there may be a corruption case for him to answer to, the country's top prosecutor said on Saturday. The decision was taken in spite of a recommendation by the investigating team that Zuma be criminally charged, national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka said.
Related Links:
* Ngcuka spoke in 'riddles' about Zuma
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=11&o=27596

The debate over apartheid reparations took an unexpected turn this week with Nobel laureate and former World Bank vice-president Joseph E. Stiglitz coming out firmly in support of the victims' lawsuits. Stiglitz, also a former chief economist of the World Bank, wrote to the New York court in an apparent move to counter efforts by the South African government and multi-national corporations to squash the lawsuits.