The department of environment affairs says it has demanded "as a matter or urgency" that the owners of the stricken Sealand Express come up with a plan to remove its cargo. It also revealed on Friday that in addition to 50 tons of uranium ore concentrate and hazardous industrial chemicals, the vessel is carrying 18 000kg of a form of the toxic metal antimony.

Activist Trevor Ngwane speaks about South Africa as vanguard of post-colonial neoliberalism, and laboratory of its social consequences. From the townships around Johannesburg, Ngwane describes the rebellion against the privatizations of the ANC regime, and the enrichment of a new political class.

Patrick Bond

In addition to the pomp and ceremony associated with the second post-apartheid state visit by a U.S. president, a string of protests greeted George W. Bush when he met South African president Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria on July 9. It was a complicated welcome from many perspectives. South Africa had not joined the "coalition of the willing" against Saddam Hussein, and former president Nelson Mandela remains a staunch opponent of Bush's foreign policy. On the other hand, Pretoria profited nicely from the hostilities, not merely through selling arms but also by taking advantage of Bush's attempt to restore some legitimacy on this trip. Mbeki's muddled reaction to the U.S.-led war on Hussein's Iraq deserves a review, because continuing ambivalence in the political sphere is contradicted by closer U.S.-South African economic relationships that threaten the rest of Africa.

This paper investigates the origins and current operation of the Amadiba Horse and Hiking Trail, a community-based initiative located on South Africa's Wild Coast. The trail project presents itself as a people-centred project, designed to involve the Amadiba people in all aspects of running a project including planning, implementation, management and decision making. The benefits from the project are intended to accrue primarily to the Amadiba community.

In South Africa, post-secondary education is a privilege, and many students currently enrolled in universities are the first in their families to reach for it. Degrees are also one of only a few tickets to upward mobility, and students endure enormous economic and personal pressures to graduate. "Campus cultures are places in which the stakes are high," says Dr Jane Bennett, gender researcher and director of the African Gender Institute, based at the University of Cape Town.

Apartheid, it seems, works. Nearly 10 years since racial segregation was abolished in South Africa, identity is still rooted in race. Or so it would appear from the case of Happy Sindane, the blond Ndebele-speaking boy who walked into a police station last month saying he had been abducted from his white family by their black cleaner at the age of six and brought up among blacks. He asked the police to help him find his white parents. The story was presented, to the fury of black commentators, as that of a lost white boy who had walked, Tarzan-like, out of the jungle. The courts demolished the fantasy last week after DNA tests established that Happy had at least one black parent.

South Africa could face economic collapse within a few generations unless it adopts a more urgent response to its HIV/AIDS epidemic, a new World Bank research report warned on Wednesday. According to the report "The Long-run Economic Costs of AIDS: Theory and an Application to South Africa", most studies on the macroeconomic costs of AIDS had overlooked the long-term damage of the disease.

Sun Microsystems SA and its partner AL Indigo - the new, black-owned enterprise solutions company - have provided technology to create a groundbreaking HIV/AIDS portal for SA's Medical Research Council (MRC). The HIV/AIDS portal, which can be visited at www.afroaidsinfo.org, was conceived and designed to be a comprehensive resource for information and research for researchers, health professionals, policy-makers, educators and the public.

Sound financial management of South Africa's courts was essential to maintain public respect and confidence in the country's justice system, the New National Party (NNP) said on Monday. For this reason, a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe -- authorised by President Thabo Mbeki -- into allegations of misappropriation of funds and corruption, could not happen soon enough, said NNP justice spokesperson Carol Johnson.

The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project at the University of the Western Cape and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) have announced they will be hosting Idlelo, an Open Source conference early next year in Cape Town, South Africa. The conference, to be held from 12 to 16 January 2004, is aimed at addressing the "challenges and opportunities of the creation and use of free and open source software and open content and their development potential for Africa," according to organisers.

In order to secure reparations at a level able to redress the damage of Apartheid and racial oppression in all its manifestations, for all those affected, Jubilee South Africa, together with its partners in the popular movement, will initiate hearings where communities can express and define the scale and nature of reparations that satisfactorily address the past. This process will culminate in a People's Tribunal that will determine the people, institutions and businesses that must make reparations and the forms that these should take. In order to pressure big business into meeting their responsibility to make reparations, Jubilee, with its partners, will undertake a name and shame campaign against the monopolies that were fundamental to the apartheid system. In addition, we will identify specific companies and products that symbolise the role these corporations played in facilitating the development of apartheid, which will be targeted in a consumer boycott.

People charged with corruption can be found guilty even if the main charge has been disapproved in court following the amendment of the Prevention of Corruption Bill, security company GriffithsReid said. GriffithsReid managing director Jenny Reid said with the amendment people accused of graft could be found guilty of lesser charges even if not specifically charged with them and even if the evidence led in court did not prove the corruption charge against the accused.

Over the celebration of the birthday of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, which begun on Friday 18th July 2003, and after the bash that took place on the 19th, the symbolic opening of the Nelson Mandela Bridge on Sunday was like putting a cherry on top of the cream. If you could ask a child from the street of Soweto, what is happening this weekend; he or she would have told you that it was the Madiba week. The atmosphere was registered in almost everyone's eyes you came across.

With a generating capacity of more than 40,000 MW, South Africa-based Eskom is Africa’s largest energy utility, and ranks as one of the top five energy utilities in the world. Eskom is a de facto monopoly in South Africa, and also generates over half the electricity produced in the whole of Africa, with operations in 31 countries on the continent. Because of its heavy reliance on coal, it is the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions in South Africa. Eskom management has also stated that it intends to rely increasingly on nuclear power. And in recent years, Eskom has begun to promote new dams and buy existing hydropower plants around the continent as it seeks to expand its influence across Africa. This paper explores the company's social and ecological footprint across Africa.

The Mindset Network is a R225-million public-private partnership aimed at providing learning television channels in schools using Multichoice's DStv satellite network. Funded by the Liberty Foundation and Standard Bank, Mindset will launch an HIV/Aids education channel in September and a primary school channel next year. Mindset kits - which include satellite receivers, decoders, smart cards, teacher training and technological support - cost R12 000 each.

The Department of Education, together with a non-governmental organisation, SA History Online (SAHO), has launched a Web site as a resource site and teaching aid for pupils and students.

This case study surveys the response of the South African labour movement to globalisation. It attempts to indicate how far unions in South Africa have maintained their position with respect to traditional constituent demands, whether they are adapting to a changing environment by organising new constituents, whether they are addressing new concerns by developing new perspectives on civil society, and whether they are enhancing their image as a major social actor.

Mafikeng, The North West Provincial department of health is on track with its pursued to improve the provision of primary health care service to rural and farming communities. The MEC for Health Dr Molefi Sefularo has today handed out a fleet of 25 state of the art mobile clinics to the 4 regions in the province to be used in remote areas especially in farms and rural sites. “ Today marks our practical commitment to turn the tide further in our quest to broaden access to quality and decent primary health care for all,” said MEC Sefularo.

Nelson Mandela, two days before his 85th birthday, says he will continue to seek funding for schools projects and programmes geared at fighting HIV/Aids. "I will spend the rest of my days trying to help secure a more educated and healthier South Africa," Mandela said on Wednesday.

Mindset Network, a multimedia satellite TV network, has been launched in Johannesburg with corporate support valued at R225 million. Mindset Network is a non-profit organisation which will address the education challenges which face South Africa, including schooling, health and entrepreneurship.