Tuberculosis (TB) patients in South Africa now have a new weapon in the fight against the disease - a cellphone. A pilot project in the coastal city of Cape Town is using the text message service on cellphones to remind patients to take their medication. This saves the over-stretched public health services time and money. The country is said to be facing one of the worst TB epidemics in the world, with disease rates up to 60 times higher than those currently experienced in the United States.

The government's emergency food security programme, which seeks to alleviate poverty in rural areas, has been overwhelmed by a huge demand from poor people who desperately need food. The programme, which is overseen by the Social Development Department, got underway in the Lady Frere area, where 5 340 families received basic food parcels. Department district manager, Tizana Mpondwana, said that since the beginning of April 2003, the government in conjunction with the Independent Development Agency had distributed food in five areas around Lady Frere, writes Sipho Sikilishe.

The South African government and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Friday failed to sign an agreement that would provide more than $40 million in grants to KwaZulu-Natal, one of the country's provinces hardest hit by the epidemic, Reuters reports.

Sixteen Eastern Cape officials have been arrested in an anti-corruption blitz in Queenstown. All those arrested are the employees of the Queenstown Municipality. They are accused of defrauding the welfare department of thousands of rands.

Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this week launched an extraordinary racial attack against the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) at a formal gala event. Guests at the event, who heard the attack, included United Nations emissaries, diplomats, leading academics and corporate captains.

We write as a group of doctors working at primary health care clinics in the public sector. We want to state that we have reached the point where we are asking ourselves daily how we can possibly continue working with integrity in the context of our many terminally ill HIV-positive patients not having access to life-saving medications.

Over 680 teachers in KwaZulu-Natal - more than 55 a month - died in-service in the year 2000. Most died from unspecified illnesses, and the average age at the time of death was 36. Between 1999 and 2000, there was a massive 70% increase in deaths of female teachers between the ages of 30 and 34. This is according to figures released last week by the Health Economics and HIV/Aids Research Division (Heard) at the University of Natal.

Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) founder member Edward Mavundla, who died on Wednesday an hour before Aids activists arrived to visit him, made a deathbed call for world support for the organisation. "I am urging the people all over the world to support (the) TAC to show solidarity with South Africa -- we (the HIV-positive) are dying," Mavundla said on Tuesday night, shortly before he died, according to a transcript of his last statement released by TAC lawyer Nathan Geffen on Wednesday.

The Canadian government has pumped more than R1,2 million into a water and sanitation studies project to be run at the Lovedale Public FET College. A Canadian delegation presented the study course to the college council. After two years the college will have to carry the project on its own.

This site presents the results of a survey of business responses to HIV/Aids in South Africa. The results are presented along subject divisions such as prevention, treatment and care, surveillance and monitoring, legal and human rights and company strategy.

This report aims to provide insight into issues related to communication of HIV/Aids to children in the 3-12 year age group, with an emphasis on South Africa. The document focuses on identifying key issues related to children and HIV/Aids, including discrimination, grief, knowledge, attitudes and practices. It also attempts to determine what programmes have been implemented, both media and non-media, with regard to children and HIV/Aids.

The first South African troops forming part of a peace support mission to Burundi were due to leave for that country Wednesday, the SA National Defence Force said on Tuesday. They are to be accompanied by Major General Sipho Binda, the first commander of the African Union mission, which would also comprise troops from Mozambique and Ethiopia. Binda is to command a force of about 3200 soldiers, the SANDF said in a statement.

The succulent Karoo, the fragile source of many of the trendiest plants found in fashionable shops and restaurants, is set to benefit from a massive $8m in conservation grants from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. The fund is a joint initiative of Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the World Bank and the Japanese government.

The can-do attitude of villagers in Magona near Thohoyandou in Limpopo has galvanised the Limpopo provincial government into investing more than R150 000 in the community. Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi's office heard how villagers had raised funds to build a second high school so that children no longer had to walk 10km a day for their education. The funding was only enough to get the new school to foundation level.

South Africa's new Immigration Act has left too much discretion to police and immigration officials, and criminalised ordinary job seekers from neighbouring countries, the NGO Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) said on Tuesday. After several delays, amendments and last minute court challenges, the legislation replacing the Aliens Control Act was finally enacted on Monday evening.

The Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) is a non-profit organisation working in the area of HIV/AIDS social research, programme development and communications. An experienced researcher is required to implement and manage a range of research projects.

The Draft Children's Bill, to be tabled in Parliament for debate and passage during 2003, moves away from an emphasis on the welfare needs of children already experiencing abuse and neglect, and focuses on the need to prevent abuse and neglect from occurring and to support families to care for their children. Thus, poverty alleviation strategies, an inter-departmental approach to caring for children's survival, development and protection needs, a comprehensive social security system, and an overall foundational commitment to the prioritisation of children's rights are the cornerstones, according to this briefing from the organisation Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (RAPCAN).

This article takes a step back from the policy issues surrounding biotechnology and its role in development to present a broad discussion of the biotechnology sector and its implications. The paper argues that if biotechnology is to develop usefully, the risks involved with it should be prevented.

The OR Tambo Municipality has given the Laveli Langa Children's Care Centre a shot in the arm by committing R400000 towards building them a permanent home. The mayor's office manager, Khaya Gashi, said the building was expected to start immediately as a tender was awarded for the project last week.

February donations for the Community Chest were R10000 up on last year and the total now stands at R60 000 ahead, executive director Joss Hamilton said. "A R12000 anonymous donation helped, the raffle has started bringing in funds and a very welcome R2000 was received from Defy Appliances.”