The fiasco over hundreds of millions of rands destined to fight Aids in KwaZulu-Natal is over. The province is set to receive the first instalment of nearly $72 million (about R576m) within the coming months to extend a range of HIV programmes - and start providing anti-retroviral triple therapy to a limited number of patients.

Refugee reception centres in South Africa are critically understaffed and cannot meet their obligations, Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Wednesday. He was replying to a written question in the National Assembly on whether his department has sufficient capacity to process applications for refugee status.

A Franschhoek farmworker has won a historic victory for women's rights and the rights of farmworkers in the Land Claims Court. Clarina Julius - a worker at the farm Wonderland that belonged to Anglo American Farms until recently - opposed an application by the company to evict her and 14 other families from their home at Languedoc, near Franschhoek.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says their civil disobedience campaign will be extended to all government departments. Zachie Achmat, TAC leader, and more than 100 others were arrested at Cape Town's Caledon Square police station this week after laying charges of culpable homicide against Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the Health Minister, and Trevor Manuel, the Finance Minister.

South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang last week recommended a combination of garlic, onions, virgin olive oil and the African potato to boost the immune systems of people living with HIV/AIDS. However, a local immunology professor on Monday said the African potato turned the food combination into a lethal concoction.

Government attempts over the past five years to get private medical schemes to take care of more South Africans have failed as high costs have generally precluded those earning less than R5 000 from joining private schemes. Medical inflation has outpaced overall inflation by around 5% every year, and this has virtually nullified regulations introduced from January 1999 aimed at opening up the private sector.

Most South African businesses believe that bribery has become an accepted practice and that police officials were the most corrupt of all, the first comprehensive assessment of corruption in the country has found. The finding is contained in the "perception-based" Country Corruption Assessment Report, compiled over two years by the department of public service and administration with assistance from the United Nations office on drugs and crime.

A group of South African hunter-gatherers is to receive six per cent of all royalties received by South Africa's leading research organisation from a potential anti-obesity drug derived from the local hoodia plant. Under the deal, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will also pay the San community eight per cent of all milestone payments received from Phytopharm, its UK-based licencee for the drug. The money will be used for the "general upliftment, development and training of the San community".

African National Congress (ANC) MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela will seek an urgent interdict on Tuesday to stop National Assembly Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala's public reprimand, pending the outcome of a High Court challenge next month. "We will serve papers today and will set it down for tomorrow," Madikizela-Mandela's attorney Votani Majola said on Monday. Ginwala last week advised Madikizela-Mandela that she should be present in the National Assembly at 3pm on Wednesday to be reprimanded for contravening Parliament's Code of Conduct.

East London mum Sabrina Burton, 45, at the weekend became the first person in the Eastern Cape to take a 10 000 foot "jump for charity". Burton raised over R3000 for the South African Guide Dogs Association. Her "reward" was a tandem 10 000 foot leap of faith out of a plane with Jump for Charity (JFC) jump master Ralph Ridge.

Despite having only standard five as an education qualification and living under sordid conditions of abject rural poverty; there is no force that can stop the hard-working and strong-willed Willy Manganyi from brilliantly strumming his guitar. He is making indigenous African music that soothes the soul of a nation ripped to shreds by poverty, HIV/Aids, unemployment, prostitution, mis-education, inertia, jealousy, corruption and other social evils.

Africa is facing a water and sanitation crisis. An estimated one in three Africans do not have access to adequate water supply and sanitation facilities. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) 40% of people lack access to a safe water supply and almost half suffer from water related diseases. In the face of these statistics, can the water and sanitation goals be met in Africa?

The government has established a database of corrupt businesses that departments are banned from using, while a plan for the blacklisting of corrupt employees from the public service has been approved. While the blacklisted companies are published on the Treasury website, legal issues around banning corrupt employees still have to be resolved, according to a government progress report on its anti-corruption measures.

The Department of Social Development and the Public Service Monitor (PSAM) have expressed delight over the arrest by the Joint Anti-Corruption Unit of 19 people in Umtata, East London and Port Elizabeth. The department this morning called for "stiff" sentences for officials or former officials convicted of fraud and corruption.

Mr Sam Seepei, Manager of the BHPBilliton Trust, handed over a cheque for R1.334 million to the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Malegapuru William Makgoba, signifying a vote of confidence in the University and its highly successful Science Foundation Programme (SFP).

Pupils of the Lesaoana Intermediate School in the rural eastern Free State village of Sehlajaneng have received a computer centre from the Telkom Foundation that is set to change their learning experience.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) through the collaborative efforts of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has boosted the country's athletes with a sum of $75,000 towards the preparation for All African Games in October.

IT entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth's Shuttleworth Foundation has opened the first of three open source learning centres in the Western Cape. The centre, at the Nooitgedacht Primary School in Bishop Lavis, takes computer access to nearly 1 000 children for the first time.

Local and international companies that benefited from apartheid are likely to come under increased pressure to pay reparations to the victims of racial discrimination and exploitation, after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) handed in its final report to the South African government. The TRC was set up to investigate the human rights abuses that took place in South African under apartheid. The final report documents 22,000 cases of rights abuses, although some community-based organisations claim that many more victims of apartheid were not identified during the TRC process.

Entering the Heavenly Touch Hair Studio is like taking a step back in time. Red plastic swivel chairs sit on a checkerboard of retro black-and-white linoleum. But amid the faded posters advertising hair straighteners and dye there is a decidedly modern South African touch. A small, black and orange sign warns visitors that here at Heavenly Touch, certain behaviour just won't be allowed. "Right of admission reserved," it reads. "No racists allowed." Over the past year, the "no-racists" signs have been showing up in business windows around this notoriously conservative town.