Justice Minister Penuell Maduna has asked the Scorpions to probe the demise of the Saambou banking group last year on the basis of an independent report implicating executives in "suspicious" transactions, insider-trading and mismanagement, Business Day reported on Friday.

Despite delays caused by protocol, preparations for the AIDS vaccine trials in South Africa are still underway and clinical researchers and scientists are hopeful that the Phase One tests will start early next year. This sense of optimism follows months of discussion and debate amongst the Medicines Control Council, the government as well as the vaccines' developers. It is hoped that the extensive consultations will help accelerate the onset of the vaccines trials - the search for the ultimate hope in HIV prevention. Khopotso Bodibe from Health-E News Service went out to seek clarity on the outstanding issues.

Activists known as the Kensington 87, who were arrested in April 2002 for protesting water and electricity cut-offs in their communities that were linked to the ANC government's programme of privatisation, were due to appear in the Jeppe Magistrate's Court in Johannesburg for the fifth time on Wednesday. The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) notes in a press release that the case has dragged on for over a year, during which time hundreds of activists from the APF, the Anti-Eviction Campaign and other social movement organisations have been harassed, arrested and detained for various lengths of time as a result of their struggles for basic people's rights and needs.

Over 60 percent of HIV/Aids infections in South Africa occur before the age of 25, a recent report from the South African University of Cape Town has revealed. The report focuses on "high risk" sexual activity among the youth and makes particular reference to South Africa.

Women living with HIV/AIDS face obstacles in receiving reproductive health care. Ipas, a non-profit agency focusing on reproductive health, has completed a report summarizing the available information concerning the discrimination HIV-positive women face in exercising their sexual and reproductive rights. Authored by Maria de Bruyn, "Reproductive Choice and Women Living with HIV/AIDS" is based on an extensive literature review and interviews with key informants in Australia, India, Kenya, South Africa and Thailand.

Is social security, designed to provide protection against various contingencies, well suited to the elimination or redress of large-scale, endemic poverty? This article attempts to contribute to the debate surrounding social security systems in South Africa, as the basic income grant system is now considered not viable.

The fraud and corruption trial of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni and businessman Michael Woerfel was set to resume in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday.

A KwaZulu-Natal Aids charity has been excluded from the list of recipients of the R1.8-billion grant from the United Nations' Global Aids Fund - for the second time. In May last year, the Enhancing Care Initiative was prevented from receiving R712-million of the R1.8-billion grant after Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang lambasted the group for not making its application through the state's South African National Aids Council.

About 90 000 houses are to be built for needy South Africans thanks to a R200 million deal between the National Reconstruction and Housing Agency (Nurcha) and an American investment company, Nurcha announced. The money, made available by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), would be used by Nurcha to underwrite the loans of emerging housing developers and contractors borrowing money from partner banks and micro-financing organisations.

In response to the recent upsurge of violent and sexual crimes, Themba Lesizwe this month approved R5 million in funding to over 35 non-governmental and community based organisations providing victim empowerment services to poor communities. The funding was made available by the Embassy of Ireland through their development cooperation programme with South Africa.

Names of contracted artists have been released for the exclusive music concert organised to raise awareness and much needed funds for the fight against AIDS, the City Press reports. The concert will be held at Robben Island on February 2, 2003. Musicians from the US, Europe and Africa have been billed to perform in the Mandela SOS Aids benefit concert which will be globally broadcasted.

A sum of R30 000 allocated to Whittlesea's anti-Aids campaigners for capacity building by the National Development Agency (NDA) in 2001 has not reached the activists. The money was supposed to be deposited into the bank account of the Whittlesea Anti-Aids Youth Campaigners (WAAYC) on April 2, 2002. WAAYC is an NGO educating people infected and affected by the virus, and also provides home-based care to those living with the virus.

Justice Department spokesperson Paul Setsetse says South Africa will consider extraditing millionaire Cyril Kern of Cape Town, if there is evidence that he was involved in money laundering. Kern's gift of R15 million to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is being used as political ammunition against him in the Israeli general election.

An alleged rightwinger accused of planning to blow up the Vaal Dam testified on Tuesday in the Bloemfontein Regional Court with his Bible at hand. Leon Peacock (42) regularly quoted from the small Bible while testifying in his defence. He told Regional Court President WA du Plessis, who was presiding, that the prophesies of the book of Revelations in the Bible were similar to those of 19th century Boer prophet Siener van Rensburg. One of Van Rensburg's prophesies is about the so-called Night of Terror, which some right-wing groups believe will precipitate a rightwing coup d'etat in South Africa.

South Africa's Deputy President Jacob Zuma urged the African Union's (AU) conflict resolution body on Tuesday to deploy the so-called African Mission to Burundi as soon as possible to enforce the cease-fire in the region. According to a statement issued by his office from the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Zuma said troops from South Africa, Mozambique and Ethiopia had all been earmarked to take part in the mission.

Bureaucrats are blocking attempts to dispense food relief urgently needed for thousands of poverty-stricken rural people, according to an NGO activist. This accusation follows the discovery of a horrifying statistic - 150 000 South African families are starving. The audit may be just the tip of the iceberg because the study covers only 13 areas that have been identified as economically depressed.

South African tourism could be affected due to loss of habitats and biodiversity as a result of climate change, according to a study produced by the Energy & Development Research Centre (EDRC), at the University of Cape Town. The study said tourism, which contributes as much as 10% of GDP, was the biggest potential economic loss to the country as a result of climate change. Other findings included a warning that forests, small but locally valuable in terms of commercial production of timber and non-timber products, stood to be “entirely lost”.

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Agriculture and Environment Affairs Narend Singh is to visit the scene of a toxic spill in the Stanvac Canal, Merebank, South Durban.
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http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=794

Key legislation designed to protect employees in the public and private sectors from persecution if they blow the whistle on corruption could soon be expanded to include anyone who observes corrupt practices.

The commercialisation and concession process recently embarked on by the SANP should be a matter of disquiet for all environmentalists and conservationists and South African citizens who are all shareholders in the National Parks of South Africa, says this petitions web page. The link to the web site below presents a synopsis of the matter and includes some of the many concerns raised by various parties involved in the issue.