An American academic has vowed to send a further four million books to South Africa as part of an ongoing drive to fight illiteracy. Dr Julius Wayne Dudley, who was in the country last week, made the announcement while visiting institutions and projects that benefited from his drive and his organisation, Collaborative Education with South Africans.

The European Union will make HIV/Aids awareness an integral part of everything it will be doing in Africa, the EU's ambassador to South Africa Michael Lake said in Cape Town. Speaking at the opening of the Technical and Business Education Initiative in South Africa (Tabeisa) conference at the Peninsula Technikon, Lake said trade between South Africa and the EU had increased by 50 percent over the past three years and seemed set to increase further.

South Africa's plans for e-Governance are well underway with the DPSA's "Project Gateway" due to be launched in June 2003.

In the context of limited financial resources, Africa should investigate how to better use the opportunities presented by the emergence of open source software, Public Service and Administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has said.

Explosions that killed one person, damaged a mosque and ripped up railway lines in Soweto rekindled fears Wednesday that rightwing extremists were trying to destabilize South Africa. Authorities said they were investigating whether there was a link between the nine bombings and the recent arrests of white men accused of plotting a coup. "Whoever manufactured ... the bombs and placed them are experts," Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said.

The private sector is joining the Department of Social Development to tackle poverty in South Africa, which, despite eight years of democracy, remains one of the world's most unequal societies. The public-private sector initiative includes action against HIV/AIDS and aims to spur progress towards halving severe poverty by 2015 and other Millennium Development Goals targets.

Hady-Jane Guds of Amsterdam, Netherlands, touched by the Madiba magic after meeting Nelson Mandela in 1997, recently gave R5000 to the Ntlonze Junior Secondary School.

The South African government has pledged medical equipment worth R80m to assist Angola, after an appeal from President Eduardo Dos Santos's government. Pretoria also donated R500 000 in cash to Luanda, as well as 6 000kg of maize seeds and 50 tons of maize meal. One hundred tons of clothing and food, worth R3 million, have also been donated.

The Centre engages in peacemaking, skills training and research, runs conflict management capacity-building programmes in South Africa and the region; and has partnerships with many United Nations agencies and government departments in South and Southern Africa. It has forty full-time staff and an annual budget of ZAR15 million. The current Executive Director is stepping down in order to pursue his research interests as a Centre Associate. The organisation therefore seeks to appoint a dynamic and visionary executive director. He/she will ensure that the Centre fulfils its mission and goals; has a high level of expertise in relation to these goals; retains its national and international reputation for excellence; adapts to significant political and other changes in the external environment; conducts its business in a professional manner; is financially viable and sustainable; and has strict financial controls.

Zulu painter Ernest Mancoba, exiled in France since 1938, has died in hospital at Clamart near Paris aged 98, his family said on Sunday.

South Africa's best black rugby player has prompted uproar by denouncing the national sport as a bastion of white supremacy which faked multiracial harmony to host the 1995 world cup with Nelson Mandela's blessing.

Brown bread and mielie meal, the staple food of the country's poorest citizens, will soon be fortified with vitamins to help combat malnutrition. According to draft regulations published by the Department of Health, it will soon be compulsory for the milling industry to add a range of micro-nutrients to their products or face legal action.

It is still not clear whether people living with HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal will ever see any of the $72-million granted to the province in April by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM). The Global Fund has indicated that from this week it will start to disburse money to projects approved in its first round of applications - but unless procedural problems surrounding the KZN grant are cleared up, this province's money will not come through.

Three major legal agencies are building a dossier of allegations of corruption in the department of home affairs over its handling of refugees.

We, the Ministers of Finance and Planning and Economic Development—after meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on October 2002, under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa—have reached consensus on many issues of critical importance in accelerating Africa’s progress and development.

Three South African universities received R220 million from the United States National Institute for Health to be used in HIV-Aids research projects, officials said.

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has welcomed most of the changes made by the South African Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications to the controversial Broadcasting Amendment Bill. This followed public hearings where numerous organisations criticised the Bill for attempting to transform the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) from a public broadcaster to a state broadcaster by increasing its accountability to the Minister of Communications.

Tukani and 14 others bought their 216ha farm, Isidingo, in December 2000. The 15 partners each raised R16 000 in government subsidies. The R240 000 in their pool enabled them to borrow another R230 000 from the Land Bank to buy Isidingo. The R470 000 price included a few implements.Credit also goes to the National Development Agency (NDA), which has funded the association since its inception, and to the Department of Agriculture, which paid the mentors.

The Manguang-University of the Free State Community Partnership Programme is a collaborative effort started 10 years ago by community members, the University of the Free State, the Kellogg Foundation and the Irish government.The programme offers holistic assistance to poor communities, ranging from health and welfare to skills development and training. It also runs baking, farming, sewing, knitting, dairy, indigenous foods and fishing projects and helps about 80 000 people a year.

The National Lotteries Board failed to pitch up for a debate on Social Service Financing organised by the Greater Johannesburg Welfare, Social Service and Development Forum. Speakers attended the debate from the Ministry of Social Development, National Development Agency, and Nedcor. The National Lotteries Board sent a letter/speech, which the attendants refused to read out.