The news that young people in the Western Cape are not practising safe sex, sending infection rates spiralling in their age group, is a challenge a group of young men in Gugulethu are preparing to face head-on. The group believes their best hope of contributing to an end to the HIV pandemic is for men to stand together as examples of how "real men" behave in a healthy community.

In most of the mud-brick houses perched above the starkly beautiful gorges of the Tugela River, someone is dying. In one house, a truck driver stretches his bony legs on a mattress; he has come home from Johannesburg to die. Just down the dirt road, a thin young man lives with his mother and sister in a single room. They own nothing, not even a chicken. The young man has not yet told his sister that he has AIDS. This is the province of KwaZulu-Natal, epicenter of South Africa's epidemic, where HIV positive rates are estimated at more than 30 percent.

Anti-rape volunteers in Mpumalanga gave health MEC Sibongile Manana a pat on the back this week for the first time in two tense years. The MEC announced on Thursday that the department was finally preparing to dispense antiretroviral drugs to all of the province's 27 hospitals, and that care rooms would be set aside for emergency help for rape survivors.

South Africa will be unable to overcome the obstacles restricting foreign investment into the country if it does not acknowledge their existence, consultant and former special investigating unit head Willem Heath says. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Institute of Directors' Western Cape branch, Heath said there was a lack of political will to tackle issues such as corruption, which he estimated to involve about R10bn a year in SA.

The issue of control over the .za domain space may be hogging the limelight, but the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Bill which triggered the dispute contains other provisions more worrying to many IT experts.

Apartheid victims are to take legal steps against justice minister Penuell Maduna in a last-ditch effort to get access to the state's draft reparations policy. Shirley Gunn, chairperson of the Khulumani Victims Support Group's Western Cape branch said the action was decided on after several attempts to see the draft legislation, and to become involved in discussions on reparations, failed.

The JEP believes that young people have the inherent right to contribute to and be nurtured by South African society, which recognises and responds to the full range of needs and gifts of young women and men. The JEP is a national not-for-profit youth development organisation, based in Johannesburg and is seeking a very competent and dedicated Finance Officer.

Gun Free South Africa is committed to making a material contribution to building a safe and secure nation, free from fear, by reducing the number of firearms in society. It is looking for an information, communication and research officer.

The Sekhukhune Educare Project, an NGO specialising in Early Childhood Development based in Jane Furse, Limpopo Province is inviting applications for an Administrator's position.

Interfund, a consortium of donors based in Scandinavia and Europe, has launched it's new website. The new website was launched in a fun-filled evening with cultural performances at the Civic Theatre.

The Public Service Commission has expressed doubt about the viability of setting up a single anticorruption agency in SA. In a review of the country's various anti-corruption agencies, tabled in Parliament, the commission said priority should be given to retaining the existing agencies while making them more effective through better co-ordination.

A Durban scriptwriter has won an interim interdict against the distribution or sale of Mbongeni Ngema's controversial song Amandiya. The interdict application said the song, which appears on a CD entitled Jive MaDlokovu, was "rabidly racist and anti- Indian" and that it breached the South African constitution by promoting hate speech.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has welcomed the results of research done on HIV Benefits in Medical Schemes in 2002 by the Centre for Actuarial Research at the University of Cape Town in association with the TAC. The TAC said the survey showed conclusively that the Medical Schemes Act has been successful in ensuring coverage by medical schemes of people with HIV/AIDS.

Apartheid is alive and well in rural South Africa as police, army commandos, prosecutors and magistrates conspire with the 60,000 white farmers who continue to occupy 85 percent of the country's land to prevent poor black and landless people from exercising their rights to land, life, justice and dignity, says the National Land Committee (NLC). The NLC was welcoming the dismissal of six activists arrested on 29 April during a march protesting against rural injustice.

Although South Africa must train 30 000 new teachers every year to ensure education for all children, it is training less than half this number.

While the national Health Department is hailing the latest Aids figures as proof of the start of a turnabout in South Africa's pandemic, activists remain cautious, warning that this is no time for complacency. They say that without the release of full statistics, down to the detail of clinic-to-clinic, the numbers cannot be properly assessed for their accuracy.

Warring leaders are destroying those who can ensure there is a new future for their countries and African leaders are not doing enough for the reconstruction of Africa, says Olara Otunnu, the United Nations special representative for children and armed conflict.

The trial of two former Mpumalanga officials accused of accepting nearly R540 000 in kickbacks for irregularly approving a multi-million rand tender has been delayed for the fourth time because court recordings weren't finalised. The Nelspruit regional court postponed the trial of former environmental affairs department head Jabulani Mhlongo and administrative director Donald Hlatshwayo to June 18.

South Africa's long-awaited first Aids vaccine trial has been delayed again. Regulatory agencies in both the United States and South Africa, which must approve the trial before it can begin, have yet to okay the vaccine. The latest delay is likely to push the start date back by months, scientists said.

Situated among the rolling hills and valleys of South Africa's picturesque KwaZulu-Natal province, Somkhele clinic is one of 14 outlying clinics serving the 5,000 km square area of Hlabisa district - a region among those worst hit by HIV/AIDS. Clinics in the area are generally well utilised with about 95 percent of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at least once during their pregnancies.