Former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni is one of 37 officials and employees of all races that have been exposed for corruption and forced out of office by the investigative reporting of three award-winning Sunday Times journalists.

Telecentres (or whatever else you might choose to call them) sit in the middle of most efforts to close Africa's digital divide. Their critics rightly ask what they deliver in terms of of benefits for users. Those familiar with them worry about the range of technical resources required to run them. Sheena Lutges reports from the sharp end on both of these issues.

A pilot project in South Africa is testing the use of wireless technology amongst rural doctors. The project aims to use this tool to provide improved health care.

Thank you for the educative piece you have unveiled to the members of this community. I personally feel very touched by the seemingly persistent negative attitude of the South African government towards the HIV and AIDS related issues. I come from and live in Uganda. And as you probably know, the AIDS scourge in Uganda has been somewhat reduced because of the positive attitude and commitment on the part of
government and all other partners in the development fraternity. I am a nurse, professionally and I just can't hold back my intense negative feeling for this continued disastrous action of politicians who are otherwise meant to cater for the ordinary citizen! Here is my humble suggestion in addition to your possible queries. In my view as it happens in Uganda, the South African government ought to come out of this defiance. First and fore most the president, Mr. Thabo Mbeki must realise that HIV/AIDS is no longer an issues you can play about with. I must say they (him and colleagues) may think it is a form of apartheid! This must stop. I would like to suggest here that the people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS must come out and openly protest, demonstrate and show to the ANC government what the truth is. I will write more on this as we go along - I would like to read others' comments.

A newly released study on attitudes towards foreigners, particularly refugees, shows that public awareness on the human rights of asylum-seekers has still to take root on South African soil.

SANGONeT, in association with LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand, is offering a certificate course designed to promote computer literacy.

The Coalition for Peace in Africa will be holding a 5 week training workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa. This workshop will cover diverse aspects of conflict transformation and peace building, and is aimed at capacity building for people working in conflict transformation, development, human rights and related fields on the African continent.

The Curriculum Development Project Trust (CDP), based in Gauteng, is a dynamic developmental NGO dedicated to the training of educators and learners in Arts and Culture in formal and non-formal sectors, requires a person who will ensure efficient project and office management as well as provide support to the Director and project staff.

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation is hosting a seminar on the impact of war: Political, social, and psychological consequences.

Women’sNet, the Internet- based women’s communications and advocacy initiative of SANGONeT and the Commission of Gender Equality is recruiting an intern. Our internship programme provides an opportunity for South African women to develop their information communications and technology (ICT) skills and gain valuable work experience for a nine-month period.

Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane is consulting with governments in Southern Africa, organised labour and non-governmental organisations about declaring a state of emergency over the HIV/AIDS pandemic, SAPA reported.

The death rate among young South African women is more than three times higher than it was 15 years ago, said the Medical Research Council(MRC) in their report on the impact of HIV/AIDS on adult deaths in the country.

The South African Gender Based Violence and Health Initiative (SAGBVHI)plans to host an annual conference on gender based violence and health in April 2002. Set to become an annual event, the conference will attempt to raise awareness about intersection between gender based violence and health and to find creative ways of building a violent free society. A call for papers will be issued in November 2001.

A devastating report on the impact of AIDS in South Africa has finally been published this week, despite concerted efforts by the South African government to suppress and discredit it. The report, produced by the Medical Research Council of South Africa, makes for alarming reading. It demonstrates that 40% of all deaths in the 15-49 age group in South Africa are now AIDS related, and it predicts that, if left unchecked, the total number of AIDS related deaths in South Africa will rise to between 5-7 million by 2010. By the end of this decade, the authors argue, average life expectancy will drop in South Africa from 54 to 41, and about 780,000 people will be dying each year from Aids, the highest number in any country in the world.

The authors of the report include researchers from the University of Cape Town and The London School of Tropical Hygiene. It has been subject to rigorous review, including approval by Peter Goldblatt, the chief medical statistician for England and Wales. The authors argue it represents the most comprehensive investigation to date of the effects of AIDS in South Africa, and its findings have been widely accepted by a range of organisations, including unions, churches, and even some politicians within the ANC.

Yet, the government itself has persistently tried to prevent its publication, and now seeks to undermine the report’s credibility. While Thabo Mbeki’s views - that AIDS is only responsible for a fraction of deaths, and may not even be related to HIV - are well known, the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and Essop Pahad have now weighed into the debate. In an attempt to discredit and deride the report, they have described it as a "massive propaganda tool" in the hands of those who argue for wide distribution of anti-retroviral drugs, and have condemned a "sense of hysteria" over the question of deaths from Aids.

If the findings of the report are shocking, the reaction of the South African government is even more so. In the words of anti-apartheid activist and former human rights commissioner, Rhoda Kadalie, who, writing in a Johannesburg newspaper, called on Dr Tshabalala-Msimang to resign: "We have a genocide on our hands and you and your cohorts have been unwilling to listen to the experts…If the president is making it impossible to do your work effectively, why not resign with dignity in defiance of someone who is taking the country down with him?"

As the recent United Nations Development Report on HIV/AIDS and poverty makes clear, if the devastation of AIDS in developing countries, and sub-Saharan Africa in particular is to be tackled, governments will need to implement a range of far reaching measures, that include adequate treatment as well as an adequate infrastructure to support people through the appalling toll that AIDS will wreak. COSATU, the Treatment Action Campaign and the Catholic Church have also called for such measures in South Africa. It is a matter of urgency that the South African government now takes its head out of the sand and acknowledges the real threat of AIDS before the horrific scenario predicted the MRC’s report becomes a reality.

Rhoda Kadalie’s words raise a critical question: Can a legal case be made to lay a charge of genocide against those individuals responsible? Article 6 of the Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, for example, states: “For the purpose of this Statute, "genocide" means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part […] .” Are there other instruments that would allow an appropriate case to be made that the failure to act on HIV/AIDS amounts to an act of genocide? Should not efforts be made to test whether a formal charge of genocide can be made? Would not such an attempt act as a stimulus – perhaps the most effective of all – to get appropriate action taken by the authorities not only in South Africa, but also in other African states?

Aids will kill 700,000 South Africans a year

The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Adult Mortality in South Africa, Medical Research Council Report

UNDP Report: HIV/AIDS: Implications for Poverty Reduction

COSATU: Joint statement on AIDS

The Department of Home Affairs says it is on the way to becoming fully automated with a revamped, user-friendly Web site and intranet, and an online visa application and transfer system in the
offing.

In May 2001, President Thabo Mbeki observed that all South Africans must be vigilant against “any evidence of xenophobia” against African immigrants. He noted that it is “fundamentally wrong and unacceptable” that South Africans should treat people who come to South Africa as friends as though they are enemies. This is a long-awaited and critically important statement from the highest level of the South African government. In the aftermath of the World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, the President’s words will hopefully be acted upon by all South Africans.

Everywhere you go in South Africa, you're confronted with the pink and purple colours of loveLife - a controversial HIV/AIDS youth education campaign which encourages young South Africans to talk freely about sexual issues such as teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.

Debt amounting to millions has been added to the burdens of at least four schools in Gauteng, South Africa, which found out too late that their trust in a computer firm was misplaced.

The Kruger National Park does not plan to end its wilderness walking tours in the bush after seven tourists narrowly escaped being hurt by an angry rhino on Sunday.

South African mining corporation, Anglo American, cannot afford to supply antiretroviral drugs to all its HIV/AIDS infected workers in South Africa, the company's medical department announced this week.