A useful resource for electoral facts and figures in southern Africa, including the Zimbabwean presidential poll.

The adoption of a 'briefing note' by the ANC's NEC last year, which accused
elements in Cosatu of 'counter-revolutionary' and 'ultraleftist' plans to
launch a political party, remains a thorn in the side of some. Dinga Sikwebu
concludes the SACP's response fails to take into account the changes taking
place in the ANC.

Brought to you as a free service by the Congress of South African Trade Unions and SAMWU. To subscribe to this free newsletter, or to join other COSATU lists, enter your details at the website below.

Using its network, experience and understanding of leadership requirements in the current NGO context, FMA Consulting will assist organisations to effectively and efficiently run their recruitment processes and to find top candidates to fill their available positions.

A resource guide has been produced, entitled 'Drawing Our Lives', which outlines the methodology used by the DWEBA project, and provides some guidelines for activities using drawing which could be used within most training or development contexts.

Trau-Mail is an initiative of an independent organisation with the objective of enabling South Africans to share their traumatic experiences with others.

A petition is now before the House of Representatives, asking it to set up an independent body to investigate the allegation of bribery against Justice Ade Alabi of the Lagos High Court sitting over the trial of former Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Col. Ishaya Bamaiyi (rtd).

The South African Catholic Bishops' Conference has criticized a Catholics For a Free Choice advertising campaign that takes issue with the church's stand on condoms, saying that condoms are "as likely to promote promiscuity as anything else," the South African Press Association reports. The ads -- which read, "Banning Condoms Kills" and "Catholic People Care, Do Our Bishops?" -- are running in a Cape Town newspaper and will be featured on highway billboards near Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, after receiving an award for the government's HIV/AIDS campaign, announced on Sunday that because Uganda "has no homosexuals," HIV is not spread through homosexual contact there, the Associated Press reports.

Trade union MWU-Solidarity on Tuesday welcomed three more labour unions into its ranks, a move that made it the biggest independent labour union in South Africa, MWU-Solidarity said.

Organizers of an ambitious new drive to control the parasitic carrier of sleeping sickness--which has turned vast swathes of Africa into an uninhabited desert--are worried that funds will not reach the estimated US$5-10 billion needed for eradication.

The Charter of Rights was developed by Migrant Domestic Workers in a series of workshops organised by RESPECT in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and the UK. Besides reflecting the experiences of migrant domestic workers including the violations of their rights in Europe, the Charter also reflects the demand for recognition of "domestic" work as "proper" work. More information about the Charter and to endorse it online can be found on the December 18 website.

This handbook is a reference manual for employers and their organisations to implement policies and programs in accordance with the International Labour Organization. An additional purpose of this guide is to raise awareness of current initiatives to eliminate exploitative child labour as mandated by the Resolution on Child Labour in 1996.

Just when people were beginning to think that it was never going to happen in the life of this administration, the federal government literally poured out broadcast licences, early last week.

A National Coalition of some 60 agencies has sought to persuade Government that the level of poverty and the structural nature of unemployment (few are cycling through unemployment on the way to another job) are now such that another approach to welfare is needed. A report was submitted some months ago. The current welfare system, which ‘targets’ beneficiaries and provides no cover to all those between 8 and 65, only reduces the poverty gap (the missing income) of the 22 million poor by a quarter. The proposal, adding a monthly Basic Income Grant (BIG) of, say, R100 per month, to all citizens including children, will relieve three quarters of that gap, pushing 6 million above poverty when poverty is defined as R400 per month.

The People’s Budget Campaign, formed by COSATU, the SACC and SANGOCO, expect the 2002/3 budget to express a renewed commitment to social solidarity. Above all, it should initiate decisive measures to alleviate poverty and restructure the economy to create jobs and ensure rapid growth.

A cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church has suggested that the time may be right for the launch of an international campaign of protest against Sudan for violating human rights, according to reports from Zenit news agency, which specialises in reporting Catholic affairs.

The Center for Economic Justice seeks interns to work in its Washington, D.C. office for Summer 2002 on the World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign.

The Democratic Alliance has sent a letter to Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel explaining why South Africa should also benefit from the $1,9-billion (about R21,8-billion) United Nations Global Fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

The prime minister of the Central African Republic (CAR), Martin Ziguele, has launched a national disarmament and arms collection programme, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported on Monday.