To celebrate World Development Information Day this year, the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT), is hosting a special one-day event on Thursday, 21 October 2004 to highlight the role and significance of information and communication in the South African NGO sector and to profile the work of the sector and specific initiatives aimed at improving its information and communication capacity. For more information please contact Martha Thibedi or Refilwe Rakhibane at SANGONeT by 18 October 2004.

According to Herbert Mkhize, Nedlac's executive director, a total of 332, 000 jobs were created in the six months between September 2003 and March 2004, after the growth and development summit (GDS). A further analysis will provide information about the status of GDS themes of "more jobs, better jobs, investment promotion, skills development, promotion of equity and boosting local action".

Date: 16 October 2004

A seminar, "Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy Millennium Development Goals and the Financing Gap," will take place at the Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria in South Africa on Saturday, 16 October 2004 from 9h30-16h30. The Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy, launched by the Finnish Government in cooperation with the Tanzanian Government, aims to launch proactive efforts to develop new strategic solutions to the dilemmas of global governance by bringing together individuals from all major stakeholder groups. One of the main goals for the Helsinki Process and the work of the Track on the Global Economic Agenda is to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals will stay at the core of multilateral processes and decision-making.

Judge President John Hlophe of the Cape High Court has lashed out at the white legal fraternity for what he described as calculated attempts to undermine black judges and stall transformation. Racial tensions have often been expressed within the court, but this is the first time they have bubbled into the public domain. It is widely acknowledged that further transformation of the Cape High Court bench is urgently needed. Norman Arendse SC, chairperson of the General Council of the Bar of SA(GCB), the body that regulates the conduct of all practising advocates, has ordered an investigation into the matter.

Deputy-President Jacob Zuma is "unfazed" by media reports on Sunday that a KPMG report would show an "extensive financial relationship" between him and his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik. "He reiterates that those who believe they have a case against him should charge him and prove it in a court of law, and stop running a mischievous smear campaign in the media," said Zuma's spokesperson, Lakela Kaunda.

As South Africa rolls out its national treatment programme, the country continues to lose skilled healthcare professionals to wealthier nations abroad, leaving severe shortages in an already over-stretched public health system. In the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the human resources factor is even more critical. Civil society groups have warned that the government programme to provide free antiretrovirals (ARVs) could fall apart unless more professionals are attracted into the health system.

South Africa is the top foreign investor in Africa and the region's "most attractive country" for investment, according to an annual report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report noted the liberalisation of South Africa's regulatory regime and trade and exchange controls, and a technological advantage over other African firms as factors that had driven the country's outward FDI.

South Africans living abroad and at home are more confident about the country's future, and many South African expatriates are showing increasing interest in owning properties back home. A South African real estate group says this reflects a growing trend among those either wishing to invest in residential property back home or planning to return home in the future.

A Cape-based project called Cell-Life has developed software and data management systems that enable the health workers at the Hannan Crusaid treatment centre in Cape Town's Guguletu township to monitor patients who are on AIDS drugs and pick up problems before they become life-threatening. Now, thanks to an innovative application of cellphone technology, is on the verge of becoming a paperless operation.

In April this year, South Africans for the third time overwhelmingly re-elected the ruling African National Congress, now led by President Thabo Mbeki. Not surprisingly, the elections lacked the euphoria that marked the formal end of apartheid, led by Nelson Mandela, a decade ago. What’s more, the victory of the ANC may be dimmed by its own policy mistakes and the stubborn legacy of apartheid, an albatross that holds the young democracy in a death choke.

Pick 'n Pay, the food retailer has donated over 800 computer workstations to the Shuttleworth Foundation's tuXlab programme to assist them in their drive to increase the usage of open source software in 40 South African schools.

Date: 21 October 2004

To celebrate World Development Information Day this year, SANGONeT is hosting a special one-day event on Thursday, 21 October 2004, at its Braamfontein office. A programme of the day’s events can be found below.

The Freedom of Expression Institute's (FXI) annual report will be presented on 30 September, alerting the European Union to a new "state of emergency" in South Africa in which censorship is on the rise. This led the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to express deep concerns over this "creeping censorship" of media and the emergence of direct pressures against journalists which threaten editorial independence and protection of sources.

According to a new report conducted by the government, while the number of South Africans carrying the virus that causes AIDS increased in 2003, the rate of infection, especially amoung teenagers, was stabilizing. "Stability observed particularly amongst teenagers and the non-significant difference between the national figures for HIV prevalence for 2002 to 2003 all point to an epidemic in stabilization phase," the report said.

From 2-4 December 2004, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and its UN and NGO partners will host this consulation to advocate for the right to education in emergency situations, share good practices and programme strategies and review INEE's purpose and direction.

Deadline: 8 October 2004

The Support Programme for Social Housing Institutional Development and Capacity Building (SPSH) is funded under the Financing Agreement between the European Community and the Government of South Africa. The SPSH is co-funded and implemented by the Department of Housing. Applications are invited from established network organisations representing Social Housing Institutions (SHIs) for support by the Programme Management Unit of the SPSH.

A decade after the advent of democracy in South Africa, and the citizens continue to spend up to 17 dollars a day on prisoners, every day of the year, while babies and toddlers who attend formally-registered preschools get a direct subsidy from the Department of Social Development which averages out at just under 70 cents for every one of the country’s 195 school days.

The overpopulation of elephants in parks throughout southern Africa has reached a crisis stage, most conservationists agree, and South Africa soon will consider whether to cull its herds. It would be the first culling on the continent in a decade. Proponents say it is necessary because the elephants are fast destroying valuable woodlands in many parks, including some 2,000-year-old thick-trunked baobabs.

The programme hosts eco-design workshops that train local people and international students together in a knowledge-sharing process. The programme organisers believe that the key to rural poverty alleviation lies in the provision of acceptable housing, access to water and sanitation, creation of local economies, and the development of sustainable livelihoods, preferably based on indigenous knowledge systems and eco-efficient practices.

South Africa on Saturday bid farewell to Beyers Naude, a rare white voice against the apartheid system of racial segregation. In a state funeral broadcast live on television and radio, speakers black and white praised Naude, an Afrikaner man of the cloth cut from a different material of many fellow churchmen who saw racial hierarchy in South Africa as ordained by God.