The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) invites funding applications from arts and culture organisations, foundations and NPOs, for joint arts and culture projects between Sweden and South Africa for grants for a maximum of three years. The main goal of the Swedish/SA Culture Partnership Programme is to promote freedom of information, freedom of expression, and capacity building through cooperation between the two countries.

South Africa's biggest mobile phone company, Vodacom, has set itself the ambitious target of launching a 3G mobile phone service by Christmas this year. The company has spent R500m developing and upgrading its existing network for 3G capability and amongst other benefits analysts have noted that 3G offers the potential of bringing internet access to areas where it is currently limited.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is to launch an inquiry into the alleged mistreatment of members of the Khomani San community of the Northern Cape Province. Announcing the inquiry, an official of SAHRC said that: "There have been claims and accusations that the community...had been routinely mistreated by the police...and after the death of Optel Rooi (a master tracker) it was decided that an inquiry should be conducted."

The Supreme Court of Appeals will on 23 August 2004 hear the matter of Fourie v Minister of Home Affairs. This case presents a challenge to the common law definition of marriage. According to the common law definition, marriage is a union only between one man and one woman. This makes it impossible for same sex couples to be married to each other. The Equality Project has been admitted as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) in this matter. The Equality Project recognises that the removal of the common law prohibition against marriages between people of the same sex would represent a major advance in the struggle toward securing and equal position for lesbian and gay people in the law and society.

At least 46 residents in the Southern Free State's Naledi Municipality, whose families were removed from their homes thirty years ago to create a buffer between Blacks and Whites, have been compensated. Speaking at the occasion, the Chief Land Claims Commissioner, Tozi Gwanya, said that they had orders from the President to settle all of the country's 27,000 outstanding claims by the end of 2005.

The department of agriculture and land affairs has reiterated that 30% of farm land should be owned by black South Africans in the next 10 years. Briefing Parliament's committee on agriculture and land affairs, Bongi Njobe, the department's director general, also said that established farmers should make 10% of their agricultural land available to farm workers for farming activities.

The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has denied allegations of financial irregularities made by its head of finance and administration department, Colin Braude. In a statement, SAHRC said that "there is simply no basis to the allegations...as is evidenced by the findings of an independent external forensic audit." The statement followed a report by a newspaper claiming that the SAHRC had suspended a whistle blower (Braude) at a time when the public prosecutor was urging the protection of people who exposed corruption.

Mark Thatcher, the son of the former UK prime minister, has been arrested at his home in Cape Town. He has been detained by police investigating an alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. A spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority said he was held on suspicion of providing funding and logistical assistance.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says it will work with its labour federation counterparts in Nigeria and Ghana to influence decisions in the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Cosatu said that joining forces with the other two unions would strengthen the labour movement in Africa's regional powerhouse economies. This will ensure that the plight of workers and the poor remain key to the agenda of regional bodies such as the Southern African Development Community and the Economic Community Of West African States.

The South African minister of communications launched the first portal specifically for women this week. Speaking at the launch of www.wict.org.za, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri told guests that "the portal will broaden the resources for women and nurture them in the ICT sector". Amongst the programmes identified as focus areas for WICT are "ICT for Girls" and "Rural ICT Capacity Development".

The Health Department of South Africa's Gauteng province says it is ready to begin the third leg of its antiretroviral (ARV) rollout, scheduled for early September. The rollout forms part of government's national Comprehensive Plan for the Management, Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS, which aims to have 10,000 HIV-positive people on treatment by end of March 2005.

This document argues that the South African government is failing to protect the right to a primary education for children living on commercial farms by neither ensuring their access to farm schools nor maintaining the adequacy of learning conditions at these schools. The document provides a brief history of primary schools on commercial farms in South Africa and discusses the obstacles to the right to education children experience on these farms. The report also explains the current legal status of farm schools, as well as the rights of children living on commercial farms.

New legislation will help the South African government to monitor the entry of asylum seekers into the country, an official told IRIN on Friday. The Immigration Amendment Bill, approved by parliament last Thursday, requires all asylum seekers to report to a refugee reception centre within 14 days of entry, said Mike Ramagoma, a spokesman for the ministry of home affairs. Ramagoma noted that the existing law allowed asylum seekers "as soon as they have received their asylum transit permit at the port of entry to travel anywhere in the country and stay for whatever length of time".

An investigation by the Eastern Cape's Joint Anti-Corruption Task Team has revealed that one of the directors of Nutri-Products Africa, a company hired by the government to supply food parcels to the poor, was paid "confidential procurement commissions" of at least R495,000 via a bank account in the name of his five-year-old daughter.

Whether or not the Basic Income Grant (BIG) could be introduced is not so much an economic question – it is primarily political. Given political will, BIG could be approved tomorrow. Institutional structures for delivery could be in place in 2-3 years (the time wasted since the Taylor Committee recommended its phased introduction). Why has it not been introduced?

New research has shown that just a fraction of South African students who matriculated two years ago have pursued tertiary education. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) found that only 14 percent of learners who wrote the Senior Certificate Examination (Grade 12) in 2001 enrolled in higher education institutions the following year.

January 2005 will be a nerve-wracking month for hundreds of newly-qualified professional nurses who will be waiting to be told where they will serve a year’s community service. But it will be an even bigger logistical nightmare for the Department of Health with just five months to ensure the latest programme of compulsory community service kicks off smoothly at the beginning of next year. In July, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced ahead of her budget speech in Parliament the introduction of community service for nurses.

With the dust not yet settled on the health department's bid to regulate medicine prices, another messy conflict over state regulation of private health care looms large. A decade-long attempt to provide a unified health system that includes both public and private sector providers took concrete form on Friday, when President Thabo Mbeki signed the long awaited National Health Bill into law. The move is set to spark loud protest from doctors and private hospital groups, anxious about clauses in the legislation designed to regulate their services.

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has condemned South African telecommunications giant Telkom's threats of legal action against the owners and operators of the website http://www.hellkom.co.za. Telkom alleges that the site is an infringement of its registered trademark and, therefore, a violation of the country's trademark and intellectual property law. The corporation has demanded that the website be shut down immediately.

Dopstop Association

The Dopstop Association is seeking a fulltime Director. Responsibilities of the position include managing the organisation's intervention programme and strategy, fundraising, liasing with stakeholders and the organisation's public relations. The successful applicant will have proven project and organisational management experience and sound knowledge of the health sector and policies, skills development legislation and the agriculture and wine sectors.