On Thursday 4th March 2004 at 12:45pm learners and educators at the Settlers Primary School, Merebank, as well as local residents were gassed out yet again, according to the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA). This occurred after a huge toxic release from the Engen refinery, from all stacks. The flare was visible from 10 kilometres away, near the city centre. Numerous complaints were logged at the eThekwini Emergency Services, as well as the SDCEA offices. On arrival at the scene, SDCEA members saw numerous casualties, including educators; learners and local residents treated by local paramedics (KZN Emergency Rescue Services).

In line with the Global day of action against the War in Iraq and the occupation of Palestine, the Anti-War Coalition (Gauteng) will be hosting a rally and a festival on the 20th March 2004.

A screening of a documentary about Nigerian drug syndicates in Durban has sparked a new wave of allegations on South Africans' seemingly deep-rooted xenophobia about Nigerians, who maintain that the lowest 10% of their country's lower social class sets the perception for all their nationals. This has damaging implications for the majority, including issues such as credibility in business, ease of getting visas and even access to credit. Drug syndicates have been operating in SA since the 1980s. By the time Nigerian professionals began arriving in numbers mostly in the mid1990s the tone for Nigerians had been set and has proved difficult to counter.

The white rugby player who refused to share a room with a black team-mate has been cleared of racism by the South African Rugby Football Union. The president of the union, Brian van Rooyen, said he was sorry for what had happened to Geo Cronjé at the Springbok training camp last August. He said the union would officially announce that no racism was involved in Cronjé's refusal to share a room with Quinton Davids, an incident which led to punishment drills for both players and expulsion of the two from the training camp.

Three years ago in the former white mining village, West Village, Krugersdorp, Pastor Robert Bruun started a centre, with a church, a school for children who live in a nearby squatter camp, accommodation for the needy, and counselling. Last year, he was threatened that his church would be destroyed if he continued to accommodate and help "kaffirs". About 1am on Sunday, the pastor was awakened by a passer-by who noticed that his centre was on fire. Bruun is sure that the cause of the fire was arson.

The South African government has undermined its promising initiative to provide anti-AIDS drugs to prevent HIV among rape survivors, putting lives at risk amid a dual epidemic of sexual violence and HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The 73-page report, "Deadly Delay: South Africa's Efforts to Prevent HIV in Survivors of Sexual Violence," documents how government inaction and misinformation from high-level officials have undermined the effectiveness of South Africa's program to provide rape survivors with post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)-antiretroviral drugs that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV from an HIV-positive attacker.

The Health Economics & HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) is based at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. HEARD conducts research on the socio-economic aspects of public health, especially the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The intent is to inspire health and development strategies that improve the welfare of people in and beyond Africa. HEARD's ethos is to share knowledge and transfer skills. This is accomplished by having a dedicated team of multi-skilled staff and a commitment to training African researchers.

The trading relationship between the European Union (EU) and South Africa is shaped by the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) signed in 1999. Far from giving preferential treatment to an ex-colony, the TDCA actually imposes harsher liberalisation standards on South Africa’s agricultural exports than it does on Europe’s. Research from the University of Plymouth examines the protracted and acrimonious trade talks which led to the TDCA. Evidence drawn from interviews with key players in the negotiations suggests that European desires to please the World Trade Organisation (WTO) pre-determined the outcome. South Africa has had to adopt the neo-classical economic approaches which dominate the philosophy of development across the African continent.

The recent ANC Youth League conference was, in every respect, a gathering of the party's crown princes. And the aristocracy arrived in a style hitherto unimaginable. Unlike in past years when delegates came in buses and taxis, this year saw a flotilla of luxury sedans and hired cars for those who had flown in. An angry delegate from Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg, said the league was becoming an elite club of MPs and civil servants. "How will we be able to reverse the [township youth's] slide from political activism...when we live in town and drive flashy cars? The youth will not bother to vote when their leaders are seen to use them as stepping stones to their individual advancement."

Children in South Africa have been speaking out about human rights violations, including child prostitution. A non-governmental organisation based in Cape Town called Molo Songololo organised the event to highlight the plight of thousands of victims of child abuse in South Africa and other parts of the world. According to a 2000 report by the NGO there were estimated to be around 38,000 child prostitutes in South Africa. Some of them are known to have been abducted at shopping malls.

South Africa's adult death rate has jumped by almost 50% over the past six years and the Aids epidemic is probably the main cause, researchers have found. "There is a distinct rise in deaths in the younger, sexually-active age groups. It is our view that this is mainly due to Aids," said Ria Laubscher, a statistician at South Africa's independent Medical Research Council (MRC).

"There is a moratorium on new land reform projects – you can apply but your project will not be considered for at least two years.” During last year landless people in the Western Cape have had to swallow these words. The lack of funds has meant that land reform has stood still in the Western Cape; only two- to three-year-old projects are proceeding. And Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s Budget for this year has brought no respite.

The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC), invites applications for joint projects between Sweden and South Africa. The application is open to NPOs and foundations for funding over a three-year period.The main goal of the Culture Partnership Programme is to promote access of information, freedom of expression and capacity-building between Sweden and South Africa.

News24 reports that the National Lotteries Board has withdrawn funding for 21 North West NPOs after they failed to comply with conditions for awarding them Lottery grants. As part of the agreement, the applicants had to submit working agreements, quotations, building plans and proof of ownership of properties to the Board by 13 June of last year. All 21 organisations form part of a group that applied for grants through the National Welfare and Social Services Development Forum on a special dispensation as "partnership applications".

The Umgano Forest Project in South African aims to promote forest as a place of enjoyment and learning. "Our aim is to create a centre for international study, and as a venue for our youth to make friends from multi cultural backgrounds, in an exchange of ideas. The emphasis of our project is for participating research institutions to assist our villages with sustainable development projects, and in turn to allow them to benefit from the research opportunities such programs afford," says their website.

Swazis are capable of formulating their own system of democratic governance, which does not have to be similar to the South African model, a senior government official told IRIN on Tuesday. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mabili Dlamini was responding to a reference made to governance issues in Swaziland in the election manifesto of the ruling South African party, the African National Congress (ANC). Swaziland was singled out by the ANC as a country where the party intended to help strengthen democracy and assist in "social normalisation and economic reconstruction".

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has welcomed a decision by Johannesburg Water (JW) to grant access to three 'confidential' documents, after having refused to do so since April 2003. However, the FXI said it was deeply concerned that JW continues to refuse to release other documents relating to its activities. The Institute will continue with legal action which it has instituted, with researcher Ebrahim Harvey, against Johannesburg Water to secure the release of the remaining documents. Harvey sought the documents to enable him to complete a Master's Degree at the University of the Witwatersrand on the impact of Johannesburg's Igoli 2002 plan on the delivery of water (which led to the formation of JW as a corporate entity). The plan has been controversial as it fuelled the commercialisation of services such as water and electricity, leading to the disconnection of many poor residents when they could not afford the rising costs of these services.

A passionate plea for tolerance and trust is being made by the landlord and tenants of a Sea Point block of flats reputed to be a den of drug dealers and prostitutes. Landlord Shlomo Bitton says pressure from a group of Sea Point homeowners "targeting" the building has brought him close to evicting all his tenants. The tenants, many of whom are refugees from the Congo, say racism and xenophobia are behind a protest last week by homeowners accusing them of selling sex and drugs. "We are surrounded by hostility and hatred. Black people kill us when we try to live with them in townships, and white people do not want us to live with them either," said Roxi Badibanja, a Congolese refugee studying electrical engineering at Cape College in the day and working as a security guard at night.

The Centre for Civil Society, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is offering two post-doctoral fellowships, as part of our commitment to promote new and innovative research on civil society. The post-doctoral fellowships are for a duration of one year, at R150 000 p.a. The successful applicants are expected to be based at the Centre and to participate in its activities.

This study covers a variety of political and economic aspects of Africa's and South Africa's relationships to the world. The author considers the context of global apartheid, in terms of international stagnation, uneven development and African marginalisation, and evaluates the South African setting as a telling site of worsening inequality. Where then does the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) stand on the largest economic and political problems? South Africa's other proposed global reforms are also discussed. Finally, the author records an emerging ideology based not on commodification via globalisation but on decommodification and deglobalisation, and the strategies, tactics and alliances required for African and international progress.