Education Minister Kadar Asmal's valiant plan to extend free basic education to all our children up to matric illustrates an international conundrum of the first order. If education and other services like health and water are to be seen as human rights, how are they to be funded? Can we envisage a situation in which these services are free to everyone, while those who can afford them are taxed appropriately? Is it possible to come up with a new taxation system that gives governments the revenues they need, engaging the commitment of electorates to the health of societies as a whole? These are the two central questions this editorial seeks to answer.

After years of delays, the South African government gave its stamp of approval last week to a plan for providing free anti-AIDS drugs. Over the next five years, the state hopes to extend the programme to over a million people living with AIDS. The price of a year's supply of the life-prolonging drugs, also known as anti-retrovirals (ARV's), is about 100 dollars - fifty times less than it was in November 2002.

"I cannot conclude he was not a spy," former intelligence operative Mo Shaik told the Hefer Commission on Thursday about national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka. An emotional Shaik admitted that mistakes had been made during the liberation struggle in the identification of suspected informers. This had had "terrible consequences", Shaik said, apparently struggling to hold back tears.

The Democratic Alliance has strongly rejected the majority view of Parliament's ethics and members' interests committee "that Deputy President Jacob Zuma be cleared of all charges" regarding his alleged non-declaration of benefits.

Zackie Achmat, a South African who is a leading proponent of an international solution to the AIDS crisis, was in New York this week, just as his government at long last delivered on the demands that he and other activists have pushed for years - that it develop a comprehensive treatment plan for its 4.5 million citizens living with HIV. Achmat was blistering in his critique of the failure of world leaders to confront the scourge of HIV. At the top of his list was the American president. "The greatest threat to public health in the world is George Bush staying in power," he said.

The Freedom of Expression Institute has signalled its deep alarm at the rising number of cases affecting media freedom as well as the increasing inroads into media freedom in South Africa in the recent past. In a statement, the FXI stated that in the last few months, the media had come under increasing strain from both state and non-state sources, a situation that raised serious concerns regarding the conditions under which the media was able to operate and fulfil its constitutional mandate of informing the public.

Vehicles driven off-road by irresponsible tourists are causing long-term damage to the Richtersveld National Park's delicate desert environment. The park - on the Orange River - is across the border from Namibia's Fish River Canyon Park.

Exiled former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, is alleged to be staying in Nigeria on a $1 million (about N140 million) annual lifeline from the South African government.

A crisis at the National Arts Council has led to the freezing of about R4-million in funding for struggling performing artists. The council is the statutory body that distributes funds for the promotion of arts and culture and awards study bursaries.

Swedish Christian groups and the opposition Green Party have called for an inquiry into allegations of bribery in South Africa's multibillion rand arms deal. They have urged Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson to launch an official probe into claims that the partly-Swedish consortium BAE/Saab bribed government and ANC officials to secure the contract to sell JAS Gripen fighter jets to SA.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has welcomed the medium term expenditure framework on HIV/AIDS announced by the Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, last week. "Our preliminary understanding of the budget is that approximately R12 billion will be directed towards HIV/AIDS over the next three years." However, the TAC said they were concerned at the disappointing statement released by the Government Communication and Information Services (GCIS), which made it clear that the release of the operational treatment plan had been delayed yet again.

The Mozambican embassy in South Africa confirmed on Wednesday that it was trying to renegotiate a recently passed immigration law with authorities in Pretoria, claiming that the legislation discriminated against migrant mine workers.

The Debate journal came into sight to serve as a platform to liberate and publish voices from the South African leftist sector. Its latest August issue carries articles, influential and poetic voices, analysis, commentary, and discussions about current affairs on the social movements arena.

Seldom could such a drastic reversal in direction have attracted so little attention. The market simply ignored it. There was little or no comment on it. And yet President Thabo Mbeki announced a fortnight ago that the neo-liberal market economic approach must be abandoned. But at the end of the day, argues this article, Mbeki is doing the old classical political thing: talking left but doing right.

An international environmental journalism conference is scheduled later this month in South Africa as part of "Earth Festival," hosted by the city of Cape Town. Journalists from Africa and beyond will meet on November 20 and 21 at the Nelson Mandela Gateway Auditorium in Cape Town to explore pressing issues facing people, the planet and their profession.

The Crisis Care Line, a Merebank-based community organisation, battling air pollution in south Durban has stated that the eThekwini municipality's efforts to curb air pollution through the importation of 'sniffing' machines were not good enough. Commenting on the announcement that the monitoring equipment had arrived in the city as part of a R28m plan to curb air pollution in the industrial basin, organisation chairman Ebrahim Sheik asked what the city authorities and the minister were now going to do to put a stop to the problem. According to Sheik the three main culprits of air pollution in the area - Engen, Sapref and Mondi - had promised two years ago to turn a classroom at the Settlers Primary School into a clinic, but has never fulfilled their side of the deal.

This glossary has been developed by Jill Ritchie of Papillon Press and Consultancy, in co-operation with Thusanang. Both Ritchie and Thusanang will add new entries to the glossary on an on-going basis. If you have a funding or fundraising term that is puzzling you, and which is not explained in the glossary already, please send it to us at [email protected].

SABC News reports that last year's campaign "16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children" raised almost R2million. Rural community-based organisations dealing with violence against women and children have been prioritised in the allocation of the funds.

According to SABCnews, a report from the Auditor General has revealed that more than R40mn of unspent donor funds allocated to government's Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) have been returned to the respective donor countries. The blame for the long-standing difficulties in spending donor funds has been blamed on government bureaucracy.

Mandla Njokwane, once a street kid and now a tutor at the Youth Development Trust (YDT) centre in Johannesburg, was awarded the youth innovation award at the annual African ICT Achievers awards. Njokwane, who grew up in Thokoza on the East Rand, was awarded a learnership at Thutong Training Institute For Communication and IT (TIICOT) as part of his prize.