The Democratic Alliance (DA) commended SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) chairperson Jody Kollapen on Sunday for lodging an equality case against a Pretoria barbershop that refused him a hair-cut on account of its "whites-only" policy. Kollapen, whose commission received a complaint from a black man who was refused service at the Mans Hair Salon in June, went to the Centurion shop on September 24 and was himself refused a haircut on account of his race.

One of the most celebrated achievements of South Africa’s transition to democracy is the Bill of Rights, enshrined in the Constitution, which states that, "everyone has the right to have access to sufficient water." The privatization of water violates that constitutional and human right in every way imaginable. At all levels of life - political, social, economic and cultural - the privatization of water is anti-democratic, anti-social and anti-human. In response to privatization South African activists have created a national coalition against water privatization.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is celebrating what it calls a “ground-breaking” decision on Thursday by the Competitions Commission that found two giant pharmaceutical firms culpable of charging excessive prices for anti-retroviral drugs and abusing their dominant positions in the market. The firms, GlaxoSmithKline South Africa and Boehringer Ingelheim, will have to appear before the Competitions Tribunal - the commission's prosecuting arm - to defend their contravention of the Competitions Act.

According to the first post apartheid national Census in 1996, 8.5% of South African children between the ages of 7 and 15 were not in school while approximately 16% of learners in Grades 1 to 7 were out of age (in school but older than their grade cohort by at least three years). From an educational point of view, these two groups of learners represent important lenses for marginality - children, who for whatever reasons, are unable to keep average pace with basic schooling.

Themba Lesizwe, a South African Network of Trauma Service Providers with more than 100 NPO affiliates, has awarded R6.5mn to 60 crime and violence empowerment projects. Organisations were awarded grants of between R50 000 and R200 000 for research, improving accessibility of trauma counselling and mental health services in poor communities, raising public awareness about violence and abuse, and training of volunteers and frontline workers in trauma management.

The Mail and Guardian (M&G) reports that the forensic audit of the National Development Agency (NDA) ordered by the Minister of Social Development has revealed more irregularities. The M&G cites as examples that the NDA allegedly hired the services of a private investigation company to vet staff and conduct investigations into other Non Profit Organisations at exorbitant monthly payments.

It would appear that over the past nine years civil society organisations (CSOs) and social activists in South Africa have missed many opportunities to ensure improvements in the delivery of socio-economic rights. A common thread running through the strategic failures is the absence of a coherent concept of accountability. Progressive civil society needs to embrace a new brand of social activism informed by a new philosophy of 'direct' and 'active' accountability. In terms of this philosophy, CSOs and social activists should strive to hold elected politicians and public officials directly accountable, for the performance of their duties and responsibilities, in an active and sustained manner, according to Colm Allan, Director, of the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), an anti-corruption body.

Media organisations on Thursday asked the Hefer Commission to withdraw a subpoena against the journalist who was a source of the allegation that Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy. Veteran journalist Raymond Louw told the commission that forcing former Sunday Times journalist, Ranjeni Munusamy, to testify would endanger 13 years of negotiations between media organisations, the department of justice and the South African Law Reform Commission about the removal of Section 205 from the Criminal Procedure Act. The section can be used to call on a person to reveal their sources of information to a judicial officer or face imprisonment.
Related Link:
* Commission says it will subpoena more journalists
http://www.africapulse.org.za/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=16…

When the Treatment Action Campaign launched a defiance campaign in March this year, 32-year-old Kebareng Moeketsi was at the forefront of the first protest. Barely a week later Moeketsi, a volunteer HIV counsellor from Alexandra near Johannesburg, died of Aids, leaving behind two children. Accepting the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award on behalf of the TAC this week, chairman Zackie Achmat said : "During our civil disobedience campaign from March 20 to July 31, more than 100 of our leaders have died."

It had the title of being one of Africa's most polluted rivers. Now, it seems, the Jukskei River could become one of the continent's deadliest. The river which runs through parts of Johannesburg, Sandton, Alexandra and eventually ends up in the Hartbeespoort Dam, a favoured recreational dam, has proved to have a human faecal count so high it poses a serious health risk.

The Hefer Commission adjourned on Wednesday in Bloemfontein within the first 15 minutes of its first public hearing at the Supreme Court of Appeal. The commission was set up to investigate their allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka may have been an apartheid spy. Its terms of reference were later broadened to investigate alleged abuse of office by Ngcuka and his political head, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna.

South Africa may be heading for a prolonged drought, which researchers warn could be among the most severe in decades.

About five million South Africans live in the 1066 informal settlements spread across the country. Answering a question in Parliament, Housing Minister Bridgitte Mabandla said 1,376,706 households reside in the settlements. The highest concentration of informal settlements was found in Gauteng which has 181 settlements containing 448,393 households.

The Chris Hani Institute (CHI) is looking for a Project Coordinator to be based at its Head Office in Johannesburg. The CHI is an independent NGO set up through a joint initiative of COSATU and the SACP. The CHI was launched on 15 April 2003 as part of the Chris Hani 10th Anniversary Commemorations.

On Monday 13 October well known Cape Town activist and leader of the Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign, Max Ntanyana, was kidnapped by unidentified police. Max was bundled into an unmarked car in Mandela Park, blindfolded and taken to an isolated beach. There, the police repeatedly dumped Max in and out and the water, threatening to drown him and telling him that they would only stop if he agreed to act as a police spy and pass on information about community activities in Mandela Park and elsewhere in Khayalitsha, according to this press statement.

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday returned the land and mineral rights currently owned by Alexkor, the state diamond company, to a community forcibly removed from the land in the 1920s. In a unanimous judgement, the Constitutional Court largely confirmed an order handed down earlier this year by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) that the Richtersveld community had been removed from their land under racist laws and practices, and were therefore entitled to have it, and the mineral rights, returned to their exclusive use and benefit. "These practices were racially discriminatory because they were based upon the faulty, albeit unexpressed, premise that because of the Richtersveld community's race and lack of civilisation, they had lost all rights in the land upon annexation," the SCA had said.

This budget brief from the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) assesses the extent to which the 2003 South African Budget addresses widespread child poverty and the delivery of children's socio-economic rights. The brief concludes that while Budget 2003 may have moved a small step in the 'right' direction, the national treasury, along with other government departments, could have done and should have done more for poor children.

The revised draft of the Children's Bill did not adequately address the huge impact the HIV/AIDS crisis was having on the social welfare system for children, civic society organisations said this week.

Deputy president Jacob Zuma may still be prosecuted on corruption charges if the French authorities agree to help the Scorpions obtain information from two French businessmen which might be crucial to the investigation.

This report includes a comprehensive review of existing research, both published and unpublished, on the old in South Africa. The reports looks at the extent of poverty, saying South Africa has one of the most rapidly ageing populations in Africa, with a particular increase in the 64-73 year age category, from 25.8% of the total population of older people in 1996 to 26.5% in 1999.