Occupy New York's Wall Street. Occupy Cape Town's Company Gardens. Occupy mailboxes of senators and congressmen. Occupy your mind...The millions of unemployed around the world can, finally, find an occupation these days, it seems, as momentum from the camped protest at New York's Zuccotti Park near Wall Street continues to spread to other cities in the United States and beyond American borders to Australia, the Czech Republic and South Africa. In South Africa, an academic in Durban, who chose to remain anonymous, said: 'The protest here is being organised totally arse-backwards.' The Facebook campaign, the Occupy Durban City Hall page, has 126 people confirmed to attend the protest. It was being run 'by white kids who are not ­usually plugged into social activism or to activist networks. I think it will be a massive fizzle-out, but I'm still going.'

The Occupy Grahamstown demonstration on 15 October ‘shows that radical students and the poor can form a political alliance based upon equality and solidarity,’ writes Ben Fogel from Rhodes University.

The South African government will enact an emissions cap and new energy industry regulations in an effort to spur development of alternative, clean and renewable energy and mitigate climate change. The new regulations will penalize heavy polluters that don’t comply with greenhouse gas emission limits with fines.

Sub-Saharan Africa's economy is expected to grow by 5.25 per cent in 2011, but if global growth slows, South Africa will be particularly hard hit, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday. The IMF predicted that the region's economy would grow 5.75 per cent in 2012. South Africa, a middle-income country with slower growth compared to the regional average, had yet to see its output and employment return to pre-crisis levels.

Nigel Gibson’s book is a ‘refreshing and imaginative reading of Frantz Fanon’s groundbreaking thoughts regarding the theory and practice of revolutionary transformation,’ writes Percy Mabandu.

Following threats against S’bu Zikode, leader of South African shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, by the chair of a municipal housing committee, the group has called on democrats across the country to support Zikode and other activists ‘facing imtimidation and repression’.

Johannesburg, South Africa, is home to more than 450,000 forced migrants, including 51,300 legally recognized refugees, 417,700 asylum seekers and others in refugee-like circumstances, says this report from the Women's Refugee Commission. 'A combination of high immigration and high unemployment means many forced migrants face xenophobia daily, resulting in discrimination, exploitation and abuse, often at the hands of the police and government. Women are particularly at risk of sexual harassment and violence every time they sell goods on the street or in flea markets, go to work or take public transportation. Denied access to proper employment, informal outdoor selling is the main occupation of urban forced migrants.'

The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) has observed that refuse collection in informal settlements is often irregular and of very poor quality. Refuse is often left rotting for days or weeks, contributing to the spread of disease. All refuse collection for informal settlements in the City of Cape Town is outsourced to private contractors, which in our view limits accountability and recourse. In addition, the provision and maintenance of sanitation services, which are also outsourced, are either non-existent or of a poor quality. Since 19 September 2011, Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) (a partner organisation of the SJC) has requested the Supply Chain Management (SCM) office in the City of Cape Town to provide the public with access to the Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) that govern the provision and maintenance of sanitation services, as well as the provision of community-based refused collection services, in informal settlements. Despite sending several emails and letters, making several phone calls, and threatening legal action, we are yet to see the SDAs which by law should in any event be immediately available to the public.

President Jacob Zuma needs more time to decide if any remedial action will be taken against Minister of Cooperative and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka and national police commissioner General Bheki Cele. On Monday, Zuma's spokesperson Mac Maharaj told the Mail & Guardian the president is still 'applying his mind' on the two matters, despite them first having come to his attention several months ago. Shiceka and Cele find themselves in hot water after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela delivered two separate, damning findings into the duo's actions while undertaking official duties.

South Africa’s National Climate Change Response Policy, which was approved by Cabinet this week, would help the country map out a socioeconomic transition to a climate-resilient and low-carbon economy and society, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa said on Friday. The policy would seek to balance the objectives of job creation, economic growth, environmental sustainability and reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The Eugene Terre'Blanche murder trial was expected to enter its second week in the high court sitting in Ventersdorp on Monday. Last week, seven witnesses took the stand. Five of them testified that the two farmworkers accused of killing the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader had confessed to the crime. Terre'Blanche's former employees, Chris Mahlangu and a minor, are accused of beating and hacking him to death in his North West farmhouse on 3 April last year.

The United States's incarceration of the 'Cuban Five' proves that it has no respect for humanity and justice, the ANC Youth League said. In a statement supporting the release of the Cuban Five, the league criticised the US government for its approach to international politics. 'In the spirit of international and human solidarity, the ANC Youth League is of the conviction that the incarceration of the Cuban Five by the United States government is not only unjust, but a gross violation of human rights and disrespect of the integrity and sovereignty of Cuba.'

Despite years of trying to obtain legal documents of his citizenship and residency status, Jabulani Sibanda remains undocumented. Without them, he is resigned to living quietly and unobtrusively under the radar of officialdom. 'I always find myself back at square one,' he said, shrugging at the repeated obstacles he faces. 'I know no other life but one of being sent from pillar to post, begging and ingratiating myself into and out of situations. It is my life.' Sibanda's problems started when he was seven, when he and his mother crossed illegally from Zimbabwe into South Africa.

The training of more doctors, the refurbishment of nursing colleges, the appointment of retired nurses and specialists and the building of more hospitals and medical faculties are some of the plans presented by health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi and the launch of the Human Resource for Health Strategy. 'A number of studies and our own assessment attest to significant gaps in the planning, production and deployment of human resources for health. Further evidence indicates that the training and production of certain key health worker categories has stagnated or reversed over the years. The weak management skills in the public service aggravate the situation even further,' he said.

The HIV and AIDS discussion needs to become inclusive of citizens so that their needs can be reflected in policy design at every level of government, says this report. When citizens become active in facing up to problems such as HIV with policy makers and planners, they develop capacity and confidence to take ownership and responsibility for common concerns in public life.

A statement authored by Ruth Hall and Andries du Toit from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) has described a proposal by the Democratic Alliance on tenure rights for poor people in former Bantustans as 'entirely unrealistic and probably almost impossible to implement'. 'The proposals they put forth are misguided, outmoded, and based on a mistaken analysis of the problem. They are likely to make matters worse, not better.'

After years of living in fear of showing her ID or driving licence to anyone, a transgender Durban woman can now proudly display her documents without being embarrassed or harassed. Her physical journey to womanhood started two years ago when she began hormone treatment and since then she has developed breasts, her facial hair has diminished and her weight has gone down by almost 30kg because the increase in oestrogen has led to a decrease in muscle mass. The task of changing her gender officially was much more difficult. Home Affairs said that since she had not undergone any gender reassignment surgery, her journey to womanhood was incomplete and her details could not be changed.

The Dalai Lama has accused China's rulers of creating a climate of fear, lies and censorship. 'In reality, for the communist totalitarian system and for many totalitarian systems, hypocrisy and telling lies has unfortunately become part of their lives,' he said in a conversation with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu via video link-up to Cape Town. The Dalai Lama was meant to travel to Cape Town from India for Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations at the weekend but cancelled his trip after South Africa failed to give him a visa in time.

Four people were found guilty of the murder of lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana in a judgment handed down in the Khayelitsha Magistrate's Court on Friday, SAFM reported. Magistrate Raadiya Whaten said the testimony of two witnesses led to the conclusion that Lubabalo Ntlabathi, Sicelo Mase, Luyanda Londzi and Mbulelo Damba took part in the stoning and stabbing of Nkonyana in 2006 when she was 19. Some civil society groups believe Nkonyana was murdered because of her sexuality.

Three former Anglo American workers who were left destitute and devastated by lung disease acquired in their line of work have expressed their desire for justice, reports The New Age Online. Wilson Mafulwane, Daniel Thakamakau and Alpheos Blom form part of hundreds of former Anglo American workers who are squaring up against the global mining giant in a court battle domiciled in Johannesburg and London. Their course closely resembles the Cape PLC case where 7,500 South African asbestos miners successfully sued for more than £21m (about R268m) in a London court.