The Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) of South Africa is representing 71 people facing eviction from a temporary refugee shelter in Randfontein. The occupiers are all people displaced from their communities during the xenophobic attacks of May 2008. They were taken to the Reit Shelter and promised they would receive assistance to re-integrate into South African society or to resettle outside South Africa. The shelter failed to provide the assistance promised, despite being contractually obliged to do so. SERI is defending the occupiers against eviction and has brought a counter-application seeking an order compelling the shelter to comply with its contractual obligations.

South Africa is in the grip of a dangerous new drugs craze that could threaten the country's battle against AIDS. The street drug called 'whoonga' is a cocktail that includes the anti retroviral (ARV) medication prescribed to people with HIV. Demand for the substance has prompted a wave of thefts of AIDS drugs across the country, reports Sky News.

South Africa has announced that it will launch its own development aid agency in 2011 - the South African Development Partnership Agency. This move places South Africa ahead of other emerging donors such as India and China, who have yet to create separate agencies to dispense aid, reports Centre for Global Development.

The cholera bacterium has undergone important mutations in recent years, causing longer outbreaks of the disease with increased fatalities, researchers reported on Wednesday. In a package of papers published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, they said mass vaccinations should be considered as a solution even after outbreaks have begun.

The latest survey by the South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) has found that the African National Congress (ANC) has lost 38 wards in local government elections over the past four years. The study also found that between the previous local government elections in 2006, and up until August 2010, the ANC managed to hold 306 ward seats, gain 17, and lose 55. SAIRR researcher, Marius Roodt, predicted the ANC is likely to lose support in the upcoming local government elections.

Flooding in South Africa has killed more than 100 people, forced at least 8,400 from their homes and prompted the government to declare 33 disaster areas. With unusually heavy rainfall forecast until March, the UN has warned that almost every country in southern Africa is on alert for potentially disastrous flooding.

An explosive WikiLeaks cable claims that spy boss and President Jacob Zuma confidante Mo Shaik threatened to expose the 'political skeletons' of Zuma’s enemies and reveals that he was cultivated by the Americans as a key informant within the Zuma camp. The fresh revelations are likely to shake the Zuma administration as they involve one of the president’s key allies and the man tasked with running the country’s secret service.

The government wants to focus on job creation, not spend time debating whether it is worthwhile creating jobs that do not meet certain standards, says Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant. Her comments reinforce those last week of African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who said demanding that new jobs should be decent was 'putting the cart before the horse' - a departure from President Jacob Zuma’s promise in 2009 that the 'creation of decent work will be at the centre of our economic policies'.

There is a need to outline a programme of demands in the area of housing. Through struggle in the Western Cape some demands have come to the fore, and they might be considered to be elements of a programme in the area of housing. The discussion available through the link provided, from the Conference of the Democratic Left, held recently, may not even include all the demands that have been raised by different communities in the Western Cape, so should not in any way be regarded as definitive even of recent Western Cape experience.

The ecological and economic crisis of South Africa’s transnationalising capitalist economy is also reflected in increasing hunger, increasing food prices, unhealthy diets and polluting agro-processing food production. Advancing an Anti-Hunger and Food Sovereignty Campaign challenges this reality and politicises the food question in a more consistent way. Such a campaign has to be advanced bottom up, through a participatory democratic logic for democratic left politics. These campaign notes, presented at a Conference of the Democratic Left in South Africa, intend to promote such a process and emerge out of the Gauteng Democratic Left conference held in March 2010.

This paper, from the just-concluded Conference of the Democratic Left, presents a perspective and argument for organising the democratic left initiative as an anti-capitalist political front. It is anchored in the premise of maximising the unity of social and ideological forces against post-apartheid and global capitalism. To stimulate debate, discussion and resolution on the political form question for the democratic left initiative this document covers the following themes:
- A strategic approach to fronts;
- Learning lessons from the history of political fronts;
- The case for a United Democratic Left Front for South Africa;
- Key issues for a Democratic Left approach to building a political front through struggle.

It is time that the people take their destiny into their own hands, writes Mazibuko Jara. 'Can poor and working people, working with middle class people committed to social change, open the path to a new politics that can change this country? Can a modest national conference under an umbrella of democratic left politics offer any hope for the majority and those interested in social change in this country? This 1st National Conference of the Democratic Left, which will follow two weeks after the celebration of the ANC’s 99th anniversary in January 2011, is a milestone in a maturing long-term political process.'

Embattled former SABC CEO Solly Mokoetle received a settlement of R3.4-million following his resignation on Wednesday, says the SABC. 'Mr Mokoetle was paid an equivalent of his 12 months' salary which amounts to R3.4-million inclusive of leave and other entitlements as a full and final settlement,' SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said in a statement on Friday.

One of the many places in our society where the fracturing in who counts as a full member of our national public and who does not is immediately visible is Motala Heights near Durban. Motala Heights is nestled into a valley between the factories on the outskirts of Pinetown and a steep hill that leads up to the expensive suburb of Kloof. Some of the people in the valley are poor and live in tin houses that they have built on rented land and some are middle class or wealthy and live in large suburban homes. There is also a shack settlement at the foot of the hill that leads up to Kloof. On Friday last week a bulldozer shuddered up the hill adjacent to the shack settlement, went straight to the Shembe temple and obliterated it. There was no warning of what was about to happen, writes Richard Pithouse on The South African Civil Society Information Service.

South Africa’s recently-awarded tender for antiretroviral drugs halved drug costs for the world’s largest ARV programme. Driven by a better-prepared and more aggressive government, the deal may stand up to criticism better than initially thought. In a country with an estimated HIV prevalence rate of about 18 per cent, more than a million South Africans are currently on ARVs. South Africa will save an estimated 685 million dollars over the two-year life of the new tender.

‘The statement by Afrikaner author, Anneli Botes, that one group that she still does not like are “black people”, reveals a deeper malaise that continues to permeate the post-apartheid psyche among certain sectors of South African society,’ writes Tim Murithi.

Preparations for the popular Cape Town Pride, taking place from 24 February to 6 March 2011 are underway in the Mother City and organisers have promised a remarkable event that will highlight the beauty of diversity and indicate the event is not only about beautiful bodies and drag queens but about gay families, normal gay businessmen, the transgender community and the unheard voices of 'our sisters' in the townships who often face intimidation and corrective rape.

Building on his acclaimed book Limits to Change, Marais examines South Africa's most pressing issues – from the real reasons behind President Jacob Zuma's rise and the purging of his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, and how the African National Congress replenishes its power, to a devastating critique of the country's continuing AIDS crisis, its economic path and its approach to the rights and entitlements of citizens. South Africa Pushed to the Limit presents a riveting, benchmark analysis of the incomplete journey beyond apartheid.

Former president Thabo Mbeki's office has refused to say whether he helped draft a key policy document for the Congress of the People, insisting that the ousted head of state was still a member of the ANC. According to a US diplomatic report leaked to the WikiLeaks website, former ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama told University of South Africa professor Dirk Kotze in 2008 that Mbeki had helped to write a COPE policy draft. If this proved to be true, Mbeki could find himself in hot water with the ANC.

Following his address to the 99th ANC anniversary celebrations, The Right2Know campaign has written to President Jacob Zuma pointing out that he has 'failed to address a number of disturbing political developments that threaten the free flow of information in South Africa.'The Protection of Information Bill – the Secrecy Bill – currently before Parliament would cast a shroud of secrecy over the workings of the state. This Bill would impose harsh penalties, up to 25 years in prison, on whistleblowers, activists and journalists who expose information in the public interest. We welcome your reassurances that the ANC will continue to promote and fight for media freedom, yet this Bill would be disastrous for media freedom in South Africa.'