The TAC is organising a conference at the end of 2008 to mark ten years since it’s establishment, both to celebrate its achievements and to encourage critical reflection on its past and future. Members, civil society partners and independent scholars are invited to attend and to present papers at the conference.

Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling party, has appeared in court for a second day to get corruption and fraud cases against him dropped. If the judge agrees, then Zuma can contest to become South Africa's president. If not, he may go on trial later this year.

To the poor of the world, to all people of good will who work for progressive change... We, the landless and homeless people and associated activists of South Africa, decry the secret campaign by the so-called Workers' Party (PT) government of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul to criminalise, outlaw and otherwise illegitimately harass our landless comrades of the MST.

This weekend the eight people that burnt to death in two shack fires in Cato Crest will be buried. This weekend we will continue to rebuild the Kennedy Road settlement after two fires in two weeks. We do not accept that the poor must burn in shack fires. This is not God’s will. We cannot be silent while facing these fires. If we were silent we would have no right to exist.

The crisis of social exclusion in South Africa's cities is a key factor in the ferment in grassroots political society, argues Richard Pithouse. It has been central to much popular protest in recent years, to the emergence of well organised grassroots movements to the left of the ANC and, also, the catastrophic pogroms in May.

Gugulethu backyard dwellers who tried to occupy unfinished flats in Langa at the weekend, on Sunday told of the “horror” they experienced when people armed with knobkieries and bricks launched a violent attack on them. Saturday’s occupation, led by the Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC,) was meant to be peaceful and to protest against the long wait for housing, but a number of its supporters have told how the vicious attack left them with bruised limbs, fractured ribs and head injuries.

South Africa's highest court on Thursday ruled against African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma in his attempt to stop seized evidence being used against him in a corruption trial. Nine of the 10 judges of the Constitutional Court said warrants used in raids on Zuma and his lawyer were valid and the state could use seized documents in its prosecution of Zuma, the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki next year.

The telecommunications sector is becoming a new gold rush where large white-owned companies pocket the wealth and leave nothing for the masses, says the chairman of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa). The lowest rungs of society would be alienated if the regulator did not actively demand a greater role for black people in the industry, said chairman Paris Mashile. That is why Icasa would insist new licences for scarce spectrum went to companies that were 51% black-owned.

South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world with an estimated 5,7-million people living with HIV in 2007. This is according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS’ (UNAIDS) 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic released yesterday (SUBS: TUES), which reports that almost 33-million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS worldwide with 25-million people having died of HIV-related causes since the beginning of the epidemic.

South African judge Navanethem Pillay has been nominated as the new UN high commissioner for human rights. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has informed the General Assembly of his choice for the nomination. The General Assembly will now be asked to approve the choice of Ms Pillay, who is currently an appeals judge at the International Criminal Court.

All outstanding land claims in the country will be settled by 2011, says South Africa's Acting Chief Land Claims Commissioner Blessing Mphela. Addressing a quarterly media briefing in Limpopo on Wednesday about the progress made so far in land restitution, he said that since the commission on restitution of land rights was established in 1994, a total of 74 808 out of 79 696 claims have been settled.

New hope for the jobless in Philippi, Cape Town. has come with the launch of a computer hub which will allow people to register for work, create CVs and get information about job opportunities and skills development. The Umsebenzi Job Opportunities Information hub, which was launched on Tuesday by Western Cape Transport and Public Works MEC Marius Fransman, is situated at Philippi's Tsoga Centre.

Cinema in all its diversity will once again be celebrated at the 29th Durban International Film Festival which runs from 23 July to 3 August. Featuring more than 200 films from more than 95 countries, spread over more than 300 screenings at 26 venues across the city, the festival will bring together established masters of cinema and innovative new talents from around the world.

Cape Town researchers have announced plans to launch a pre-exposure prophylaxis (Prep) HIV prevention trial among men in the city. Prep is a therapy taken to prevent, rather than to treat, an infection or illness, and it is one strategy being studied by the University of Cape Town’s Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, as part of its effort to develop new HIV prevention tools.

Potato farmers forming part of the Western Free State Seed Growers (Pty) Ltd, in Christiana have identified farm workers skills development as a key requirement for agricultural economic growth in South Africa. The farmers in partnership with government’s AgriSETA and a private owned company, Media Works have embarked on an Adult Basic Education and Training (Abet) meant to provide adult basic education and training to permanently employed farm workers in different national languages as well as numeracy skills.

South Africa’s award-winning multilingual software developer, Translate.org.za, has been awarded a grant by the Mozilla Corporation to extend its translation tools. The US-based Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, co-ordinates the development of popular Internet software projects such as the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client.

The Joint Working Group (JWG) a network representing 24 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) organizations throughout South Africa was outraged by a column that appeared in the Sunday Sun on 20 July 2008 (Call me names, but gay is not ok) that is filled with hate speech against lesbian and gay people.

The former South African President and anti-apartheid icon on Friday celebrated 90th birthday at his rural home in the Eastern Cape province. Nelson Mandela, whose birthday celebrations took a national colour, used the event to express concern about the growing gap between rich and poor in South Africa.

The authorities of the South African province Gauteng expect the camps for displaced refugees affected by xenophobic violence to be empty by next month, but no one seems to know what will happen to the people afterwards.

Special measures may have to be taken to reduce growing inequality in South Africa, despite the fact that the standards of living of all South Africans have risen over the past few years. According to Head of the Policy Coordination and Advisory Services unit in the Presidency Joel Netshitenzhe, poverty has been reduced in overall terms, especially since the turn of the century.