If the poverty of so many children is to be alleviated, it demands that the Departments of Social Development and Home Affairs produce an emergency plan. At present, less than 30% of eligible children (under six years) are registered. This is a massive failure of a very limited but crucial public policy. It is also beset by the problem that the child grant managed within a poor family will not be available just for the child and so its vital public policy ends may not be met.

A green pock-faced monster with red eyes and fangs is depicted as the HIV virus in a new children's book that seeks to explain the science of AIDS to South African children.

Dual method use is featured in South Africa's new reproductive health policies as an important means of family planning as well as of prevention of infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). However, little is known about current levels and predictors of dual method use in South Africa or about interventions that might promote dual protection.

How can farmers improve their soil fertility management strategies? Does extension work aid this process and help address problems faced by smallholders? Are alternative approaches providing effective advisory services to resource-poor farmers with a focus on inclusion and willing participation needed?

South African President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday criticized officials in charge of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for approving a $60 million grant to KwaZulu-Natal province that had not received clearance from the central government, as stipulated in the fund's rules.

African National Congress (ANC) president Thabo Mbeki has come out against the concept of treating "avarice as legitimate sin".

Former African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Tony Yengeni asked Michael Woerfel to get him a luxury car at a 50 percent discount, the businessman said last Friday.

Three white police officers have been kicked off a course at the Paarl Detective Academy in the Western Cape after being blamed for putting six black colleagues in hospital by allegedly feeding them horse laxatives. Assault charges have been laid against the three Johannesburg-based police officers, who were sent back to their unit last Friday as allegations emerged of racial conflict at the course.

Cosatu came to the SA Communist Party's 11th Congress in a fighting mood on Wednesday, while the African National Congress sought to subdue tensions in the tripartite alliance.

A British animal charity is using a R20million bequest to install feng shui gardens for cats, designed to make them more relaxed and more appealing to new owners.

Aid started streaming in for the snow-hit Eastern Cape areas of Elliot and Cala on Monday. Queenstown's Woolworth’s contributed R110 000 in blankets and food on Monday. Weirs Cash & Carry donated maize meal, bread flour, cooking oil, sugar, tea, coffee, samp, soup, tinned meats and fish and baby food, valued at R100 000, and blankets, valued at R10 000, were delivered free of charge to the Queenstown commando.

The Eastern Cape province of South Africa is set to benefit from projects worth more than R3billion due before the end of the year.

Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Ben Ngubane has allocated R1 million for the Umzimkhulu Moral Regeneration project from the minister's discretionary fund.

Projects dealing with moral regeneration and HIV/Aids are among the main beneficiaries of the ministerial discretionary fund of the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The fund amounts to R5 million for the 2002/3 financial year.

The German government has committed R550 million to South Africa as part of its development co-operation with the country.

All South Africans should look at children with intellectual disabilities in a different light, former president Nelson Mandela said last Saturday. "We need a more accepting, supportive and caring society to remove the shame, stigma and fear of those who find themselves with mental disabilities in their families," he said at the newly renamed Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane.

The fraud and corruption trial of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni and businessman Michael Woerfel is to get underway after the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday declined to intervene. Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe turned down an application by the pair to review the Commercial Crimes Court's dismissal of their objections to the charge sheet.

Cosatu said on Monday it planned a two-day national strike in October to protest against the government's privatisation plans. "The July Exco (executive committee of Cosatu has) decided to lift the suspension and continue with its programme of mass mobilisation," the Congress of South African Trade Unions said in a statement.

The South African National Civic Organisation was thrown into chaos this week when key members of its national executive committee resigned amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement of funds.

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has criticised the Global Fund for Aids for allocating large amounts of money to the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa while ignoring the dire need of other countries in the region.