The asbestosis case against the British mining company, Cape PLC, may have been won but the battle against asbestos pollution carries on. There are huge asbestos mine dumps around the country, with 82 in the Northern Cape alone.

The South African Medical Association, which represents 17,000 doctors, two-thirds of whom work in the public sector, has announced its support for physicians who prescribe post-exposure prophylaxis antiretroviral treatment for rape survivors, despite the national government's policy against such treatment, the South African Press Association reports.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development provides South Africans with a unique opportunity to work for poverty eradication on a world scale in the context of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development. The main constituencies of civil society have a key role to play in achieving this objective. Moreover, our people can use this opportunity to learn about international debates on sustainable development, to network with counterparts from around the world, and to engage in action around sustainable development in South Africa itself. In this context, we need to ensure a coherent, financially sound and fully representative structure to represent South African civil society at the WSSD.

The Strategic Defence Procurement Package, better known as the arms deal, has angered the South African public. Common sense indicates that in the middle of a health crisis such as HIV/Aids which requires massive public investment, spending large amounts of money on military hardware is gravely inappropriate. Media attention on the arms deal has been primarily focused on Cabinet's lack of accountability to parliament, and the corruption in the procurement process. These are crucial issues that deserve close media scrutiny. Furthermore, without the incentives for graft that exist in the arms industry, it seems unlikely that the deal would have taken place, so an analysis of the arms deal that does not consider corruption would be incomplete. However, it is arguably the misplaced priority given to arms spending that is at the core of public dissatisfaction with the deal. If no evidence of corruption had arisen, and Cabinet had received unequivocal approval from parliament for the deal, it is likely that civil society organisations would still have reacted with indignation.

Mercifully, South Africa has experienced a reasonably peaceful transition into the democratic “rainbow nation”. Yet the soldier with his gun, and the ubiquitous R4 rifle remain the constant, if not the only, signifiers of symbols of power that thread through and remain respected during both apartheid and the era that has come after it. The omnipresent Casspir with its male occupants, rifles at the ready, driving through township streets today, makes one question the extent to which the physical and social spaces of South African townships have been demilitarized.

The South African Parliament is poised to establish an online communications platform, accessible from anywhere in the world, serving both parliamentarians and the public. The Internet-based portal is designed to serve as an entrance point to Parliament, enabling visitors to the site to consult policy, listen to speeches and gain an insight into the legislation process. Eventually members of the public may be able to "virtually attend" parliamentary sessions, debates and hearings as they happen - or have them played back after the event.

SANGONeT, in association with LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand, is offering a certificate course designed to promote computer literacy.

A top government official has barred doctors from giving anti-retrovirals - even to raped infants. As South Africa was reeling at the news of an alleged gang-rape and sodomising of a nine-month-old baby in Upington last November, the Northern Cape MEC for health was blasting a Kimberley hospital for giving the infant anti-retroviral medication.

This web site will provide you with information about the campaign Earthlife Africa is waging to halt the installation of Pebble Bed Molecular Reactors (nuclear reactor plants) in South Africa. Take a look.

Gone are the days when learners sat in desks facing frontward in homage to
the all-mighty teacher who stood with chalk in hand and had control over the
classroom. New ideas in school architecture in South Africa reflect changes
in educational philosophy.

In an historic land claim case, the Regional Land Claims Commission in South Africa has returned nearly 700 hectares of prime land to the Getrudsburg community. The residents were forcibly removed from their community nearly 40 years ago.

Children are the victims of a shocking 41% of all rapes and attempted rapes reported in South Africa. But only 9% of child rape cases result in a conviction. According to the South African Police Service (SAPS), over 15% of rapes are committed against children under the age of 11. A further 26% of all reported rapes are committed against children between the ages of 12 and 17.

The Bambisanani Project involves development and implementation of home-based care systems in an area of the Eastern Cape strongly affected by high levels of migrancy-related HIV/AIDS prevalence. The study was conducted in primary (ave. age 13) and high schools (ave. age 18), with the addition of a household survey (ave. age 40) in each of 3 areas. It reports on community responses in terms of a wide range of indicators, and outlines the problems of developing an integrated response to HIV/AIDS in deep rural areas. Recommendations for project implementation, and for monitoring and evaluation are presented in the report.

Gender Links, a Johannesburg-based NGO specialising in gender and the media in Southern Africa, is seeking a suitably qualified programme officer for an initial one year contract.

The Catholic Institute of Education is looking for a fieldworker for KwaZulu-Natal who will be responsible for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the CIE's HIV/AIDS prevention programme in Catholic primary schools.

Denial is always dangerous. But in South Africa, it has proven deadly. Some 4.7 million people there are HIV-positive. That is the highest number living with the prospect of AIDS, or with the disease itself, of any nation in a world where 40 million people are infected.

President Thabo Mbeki used his New Year's message to call on South Africans to stop a wave of rapes of babies and children.

For thousands of years it was a place of spiritual upliftment where shamans entered trances and etched their visions in stone. Today, the newly opened Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Site is being used to boost the economy of an uprooted community in South Africa's impoverished Northern Cape province. Located about 10 miles from the diamond-mining town of Kimberley, it is one of the few rock art sites to be opened to the public in South Africa, which boasts some of the finest stone engravings and paintings in the world.