This volume explores some of the key features of popular politics and resistance before and after 1994. It looks at continuities and changes in the forms of struggle and ideologies involved, as well as the significance of post-apartheid grassroots politics. Is this a new form of politics or does it stand as a direct descendent of the insurrectionary impulses of the late apartheid era?

Nigerian former militant leader Henry Okah will be kept apart from other prisoners at a Johannesburg prison until his bail application is heard next week, his attorney said on Tuesday. 'By agreement between us and the state Mr Okah will be held in a single cell at the Johannesburg Correctional Centre,' his attorney Rudi Krause told Sapa.

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele has refused to supply a report on 'information peddling' - despite the information being revealed in an open parliamentary committee meeting with media present. His refusal is seen as a foretaste of a new era of state secrecy, following Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s refusal to release President Jacob Zuma’s flight details.

Contrary to the controversy it has engendered, the Nile river agreement should allow for more equitable water use and minimize potential conflicts between the riparian states, says an analyst. 'The problem with the River Nile is lack of cooperation in water management,' Debay Tadesse, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Addis Ababa, said. 'There is enough [water] for all the riparian states and this agreement opens the way for more equitable management.' The 14 May Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework was signed by Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, but was left open for a year. It followed a meeting of water ministers in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda agreed to it.

With a plenary session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) of the United Nations starting in Rome, La Via Campesina, the international peasant movement, has reiterated that sustainable peasant and family farm agriculture can feed the world. 'With the number of hungry people in the world at almost one billion, it is clear that the current food system blatantly fails in providing healthy and adequate food for all. The recent increase in land grabbing is an integral part of the dominant corporate agribusiness model with large-scale industrial monocultures. This system has caused climate change and allows speculation on food for the benefit of a small minority.'

Aid organisations say a small handheld computer will allow them to more rapidly assess where food aid is needed most urgently. As a result, fewer Burundians will suffer hunger this year.

The 2010 Ibrahim Index, released this week, shows recent gains in many countries in human and economic development but declines in political rights, personal safety and the rule of law. The Ibrahim Index, launched in four cities across the continent, is published by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an organisation committed to supporting good governance and great leadership in Africa. The Index assesses the delivery of public goods and services to citizens by governments and non-state actors across 88 indicators.

'During the last week of October we want everything to stand still in Cape Town, and possibly through out the country. And we are calling upon all people who are living in informal settlements to support the call by taking to the streets and making sure that everything goes to a standstill.'

Around the world, more than 200 million women lack access to basic contraception. Often, these women must travel far from their communities to reach a health facility, only to return home empty handed due to shortages and stock-outs. Family planning is an effective strategy to reduce maternal mortality. The film available through the link provided shows that ongoing challenges in obtaining reproductive health supplies can have devastating consequences for family size, abortion, spacing and delaying pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other STIs.

An important new report from Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID), 'A nice judge on a good day: immigration bail and the right to liberty', reveals the systemic failures within the UK legal system which consigns detainees to oblivion for months or years, reports this article on the website of the Institute of Race Relations.

A new report by Oil Change International dispels the myth that World Bank support for coal and oil projects increases access to energy for the world’s poorest. This finding stands in contrast to government, Bank, and industry claims that ongoing taxpayer support for these large coal and oil projects is necessary to alleviate energy poverty.

The United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) has announced US$10 million in grants to 13 initiatives in 18 countries. The grants complete the UN Trust Fund’s 14th grant - making cycle of 2009, delivering a total of US$20.5 million for 26 projects in 33 countries and territories.

The Centre for Internet and Society and Hivos, in collaboration with The African Commons Project, is calling out to young technology users to join a global conversation. This will be a 3-day workshop entitled 'My bubble, My space, My Voice’? and will focus on how young people use the tools and platforms at their disposal; mobile, internet and other, in order to create social change in their environments. The workshop will involve participants from around Africa, who will be guided by facilitators in an interactive and engaging dialogue. Results from the workshop will be used to establish a network of collaboration and support for digital natives.

More than 1,000 teachers have been sacked in Kenya for sexually abusing girls over the past two years, the authorities say. Senior government official Ahmed Hussein told the BBC that most of the victims were aged between 12 and 15. He said a nationwide confidential helpline set up to help victims had revealed that the problem was much more widespread than previously thought.

The 11.7 billion dollars pledged Tuesday to replenish the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for the coming three years falls significantly short of the 20 billion dollars hoped for, threatening to undo the progress made in the fight against these diseases - the three largest infectious killers in the world.

The European Union has signed a voluntary partnership agreement with Cameroon, the largest African exporter of timber products to the EU. By July 2012, all shipments of wood products from Cameroon to the EU will be required to carry a license showing that they contain timber and wood products from a legal origin. This agreement expresses a strong joint commitment to eradicate illegal logging.

A team of technical experts has been instructed to draft terms of reference acceptable to all five member states of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), local media reported on Wednesday. South African President Jacob Zuma said this was being done in order to resolve the contentious issue of an economic partnership agreement with the European Union. Zuma was speaking on Tuesday at Pretoria's Union Buildings, where he hosted Botswana's President Ian Khama on a two-day official visit.

If you are an African journalist or aspirant journalist under 30 and would relish the chance to study on the continent’s premier Journalism Programme and then join the Reuters news team for 6 months work experience, read on. With the FitzGerald Prize, Thomson Reuters is offering a scholarship to do a post graduate BA hons degree at the University of The Witwatersrand ’s Journalism Programme in Johannesburg followed by a stint in a newsroom in Africa.

If there is one group that faces special challenges in Southern Sudan, it is women. Principal among them is gender-based violence, which is under-reported and spreading given the long history of conflict, certain traditional practices and weak judicial systems, say specialists. Concerns include inadequate data, lack of security, transport and education.

The Bank Information Centre (BIC) has made available a new toolkit for civil society on how to access information at the World Bank. The resource is available for download as a .PDF from BIC's website.