On March 25, three organisations representing the rights of women, particularly those affected by gender-based violence, applied to the high court to intervene urgently in the criminal trial of the State v Jacob Zuma. The three organisations applied to be admitted as amici curiae, or friends of the court.
Questions are multiplying as the police delay action against sacked spy boss Billy Masetlha — despite unequivocal findings by the inspector general of intelligence that Masetlha and others were involved in criminal activity around the hoax e-mail scandal.
Walt Disney could not have dreamed up a better plot: King Thabo of Mzansi is getting on in years and will have to abdicate soon. Viceroy Jacob, a man of great charm and greed, starts openly to preen himself for the throne — as, secretly, does Notary Kgalema. The king, who does not like to be reminded of his own mortality, decides to chop off the viceroy’s head.
Embattled Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will try to mend fences with the United States, but US politicians are fuming over the debacle with former Liberian president Charles Taylor. He disappeared just before he was due to be extradited to face trial for war crimes and then Nigeria recaptured him before their President was due to meet with President George W Bush.
I have found Jacob Zuma’s defence in his rape trial quite disturbing because, if true, it raises difficult questions regarding sexuality and HIV prevention. Who chooses to have condomless and unlubricated sex with a person who is known to be living with HIV? Someone already living with HIV, who should know the risks and dangers of reinfection?
Sitting at my desk on a Monday morning, I find I am at a loss. What can I write about, what helpful comments can I possibly offer to our engaging young democracy? Could I remark cynically on pedestrian issues like the news that billions of Brett Kebble’s ill-gotten gains are said to have been strewn around the upper echelons of the ANC?
Steel giant Mittal came under pressure from academia and the government recently in its continuing battle over steel prices. Mittal reacted with legal and tactical aggression in the case of the former and with a mild but expected sulk to the latter. The battle is with Harmony and Durban Roodepoort Deep, purporting to be acting on behalf of a large portion of the South African economy, at the Competition Tribunal.
As word trickled through of the capture of former president Charles Taylor, huddles of Liberians began to congregate around the nearest radio. For the first time in years, the Champions League football was switched off in favour of the news. ”This is a great day,” said Jerome Verdier, head of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Misoprostol. It’s not exactly a household name as far as drugs are concerned; however, it has the potential to improve — and even save — thousands of women’s lives in Kenya. This medication is one of a number of drugs that can be used to induce abortion, in a procedure that has come to be known as ”medical abortion”, or ”abortion by pill”.
Adoptions by same-sex couples are perfectly legal in South Africa — and heterosexual and homosexual couples undergo an identically rigorous screening and training process before they can adopt a child. The issue of same-sex households was thrown into lurid relief by the “lesbian murder case” splashed across the daily press recently.