Gauteng’s budget for HIV and Aids was increased by 47,8% to R515,4-million for the coming financial year, provincial minister of health Brian Hlongwa said on Monday. ”This confirms our unwavering commitment to ensure that we bring this epidemic under control,” he said.
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The Congress of South African Trade Unions has charged that its alliance partner, the ruling African National Congress, is making contradictory statements on whether or not its deputy leader, Jacob Zuma, has been summoned to account for statements made during his recent rape trial.
More arrests in the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) hoax e-mail saga are expected, police said on Monday. Speaking outside the specialised Commercial Crime Court in Pretoria where Muziwendoda Kunene appeared on a charge of fraud relating to the e-mails, Captain Dennis Adriao said more arrests are expected.
The tripartite alliance in Gauteng has agreed that its members should not say things about each other ”that cannot the withstand the test of time”. Gauteng African National Congress secretary David Makhura was addressing a press conference on Monday following the alliance’s provincial ”summit”.
The Council of Education Ministers has approved measures to beef up security at public schools, and the department will identify ”problem schools” needing immediate attention, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor announced on Monday. These are aimed at schools around the country.
The first African country led by a democratically elected woman began recruiting women into its new post-war army on Monday. The new army will initially number 2 000 troops, and roughly 400 of them will be women, said Edith Bawn, spokesperson for the government body responsible for overseeing the creation of the armed forces.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says that desertification is exacerbating extreme poverty and sparking conflict over dwindling resources, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. ”Across the planet, poverty, unsustainable land management and climate change are turning dry lands into deserts,” Annan said in a message for World Environment Day.
In a women’s fourth-round match held over from Sunday, former world number one Martina Hingis beat Israel’s Shahar Peer 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. The 12th seeded Swiss will now face Belgian second seed Kim Clijsters for a place in the semifinals on Tuesday.
By 2015 about 20% of Zambia’s children will be orphaned by HIV/Aids, the Department of Foreign Affairs warned on Monday. Current official estimates indicate that over 1,1-million Zambian children are orphans, mostly as a result of Aids.
The pebble-bed modular reactor offers an efficient and economical method of providing power to South Africa’s coastal towns and cities, Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin said on Monday. He noted global warming had seen nuclear power re-emerge internationally as an attractive, alternative form of energy generation.