Nawaal Deane

The Office of the Rights of the Child in the Presidency is three years late in submitting a progress report on children’s rights to the United Nations — tainting South Africa’s image as a human rights champion. Child rights activists have slammed the office for failing to submit the report, which was due in 2002 as part of South Africa’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Nawaal Deane spoke to Strini Pillai, of popular South African soapie, Generations, about life before fame Did you know that you wanted to be an actor when you were in school? I was an all rounder, always involved in singing, dancing and acting from primary school level. Academically I was a good student and achieved […]

Victor Vermeulen was 19 with an exceptional future as a world class cricketer when he jumped into a swimming pool and broke his neck. Eight years later he has become one of South Africa’s leading motivational speakers Nawaal Deane spoke to him about his school days. What was most memorable days at school? I loved […]

Collecting school fees is a nightmare for some but not for the principal of Troyeville Primary, writes Nawaal Deane Rosemary Schulze, principal of Troyeville Primary in Johannesburg, has introduced a system through which parents can work at the school in lieu of school fees. Parents performing odd jobs are paid R50 per day. “Both the […]

This is the first in a series of fact-filled health columns that will touch on many issues affecting the health of students. Our living organism operates on four levels: the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical. At school it is essential to ensure that all these levels are balanced because a deficit in one affects all […]

The first time I lit a cigarette and dragged the smoke into my lungs I was a 13-year-old schoolgirl with an idea that I must try something forbidden. Thirteen years later I was still smoking. I always knew that smoking can cause lung cancer but I felt immortal and thought: ‘Oh well, 50 is a […]

Statistics say that 26 000 children are physically and sexually abused every month. According to the South African National Council for Child Welfare (SANCCW), 60% of abuse cases take place within the child’s family and community. It’s time to become activists on behalf of children. As teachers, you are in a position to contribute to […]

World Tuberculosis (TB) Day on March 24 once again puts the focus on this widespread disease. In recent years TB has been forgotten, often overshadowed by the HIV/Aids epidemic. Yet there is a strong connection between the two: HIV/Aids has dramatically increased TB infections in South Africa. South Africa is ninth on the list of […]

The Medicines Council Control (MCC) has defended itself against charges that it is failing to crack down on the Dr Rath Health Foundation’s anti-Aids drug campaign, saying it does not want to further polarise the debate on Aids treatment and confuse patients. The council is investigating the foundation’s claims.

There is a phenomenon taking hold of Dutch schools that hearkens back to the bad old days of apartheid South Africa. Although it is not legally stipulated, there is a distinct trend of native white Dutch students steering clear of schools dominated by students with their origins in countries like Suriname, Morocco, Turkey or Somalia. […]

‘Kyle didn’t stand a chance,” says Estelle Kunneke. Her 16-year-old son ran away from Ethokomala, a reform school in Kinross, Mpumalanga, on February 3. He has not been heard from since. More than a tale of one youngster’s mistakes, this is also a story of how he has been failed by all those tasked to […]

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>The Treasury should not be congratulated on its R48-billion allocation to health because the R8-billion increase has not kept up with inflation or with the increase in health practitioners’ salaries, say health analysts. "You can have beautiful clinics, but if there is no one [motivated] to work in them, what is the point?"

The SABC’s independence will be tested by a TV documentary directed by Aids activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Zackie Achmat, which is highly critical of the government. The documentary, entitled <i>Law and Freedom</i>, is scheduled to be aired in two parts over the next two weeks on SABC 1, starting next Monday.

When race war finally breaks out in South Africa it will be about … wait for it … parking. It is parking that lies at the heart of one of Cape Town’s first equality court cases, in which a coloured family (they describe themselves as "so-called coloureds") are suing their white neighbours for R170 000 in damages.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/142915/aids_icon.gif" align=left>Zibango Hlabe sits watching his family building their new home. He is too weak to help. He has come back to his family in Nqabeni village, near Port Shepstone, after contracting HIV on the mines and growing too ill to work. The impact of his death will psychologically, emotionally and financially affect the lives of his nine children, and brand them as "Aids orphans".

Staff members of the cash-squeezed daily newspaper <i>ThisDay</i> are scrabbling for jobs after media reports that closure is imminent. Journalists speaking to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> this week revealed a deep sense of commitment to the paper but anxiety for their future if a local partner is not found.

"We have been going to universities to tell them ‘you must understand that 2 500 pharmacists service seven million South Africans’." The <i>M&G</i> spoke to Dr Anban Pillay, the Department of Health’s director for pharmaceutical economic evaluation, about implications of the new pricing regulations for consumers.

"My husband has an incredible passion for saving lives. The media speculation does not fit the person he is," says Saffiya Ganchi, the wife of Feroz Abubaker Ganchi, the doctor held in Pakistan for alleged links with al-Qaeda. In the modest flat in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, Ganchi stares at the glass table with its scattering of daily newspapers their glaring headlines warning that "Al-Qaeda targets SA".
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119924">SA Muslims too mellow for al-Qaeda</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119907">’No stone unturned’ in terror case</a>

"Flying toilets" are a new phenomenon in Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum, where women and girls are forced to use desperate measures to overcome inadequate sanitation. "We keep our business [faeces] for the evenings. In the dark we wrap it in plastic bags and throw it as far away as possible. These are our flying toilets and our neighbours do the same." How much progress has the world made since all the fanfare of the World Summit in 2002?

A KwaZulu-Natal primary school that draws its learners from poverty-stricken households is taking the government to court for refusing to grant it access to the national school feeding scheme because the area is not considered "disadvantaged". The majority of the learners at Clareville Primary School come from informal settlements where unemployment is high.

Naledi Xhosa won an out-of-court settlement this week when she sued her former employer for unfair dismissal after Xhosa tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis B. Xhosa was immediately dismissed on the grounds that she posed a health risk to the employer’s infant and family. The court case shows how HIV/Aids challenges
the relationship between domestic workers and their employers.

Pity the African National Congress activist who goes to the door of Epainette Mbeki — deep in the rural Eastern Cape — looking for an easy vote for the organisation. Despite being the mother of the president and a successful local businesswoman, she chooses to live in an area with no running water, no toilets, dirt roads and no nearby hospital.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The outcome of the election in most provinces may be a foregone conclusion. But in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape — where opinion polls show that there might be no clear winner — parties are playing their cards carefully, in case they have to cut a deal with the opposition to hang on to power.

In an exclusive interview, Dr Peter Piot, executive director of the United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids, talks about the allegations that HIV/Aids statistics are inflated. "Our estimates are based on real-life studies, and the methodology is straightforward," he says.

"Healthy brothels" — that’s the result of a service that takes health care to sex workers in Johannesburg. The Reproductive Health Research Unit (RHRU), a privately-funded organisation attached to Wits University, has set up mobile clinics in hotels used by sex workers.

Public health care has been chronically underfunded for the past five years and gross provincial disparities in spending persist, a government report now confirms. As a result, the Treasury’s claims that health budgets have increased significantly in the same period are under renewed fire.

A big black hand gently directs a needle with yellow cotton from a sewing machine into blue fabric to create an embroidered picture of a rural village. It will take an hour for this 29-year-old Ghanaian to complete the design on this skirt, which he hopes will be worn by a young South African woman. He is one of about 50 West African designers in the Jo’burg’s inner city’s fashion district.