Nawaal Deane

Leading psychologists are enraged at the appointment of Saths Cooper, formerly the controversial vice-chancellor of the University of Durban-Westville (UDW), to the newly formed board of the psychologists’ council. This took place despite Cooper’s failure to be democratically elected, they say.

"The brief is tough, tougher than I expected. To write about the next generation — the youth of today, the people of tomorrow — is to write about a world of different, very different, worlds. I start on the lush lawns of Innesfree Park in Sandton on a Sunday afternoon." Nawaal Deane investigates the state of the youth today and tomorrow.

A battered woman who kills her husband while he is sleeping is entitled to argue self-defence — but South Africa’s legal system finds it difficult to accept such an argument. Lawyers defending such women do not use it.

Behind the evictions of hundreds of people in Johannesburg’s inner city — and a protest march last week — lies evidence of fraud, theft and mismanagement, as revealed by a forensic audit commissioned by the Gauteng Department of Housing. The audit, now two years old but kept hidden until it was leaked to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> this week, looks into the Seven Buildings Company.

<b>Special Award for Innovation</b> — The DaimlerChrysler HIV/Aids Programme and its Advocacy
A successful HIV/Aids programme in the workplace provides more than just anti-retroviral treatment. It also ensures that employees who have been retrenched have access to treatment.

Few matriculants leave school armed with the certainty that for the next six years they are ready to commit to studying medicine. Becoming a doctor is a life-changing decision and not all 17-year olds have the confidence to make this choice.

Joyce Sibiya (50) rests on one of the eight beds in the pristine ward at Ethembeni Care Centre near Richard’s Bay in KwaZulu-Natal. It is here that she is treated for her Aids-related infections. Her three children remain at home. Without Sibiya, these children would be orphans without resources.

As the Aids epidemic bites ever more deeply, companies are reeling from a massive upsurge in HIV-related disability claims. The steep increase in such claims could result in insurance cover becoming unaffordable. This emerged from an attempt to gain insight into the hidden on economic productivity.

Employees at the Gauteng Department of Health have an opportunity to play the "money or the box" game by choosing electronic appliances instead of cash for their end-of-year bonuses.

The unexpected but breakthrough announcement that a national anti-retroviral programme must be developed by the end of September was met with relief and optimism by Aids activists, doctors and healthcare workers.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=18570">The government’s back flip on Aids</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=18498">The pall of politics</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=18499">An obstacle course for women</a>

Joseph Sirrah looked forward to receiving his first injection on Tuesday as part of Uganda’s Aids vaccine trials, despite the reservations of his wife and members of his community. In SA, 150 volunteers have already been recruited and screened.

A meeting last weekend between the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the South African National Aids Council (Sanac), attended by the Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and other governement officials, bought the government more time to announce a national HIV/Aids treatment plan.

Pilot anti-retroviral therapy projects could serve as models when the state scales up treatment sites.

The African Union was formed in July last year to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). It is still a very conceptual body – none of its key protocols have been ratified – but will enhance the work of the OAU by introducing more muscular peacekeeping and democratic peer review mechanisms.

Mismanagement and failure to deliver essential health services in Mpumalanga has resulted in the Department of Health being put under curatorship on Thursday.

The Aids community believes the government has been given the political space to launch a national Aids treatment plan without being seen to be buckling under pressure, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> understands.

Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this week launched an extraordinary racial attack against the Treatment Action Campaign at a formal gala event. Guests at the event, who heard the attack, included United Nations emissaries, diplomats, leading academics and corporate captains.

Nurses and doctors are still endangered species despite efforts by the Department of Health to retain them, the 2002 South African Health Review has found.

Job Sikhala, a Zimbabwean MP, had wire wrapped around his genitals, toes and tongue and was then subjected to electric shocks for eight hours until he confessed to treason against the Zanu-PF regime.

Infighting and accusations of racism have split one of the country’s most influential Aids groups. An open letter calls on the National Association of People Living with Aids to stop attacking other Aids organisations

A group of Zimbabweans forced out of their shacks in the Zandspruit squatter camp north of Johannesburg more than a year ago are now facing eviction from the temporary accommodation to which they were moved. "We have been forgotten and have fewer rights," says the squatters’ spokesperson.

KwaZulu-Natal has shaken off the tag of having the highest HIV-prevalence rate after the first national survey found that it is only fourth on the list of worst-hit provinces. All sectors of society can start constructive interventions after the release of a breakthrough household survey.

The South African government, especially Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, was noticeably absent at the first African regional Aids conference that kicked off in Botswana this week.

A study in the Northern Cape has found there is no truth in the myth that babies are raped because of a belief that HIV can be cured by sex with a virgin. The study was done in Galeshewe, in Kimberley, Northern Cape, where the population is 90,4% African and 8,4% coloured.

The Central Energy Fund (CEF) is auctioning its contentious research branch, Enerkom, at a fraction of its worth, amid speculation about why the state oil agency wants to get rid of it. The CEF has approached a well-known auction house, Aucor, to sell Enerkom to the highest bidder.

The Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria will not have enough money to cover proposals for next year if pledges made by countries are not paid. The board announced that it needs about $8-billion over the next two years to keep up with the demand from poor countries.

Pensioners will have little cause to celebrate the government’s announcement this week that it will increase their monthly grants in an effort to alleviate the effect of high food prices on the lives of the poor.

The SA Union of Journalists has run out of money to finance its operations because its restructuring plan has dragged on for months. Joel Avni, the acting treasurer, resigned from the national executive because he had lost confidence in senior members’ will to comply with the union’s plan.

The Magistrates’ Commission has been bombarded with shocking accounts of racism, smear campaigns and division among judicial officials during the disciplinary hearing of the chief magistrate of Pretoria. The commission deals with complaints against magistrates.