The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) wants at least 200Â 000 people on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment by 2006, thereby holding the government to its own commitment in the operational plan. Of the proposed figure, at least 20Â 000 should be children, the TAC said.
Subsistence agriculture makes for a hard life, particularly in areas that are badly hit by HIV. Put farming and Aids together, add drought or disease, and you have a diabolical mixture of circumstances. This assertion has become an article of faith in many African countries, not least South Africa — said to have the highest number of HIV-positive citizens in the world.
A pastoral delegation from the South African Council of Churches met Deputy President Jacob Zuma in Midrand on Monday evening to discuss the implications of his financial adviser being found guilty of fraud and corruption.
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Two news caps were on Monday included in the Springbok starting line-up for Saturday’s Test against Uruguay in East London, with Jean de Villiers picked at inside centre. The new caps are Lions scrumhalf Enrico January and right wing Tonderai Chavanga, of Western Province.
Metrorail’s attempt to get a Labour Court order to stop a strike that is disrupting its services failed on Monday, the United Transport and Allied Trade Union said. Metrorail workers said they will continue to strike unless the company agrees to a 6,5% wage increase across the board.
Race-based criticism of Judge Hillary Squires at the weekend was not warranted, the South African Human Rights Commission said on Monday. African National Congress Youth League president Fikile Mbalula at the weekend called Judge Squires an ”apartheid judge”, while the Young Communist League accused him of being a racist.
Nando’s, the fast-food chicken outlet, has not been singled out by the government’s Healthy Lifestyle campaign, a spokesperson for the minister of health said on Monday. Media reports said the minister of health was sent a letter by Nando’s demanding she withdraw remarks allegedly made about its food being unhealthy.
Civilisation has outgrown animal bounties, an oceanographic scientist said on Monday following calls to hunt down sharks after an attack on a Cape spear-fisherman. ”Bounties come from the Dark Ages,” said the director of the Oceanographic Research Institute in Durban.
The CEO of the Border Cricket Board in East London and a South African National Defence Force major were among 12 people arrested on Monday on fraud charges, Eastern Cape police said.
Media hoping to interview Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Monday were threatened with arrest outside the African National Congress headquarters. Johannesburg metro police officers told reporters, photographers and cameramen that if they crossed a tape barricade, they would be arrested.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor’s assurances to whistle-blowers are hollow if her department cannot take the minor administrative steps needed to protect them, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. A teacher from the Kamhola school in Barberton — one of the schools implicated in the cheating — was dismissed last week.
Lifestyle diseases are placing an increasing burden on the health system, Gauteng health minister Gwen Ramokgopa said on Monday. She was to tell the provincial legislature later on Monday that people needing treatment for strokes, diabetes and hypertension made more than a million hospital and clinic visits in the past financial year.
About 1 300 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) again downed tools at Samancor Chrome’s Mpumalanga and North West mines after negotiations deadlocked, a spokesperson said on Monday. NUM deputy secretary Archie Palane said workers are protesting the company’s refusal to upgrade certain positions.
Traffic was disrupted between Nelspruit and Riverside in Mpumalanga on Monday when thousands of taxi operators marched to the premier’s office to hand over a memorandum outlining grievances, news reports said on Monday. The operators want the government to abandon its planned taxi-recapitalisation programme.
Shouts of ”Viva” and ”Amandla” and the sound of whistles and vuvuzelas echoed through Johannesburg’s Park station on Monday as about 100 Metrorail workers protested against the company’s 4,5% wage offer. There were severe disruptions on Monday in the Western Cape, with only 2% of trains operational.
It’s not over until the fat lady sings — and victories on Sunday for the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana tended to silence those who were vocally proclaiming that a place for South Africa in next year’s World Cup was assured after the dogged 2-1 qualifying victory over the Cape Verde Islands in Praia on Saturday.
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Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday that 1,6-million houses have been built since 1994, but admitted the housing backlog is still enormous and her department can only do so much. She said poor communication with the public is the likely cause of protests about the pace of housing delivery.
On the crescent-shaped, 14-island archipelago that makes up the Atlantic Ocean’s volcanic-oriented Cape Verde Islands, Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter will be hoping no unforeseen eruptions take place in Saturday’s crucial World Cup qualifying game against the unfashionable but patently dangerous Islanders.
Only eight of the group of 61 of suspected mercenaries will be prosecuted in South Africa after they appeared in the Pretoria Regional Court on Friday. Their case was postponed to July 8 for further investigation. The men, who are out on warning, are facing charges of contravening the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act.
Steel workers have rejected a 4,3% wage increase offered by employers, their trade union said on Friday. Dumisa Ntuli, a spokesperson for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), said the union and the Steel Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa failed to reach an agreement on Thursday.
A chemical fire that left billowing clouds of smoke hanging over Brakpan North was extinguished at noon on Friday, 14 hours after it started. At least three residents were hospitalised for irritation to their mucous membranes — eyes, noses and mouths — caused by the fumes, said an emergency services spokesperson.
In his regular internet column on Friday, ANC Today, President Thabo Mbeki said he is inspired by United States President George Bush’s determination to help ensure that the upcoming Gleneagles Group of Eight summit in Scotland will produce a positive outcome for Africa.
Practical outcomes, such as supporting peace initiatives in Africa, are expected from the forthcoming Group of Eight (G8) heads-of-government summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, President Thabo Mbeki told the World Economic Forum’s Africa Economic Summit in Cape Town on Friday.
Organisers at the World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town were tallying up on Friday morning the number of signatures of business leaders endorsing the recommendations of the Commission for Africa. "It’s looking good," said Africa Economic Summit spokesperson Matthias Luefkens.
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A fire injured four people at oil and chemicals group Sasol’s Sasolburg plant on Thursday morning. The four have since been treated at the group’s on-site medical centre and discharged, Sasol spokesperson Johann van Rheede said on Thursday. Earlier, trade union Solidarity claimed an explosion had caused the four people’s injuries.
M-Net’s open-time window will close in April 2007, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) ruled on Thursday. It ruled in favour of closing the open-time window, saying this is in line with a policy framework set out in its position paper on subscription services.
House prices increased by 22,5% for the 12 months to May this year, with the average home costing R678 800, Absa said on Thursday. Absa economist Jacques du Toit said Absa predicts growth in house prices of between 15% and 20% for 2005, compared with growth of about 32% in 2004.
Black economic empowerment company African Renaissance Holdings has joined forces with the South African Grand Prix Bid Company in its initiative to apply for a licence to stage the formula-one grand prix in South Africa. Bid company chief executive Dave Gant has recently returned from meetings with formula-one boss Bernie Ecclestone in London.
Police have warned bank customers on the East Rand to be cautious after two people were duped out of their cash by fake police officers on Wednesday. Superintendent Andy Pieke on Thursday said a man and a woman were approached outside banks in Alberton and Germiston by bogus police officers.