Staff Reporter

James Rampaodi’s skin is peeling off his face and his hair is breaking. He is too ill to walk on his own and relatives have to carry him each time he visits the hospital. Sitting on a wooden bench in a filthy room at Tshilidzini Hospital in Thohoyandou, he leans forward to rest his head against his mother’s back. He coughs incessantly. "He has got TB and no one is willing to help us here," says Rampaodi’s mother, Maria.

The faltering peace process in the Côte d’Ivoire represents a crucial test for the African Union (AU), an analyst said recently after Ivorian rebels rejected South African President Thabo Mbeki, the AU-appointed mediator, as biased. "The Côte d’Ivoire, Somalia and Darfur are the three crucial tests of the new AU," says Richard Cornwall, senior African analyst at the Institute for Security Studies.

Referees barred private toilets on Friday for the two grandmasters fighting for the world chess championship title in southern Russia after the contest was plunged into scandal over the frequency of one player’s restroom breaks, ITAR-TASS news agency said.

Government’s BEE strategy is giving rise to a whole new industry of paperwork, as thousands of companies need to have their empowerment credentials checked. But the verification agencies themselves are still waiting for accreditation. Empowerdex executive director Chia Chao Wu said the BEE verification industry was about R400-million a year.

Political time runs quickly. It takes an SMS from the Pietermaritzburg High Court a split second to reach Gallagher Estate. It takes Jacob Zuma in all his fleshy solidity less than two hours to get to Midrand. A newspaper listing the manifold ways that the National Prosecuting Authority has miscarried its delicate task can hit the streets in less than 12 hours.

Parliament has been sidelined in favour of the press by Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) spokesperson for safety and security, Dianne Kohler-Barnard, said in a statement on Tuesday. "He stated categorically … that he would release crime statistics to Parliament … before the end of September. He failed to do this," Kohler-Barnard said.

Ecstasy turned to agony for a South Korean lottery winner when he presented a winning ticket only to be told he could not claim the prize of $1-million because of a printing mistake, officials said on Tuesday. The Prime Minister’s Commission on Lottery has called off the sale of Speetto-2000 instant scratch-and-win tickets after printing errors.

Many reputable magazines are now carrying “lonely hearts” columns in which folk in need of companionship, love and understanding can advertise their pleas. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> might well consider running such a popular weekly feature. (Guide to commonly used abbreviations: ltr = long-term relationship; gsoh = good sense of humour; wltm = would like to meet.)

Senior Western Cape ANC leader Max Ozinsky has confirmed that ANC moves to rejig the Cape Town council — with the effect of neutralising DA mayor Helen Zille — were decided in consultation with the ANC’s national top brass. This gives weight to Zille’s repeated assertion that the move follows top-level discussions during President Thabo Mbeki’s recent four-day meeting with ANC leaders.

It was a strange kind of robbery. I woke up restless at 1.30am and went to the front room to switch channels on the decoder, vaguely intending to watch what was happening in the world from the point of view of the BBC and CNN. I bent down to press the buttons — only there were no buttons and no decoder, just a tangled mess of wires where it had been.

Durban’s Westville correctional facility, who originally took the government to court in an attempt to get access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, have criticised the treatment plan put forward by prison and government officiaACls for its "serious shortcomings".

It was conservative British MP Enoch Powell referring to the departure of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street, who said: "All political careers end in tears." He could have been referring to National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) founder and leader Ziba Jiyane, who is likely to find himself in a political cul-de-sac when the party holds its federal conference on Saturday.

Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane says his church condemned homophobia and preached the message of "open and loving support" for gay and lesbian Anglicans. This follows his predecessor Desmond Tutu’s remarks that he was "ashamed to be an Anglican" following the Anglican church’s decision not to change its stance on gay and lesbian issues some years ago.

The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> on Thursday won an important victory for media freedom in the Johannesburg High Court. Judge Suretta Snyders dismissed with costs an urgent interdict application brought against the paper by Maanda Manyatshe, the former chief executive officer of the South African Post Office (Sapo), and current head of MTN South Africa.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has not showered itself with glory in their dealings with the Jacob Zuma affair. The decision by Judge Qedusizi Msimang to strike the Zuma matter off the roll is a public-relations disaster which started with National Prosecuting Authority boss Bulelani Ngcuka declaring in 2003 that he had a "prima facie" against Zuma.