South Africa's parliament is considering an information bill the government says will better protect secrets but critics fear could hamper access to market-sensitive data and muzzle media investigations. The Protection of Information Bill sets guidelines for classifying state information as well as creating a legislative framework for the government to combat espionage and other hostile activities.

I've never been anywhere that is free of discrimination against one or other group of people, writes Megan Redmond.

Female condoms have been widely celebrated as an answer to putting reproductive health and HIV protection in the hands of women. Yet, the South African government fell far short of its promise of distributing 7.5 million female condoms during the World Cup, with only 1 million finding their way into the hands of consumers. On the other hand, male condoms were available in high numbers - 565 million - though even these were 20% fewer than expected.

Nine-year-old Nomasonto* had no choice but to switch roles with her mother and care for the HIV-positive woman who gave birth to her. Instead of worrying about homework and going out to play with her friends, Nomasonto’s daily concerns were now a matter of life and death. Suddenly the child had to wash her mother, change and feed her. She even had to take her ill mother to hospital for checkups and to collect her medication.

For the past three months civil society organisations, academics and even some government officials have been warning that a new round of xenophobic attacks are coming soon after the World Cup has ended. Over the last two weeks, many of these same people have seen their world cup fever give way to a feverish effort to prevent (or at least prepare for) the forthcoming melee. No one has been readying themselves more fervently than migrants, many of whom have started packing and making their way to sites of safety either in South Africa or beyond its borders.

A reminder to the ANC that it needed to deepen democracy in society arrived at the ANC’s Polokwane conference, where one major gripe against President Mbeki was that he had failed to create “policy coherence” amongst the ANC and its alliance partners, let alone the broader society. Mbeki was criticised for insulating public policy through technocratic methods, and failing to build consensus in society beyond the so-called chattering classes. Whilst Mbeki’s vision for a post-colonial society that worked rested on making unpopular decisions, it was at least palpable.

The South African government is in the process of passing a law that will limit access to government information undermining transparency, accountability, and media freedom in South African. The Protection of Information Bill allows every organ of state - from government departments and parastatals to the smallest municipality - to throw a blanket of secrecy over its documents. If the law is passed whistle blowers leaking, and journalists reporting, on these documents can face up to 25 years in jail. The Bill goes before parliament this month and civil society are organizing to oppose it's passing.

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South African President Jacob Zuma hopes to take South Africa into the new international powerhouse of the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) by building on its flourishing relationship with Brazil, writes Janet Szabo. In this article, she explores the different characteristics and assets the country possesses that make it a bona fide member of this group of emerging powerhouses.

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Responding to growing rumours of the threat of a xenophobic reprisal accompanying the end of the World Cup, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba seeks to condemn discrimination and animosity towards foreign nationals.

A series of meetings to educate residents about xenophobia in the informal settlement of Du Noon, Cape Town, will begin on 7 July and run until the final game of the FIFA World Cup on 11 July. On 27 June units of the South African army were deployed to the township in what police described as an "anti-crime operation", after widespread reports had been circulating that foreign nationals would be attacked on 12 July - the day after the final soccer world cup match.

Lay counsellors in South Africa can now legally perform HIV tests, but delays in paying them and shortages of test kits are threatening a national campaign to scale up voluntary HIV testing and counselling (VCT). Before new regulations came into effect in May 2010 only nurses were allowed to administer finger-prick HIV tests, but AIDS activists had long argued that this not only added to an already heavy work load, but could also hamstring the VCT campaign aiming to test 15 million South Africans by 2011.

A draft Bill proposing a ban on sexual content on the internet and cellphones submitted to the South African Department of Home Affairs in May 2010 claims to have the best interests of women and children in mind but has set alarm bells ringing in the women’s movement. “The Bill equates women with children –taking a protectionist approach to the rights of women— and promotes state censorship,” says Sally-Jean Shackleton, director of Women’sNet, a feminist technology organisation based in Johannesburg.

The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Sisonke have launched a helpline to give sex workers a voice. Micky Meji, country coordinator of the African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) said the line was initiated to give sex workers a platform to voice their concerns and fears they faced at work. “Not everyone knows where to get help for sex workers. It is not easy for sex workers to get adequate information because they are often scared of revealing what they do to earn a living,” said Meji.

HIV doctors and activists have slammed a male circumcision clamp that is being aggressively marketed in South Africa and the rest of the continent with a small study showing that it is much more painful that the surgical route and has more adverse events. In a joint statement the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society and the Treatment Action Campaign said although they supported the implementation of a country-wide voluntary male medical circumcision (VMMC) programme, they had concerns about the Tara Klamp.

South African unions dropped a threat to strike at power utility Eskom this week after receiving a higher wage offer, ending concerns about electricity supplies during the soccer World Cup. Widespread power cuts could also have dented manufacturing and mining companies' output in Africa's biggest economy, the world's top platinum and fourth-largest gold producer.

The sun has almost set on the Soccer World Cup and its seeming suspension of our South African 'normalcy'. No doubt, many will try their best to continue to bask in its positively proclaimed 'developmental legacy'; but, as sure as the sun will rise on the morning after, so too will the reality of that ‘normalcy’ bite us like an unhappy dog. Nowhere will this be more apparent than in the world of South African soccer itself.

Rwanda has expressed its concern over the way the authorities in South Africa are investigating the shooting of a former Rwandan army chief of staff. Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa was wounded outside his house in Johannesburg last month.

As the Landless People's Movement in Gauteng we welcome the independent research report by Jared Sacks into political violence against our movement in Gauteng. We have been suffering from serious repression in Protea South, in Harry Gwala and in eTwatwa. The story of our struggle and the repression of our struggle has not been told. The world may have been watching South Africa for the World Cup but the repression of our movement has passed unnoticed. Therefore we welcome this report and the light that it shines into the darkness of our country.