Women's month in South Africa has come and gone without much fanfare, and perhaps rightfully so, since African women continue to be confronted by institutions, policies and systems within an economy that entrenches patriarchy and a fundamentalist brand of neoliberalism.

Mandela Park Backyarders have continued to stop the construction of houses in our community. Because of our efforts, construction has been unable to proceed for over two weeks - since the 17th of August. We have demanded that the MEC for Housing, Bonginkosi Madikizela, come and listen to our grievances. He had promised to come to our mass meeting last Sunday, the 29th of August. He didn't pitch. He again promised to come to our mass meeting on the 5th of September. We now hear that he won't be able to make it. We are still waiting for him.

The Conference of the Democratic Left (CoDL) condemns government and ANC (African National Congress) attempts to curb media freedom in South Africa, made manifest in the Protection of Information Bill and the proposal to establish a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal. We also note that these measures come in the wake of attempts to increase government control of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), through the Icasa Amendment Bill and the Public Services Broadcasting Bill. Taken together, if this battery of legal reform is passed, the sum effect will ensure greater ANC influence and control of the media in general. Freedom of expression as a basic human right will be narrowed to ANC propaganda.

South Africa’s post-World Cup return to reality, Rwanda’s displeasure at a UN report accusing its forces of the massacre of Hutu refugees in DRC, and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in Swaziland are among the stories covered in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, collated by Dibussi Tande.

In the wake of South Africa’s public sector strike, Leonard Gentle cuts through the negativity towards the strikers presented by much of the media and argues that the situation overall may well prove ‘a watershed in South African politics’. While officialdom has sought to demonise the strikers, their concerns around high interest rates, debt, high costs and inadequate pay may well come to chime with further disillusionment across key components of the ANC’s (African National Congress) base, Gentle writes.

The Kennedy Road shack settlement burnt once again at about 10 pm on Sunday, 08 August 2010 - two hours before women’s day. As of today thousands of residents in Kennedy are homeless in this cold winter weather. If the municipality had given them houses or provided them with basic services, such as electricity, refuse collection, road access and water they would have been safe from fire.

Intensifying their search for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection, scientists are planning to run an improved version of the successful Thai HIV vaccine trial in South Africa next year. News from Thailand late last year that a vaccine trial conducted among 16 000 Thais gave a 31% protection rate against HIV infection has given scientists hope that their quest to find a vaccine to prevent HIV infection is on the horizon. But further tests are needed and South Africa is an obvious place for these to be run, given our high HIV rate.

Tuberculosis remains a major public health problem. Approximately 1.7 billion people worldwide are infected with TB, with 8 million new cases and 3 million deaths per year. It is estimated that 35 million people will have died of TB by the year 2020. In 2004, it was estimated that more than 4% of the world’s infected people living with active TB were in South Africa. During this period, South Africa accounted for about 2% of the world’s new TB cases and approximately 3% of the total TB deaths.

While an estimated 880 000 people – most of them young children – die each year of malaria in the developing world, we may underestimate the potential effects of continued DDT use on future generations. In South Africa, as in several other developing countries, the use of the powerful insecticide DDT is allowed for malaria control in high-risk areas such as KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.

By the time Thandi Khumalo* brought her seven-month-old daughter to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, help came too late. The infant had developed acute diarrhoea and kwashiorkor, a condition caused by severe protein and calorie deficiency, and died a few days after being admitted.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has just released a document on the media for its National General Council (NGC) meeting, scheduled for September. The document, entitled 'Media transformation, ownership and diversity', claims to build on a resolution adopted at the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference, as well as a me

Four bodies have been found in an unused shaft of a mine run by relatives of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and ex-leader Nelson Mandela. Police said investigations were continuing into reports that up to 20 alleged illegal miners were shot dead by security at the mine.

Press Freedom is a right enjoyed by a privileged minority of South Africans. Our print media is controlled by a cartel of four corporations. Broadcast Media is dominated by the SABC. The profiteering of private media and commercialization of the SABC have seen the mass media catering to the expression and information needs of lucrative markets (LSM 8- 10) representing under 15% of South Africans.

Have you ever walked past a car window and checked your reflection to make sure your hair looks just right? Perhaps spent an hour perfecting your make-up before you head out? Have you looked at Halle Berry's body and thought, "Ah, I wish I had that body?" I'm sure most women can relate to this constant quest to look good, but what is beauty -- just what does looking good mean today? Considering this is Women's Month in South Africa, I decided now was a good time to find out exactly what kind of woman I want to be.

For Pambazuka News readers in and around Namibia and South Africa, Windhoek's The Book Den and Cape Town's Blue Weaver now stock a range of titles:

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After months of non-payment, lay counsellors vital to government's ambitious target of testing 15 million South Africans for HIV by April 2011, are threatening to walk out of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) clinics. Lay counsellors in at least two of South Africa's nine provinces - Eastern Cape and Gauteng - said they had gone for as long as five months without receiving their government stipends for providing pre- and post-test counselling as part of the national testing drive.

"Virtually every author concludes that violence against African migrants will continue and increase unless some profound socio-economic and attitudinal changes occur. This text thus sounds a loud warning bell to South Africa about our future. And it does so not merely based on the opinions of the authors, but because of the views of ordinary South African citizens that informed the research. ... survey after survey, focus group after focus group, have shown deeply xenophobic attitudes rising steadily over time." - David Everatt in introduction to report on South African Civil Society and Xenophobia, July 2010

South Africa's draft climate change policy, known as the green paper, would be submitted to Cabinet by the end of August, after which it would be gazetted for public comment, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). DEA communications chief director Albi Modise further explained that following engagement on the comments received, a widely-consulted white paper would be submitted into the Parliamentary process by the end of the year, for promulgation which was expected in the first quarter of 201

Every 17 seconds a woman is raped in South Africa. According to the South African Police Services’ 2006 rape statistics, close to 55 000 women reported being raped that year. But how many more rapes go unreported, and why? Put yourself in a rape survivor’s shoes just for a minute. After experiencing an extremely traumatic ordeal, what would you do? Would you go to the police station, seek medical attention or do nothing and hope to forget about it? Often, these are some of the questions that linger in the mind of a rape survivor. Every 17 seconds a woman is raped in South Africa. It is also estimated that 1 in 9 adult women report being raped.

South Africa's stop-start war on corruption claimed its biggest success yesterday as the country's former leading policeman was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jackie Selebi was told by a judge that he was "an embarrassment to all right-thinking citizens" as he was sent down on corruption charges.