Research by the Berne Declaration and Natural Justice reveals that five recent patent applications by Nestlé on the use of Rooibos and Honeybush are in conflict with South African Law and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This second bio piracy case in South Africa in less than a year again demonstrates how big corporations neglect their obligations to seek prior informed consent and to share benefits when using genetic resources from the developing countries as obliged by the CBD.

The Refugee Exhibition is an interactive exhibition with recordings from the children themselves. It highlights the plight of the Forgotten Children who fled Zimbabwe’s political turmoil, in search of a better life, peace and security. Seen through the eyes of the children, you will be taken on a journey to share their experiences and amazing stories of hope and determination to succeed despite the challenges facing them. The Refugee Exhibition will run until the end of May.

A wide cross-section of civil society – unions, students organisations, faith based groups, community organisations and NGOs – with a collective membership of over a million people, strongly condemn the decision taken by the authorities to ban a peaceful march for the right to a quality public education for all, planned for June 10th 2010.

The FMSP is an independent, interdisciplinary and internationally engaged Africa-based centre of excellence for research and teaching that shapes global discourse on human mobility, development and social transformation.

During the 2010 Fifa World Cup here in South Africa, all the poor must stand up and show the world that we are not excited about the World Cup because it is not for the poor but for the rich, says Mzonke Poni. "The time to wait for government to identify land for the poor is over. We gave them enough time to do that and they failed but to identify land to build expensive stadiums which will only be used for 1 month and spend lot of billions it was easy for them to do that, and they even evicted many people forcefully just to ensure that they meet Fifa requirements and standards."

About two million South African train commuters were left stranded as two major transport unions widened a strike which began last week. The unions have called on their members working for the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to stop working in a dispute over pay.

‘There are few thinking South Africans today who would be prepared to say that they are happy with how things have turned out’ since the fall of apartheid, writes Neville Alexander, ‘Most South Africans, certainly most oppressed and exploited South Africans, feel that they have been, if not betrayed, then certainly misled.’ In a speech given at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 13 May 2010, Alexander looks at what ordinary citizens can do to find their way back, through discussion and practical action, to a vision of a different South Africa that will enable them to put behind them the ‘barbaric and vulgar universe’ in which they ‘are forced to try to survive with dignity’.

A South African government agency has become the first to join the world's leading patent pool for neglected diseases, a move that could bolster home-grown innovations in the fight against diseases including tuberculosis (TB). The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), a government body, recently announced that it had joined a patent pool established by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to spur research into 16 neglected tropical diseases.

South Africa has achieved near universal access to health services for pregnant women and their children, but maternal and infant mortality rates have continued to rise making the chances of reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on maternal and child health increasingly remote.

On Friday 14 May, a deputation from London Coalition Against Poverty visited the South African High Commission to deliver a message in solidarity with their sister group in Durban, the shackdwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo. Even with the world’s attention focused on their city, the group is experiencing massive repression and its leaders have been driven into hiding.

UNICEF has welcomed the results of a study by the Human Sciences Research Council suggesting that HIV prevalence has dropped by more than half in children ages 2-14. According to the survey, HIV prevalence dropped from 5.6% in 2002 to 2.5% in 2008.

Almost half a million (419 144) children in South Africa are growing up without both parents, a Human Science Research Council study has revealed. This is one of the findings from a study, “The Health of our Children in South Africa: Results from a national HIV prevalence population survey”, released in Cape Town on 13 May.

President Jacob Zuma continues to express optimism about the negotiation process in Zimbabwe, telling Parliament this week that ''some achievements have been registered''. Zuma, the Southern African Development Community's chief mediator on Zimbabwe, said that country's political rivals had agreed to establish a human rights commission, an electoral commission and a media commission, and that the commissioners - who were respected by most Zimbabweans - had been sworn in.

Not only do women experience a higher rate of unemployment compared to men, but women also make up about two of every three discouraged work seekers. The recent economic crisis has also disproportionately affected women, with the number of females who are no longer economically active rising sharply between 2008 and 2009.

While China frequently comes under fire as the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, its per capita emissions – at five tonnes per person – are far lower than those of South Africa. Khadija Sharife takes a closer look at support for Eskom’s plans to build new coal-fired power plant Medupi, asking who the project’s real beneficiaries are and what it will cost.

Clinical research in South Africa is in serious decline because of two decades of "disinvestment" — leading to an ageing workforce, "chronic underfunding" of its Medical Research Council and "grossly insufficient" funding for research professorships, says a report.

About half of South Africa's population is living in poverty, a problem that is not going to be solved overnight, says the Deputy Director-General of Social Development, Selwyn Jehoma. He said the poverty situation in the country was "very significant" and most people believed it would take about a generation to solve.

A vaccine designed to be used alongside isoniazid preventive therapy to shorten the course of drug treatment in people with latent TB will shortly undergo trials in South Africa, manufacturer Archivel Farma announced this week. Latent infection with tuberculosis, in which the bacteria which cause the disease are walled off and unable to multiply in the lungs, is present in around one-third of the world’s population.

A South African workers' union said on Friday that logistics group Transnet had improved a wage offer to its workers in a bid to avert a strike that could cripple rail, pipeline and port operations in the country. A strike at monopoly Transnet could paralyse coal and iron ore exports, distribution of fuel and interrupt shipping at ports in Africa's biggest economy.

There are approximately one million, mainly black women, who are domestic workers in South Africa. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) is the overarching piece of legislation that regulates their wages and working conditions in addition to, broadly speaking, all unorganised workers in South Africa.