South Africa’s Sumbandila microsatellite is scheduled for launch on March 25 next year, which will be a Wednesday. The launch will be on a Soyuz launch vehicle of the Russian Roscosmos space agency, from the renowned Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. SumbandilaSat will form a secondary payload for the rocket, the primary being a Russian Meteor M weather satellite.

While South Africa has made all the right moves towards reaching the Southern African Development Community (SADC) target of 50% of women in all areas of decision-making by 2015, it has still failed to achieve parity in any area of political decision-making. Though SADC leaders reaffirmed the 50% commitment this past August when they signed the regional Protocol on Gender and Development, progress remains slow.

If you jump into a combi during the next couple of weeks, you may just be greeted with something a bit different from the usual fare of thumping Kwaito and house beats. Launched 4 December at Ekurhuleni Municipality, Tjoon’in is an audio CD designed specifically for playing in public transport as part of 16 Days of Activism, to raise awareness among taxi drivers and passengers about gender violence.

If men want to join Sikhula Sonke, a women-led trade union for South African farm workers, they must sign a declaration saying that they will refrain from violence against women. Union members have also vowed to intervene within their communities whenever violence against women occurs.

Wendy Pekeur, Secretary-General of Sikhula Sonke, explains that these and other innovative strategies, which do not focus squarely on labour issues, but address major social needs of the members, are part of the success of the small but growing union. For many of Sikhula Sonke’s 4 000 members, a large part of them women seasonal workers or unemployed women, violence is often a part of life.

“Women are very dependent on men in the farmlands. Most women are employed as seasonal workers, and depend on substituting for male farm workers, whereas most men have a full-year employment. Women therefore often only access housing through a man. This is one reason why women tend to stay on in violent situations, because otherwise they will lose their housing.”

As the world commemorates World Aids Day whose theme is Leadership and Unity to stop HIV, Aids and TB, gay rights groups in the country have said that the gay community is still marginalized in terms of HIV and AIDS programming in the country. Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, OUT LGBT Sexual Health Fieldworker, said that government does not recognise LGBTI people as high risk in their programming.

The South Africa Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (SA GLAAD) and other gay rights groups will stage a protest outside South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)’s head office on Thursday 4 December. SAHRC has come under fire recently following its alleged silence on the controversial column written by Sunday Sun’s John Qwelane, published in July this year.

On Tuesday last week (25/11) Thokozani Mkhotli, from the Arnett Drive settlement in Reservoir Hills, was shot by a Securicor Guard with live ammunition. The bullet entered his left buttock and emerged lower down in the front of his left thigh. The trajectory of the bullet shows clearly that he was shot from behind and from above. Thokozani is 33. He is from Bizana and works as a builder's labourer fixing ceilings.

Students at the correspondence-based University of South Africa (Unisa) will be required to sign up for a Microsoft-provided email address before they are able to receive correspondence from the university. The required email address is part of the first phase to build the MyLife portal to foster a “sense of belonging” among students, the university says.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions regrets the resignation of University of KwaZulu-Natal physicist, Professor Nithaya Chetty, who, together with mathematics Professor John van den Berg, was facing disciplinary action and likely dismissal on charges of "failing to take due care in communicating with the media, breaching confidentiality and dishonest and/or gross negligence". This related to their public criticisms in the media of the university's academic freedom record

From 26-28 November 2008, the Centre for the Study of Violence of Reconciliation (CSVR) hosted the ‘South African Domestic Violence Act (DVA) Lessons from a Decade of Legislation and Implementation’ conference in Johannesburg. Attended by approximately 120 delegates came together to review the implementation of the DVA over the past 10 years.

Great piece, Herbert Ross, . The political situation on South Africa (SA) is particularly worrying for me and a lot of other Africans. I saw in SA during Mandela's presidency that we were seeing a model form of Governance that would be an excellent example for the rest of Africa... As here was an African nation, run by Africans with a constitution that was the envy of the world. There would have been no more excuses, I thought, by other African heads of states about "democratic" governance, rule of law etc being an imposition by outsiders.

How they (African dictators) love to winge and whine about these "foreign concepts". Lately I have been very disappointed by what has been happening in SA. First the babaric and heinous crimes committed again other fellow Africans recently and now the chisms within the ANC - the tit for tat child like behaviour we see within the ANC Elite. I am totally embarassed by it!!!!!! Hah!! I was actually fooled to think that something that positive can come out of Africa.

As you rightly said, this is a time for SA to re-examine what had happened and to make sure that safeguards are put in place to prevent it happening again. No !! No !! not for Africans!! they just have to go personal on every thing. Attack and kill if they dont get there way. The new breakaway party is being threatend with violence for deciding to separate and yet I heard no statements of restraint from any of the current leaders. Thabo Mbeki may have had his problems, but thats no reason for the ANC to commit suicide by electing someone with attitudes that makes you think you are in another past century in Africa. No what Africa needs is an electorate that is sophisticated enough to boot out the self serving, unscrupolous, dictators where ever they are.

Highlighting the persistent divisions in educational opportunity at the heart of the South African schooling system, Neville Alexander outlines a new direction based on the equitable distribution of opportunities for children, a more widespread culture of learning, and adequate institutional support for teaching staff.

In the last decade, barrels of ink have been spilled on the failure of the South African state to address the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic among its people, writes Rebecca Hodes. In recent months, South Africa has undergone a number of seismic political changes. The controversial, populist Jacob Zuma, was elected the head of the ruling African National Congress to the dismay of many following his acquittal for a rape charge. In September 2008, President Mbeki was deposed by the ANC’s Zuma-dominated leadership, and the subsequent reshuffle saw the appointment of Barbara Hogan. The implications of these changes on health policy, as well as those associated with the potential outcome of next year's elections, are explored.

As Aunesi Omari and her children cowered in her room in Philippi, a low-income section of the South African city of Cape Town, in Western Cape Province, she heard the armed men outside shout: "We're going to kill you because you don't want to listen." Omari's crime was that she had returned to her home after being run out of the community in May, along with thousands of other foreigners. The men outside made their point by firing two shots into the house she had lived in for five years.

Forming part of a larger document looking at the development of sustainable media in Africa, this chapter focuses on progress in Malawi. Quantitative baseline scores were obtained and in-depth qualitative studies from a local perspective prepared to explain the numbers.

A basic income grant (BIG) is a universal transfer to all those with the right to be in a country (citizens by birth, by naturalisation, or persons with rights of permanent residence). The purpose of this article is to reflect not so much on the basic income grant (BIG) itself, but rather on the reasons why it is unlikely that any other policy can address the problem of mass unemployment and associated poverty in South Africa.

The refusal of the Mbeki government to roll-out antiretroviral therapy and treatment to prevent mother-to child transmission in South Africa resulted in 330,000 needlessly premature HIV-related deaths and 35,000 avoidable case of mother-to-child HIV transmission according to estimates published in the December 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Somebody coming from Mars would be forgiven for thinking that the era of black rule is rife with corruption and nepotism, writes Saliem Fakier.The white world would have been thought of as being better if one is to believe that its history was always populated with saints. History though. is infrequently remembered for what it is, seldom uncovered for all of its diversity and always selectively appropriated. Short memory, too, is the enemy of history -- and there is lots of it going around.

South African state lawyers have appealed against the dismissal of corruption charges against African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma. The charges were rejected on a technicality in September, sparking a political row, which led to President Thabo Mbeki leaving office. The judge accused the state prosecutors of interfering in the case for political reasons.

Behind the Rainbow explores the transition of the ANC from a liberation organization into South Africa's ruling party, through the evolution of the relationship between two of its most prominent cadres, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Exiled under Apartheid they were brothers in arms, under Mandela they loyally labored to build a non-racial state, now they are bitter rivals. Their duel threatens to tear apart the ANC and the country, as the poor desperately seek hope in change and the elite fight for the spoils of victory.