NGOs

A Constitutional Court ruling against a section of the Slums Act will prevent mass evictions in a clean-up before the 2010 Soccer World, according to rights group, Black Sash.

Regional director for the Black Sash in KwaZulu-Natal, Evashnee Naidu, states that, “I hope this judgment sends a very clear message to all the other provinces that might try to copy this law particularly in their haste to clean up before the World Cup.”

More than half of non governmental organisations (NGOs) in South Africa say that information and communications technology has had a major impact on their ability to advance human rights in this country. This is one of the key findings of a report entitled, State of ICT in South African NGOs 2009.

The report, which was sponsored by Microsoft and the National Development Agency (NDA), states that while this figure has barely shifted in the past two years, NGOs are now poised to explore the cutting edge of mobile technology and social networking in pursuit of their causes.

The 18 CSOs calling for the appeal against the acquittal of former president, Frederick Chiluba, have suspended their honking protest following a meeting with the Zambia Police Service.

Caritas Zambia executive director, Sam Mulafulafu, says that although the consortium of the 18 CSOs disagree with the police on the interpretation of honking as a crime, it resolved to suspend the exercise.

Most of Free State government’s contracts with NGOs are coming to an end due to a change in administration.

The Provincial Department of Social Welfare is using this opportunity to re-evaluate its funding model and to crack down on the prevalence of bogus organisations who are misappropriating tax-payers money.

The department met with NGOs and told them it wants to increase the number of beneficiaries of its NGO and NPO grants from its current estimate of 1 300. However, the make-up of who gets funding has to change.

KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC, Ina Cronje, says that the uMgungundlovu district has the highest prevalence (45.7 percent) of HIV infections among pregnant women countrywide. This means that almost every second pregnant woman in the district is HIV positive.

Cronje, who describes the launch of the uMgungundlovu AIDS Council is timely and part of the coordinated effort acres the different tiers of government, says that, “It is high time we face the HIV/Aids monster head on”.

Christina Swart-Opperman AIDS Orphan Foundation Trust is organising a gala dinner to raise funds for charity.

The Trust says that the dinner, which is scheduled to take place early next month, is aimed raising further funds to help in its goal of helping orphaned children.

The Zambian government has accused the 17 CSOs of conspiring with some donors and some high profiled Zambians to bring down the government.

Home Affairs Minister, Lameck Mangani, says that some cooperating partners were behind the planned protests over the acquittal of former president, Fredrick Chiluba.
Mangani says that there is a conspiracy between some disgruntled Zambians and the cooperating partners to portray the government as not being serious in its fight against corruption.

The Johannesburg Child Welfare (JCW) says that children and women are being trafficked daily to busy urban areas.

JCW assistant director, Carol Bews, points out that people are often trafficked to South Africa from poorer, neighbouring countries for labour and commercial sexual exploitation.

Bews urges community members to be vigilant and blow the whistle on suspicious occurrences and new children or women in their neighbourhoods.

Women may be well represented in newsrooms, but they struggle to find a place in senior management or on boards and they still earn less than their male counterparts. This is according to a 2008 report conducted by Gender Links in South Africa and the South African Development Community (SADC).

The study found that South Africa is at the top end of the scale (50 percent), beaten only by Lesotho (73 percent) when it comes to the percentage of women in media for the region.

A Zambian NGO, Reformed Communities (REC) says the continued dependence on donor funding in HIV and AIDS projects could throw the fight against the pandemic in disarray.

Reformed Communities (REC) coordinator, Deliah Kaweche, says there is a need to source local resources for the fight against HIV andAIDS instead of relying on funding from donors.