Mail & Guardian | 16-22 Apr 2010

By Kristin Palitza

Corporate social investment (CSI) has become a buzzword in the past decade, but the quality of initiatives has been inconsistent and unreliable. Numerous well-intentioned CSI programmes have struggled to reach their targets and generate sustainable outcomes.

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Gender & Media Diversity Journal | Jan 2010

By Kristin Palitza

There is much furore and laughter as several teams of young men run across a makeshift soccer field, dribbling, kicking, scuffling, tackling each other and finally passing the ball. On each side of the field, a keeper stands tensely in front of a small, makeshift goal, shouting instructions to his team mates.

Spectators spur on the players from the sidelines, while loud, rhythmic music blares from two oversized speakers across the football field.

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Inter Press Service | 19 Feb 2010

By Kristin Palitza

CAPE TOWN , Feb 19, 2010 (IPS) - South Africa’s children, the country’s most vulnerable population group, will benefit through the increase in social grants recently outlined in the national budget.

South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan’s national budget speech on Feb. 17 has largely been met with approval by development experts for the social grant increases.

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Mail & Guardian Online | 19 Feb 2010

By Kristin Palitza

Opposition parties heavily criticised the African National Congress’ economic policies, but offered few constructive alternatives at a Critical Thinking Forum on Thursday in Cape Town, organised by the Mail & Guardian and the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa).

Under fire came the country’s high unemployment, income inequality and crime rates as well as the dysfunctional health and education systems, which were in part blamed on a “leadership crisis” within the ruling party.

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Inter Press Service | 6 January 2010

By Kristin Palitza

LOUWVILLE, South Africa, Jan 6, 2010 (IPS) - HIV-related stigma and discrimination remain a key concern in South Africa, despite the multitude of HIV awareness campaigns that have been launched by government and civil society organisations throughout the years, health experts say.

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Inter Press Service | 31 December 2009

by Kristin Palitza

PATERNOSTER, South Africa, Dec 31 (IPS) - Long after the official opening of the crayfish season in South Africa on November 15, the boats lay idle on the beach in West Coast fishing villages like Paternoster. Fishing permits from the Marine and Coastal Management unit (MCM) of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism had not been issued.

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Inter Press Service | 21 Dec 2009

by Kristin Palitza

SALDANHA, South Africa, Dec 21, 2009 (IPS) - The sound of sewing machines fills the room with a low, continuous hum. A handful of women sit behind the machines, their heads bent in concentration on their work.

The seamstresses belong to a business development project run by the West Coast Business Development Centre (WCBDC) in Saldanha, which aims to provide previously unemployed people with stable incomes and business support.

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Mail & Guardian | 6-12 Nov 2009

By Kristin Palitza

Medical experts and AIDS activists have welcomed the South African health department’s long-awaited move to offer male circumcision free of charge as part of its HIV prevention policy. But to be successful, they caution, the service needs to come with a massive education campaign.

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Inter Press Service | 12 Nov 2009

By Kristin Palitza

CAPE TOWN, Nov 12 (IPS) - Critics of carbon trading, a strategy meant to combat global warming, say the buying and selling of carbon credits is being exploited.

"CDM (the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism) was never meant to be a cash cow, but meant for developed countries to reduce their emissions".

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Inter Press Service | 27 Oct 2009

By Kristin Palitza

CAPE TOWN, Oct 27 (IPS) - The South African government is in the process of drafting regulations to police genetically modified organisms (GMO) as part of the national Consumer Protection Act, but environmental experts are worried the GMO section of the new Act, which was signed into law last April, will not be put into

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Inter Press Service | 8 Oct 2009

By Kristin Palitza

CAPE TOWN, Oct 8 (IPS) - One hundred African women and girls die unnecessarily from unsafe abortions every day because they have to rely on unqualified medical practitioners or self-induce abortion by ingesting poisonous substances or inserting tools into their uterus.

Africa has the highest percentage of maternal deaths due to unsafe abortion. 60 percent of abortion-related deaths occur in women and girls under the age of 25.

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Mail & Guardian | 25 Sep 2009

By Kristin Palitza

The game has started, but goals have not been scored. Since the department of trade and industry started to accredit verification agencies to formalise broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) in February 2007, employment equity has quickly gained importance.

But it remains to be seen whether the rating scheme will truly manage to redress economic disadvantages. “If BEE were a sport, we would be five minutes into a 90-minute football match,” says independent BEE consultant Michael Bullock.

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Inter Press Service | 30 Sep 2009

Kristin Palitza interviews HENRY MALUMA, Oxfam Zambia essential services coordinator

CAPE TOWN, Sep 30 (IPS) - A United Nations mid-point review of Zambia's efforts towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), released in September, has revealed that HIV/AIDS might prevent the southern African country from meeting the targets.

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