- A few weeks have passed since the core characters of Health Care in South Africa shook a nation to its foundations. The Deputy Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was fired because she was not enough of a team-player. Her admirers, fans and supporters were found outside the arena of politics, in the field. Nurses, doctors, activists, scientists. They loved Nozizwe. She wrote the new aids-policy that South Africa announced in March to get rid of its reputation of acting on “the lunatic fringe” regarding the epidemic – and it was praised as “an example to Africa”. Her boss hated her, and promised years ago “to fix her”, which meant as much as “to make sure she would be sacked”. Her bo…

 14 May 2007, by Aernout Zevenbergen in South Africa. Men can not be raped. Well, actually they can – but still: legally speaking they can"t. The jails of South Africa (and elsewhere on earth) are full of men who might tell in all details (gory or not) who, when and by whom they were put into a position where they could not say no to unwanted, anal penetration. -  However, the law does not mention unwanted anal penetration as rape, and therefore rape of a man does not exist from a legal point of view. One wonders who write laws like that. On what planet do they live? Uganda knows of even weirder laws regarding sexual behaviour. Having sex with a goat is considered less of an o…

- March 18, by Aernout Zevenbergen. After years of legal court cases, demonstrations and international laughter and contempt, South Africa has presented a new policy on tackling aids. Aids organisations, the federation of trade unions Cosatu and UN Aids are but a few of the actors who enthusiastically embrace the new approach. South Africa wants to halve the rate of new HIV infections by 2011 – these now stand at 1500 a day. "It aims to provide treatment, care and support services to 80 percent of HIV-positive people and their families by 2011", writes the newspaper Daily News. Deputy-president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has called on the private sector to support the new policy, not just w…

- March 9, by Aernout Zevenbergen. Pink tops, sweaters, shirts and blouses. Denim jeans or skirts. Through their choice of clothes this morning, thousands of people in South Africa wanted to make a statement. A statement that they have had enough. Enough of violence against babies, girls, women and grannies. Pink and denim was what Sheldean Human (7) wore on the day she was kidnapped, February 18. She was last seen with a man who has since confessed, and who directed the police to where her body was (in a lake). His trial started today, March 9, in Pretoria. Hundreds of protesters in pink and denim are demanding the re-introduction of the death penalty. Their demands remind me of the wo…

- Aernout Zevenbergen has lived and worked in Africa since 1997. Currently he is living in Cape Town. Although born in Lusaka (Zambia) he was raised in The Netherlands. For the last ten years he has been the Africa correspondent for a paper in The Netherlands (Algemeen Dagblad) and one in Belgium (De Morgen) as well as for various magazines and organisations. He travelled through more then thirty countries to report on news, backgrounds and trends. In April 2007 he will publish his first book Vlekken van een luipaard, (Spot of a leopard) on men and masculinities in Africa. Aernout will write a blog for Africa News on the theme gender through the eyes of men. Please direct your questions, cri…