The African Same-Sex Sexualities and Gender Diversity conference was recently held in Pretoria. The conference coordinator was none other than Vasu Reddy, co-editor of 'The Country We Want to Live In' and 'From Social Silence to Social Science'. Reddy said at the conference that Africa is a 'continent where, despite some positive changes in a few countries, same-sex sexualities and gender diversity remain deeply steeped in cultural prejudice and stigma'. Ironically, this is revealed in the media reportage of the event.

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has questioned the media's priority in dealing with issues facing women, especially gender-based violence and representation of women in media. It pointed out that the epidemic of rhino poaching has been very present in media headlines and coverage - showing an increase in deaths from 133 in 2009 to 333 in 2010 - but that in the same period, 197,000 cases of crimes against women were reported to police, including murder, attempted murder, common assault, sexual offences and assault to cause grievous bodily harm.

The Centre for Constitutional Rights has presented its third annual Human Rights Report Card on South Africa. 'During the past year South Africans have continued to enjoy most of the constitutional rights to which they are entitled. However, proposed legislation and government initiatives raise very serious concerns with regard to some core rights such as freedom of expression; property rights; important aspects of the right to equality; and freedom of trade, occupation and profession; labour relations; and the right to freedom and security of the person,' the report says.

The highest court of the land has ruled invalid the law enacted to disband the former elite crime-fighting unit, the Directorate of Special Operations (or 'the Scorpions'). The Court’s two main findings are that: first, the state is constitutionally bound to 'establish and maintain an independent body to combat corruption and organised crime'; and second, that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation ('the Hawks') established after the disbanding of the Scorpions 'does not meet the constitutional requirement of adequate independence' and is 'insufficiently insulated from political influence in its structure and functioning'.