A concept paper for the establishment of a Ministry for Women and Gender Affairs is to be presented to Cabinet for consideration.

A task team made up of women from government and non-government organisations (NGOs) is expected to finalise the concept paper next week and present it to Cabinet by the end of the month.

Gender activists at the Botswana Council of Non Governmental Organisation Organisations (BOCONGO) have described as 'crazy' government's move to regulate traditional brews.

Government is to facilitate the processes aimed at strengthening the machineries dealing with matters of gender equality such as 50/50 representation in decision-making structures.

A groundbreaking legal action in Swaziland's High Court is testing the new Constitution and its recognition of equal rights for women.

King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, approved the Constitution in 2005 - on the back of centuries of discrimination against women that accorded them second class status - ending customary and institutional discrimination based on gender.

As Zimbabwe's government of national unity begins its work, gender activists are pushing for a greater place for women in decision-making.

Gender talk hits town as parallel gender training and capacity workshops will be held at the same time in Gaborone and Mogoditshane. Johannesburg-based GEMSA and Gender Links will hold two different workshops at the Big 5 lodge in Mogoditshane. The workshop on gender, elections and media training would commence thirty minutes after the gender and local government and media workshop in the same premises.

There is gender imbalance in councils throughout the country, where men outnumber women. Addressing councillors at a gender and local government strategy workshop, women affairs director Marty Legwaila said that out there is only one woman heading a council as council chairperson.

World YWCA has joined with other women's organisations around the globe to call for end to the violence in Madagascar. More than 100 people have died in violent clashes during the political turmoil that has rocked the country. On February 7, police fired at opposition supporters marching toward the presidential palace, killing at least 25 people.

Statements that were attributed to a senior Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) official, Margaret Nasha, about women politicians, have riled opposition parties.

Addressing a recent BDP function in Palapye, Nasha is reported to have urged BDP male candidates to defeat opposition women candidates.

The National Gender Machinery launched its 50/50 national campaign, which aims to increase equal representation of women in decision-making positions, on Thursday.

The Minister in the Presidency Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, launching the campaign, said: "We are beginning a really big movement of 50-50 representation in decision-making positions."