U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa

Tel: +27 11 880 4633
Fax: +27 11 880 1421
e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 71
11 - 17 May 2002


CONTENTS:

MADAGASCAR: Rain storms and political gales
ANGOLA: Tug-of-war over demobilisation
ZIMBABWE: Dialogue over with ZANU says MDC
MALAWI: Three million in need of food aid
NAMIBIA: Poor regional rainfall slashes harvest expectations
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Vulnerable elderly ignored
SOUTH AFRICA: Focus on Lindela detention centre
SWAZILAND: Focus on marijuana cultivation
MOZAMBIQUE: Britain wipes debt

MADAGASCAR: Rain storms and political gales

Humanitarian officials on Friday warned that the drawn-out political
crisis in Madagascar was hampering much needed aid from reaching the east
of the country, where floods have killed 29 people.

A toll released early this week put the number of dead at 13, all from the
city of Tamatave, with rescue services unable to reach the towns and
villages outside the port.

One aid worker said that all the wells in the city had been polluted and
the risk for epidemics was high. At least 20,000 people had been affected,
he told IRIN.  The island nation's second largest city has been flooded
since a tropical storm hit eastern Madagascar last week. Veteran ruler
Didier Ratsiraka set up his capital in Tamatave when his election rival
Marc Ravalomanana declared himself president in February.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=27808

Hopes of reconciliation faded on Wednesday as Ravalomanana appointed a new
cabinet. Of the 30 appointees only one was from the former government. One
diplomat said that the move by the new president would make an "already
complex situation more difficult to resolve".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=27793

NGOs raised concern about the increasing ethnic nature of the violence in
the country after six people were killed and many others injured over the
weekend in a fresh outbreak of violence in the northwestern town of
Mahajanga. AFP reported that pro-Ratsiraka loyalists looted and torched
shops and houses in a district populated by Merinas, the ethnic group that
predominates in the highlands, from where Ravalomanana himself originates.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=27747

ANGOLA: Tug-of-war over demobilisation

The diplomatic tangle between the government and the international
community requesting a coordinated plan for humanitarian assistance to
demobilisation areas continued this week. Diplomatic sources told IRIN
that the government was trying to "shut the international community out"
of effective participation in the process.

As more evidence emerges of a humanitarian crisis in some of the
quartering areas, a senior UNITA official told IRIN that the government
should work with international partners to provide urgent relief
assistance.

"We don't believe the size of the operation is within the capability of
the government," said UNITA member of parliament Jaka Jamba. "The
government has provided some resources from the [defence budget] but it is
not enough."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27825

But the crisis goes beyond the quartering areas. Malnutrition levels in at
least seven newly accessible regions are "critical", according to the
United Nations. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) said on Tuesday that inter-agency rapid assessments in 28 areas
which were cut off from relief aid before May because of the war indicated
that people needed assistance urgently.

"Populations in all of the assessed locations urgently require basic
health care, sanitation, portable water, essential non-food items,
education and proof of identity," OCHA said in a report.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27774

Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu, the UN Secretary-General's Special
Representative for Children and Armed Conflicts this week called for
Angola to invest heavily in its children if it wants to consolidate and
preserve its new-found peace.

Otunnu said on Monday that if children were not a central focus during the
post-war period, they could become "spoilers of peace" - as has happened
elsewhere in the world.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27755


ZIMBABWE: Dialogue over with ZANU says MDC

ZANU-PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) talks which
were supposed to pull Zimbabwe out of a political stalemate are dead, the
MDC has declared.

Opposition secretary general Welshman Ncube told IRIN on Friday : "The
talks are dead, full stop. They were scheduled to start on Monday but
ZANU-PF didn't arrive. They sent a letter saying they wanted certain
things reviewed before they could go to the talks. We can't negotiate with
preconditions so we told the facilitators thank you and goodbye."

"We would have had to withdraw out court application and recognise
(President Robert) Mugabe's presidency. They were trying to create talks
outside the talks but the things they objected to were already on the
agenda."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27772

Ministers from eight Commonwealth countries met in Botswana on Friday to
discuss the talks crisis, AFP reported. The Commonwealth has already
suspended Zimbabwe from the body for a year over the election results. On
Monday a European Union delegation is expected to meet in Maputo with the
same agenda.

Meanwhile, a leader of the controversial war veterans, who are seen to be
at the forefront of land invasion, was taken into police custody on
Wednesday to be questioned along with 12 of his associates. Andrew Ndhlovu
recently said that militants planned a campaign to force Asians to hand
over their businesses to black people, accusing them of smuggling and
exploitation. However, on Friday in an apparent turnaround, the government
moved to assure those threatened, with Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo
calling the veterans' plans "hallucinations".

The government has also begun evicting about 12,000 poor people which have
already moved onto farms earmarked for other people. The evictions are
expected to last a month but some observers called it an attempt by the
Zimbabwean government to gain favour at the Commonwealth meetings.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27807

Stopping short of meeting demands for devaluation, the Zimbabwe government
has announced that tobacco growers would now be paid an 80 percent subsidy
over the price they already receive, based on the value of their crop. The
new system will remain in place for the next six months. It follows
disruptions to the opening on Tuesday of the annual tobacco auction as
small-scale black farmers protested over the low prices on offer due to
the country's artificial exchange rate.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27769

Three journalists from the Sunday Standard were arrested this week under
the Access to Information Act for allegedly publishing an untrue story
about the purchase of riot control equipment and police corruption. Eight
other journalists have been arrested since the Act was hurried through
Parliament in March. At the same time three other journalists' challenge
on the Constitutionality of the law was not allowed to go onto the urgent
roll.

MALAWI: Three million in need of food aid

While the present harvest period had eased Malawi's food crisis, more than
three million people are still in need of urgent food aid, humanitarian
workers told IRIN on Friday.

In February, the government said that seven million people out of a
population of 10 million had no food. Floods, drought and a government
decision to sell off its grain reserves - arguing that they were old -
contributed to the food crisis.

A senior aid agency official told IRIN on Friday: "There were seven
million people in need then, at that time there was a crisis because maize
had not been harvested. Now maize has been harvested. But presently the
assessment is that about 600,000 households, which should be about 3.1
million people, are currently needing assistance."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27824

Already struggling to cope with food shortages, Malawi was dealt another
blow on Wednesday when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it would
delay the disbursement of US $47 million in aid.

An IMF statement read: "Lack of good governance has resulted in a
misallocation of resources, increased the cost of doing business, created
a general distrust in public sector activities, and weakened civil service
morale."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27790


NAMIBIA: Poor regional rainfall slashes harvest expectations

Namibia's Kavango and Caprivi regions will see only a third of their
normal maize harvest this year due to sparse rainfall. This falls in line
with multi-agency warnings that harvests will be below normal throughout
Southern Africa this year.

A government source told IRIN an assessment conducted this week showed
that communal farmers will only harvest about 27 percent of their cereal
needs.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27823

For the 70 percent of Namibians who depend on subsistence farming, finding
solutions to desertification is vital. The Namibian government and UNDP
has launched Desertification 2002, a regional network to link affected
communities and governments and scientists. The idea is to share knowledge
on community initiatives to combat desertification.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27759


SOUTHERN AFRICA: Vulnerable elderly ignored

Extreme food shortages and HIV/AIDS are forcing the elderly in Southern
Africa to become breadwinners all over again, HelpAge said on Wednesday.

The organisation recently conducted a study on the plight of the elderly
in Southern Africa and found that grandparents are using their meagre
resources to fill the void left by their children who are either searching
for work in the cities, or who are too sick to work. In some families
where the children have been orphaned, grandparents have stepped in as the
main caregivers.

Malawi and Zimbabwe are worst hit, where both governments have already
declared national disasters and pleaded for help for the millions who face
starvation.

"Older people are shouldering immense responsibility in the face of food
shortages and they face a multiplicity of problems," Tavengwa Nhongo,
HelpAge regional representative for Africa told IRIN.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27794


SOUTH AFRICA: Focus on Lindela detention centre

Stella is 23-years-old and about to be deported to Zimbabwe. For R1,000 a
month (about US $100) she prepared salads and sandwiches in a pub in
Johannesburg's wealthy northern suburbs.

In her hometown of Bulawayo she had no work. Last week on her way home she
was stopped by police in Johannesburg's high-rise suburb of Hillbrow and
asked for her identity document. Unable to produce one she was allowed to
go home to collect toiletries and some personal items and then taken to
the infamous Lindela repatriation centre outside Krugersdorp.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27810

Government wakes up to flight of health workers

South Africa's leading nurses' union on Tuesday welcomed comments by the
government addressing the debilitating flight of health professionals from
the country.

Speaking at a Commonwealth meeting of health ministers in Geneva, Health
Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said: "The recruitment of health workers
from developing countries has created unforeseen shortages in those
countries."

She said that the exodus of medical professionals could be stemmed by
bilateral agreements between developing and developed countries.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27765

Township gets major facelift

Already the construction trucks have moved in, and the foundations have
been laid. In one year, the South African government has promised that
people who are now living in one of the country's most overcrowded
townships will be able to move into new, properly serviced homes.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27750


SWAZILAND: Focus on marijuana cultivation

Swaziland, as signatory to international agreements to control illegal
narcotics, has little choice but to disrupt marijuana cultivation in the
kingdom. But many traditional Swazis are confused.

Insangu, as the inebriating weed is known in the SiSwati language, is the
customary relaxant of the headman of a Swazi homestead. Its usage is
traditionally discouraged among young people, but is enshrined as a
privilege of the elders.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27820


MOZAMBIQUE: Britain wipes debt

Britain has written off all of Mozambique's bilateral debt totalling US
$152 million under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief
initiative, officials said on Thursday.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=27809


IRIN-SA
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Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2002


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