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

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


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 74
01 - 07 June 2002


CONTENTS:

SOUTHERN AFRICA: 13 million people in need of food aid
ZIMBABWE: UN rapporteur slams detention of Law Society members
MADAGASCAR: Rival leaders prepare for Dakar 2
MALAWI: Judges feud over protest ban
MOZAMBIQUE: Poor have yet to see the benefits of debt relief
ZAMBIA: Need for economic diversification as Anglo pulls out
SWAZILAND: Lawyers approach OAU over king's rights record
ANGOLA: Coordination needed to address humanitarian crisis

SOUTHERN AFRICA: 13 million people in need of food aid

Close to 13 million people in six countries in Southern Africa are in need
of food aid between now and March next year. That figure could rise
further if the humanitarian response is delayed, or this season's winter
harvest is lower than expected, UN agencies and NGOs warned on Thursday.

"A full blown crisis is not yet with us, but is very much on the horizon,"
World Food Programme (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Jean-Jacques Graisse
said at the opening in Johannesburg of a two-day meeting on the regional
food crisis, attended by representatives from a wide range of aid
agencies, donors, and regional governments.

UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and WFP crop assessments in six
countries - Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland -
point to the region facing the worst food crisis since the 1992 drought. A
total of 12.8 million people are in need of assistance through to March.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28196

Nicholas Haan, Regional Programme Advisor of the WFP's Vulnerability
Analysis and Mapping unit, was WFP's technical coordinator in the
inter-agency food assessment missions that detailed the extent of the
emergency. He spoke to IRIN on the factors that have tipped the six
countries into crisis.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28208

ZIMBABWE: UN rapporteur slams detention of Law Society members

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Dato'
Param Cumaraswamy, expressed his deep concern over the arrest and
detention of the President of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Sternford Moyo
and its Executive Secretary, Wilbert Mapombere, in Harare on Monday, a
statement said.

The two were arrested for alleged possession of "subversive" documents
relating to the mass action allegedly planned by the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC). They were charged under the Public Order and
Security Act and the alleged offence carries a maximum of 20 years in
prison.

Recently Moyo, on behalf of the Law Society, published a report expressing
concerns about the pressures the judges in the country faced.

"The Special Rapporteur calls on the government of Zimbabwe to comply with
its international obligations and respect the role of lawyers and release
the two leaders of the Law Society and withdraw all charges against them
unconditionally," the statement said. The two have since been granted
bail.

For the full statement go to:
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/BB3B6D78D2702996C1256BD0
004F57AB?opendocument

The arrest of the two came in the same week that an analyst said
Zimbabwe's tourism recovery plan had been hindered by a barrage of
negative publicity.

Lance Cunningham of Dynamics International Incorporated said the tourism
sector, whose earnings declined by about 40 percent in 2001, would have
netted average earnings of US $291 million a year for the past three years
if it had maintained the 10 percent annual growth achieved before 1999.

This meant that the country had lost more than US $200 million a year in
tourism earnings over the last two years. The tourism sector used to
contribute about eight percent to Zimbabwe's annual gross domestic
product.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, Zimbabwe's Finance
Minister Simba Makoni said the economy had lost a third of its jobs since
2000.

On Thursday, strained relations between the Danish and the Zimbabwean
government finally came to a head as Denmark announced that it will close
its embassy later this year.

Ole Moesby, the Danish ambassador, told IRIN: "We have recognised that our
relationship with the Zimbabwean government has not been ideal. We haven't
seen any commitment to dialogue and we don't believe we could have done
anything more to improve the situation in the country."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28187

On Thursday allegations surfaced that some ZANU-PF officials and cabinet
ministers had received money from farmers who wanted their farms taken off
the land acquisition list. According to a report in the Financial Gazette,
some farmers also paid money to war veteran leaders to be allowed to
continue farming.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28182

Rejection of the results of the controversial March election which saw
President Robert Mugabe returned to power, are entering another cycle. The
MDC said it had not given up its fight to force a re-run of the election.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28196

MADAGASCAR: Rival leaders prepare for Dakar 2

Producers of Madagascar's key cash crop of vanilla on Friday said the
state of civil unrest in the island's northeastern vanilla growing region
could adversely affect this year's harvest, AFP reported.

Around 15 people have been killed in fighting between troops loyal to
President Marc Ravalomanana and former President Didier Ratsiraka in the
northeast of the country.

IRIN reported on Thursday that preparations were underway in Dakar,
Senegal, for a new round of talks between the two election rivals.

After meeting the Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU), Amara Essy, and the French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin
in Gabon, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade appealed to the "sense of
responsibility" of the two Malagasy leaders. In a statement, Wade said
that an OAU economic aid package to help Madagascar recover would be
considered in the event of a political agreement.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28189

On Monday running battles continued in the north-eastern region after the
town of Sambava was seized by Ravalomanana's forces over the weekend.
Despite being under the control of Ratsiraka loyalists, news reports said
that Sambava was singled out by Ravalomanana's forces because of the
substantial support Ravalomanana received among voters during the 16
December presidential poll.

One political analyst in Antananarivo told IRIN: "Ratsiraka would be more
inclined to retain control of more strategically important cities like
Tamatave and Mahajanga. He will only concede the smaller, less critical
towns."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28106

MALAWI: Judges feud over protest ban

The week ended with two High Court judges delivering conflicting rulings
over President Bakili Muluzi's ban on protests against his perceived bid
for a third term in office.

The result of the legal confusion is that Muluzi's ban will now undergo a
judicial review at the High Court. The ban will not be enforced until the
review is complete. In an about turn the High Court on Thursday overturned
a previous court ruling declaring Muluzi's ban unconstitutional.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28188

On Monday, Judge Dunstain Mwaungulu ruled that Muluzi's ban violated the
constitutional rights of freedom of expression and assembly. The court
ruling came after influential religious groups, including the Roman
Catholic Church, and the Law Society of Malawi applied for an injunction
against Muluzi's threat to stop demonstrations over the third term issue.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28135

Maize dominance worsens food crisis

IRIN reported on Tuesday that Malawi needs to shift its focus from maize
to the abundance of "local" foods - many of them growing wild - if it
wanted to avert future food shortages and malnutrition, a nutritionist
said.

"It has been ingrained over the last 60 years that maize is food and there
is nothing else. People think if they haven't eaten maize, they are
'hungry'," said Stacia Nordin. She hopes to convince Malawians, donors and
the government, to re-examine the dominance of this staple food.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28140

Studies have shown that smallholders with less than one hectare of land,
estate workers and tenants, low income urban dwellers, female-headed
households and children suffer from chronic food insecurity. They also
found that the majority of the poorest people in Malawi are women and that
female-headed households - which make up 34 percent of households -
shoulder the greater burden of poverty.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28099

A recent FAO report said that HIV/AIDS is hitting the Southern African
farm sector hard, with stricken families struggling to produce enough food
to survive.

Jennie Mueller, the leader of the Hope project funded by Development Aid
from People to People (DAPP), told IRIN: "Communities rely on agriculture
and [the income of] agricultural labour. If one person goes down then they
all go down. If they have one sick person it's one less person being
productive."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28162

Conservative Malawi grapples with sex education

The Malawi Censorship Board ordered the removal of a controversial condom
advertisement that it declared offensive and pornographic, IRIN reported
on Monday.

A joint statement to the local media by 20 ministers of religion said:
"While sex education is imperative in the wake of [the] HIV/AIDS pandemic,
this does not warrant wanton display of naked figures."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28094

Malawi's city sidewalks are always dotted with wicker armchairs, book
shelves and tables which are for sale. They find their way into almost
every lodge and house. But besides being beautifully crafted, this
furniture also provides a valuable source of income in a country where
formal employment is difficult to find.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28185

NGOs need to cement links with government

A recent study by two Malawian academics involved in the education sector
in the Southern African country suggested that local NGOs needed to
improve communication among themselves and with government.

The report added that NGO's needed to boost their credibility and
transparency if they were to be recognised by government, donors and
communities.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28194

MOZAMBIQUE: Poor have yet to see the benefits of debt relief

Analysts and NGOs were reticent to praise the recent debt relief
Mozambique has received from western governments saying that the poor in
the country had yet to see any real changes in their daily lives.

Mozambique was one of the first countries to qualify for the Highly
Indebted Poor Countries initiative. Its premise is that debt should be
reduced to a "sustainable level". For the World Bank and the IMF, a
country's foreign debt is "sustainable" if the debt service ratio is in
the region of 20 percent of GDP, and the entire debt stock is between 200
and 220 percent of annual exports.

"Even 20 percent of Mozambique's GDP is way too much to ask," political
researcher at the Pretoria-based, Africa Institute, Sipho Buthelezi said.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28163

IRIN reported on Tuesday that about half a million Mozambicans are in need
of food aid, a FAO and WFP joint assessment has found.

The FAO/WFP report said about 515,000 people in poor households in 43
districts of the southern and central regions of Mozambique "are facing
severe food insecurity due to drought-devastated agricultural production
and exhaustion of their coping abilities over the last four years".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28132

IRIN learnt on Wednesday that World Vision had set up a national
"emergency response disaster management committee" aimed at strengthening
the development agency's capacity to deal with emergency situations.

The 10-strong team is made up of staff specialising in areas spanning some
of World Vision's main activities in Mozambique, from agriculture to human
resources and health.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org./report.asp?ReportID=28155

ZAMBIA: Need for economic diversification as Anglo pulls out of mine

The week ended with reports that mining giant Anglo American had offered
the Zambian government US $30 million in compensation for its pullout from
the Konkola Copper Mines.

News agency AFP reported that two years after it bought its major stake in
Zambia's major mining asset, Anglo decided to pull out because of fast
falling copper prices in the international market.

On Tuesday IRIN reported that more urgency was being accorded to the
diversification of Zambia's copper-dependent economy.

Economic observers, including key donor institutions, now admit that much
of the energies invested in the copper industry during the 1990s may have
been misplaced.

"Copper may have been king before, but it will certainly not be king in
the future," the World Bank's Vice President for Africa, Callisto Madavo,
told economists in Lusaka last week.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28134

SWAZILAND: Lawyers approach OAU over king's rights record

The week ended in Swaziland with Lawyers for Human Rights in Swaziland
(LHRS) lodging a complaint with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
over the human rights record of King Mswati's regime, AFP reported.

"The government should prepare itself to go and explain ... why there is
blatant disregard for the basic and fundamental rights of citizens," a
representative for the lawyers told French news agency AFP.

The OAU's African Commission on Human and People's Rights would reportedly
discuss the complaint in Banjul, Gambia, in October.

Meanwhile IRIN reported on Thursday that the king had promulgated an
Internal Security Bill that sought to clamp down on dissent in the
country. Opposition political parties are banned in Swaziland, a country
with just under one million people.

Swaziland's Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) president Africa Magongo
told IRIN that the federation and its partners, civic organisations and
political movements, were planning to hold mass protest action against the
proposed new constitution that would entrench Mswati's rule.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28186

ANGOLA: Coordination needed to address humanitarian crisis

In the face of almost overwhelming humanitarian need, it was imperative
that relief organisations in Angola coordinated their activities, said the
Red Cross. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that
since the ceasefire agreement of 4 April, the security guarantees it had
received from the government and rebel UNITA enabled it to work in areas
formerly off limits.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28103


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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