Weekly Round-Up - IRINSA-226: 15-Apr-05
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 226
9 - 15 April 2005
CONTENTS:
ZIMBABWE: MDC continues court challenges as MPs sworn in
MALAWI: Improved food security could be short-lived
ANGOLA: WFP set to cut rations as money runs out
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Marburg toll rises as neighbours go on alert
COMOROS: Assoumani seeks second term in office
SWAZILAND: EU bans beef exports
SOUTH AFRICA: Country's bumper harvest could help neighbours
INDIAN OCEAN: Need for coordinated response to disasters
NAMIBIA: Fishing industry on the line
BOTSWANA: Minority ethnic groups feel bill still discriminates
MOZAMBIQUE: New immunisation campaign launched
ZIMBABWE: MDC continues court challenges as MPs sworn in
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has taken its
seats in parliament while pressing ahead with court challenges to the 31
March legislative election results.
Forty-one MDC MPs were sworn in on Tuesday as the party geared up for a
court battle to prove electoral fraud in several constituencies, while
facing the daunting task of remaining relevant to Zimbabwe's political
landscape.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46623
Producers raise prices of basic goods
Prices of basic commodities have increased sharply since Zimbabwe's 31
March legislative elections, causing panic buying and fears of a return
to widespread shortages.
Economist Dennis Nikisi told IRIN on Monday that the country's foreign
currency shortages were to blame for the current situation, because "84
percent of inputs in the productive sector are sourced through foreign
currency".
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46566
Farmers brace for yet more hard times
Zimbabweans are bracing themselves for yet another year of food
shortages as adverse weather conditions take a heavy toll on crops.
The government has warned that the impact of drought conditions was
expected to be worse than last year, although the extent of the damage
will only become clear when the harvest period ends on 30 April.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46571
Survey records alarming levels of child malnutrition
A survey in 10 districts across Zimbabwe has recorded alarmingly high
levels of malnutrition among children.
Interviews conducted by the country's Food and Nutrition Council, in
collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, showed
stunting or chronic malnutrition levels as high as 47 percent among
children aged from six months to 59 months on commercial farms.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46601
Govt to go ahead with key constitutional amendments
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party plans to use its two-thirds
parliamentary majority to change the constitution and create a second
chamber and the office of prime minister.
National political commissar Elliot Manyika told IRIN the party also
intended to "tighten legislation relating to land and economic reform,
with a view to giving statutory bodies more control over these crucial
sectors and core national assets".
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46621
MALAWI: Improved food security could be short-lived
Overall household food security in Malawi has improved with the onset of
the harvest, but aid workers warn that many families are likely to face
shortages as early as July.
According to the office of the UN Resident Representative in Malawi,
results from the latest crop assessment, released by the Ministry of
Agriculture on 1 April, pointed to "impending hunger".
More details: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46624
Land redistribution scheme draws criticism
Rights groups in Malawi have labelled a government land redistribution
project as "cosmetic", saying the move was unlikely to improve the lives
of the rural poor.
Commissioner of Lands Francis Majankono on Wednesday announced plans to
purchase land from tea and tobacco estate owners under the government's
willing-buyer, willing-seller policy. The redistribution exercise,
funded by the World Bank to the tune of US $28 million, is expected to
parcel out land to around 20,000 families in the country's southern
region.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46650
ANGOLA: WFP set to cut rations as money runs out
The World Food Programme (WFP) could be forced to cut its already
reduced emergency food rations to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable
Angolans unless it receives much-needed support from donors.
"If we get no further contributions in the next couple of weeks, then,
come the early part of the third quarter, we will have to cut rations
even more," WFP Country Director Rick Corsino told IRIN.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46648
Opposition protests composition of electoral body
Angola's main opposition party, UNITA, on Thursday said it would
continue to push for greater representation on the country's proposed
National Electoral Commission (CNE).
Opposition parties walked out of a parliamentary commission on Tuesday
to protest the lack of consensus on the composition of the CNE, which is
to oversee preparations for landmark general elections expected to take
place in 2006.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46647
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Marburg toll rises as neighbours go on high alert
Neighbouring countries placed their health services on high alert as the
death toll in Angola's deadly Marburg epidemic climbed to 192.
With the number of cases of the Ebola-like bug rising to 213, efforts in
Angola's northern province of Uige, the epicentre of the outbreak,
focused on tracking down what potentially amounts to scores of people
who have been in close contact with victims.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46568
Recurrent dry spells "cause for concern"
The rising temperatures and recurrent dry spells in Southern Africa
points to the impact of climate change and are "cause for concern", a
senior scientist told IRIN.
Many countries in the region, such as Swaziland and Lesotho, were now
entering their fourth year of drought. According to a new Famine Early
Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report, the 2004/05 season "has been
marked by adverse conditions, including erratic rains, intermittent dry
spells, and flooding in some areas".
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46664
COMOROS: Assoumani seeks second term in office
Parliamentarians in the Comoros have expressed their dissatisfaction
with a draft law that allows Union President Azali Assoumani to sidestep
a constitutional provision requiring the federal presidency to rotate
between the islands, and vie for a second four-year term in elections
next year.
Under the archipelago's new national constitution, adopted in 2001, the
federal presidency rotates every four years among the elected presidents
of the three islands in the Union: Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46600
SWAZILAND: EU bans beef exports while innoculation records remain lost
The recent suspension of Swazi beef exports to the European Union (EU)
is expected to exert further pressure on the country's weakening
economy.
Beef products were banned by the EU after Swaziland failed to produce
the necessary paperwork needed to track the provenance of slaughtered
cattle, including their inoculations.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46575
SOUTH AFRICA: Country 's bumper harvest could help neighbours
Although the rest of Southern Africa is threatened by a poor maize crop,
South Africa is set to produce a bumper harvest, according to new
forecasts.
"That surplus will be needed by South Africa's neighbours," the UN's
Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said in its latest crop report
for Africa.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46649
Textile and garment workers strong-arm retailers
South African textile and garment workers have turned up the pressure on
major clothing retailers to sign an agreement committing them to buy at
least 75 percent of their stock from local manufacturers.
Earlier this week the Save Jobs Campaign, led by the Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South African Council of Churches and
various NGOs, handed over a memorandum to Truworths and Woolworths - two
of the country's leading fashion retailers - saying that clothing
imports had seriously undercut local manufactures, resulting in hundreds
of job losses.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46662
INDIAN OCEAN: Need for coordinated response to disasters, says UNRC
Preventing loss of life and minimising shocks to fragile economies were
key motivators in racheting up the early warning, disaster preparedness
and response systems in Indian Ocean islands, the United Nations
Resident Coordinator (UNRC) for Mauritius and Seychelles told IRIN.
UNRC Aese Smedler said early warning and disaster preparedness was "an
area we feel is of extreme importance".
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46651
NAMIBIA: Fishing industry on the line
Hopes of government relief for Namibia's beleaguered fishing industry -
struggling to cope with a weak US dollar, high fuel prices and erratic
catches - were dashed on Wednesday.
Reacting to a recent submission by the industry, urging the cancellation
of catch quota levies, a rebate on fuel prices and lower port usage
fees, Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Abraham Iyambo told a
meeting of 300 industry captains that the onus was on them to steer the
sector out of trouble.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46652
BOTSWANA: Minority ethnic groups feel new bill still discriminates
Member of parliament Filbert Nagafela has decided to register his own
personal protest against the Botswana constitution by refusing to sing
the national anthem until all references to the country's ethnic groups
are removed.
Nagafela is a member of the Kgalakgadi people, one of the eight ethnic
groups not recognised by the current constitution and, as such, he feels
he is unable to identify with the phrase "this land is our inheritance"
in the anthem.
More details;
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46625
MOZAMBIQUE: New immunisation campaign launched
Poor health coverage and bad road networks pose a challenge to
immunising nine million children in Mozambique, a senior health official
told IRIN.
The children are part of a national immunisation campaign against
measles and polio, launched last week in the capital, Maputo, by
President Armando Guebuza. The Ministry of Health hopes to be able to
declare Mozambique polio-free by the end of 2005.
More details: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46574
Visas no longer required for inter-country travel
Mozambicans have welcomed the waiving of visas to enter South Africa,
announced on Friday by the leaders of both countries at a meeting on
strengthening bilateral trade.
The new ruling comes into force on Monday and will also apply to South
Africans visiting Mozambique.
It used to cost Mozambicans around R400 (about US $70) in visa fees to
enter their economically powerful neighbour - more than most earn in one
month. "I'll be very happy when we do not have to pay for our visa. It
was just too much money," Lole Buque, a Mozambican businessman, told
IRIN.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46669
AFRICA: New thinking needed to counter AIDS in rural communities
The link between HIV/AIDS and hunger in rural communities has received a
great deal of attention over the past few years - particularly in
Southern Africa, where HIV/AIDS has added a new dimension to the recent
food crisis.
But research emerging from this week's international conference on
'HIV/AIDS and Food and Nutrition Security' in Durban, South Africa,
showed that very little is know about the actual impact of the pandemic
on rural communities.
The three-day conference, organised by the Washington-based
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), brings together
policymakers, donors and researchers to develop strategies for improving
and expanding the response to HIV/AIDS and food security.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46670
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2005
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