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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e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-Up 238
2 - 8 July 2005


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Destroy your home or the bulldozers will, residents told
ANGOLA: Fighting flares up again
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Ten million in need of food aid, agencies warn
BOTSWANA: Public flogging causes outrage
ZAMBIA: Media freedom under threat says watchdog
MAURITIUS: New broom's promise to sweep clean SOUTH AFRICA: New action
   plan to assist OVC underway
SWAZILAND: Price shock of higher transport costs will hit the poor
AFRICA: Slim pickings at Gleneagles


ZIMBABWE: Destroy your home or the bulldozers will, residents told

The Zimbabwean government has continued with its programme of 
demolishing illegal homes, despite urgent calls by aid workers to halt 
the operation.

In Epworth, an old settlement of around 300,000 people 15 km east of the 
capital, Harare, residents began destroying their own homes on Tuesday 
rather than pay a fee of US $150 per room if the job was done by 
government bulldozers.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48001


MDC meets with Mbeki, ahead of AU summit

The Zimbabwean opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), 
met with President Thabo Mbeki at the weekend, ahead of a meeting of 
African leaders in Libya.

Speaking to IRIN on Monday, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said, "We want 
to show we are part of the solution and do not want to become part of 
the problem."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47952


Defiant informal traders battle to survive

Zimbabwean informal traders affected by the government's controversial 
cleanup operation have come up with ways - often novel - to keep their 
businesses alive and out of the watchful eye of the authorities.

>From locating business operations at their homes to displaying wares as 
"samples" on the street, defiant traders were fighting to survive 
because they had no alternative source of income, said analysts.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47971


Forced evictions could aggravate disease - health experts

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) is 
concerned that an ongoing government crackdown on informal settlements 
and markets is likely to aggravate disease.

Of particular concern to ZADHR was the negative impact of the campaign 
on children and families infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48006


Concern that transit camps will become permanent

The creation of transit camps as a result of the Zimbabwean government's 
forced eviction campaign has a familiar ring - a homeless people's 
rights NGO says many of the suburbs in the recent eviction drive arose 
as transit camps after demolitions in previous years.

In the cleanup campaign, launched in May, thousands of informal 
settlements have been demolished and at least 375,000 people left 
homeless; the authorities have claimed it was part of an urban renewal 
strategy that will eventually build 10,000 homes at a cost of US $300 
million.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48024


ANGOLA: Fighting flares up again

Civil society groups in Angola's oil-rich Cabinda enclave have confirmed 
that a "major offensive" against separatist rebels is underway in the 
interior of the province.

Agostinho Chikaia, leader of the Mpalapanda Civic Association in 
Cabinda, told IRIN on Wednesday that although the clashes between 
government troops and the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of 
Cabinda (FLEC) have not yet "seriously impacted" on the civilian 
population, insecurity in the affected areas had heightened.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47998


World Bank says reconstruction programme is critical

A 423 km road trip from Luanda, the Angolan capital, to the central 
province of Malanje takes 13 hours - underlining the need to 
rehabilitate the shattered infrastructure, according to World Bank 
representative Laurence Clarke.

"The road was very, very bad ... 13 hours gives you a sense of just how 
bad the road was," explained Clarke, who recently completed the 
bone-jarring journey.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48022


A mixed report card by the IMF

Rising receipts from oil production continue to boost Angola's post-war 
economy, but the benefits have yet to filter down to millions of poor 
families, an annual International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessment has 
shown.

The report, released earlier this week, painted a mixed picture of the 
country's performance over the past year, and observed that although the 
economy has grown by about 9 percent a year since a ruinous civil war 
ended in 2002, "poverty remains deeply entrenched".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48021


Diamond areas short-changed by development, says report

Angola is likely to produce diamonds worth nearly US $900 million this 
year, but little of that money will be spent on development in the 
diamond-producing areas, according to a new report.

The report by Partnership Africa Canada noted that "three years of peace 
is enough time for an oil-rich, diamond-rich government to have made 
wider social investments in the diamond areas, and to have produced 
development policies that are more supportive of Angola's artisanal 
miners".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47974


Desperately seeking skilled migrants

A new study conducted in Angola and Zambia brings into sharp focus the 
negative impact of migration on the development of struggling countries, 
and proposes solutions to reversing the exodus of scarce skills to 
richer pastures.

'Migration and Development: New Strategic Outlooks and Practical Ways 
Forward - The Cases of Angola and Zambia', by the International 
Organisation for Migration (IOM), noted that although they have very 
different histories, the two countries face similar challenges: stemming 
the brain drain and enticing skilled migrants to return.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47992


SOUTHERN AFRICA: Ten million in need of food aid, agencies warn

More than 10 million people will need humanitarian assistance in six 
countries across Southern Africa in the coming year, two UN agencies and 
the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) warned on Thurday.

The agencies issued an urgent appeal for US $266 million in food aid to 
assist the region's vulnerable people.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48023


Textile industry undone by globalisation

The textile and clothing manufacturing industry is not a sustainable 
option for Southern Africa in the long term, according to a UN 
economist. The sector - one of Southern Africa's few export industries - 
is struggling to compete in a quota-free global market.

Manufacturers have been hard-hit by the termination of the Multi-Fibre 
Agreement (MFA), which came to an end in January this year. The MFA was 
introduced 30 years ago to protect the textile industries of developed 
countries by imposing quotas on high-volume producers such as China, 
Korea and India.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47993


BOTSWANA: Public flogging causes outrage

Two weeks ago Tebogo Malete was publicly flogged at a traditional court 
in Old Naledi, a village southeast of the Botswana's capital, Gaborone; 
a photograph of his punishment was published in the weekly newspaper, 
The Midweek Sun.

Malete, 27, a petty thief, had been sentenced to five lashes for 
housebreaking at the customary court presided over by the village 
headman. The humiliating newspaper photo showed him with his pants down 
and a police officer using a lash on his bare buttocks, sparking outrage 
in human rights circles.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47945


ZAMBIA: Media freedom under threat says watchdog

Zambian police are investigating charges of sedition and criminal libel 
against two journalists, raising concern that freedom of expression is 
under threat.

Sipo Kapumba, a spokesman for the Media Institute of Southern Africa 
(MISA) Zambia, told IRIN this week that the police had summoned Fred 
M'membe, editor of the privately owned The Post newspaper, on 29 June 
after a series of editorials critical of President Levy Mwanawasa's 
government.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47951


MAURITIUS: New broom's promise to sweep clean

The opposition Social Alliance (SC), led by Navin Ramgoolam, swept to 
victory in general elections in Mauritius, netting 38 out of 62 seats in 
Sunday's poll.

Ramgoolam has promised to tackle growing frustration with rising 
unemployment and inflation as the country's grapples with the loss of 
preferential trade deals with the United States and the European Union 
(EU).

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47973


SOUTH AFRICA: New action plan to assist OVC underway

As a growing number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS seek assistance 
from the state, South Africa's social development department has begun 
drawing up a plan to address their needs, IRIN reported on Monday.

An estimated one million children have been orphaned and, according to 
the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), at least 5.7 million 
could lose one or both parents to AIDS by 2015. Civil society 
organisations have been calling for new regulations and better 
enforcement to protect orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) for several 
years.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47949


SWAZILAND: Price shock of higher transport costs will hit the poor

A hike in commuter fares this week - by as much two-thirds for some 
urban destinations - has highlighted the burden of high oil prices on 
the nation's poor, as well as the limitations of Swaziland's public 
transportation system.

"There is no one to look after the interests of ordinary travellers. 
Unemployment is going up and those of us who are lucky enough to have 
jobs do not get salary increments to match a 50 percent rise in taxi 
fares," complained Nhlanhla Dube, a carpenter at the Matsapha Industrial 
Estate, outside the central city of Manzini.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47975


New bill to nab delinquent dads

On Thursday IRIN reported on the government's attempts to crackdown on 
delinquent fathers and negligent custodians of children.

Parents who do not send their children to school will be subject to a 
R5,000 (US $746) fine per child, according to new draft legislation 
aimed at addressing the problem of "deadbeat dads" who refuse to provide 
financial support to their children.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48025


AFRICA: Slim pickings at Gleneagles

Expectations that leaders of the world's richest nations meeting in 
Scotland this week would take far-reaching steps to eradicate poverty in 
Africa have not been met, with limited progress on debt relief, 
increased aid to the continent or the dismantling of unfair trade 
practices.

At the close of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Gleneagles on Friday, 
anti-poverty campaigners expressed disappointment the overall outcome of 
the much-publicised event.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48046


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 895-1900
Fax: +27 11 784-6759
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
2005


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