Weekly Round-Up - IRINSA-241: 29-Jul-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
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SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-Up 241
23 - 29 July 2005
CONTENTS:
ZIMBABWE: 'Look East' policy staves off collapse with grants and deals
ANGOLA: Painful period of transition
SOUTH AFRICA: Evictions worsen low-cost housing crisis
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Zimbabwe's evictions throw spotlight on the right to
housing
SWAZILAND: New constitution signed into law
ZAMBIA: Refugees and host communities benefit from development project
BOTSWANA: San rights groups split
MALAWI: Emergency measures to cope with food crisis
MOZAMBIQUE: Economic security a challenge to ARV patients
ZIMBABWE: 'Look East' policy staves off collapse with grants and deals
President Robert Mugabe's 'Look East' policy took him to China this week
for further trade deals to help rescue Zimbabwe's ailing economy, which
is suffering the effects of an aid freeze by Western lenders.
China is at the forefront of the Look East initiative, which seeks trade
and political agreements with Asian countries considered friendly to
Zimbabwe, rather than traditional western partners, who have been
critical of alleged human rights abuses and electoral fraud.
Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented influx of Chinese goods over the past
two years, and now a high-powered delegation, led by Mugabe on a
week-long visit, has reportedly struck a number of commercial and loan
agreements in exchange for trade and mineral concessions.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48359
Govt pleads for donor funding to fix cleanup campaign fallout
Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has
scoffed at a government plea for international assistance to build
houses for thousands of people made homeless by its controversial urban
cleanup campaign, IRIN reported on Thursday.
Vice President Joyce Mujuru reportedly made the appeal on Wednesday,
noting that Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out Filth) had officially
ended. According to the United Nations, the two-month eviction campaign
has affected some 700,000 urban dwellers.
MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyati labelled the call for aid "naive" and
claimed that the operation was still underway.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48345
HIV-positive people dispersed in 'cleanup' operation
The government's cleanup campaign has also impacted on HIV positive
people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.
Mtshumayeli Ndebele and his wife Sithandekile were left homeless when
the authorities instructed them to find their own way to their rural
home area. But the Ndebeles do not have a rural homestead to return to
and, to make matters worse, they are both HIV positive: eviction from
their home has forced them to abandon their ARV treatment.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48347
Impact of demolitions greater than government's new plan
Although Zimbabweans are yet to tally the cost of the government's
controversial cleanup campaign, there are already expectations that the
financial losses will be significant.
A joint report released on Friday by the Combined Harare Residents
Association (CHRA) and Action Aid, an international development NGO,
said although it was difficult to quantify the damage caused by the
operation in monetary terms, a recent survey indicated major losses
across a broad front, ranging from shelter to schooling.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48286
Evictions continue despite international condemnation
IRIN reported on Monday that the government had ignored a call by the UN
to halt evictions of people living in unauthorised housing, as
Zimbabwean police had ordered residents out of Porta Farm, one of
Harare's oldest informal settlements, about 35 km west of the capital.
The latest police operation at Porta Farm was the second time in a month
they had tried to clear the 7,500 settlers from the area. At the first
attempt in June, homes and markets were demolished to force people to
return to their rural areas, or to a holding camp at Caledonia Farm, 15
km north of Harare, but many of the residents refused to move.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48283
ANGOLA: Painful period of transition
After three years of peace, Angola - rich in diamonds and oil - still
faces a complex mix of humanitarian and developmental challenges.
"We believe that the donors are giving up sooner than they probably
should. It's not fair or accurate to say, 'the war is over; the
emergency is over now, so we can stop giving aid'. We should reduce
relief but not end it; there's still a need for relief aid," said World
Food Programme (WFP) country director Rick Corsino.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48314
Focus shifts to reintegration of refugees
Some 320,000 refugees have returned to Angola since the 2002 peace
accord was signed, and the focus of aid agencies is shifting from
repatriation to reintegration.
During 27 years of civil war an estimated 500,000 Angolans fled to
neighbouring countries - Zambia, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Botswana and South Africa - and millions more were displaced internally.
Of the 320,000 who came home, 185,000 were helped with transport or
given assistance packages by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48304
President Dos Santos cleared to stand for next poll
Angola's main opposition party, UNITA, said it was unfazed by a Supreme
Court ruling on Monday allowing President Eduardo dos Santos to stand in
the country's first post-war election.
"We are not too concerned that dos Santos may stand for the elections
next year - that is a decision for the MPLA - but now we want there to
be more emphasis on making sure that the election does happen next year,
and that people are ready to vote. These elections will bring about
constitutional and political stability," UNITA's secretary for public
administration, Alcides Sakala, told IRIN.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48287
SOUTH AFRICA: Evictions worsen low-cost housing crisis
A string of forced evictions in Johannesburg's inner city has raised the
ire of human rights groups, who claim the mass removals disregard
international law and often increase marginalisation of the poor and
vulnerable, IRIN reported on Wednesday.
The Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and
South Africa's Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) alleged that
apartheid-era laws were used to carry out evictions, rather than
appropriate legislation passed in accordance with the country's new
constitution.
COHRE estimates that some 25,000 people in the inner city are at risk of
losing their homes as the council pushes ahead with its urban renewal
scheme.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48330
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Zimbabwe's evictions throw spotlight on the right to
housing
As Zimbabwe faces international rebuke for its controversial campaign to
rid urban areas of illegal settlements, housing experts say large-scale
forced evictions are on the increase in developing countries.
Despite international laws that explicitly condemn the practice,
thousands of poor and vulnerable communities living on the edge under
informal tenure arrangements continue to be uprooted.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48305
SWAZILAND: New constitution signed into law
On Tuesday, King Mswati III signed into law a new national constitution
that effectively upholds his authority over most aspects of Swazi life.
After a nine-year gestation period, the new constitution does not
fundamentally alter Swaziland's system of governance: ultimate power
will remain in the hands of the Swazi king, putting a constitutional
seal on a 1973 decree by Mswati's father, King Sobhuza, which overturned
the constitution bequeathed by the British in 1968.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48306
Maize staple not profitable, despite food crisis
Swaziland is in the grip of another food crisis but farmers say they
cannot plant more maize, the country's staple food, as it is not
profitable.
"I am in good health and we had good rains in this area this year, but I
still won't grow more maize if I cannot recover the cost of fertiliser,
tractor rental and transport to market," said small-scale landholder
Thulaziswe Simelane, whose family farm lies 20 km south of the central
commercial town, Manzini.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48346
ZAMBIA: Refugees and host communities benefit from development project
A rural development project encouraging refugees and host communities to
work together to improve conditions in their areas is set to expand in
Zambia.
The Zambia Initiative Development Programme was started in the country's
Western province in 2002 and has already boosted crop production,
improved health and education facilities, and opened access to markets
for thousands of refugees and Zambians. It will now be expanded to
include the remote North-Western province, which borders Angola and the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48329
BOTSWANA: San rights groups split
A split has emerged among groups campaigning against relocation of the
San Bushmen from Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).
The Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA),
an umbrella group of rights NGOs, issued a statement from their head
office in Windhoek, Namibia, earlier this month, saying that the
London-based NGO, Survival International (SI), did not have a mandate to
speak on behalf of all the San.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48326
MALAWI: Emergency measures to cope with food crisis
President Bingu wa Mutharika has banned maize and fertiliser exports in
response to a growing food crisis that the UN estimates is threatening a
third of Malawians.
"Maize exports out of Malawi to anywhere are forbidden. We cannot export
maize when our people are starving here," Mutharika said on Monday.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48307
Economic growth and deforestation major challenges to food security,
says WFP
Improved economic growth and the extension of social safety nets would
help Malawi avoid recurring food shortages, according to the World Food
Programme's (WFP) outgoing country representative, Gerard van Dijk.
He told IRIN the country had good resources, which "should make Malawi
self-sufficient in terms of food", if properly managed.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48360
Britain releases P20 million in budget support
The British government has released P20 million in budget support to
Malawi, saying the country had "turned the corner" and was making "real
progress" in fiscal discipline.
This is the first disbursement of the P60 million set aside by the
British government as budgetary support, making Britain the first
bilateral donor to provide macroeconomic support since the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) froze aid to Malawi in 2000 as a result of
overspending and corruption by the previous government.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48288
MOZAMBIQUE: Economic security a challenge to ARV patients
Although anti-AIDS drugs have helped thousands of people in Mozambique,
hundreds of thousands more still desperately need the life-saving
medication but lack the money to continue treatment.
When his wife died of an AIDS-related illness four years ago, Isufu
Portina, 29, was wrongly arrested for allegedly poisoning and killing
her. A priest from the Community of Sant' Egidio, a Christian civil
society organisation, managed to get him released from prison after
obtaining the autopsy report.
More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48348
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