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SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-Up 242
30 July - 5 August 2005


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Call for new voters' roll after cleanup campaign displacement
MALAWI: Hope for solution to political crisis
MADAGASCAR: Mining and tourism sectors set to create more jobs
ANGOLA: First repatriation to troubled Cabinda enclave in two years
MOZAMBIQUE: National immunisation campaign gets underway
SWAZILAND: Economic abuse rising in weak economy
BOTSWANA: Media watchdog slams expulsions
SOUTH AFRICA: Govt ponders new land policy
NAMIBIA: Land reform picks up steam



ZIMBABWE: Call for new voters' roll after cleanup campaign displacement

Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has called on the government to 
urgently produce a new voters' roll in the wake of its controversial 
cleanup campaign, which has led to the relocation of thousands of urban 
dwellers to rural areas.

"Operation Murambatsvina has resulted in the forcible displacement of 
large numbers of urban dwellers. Although they are still on the voters' 
roll, they are no longer able to exercise their right to vote, since 
they are no longer resident in the constituencies where they were 
originally registered," ZESN said in statement on Thursday.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48469


WFP hamstrung by lack of formal appeal for aid

The World Food Programme (WFP) hopes to reach up to three million 
Zimbabweans in need of assistance between October 2005 and April 2006, 
but the lack of a clear appeal for aid by the government has made it 
difficult to raise the resources required, IRIN reported on Thursday.

WFP spokesman Mike Huggins told IRIN that the aid agency estimated some 
4.3 million people would need assistance in the months ahead.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48453


NGOs to discuss restrictions with govt

Non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe are expected to meet with 
senior government officials at the end of August to focus on the immense 
challenges facing civil rights groups.

The meeting is being coordinated by the National Association of 
Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), an umbrella body whose 400 
members are involved in various activities, including civic and voter 
education, drought relief operations and HIV/AIDS prevention and 
awareness programmes.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48456


Fuel for hard currency off to a slow start

The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) intends to sell fuel for 
hard currency in cities across the country, despite the poor response to 
the experiment at the pilot filling station.

Management at Arcadia Filling Station in the capital, Harare, where the 
sale of fuel at Zim $17,500 (US $1.00) per litre was launched on 
Tuesday, told IRIN that although they were adequately supplied, 
motorists were largely ignoring the station, preferring to queue where 
the price was cheaper at Zim $10,000.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48426


Tsvangirai treason case dropped, but Mugabe rejects talks

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is now a "free man" after 
treason charges against him were dropped on Tuesday.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader was also 
acquitted last year of separate charges of plotting to assassinate 
President Robert Mugabe.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48409


MALAWI: Hope for solution to political crisis

The Public Affairs Committee (PAC), a grouping of various clergy, hopes 
its efforts to mediate in Malawi's ongoing political crisis will bear 
fruit.

PAC publicity secretary Maurice Munthali said the bickering between 
President Bingu wa Mutharika and opposition party leaders - former 
president Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and John 
Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) - threatened the nation's 
development.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48473


MDGs can be achieved, UN envoy

Despite widespread poverty and recurring food shortages, Malawi can 
still achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to Prof 
Jeffrey Sachs, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Advisor on the 
MDGs.

Sachs, who arrived in the country this weekend, told IRIN the purpose of 
his visit was "to talk to donors so that they increase aid to Malawi".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48385


Cabinet reshuffle has some unwelcome surprises - analysts

President Bingu wa Mutharika on Sunday dismissed his second vice 
president, Cassim Chilumpha, who was also Minister of Water Development, 
in a cabinet reshuffle that surprised some political analysts.

Although the new cabinet still has 20 ministers, the number of deputy 
ministers increased from eight to 12. Mutharika has not given any reason 
for dropping Chilumpha.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48386


Urgent action needed to halt maternal mortality

Although greater efforts have been made to curb malaria and HIV/AIDS in 
Malawi, not enough is being done to tackle the country's alarming 
maternal death rate, says a coalition of local NGOs.

Maternal mortality stood at 1,800 per 100,000 live births in 2003 - the 
second worst rate in the world after Sierra Leone, according to the 
United Nations.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48411


MADAGASCAR: Mining and tourism sectors set to create more jobs

Despite the strides made by Madagascar in turning around its economy, 
few new jobs have been created in the last two decades.

However, according to the World Bank's (WB) principal economist in 
Madagascar, Dieudonne Randriamanampisoa, the country's mining and 
tourism sectors could be the biggest job-spinners in the coming years.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48432


Vanilla farmers struggle as prices plummet

Rombo Ramasitera is among hundreds of small-scale farmers near 
Madagascar's northeast coast, all trying to make ends meet as vanilla 
prices plummet.

The price of vanilla, the Indian Ocean island's chief export, has fallen 
from about US $180 per kg in 2004 to just $50 per kg in early 2005.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48455


ANGOLA: First repatriation to troubled Cabinda enclave in two years

The repatriation of Angolan refugees living in neighbouring countries is 
expected to pick up speed in the next few weeks, says the UN refugee 
agency.

In the past few days refugees have returned from the Democratic Republic 
of Congo (DRC) and Congo-Brazzaville, including 52 who went back to the 
troubled northern Cabinda enclave.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48433


Govt and UN take quick action to curb the spread of polio

Angola's latest nationwide polio immunisation campaign has come too late 
for 15-year-old Artur Emilio Cassinda.

His skinny legs are useless, totally paralysed by the crippling virus he 
contracted as a child. Living on the outskirts of the isolated village 
of Sungui, on the shores of Lake Ulua in the northern province of Bengo, 
he is destined to spend the rest of his life in a makeshift wheelchair.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48390


MOZAMBIQUE: National immunisation campaign gets underway

A national immunisation campaign targeting almost nine million children 
kicked off in Mozambique this week.

The campaign aims to vaccinate children aged between nine months and 14 
years against measles; children under five years of age will be 
vaccinated against polio; children aged six to 59 months will receive 
vitamin A supplements.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48435


Journalists welcome draft Information Bill

Mozambique has finally put together a draft Freedom of Information Bill, 
which media experts hope will pave the way towards greater transparency 
and government accountability.

After five years of broad consultations, agreement on the content of the 
proposed law was finally reached at a recently held media seminar in the 
capital, Maputo.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48412


SWAZILAND: Economic abuse rising in weak economy

Swaziland's Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) has reported a drop in 
the number of sexual and physical abuse cases over the past year, but 
says the rise in "economic" abuse is cause for concern.

The NGO provides medical, legal and psychosocial counselling to victims 
of abuse, and since 1997 has kept data on the incidence of offences in 
the tiny country.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48434


BOTSWANA: Media watchdog slams expulsions

The main opposition Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has joined media 
rights groups in condemning a government decision to cancel the work 
permits of two Zimbabwean journalists and order their immediate 
expulsion.

Rodrick Mukumbira was a news editor with the privately owned Ngami Times 
in the northern town of Maun, while Charles Chirinda worked as a 
correspondent for the official Botswana Television (Btv) in the capital, 
Gaborone.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48457


SOUTH AFRICA: Govt ponders new land policy

The South African government has been given a mandate to change the 
'willing-seller, willing-buyer' approach to land reform.

Delegates attending a national land summit at the weekend rejected this 
approach, blaming it for the slow pace of land reform in South Africa, 
and urged government to scrap the policy.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48388


NAMIBIA: Land reform picks up steam

The Namibian government is expected to serve 18 white commercial farmers 
with final notices of expropriation next week as the land reform 
programme gathers pace.

"This is the way to go, as there was no other solution," Lands Minister 
Jerry Ekandjo said on Thursday, noting that the government had failed to 
reach agreement with the farmers on the price of their land.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48477


Consultations on national HIV/AIDS policy begin

The Namibian government is drafting its first national policy on 
HIV/AIDS and hopes to complete it by World AIDS Day on 1 December.

At the behest of the government a draft policy was compiled by the AIDS 
law unit of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), an NGO, and discussed 
last week at a series of workshops with stakeholders from the legal, 
social and community sectors.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48410


IRIN-SA
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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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