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
14 - 20 January 2006


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Promises but no real improvement in media freedom
ZAMBIA: Mwanawasa agrees to new constitution after sustained pressure
MADAGASCAR: $125 million bailout for state utilities company
ANGOLA: Resettlement, land reform boost agricultural production
COMOROS: World vanilla prices torpedo economic growth prospects
SWAZILAND: Swazis set to lose their tongue
NAMIBIA: Inputs could improve harvest prospects
MOZAMBIQUE: MSF to ensure sustainabiliity of ARV programme


ZIMBABWE: Promises but no real improvement in media freedom

Despite a stinging report by the African Commission on Human and Peoples 
Rights (ACHPR), an African Union body, criticising Zimbabwe for 
suppressing freedom of expression, a string of official threats have 
targeted the independent media.

The arrest of freelance journalist Sidney Saize on charges of practicing 
journalism without a licence and "writing false stories" was the most 
recent case, Rashweat Mukundu, Director of the Zimbabwe chapter of the 
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), told IRIN.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51254


Tripartite forum hoping to reach consensus on economic plan

Zimbabwe's Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF), comprising 
representatives of government, labour and business, may be close to 
signing a deal on price and wages control to curb runaway inflation and 
rejuvenate the country's ailing economy.

The TNF met on Thursday to consider a proposed Price and Incomes 
Stabilisation Protocol, which includes commitments by the government to 
reduce inflation - currently running at nearly 600 percent - to 80 
percent by the end of 2006. The government also aimed to cut the budget 
deficit to less than five percent of GDP, while business would agree to 
maintain prices at a agreed-upon levels, and labour would agree to 
contain salary demands.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51250


ZIMBABWE: Cholera outbreak stretches health service

Zimbabwe's two largest infectious diseases referral hospitals are being 
inundated by new cases of cholera, despite government claims that the 
situation is under control, IRIN reported this week.

A team of government and municipal health workers visited both the 
Wilkins and Beatrice Infectious Disease Hospitals in the capital, 
Harare, this week in a bid to ascertain the extent of the outbreak. 
Patients in three wards at Beatrice hospital have had to be evacuated to 
make room for those suffering from cholera.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51228



ZAMBIA: Mwanawasa agrees to new constitution after sustained pressure


In a surprise move Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa has bowed to 
pressure and agreed that a constituent assembly would adopt the new 
constitution, as demanded by civil society and the opposition.

Mwanawasa, a lawyer turned politician, caught his critics off guard when 
he conceded defeat during a public rally at the weekend in the mining 
town of Ndola, about 350 km north of the capital, Lusaka.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51198


Media ignores drought affecting rural Zambians

The Zambian media has largely ignored the drought that has left more 
than a million rural Zambians in need of food aid.

Despite President Levy Mwanawasa's declaration of a national food crisis 
last year, when harvests failed in parts of southern, eastern and 
northern Zambia, the national broadcaster, the Zambia National 
Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), has not carried any reports on the 
drought or the starvation it has caused.

Jo Woods, the spokeswoman for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in 
Zambia, described the food crisis as "very serious, and indications are 
that a minimum of 1.4 million people will require food assistance 
through to the next harvest in 2006 ... we are not in the leanest period 
yet, but many people are struggling to make ends meet".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51248


MADAGASCAR: $125 million bailout for state utilities company

Donors have approved a US $125 million plan to address the financial and 
structural problems plaguing Madagascar's state-owned utilities company, 
but whether the bailout will bring power to the people remains 
uncertain.

After months of power cuts and electricity rationing, a three-day 
conference in Paris last week brought donors and Malagasy officials face 
to face to discuss the future of Jirama, the state-owned electricity and 
water provider.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51205


A plan for moving from slash-and-burn to conservation

President Marc Ravalomanana's government has embarked on an ambitious 
national effort to protect Madagascar's remaining biodiversity while 
simultaneously reducing poverty and promoting rural development.

In September 2003 he announced his commitment to triple Madagascar's 
protected areas in five years at the World Parks Congress in Durban, 
South Africa. Christened "the Durban Vision", the plan would increase 
the country's protected habitats from 1.7 to 6 million hectares - or 
from 3 to 10 percent of the Indian Ocean nation's surface area.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51161


ANGOLA: Resettlement, land reform boost agricultural production

Angola's ongoing agricultural recovery is being driven by the successful 
return and resettlement of displaced people and refugees, and a land 
reform programme granting property rights to rural farming communities.

According to official figures, agriculture accounted for 12 percent of 
GDP last year, up from eight percent the year before. Angola has 
experienced three consecutive years of improved harvests, but pockets of 
food insecurity remain, due to regional disparities in crop production 
and the difficulty of moving food from surplus areas to deficit areas.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51206


Needs are dropping, but aid dropping faster, WFP

Despite encouraging growth in Angola's agricultural production and 
declining numbers of people in need, food insecurity remains a problem 
in many parts of the country, says the World Food Programme (WFP).

In its latest regional food security bulletin the Famine Early Warning 
Systems Network (FEWS NET) said official figures indicated that 
agricultural production had increased significantly in the 2004/05 
season.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51142



COMOROS: World vanilla prices torpedo economic growth prospects

Bleak vanilla price forecasts on the world market are translating into 
equally bleak prospects for the impoverished Comoros, as the island 
nation is economically dependant on the commodity.

In its latest country briefing the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) 
considered the official Comoran forecast of 2.8 percent real growth in 
GDP for 2005 "over-optimistic".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51139



SWAZILAND: Swazis set to lose their tongue

Educationists are concerned about the future of the Swazi language as 
the school examination pass rate in SiSwati as a subject continues to 
fall.

"If the 2005 Junior Certificate examination results are any yardstick, 
then the SiSwati language is gradually being eroded," opined the Times 
of Swaziland when it reported this week that nearly a quarter of the 
students sitting the exam had failed the test.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51227



NAMIBIA: Inputs could improve harvest prospects

Drought-prone northern Namibia, still battling with food shortages as a 
result of 2005's poor harvest, will receive agricultural inputs from the 
Red Cross this year.

In a bid to boost agricultural recovery, the Red Cross will provide 
12,000 households in the northern Caprivi and Kavango regions with 
maize, millet seeds and fertiliser, said the organisation's national 
programme manager, Abel Augustinio.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51128



MOZAMBIQUE: MSF to ensure sustainabiliity of ARV programme

In a bid to ensure the sustainability of its antiretroviral (ARV) 
treatment programme in Mozambique, the international NGO, Medecins Sans 
Frontieres (MSF), has focussed on skills transfer, with the aim of 
handing over the running of its sites to the government.

This would see the government and local community taking over the 
responsibility for running MSF's Lichinga site in the northern Niassa 
province, which treats 370 patients, by the end of 2008.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51164


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