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 286
3 - 9 June 2006


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Tsvangirai presents "roadmap to democracy" and another
   ultimatum
NAMIBIA: Jobs on the line as govt refuses to buy troubled textile
   factory
MADAGASCAR: An uneasy runup to December elections
SOUTH AFRICA: Mbeki warns "anti-democratic" forces
ANGOLA: Reconstructing the breadbasket of Huambo
SWAZILAND: No end in sight to job losses
MOZAMBIQUE: Govt advised not to count its chickens


ZIMBABWE: Tsvangirai presents "roadmap to democracy" and another 
ultimatum

Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, appears to have stepped 
back from launching a long-threatened anti-government protest against 
deteriorating living conditions.

Addressing a press conference in the capital, Harare, Tsvangirai on 
Friday instead presented a "roadmap to legitimacy" - an ultimatum to the 
government demanding a new constitution, internationally supervised free 
and fair elections and an acknowledgement it was responsible for the 
current "national decay".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53846


Dozens of Zimbabwean companies have relocated to neighbouring Botswana, 
perceived as the region's most investor-friendly country, while 
inflation in Zimbabwe is expected to hit record levels before the end of 
the year as the economy continues its downward spiral.

Zimbabwean-run small- and medium-scale business, such as bus and truck 
operators, funeral parlours, vehicle repair shops and sawmills, have 
mushroomed in the northern city of Francistown and the satellite towns 
of Tati and Tonota to the south of it, all near Botswana's border with 
Zimbabwe.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53746


NAMIBIA: Jobs on the line as govt refuses to buy troubled textile 
factory

The fate of 5,000 Namibian workers at the Ramatex garment factory 
remains in the balance after the government rejected an ultimatum by the 
Malaysian owners to buy the plant or see it close.

"The Namibian government has decided not to buy the factory - there is 
no local expertise in the country to keep it going," said Evilastus 
Kaaronda, secretary-general of the National Union of Namibian Workers. 
Kaaronda serves on a technical committee dealing with the Ramatex issue, 
chaired by Prime Minister Nahas Angula.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53842


Govt launches crash polio campaign as outbreak confirmed

Namibia is to launch a national polio vaccination campaign after the 
World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed an outbreak of the highly 
contagious virus this week.

So far seven deaths and 39 cases of the wild polio have been reported, 
Kalumbi Shangula, permanent secretary in the ministry of health, said on 
Thursday. The first case was reported on 7 May in Aranos, a small town 
south of the capital, Windhoek. The last polio outbreak in Namibia 
occurred in 1996.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53828


MADAGASCAR: An uneasy runup to December elections

Tension is rising in Madagascar ahead of elections scheduled for 
December, after talks between the government and opposition fizzled out.

In a bid to ease the political situation, President Marc Ravalomanana 
held talks with various parties last month, but the overture was 
boycotted by the main opposition coalition, 3FN, which includes toppled 
former president Didier Ratsiraka's AREMA party.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53849


SOUTH AFRICA: Mbeki warns "anti-democratic" forces

South African President Thabo Mbeki this week warned that action would 
be taken to quell an "anti-democratic plague", as the death toll in a 
security guard strike, now running for more than two months, rose to 
over 20 in the central Gauteng province.

The strike, called to demand better salaries and conditions, has been 
marked by violence and intimidation. On Wednesday the bodies of three 
security guards who had been shot in the head, their hands bound by 
handcuffs and electric wire, were found outside the capital, Pretoria, 
according to local media quoting police officials.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53820


ANGOLA: Reconstructing the breadbasket of Huambo

More than 300 minefields still present one of Angola's biggest 
challenges to reconstructing its former breadbasket, the central 
province of Huambo, where villages, farms, water supplies and schools 
all straddle routes in "suspect areas".

The province, with a population of almost two million, reportedly 
contributed about 22 percent to national cereal production in 1999, but 
almost three decades of civil conflict, which ended in a peace pact in 
2002, devastated the infrastructure and displaced several thousand 
farmers.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53758


SWAZILAND: No end in sight to job losses

Sugar production and textile manufacturing in Swaziland are on their way 
out, taking tens of thousands of jobs with them.

Just how far Swaziland's employment figures have deteriorated is 
evidenced in research being carried out by the International Labour 
Organisation (ILO). "We are surveying all private businesses, and we 
estimate there are 20,000 formal-sector jobs in all of Swaziland. This 
is down from 65,000 jobs in 2002," said Happiness Dludlu, National 
Project Coordinator for the ILO in Swaziland.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53821


MOZAMBIQUE: Govt advised not to count its chickens

Mozambique needs to develop and invest in domestic business before 
attempting to boost expansion by running a 'Buy Mozambique' campaign, 
say economists.

Financial analyst Silvestre Filipe Jnr, of the Mozambique Debt Group, a 
local civil society coalition, told IRIN that although he supported the 
campaign, it was premature and non-specific. "We don't yet have the 
capacity to supply the national goods on the scale that is demanded - 
our industrial sector is very weak to be competitive with those prices 
abroad."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53756


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