Weekly Round-Up - IRINSA-300: 22-Sep-06
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-Up 300
18 - 22 September 2006
CONTENTS:
BOTSWANA: The San, the diamonds and Leonardo DiCaprio
MALAWI: Good but uneven harvest leaves pockets of hunger
MOZAMBIQUE: Recognising the reality of HIV/AIDS in prisons saves lives
SOUTH AFRICA: Questions still hang over ex-deputy president Zuma
SOUTH AFRICA: Alarming AIDS figures reported in new study
SOUTH AFRICA: Labour urged to demand sacking of health minister
ZAMBIA: Field open in run-up to general election
ZIMBABWE: Internet shuts down after gov't fails to pay the bill
ZIMBABWE: No support for struggling new farmers
ZIMBABWE: Concern over physical condition of arrested marchers
BOTSWANA: The San, the diamonds and Leonardo DiCaprio
Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio has inadvertently been thrust to the
forefront of the San people's fight to return to their ancestral lands
after the Botswana government removed them. According to Survival
International, an advocacy group supporting the San's opposition of
their eviction from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, San leader Roy
Sesana told DiCaprio in a letter: "Friends have told us that you are in
a film, The Blood Diamond, which shows how badly diamonds can hurt. We
know this - when we were chased off our land, officials told us it was
because of the diamond finds."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55663
MALAWI: Good but uneven harvest leaves pockets of hunger
A bumper harvest has pushed the number of needy Malawians down to the
lowest level in four years, but pockets of hunger are still a cause for
concern, a crop assessment official has warned. Malawi has recorded its
biggest ever harvest of 2.6 million mt of maize, at least half-a-million
more than its annual requirement of 2 million mt.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55670
MOZAMBIQUE: Recognising the reality of HIV/AIDS in prisons saves lives
In Mozambique's Machava Central Prison, the largest jail in the country,
sex between prisoners is an unavoidable reality, but little is being
done to prevent it, according to inmates and medical staff. "Some of the
younger inmates are forced to sleep with the older ones in exchange for
food and protection," said Julio Vicente Mundai, 41, a mechanic serving
an eight-year sentence for stealing a car. Mundai discovered his
positive status after taking a voluntary test in jail.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55674
SOUTH AFRICA: Questions still hang over ex-deputy president Zuma
A judge has thrown out a corruption case against former South African
deputy president Jacob Zuma, a contender for the country's top job.
Judge Herbert Msimang stopped short of completely dismissing graft
charges against Zuma, leaving the door open for the prosecution to
reframe the charges.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55655
SOUTH AFRICA: Alarming AIDS figures reported in new study
HIV/AIDS is sweeping through parts of South Africa's east-coast province
of KwaZulu-Natal, where researchers are finding alarming HIV prevalence
levels among women. "The study might be considered somewhat biased, as
only women were tested, but the figures do suggest a worrying upward
trend which could be part of a bigger problem," Medical Research Council
(MRC) researcher Prof Gita Ramjee said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55634
SOUTH AFRICA: Labour urged to demand sacking of health minister
A leading AIDS activist caused a stir by demanding the South African
health minister's removal in the presence of the deputy president at a
Johannesburg conference. "Our government has failed us. We must speak
the truth. We are willing to work with you [the government] anytime; you
have ignored our letters; you have not spoken to us, but we are ready to
talk," Zackie Achmat, leader of the AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action
Campaign told Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at a conference of
the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55631
ZAMBIA: Field open in run-up to general election
Zambia's general election, set for 28 September, is expected to be a
bitter and closely contested affair. Political analysts believe the
country's fourth multiparty poll since it emerged from 27 years of
one-party rule in 1991 will be a hard-fought contest for the incumbent,
President Levy Mwanawasa of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, who
is seeking a second and final term of office.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55610
ZIMBABWE: Internet shuts down after gov't fails to pay the bill
Government failure to pay a US$700,000 bill to a satellite company has
brought Zimbabwe's internet services to a virtual standstill, further
isolating a country grappling with food shortages, chronic unemployment
and the world's highest inflation rate. Internet users have complained
of long delays in sending and receiving emails, painfully slow browsing
speeds and problems connecting to many websites since Intelsat severed a
satellite link that provided about three-quarters of the bandwidth used
by the state-owned communications firm, TelOne.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55630
ZIMBABWE: No support for struggling new farmers
The government's withdrawal of free agricultural inputs for new farmers
is certain to affect food production adversely, analysts are warning.
Farmers who were allocated land under the fast-track land reform
programme that began in 2000 have received fertilisers and seed for the
past three years, for which they could pay after the harvest, but last
month the agriculture ministry announced that it had stopped the "free"
inputs scheme.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55626
ZIMBABWE: Concern over physical condition of arrested marchers
Rights groups and union leaders have united to condemn Zimbabwe's
government and police for allegedly beating and torturing demonstrators
arrested during nationwide marches against the country's
fast-deteriorating social and economic conditions. An IRIN correspondent
in the capital, Harare, witnessed armed police severely beating
demonstrators with batons prior to the marches, which were declared
illegal and quickly suppressed by President Robert Mugabe's government.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55609
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