Weekly Round-Up - IRINSA-303: 13-Oct-06
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
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e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za
SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-Up 303
7 - 13 October 2006
CONTENTS:
SOUTH AFRICA: Fleeing war, Somalis are targets of violence in adopted
home
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Funding shortfall forces WFP to cut back feeding
ZIMBABWE: Gender activists protest MP's anti-women remarks
ZIMBABWE: The lights are going out
ZIMBABWE: Propping up the official exchange rate at any cost
SWAZILAND: New constitution brings growing demands for change
NAMIBIA: Government sets up ministry for war veterans
SOUTH AFRICA: Fleeing war, Somalis are targets of violence in adopted
home
Dozens of Somalis have allegedly been killed in South Africa's Western
Cape Province in the past few months, in what appears to be an
escalating campaign of xenophobic violence. South Africa already
struggles with some of the world's highest rates of violent crime, and
is home to immigrant groups from throughout the continent. But Somalis
in this region say the killings - as well as a string of brutal
robberies and assaults - reflect a growing national trend fuelled, in
part, by destitution and prejudice. Community leaders in Cape Town, the
provincial capital, said at least 32 Somalis were killed between July
and September.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55894
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Funding shortfall forces WFP to cut back feeding
The UN's World Food Programme has warned that it will have to cut back
on feeding vulnerable Southern Africans because it does not have the
funds to carry programmes through the lean season. The aid agency will
be facing a regional shortfall of US$60 million between December 2006
and March 2007, and has already scaled down some of its operations in
Zimbabwe, affecting some 450,000 people. It has cut back the urban
feeding programme, reduced school-feeding projects from 17 districts to
14, and suspended mobile feeding in rural areas. WFP is expected to feed
at least four million people in the region until March next year, when
the next harvest is due.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55889
ZIMBABWE: Gender activists protest MP's anti-women remarks
Women's organisations were outraged this week, when an opposition
parliamentarian urged the national assembly not to pass a bill aimed at
stamping out domestic violence because women were inferior to men.
During debate on the Domestic Violence Bill, Timothy Mubhawu, member of
parliament (MP) for the Movement for Democratic Change, told parliament:
"I stand here representing God the Almighty. Women are not equal to men.
This is a dangerous bill, and let it be known in Zimbabwe that the
rights, privileges and status of men are gone." His remarks in the wake
of disclosure by gender and women's affairs minister Oppah Muchinguri
that over 60 percent of all murder cases in Zimbabwe were linked to
domestic violence, sparked spontaneous protests.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55917
ZIMBABWE: The lights are going out
Zimbabwe has been hit by a double whammy: the shutdown of a major power
station, and the disruption of electricity supplies from the
neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, causing unprecedented power
outages. The huge electricity failure plunged hundreds of thousands of
homes and businesses into darkness. Although the Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority immediately introduced load-shedding, rationing
electricity to parts of the country, the result is that daily power cuts
in some areas are lasting for up to 10 hours. Zimbabwe used to be
self-sufficient in producing fuel for power generation and curing
tobacco, but the foreign currency shortages have made it almost
impossible to maintain and replace mining equipment and railroad stock,
leading to coal-supply problems for industry and forcing some tobacco
farmers to import coal from neighbouring Mozambique and Zambia.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55934
ZIMBABWE: Propping up the official exchange rate at any cost
Zimbabwe has closed its 16 money transfer agencies with immediate
effect, sending shockwaves through the country, as many people depend on
remittances from relatives working outside the country for their
day-to-day survival. Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said in his
mid-term policy update on Monday, "All MTA licenses are cancelled. This
withdrawal has been occasioned by nonperformance and defiant behaviour
by most players in this sector." About three million people, about a
quarter of the country's population, referred to as the 'Zimbabwean
Diaspora', have left to find work in South Africa, Botswana, Australia,
the United Kingdom, Canada, the USA and Europe.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55893
SWAZILAND: New constitution brings growing demands for change
A pro-democracy group has threatened protest action against sub-Saharan
Africa's last absolute monarch if steps are not taken to start
meaningful constitutional reform. The National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA), an ad hoc pro-democracy alliance of trade unions, human rights
and legal support and advocacy groups, has given the Swazi government
until early next week to respond to their concerns or face what they
said would be a "peaceful march" to King Mswati III's Lozitha Palace,
20km southeast of the capital, Mbabane. The NCA's direct demand to
Mswati comes after the organisation recently delivered a petition to the
parliamentary offices of Prime Minister Themba Dlamini and the Lozitha
Palace offices of the Swaziland National Council Standing Committee, the
king's handpicked counsellors, saying that "the supreme law of the land
is illegitimate".
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55908
NAMIBIA: Government sets up ministry for war veterans
In what has been seen as a victory for Namibia's increasingly vociferous
former liberation war fighters, the government has created a war
veterans' ministry in response to their accusations that they have been
ignored since independence. The South West African People's Organisation
(SWAPO) government announced the establishment of the Ministry of
Veteran Affairs earlier this month, 16 years after independence and
within a few months of a slew of financial demands by the National
Committee of War Veterans, which claims to represent 7,000 veterans of
SWAPO's armed wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55888
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