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 293
22 - 28 July 2006


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Police crackdown on "money hoarders"
ANGOLA: Rebels vow to fight on despite peace deal
MADAGASCAR: Watchdog calls for transparency as oil boom takes off
SOUTH AFRICA: Xenophobia has an economic cost



ZIMBABWE: Police crackdown on "money hoarders"

Zimbabwe's police are being accused of heavy-handedness after setting up 
roadblocks to seize money from people thought to be trading on the black 
market.

Zimbabweans were thrown into panic on Monday after reserve bank governor 
Gideon Gono devalued the currency by 1,000 percent, with a three-week 
deadline for the old currency to be exchanged for new denominations.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54998


Survival after Operation Murambatsvina

A year after Zimbabwe's controversial campaign to demolish illegal urban 
settlements and informal markets, thousands of people remain in limbo, 
fearful of renewed raids by the police, but with nowhere else to go.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54997


Farmers feeding grain black market

Inflation is forcing Zimbabwe's new farmers to ignore a government 
directive that compels them to sell their produce to a centralised grain 
utility, opting instead to take lower prices from black market traders 
who pay cash on delivery.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54948


ANGOLA: Rebels vow to fight on despite peace deal

Separatists in Angola's oil-rich Cabinda enclave signed a peace deal 
with the government on Tuesday to end a 29-year civil war, but 
dissenting members of the independence struggle vowed to fight on.

The agreement was also hailed by the US government, but the rebel Front 
for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), said they would not 
recognise the 'Memorandum of Understanding' signed in Angola's southern 
port city of Namibe.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54930


MADAGASCAR: Watchdog calls for transparency as oil boom takes off

Madagascar is becoming the next staging post of Africa's energy boom as 
oil conglomerates descend on the poverty stricken island to contend for 
a share of the recent discovery, but a global watchdog cautions that the 
windfall could challenge the island's fledgling democracy.

Gavin Hayman, spokesperson for the anti-corruption watchdog Global 
Witness, warned that oil revenue did not automatically lead to poverty 
alleviation.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54976


SOUTH AFRICA: Xenophobia has an economic cost

A dangerous tide of xenophobia in South Africa, which stereotypes people 
from the rest of the continent as criminals and competitors for scarce 
jobs, is obscuring the positive impact immigrants are making, according 
to the government and advocacy groups.

"That many South Africans lack knowledge of and contact with foreigners 
is an underlying cause of xenophobia," said a report by the South 
African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the parliamentary portfolio 
committee for foreign affairs, which concluded that intolerance was a 
rising menace to South Africa and its international standing.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54914



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