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 329
7 - 13 April 2007


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Poor squatters make way for 2010 World Cup
SWAZILAND: Six pro-democracy activists arrested
MOZAMBIQUE: Xenophobic attacks on refugees must be nipped in the bud,
   says UNHCR
ZIMBABWE: Press freedom falls prey to arrests and torture
ZIMBABWE: Living under 'Operation Go to Sleep'
ZIMBABWE: Still picking up the pieces after Operation Murambatsvina
AFRICA: Conditional cash transfers might be premature, says paper
BOTSWANA-ZIMBABWE: Across the border for sugar
MOZAMBIQUE: Lynchings symptom of state failure


ZIMBABWE: Poor squatters make way for 2010 World Cup

Tens of thousands of South Africa's poorest people face eviction from 
inner-city suburbs across the country ahead of the 2010 World Cup 
football.

The country's Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) recently allowed 
Johannesburg City, which has two world-cup stadiums, to evict 300 
squatters from inner-city buildings classified as unsafe by the 
Johannesburg municipality.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71599


SWAZILAND: Six pro-democracy activists arrested

Six members of the People's United Democratic Movement, a banned 
political party, were arrested as pro-democracy activists picketed 
Swaziland's western border posts with South Africa on Thursday.

The protest was held on the anniversary of a royal decree in 1973 by 
King Sobhuza, father of current monarch Mswati III, banning organised 
political opposition groups.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71588


MOZAMBIQUE: Xenophobic attacks on refugees must be nipped in the bud, 
says UNHCR

Recent attacks on foreign refugees in Mozambique have led the local 
representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
(UNHCR) to call for action against xenophobia before it gains momentum.

After a string of isolated incidents, UNHCR warned that there was a need 
to clamp down on possible xenophobic tendencies that appeared to be 
rising.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71586


ZIMBABWE: Press freedom falls prey to arrests and torture

The Media Institute of Southern Africa in Zimbabwe has warned 
journalists of an increasingly hostile working environment after the 
abduction and subsequent murder of a freelance reporter, and the arrest 
and torture of two other foreign correspondents.

The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, which represents the interests of the 
majority of journalists, also expressed the fear that there was a 
deliberate government policy to harass and intimidate the media.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71567


ZIMBABWE: Living under 'Operation Go to Sleep'

As early as seven in the evening there is no sign of life at the Mamina 
shopping centre in Mhondoro, a village 100km west of Harare, the 
Zimbabwean capital. Since the police crackdown on the opposition in 
March, an unofficial curfew has been in place across the country. 
Residents have complained of raids on shopping centres, and particularly 
on pubs.

A policeman who participated in the crackdown said the raids had been 
codenamed 'Operation Chirara' (Go to Sleep), and their superiors had 
told them the action was necessary to forestall unrest.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71565


ZIMBABWE: Still picking up the pieces after Operation Murambatsvina

Life is still an uphill struggle for hundreds of thousands of 
Zimbabweans forced to live in the open after the government-led 
Operation Murambatsvina (Drive out Trash) demolished their homes almost 
two years ago.

The operation, which demolished informal homes and markets, was aimed at 
clearing slums and flushing out criminals, according to the government, 
but instead left more than 700,000 people homeless or without a 
livelihood in the winter of 2005.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71583


AFRICA: Conditional cash transfers might be premature, says paper

As more aid agencies push for cash transfers rather than aid in kind in 
Africa, conditional schemes are becoming the preferred choice, which may 
not work in an under-resourced continent, says a paper from the Overseas 
Development Institute, a think-tank in the United Kingdom.

Conditional cash transfer schemes, a recent development in assisting 
needy households, are found mainly in Latin America, where poor 
households with children are given cash on condition that the children 
attend schools and health clinics. However, there were still several 
questions about implementing the system in Africa.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71249


BOTSWANA-ZIMBABWE: Across the border for sugar

Overcrowded buses make their way out of Botswana's capital, Gaborone, 
headed for Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, their roofs laden with 
groceries, electrical goods and textiles destined for sale or 
consumption.

Most of the passengers, all Zimbabweans, are "regulars" who travel to 
neighbouring Botswana every three weeks to shop or trade. They have a 
common purpose: surviving in Zimbabwe, which has the world's highest 
annual inflation rate - more than 1,700 percent - shortages of basic 
essentials and an unemployment rate of 80 percent.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71252


MOZAMBIQUE: Lynchings symptom of state failure

"T3", a popular play showing in Maputo, has addressed the public 
lynchings that swept through the outer suburbs of the Mozambican capital 
in 2006 and early this year. An apparent spike in crime, and the police 
force's inability to deal with it, were said to be behind the lynchings.

At least 20 suspected criminals were murdered, some of them televised. 
In the most publicised lynching in May, a crowd of some 300 people 
murdered two brothers, one of whom was accused of using witchcraft to 
sexually assault women.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71234


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