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 319
29 January - 2 February 2007


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Reserve Bank governor blames ruling elite for country's ills
MOZAMBIQUE: New programme turns subsistence farmers into businesswomen
ANGOLA: Cholera plagues the capital
MALAWI-MOZAMBIQUE-ZAMBIA: Government's response to flooding lacks
   urgency say NGOs
MOZAMBIQUE: Legislation reviewed to curb child trafficking
ZIMBABWE: Cholera strikes the capital
MOZAMBIQUE: Chainsaws cut down more than just trees
ZAMBIA: Anti-corruption drive misses the point
ZIMBABWE: Power utility admits it is broke and powerless


ZIMBABWE: Reserve Bank governor blames ruling elite for country's ills

The governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, has called on the 
country's leadership to stop blaming drought and sanctions for its 
problems and face up to the fact that it is the ruling class that is 
causing society's ills. In a hard-hitting two-hour televised speech on 
his monetary policy review, Gono, who apparently enjoys President Robert 
Mugabe's support and protection, accused high-ranking government 
officials of not producing crops on the commercial farms they owned, 
instead using them as weekend barbecue spots.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57282


MOZAMBIQUE: New programme turns subsistence farmers into businesswomen

Anastaneia Domingos, 28, and a mother of four, is a rarity among the 
women in the rural areas of northeastern Mozambique's Zambezia Province: 
she is a businesswoman. Most women rely on their husband's income to put 
food on the table, or they produce meagre crops on small plots of land 
to help feed their families, but Domingos is one of a small group 
attempting to reverse the cultural tradition that resigns them to an 
impoverished existence, with their sole roles in the community usually 
those of mother and subsistence farmer.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57281


ANGOLA: Cholera plagues the capital

An ambulance speeds up to the entrance of a Cholera Treatment Centre in 
Cacuaco, a municipality north of the Angolan capital, Luanda, and a 
ten-year-old boy is carried into the facility on a stretcher by the 
attendants. A few hours later, Antonio Jaime is already showing signs of 
recovery from the waterborne intestinal infection, which causes acute 
diarrhoea and vomiting and, if left untreated, can cause death from 
dehydration within 24 hours.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57280


MALAWI-MOZAMBIQUE-ZAMBIA: Government's response to flooding lacks 
urgency say NGOs

The Zambian government is coming under mounting criticism from local 
civic organisations for its apparent inability to assess recent flood 
damage across the country, making a coordinated response to the crisis 
impossible. Torrential rains, which began in early December 2006, have 
swamped at least 21 of the country's 73 districts, washing away houses, 
bridges and crops, while at least two schools have been forced to close. 
Other than this, there has been little information about the extent of 
the damage.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57265


MOZAMBIQUE: Legislation reviewed to curb child trafficking

International child traffickers may be using Mozambique's weak adoption 
laws to target orphaned children, to the growing concern of the 
government, said a senior official from the Ministry of the Interior. 
The use of the adoption process to gain access to disadvantaged children 
is the latest form of child trafficking to hit the Southern African 
country, according to Lurdes Mabunda, head of the ministry's Department 
of Women and Children.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57264


ZIMBABWE: Cholera strikes the capital

Four of 12 suspected cases of cholera have so far been confirmed in the 
Zimbabwean capital, Harare, according to the city's director of health 
services. The source of the waterborne disease, an intestinal infection 
leading to severe dehydration from chronic diarrhoea and vomiting, which 
can result in death within 24 hours if left untreated, may have been 
caused by a discharge of untreated effluent into the reservoir supplying 
the capital with drinking water two weeks ago.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57253


MOZAMBIQUE: Chainsaws cut down more than just trees

Worldwide demand for hardwood is stripping Mozambique's forests, cutting 
down livelihoods and any hope of developing a sustainable timber 
industry. "If they carry on at the rate they are going it will be 
probably three to five years and there won't be any hardwood resources 
sufficient to sustain continued production," said Simon Norfolk, 
director of Terra Firma, a forest governance group in Mozambique.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57252


ZAMBIA: Anti-corruption drive misses the point

Zambia's anti-corruption drive is failing because the government has 
been concentrating its resources on investigating the corrupt practices 
of the previous regime, allowing present graft in the public service to 
flourish, a corruption watchdog said in its latest report. Transparency 
International's Corruption Perception Indices has consistently ranked 
Zambia as one of the most corrupt countries since 2001. Out of the 159 
countries surveyed in the 2005 CPI, Zambia was included in the cluster 
cited as the 11th most corrupt countries: Belarus, Eritrea, Honduras, 
Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Palestine, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57245


ZIMBABWE: Power utility admits it is broke and powerless

The Zimbabwe Electricity Authority (ZESA) has admitted to a nation 
already suffering sweeping and extended power cuts that it is broke, and 
things will get worse. Prof Christopher Chetsanga, ZESA's chairman, 
recently told local media that the country's energy provider was in debt 
to the tune of Z$105 billion (US$420 million at the official exchange 
rate), and would immediately lay off 600 of its staff.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57237


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