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 317
10 - 16 February 2007


CONTENTS

ANGOLA: Elections continue to elude hopeful Angolans
LESOTHO: A small country whose volatile elections have caused big
  problems
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Balance between free market and state-run food
  security needed
SOUTH AFRICA: Rural orphan-care programmes struggle
NAMIBIA: San remain landless and marginalised says NGO
MOZAMBIQUE: Worst floods in six years, more expected



ANGOLA: Elections continue to elude hopeful Angolans

Many voters are hoping that casting their ballots will translate into 
improved living standards, but Angola appears to be in no hurry to hold 
its first elections in more than a decade, political observers 
commented.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos last week explicitly referred to 2008 
as the year legislative elections would be held, with a presidential 
ballot to follow in 2009. Despite the logistical hurdles of holding an 
election in a country still struggling to pick up the pieces after a 
drawn-out civil war, experts said Angola could be ready in time.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70179


LESOTHO: A small country whose volatile elections have caused big 
problems

Lesotho, a small mountainous country surrounded by South Africa, 
provides its much larger neighbour, the continent's economic powerhouse, 
with water to fuel its industrial growth, and political volatility to 
test its patience.

On Saturday, Lesotho's roughly 1.8 million people - over half of which, 
according to the UN, live on US$2 or less a day - will vote in a snap 
election called after 18 members of the ruling party, the Lesotho 
Congress for Democracy (LCD), crossed the floor to the opposition party, 
the All Basotho Convention (ABC), in a mass defection late last year.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70152


SOUTHERN AFRICA: Balance between free market and state-run food security 
needed

Southern African countries have shown willingness to experiment with 
liberalising the agriculture sector, but food security experts feel that 
some form of government intervention is still required to prevent hunger 
in the region.

State involvement in food production varies between extremes: Mozambique 
has limited government involvement; Zimbabwe not only controls food 
markets and prices but also provides agricultural inputs to its farmers. 
A free market may work well for food, but a government role was 
necessary to correct undesirable outcomes, experts cautioned.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70149


SOUTH AFRICA: Rural orphan-care programmes struggle

The lush hills in the Tzaneen Municipality of South Africa's Limpopo 
Province may seem a better place to spend a childhood than the dusty, 
overcrowded townships of Johannesburg, but living in the countryside can 
add to the hardships of children who are HIV positive or have lost 
parents to AIDS.

Many organisations hesitate to work in rural areas because beneficiaries 
are spread out in sparsely populated areas and it is expensive to run 
programmes there. The Pfunano Thusano Community Project, for example, 
assists orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in six villages in the 
Tzaneen area, but is struggling to find adequate funding.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70122


NAMIBIA: San remain landless and marginalised says NGO

Several thousand San, also known as the Bushmen, remain landless and 
have yet to reap the benefits of democracy in Namibia, a new report has 
revealed.

The report not only provides a detailed insight into how the three main 
San groups in Namibia, the Hai//kom, Ju/hoansi and Khwe, who together 
comprise about 30,000 people, have lost their land to colonisation, 
commercial farming and encroachment by other indigenous ethnic groups, 
but also paints a gloomy picture of their situation today.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70105


MOZAMBIQUE: Worst floods in six years, more expected

Mozambique has been hit by the worst floods in six years, with an 
estimated 29 people killed and over 60,000 displaced in the central 
Zambezi basin to higher ground, according to the government's 
disaster-response agency.

Officials expect the flooding to worsen in the coming week, as heavy 
rain has been falling in the areas that feed the Zambezi River. In 
addition, controlled releases from the giant Cahora Bassa dam, in Tete 
Province in the northwest, will increase the flow downriver. Recent 
heavy rains also threaten to flood large areas in the north of the 
country. Meanwhile, a rights nongovernmental organisation (NGO) has 
urged the humanitarian community to consider cash grants rather than 
food aid for long term recovery in the response to the floods.

See reports: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70121 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70228


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