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 343
21 - 27 July 2007


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Hunger bites the health and education sectors
SWAZILAND: UN asks for $15.6 million to save 400,000 people
MALAWI: Budget vote delay might affect food security
ZIMBABWE: Price controls devastating rural economy
ZIMBABWE: Urgency needed to avert a humanitarian crisis
ZIMBABWE: Calls for more women in politics


ZIMBABWE: Hunger bites the health and education sectors

The effects of the government's month-old price-control policies, which 
have brought widespread shortages of basic commodities, are also 
beginning to tell in the education, health and social service sectors.

The government launched "Operation Reduce Prices" in late June in an 
attempt to cap escalating prices as businesses tried to cushion 
themselves against the world's highest inflation rate - over 4,000 
percent. With the government adamant that the price blitz would continue 
until inflation was arrested, aid workers have warned that the 
humanitarian situation would worsen.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73440


SWAZILAND: UN asks for $15.6 million to save 400,000 people

With about 40 percent of Swaziland's one million people facing acute 
food and water shortages, UN agencies have appealed to the international 
donor community for a timely response to avert a full-blown humanitarian 
crisis in the drought-struck kingdom.

Faced with the worst harvest in the country's recorded history, the 
government declared a national emergency in June. There are great 
worries of severe malnutrition if action is not taken immediately, aid 
agencies have warned. Besides the absence of food, water sources are 
drying up fast, with many boreholes now empty.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73414


MALAWI: Budget vote delay might affect food security

Donors and development agencies are worried that the political standoff 
in Malawi, which has led to the indefinite suspension of the vote on the 
2007/08 budget, might set back recovery in the agriculture sector after 
the 2005 drought.

The budget vote was suspended on 24 July after opposition parties - the 
United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), who 
hold the majority of seats in parliament - refused to debate the budget 
until a standoff over the defection of their members to the ruling 
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), led by President Bingu wa Mutharika, 
had been resolved. The government is currently being funded from a 
monthly skeleton budget.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73413


ZIMBABWE: Price controls devastating rural economy

Price controls are having a ruinous effect on Zimbabwe's rural economy, 
according to small-scale farmers and civil society.

Price-control monitors are forcing farmers to sell meat products to the 
Cold Storage Commission, the almost dormant parastatal wholesale beef 
supplier and meat processing company, at low prices; in a similar 
scenario, maize farmers are being forced to sell their harvests to the 
Grain Marketing Board at well below prevailing market prices.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73391


ZIMBABWE: Urgency needed to avert a humanitarian crisis

An urgent call on Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF government and the international 
donor community to mobilise food aid to avert an impending crisis has 
been met with assurances by government that "no one will starve".

Calling on the government and donor community to mobilise for an 
immediate and coordinated response, the latest overview of sub-Saharan 
food security by Famine Early Warning Systems (FEWS NET) warned that 
there was a general consensus that Zimbabwe's 2006/07 cereal production 
would have to be complemented by imports of over one million metric 
tonnes if the country is to meet cereal requirements for the 2007/08 
consumption year.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73376


ZIMBABWE: Calls for more women in politics

Women in Politics Support Unit, a Zimbabwean non-governmental 
organisation, is leading a campaign for the achievement of gender parity 
in choosing candidates for office, while a new report by human rights 
advocacy organisation Amnesty International shows women are increasingly 
becoming victims of political repression.

Currently, 22.2 percent of political offices are held by women in 
Zimbabwe, including five female ministers in a cabinet of 53; 24 of the 
country's 150 parliamentarians are women; two of its 10 provincial 
governors are women, and of a total of 305 councillors in urban areas, 
43 are female.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73470


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