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 344
28 July - 3 August 2007


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Rural living standards now apply in the capital
ZIMBABWE: WFP launches appeal for emergency funding
SWAZILAND: Hard times raise levels of abuse
SOUTH AFRICA: Clamping down on botched circumcisions
ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: Crossing the border to bring the groceries home
SWAZILAND: First drought and food shortages, now fires
SWAZILAND: Fires become a national disaster
ZIMBABWE: ZANU-PF wants to make Mugabe president for life
LESOTHO: One of the worst droughts in 30 years prompts US$18.9 million
   appeal
COMOROS: An expensive stalemate


ZIMBABWE: Rural living standards now apply in the capital

The lifestyle normally associated with an urban society is fast 
disappearing from Zimbabwe's once bustling capital, Harare.

The city's 2.8 million residents are adopting a way of life more akin to 
the country's rural areas, where drinking water is drawn from shallow 
pits and electricity is all but unavailable, although the metropolitan 
area's population density has produced its own quirks, such as untreated 
sewage spilling onto the streets.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73551


ZIMBABWE: WFP launches appeal for emergency funding

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) made an urgent appeal for US$118 
million on Wednesday, to provide immediate assistance to 3.3 million 
Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages.

The agency has already secured 138,000 metric tonnes (mt) of food for 
Zimbabwe, but requires another 207,000mt of cereals and other 
commodities, costing about $118 million, to cover its increased relief 
activities from now until the next harvest in April 2008.


SWAZILAND: Hard times raise levels of abuse

About 40 percent of Swaziland's one million people are facing acute food 
and water shortages; coping strategies have worn thin and frustrations 
are running high, all contributing to rising abuse and risky behaviour.

Poor households are reported to have engaged in negative coping 
strategies, including transactional sex, leading to a higher incidence 
of sexually transmitted infections and HIV.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73530


SOUTH AFRICA: Clamping down on botched circumcisions

By the time winter has ended, thousands of young South African boys will 
have gone through a month-long traditional rite of passage and become 
men.

But becoming a man can be a life-threatening business. The ancient 
ritual has come under fire in recent years as health authorities report 
serious complications from botched circumcisions by traditional 
surgeons.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73278


ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: Crossing the border to bring the groceries home

Bulk traders have been flocking to South Africa for months to buy 
groceries for resale in Zimbabwe, but now a rapidly growing number of 
individual shoppers are arriving to stock up on essentials in Musina, 
about 13km from the border, in South Africa's Limpopo Province.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe 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 by forcing 
retailers to slash their prices by 50 percent.

This has resulted in empty shop shelves and widespread shortages of 
basic commodities, and the International Monetary Fund has warned that 
Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation rate could reach over 100,000 percent 
by the end of 2007.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73512


SWAZILAND: First drought and food shortages, now fires

Swaziland has declared a national emergency in response to the raging 
fires that have swept through parts of the kingdom, engulfing as many as 
300 homesteads, killing livestock and destroying crops and large swathes 
of commercial tree plantations.

At least a dozen people have died, and firefighters have sought to 
contain the blazes because high winds have made extinguishing them an 
all but impossible task.

See reports: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73496
and: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73574


ZIMBABWE: ZANU-PF wants to make Mugabe president for life

A recent central committee meeting of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party 
called for President Robert Mugabe to be installed as president for 
life, as well as the creation of ideological schools targeting preschool 
children.

The minutes of the party's central committee and politburo meeting on 30 
March - the two most powerful ZANU-PF organs, both chaired by Mugabe in 
his capacity as president and first secretary of the ruling party - were 
adopted on 4 May and subsequently leaked to an IRIN correspondent.


LESOTHO: One of the worst droughts in 30 years prompts US$18.9 million 
appeal

The UN is appealing for US$18.9 million to feed more than 500,000 rural 
people struggling to cope with food shortages in one of Lesotho's worst 
droughts in 30 years.

Production of maize, the country's staple food, has dropped by more than 
half compared to 2006, causing a deficit that is likely to be further 
aggravated by decreased cereal production in parts of South Africa, 
which has also experienced below-average rainfall for much of this year, 
and which supplies approximately 70 percent of Lesotho's food 
requirements.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73492


COMOROS: An expensive stalemate

Tension is mounting as the political stalemate deepens between the Union 
of Comoros and one of its semi-autonomous islands, Anjouan, sparking 
fears of possible military action and postponing much-needed 
international development assistance.

Individual island elections in June re-ignited inter-island hostility 
between Anjouan and the other two islands in the archipelago, Grande 
Comore and Moheli.


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