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 345
4 - 10 August 2007


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Poor winter wheat harvest expected to increase food shortages
ZIMBABWE: A way out of the crisis
SWAZILAND: Start-up costs limit access to power
ZIMBABWE: Beef shortage provides window of opportunity for swindlers
SOUTH AFRICA: Deputy health minister sacked for doing her job


ZIMBABWE: Poor winter wheat harvest expected to increase food shortages

Unreliable electricity supplies have wrought havoc on Zimbabwe's winter 
wheat crop, and the country, already unable to feed more than a quarter 
of its population, is set to record one of its worst harvests.

Earlier this year the national power utility, Zimbabwe Electricity 
Supply Authority (ZESA), introduced daily 20-hour power cuts for 
domestic consumers, to give priority to the electricity requirements of 
irrigation farmers producing winter wheat. However, farmers say crop 
production has failed because ZESA was unable to maintain a regular 
power supply to the farmers.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73601


ZIMBABWE: A way out of the crisis

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a nongovernmental conflict 
resolution organisation, believes conditions in Zimbabwe are 
crystallising and could lead to a rapid reversal of the country's 
ill-fortunes, but the scenario is based on President Robert Mugabe's 27 
year-rule ending.

Zimbabwe has suffered a sharp downward spiral since 2000, when the 
ZANU-PF government embarked on its fast-track land-reform programme, 
which redistributed white-owned farmland to landless blacks, setting off 
a chain of events that has left more than a third of all Zimbabweans 
facing severe food shortages.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73636


SWAZILAND: Start-up costs limit access to power

More affordable and environmentally friendly energy is key to 
alleviating poverty, according to an initiative underway in Swaziland, 
Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia, but there are still sizable 
challenges in getting power to the people.

The initiative, Renewable and Efficient Energy for Poverty Alleviation 
in Southern Africa aims to increase the use of renewable energy 
technology - such as wind- and hydropower - to generate electricity and 
promote more sustainable energy usage in the region.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73644


ZIMBABWE: Beef shortage provides window of opportunity for swindlers

With beef increasingly becoming a rare commodity in Zimbabwe, desperate 
consumers are falling victim to swindlers. Some people have unwittingly 
been conned into buying donkey meat, considered inedible by Zimbabweans. 
Poaching and cattle theft are also on the rise.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73669


SOUTH AFRICA: Deputy health minister sacked for doing her job

South African deputy health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, told a 
media briefing in Cape Town on Friday that President Thabo Mbeki sacked 
her for "just doing my job."

Madlala-Routledge was appointed deputy minister in 2004, but it soon 
became apparent that her views on HIV/AIDS were at odds with both Mbeki 
and his health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who promotes garlic 
and lemon juice as a panacea for the disease, which according to the 
latest government survey has infected 5.41 million South Africans.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73675


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