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 348
1 - 17 Septmber 2007


CONTENTS:

SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE: Report dismisses "human tsunami of migrants"
   claim
ZIMBABWE: Child migrants seek a better life in South Africa
BOTSWANA: IOM to open centre for undocumented Zim migrants
ZAMBIA: Mental illness sufferers shunned and isolated
ZAMBIA-ZIMBABWE: The Tonga: left high and dry
MALAWI: Torn between the lure and danger of uranium
ZIMBABWE: Youth militia camps may close


SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE: Report dismisses "human tsunami of migrants" 
claim

It is being called the largest displacement of people outside of a war 
zone since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, but a new report is 
dismissing claims of a 'human tsunami' of undocumented Zimbabwean 
migrants arriving in South Africa as an "exaggeration".

The report, 'Fact or Fiction? Examining cross-border migration into 
South Africa', by the Forced Migration Studies Programme at 
Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand and the Musina Legal 
Advice Office, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) advocating the 
rights of migrants, which operates on the Zimbabwean/South African 
border, said, "recent statements by officials exaggerated the numbers of 
Zimbabweans moving across the border into South Africa or already in the 
country."

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74143


ZIMBABWE: Child migrants seek a better life in South Africa

He is only a teenager, but he is already a seasoned border jumper. 
Dressed in a torn t-shirt and blue work trousers, Robert, 16, (not his 
real name) told IRIN he had crossed the border from Zimbabwe four times 
since he first decided to come to South Africa in January this year.

He was arrested and deported for the first time late last month, but 
returned to the South African border town of Musina, in Limpopo 
Province, within a day and said he would only stay in Zimbabwe "when I 
have three things: money, food and schooling".

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74083


BOTSWANA: IOM to open centre for undocumented Zim migrants

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is establishing a 
second reception centre in Zimbabwe to provide a 'soft landing' for 
undocumented Zimbabwean migrants being deported from neighbouring 
countries.

Last year 38,000 Zimbabweans were repatriated from Botswana to Zimbabwe. 
Earlier this year President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government requested 
the IOM to assist in setting up the country's second reception centre, 
in the Matabeleland town of Plumtree near the Botswana border, to assist 
undocumented Zimbabwean migrants being repatriated from Botswana.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74108


ZAMBIA: Mental illness sufferers shunned and isolated

Rising rates of mental and emotional illness in Zambia are being met 
with growing levels of stigma and discrimination, with sufferers often 
isolated by their communities.

Nora Mweemba, a health information promotion officer for the World 
Health Organisation (WHO) in Zambia, told IRIN, "Mental health problems 
are on the increase among the population in Zambia, mostly because of 
the socio-economic difficulties that exist in this country - HIV/AIDS, 
poverty, joblessness - they all precipitate mental problems."

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74180


ZAMBIA-ZIMBABWE: The Tonga: left high and dry

Fifty years after the Tonga people were forcibly removed from the 
Zambezi Valley to make way for the Kariba Dam between southern Zambia 
and northwestern Zimbabwe, the community is still trying to find its 
feet.

Over the past decade a number of development programmes have been 
initiated to improve the Tonga people's lives, after their eviction by 
the former governments of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Southern 
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to make way for the hydroelectric power project 
that created Lake Kariba.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74139


MALAWI: Torn between the lure and danger of uranium

A project to mine uranium in northern Malawi next year promises to spur 
economic development in the area, but fears of serious health hazards 
associated with the radioactive element have aroused the country's civil 
society.

The Malawian government granted a mining licence in April 2007 to 
Paladin Africa Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian 
company, Paladin Resources Ltd, to develop the Kayelekera uranium 
deposit, 40km west of the town of Karonga on the shore of Lake Malawi.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74166


ZIMBABWE: Youth militia camps may close

The acute shortages being experienced in Zimbabwe could lead to the 
closure of the ZANU-PF government's youth militia training camps, 
established in 2001 to instil the values of national identity, unity, 
patriotism and self-reliance.

The Youth, Gender and Women's Affairs parliamentary portfolio committee 
has recommended that National Youth Service Centres be closed until 
economic conditions improve because their ablution and accommodation 
facilities were near collapse and trainees were not being provided with 
adequate supplies of food, while their trainers were not receiving 
regular remuneration.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74160


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