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 350
15 - 21 September 2007


CONTENTS:

SOUTH AFRICA: Farms simmer over tenure rights
ZAMBIA: Government discards the elderly
SOUTHERN AFRICA: A winning recipe for PMTCT but few follow it
ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa draws child migrants
ZIMBABWE: Parched city braces for disease outbreak
MALAWI: Budget passed at last
SWAZILAND: Two-thirds of women beaten and abused
ZIMBABWE: Not enough money to feed the hungry
SWAZILAND: Tradition as a force against HIV/AIDS



SOUTH AFRICA: Farms simmer over tenure rights

Public hearings into human rights violations on South African farms this 
week have lifted the lid on simmering tensions between farmers and farm 
dwellers.

Millions of black South Africans live on farms owned by mostly white 
farmers, where evictions and other human rights abuses sometimes still 
take place, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) heard from 
Nkuzi, a land rights non-governmental organisation (NGO).

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74427


ZAMBIA: Government discards the elderly

Zambia's elderly population are faced with a double jeopardy: they are 
either shunned by communities as witchcraft practitioners or, with 
little or no understanding of the disease, are burdened with caring for 
HIV/AIDS orphans, says a non-governmental organisation concerned with 
their wellbeing.

"Our elderly people are facing a very big problem in Zambia; it is 
either they are abandoned by the community and their relatives on 
allegations of practising witchcraft, or they are forced to look after 
their grandchildren, whose parents die of AIDS without leaving anything 
for these old people, who become [surrogate] parents," Rosemary 
Sichimba, president of the Senior Citizens Association of Zambia, told 
IRIN.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74406


SOUTHERN AFRICA: A winning recipe for PMTCT but few follow it

A success story, at last: Botswana has lowered the rate of 
mother-to-child transmission of HIV to less than four percent, coming 
close to developed countries that have almost eliminated paediatric 
AIDS.

In Europe and the USA, fewer than two percent of babies with 
HIV-positive mothers are born with the virus; without intervention, the 
risk of an HIV-positive pregnant woman passing on the virus to her baby 
is between 30 percent and 35 percent, according to health specialists.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74405


ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa draws child migrants

Unaccompanied children, an average of 14 years old but sometimes as 
young as seven, are being drawn to South Africa from neighbouring states 
in the hope of work and receiving an education, according to report 
published by Save the Children (UK).

The report, compiled from a survey of 130 undocumented children in South 
Africa, said "there are sufficiently large numbers of children crossing 
borders unaccompanied to warrant major concern". An estimated 1,500 
underage Zimbabweans enter South Africa each year.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74400


ZIMBABWE: Parched city braces for disease outbreak

Desperate measures being taken by residents of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's 
second city, to cushion the effects of acute water shortages are 
aggravating the health problems of its 1.5 million residents.

Stringent water rationing has been introduced in a bid to make the 
contents of fast-dwindling dams last until the onset of the expected 
rains in November, but the municipal council acknowledges that the poor 
inflows of water into the southern city's reservoirs has led to an 
increase in waterborne diseases.

"We are praying that we do not get a cholera outbreak because that will 
be difficult to control, but as water shortages continue we are likely 
to get a cholera outbreak in the city, but as of now we are doing 
everything to contain the diarrhoea and dysentery cases," said Council 
spokesperson Pathisa Nyathi.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74386


MALAWI: Budget passed at last

Malawi's opposition party, the United Democratic Front (UDF), has 
succumbed to civil society pressure to pass the national budget after a 
four-month delay that has prevented the release of donor funds.

In response President Bingu wa Mutharika prorogued parliament last week, 
which analysts interpreted as a display of presidential authority. 
"These people [parliament] have been meeting for four months and wasted 
over 310 million kwacha (US$2,2 million)," Mutharika said in an address 
on national radio.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74359


SWAZILAND: Two-thirds of women beaten and abused

One in every three female Swazis has experienced some form of sexual 
violence before turning 18, as have two out of three aged 18 to 24, 
according to the first national survey to chart the scope of sexual and 
other types of violence perpetrated against women and girls.

>From infancy to until they turned 24, nearly half (48.2 percent) of 
Swazi women experienced some form of sexual violence, according to the 
National Survey on Violence Experienced by Female Children and Youths in 
Swaziland, conducted by the government, UN agencies and non-governmental 
organisations.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74342


ZIMBABWE: Not enough money to feed the hungry

The amount set aside by the Zimbabwean government to feed at least four 
million people identified as food insecure is "a mere drop in the sea", 
say analysts.

Finance minister Samuel Mumbengegwi announced in early September that 
the government had set aside Z$347 billion (about US$1.02 million at the 
parallel market rate) to buy food for 600,000 households it had 
identified as hungry, due to poor harvests after a combination of 
drought and critical shortages of inputs.

The amount seems small compared to the US$118 million appeal launched by 
World Food Programme to provide immediate assistance to 3.3 million of 
the 4.1 million people that UN agencies estimate will be facing severe 
food shortages from now until March 2008.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74340


SWAZILAND: Tradition as a force against HIV/AIDS

Circumstance, rather than planning, has placed the battle against 
HIV/AIDS firmly in the hands of Swaziland's 355 chiefdoms. The 
decentralisation strategy has evolved from government's failure to 
command the fight against the disease, or even deliver healthcare at its 
urban hospitals, and much less so in rural areas, where four out of five 
Swazis live.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74301


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
     Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                    guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Southern Africa                  www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/safrica