SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 399 for 25 - 31 October 2008
JOHANNESBURG, 3 November 2008 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:
ZIMBABWE: "Just airlift the food"
ZIMBABWE: Enemies at work, comrades in the bar
SOUTH AFRICA: Country needs free universal education
ZAMBIA: Border closed to DRC refugees
ZIMBABWE: Survival recipe book
ZIMBABWE: Diamonds can take you into forever
SWAZILAND: A tale of two countries
ZAMBIA: Hoping for a free and fair election
ZAMBIA: Cholera stalks our streets
ZIMBABWE: "Just airlift the food"
It gets worse each day for Zimbabweans struggling with shortages and escalating food prices, now denominated in US dollars.
"There is nothing you can buy in local currency, everyone now wants foreign currency and this is causing so much suffering, as people are failing to buy food because they do not have any foreign currency," said Thabani Msipa in the southern city of Bulawayo.
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ZIMBABWE: Enemies at work, comrades in the bar
Zimbabwe is one of the few places in the world where you can still be called a "running dog of imperialism", and other choice revolutionary phrases, by a state media that seethes, daily, at the opposition.
The Herald, the official newspaper, maintains a government line that political dissent is manufactured by foreign powers, who pull the strings of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC); these same imperialists are the cause of Zimbabwe's economic disaster.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Country needs free universal education
The South African government should aim for free universal education, backed up by teacher training so as to make a significant impact on the quality of schooling, said the country's largest public service union.
Jon Lewis, spokesman for the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) said the plan by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to extend free education to 60 percent of schools in 2009 should be applauded, but it was not without glitches.
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ZAMBIA: Border closed to DRC refugees
The Zambian government has closed its border to any refugees arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as fighting intensifies in the east of the country.
"We have been following closely the violence in DRC. I have already ordered the immigration officers to be on extra alert at Kasumbalesa [the border post]," Susan Sikaneta, permanent secretary in the interior ministry, told IRIN.
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ZIMBABWE: Survival recipe book
Rural Zimbabweans have always turned to an emergency larder of wild foods to see them through hard times, but in this year of shortages and dizzying prices for all basic foodstuffs, the fruits and roots foraged from the bush are keeping many alive.
In the southern province of Matabeleland North, villagers are relying on a variety of wild fruits, tubers and okra-like vegetables, which become more abundant as the rainy season progresses.
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ZIMBABWE: Diamonds can take you into forever
Armed informal diamond miners in Zimbabwe's eastern Manicaland Province, scraping a living in desperate times, are resisting attempts by police to remove them in increasingly violent clashes.
According to police spokesperson Andrew Phiri, as quoted by the state-owned The Herald newspaper, several police officers were killed about two weeks ago in a shoot-out with diamond miners, known as "makorokoza" in the local Shona language. Local residents claimed a miner was killed by the police last week.
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SWAZILAND: A tale of two countries
The irony is not lost on Swazis: the population is among the world's poorest, and yet the kingdom is classified as a "middle-income country". How come?
According to Musinga Timothy Bandora, resident coordinator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), "A nation's wealth is measured by several factors; this includes gross national product." In the case of Swaziland, ruled by sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, if the nation's wealth were equally distributed, each Swazi would receive US$100,000, he said.
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ZAMBIA: Hoping for a free and fair election
Widespread allegations of pre-poll irregularities has cranked up tensions in Zambia ahead of presidential elections on 30 October to elect a successor to Levy Mwanawasa, who died in office in August following a stroke.
"There is a lot of tension in the country at the moment and stakeholders are generally sceptical that the election will be free and fair. All in all, the ECZ [Electoral Commission of Zambia] is to blame," Simon Kabanda, a spokesperson for Citizens' Forum, an NGO advocating good governance, told IRIN.
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ZAMBIA: Cholera stalks our streets
Rodgers Matsikidze, a human rights lawyer and resident of Budiriro, a high-density suburb in the capital Harare, told IRIN that persistent sewer pipe bursts had exposed the community to disease, especially cholera.
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Theme(s): (PLUSNEWS) Aid Policy, (PLUSNEWS) Avian Flu, (PLUSNEWS) Children, (PLUSNEWS) Conflict, (PLUSNEWS) Drought2006, (PLUSNEWS) Early Warning, (PLUSNEWS) Economy, (PLUSNEWS) Education, (PLUSNEWS) Environment, (PLUSNEWS) Food Security, (PLUSNEWS) Gender Issues, (PLUSNEWS) Governance, (PLUSNEWS) Health & Nutrition, (PLUSNEWS) HIV/AIDS (PlusNews), (PLUSNEWS) Human Rights, (PLUSNEWS) Migration, (PLUSNEWS) Natural Disasters, (PLUSNEWS) Refugees/IDPs, (PLUSNEWS) Urban Risk, (PLUSNEWS) Water & Sanitation
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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] |
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