IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 122 for 10-16 May 2003
CONTENTS:
ZAMBIA: Surprise sale of state-owned copper mine
ZIMBABWE: Trade minister visits ACP meeting despite EU ban
MADAGASCAR: World Bank credit will help manage country's mineral resources
SWAZILAND: Women demand property rights
SOUTH AFRICA: Blacks getting poorer, says Cape university study
NAMIBIA: Nujoma won't stand for fourth term
MOZAMBIQUE: Feature: New law offers some protection to women
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Still waiting for the information revolution
SOUTH AFRICA: Decision-making over peace missions criticised
ZAMBIA: Surprise sale of state-owned copper mine
The Zambian cabinet has decided to sell a 51 percent stake in the country's state-owned Konkola Copper Mines to Sterlite Industries, an Indian company based in London.
Information Minister Newstead Zimba said Sterlite would take over the running of the mine, abandoned by mining giant Anglo American last year, as soon as the details over payment are agreed in the coming weeks.
"Sterlite has made a commitment to funding a substantial capital expenditure programme, thereby securing a long-term future for KCM and its workforce," Zimba said.
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Govt bans maize imports
The Zambian government has halted the importation of fresh maize stocks and opted to buy the commodity locally following predictions of a good harvest by the Zambia National Farmers Union.
Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Mundia Sikatana this week told journalists the government was confident there was enough maize locally to feed the country and importing would "kill" the local market.
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Localised crop failures expected
While the overall food security outlook for Zambia appears to be better than last year, it is expected that there will still be pockets of need due to crop failures.
The latest report by the office of the UN Resident Coordinator, based in Lusaka, warns that "more than 40 percent of rural households are facing total crop failure" in a few districts of the Southern province.
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Doctors cautiously welcome pay offer
Walking the corridors of Zambia's largest hospital gives the average visitor, let alone its patients, an overwhelming sense of despair.
Lusaka's University Teaching hospital lacks drugs and equipment. Its doctors and support staff are poorly paid and morale is low, impacting on the quality of care provided to the long-suffering patients.
Last week, the almost 300-strong Resident Doctors Association went on a two-day strike, demanding better pay and conditions. They returned to work after the government agreed to a 120 percent to 300 percent salary hike, but remain cautious over whether the government will stick to the deal.
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ZIMBABWE: Trade minister visits ACP meeting despite EU ban
Zimbabwe's minister of trade, Samuel Mumbengegwi, has visited Brussels to attend a meeting of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of countries, despite a European Union travel ban on Zimbabwe's government ministers, the BBC reported on Friday.
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EC aid package to help vulnerable families
The European Commission has provided a €13 million (US $14.9 million) humanitarian aid package to support vulnerable people affected by drought and food shortages in Zimbabwe, IRIN reported on Thursday.
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Mugabe establishes Land Review Committee
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has established a Land Review Committee to verify information contained in a land reform audit submitted to cabinet recently, a government spokesman told IRIN on Thursday.
The audit, conducted by the minister of state for land reform, Flora Buka, was intended to establish who owned Zimbabwe's farms at the completion of the government's fast-track land reform programme. The controversial programme was initiated to redistribute land, mainly from white commercial farmers to "indigenous" Zimbabweans.
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Gold panners among rising malaria cases
Malaria is worse than usual in Zimbabwe this year with many illegal gold panners among the new cases reported since the beginning of the year, IRIN reported on Wednesday.
The latest United Nations Development Programme Situation Report said on Wednesday that almost 29,000 cases of the disease have been reported this year.
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Focus on Voluntary Counselling and Testing
Helen (not her real name) began to suspect she was HIV-positive in August 2002, when her husband died of tuberculosis. Only 35 years old, she needs a walking stick to get around. She has lost about nine kilograms over the past few months and does not have the energy she used to. Her blouse hangs off her shoulders and her eyes look bloodshot and tired.
Helen is one of 15 people, mainly women, waiting to be tested for HIV at a voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) centre in Chitungwiza, a small town 30 km outside Zimbabwe's capital city of Harare. Like many of the others, Helen says she is unafraid to learn her status.
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Electricity crisis adds to woes
Zimbabwe's electricity crisis is set to worsen as the country does not have enough foreign currency to pay for power supplied by neighbouring countries, IRIN reported on Monday.
State radio quoted Power and Energy Development Minister Amos Midzi as saying that negotiations were underway to avoid disconnection by suppliers who are owed about US $45 million.
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Women arrested during Mother's Day march
Forty-six women were arrested and detained during a Mother's Day march in Zimbabwe on Saturday, Jenni Williams, a spokeswoman for Women of Zimbabwe Arise, told IRIN.
The women had been carrying out a symbolic street-sweeping in the country's second city of Bulawayo at the time of their arrest, "to sweep away the violence and torture of people, and to get our house in order," Williams said. The women also demanded fairer food prices.
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MADAGASCAR: World Bank credit will help manage country's mineral resources
The World Bank has approved a US $32 million International Development Association credit to help Madagascar manage its mineral resource more effectively, so as to accelerate development and generate funds for poverty reduction, IRIN reported on Thursday.
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Communities struggle with food crisis in the south
As Noelene Sana struggled to breast-feed her newborn baby, she was preparing a "meal" of nothing more than cactus leaves and salted water for the rest of her six children.
"This one is lucky," she said, pointing to the infant. "At least he has milk to drink. For the others, there isn't anything else. What can I do?"
IRIN looks at how the food crisis is affecting Madagascar's poor.
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Slow recovery of tourism sector
Up until a year ago, Fort-Dauphin was considered a tourist hotspot among foreign travellers to Madagascar.
With resplendent views of verdant hills, lush banana plantations and unspoilt beaches, the tiny southern coastal town attracted thousands of visitors every year. However, IRIN reported on Wednesday that hotels that once boasted full occupancy are half empty, beaches remain deserted and local curio shops are struggling to pay the rent.
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Aid convoy reaches flood-hit city
A humanitarian convoy carrying 4,500 kg of relief items reached the flood-affected Madagascan city of Vatomandry by boat, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Wednesday.
The Malagasy Red Cross sent two water purification units - one capable of producing enough potable water to meet the daily needs of 10,000 people - essential drugs, hygiene articles, high protein biscuits, clothes, tents and tarpaulin for temporary shelter. The aid convoy arrived in the city on Tuesday night.
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Cyclone kills at least 20
At least 20 people died and thousands have been affected by tropical cyclone Manou which battered Madagascar's east coast last week.
An aerial survey found that Vatomandry, south of the port of Toamasina, was severely hit, with houses damaged and the community's agricultural fields flooded, World Food Programme spokeswoman Annmarie Isler told IRIN on Tuesday.
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Feature: Cost of political crisis borne by poor
More than a year since President Marc Ravalomanana took power in Madagascar, close to an estimated one-third of the residents in the capital, Antananarivo, remain mired in poverty.
"The truth is that nothing has changed. But I still believe President Ravalomanana will do something," said 36-year-old Aimeline Razanadrosoa. "We need everything - food, water, clothes; but also some money so that my children can go to school."
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SWAZILAND: Women demand property rights
Women's groups in Swaziland are taking a more active role in shaping gender policy, ahead of the release of the first draft of the country's new constitution by King Mswati III.
Property ownership, currently illegal for Swazi women, is one important area of concern.
"Throughout the operation of our culture and received law, women have been systematically discriminated against in all aspects of social life – for instance, in terms of being property owners," said a statement from the women's empowerment group, Umtapo waBomake.
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Impact of HIV/AIDS could be worse than that of drought
HIV/AIDS, more than drought conditions, has the potential for worsening Swaziland's continuing food crisis, a joint Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme has warned.
"HIV/AIDS is overshadowing everything," said Anthony Pope, WFP/FAO mission's agronomist.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Blacks getting poorer, says Cape university study
Black households are getting poorer in post-apartheid South Africa, says a recent study by the University of the Western Cape.
According to the study, entitled "Staying Poor in South Africa", more than a quarter of all households remain trapped in long-term poverty, IRIN reported on Wednesday.
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NAMIBIA: Nujoma won't stand for fourth term
Namibia's president Sam Nujoma has again said he won't be standing in the 2004 elections for a fourth term, The Namibian newspaper reported on Friday.
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MOZAMBIQUE: Feature: New law offers some protection to women
Salome Moine, an MP for the ruling FRELIMO party, held her fist high and shouted enthusiastically, "Viva FRELIMO! Baixa com poligamia!" (Long live FRELIMO, down with polygamy).
The crowd of over one hundred women in Mozambique's most northern province of Pemba, dutifully repeated the slogans.
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: Still waiting for the information revolution
Southern African policymakers are pitting their desire to expand information and communications technology (ICTs) in their countries against the stark reality of affordability.
"It would be nice to put a computer in every classroom, but what if the school's priority is to have a desk for every student?" May Muluzi, an education consultant from Malawi, told IRIN.
Several hundred high-tech specialists in the public and private sectors and civil society were assembled this week by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to find ways to apply new computer technology to governance at the third meeting of the Committee on Development Information (CODI).
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Activists condemn "state-sponsored" homophobia
Human Rights and gay activists have accused some southern African leaders of singling out gays and lesbians as "scapegoats" for their countries' problems.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) on Wednesday released a 298-page report documenting harassment and violence against sexual minorities in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Decision-making over peace missions criticised
As South Africa prepares to commit three battalions of peacekeeping troops to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new report has called for greater transparency in the decision-making process guiding deployment.
Written by two senior analysts at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the report observed: "Success in peacekeeping does not just happen through the mere act of volunteering contributions; it comes from carefully selecting which missions best reflect South Africa's national interests, and which missions it can make a qualitative contribution to. Therefore, the decision to determine which mission to support requires consultation, coordination and cooperation."
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