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SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 202 for 23-29 October - OCHA IRIN

Wednesday 17 November 2004


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IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 202 for 23-29 October

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: City dwellers try urban farming to fill gaps in the foodbasket
ANGOLA: Cabinda slowly waking up to HIV/AIDS
MALAWI: Ex-minister arrested over sale of state grain
ZAMBIA: Congolese refugees return home
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Malawi gets bulk of informal cross-border food trade
BOTSWANA: Election observers arrive
COMOROS: Ongoing squabbles over power sharing agreement
SOUTH AFRICA: Increased need for counselling services
LESOTHO: World Bank funding to mitigate water shortages
MOZAMBIQUE: Targeted emergency food aid for Nampula
NAMIBIA: Opposition consider boycott, claim TV biased
SWAZILAND: Re-opening of access to Mozambique set to revive Lubombo

ZIMBABWE: City dwellers try urban farming to fill gaps in the foodbasket

As Zimbabwe's urban population struggles to cope with the high cost of living, residents in the country's second largest city, Bulawayo, have embarked on subsistence farming to alleviate economic pressure, IRIN reported on Friday.

Several hundred urban dwellers, especially those living in high-density areas, have already cleared small patches of land as the planting season approaches.

Dingilizwe Siziba, a resident of Sizinda, one of the Bulawayo's oldest suburbs, said supporting his family had become increasingly difficult over the past few years as food prices continued to climb.

Full report

South African trade unionists deported

The Zimbabwean government on Tuesday deported a 14-member South African Congress of Trade Unions (COSATU) delegation on a fact-finding visit to the country.

The COSATU team arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday on a four-day mission, after the government warned they would not be welcome, but were eventually allowed into the country.

The police, intelligence services and immigration officers rounded up the delegates on Tuesday as they held a meeting with their counterparts from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions at a hotel in central Harare, the capital.

Full report

ZCTU condemns deportation of COSATU delegation

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) on Wednesday condemned the deportation of a 14-member South African labour delegation that had arrived in the country on a fact-finding mission.

ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo told IRIN the labour movement's supreme decision-making body, the General Council, had noted that the expulsion violated international trade union statutes.

"This now suggest that the workers of Zimbabwe and the general population are quarantined in all aspects of politics and social life," Matombo said.

Full report

NGO calls for elections to be delayed

Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections, scheduled for March next year, should be delayed, a local poll observer network told IRIN on Monday.

Reginald Machaba-Hove of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) told IRIN that the implementation of new electoral reforms, such as voting in one day, transparent ballot boxes and increasing polling stations, "cannot be done in time by March".

"There's no way we can have elections by March next year, and say the conditions were free and fair. We're calling for the elections to be delayed beyond March, so as to allow for sufficient time for all the necessary consultations to take place with all stakeholders, including the opposition and NGOs, and to make the adjustments [required by new legislation]. Our point is that it will take time to have adequate consultations," Machaba-Hove added.

Full report

Tsvangirai discusses 2005 polls with Mbeki

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai held talks on his country's upcoming parliamentary elections with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria on Monday, according to analysts and political insiders.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, accompanied by party secretary-general Welshman Ncube, kicked off the first leg of a regional tour in South Africa, following his acquittal two weeks ago of plotting to assassinate Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, and the return of his passport last week.

Tsvangirai's spokesperson, William Bango, described the talks as "sensitive", because South Africa was trying to negotiate between two parties in a "conflict situation", but commented that the discussions would have touched on the MDC's concerns over the Zimbabwean government's implementation of the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) electoral guidelines.

Full report

Electoral reforms unlikely to be in place, claims Tsvangirai

Necessary electoral reforms are unlikely to be in place in time for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe next year, even if all political players show their goodwill, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday.

But it was premature to take any decision on boycotting the March elections, Tsvangirai told a press conference in Johannesburg at the end of a regional tour that included a visit to Mauritius to meet the Southern African Development Community (SADC) chair, Prime Minister Paul Berenger.

Full report

Assessing impact of interventions on children

Children receiving food aid are often stigmatised and maltreated by guardians, according to the findings of a pilot project in Zimbabwe to assess the impact of food interventions on children.

The project was prompted by a lack of "humanitarian accountability to beneficiaries" and the fact that feedback from children had never been considered in the significant number of interventions taking place in Zimbabwe, said Chris McIvor of the UK-Based NGO, Save the Children, which conducted the study.

Full report

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ANGOLA: Cabinda slowly waking up to HIV/AIDS

On Tuesday IRIN reported that although Cabinda produces 60 percent of Angola's oil revenues, the province, saddled with one of the highest HIV rates in the country, has been slow to respond to the epidemic.

The presence of new, freshly painted health facilities, like Cabinda's double-storey hospital and the newly opened maternity centre on the outskirts of town, suggest on the face of it that the province is better equipped to handle the epidemic.

"The better infrastructure doesn't necessarily translate into a better response or anything significant," the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) HIV/AIDS Project Officer, Melanie Luick, told IRIN.

Although companies such as Chevron-Texaco have sponsored a range of social upliftment projects in Cabinda, critics have argued that these fall short of the needs in the province - particularly in relation to HIV/AIDS.

Full report

Reports call for tightening of diamond sector controls

Also on Tuesday, IRIN reported on two new reports which argue that the Kimberley Process, a regulatory framework aimed at reducing the potential for diamonds to fuel conflict, must take cognisance of the need for proper internal controls in producer countries and ensure a fair wage for Africa's diamond diggers.

The first report, 'The Key to Kimberley - Internal Diamond Controls', highlights the need for proper internal controls and tracking in diamond-producing countries such as Angola.

The second report, 'Rich Man, Poor Man - Development Diamonds and Poverty Diamonds', warns that controls alone will probably never work unless diamond digging pays more than a dollar a day.

Full report

WFP flights take off amid landing fee dispute

World Food Programme (WFP) flights in Angola took off as normal on Monday after the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration (MINARS) promised to help resolve a dispute over landing fees.

ENANA, Angola's national airport administrator, had threatened to halt the flights - which transport vital food aid to around a million hungry Angolans and give access to remote areas for thousands of aid workers - unless WFP paid all airport taxes, including navigation, landing, passenger and parking fees by last Saturday.

But the UN food agency has an agreement with MINARS that all costs relating to its humanitarian flights are to be borne by the government.

Full report

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MALAWI: Ex-minister arrested over sale of state grain

In an ongoing crackdown on corruption, Friday Jumbe, Malawi's former finance minister, was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the sale of maize from the country's strategic grain reserves during widespread food shortages.

Jumbe was arrested at Blantyre's Chileka airport, where he was due to board a flight to South Africa. He has become the fifth senior member of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) to be arrested in new President Bingu wa Mutharika's anti-corruption crusade.

Full report

EU to provide budgetary support

The European Union (EU) rewarded the new Malawi government's commitment to poverty reduction by renewing budgetary support to the country, IRIN reported on Tuesday.

An EU delegation, in Malawi to review economic progress made in the past two-and-a-half years, said it would provide US $42 million in budgetary support in the 2005/06 financial year.

"The EU agreed with government to support reforms in areas of food security and agriculture, road infrastructure development, decentralisation and budgetary support," EU delegation member Philippe Darmuzey told a press conference.

Full report

Relief over appointment of new elections commissioner

President Bingu wa Mutharika has appointed Supreme Court judge Justice Anastazia Msosa as the new chair of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), a decision that has won cross-party support.

The appointment comes two months after former MEC chairperson Justice James Kalaile announced his resignation, following heavy criticism by civil society and international observers for his handling of the May general elections.

Msosa is not new to the commission. She was picked by former head of state Hastings Kamuzu Banda to head the MEC during the country's first multiparty elections in 1994 after 30 years of single party rule.

Full report

Farm input distribution to strengthen food security

The Malawian government this week launched a US $23 million farm input subsidy programme to strengthen food security.

The Extended Targeted Input Programme (ETIP), formerly known as the starter-pack programme, is a Malawian government initiative to ensure that poor households have access to free seed and fertiliser.

Following two good harvests, donor pressure caused the starter-pack programme to be scaled down, under the Targeted Input Programme (TIP), to packs for the poorest smallholders in 2000/01.

Full report

Increasing number of children working

The effects of the 2002 food crisis in Malawi continue to take a heavy toll of the country's children, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said in a new report.

The 50-page study, launched last week, noted an increase in the number of children forced to seek informal employment to cope with the aftershocks of food shortages two years ago, when consecutive poor harvests placed over three million people in need of emergency food aid.

Full report

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ZAMBIA: Congolese refugees return home

Zambia's home affairs office this week confirmed that around 3,000 Congolese who fled insecurity in the southeastern Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last week have returned home.

The DRC refugees who arrived on Kilwa Island in northern Zambia refused to relocate to refugee camps, hoping the situation would return to normal.

On Tuesday Zambian Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Peter Mumba told IRIN that of the 3,500 refugees on the island, 3,000 had already crossed back into the DRC after assurances their home areas were now calm.

Full report

Community radio strengthening village voices

By enabling villages to share knowledge through the airwaves, community radio in Zambia's Eastern Province has helped to strengthen people's capacity to fight disease and poverty.

Aid groups, radio broadcasters and local communities have mobilised the power of radio to promote behavioural change to help curb HIV/AIDS and tackle issues such as poverty and child labour.

The Zambia Community Radio Project (ZCRP), a USAID funded initiative, is reaching out to thousands of villagers through a popular radio programme called "Kumuzi Kwathu" (In Our Village) in the province's widely spoken Chewa, and "Chikaya chitu" in Tumbuka, a local dialect.

Full report

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SOUTHERN AFRICA: Malawi gets bulk of informal cross-border food trade

The first report on the scale of informal cross-border trading in food among countries in Southern Africa has identified Malawi as the largest recipient of imports.

A joint World Food Programme (WFP) and Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report noted that "informal cross-border trade played a significant role in averting widespread food insecurity in Southern Africa during the major regional drought of 2002 and 2003".

Full report

Development agencies ask IMF to sell gold

Three major development agencies have asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to sell or revalue some of its gold reserves to raise funds for a total debt write-off for the world's poorest countries.

In a paper entitled, 'Fool's Gold: The Case for 100 Percent Multilateral Debt Cancellation for the Poorest Countries', the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), ActionAid and Oxfam International said a total debt write-off for all low-income countries was necessary to help them meet their poverty reduction targets and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato responded earlier this month to a similar call made by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and pointed out that "it depends on the willingness of the members of the Fund, of the Executive Board. For the time being, the Executive Board has not discussed this issue. Of course, management and staff, we stand ready to analyse the possible outcome if we get the mandate by the Board to do it."

Full report

A new aid paradigm is needed - report

Local communities have proven much more resilient to emergencies than aid agencies have realised, says this year's World Disaster Report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"For so many years, victims of disasters have been portrayed as helpless, desperate and dependent," said Francoise Le Goff, head of the Federation's Southern Africa delegation.

Full report

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BOTSWANA: Election observers arrive

A delegation of 22 observers from the South Africa-based Electoral Institute of Southern African (EISA) arrived in Botswana on Tuesday in preparation for the country's weekend poll.

On Saturday 552,890 registered voters are expected cast their ballots in parliamentary and local government elections at one of 2,179 polling stations countrywide.

Full report

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COMOROS: Ongoing squabbles over power sharing agreement

A senior Comoran official downplayed concerns that political wrangling over the implementation of a power-sharing agreement was threatening the nation's political stability, IRIN reported on Monday.

Federal government spokesman Houmed M'Saidie said parliamentarians were working on resolving the confusion surrounding control of the defence and key state assets portfolios between the three islands and the federal government.

Full report

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SOUTH AFRICA: Increased need for counselling services

As a basic understanding of AIDS deepens in South Africa, people are increasingly seeking counselling services to learn how to live with the virus, a new survey has found.

A study conducted by the Centre For AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) between 2000 and 2003 showed that although the number of calls to the national AIDS Helpline had decreased, there had been an upsurge in requests for information about ways to cope with the virus.

CADRE researcher Warren Parker said the shrinking need for basic information was due to heightened awareness about the modes of HIV transmission in recent years.

Full report

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LESOTHO: World Bank funding to mitigate water shortages

Lesotho is to receive a US $14.1 million loan from the World Bank for the extension of water and sanitation services to peri-urban and underserved urban neighbourhoods, IRIN reported on Thursday.

The Lesotho Water Sector Improvement project aims to "ensure adequate supply of clean water and sanitation services for consumers living in the Lowlands," the Bank said in a statement. "It will finance needed infrastructure for increasing urban water supply in the capital, Maseru, paying particular attention to fast-growing peri-urban and industrial areas."

Full report

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MOZAMBIQUE: Targeted emergency food aid for Nampula

The World Food Programme (WFP) was expected to provide targeted emergency assistance to some 50,000 pregnant and nursing mothers and children under five in Mozambique's northern Nampula province, IRIN reported on Wednesday.

The response follows an outbreak of brown streak disease, which had devastated large portions of the cassava crop in several districts of Nampula.

WFP's deputy director in Mozambique, Karin Manente, said an assessment mission had visited the affected districts to establish needs.

Full report

Securing an AIDS-free future

A crowd of young Mozambicans gathered under the shade of a tree last week to discuss what they knew about HIV/AIDS, as part of a peer education programme underway in central Zambezia province.

Some answered confidently but others were reticent, with the girls, especially, keeping their heads down when asked how HIV was transmitted.

The Meu Futuro e minha Escolha, "My Future is my Choice" initiative, supported by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), aims to influence 10 to 15 year-olds with safer sex messages. They are mostly too young to be sexually active, and therefore represent a "window of opportunity" in stemming the spread of the epidemic if they can be protected from HIV infection.

Full report

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NAMIBIA: Opposition consider boycott, claim TV biased

Just weeks away from Namibia's parliamentary and presidential elections, two main opposition parties are considering boycotting the polls, accusing the public broadcaster of political bias.

The Congress of Democrats (CoD) and Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) on Thursday alleged that the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was awarding the ruling SWAPO party a disproportionate amount of television airtime. A third opposition party has taken court action to force the NBC to give equal coverage.

"The NBC is actually a [President Sam] Nujoma Broadcasting Corporation and gives SWAPO too much exposure and coverage, but it is a public institution paid for by Namibian taxpayers," CoD vice president Nora Schimming-Chase said at a press conference.

Full report

Conservancies programme gets US $26.5 million in donor support

Namibia has received US $26.5 million in donor support to help it make better use of its natural resources, IRIN reported on Friday.

Initiatives focusing on community-driven land management will be bolstered by funds from by the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Wildlife Fund.

The government launched the community-based natural resources management programme, allowing rural communities to register their areas as conservancies, almost a decade ago. Local communities were granted rights to manage the land and reap the benefits from tourism, while any income generated was paid out directly to individual members of conservancies or pooled to pay for necessities like water tanks, wind pumps and the development of local infrastructure.

Full report

Outbreak of locusts threatens next harvest

A senior agricultural expert on Wednesday appealed for additional resources to control an outbreak of locusts threatening the new harvest in Namibia's northeastern Caprivi region.

"Fortunately, there are no crops in the ground right now, so the damage has been negligible. But unless more pesticide spray becomes available, we may find that within a month the locusts would have hatched and this could cause severe damage to emerging crops," Caprivi-based Food and Agricultural Organisation consultant James Breen told IRIN.

In 2002 swarms of locusts destroyed almost 300 ha of maize fields in the vicinity of Lake Liambezi in southeastern Caprivi.

Full report

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SWAZILAND: Re-opening of access to Mozambique set to revive Lubombo

The reopening this week of the Mhlume border post, linking Swaziland with Mozambique, is expected to improve the lives of residents in the drought and poverty-stricken eastern Lubombo area, IRIN reported on Friday.

"This entire region has suffered because of our isolation, which was caused when the border post closed 20 years ago," Amos Nhlabatsi, a longtime resident of the regional capital, Siteki, told IRIN.

Mhlume was once Swaziland's principal outlet to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique and a major port, giving landlocked Swazis access to the Indian Ocean and opening the Lubombo region to tourism.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Other recent SOUTHERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 204 for 6-12 November 2004, 12/Nov/04

Infant and child mortality rates rising, 5/Nov/04

IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 203 for 30 October- 5 November 2004, 5/Nov/04

Five countries need urgent assistance, WFP, 4/Nov/04

Studies highlight aid efforts in context of HIV/AIDS, 4/Nov/04

Other recent reports:

SOUTH AFRICA: Frank dialogue about gender is key to tackling HIV/AIDS, 16/Nov/04

ZAMBIA: Government bans civic group, 16/Nov/04

ANGOLA: Lack of aid hampers reintegration of returnees, 16/Nov/04

NIGERIA: Unions call off strike after 11th-hour govt offer, 15/Nov/04

IRAQ: IRAQ CRISIS: Weekly round-up Number 87 for 7-12 November, 12/Nov/04

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