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Wednesday 21 September 2005


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IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 229 for 30 April - 6 May 2005

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

CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Beleaguered parastatals warn of impending food crisis
SWAZILAND: Drought, hunger and AIDS, but still coping
INDIAN OCEAN: New body to promote responsible fishing
MALAWI: Economic performance making no dent in poverty - report
SEYCHELLES: Tsunami recovery programme needs funds, UN Res Coordinator
LESOTHO: Poor voter turnout marks first ever nationwide local poll
MOZAMBIQUE: Workers in the forefront of fight against HIV/AIDS

ZIMBABWE: Beleaguered parastatals warn of impending food crisis

Zimbabwe's key production and distribution parastatals have warned of major food shortages in the near future unless government provides immediate funding to restore viability to these businesses.

Their concerns surfaced amid reports that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has so far failed to make available the Zim $10 trillion (US $1.6 billion) recapitalisation package for rescuing 16 ailing but crucial state-owned companies, as pledged in January this year.

Full report

Parallel market flourishes as shelves empty

The general shortage of commodities in Zimbabwe has created a burgeoning parallel market, which is limiting access to basic items for most of the poor.

Tonderai Mukerezi, a public relations officer for the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), told IRIN: "The emergence of the black market is a sad development and will affect the consumer, because goods are sold at unbelievably high prices, and the cost of living will soar."

Full report

Govt assessing needs before calling for food aid

Zimbabwean authorities said this week that the results from a second round of government-run crop assessments will determine whether the country will appeal for international food aid.

Chairman of the National Taskforce on Food Security, Didymus Mutasa, said on Wednesday that the government was on top of the situation, and refused to comment on media reports of dwindling stocks and rising food prices.

Full report

Govt raises producer prices to attract more grain

In a bid to induce Zimbabwean farmers to sell more of their stocks to the state's Grain Marketing Board (GMB), government has increased the maize producer price by almost 300 percent from Zim $750,000 (about US $122) to Zim $2.2 million ($359) per metric tonne.

Economist Dennis Nikisi told IRIN: "The hope is that it will induce any farmer who might be withholding their maize for on-farm consumption, or those who might be tempted to side-market maize - remember, maize is a controlled specified crop, which means it is only sold to the GMB - [so] this is ... a strategy to induce those farmers who might be holding stocks to sell to the GMB, and encourage them to plant a higher hectareage of maize in the next cropping season."

Full report

Govt confirms probe into NGO activities, funding

The Zimbabwean government confirmed that an inter-ministerial team that includes members of the Central Intelligence Organisation, the state security organ, are probing the activities of local and foreign NGOs operating in the country.

The government's admission came as reports emerged that the teams had visited over 15 NGOs since the beginning of last month.

Full report

Under-representation of women in parliament disappoints activists

Although the recent appointment of a female vice-president is seen as a positive step, gender lobbyists in Zimbabwe continue to agitate for more women in public office.

Since the legislative elections in March 2005, women now represent just 16 percent in parliament, up from 10.6 percent. However, the figure falls far short of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) declaration in 1997, which agreed to a 30 percent target for female representation in national political bodies by 2005.

Full report

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SWAZILAND: Drought, hunger and AIDS, but still coping

Naomi Gule blames AIDS for the 45 parentless children she looks after at the neighbourhood care centre, an hour's drive south of the Swazi capital, but she blames the weather for frustrating her efforts to feed her charges.

"All summer, it has been too little rain or too much rain, or a spell of good growth at the school garden - all destroyed in just some minutes by a hailstorm," she said.

Full report

Labour movement says it's far from dead

The Swaziland labour movement is suffering from declining membership as manufacturing and agricultural industries shed jobs, and faces a public image problem in the wake of media reports of internal divisions and corruption. But union officials told IRIN the clout of collective labour to effect political and social change is not dead.

Full report

Children "spin" water out

The children at Lubilini primary school in eastern Swaziland have never had a real playground. Now they get to spin a merry-go-round in the school's dirt courtyard, not only for exercise and entertainment, but to pump water out of the ground.

The water is used to prepare their meals, for sanitation facilities and to irrigate the school vegetable garden.

Full report

Plans to expand power production

Swaziland is drawing up contingency plans to expand domestic electricity production to counter increasingly frequent power shortages.

"Having a reliable source of electricity is essential for our rural electrification programme, which is tied to government's poverty eradication effort, delivery of essential services, and to foreign direct investment for industrial growth," said Hugh Magagula, principal secretary at the ministry of natural resources.

Full report

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INDIAN OCEAN: New body to promote responsible fishing

Declining fish stocks in the southwest Indian Ocean have prompted the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to set up a panel to promote the development of fishery resources in the region.

Fish is the main source of food for thousands of African communities living along the continent's eastern and southern coasts, and a major source of revenue for countries like Mozambique, but recent research has shown that stocks are under considerable pressure.

Full report

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MALAWI: Economic performance making no dent in poverty - report

Malawi's lacklustre economic performance will have to improve dramatically if the lives of its 11 million people are to be bettered, according to a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) report.

"Rapid and broad-based growth is the most powerful instrument for poverty reduction. At the same time, measures to invest in human capital, reduce poverty, and lessen inequality help to underpin rapid and sustainable growth. These interactions create the potential for a virtuous cycle of economic transformation and human development," the report pointed out.

Full report

Civil society concerned over govt's maize budget

Malawian civil society has expressed concern that a proposed increase in the national maize budget may be inadequate to meet purchasing requirements, as production this year could fall short by 300,000 mt to 500,000 mt.

A second round of crop estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security indicated a possible drop of around 25 percent, from about 1.7 million mt last season to about 1.3 million mt this season. Malawi's annual maize requirement is just under 2 million mt.

"The government has informally told us that they intend to buy an additional 60,000 mt of maize, while we are negotiating for at least another 200,000 mt," said Collins Magalasi, national coordinator of the Malawi Economic Justice Network, an umbrella body of NGOs.

Full report

World Bank approves grant to support education sector

The World Bank has announced a US $32.2 million programme to boost Malawi's education sector. Dr Michael Mambo, the World Bank education specialist for Malawi and Zambia, told IRIN that the programme should start "sometime in July", and run for five years.

The Education Sector Support programme "aims to enhance education quality by improving the conditions and processes of teaching and learning at the school level. It will also help increase the number of qualified teachers, improve the capacity and the quality of education service delivery by fostering community participation, and strengthen the management of human and financial resources at district and primary school levels," the Bank said in a statement.

Full report

Misguided policy exacerbates food insecurity, claims report

Government interventions aimed at boosting food security in Malawi have had the opposite effect, according to a recent report.

The report argues that the government's attempt to provide fertiliser to farmers helped create a shortage in 2004. In 2001/02 the state's attempt to fix the maize price to make it more accessible to the poor led to the price of the staple skyrocketing.

Full report

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SEYCHELLES: Tsunami recovery programme needs funds, UN Res Coordinator

Efforts to repair infrastructure damaged by the devastating tsunami of December 2004 continue in the Seychelles despite a shortfall in donor funding.

UN Resident Coordinator for Seychelles Aase Smedler told IRIN on Tuesday that the shortfall in funding "is delaying our response in many areas" but that a "lot of preparatory activities regarding rehabilitation of the fisheries sector, for example," were ongoing.

The Indian Ocean island nation was one of the countries affected by the Boxing Day tsunami, when tidal waves killed two people, displaced about 900 families, and damaged public infrastructure and facilities, such as bridges on the main highway between the airport and the capital, Victoria.

Full report

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LESOTHO: Poor voter turnout marks first ever nationwide local poll

Lesotho's ruling party swept to victory in the country's local government elections, but officials said low voter turnout was a major concern.

Independent Electoral Commission spokesman Rethabile Pholo said more than 800,000 people registered for the election, but it appeared that less than 40 percent had cast their ballots.

Full report

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MOZAMBIQUE: Workers in the forefront of fight against HIV/AIDS

The role workers can play in the fight against HIV/AIDS came into sharp focus during May Day celebrations in Mozambique.

The Organisation of Mozambican Workers (OTM), the country's main trade union, used the traditional Workers' Day march on 1 May as a platform to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in the workplace. Productive people are critical to the country's development, but they are being decimated by the disease. About 1.5 million Mozambicans are HIV positive and it is estimated that 14.9 percent of Mozambicans in the productive age group of 15 to 49 are living with virus.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent SOUTHERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 248 for 10-16 September 2005, 16/Sep/05

NGOs complain ignored by govts at World Summit, 12/Sep/05

IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 247 for 3-9 September 2005, 9/Sep/05

HIV/AIDS eroding region's development, says UN report, 7/Sep/05

Agencies welcome EC donation for food aid, 2/Sep/05

Other recent reports:

SOUTH AFRICA: Time to reassess mediation in Africa, says analyst, 20/Sep/05

ANGOLA: Legacy of war, failed harvests combine to erode security, 19/Sep/05

IRAQ: Test census to be conducted, 19/Sep/05

MOZAMBIQUE: School-yard roundabouts pump water while children play, 19/Sep/05

GLOBAL: US $150 million pledged for emergency fund, 16/Sep/05

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