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Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 237 for 25 June - 1 July 2005

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

CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: UN envoy confirms deaths
MALAWI: Poverty alleviation programmes underfunded, says IMF
SOUTH AFRICA: Thousands of workers strike against job losses
ZAMBIA: WFP may be forced to cut rations without further funding
ANGOLA: Despite years of peace, challenges remain
MOZAMBIQUE: Low minimum wage rise squeezes the poor
BOTSWANA: Cash injection to revive ailing beef and ostrich industries
SOUTHERN AFRICA: HIV/AIDS, hunger a security threat, WFP warns
SWAZILAND: Initiatives to diversify crops bear fruit

ZIMBABWE: UN envoy confirms deaths

A spokesman for the special UN envoy evaluating the impact of the controversial demolition of informal settlements in Zimbabwe confirmed on Friday that they had received reports of "two or three" deaths in areas where evictions had been carried out.

"But we are yet to establish whether the deaths were circumstantial or as a direct result of the demolition", said Sharad Shankardass, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General's special envoy, Anna Tibaijuka.

Full report

Doctors demand better pay as inflation bites

Doctors at two of Zimbabwe's largest referral hospitals embarked on an indefinite strike, demanding a pay rise of more than 100 percent and a special allocation to cover escalating fuel costs caused by the ongoing petrol shortage.

Junior and mid-level doctors at Harare's Parirenyatwa and Central hospitals vowed on Wednesday not to resume work until the government had met their demands.

Full report

Controversial draft proposal for senate to be tabled

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has approved a draft plan proposing constitutional amendments to create a new senate, but political analysts warned that the election criteria for members will lead to more internal strife as cadres jostle for positions.

Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa told IRIN he intended tabling the approved draft proposal in parliament before the end of this week, saying the senate would "improve the governance and decision-making processes of government" by ensuring broader representation and exhaustive consultation.

Full report

IMF urges policy reforms

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted a bleak future for the Zimbabwean economy, saying unless there is a major shift in the government's fiscal policy and a change of attitude towards Bretton Woods institutions, the current inflation rate of 144.4 percent would continue to rise.

An IMF delegation visited Harare last week, where it held talks with the government about foreign debt and possible remedies for the country's ailing economy.

Full report

Cholera outbreak claims 14 lives

At least 14 people have died and 203 have been hospitalised in eastern Zimbabwe as authorities battle to control a cholera outbreak that began in early May.

Zimbabwe has warned that it might not be able to control the disease without cooperation from the government of Mozambique, where the outbreak is thought to have originated.

Full report

Govt allows NGOs to assist 'clean-up' victims

The Zimbabwean government this week agreed to allow aid groups to offer humanitarian assistance to the hundreds of thousands of people being displaced in its controversial urban clean-up drive.

Authorities previously said the government had ample resources to cater to the needs of evicted families, but Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has now announced that the government had resolved to allow donors to provide assistance, mainly in the capital, Harare, and Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo.

Full report

AU inaction "distressing" says UN official

A senior United Nations official on Monday described the failure of African Union leaders to intervene in the forced eviction of informal settlers in Zimbabwe as a "distressing".

In an interview with IRIN, Miloon Kothari, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing with the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), was critical of African leaders' failure to respond to the crisis that has been unfolding over the past five weeks.

Full report

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MALAWI: Poverty alleviation programmes underfunded, says IMF

Malawi's poverty reduction programme was being affected by inadequate funding, a lack of human capacity and a weak economy, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), IRIN reported on Thursday.

"Limited funding will remain a key challenge" to implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) said the IMF, which suggested that the available money should be channelled into activities with a "direct impact in stimulating economic growth and poverty reduction".

Full report

Political impasse reaching 'point of no return', warn analysts

Malawi's parliament, where opposition parties are trying to impeach President Bingu wa Mutharika, has adjourned without passing a national budget. This has prompted the United Nations to express concern about serious damage to the economy that would hit hardest at the poorest and most vulnerable.

IRIN reported on Tuesday that the office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator had urged parliamentarians to put aside their political differences to pass a budget for the country (see report).

The political bickering between Mutharika and the leaders of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) of former president Bakili Muluzi, and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of John Tembo, would not solve the social and economic problems facing the country, local analysts noted.

Full report

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SOUTH AFRICA: Thousands of workers strike against job losses

Thousands of South African workers demonstrated against job losses and poverty in a countrywide one-day strike called by trade unions on Monday.

"We are here to protest the thousands of jobs lost and the slow decline in the core of our economy; we are here to demand a development strategy to ensure that growth in the economy benefits all our people, creating jobs and overcoming poverty on a massive scale," said Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in a speech in Johannesburg.

Full report

Fallout as China sews up textile market

The South African textile industry says cheap imports from China are threatening to wipe out the local industry, where 75,000 jobs have been lost since 2002.

"We're a very distressed industry at the moment. We're actually on our knees ... we've been devastated," the managing director of Gregory Knitting Mills, Selwyn Gershman, told IRIN.

Full report

Govt plans to counter xenophobia

South Africa's new immigration regulations, which will help enforce the Immigration Amendment Act, come into effect on Friday, a government official told IRIN.

"The new immigration process will help counter xenophobia as the legislation calls on South Africans to combat it at a practical level. To fulfill the requirement we are setting up a Counter-xenophobia Directorate within the National Immigration Branch of Home Affairs," said departmental spokesman Nkosana Sibuyi.

Full report

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ZAMBIA: WFP may be forced to cut rations without further funding

A dire shortage of funds will force the World Food Programme (WFP) to reduce both rations and the number of people it is feeding in Zambia, rather than extending assistance to a total of one million people as requested by the government, the aid agency said on Tuesday.

Without an immediate injection of money, "rations to thousands of people would be slashed in July", WFP said in a statement.

Full report

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ANGOLA: Despite years of peace, challenges remain

Angola's 27-year civil war may have ended more than three years ago, but the need for peace-building initiatives is stronger than ever, according to humanitarian workers.

Peace is an ongoing process, they argue; the guns may have fallen silent, but peacetime has brought with it a host of other potentially conflict-creating problems. From disarming the civilian population to reintegrating returnees and educating people about elections and democracy, the need for peace-building efforts is clear.

Full report

Pockets of need emerge after poor harvest

Pockets of deepening vulnerability are emerging in Angola as erratic weather and the resultant poor harvest force people to move to urban centres in search of food aid.

Manuel Cristovao, a World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman in the capital, Luanda, told IRIN on Monday that Mavinga town in the eastern province of Kuando Kubango was experiencing an influx of people from the southern regions of the province.

"Basically, the situation is that the whole region south of Mavinga is facing food insecurity, caused by a bad harvest as a result of irregular rains ... access problems caused by the danger of landmines, and destroyed bridges and bad road infrastructure," Cristovao said.

Full report

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MOZAMBIQUE: Low minimum wage rise squeezes the poor

IRIN reported on Wednesday that Mozambican workers felt the recent 14 percent increase in the statutory minimum wage was inadequate in the face of rising living costs.

While trade unionists pushed for a 16.6 percent rise in the minimum wage, employers were not prepared to go beyond 10.5 percent. The 14 percent increase - the same amount workers received last year - meant the minimum wage across all sectors rose from 1,120,297 to 1,277,139 meticais a month (about US$ 46.7 to $53.3).

Francisco Mazoio, a spokesman for the Organizacao dos Trabalhadres de Mocambique, the country's largest trade union, said the minimum wage did not even meet half the typical family's basic needs.

Full report

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BOTSWANA: Cash injection to revive ailing beef and ostrich industries

Botswana has unveiled a Pula 98 million (US $17.5 million) loan facility to overhaul the country's ailing beef sector and improve the increasingly poor quality of stock supplied for slaughter.

The announcement was welcomed by the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), the parastatal responsible for supplying European Union (EU) export quotas, which it has failed to meet for a number of years. The BMC was operating at 50 percent capacity due to a poor supply of slaughter stock, and pointed to the noncommercial mode of cattle production as largely responsible.

Full report

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SOUTHERN AFRICA: HIV/AIDS, hunger a security threat, WFP warns

World Food Programme (WFP) executive director James T. Morris has warned that the 'triple threat' of chronic hunger, the impact of HIV/AIDS and weakened government capacity could lead to instability in Africa, but singled out Southern Africa as particularly hard hit and thus deserving of international attention.

"The greatest humanitarian crisis we face today is the gradual disintegration of the social structures in Southern Africa," Morris told the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday.

Full report

SADC peacekeeping brigade moves ahead

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) moved a step closer to forming a rapid response brigade for deployment in peacekeeping operations and hotspots on the continent and elsewhere.

At the end of the multinational Exercise Thokgamo (Setswana for serenity) in Maun on Thursday, the regional bloc's executive secretary, Dr Prega Ramsamy, said SADC had demonstrated its commitment to play a positive role in the establishment and maintenance of a peaceful, stable and secure Africa.

Full report

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SWAZILAND: Initiatives to diversify crops bear fruit

A government initiative to encourage smallholder Swazi farmers to diversify their crops as a counter to ongoing drought and rising food aid dependency is beginning to bear fruit, IRIN reported on Thursday.

Two years ago, Amos Tsabedze, a small-scale farmer in the southern Shiselweni Region, made the radical move of replacing maize cultivation with cotton. Now the government is encouraging him to switch to cassava, the starchy, semi-sweet tuber for which he has yet to develop a taste.

Full report

Revised pricing, marketing policies could ease food insecurity

With almost 250,000 Swazis facing food shortages, agricultural experts are calling for urgent reform of the country's maize pricing and marketing policies.

A recent crop assessment by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) found that although maize production during the 2004/05 growing season was about 10 percent higher than last year's official post-harvest figure, it was still six percent below the average of the previous five years.

The WFP/FAO report warned that "from a longer-term perspective, maize production in Swaziland appears to be on the decline". Recurring drought and the impact of HIV/AIDS had contributed to the downward trend, but the report concluded that the maize pricing policy was worsening the situation.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent SOUTHERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 262 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

Volume of food aid causes transport bottleneck, 19/Dec/05

IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 261 for 10-16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

Renewed calls for culling in wildlife reserves raises alarm among conservation groups, 15/Dec/05

South Africa's fuel shortage hits neighbours, could affect humanitarian operations, 13/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

RWANDA: Body found in Brussels canal confirmed that of ex-minister's, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 309 covering 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 262 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

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