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Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 242 for 30 July - 5 August 2005

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

CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Call for new voters' roll after cleanup campaign displacement
MALAWI: Hope for solution to political crisis
MADAGASCAR: Mining and tourism sectors set to create more jobs
ANGOLA: First repatriation to troubled Cabinda enclave in two years
MOZAMBIQUE: National immunisation campaign gets underway
SWAZILAND: Economic abuse rising in weak economy
BOTSWANA: Media watchdog slams expulsions
SOUTH AFRICA: Govt ponders new land policy
NAMIBIA: Land reform picks up steam

ZIMBABWE: Call for new voters' roll after cleanup campaign displacement

Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has called on the government to urgently produce a new voters' roll in the wake of its controversial cleanup campaign, which has led to the relocation of thousands of urban dwellers to rural areas.

"Operation Murambatsvina has resulted in the forcible displacement of large numbers of urban dwellers. Although they are still on the voters' roll, they are no longer able to exercise their right to vote, since they are no longer resident in the constituencies where they were originally registered," ZESN said in statement on Thursday.

Full report

WFP hamstrung by lack of formal appeal for aid

The World Food Programme (WFP) hopes to reach up to three million Zimbabweans in need of assistance between October 2005 and April 2006, but the lack of a clear appeal for aid by the government has made it difficult to raise the resources required, IRIN reported on Thursday.

WFP spokesman Mike Huggins told IRIN that the aid agency estimated some 4.3 million people would need assistance in the months ahead.

Full report

NGOs to discuss restrictions with govt

Non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe are expected to meet with senior government officials at the end of August to focus on the immense challenges facing civil rights groups.

The meeting is being coordinated by the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), an umbrella body whose 400 members are involved in various activities, including civic and voter education, drought relief operations and HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness programmes.

Full report

Fuel for hard currency off to a slow start

The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) intends to sell fuel for hard currency in cities across the country, despite the poor response to the experiment at the pilot filling station.

Management at Arcadia Filling Station in the capital, Harare, where the sale of fuel at Zim $17,500 (US $1.00) per litre was launched on Tuesday, told IRIN that although they were adequately supplied, motorists were largely ignoring the station, preferring to queue where the price was cheaper at Zim $10,000.

Full report

Tsvangirai treason case dropped, but Mugabe rejects talks

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is now a "free man" after treason charges against him were dropped on Tuesday.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader was also acquitted last year of separate charges of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe.

Full report

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MALAWI: Hope for solution to political crisis

The Public Affairs Committee (PAC), a grouping of various clergy, hopes its efforts to mediate in Malawi's ongoing political crisis will bear fruit.

PAC publicity secretary Maurice Munthali said the bickering between President Bingu wa Mutharika and opposition party leaders - former president Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) - threatened the nation's development.

Full report

MDGs can be achieved, UN envoy

Despite widespread poverty and recurring food shortages, Malawi can still achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to Prof Jeffrey Sachs, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Advisor on the MDGs.

Sachs, who arrived in the country this weekend, told IRIN the purpose of his visit was "to talk to donors so that they increase aid to Malawi".

Full report

Cabinet reshuffle has some unwelcome surprises - analysts

President Bingu wa Mutharika on Sunday dismissed his second vice president, Cassim Chilumpha, who was also Minister of Water Development, in a cabinet reshuffle that surprised some political analysts.

Although the new cabinet still has 20 ministers, the number of deputy ministers increased from eight to 12. Mutharika has not given any reason for dropping Chilumpha.

Full report

Urgent action needed to halt maternal mortality

Although greater efforts have been made to curb malaria and HIV/AIDS in Malawi, not enough is being done to tackle the country's alarming maternal death rate, says a coalition of local NGOs.

Maternal mortality stood at 1,800 per 100,000 live births in 2003 - the second worst rate in the world after Sierra Leone, according to the United Nations.

Full report

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MADAGASCAR: Mining and tourism sectors set to create more jobs

Despite the strides made by Madagascar in turning around its economy, few new jobs have been created in the last two decades.

However, according to the World Bank's (WB) principal economist in Madagascar, Dieudonne Randriamanampisoa, the country's mining and tourism sectors could be the biggest job-spinners in the coming years.

Full report

Vanilla farmers struggle as prices plummet

Rombo Ramasitera is among hundreds of small-scale farmers near Madagascar's northeast coast, all trying to make ends meet as vanilla prices plummet.

The price of vanilla, the Indian Ocean island's chief export, has fallen from about US $180 per kg in 2004 to just $50 per kg in early 2005.

Full report

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ANGOLA: First repatriation to troubled Cabinda enclave in two years

The repatriation of Angolan refugees living in neighbouring countries is expected to pick up speed in the next few weeks, says the UN refugee agency.

In the past few days refugees have returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Congo-Brazzaville, including 52 who went back to the troubled northern Cabinda enclave.

Full report

Govt and UN take quick action to curb the spread of polio

Angola's latest nationwide polio immunisation campaign has come too late for 15-year-old Artur Emilio Cassinda.

His skinny legs are useless, totally paralysed by the crippling virus he contracted as a child. Living on the outskirts of the isolated village of Sungui, on the shores of Lake Ulua in the northern province of Bengo, he is destined to spend the rest of his life in a makeshift wheelchair.

Full report

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MOZAMBIQUE: National immunisation campaign gets underway

A national immunisation campaign targeting almost nine million children kicked off in Mozambique this week.

The campaign aims to vaccinate children aged between nine months and 14 years against measles; children under five years of age will be vaccinated against polio; children aged six to 59 months will receive vitamin A supplements.

Full report

Journalists welcome draft Information Bill

Mozambique has finally put together a draft Freedom of Information Bill, which media experts hope will pave the way towards greater transparency and government accountability.

After five years of broad consultations, agreement on the content of the proposed law was finally reached at a recently held media seminar in the capital, Maputo.

Full report

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SWAZILAND: Economic abuse rising in weak economy

Swaziland's Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) has reported a drop in the number of sexual and physical abuse cases over the past year, but says the rise in "economic" abuse is cause for concern.

The NGO provides medical, legal and psychosocial counselling to victims of abuse, and since 1997 has kept data on the incidence of offences in the tiny country.

Full report

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BOTSWANA: Media watchdog slams expulsions

The main opposition Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has joined media rights groups in condemning a government decision to cancel the work permits of two Zimbabwean journalists and order their immediate expulsion.

Rodrick Mukumbira was a news editor with the privately owned Ngami Times in the northern town of Maun, while Charles Chirinda worked as a correspondent for the official Botswana Television (Btv) in the capital, Gaborone.

Full report

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SOUTH AFRICA: Govt ponders new land policy

The South African government has been given a mandate to change the 'willing-seller, willing-buyer' approach to land reform.

Delegates attending a national land summit at the weekend rejected this approach, blaming it for the slow pace of land reform in South Africa, and urged government to scrap the policy.

Full report

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NAMIBIA: Land reform picks up steam

The Namibian government is expected to serve 18 white commercial farmers with final notices of expropriation next week as the land reform programme gathers pace.

"This is the way to go, as there was no other solution," Lands Minister Jerry Ekandjo said on Thursday, noting that the government had failed to reach agreement with the farmers on the price of their land.

Full report

Consultations on national HIV/AIDS policy begin

The Namibian government is drafting its first national policy on HIV/AIDS and hopes to complete it by World AIDS Day on 1 December.

At the behest of the government a draft policy was compiled by the AIDS law unit of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), an NGO, and discussed last week at a series of workshops with stakeholders from the legal, social and community sectors.

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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