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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 260 for 3-9 December 2005

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

CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Watchdog body condemns media owner's travel ban
MALAWI: Two shot as crowd fights for subsidised food
COMOROS: Donor conference attracts $200 million in pledges
SOUTH AFRICA: UNHCR sees improvements in immigrant detention centre
ZAMBIA: Job cuts loom as kwacha gains against dollar
SWAZILAND: HIV positive Swazis take govt to task over ARV supply
MOZAMBIQUE: New strategies needed to cope with chronic drought
ANGOLA: Bureaucracy and over-reliance on oil revenues hinder small business
BOTSWANA: Access to education may be limited by new fees policy
NAMIBIA: Bilateral talks on development aid postponed to 2006

ZIMBABWE: Watchdog body condemns media owner's travel ban

The Zimbabwean chapter of watchdog body, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), has condemned the government's move to withdraw the passport of the only remaining independent newspaper publisher.

Trevor Ncube, the Zimbabwean owner and publisher of the Standard and the Independent newspapers in Zimbabwe and the weekly Mail & Guardian in South Africa, had his passport impounded on Wednesday when he arrived in the country's second city, Bulawayo, from South Africa. Ncube frequently travels between the two countries.

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Tsvangirai survives court bid to oust him

HARARE, 9 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe High Court Judge Yunus Omerjee on Friday dismissed an application by a 'rebel' faction of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) seeking to remove Morgan Tsvangirai as leader of the party.

Omerjee did not give reasons for his decision to reject the application, made by MDC deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire on behalf of the faction led by secretary-general Welshman Ncube, party deputy president Gibson Sibanda, and the party's former spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi.

Full report

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UN envoy urges Africa to address Zimbabwe crisis

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has told South Africa that Africa should be "more outspoken on Zimbabwe".

In an interview with IRIN after his meeting on Wednesday with Sue van der Merwe, South Africa's deputy minister of foreign affairs, Egeland said, "We told them that each time it must not be Europe or any other western country raising issues [around] Zimbabwe."

Full report

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Prevention campaigns successful as HIV rate drops

Zimbabwe has become the first southern African country to register a decline in HIV prevalence, according to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

A review of recent epidemiological and behavioural data in 'Evidence for HIV decline in Zimbabwe', released by UNAIDS on Wednesday, said the incidence of new HIV infections had also declined.

Full report

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Mugabe wants UN to play active role, says Egeland

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe wants the United Nations to play an active role in addressing the humanitarian crises in the country, said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland after meeting the leader on Tuesday.

He also announced that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was considering visiting Zimbabwe next year.

Full report

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Municipalities struggle to provide basic services

Zimbabwe's urban centres are having to cope with persistent water shortages, electricity blackouts and sanitation problems as municipalities struggle to provide basic services.

The economic challenges facing the country, characterised by major foreign currency and fuel shortages, have negatively affected town councils across Zimbabwe.

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UN envoy visits govt's clean-up campaign sites

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland visited Zimbabweans affected by the government's controversial clean-up campaign, Operation Murambatsvina, in the capital, Harare, on Monday.

Egeland also visited a government housing site and inspected units built for those affected by the operation, which has left more than 700,000 people homeless or without a livelihood after kicking off in mid-May. Although he responded positively to the government's attempts to house those left homeless, Egeland said "the needs are far greater". The envoy is also the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

Full report

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MALAWI: Two shot as crowd fights for subsidised food

Two youths were shot and wounded this week when a guard fired on a crowd fighting for government-subsidised maize in Malawi's drought-hit southern Nsanje district.

The district is among the areas worst affected by food shortages brought on by a combination of erratic weather, the impact of HIV/AIDS and weakened capacity for governance.

Full report

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UK announces extra funds to feed the hungry

Britain has announced additional funding of more than US $12 million to address the growing food needs in drought-stricken Malawi and Zambia.

A fourth year of drought has left more than six million people battling food shortages that will continue until April 2006 in parts of both southern African countries.

Full report

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Focus shifts to irrigation agriculture

Various agricultural stakeholders have urged Malawi, blessed with abundant water resources, to develop irrigation schemes to ensure food security in the future.

"For the past 10 years government has done nothing in terms of irrigation. Yes, it carried out feasibility studies, but what has been done so far?" Benito Elias, executive director of the Farmers' Union of Malawi, commented to IRIN.

Full report

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COMOROS: Donor conference attracts $200 million in pledges

The Comoran government has attracted pledges worth US $200 million over the next four years after presenting its poverty reduction strategy to more than 100 international community representatives.

Comoran leaders appealed to potential donors, financial institutions and investors at the one-day Comoros Donors' Conference, held in Mauritius on Thursday. The funding is crucial to the Indian Ocean nation's chances of overcoming chronic instability and poverty, and reversing a 20-year trend of negative economic growth.

Full report

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Rain and aid agencies bring relief

As the first rain since Mount Karthala erupted brings desperately needed relief and the extent of the damage becomes clearer, aid agencies are scrambling to help authorities cope with the fallout.

The volcanic dust and debris covering extensive areas of the Grande Comore island have raised concerns about the health of 245,000 people living in the polluted area, as well as the effect on agriculture and livestock.

Full report

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SOUTH AFRICA: UNHCR sees improvements in immigrant detention centre

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said this week that it welcomed improvements to facilities at South Africa's controversial Lindela Repatriation Centre, where undocumented and illegal foreigners are held before being repatriated.

The centre outside Johannesburg was singled out by Human Rights Watch for ill-treating refugees and running a poor healthcare system. Since the beginning of the year over 45 people, mostly Zimbabwean asylum seekers, have died, mainly of disease, and more than 400 were hospitalised.

Full report

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Zuma's political career unlikely to recover from rape charge, say analysts

Former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma appeared in court on Tuesday and was formally charged with rape.

The charge relates to a claim by a 31-year-old HIV/AIDS activist that Zuma allegedly raped her at his home in Johannesburg last month.

Full report

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ZAMBIA: Job cuts loom as kwacha gains against dollar

A surge of more than 27 percent in the value of the local currency, the kwacha, against the US dollar since October is both good news and bad news for Zambia's economy.

The good news is that a strong, stable kwacha could attract foreign direct investment and allow local businessmen dealing in kwacha to plan more efficiently; the bad news is that the strong kwacha has hurt exporters in the agriculture sector.

Full report

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More girls in school thanks to policy reforms

More Zambian girls are attending school after government interventions such as allowing teenage mothers back to school and waiving fees and uniforms.

Re-admission in many schools has doubled since the Ministry of Education introduced the re-entry policy prohibiting the expulsion of pregnant girls in 1997, according to official statistics.

Full report

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SWAZILAND: HIV positive Swazis take govt to task over ARV supply

A group of HIV positive Swazis is considering taking the government to court for an alleged erratic supply of antiretrovirals (ARVs), but officials insist that the lack of drugs is a matter of perception, rather than reality.

"Government should prepare itself for a lawsuit," said Hannie Dlamini, secretary of a five-man committee tasked by the group to challenge government on the country's ARV distribution. The first Swazi to publicly declare his HIV status, Dlamini is the founder of the Swaziland AIDS Support Organisation (SASO), an NGO partly funded by the UN Global Fund on HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

Full report

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MOZAMBIQUE: New strategies needed to cope with chronic drought

Mozambique has to develop a more systematic response to chronic drought, which is having a devastating effect on the food security and livelihoods of around 800,000 people, according to a recent assessment.

The government, with help from bilateral partners, the UN and NGOs, has been carrying out relief operations, including distributing food aid to 257,000 drought-affected people, and plans to expand the number to 534,000 this month.

Full report

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ANGOLA: Bureaucracy and over-reliance on oil revenues hinder small business

Outdated and poorly implemented rules and regulations, coupled with an over-reliance on income from oil and diamonds, are hampering the development of small and medium businesses in Angola, causing slow growth and stagnant employment as the country tries to recover from decades of civil war.

According to the World Bank survey, 'Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs', which measured the time and cost of various government requirements for business, Angola ranks a poor 135th out of 155 countries in terms of business regulations and reforms.

Full report

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BOTSWANA: Access to education may be limited by new fees policy

A move to reintroduce school fees in Botswana is causing controversy, with politicians and education experts warning that it may be a step backwards.

Opposition parties have called on parents to defy the government's decision to reintroduce fees when the new term starts in January 2006.

Full report

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NAMIBIA: Bilateral talks on development aid postponed to 2006

Germany and Namibia have postponed talks in the capital, Windhoek, on the extension of bilateral development cooperation until early next year.

"The German side has proposed to hold these talks in the first half of next year," the German ambassador to Namibia, Wolfgang Massing, said on Thursday. "This proposal was accepted by the Namibian government, as both sides feel the need to further discuss various cooperation projects to be committed in 2006, especially in the light of new proposals by the Namibian side made during the state visit of President [Hifikepunye] Pohamba to Germany last week," he explained.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent SOUTHERN AFRICA reports:

Policy revised to shed light on urban refugee blind-spot, 17/Feb/06

IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 270 for 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

Too white to be black - the challenge of albinism, 16/Feb/06

Remittances - curse or blessing?, 16/Feb/06

Conflict, development and natural disasters fuel internal displacement, 14/Feb/06

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Donors pledge support for humanitarian crisis, 21/Feb/06

ANGOLA: Ready to play larger security role in Africa, 21/Feb/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 17/Feb/06

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 270 for 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 317 covering 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

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