JOHANNESBURG, 21 September 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS

SOUTH AFRICA: Farms simmer over tenure rights ZAMBIA: Government discards the elderly SOUTHERN AFRICA: A winning recipe for PMTCT but few follow it ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa draws child migrants ZIMBABWE: Parched city braces for disease outbreak MALAWI: Budget passed at last SWAZILAND: Two-thirds of women beaten and abused ZIMBABWE: Not enough money to feed the hungry SWAZILAND: Tradition as a force against HIV/AIDS

SOUTH AFRICA: Farms simmer over tenure rights

Public hearings into human rights violations on South African farms this week have lifted the lid on simmering tensions between farmers and farm dwellers.

Millions of black South Africans live on farms owned by mostly white farmers, where evictions and other human rights abuses sometimes still take place, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) heard from Nkuzi, a land rights non-governmental organisation (NGO).

Full report:

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74427

ZAMBIA: Government discards the elderly

Zambia's elderly population are faced with a double jeopardy: they are either shunned by communities as witchcraft practitioners or, with little or no understanding of the disease, are burdened with caring for HIV/AIDS orphans, says a non-governmental organisation concerned with their wellbeing.

"Our elderly people are facing a very big problem in Zambia; it is either they are abandoned by the community and their relatives on allegations of practising witchcraft, or they are forced to look after their grandchildren, whose parents die of AIDS without leaving anything for these old people, who become [surrogate] parents," Rosemary Sichimba, president of the Senior Citizens Association of Zambia, told IRIN.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74406

SOUTHERN AFRICA: A winning recipe for PMTCT but few follow it

A success story, at last: Botswana has lowered the rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to less than four percent, coming close to developed countries that have almost eliminated paediatric AIDS.

In Europe and the USA, fewer than two percent of babies with HIV-positive mothers are born with the virus; without intervention, the risk of an HIV-positive pregnant woman passing on the virus to her baby is between 30 percent and 35 percent, according to health specialists.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74405

ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa draws child migrants

Unaccompanied children, an average of 14 years old but sometimes as young as seven, are being drawn to South Africa from neighbouring states in the hope of work and receiving an education, according to report published by Save the Children (UK).

The report, compiled from a survey of 130 undocumented children in South Africa, said "there are sufficiently large numbers of children crossing borders unaccompanied to warrant major concern". An estimated 1,500 underage Zimbabweans enter South Africa each year.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74400

ZIMBABWE: Parched city braces for disease outbreak

Desperate measures being taken by residents of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, to cushion the effects of acute water shortages are aggravating the health problems of its 1.5 million residents.

Stringent water rationing has been introduced in a bid to make the contents of fast-dwindling dams last until the onset of the expected rains in November, but the municipal council acknowledges that the poor inflows of water into the southern city's reservoirs has led to an increase in waterborne diseases.

"We are praying that we do not get a cholera outbreak because that will be difficult to control, but as water shortages continue we are likely to get a cholera outbreak in the city, but as of now we are doing everything to contain the diarrhoea and dysentery cases," said Council spokesperson Pathisa Nyathi.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74386

MALAWI: Budget passed at last

Malawi's opposition party, the United Democratic Front (UDF), has succumbed to civil society pressure to pass the national budget after a four-month delay that has prevented the release of donor funds.

In response President Bingu wa Mutharika prorogued parliament last week, which analysts interpreted as a display of presidential authority. "These people [parliament] have been meeting for four months and wasted over 310 million kwacha (US$2,2 million)," Mutharika said in an address on national radio.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74359

SWAZILAND: Two-thirds of women beaten and abused

One in every three female Swazis has experienced some form of sexual violence before turning 18, as have two out of three aged 18 to 24, according to the first national survey to chart the scope of sexual and other types of violence perpetrated against women and girls.

From infancy to until they turned 24, nearly half (48.2 percent) of Swazi women experienced some form of sexual violence, according to the National Survey on Violence Experienced by Female Children and Youths in Swaziland, conducted by the government, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74342

ZIMBABWE: Not enough money to feed the hungry

The amount set aside by the Zimbabwean government to feed at least four million people identified as food insecure is "a mere drop in the sea", say analysts.

Finance minister Samuel Mumbengegwi announced in early September that the government had set aside Z$347 billion (about US$1.02 million at the parallel market rate) to buy food for 600,000 households it had identified as hungry, due to poor harvests after a combination of drought and critical shortages of inputs.

The amount seems small compared to the US$118 million appeal launched by World Food Programme to provide immediate assistance to 3.3 million of the 4.1 million people that UN agencies estimate will be facing severe food shortages from now until March 2008.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74340

SWAZILAND: Tradition as a force against HIV/AIDS

Circumstance, rather than planning, has placed the battle against HIV/AIDS firmly in the hands of Swaziland's 355 chiefdoms. The decentralisation strategy has evolved from government's failure to command the fight against the disease, or even deliver healthcare at its urban hospitals, and much less so in rural areas, where four out of five Swazis live.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74301

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