SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 317 for 13 - 19
January 2007
Source: IRIN
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
JOHANNESBURG, 22 January (IRIN) - CONTENTS SOUTH AFRICA: Anti-arms campaigners renew
calls for probe SOUTH AFRICA: Closing the gap on gender-based violence
BOTSWANA: President visits San to map out the future
SWAZILAND: "Weak" civil society hampering efforts to address crises ZIMBABWE: UN donates millions to fight foot-and-mouth
ZIMBABWE: Desperate miners dig to escape poverty
ZIMBABWE: Government accepts help to build homes
ZIMBABWE: The San help themselves out of
poverty
MOZAMBIQUE: HIV/AIDS carers to be taught ARV management
ZIMBABWE: Rural health personnel join stayaway
ZIMBABWE: Calls for justice 20 years after massacre
ANGOLA: Church implicated in
forced removals
COMOROS: People abandon homes as Karthala rumbles SOUTH AFRICA: Anti-arms campaigners renew calls for probe Anti-arms campaigners in South Africa have renewed calls for a "speedy
investigation" into a controversial multibillion-dollar defence package that has already claimed a deputy president. The deals date back to 1999, and a contract worth over US$4 billion involving the
British arms manufacturer BAE is the latest to come under scrutiny. Jacob Zuma, then South Africa's deputy president, was dismissed in 2005 after an investigation into the deal fingered him. Two
senior figures in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) have been convicted of corruption and jailed. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57127 SOUTH AFRICA: Closing the
gap on gender-based violence In a country long sickened by the frighteningly high level of sexual violence, one of the greatest challenges facing South Africa is closing the gap between the rhetoric
of gender equality and the reality on the ground. The prevalence of gender-based violence is reflected in stark statistics: between April 2004 and March 2005, 55,114 cases of rape were reported to
the police. The number of actual cases was likely much higher, considering only an estimated one in nine women report cases of sexual assault, according to the Medical Research Council (MRC). The MRC
also estimates that a woman is killed by her intimate partner every six hours. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57122 BOTSWANA: President visits San to map out the future Just over a month after a landmark court ruling allowing the San to return to their ancestral land in the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR), Botswana's president, Festus Mogae, and a host of
ministers and senior government officials, held a public meeting with the San to map out a future for the reserve. The High Court found that the San, also known as the Bushmen, had been wrongfully
evicted in 2002, and ordered that they be allowed to return to the reserve, which covers an area roughly the size of Switzerland. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57124 SWAZILAND: "Weak" civil society hampering efforts to address crises An umbrella body of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) says Swaziland's "weak" civil society is hampering efforts to address the
humanitarian crisis in the country. In a recent analysis measuring spending priorities against humanitarian needs in the government budget, the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental
Organisations (CANGO) listed poverty, HIV/AIDS, food security, governance, employment, corruption and gender-based violence as the key challenges facing the small, landlocked country in 2007. See
report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57118 ZIMBABWE: UN donates millions to fight Foot-and-mouth A US$10.3 million donation by the United Nations to Zimbabwe for combating
foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) will be insufficient unless the ruling ZANU-PF party government also contributes to the fight against the cattle sickness, the country's veterinarians said. The
recurrence of FMD has become an almost annual event for the past seven years. Small-scale farmers have seen their livestock decimated by outbreaks of highly contagious FMD as well as anthrax, and the
government's failure to address bovine diseases has reduced Zimbabwe's national herd from 1.4 million head of cattle in 2000 to about 250,000 at present. See report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57119 ZIMBABWE: Desperate miners dig to escape poverty The Zimbabwe government is struggling to contain a nationwide wave of illegal prospecting for
precious minerals and metals that is threatening the viability of the already troubled mining industry, on which rests the hope of turning around an ailing economy by generating foreign currency
earnings. Analysts attribute the "frightening" magnitude of illegal mining and sale of vital minerals on the unofficial market to a desperate population seeking to beat poverty, and poor government
policies regulating the mining industry. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57099 ZIMBABWE: Government accepts help to build homes A partnership between Zimbabwe's second
city, Bulawayo, and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), will bring about the construction of much-needed housing to replace homes demolished nearly two years ago during Operation
Murambatsvina. Also known as Operation Restore Order, Murambatsvina was touted as an urban "clean-up campaign" by President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government but condemned by the UN for breaching
"both national and international human rights law", and left over 700,000 people homeless. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57098 ZIMBABWE: The San help themselves out of
poverty Grinding poverty has condemned Zimbabwe's tiny San population, also known as Bushmen, to the fringes of society, but the remaining few are taking it upon themselves to improve their lives. Alleged discrimination at the hands of other ethnic communities and lack of government support made the San in Mgodimasili, a poverty-ravaged hamlet 200km northwest of Zimbabwe's second city,
Bulawayo, where about 200 of the 1,200 San left in Zimbabwe live, team up and pool resources to help themselves by establishing an income-generating project. See report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57100 MOZAMBIQUE: HIV/AIDS carers to be taught ARV management The Mozambican Red Cross will begin training hundreds of volunteer workers to manage
antiretroviral therapy (ART) for people in their care living with HIV/AIDS. The three-week training package for volunteers, who should have at least basic reading and writing skills, includes
information on how to judge the preparedness of a client to start antiretroviral (ARV) medication, ensure that those using the drugs stick to their regimen, and the importance of eating nutritious
food when taking anti-AIDS medicines. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57084 ZIMBABWE: Rural health personnel join stayaway Zimbabwe's public health delivery system has
ground to a halt as nurses and doctors in rural areas join their urban counterparts in a stayaway over low salaries and poor working conditions. Health personnel, on average, earn less than US$240
(at the official exchange rate) a month and are demanding a salary hike of 8,000 percent, with hefty allowances to cushion themselves against an inflation rate of over 1,200 percent annually, and high
transport and food costs. A compromise reached between the health minister and striking personnel has collapsed, with the strikers declaring they will not resume work until their monthly salaries are
raised to about US$20,000. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57087 ZIMBABWE: Calls for justice 20 years after massacre Zimbabwe's former minister of information and
publicity, Jonathan Moyo, intends to move a bill seeking to provide justice for the massacre of more than 20,000 members of the minority Ndebele ethnic group by Zimbabwean security forces nearly 20
years ago. Government officials have been dismissive of the proposed bill, citing the fact that it came from a former ally of President Robert Mugabe who was sacked in 2005 for his role in
organising resistance to Mugabe's succession plans. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57086 ANGOLA: Church implicated in forced removals The Angolan government and the
Catholic Church have been slated in a report by rights group Amnesty International for the eviction of thousands of people in the capital, Luanda. Amnesty International's report, 'Lives in ruins,
forced evictions continue', covering the period from 2001 until May 2006, said the cycle of evictions in the oil- and diamond-rich country had intensified since 2001, leaving tens of thousands without
shelter. The alleged complicity of the Catholic Church refers to land owned by the Church before Angola's independence in 1975 and returned to the Church in 1998 at the request of the late Pope John
Paul II. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57073 COMOROS: People abandon homes as Karthala rumbles Initial fears of a full-blown eruption by Mount Karthala have calmed on
Grande Comore, largest of the three islands in the Union of the Comoros, but authorities remain on red alert as the volcano continues to rumble. Karthala fired up on Friday night last week,
triggering earthquakes that sometimes exceeded four on the Richter scale. So far there has been no lava flow but the seismic activity drove frightened people out of their homes in case they collapsed.
The island's 300,000 people have held their ground and no population movements have been registered. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57072
