JOHANNESBURG, 16 February (IRIN) - CONTENTS

ANGOLA: Elections continue to elude hopeful Angolans LESOTHO: A small country whose volatile elections have caused big problems SOUTHERN AFRICA: Balance between free market and state-run food security needed SOUTH AFRICA: Rural orphan-care programmes struggle NAMIBIA: San remain landless and marginalised says NGO MOZAMBIQUE: Worst floods in six years, more expected

ANGOLA: Elections continue to elude hopeful Angolans

Many voters are hoping that casting their ballots will translate into improved living standards, but Angola appears to be in no hurry to hold its first elections in more than a decade, political observers commented.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos last week explicitly referred to 2008 as the year legislative elections would be held, with a presidential ballot to follow in 2009. Despite the logistical hurdles of holding an election in a country still struggling to pick up the pieces after a drawn-out civil war, experts said Angola could be ready in time.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70179

LESOTHO: A small country whose volatile elections have caused big problems

Lesotho, a small mountainous country surrounded by South Africa, provides its much larger neighbour, the continent's economic powerhouse, with water to fuel its industrial growth, and political volatility to test its patience.

On Saturday, Lesotho's roughly 1.8 million people - over half of which, according to the UN, live on US$2 or less a day - will vote in a snap election called after 18 members of the ruling party, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), crossed the floor to the opposition party, the All Basotho Convention (ABC), in a mass defection late last year.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70152

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Balance between free market and state-run food security needed

Southern African countries have shown willingness to experiment with liberalising the agriculture sector, but food security experts feel that some form of government intervention is still required to prevent hunger in the region.

State involvement in food production varies between extremes: Mozambique has limited government involvement; Zimbabwe not only controls food markets and prices but also provides agricultural inputs to its farmers. A free market may work well for food, but a government role was necessary to correct undesirable outcomes, experts cautioned.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70149

SOUTH AFRICA: Rural orphan-care programmes struggle

The lush hills in the Tzaneen Municipality of South Africa's Limpopo Province may seem a better place to spend a childhood than the dusty, overcrowded townships of Johannesburg, but living in the countryside can add to the hardships of children who are HIV positive or have lost parents to AIDS.

Many organisations hesitate to work in rural areas because beneficiaries are spread out in sparsely populated areas and it is expensive to run programmes there. The Pfunano Thusano Community Project, for example, assists orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in six villages in the Tzaneen area, but is struggling to find adequate funding.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70122

NAMIBIA: San remain landless and marginalised says NGO

Several thousand San, also known as the Bushmen, remain landless and have yet to reap the benefits of democracy in Namibia, a new report has revealed.

The report not only provides a detailed insight into how the three main San groups in Namibia, the Hai//kom, Ju/hoansi and Khwe, who together comprise about 30,000 people, have lost their land to colonisation, commercial farming and encroachment by other indigenous ethnic groups, but also paints a gloomy picture of their situation today.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70105

MOZAMBIQUE: Worst floods in six years, more expected

Mozambique has been hit by the worst floods in six years, with an estimated 29 people killed and over 60,000 displaced in the central Zambezi basin to higher ground, according to the government's disaster-response agency.

Officials expect the flooding to worsen in the coming week, as heavy rain has been falling in the areas that feed the Zambezi River. In addition, controlled releases from the giant Cahora Bassa dam, in Tete Province in the northwest, will increase the flow downriver. Recent heavy rains also threaten to flood large areas in the north of the country. Meanwhile, a rights nongovernmental organisation (NGO) has urged the humanitarian community to consider cash grants rather than food aid for long term recovery in the response to the floods.

See reports:

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70121 http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70228

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