JOHANNESBURG , 2 February (IRIN) - CONTENTS

ZIMBABWE: Reserve Bank governor blames ruling elite for country's ills MOZAMBIQUE: New programme turns subsistence farmers into businesswomen ANGOLA: Cholera plagues the capital MALAWI-MOZAMBIQUE-ZAMBIA: Government's response to flooding lacks urgency say NGOs MOZAMBIQUE: Legislation reviewed to curb child trafficking ZIMBABWE: Cholera strikes the capital MOZAMBIQUE: Chainsaws cut down more than just trees ZAMBIA: Anti-corruption drive misses the point ZIMBABWE: Power utility admits it is broke and powerless

ZIMBABWE: Reserve Bank governor blames ruling elite for country's ills

The governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, has called on the country's leadership to stop blaming drought and sanctions for its problems and face up to the fact that it is the ruling class that is causing society's ills. In a hard-hitting two-hour televised speech on his monetary policy review, Gono, who apparently enjoys President Robert Mugabe's support and protection, accused high-ranking government officials of not producing crops on the commercial farms they owned, instead using them as weekend barbecue spots.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57282

MOZAMBIQUE: New programme turns subsistence farmers into businesswomen

Anastaneia Domingos, 28, and a mother of four, is a rarity among the women in the rural areas of northeastern Mozambique's Zambezia Province: she is a businesswoman. Most women rely on their husband's income to put food on the table, or they produce meagre crops on small plots of land to help feed their families, but Domingos is one of a small group attempting to reverse the cultural tradition that resigns them to an impoverished existence, with their sole roles in the community usually those of mother and subsistence farmer.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57281

ANGOLA: Cholera plagues the capital

An ambulance speeds up to the entrance of a Cholera Treatment Centre in Cacuaco, a municipality north of the Angolan capital, Luanda, and a ten-year-old boy is carried into the facility on a stretcher by the attendants. A few hours later, Antonio Jaime is already showing signs of recovery from the waterborne intestinal infection, which causes acute diarrhoea and vomiting and, if left untreated, can cause death from dehydration within 24 hours.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57280

MALAWI-MOZAMBIQUE-ZAMBIA: Government's response to flooding lacks urgency say NGOs

The Zambian government is coming under mounting criticism from local civic organisations for its apparent inability to assess recent flood damage across the country, making a coordinated response to the crisis impossible. Torrential rains, which began in early December 2006, have swamped at least 21 of the country's 73 districts, washing away houses, bridges and crops, while at least two schools have been forced to close. Other than this, there has been little information about the extent of the damage.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57265

MOZAMBIQUE: Legislation reviewed to curb child trafficking

International child traffickers may be using Mozambique's weak adoption laws to target orphaned children, to the growing concern of the government, said a senior official from the Ministry of the Interior. The use of the adoption process to gain access to disadvantaged children is the latest form of child trafficking to hit the Southern African country, according to Lurdes Mabunda, head of the ministry's Department of Women and Children.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57264

ZIMBABWE: Cholera strikes the capital

Four of 12 suspected cases of cholera have so far been confirmed in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, according to the city's director of health services. The source of the waterborne disease, an intestinal infection leading to severe dehydration from chronic diarrhoea and vomiting, which can result in death within 24 hours if left untreated, may have been caused by a discharge of untreated effluent into the reservoir supplying the capital with drinking water two weeks ago.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57253

MOZAMBIQUE: Chainsaws cut down more than just trees

Worldwide demand for hardwood is stripping Mozambique's forests, cutting down livelihoods and any hope of developing a sustainable timber industry. "If they carry on at the rate they are going it will be probably three to five years and there won't be any hardwood resources sufficient to sustain continued production," said Simon Norfolk, director of Terra Firma, a forest governance group in Mozambique.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57252

ZAMBIA: Anti-corruption drive misses the point

Zambia's anti-corruption drive is failing because the government has been concentrating its resources on investigating the corrupt practices of the previous regime, allowing present graft in the public service to flourish, a corruption watchdog said in its latest report. Transparency International's Corruption Perception Indices has consistently ranked Zambia as one of the most corrupt countries since 2001. Out of the 159 countries surveyed in the 2005 CPI, Zambia was included in the cluster cited as the 11th most corrupt countries: Belarus, Eritrea, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Palestine, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57245

ZIMBABWE: Power utility admits it is broke and powerless

The Zimbabwe Electricity Authority (ZESA) has admitted to a nation already suffering sweeping and extended power cuts that it is broke, and things will get worse. Prof Christopher Chetsanga, ZESA's chairman, recently told local media that the country's energy provider was in debt to the tune of Z$105 billion (US$420 million at the official exchange rate), and would immediately lay off 600 of its staff.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57237

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