JOHANNESBURG, 13 April 2007 (IRIN) - JOHANNESBURG, 13 April 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS

ZIMBABWE: Poor squatters make way for 2010 World Cup SWAZILAND: Six pro-democracy activists arrested MOZAMBIQUE: Xenophobic attacks on refugees must be nipped in the bud, says UNHCR ZIMBABWE: Press freedom falls prey to arrests and torture ZIMBABWE: Living under 'Operation Go to Sleep' ZIMBABWE: Still picking up the pieces after Operation Murambatsvina AFRICA: Conditional cash transfers might be premature, says paper BOTSWANA-ZIMBABWE: Across the border for sugar

MOZAMBIQUE: Lynchings symptom of state failure

ZIMBABWE: Poor squatters make way for 2010 World Cup

Tens of thousands of South Africa's poorest people face eviction from inner-city suburbs across the country ahead of the 2010 World Cup football.

The country's Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) recently allowed Johannesburg City, which has two world-cup stadiums, to evict 300 squatters from inner-city buildings classified as unsafe by the Johannesburg municipality.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71599

SWAZILAND: Six pro-democracy activists arrested

Six members of the People's United Democratic Movement, a banned political party, were arrested as pro-democracy activists picketed Swaziland's western border posts with South Africa on Thursday.

The protest was held on the anniversary of a royal decree in 1973 by King Sobhuza, father of current monarch Mswati III, banning organised political opposition groups.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71588

MOZAMBIQUE: Xenophobic attacks on refugees must be nipped in the bud, says UNHCR

Recent attacks on foreign refugees in Mozambique have led the local representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to call for action against xenophobia before it gains momentum.

After a string of isolated incidents, UNHCR warned that there was a need to clamp down on possible xenophobic tendencies that appeared to be rising.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71586

ZIMBABWE: Press freedom falls prey to arrests and torture

The Media Institute of Southern Africa in Zimbabwe has warned journalists of an increasingly hostile working environment after the abduction and subsequent murder of a freelance reporter, and the arrest and torture of two other foreign correspondents.

The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, which represents the interests of the majority of journalists, also expressed the fear that there was a deliberate government policy to harass and intimidate the media.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71567

ZIMBABWE: Living under 'Operation Go to Sleep'

As early as seven in the evening there is no sign of life at the Mamina shopping centre in Mhondoro, a village 100km west of Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. Since the police crackdown on the opposition in March, an unofficial curfew has been in place across the country. Residents have complained of raids on shopping centres, and particularly on pubs.

A policeman who participated in the crackdown said the raids had been codenamed 'Operation Chirara' (Go to Sleep), and their superiors had told them the action was necessary to forestall unrest.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71565

  ZIMBABWE: Still picking up the pieces after Operation Murambatsvina

Life is still an uphill struggle for hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans forced to live in the open after the government-led Operation Murambatsvina (Drive out Trash) demolished their homes almost two years ago.

The operation, which demolished informal homes and markets, was aimed at clearing slums and flushing out criminals, according to the government, but instead left more than 700,000 people homeless or without a livelihood in the winter of 2005.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71583

  AFRICA: Conditional cash transfers might be premature, says paper

As more aid agencies push for cash transfers rather than aid in kind in Africa, conditional schemes are becoming the preferred choice, which may not work in an under-resourced continent, says a paper from the Overseas Development Institute, a think-tank in the United Kingdom.

Conditional cash transfer schemes, a recent development in assisting needy households, are found mainly in Latin America, where poor households with children are given cash on condition that the children attend schools and health clinics. However, there were still several questions about implementing the system in Africa.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71249

BOTSWANA-ZIMBABWE: Across the border for sugar

Overcrowded buses make their way out of Botswana's capital, Gaborone, headed for Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, their roofs laden with groceries, electrical goods and textiles destined for sale or consumption.

Most of the passengers, all Zimbabweans, are "regulars" who travel to neighbouring Botswana every three weeks to shop or trade. They have a common purpose: surviving in Zimbabwe, which has the world's highest annual inflation rate - more than 1,700 percent - shortages of basic essentials and an unemployment rate of 80 percent.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71252

MOZAMBIQUE: Lynchings symptom of state failure

"T3", a popular play showing in Maputo, has addressed the public lynchings that swept through the outer suburbs of the Mozambican capital in 2006 and early this year. An apparent spike in crime, and the police force's inability to deal with it, were said to be behind the lynchings.

At least 20 suspected criminals were murdered, some of them televised. In the most publicised lynching in May, a crowd of some 300 people murdered two brothers, one of whom was accused of using witchcraft to sexually assault women.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71234

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