Southern Africa: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 345 for
04 - 10 August 2007
Source: IRIN
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JOHANNESBURG, 10 August 2007 (IRIN) -
CONTENTS ZIMBABWE: Poor winter wheat harvest expected to increase food shortages
ZIMBABWE: A way out of the crisis
SWAZILAND: Start-up costs limit access to power
ZIMBABWE: Beef shortage provides
window of opportunity for swindlers
SOUTH AFRICA: Deputy health minister sacked for doing her job ZIMBABWE: Poor winter wheat harvest expected to increase food shortages Unreliable electricity
supplies have wrought havoc on Zimbabwe's winter wheat crop, and the country, already unable to feed more than a quarter of its population, is set to record one of its worst harvests. Earlier
this year the national power utility, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), introduced daily 20-hour power cuts for domestic consumers, to give priority to the electricity requirements of
irrigation farmers producing winter wheat. However, farmers say crop production has failed because ZESA was unable to maintain a regular power supply to the farmers. See report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73601 ZIMBABWE: A way out of the crisis The International Crisis Group (ICG), a nongovernmental conflict resolution organisation, believes conditions
in Zimbabwe are crystallising and could lead to a rapid reversal of the country's ill-fortunes, but the scenario is based on President Robert Mugabe's 27 year-rule ending. Zimbabwe has
suffered a sharp downward spiral since 2000, when the ZANU-PF government embarked on its fast-track land-reform programme, which redistributed white-owned farmland to landless blacks, setting off a
chain of events that has left more than a third of all Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73636 SWAZILAND: Start-up costs limit
access to power More affordable and environmentally friendly energy is key to alleviating poverty, according to an initiative underway in Swaziland, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia, but there
are still sizable challenges in getting power to the people. The initiative, Renewable and Efficient Energy for Poverty Alleviation in Southern Africa aims to increase the use of renewable energy
technology - such as wind- and hydropower - to generate electricity and promote more sustainable energy usage in the region. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73644 ZIMBABWE: Beef shortage provides window of opportunity for swindlers With beef increasingly becoming a rare commodity in Zimbabwe, desperate consumers are falling victim to swindlers. Some people
have unwittingly been conned into buying donkey meat, considered inedible by Zimbabweans. Poaching and cattle theft are also on the rise. See report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73669 SOUTH AFRICA: Deputy health minister sacked for doing her job South African deputy health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, told a media
briefing in Cape Town on Friday that President Thabo Mbeki sacked her for "just doing my job." Madlala-Routledge was appointed deputy minister in 2004, but it soon became apparent that her
views on HIV/AIDS were at odds with both Mbeki and his health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who promotes garlic and lemon juice as a panacea for the disease, which according to the latest
government survey has infected 5.41 million South Africans. See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73675 © IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
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