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Southern Africa: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 345 for 04 - 10 August 2007

10 Aug 2007 18:14:42 GMT
Source: IRIN

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

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Last updated:Fri Aug 10 18:17:08 2007