SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 312 for 9 -15
December 2006
15 Dec 2006 13:08:59 GMT Source: IRIN
JOHANNESBURG, 15 December (IRIN) - CONTENTSMALAWI: Curing the symptoms not the cause
SWAZILAND: Media slammed for neglecting real issues -
report
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe set to rule until 2010
ZIMBABWE: Pro-democracy protestors commend police for non-violence
BOTSWANA: The San can return home now
ZIMBABWE: Sick economy fuels growth of fake drug
market
MADAGASCAR: Ravalomanana likely to win presidential electionMALAWI: Curing the symptoms not the causeEmergency interventions to alleviate suffering during times of crisis, such as the
2005 food shortages in Malawi, often cure the symptoms but not the cause, the annual International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies World Disasters Report has warned.The persistent
and recurrent nature of many humanitarian disasters was driven as much by chronic poverty and vulnerability as by natural hazards, the report said, and called for the establishment of larger, common,
unearmarked emergency funds for neglected crisis situations and sectors. Lack of funds to provide timely agricultural inputs in Malawi, combined with pockets of chronic food insecurity, drove the
numbers in need of aid to almost five million in 2005.See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56744SWAZILAND: Media slammed for neglecting real issues - reportDespite
Swaziland's humanitarian crisis, local newspapers are largely ignoring issues such as poverty, food shortages and HIV/AIDS in favour of reports about crime and bickering amongst political
personalities, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).MISA's Media Monitoring Project report found that news stories were largely restricted to covering one area of the country,
poorly reflected gender diversity, and that national politics dominated content with an emphasis on gossip rather than substantive reportage on political or governance issues.See report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56745ZIMBABWE: Mugabe set to rule until 2010Moves to extend President Robert Mugabe's tenure of office by two years are being seen by civil society and
opposition groups as a consequence of the messy presidential succession battle being waged in the ruling ZANU-PF party.At its annual conference this week in the capital, Harare, ZANU-PF is expected
to confer an extension of office on the president - a post Mugabe, 82, has held since 1980, when Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain. In his opening address Mugabe warned delegates to keep their
"hands off" the presidency.See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56746ZIMBABWE: Pro-democracy protestors commend police for non-violenceMore than 300 protesting Zimbabweans
were arrested on Tuesday, but as they braced for a repeat of the police crackdown at a similar gathering two weeks ago, the group was unexpectedly and quietly released.Over 800 members of Women Of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Men Of Zimbabwe Arise (MOZA) marched on Parliament in the capital, Harare, to launch the 'People's Charter', a declaration of political and economic rights, but were met by
riot police as they approached the parliament buildings. Protestors feared the police would again turn violent: WOZA organised a march two weeks ago in Bulawayo to bring attention to the charter, but
a crackdown by police brought the protest to an abrupt end.See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56717BOTSWANA: The San can return home nowAfter a hard-fought court battle -
billed as the longest and most expensive in Botswana's legal history - the San won the right on Wednesday to return to their ancestral home in the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve in the Kalahari
Desert.The High Court of Botswana in Lobatse, about 70km south of the capital, Gaborone, ruled that the San, also known as the Bushmen, had been wrongfully evicted from their ancestral homeland in
2002.The government intended setting aside the protected area for wildlife and tourism development and began relocating the San outside the CKGR in 1997. Rights groups claimed that the San community
was forcibly removed from their ancestral land to make way for diamond exploration, while the government maintained that the emphasis has always been on persuasion and voluntary relocation.See
report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56729ZIMBABWE: Sick economy fuels growth of fake drug marketZimbabwe's deteriorating health services have made room for a thriving parallel
market for drugs, many of them counterfeit, warn concerned health professionals.The sale of genuine as well as fake medicines on the streets was "big, booming business," according to Dr Paul
Chimedza, the president of the Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZIMA). Drugs are much cheaper on the parallel market, and among health professionals the overriding concern is that there is no quality
control of the drugs available on the streets.See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56690MADAGASCAR: Ravalomanana likely to win presidential electionProvisional results show
president Marc Ravalomanana has been re-elected in what observers have generally considered free and fair elections.Government projections gave Ravalomanana 54.80 percent of the presidential ballot
on 3 December, a comfortable lead that will allow him to avoid a second round runoff. Jean Lahiniriko, the recently sacked president of the National Assembly, was Ravalomanana's closest challenger
with 11.68 percent, and Roland Ratsiraka, Mayor of Madagascar's second city, Toamasina, and nephew of former president Didier Ratsiraka, came in third with 10.09 percent.See report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56699
