Southern Africa : News

News : Southern Africa : News

The decision to give Zimbabwe no more than a slap on the wrist for the human rights abuses which its army has committed on the Marange alluvial diamond fields in the south-east of the country seriously threatens the future of the diamond industry's initiative to avert consumer boycotts of its gemstones. (AllAfrica)

JOHANNESBURG, Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems. (IRIN)

HARARE Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - When Anna Matopodza, 55, from a village in the Buhera district of Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe, found out she was HIV-positive, she was anxious about who would look after her five children when she died. The thought of death haunted her for months; then she joined dance group and travelled around the world, teaching people about HIV/AIDS through song and dance. (IRIN)

MASERU Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Having more than one sexual relationship at the same time is driving the spread of HIV in small landlocked Lesotho. The health sector has long suspected this, but a new report by the National AIDS Commission (NAC), in partnership with UNAIDS and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, has confirmed it. (IRIN)

GABORONE Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Botswana has closed a loophole allowing pastors and preachers to avoid certain immigration regulations. (IRIN)

CHITSA, Zimbabwe, Nov 2 (IPS) - In Chitsa, a village with some 2,000 inhabitants located about 250 km from Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare, it has become difficult to conduct everyday transactions involving money. (IspNews.net)

MAPUTO, Oct. 29 (IPS) - Mozambique’s incumbent president looks set to serve a second term of office as partial results of the country’s presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections are announced. (IspNews.net)


LUSAKA
, Oct 24 (IPS/IFEJ) - In two decades of fishing on the Zambezi, Darius Wamulume has never seen anything like this. With deep ulcerations and tissue decay, the fish he has caught recently is too unsightly to sell and too suspect to eat. (IspNews.net)

MOKOBENG, Botswana, Oct 24 (IPS) - Look, there's no drama with the borehole in Mokobeng. And that's the way it should be. (IspNews.net)

As if they were going to the races, Emma Musako and Monica Mhango showed up in their finest outfits to attend a meeting on the health, social and environmental impacts of uranium mining. They came because they, like the other attendees, no longer want to remain uninformed citizens. (AllAfrica)

WASHINGTON DC, November 6, 2009 ( CISA)- Botswana has been ranked the most peaceful nation in Sub-Saharan Africa followed by Malawi during a Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations in Washington DC, USA. (AllAfrica)

The credibility of the world's "blood diamond" monitoring group has been damaged after its failure this week to suspend Zimbabwe despite overwhelming evidence of serious human rights abuses and smuggling in the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch said today. (AllAfrica)

Transcript of remarks by President Barack Obama of the United States and President Ian Khama of Botswana after a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday November 5, 2009: (AllAfrica)

NAIROBI Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Encouraging the use of traditional African herbal medicines could prevent some of the one million malarial deaths on the continent, according to specialists attending a conference www.mimalaria.org/pamc in Nairobi. Many poor communities, especially in rural settings, cannot afford modern malarial drugs and many people die due to inaccessibility of treatment. (IRIN)

MBABANE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Swaziland not only has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate, it now also has the highest tuberculosis (TB) rate, but health officials warn that not enough is being done to integrate TB and HIV services. (IRIN)

GABORONE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Katlego Lally*, 17, belongs to a club for HIV-positive teenagers run by the Baylor Children's Clinic Centre of Excellence in Gaborone, Botswana's capital. She talked to IRIN/PlusNews about how the club has helped her overcome feelings of isolation and depression. (IRIN)

HARARE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN. (IRIN)

BULAWAYO Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - The use of handmade bricks is revolutionizing housing in Chinhoyi, 120km north of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, where housing estates built by poor people have mushroomed in a development that has caught the attention of the housing ministry. (IRIN)

MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction. (IRIN)

LIMBE, Malawi, Nov 4 (IPS) - Every morning 12-year-old Thomson Genti and his seven-year-old brother, Chifundo, emerge dirty and wretched from the squalor of their hideout behind the crowded shops in the commercial town of Limbe. It is the start of a day of begging, beatings from the older street boys and insults from passers-by. (IspNews.net)

COBUE, Mozambique, Oct 31 (IPS) - When Dorothy Kakongwe smiles, her creases tell stories no history book can recount. This elderly nurse can reflect on numerous changes in the landscape and people around her. (IspNews.net)

LUSAKA, Oct 28 (IPS) - Pressure is mounting for a new constitution that is inclusive of all citizens' views as the ongoing delays by the body granted to draft it still continues. (IspNews.net)

MBABANE, Oct 28 (IPS) - In the drought-stricken area of Siteki, Tibuyile Maziya has been trying to fill up her four 20-litre buckets with water at a community for the last four hours. With a baby on her back and two more buckets to fill up, 19-year-old Maziya says she walks to this well at least three times a week to get water for her family of 15. (IspNews.net)

CAPE TOWN, Oct 27 (IPS) - The South African government is in the process of drafting regulations to police genetically modified organisms (GMO) as part of the national Consumer Protection Act, but environmental experts are worried the GMO section of the new Act, which was signed into law last April, will not be put into practice. (IspNews.net)

MAPUTO, Oct 23 (IPS) - Less than 100 kilometres from the second-largest dam in Africa, women walk with their babies strapped on their back, water pails balanced on their heads. (IspNews.net)

IN a move with damaging implications for investment, Zimbabwe plans to grab a 51% stake in foreign-owned firms within 60 days of the gazetting of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act regulations, documents in the possession of the Zimbabwe Independent show. (AllAfrica)

The United Kingdom Border Agency has suspended scheduled deportation flights for failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers, following strong protestations by the MDC-UK. (AllAfrica)

PARLIAMENT yesterday heard that the media can be a dangerous tool if placed in the hands of non-professionals, especially during election time when political tension is high. (AllAfrica)

Athletics South Africa (ASA) President Leonard Chuene, the Board and its members were suspended with immediate effect over their handling of the Caster Semenya saga. (AllAfrica)

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last night ended its boycott of the new unity government but will give President Robert Mugabe a month to fully implement a power- sharing deal, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said. (AllAfrica)

The government has withdrawn from its contract with Airbus to buy eight strategic airlift military aircraft, and hopes that the R2,9bn already spent on the acquisition of the planes can be recovered, as Airbus missed critical production deadlines. (AllAfrica)