Global Philanthropists Circle Trip to Southern Africa, March 18-27, 2003
Southern Africa News Digest for March 10, 2003
As background material for the 2003 trip to South Africa and Mozambique, Synergos is compiling an occasional digest of articles that might be of interest to GPC members. Please note that, over time, links to some of the articles may stop working.
If you would like further news about the region, an excellent collection of news articles is available at AllAfrica.com.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) via AllAfrica.com, March 9
Asmal will protect pupils who don't pay school fees
South Africa's Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, says that the government will discipline or even prosecute principals and school governing bodies that mistreat students whose families cannot pay school fees. The Department of Education will not ban schools from charging fees, but is looking to other means to keep funds flowing to poor schools.
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South African Broadcasting Corporation, March 8
South Africa is in crisis: Leon
Tony Leon, leader of the South African opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA), says the country is in crisis. "Ten years after the birth of democracy in South Africa, the political conversation of our elite is marked by abstraction, complacency, and denial," he remarked, while pointing to unemployment as the major cause of poverty.
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IRIN News, February 17
Redefining masculinity in era of HIV/AIDS
The Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Africa of Voluntary Services Overseas organized a conference in South Africa to address the question of how ideas of masculinity effect the HIV/AIDS crisis. Participants, made up of activists and researchers from Southern and East Africa, agreed that new ideas of masculinity are needed in the face of the disease and other social forces, such as rural to urban migration and the increased role of women in the formal economy. At the same time, participants pointed out that the ongoing focus on men as the principal cause of transmission of the disease glosses over the vast majority of men who do not engage in risky practices and who might serve as role models.
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Christian Science Monitor, March 6
S. African "SWAT" team to save endangered mollusk
Poaching of endangered abalone in some coastal South African towns is not only an environmental problem but also a social one. Authorities say poaching, which is led by international gangs, has brought drugs and guns to communities and led some youth to drop out of school to join the illegal business. The poached abalone are destined for international markets, especially in Asia.
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BuaNews via AllAfrica.com, March 5
Maduna, Moosa to officially open first environmental court
An environmental court is opening in the Western Cape, where poaching constitutes a major portion of crime. The court has a monitoring committee, including special interest groups such as environmentalists, to oversee its performance. The court's initial focus will on marine poaching, such as those illegally harvesting abalone.
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Sunday Times (Johannesburg) via AllAfrica.com, March 9
Community set to run game park
Hundreds of families in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Midlands whose lands were taken under apartheid are to become co-owners of the Umsuluzi Game Park, which covers 4,000 hectare of community land. The current owners of the game park have said they want to work with the community.
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Commonwealth News and Information Service via AllAfrica.com, March 5
President Mbeki opens Commonwealth Local Government Forum
The second Commonwealth Local Government Forum is being held in South Africa, with a focus on local government partnerships with the private and nonprofit sectors. In remarks at the opening of the event, South African President Thabo Mbeki spoke of "durable partnerships that are mutually beneficial so that our cities begin to develop into classic, creative and prosperous centers that would become the locomotives of economic growth for our entire countries."
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News24.com, March 6
"Come home" drive planned
The South African Government is launching a "Come Home" campaign to promote the return of South Africans living in other countries. In recent years South Africa has experienced both tremendous immigration and emigration. Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi says that better understanding of the causes of emigration (and reluctance to return) are needed, but research suggests that continuing "cultural discomfort" may be preventing some South Africans from coming back.
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New York Times, March 8
When South Africa joined the world, and the art world
The end of apartheid in South Africa allowed artists there to emerge from international isolation. Prior to that, the Resistance Art Movement was an expression of political protest through which black and white artists pressed for change while risking imprisonment and persecution.
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BBC, March 6
Africa's aid plan seeks healthy growth
Each year, malaria kills one million people in Africa and costs up to $1 billion in lost productivity. As one economist at the World Bank says, "Health is no longer considered as a black hole that you're pouring money into, but a critical element of a country's growth." Disease, lack of access to education and continuing corruption are hurdles that must be overcome. Through the New Partnership for Africa's Development, African government's have pledged to fight corruption and improve their own performance in exchange for greater international support for development.
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Harvard University Gazette, March 6
Mozambique cashew case illustrates hazard of imposed solutions
The World Bank's efforts to fight poverty in Mozambique by strengthening cashew production in the 1990s had mixed results, with some rural farmers benefiting at the cost of increased unemployment in cities. One lesson from the experience, according to a team of scholars from Harvard, Stanford and Tufts Universities, is that conditions imposed from outside a country cannot work without full buy-in of the government responsible for implementing change.
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AP via Yahoo, March 1
Mozambique army says it has destroyed stockpile of land mines
The Mozambican military says it has destroyed all of its stock of 38,000 landmines in the last two years. Still, thousands of land mines remain in the ground. Seventy-five thousand mines have been removed from the soil since the end of civil war in 1992.
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Agencia de Informação de Moçambique via AllAfrica.com, March 8
Campaign chairman doubts destruction of land mine stocks
The Mozambican Campaign Against Land Mines (CMCM) has challenged the government's recent claim that all stocks of anti-personnel mines have been destroyed. Alberto Manhique, the CMCM chairperson, has said that the government has become increasingly secretive in its work, which should raise suspicions about the truthfulness of its reports on the destruction of mines.
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IRIN News, March 6
23,000 people affected by cyclone
Cyclone Japhet has killed at least three people in Mozambique and affected 23,000. In January another cyclone killed 47 people and destroyed bridges, homes and crops in the north of the country.
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Afrol News, March 4
Mozambique faces worst drought in 50 years
The current drought in Mozambique is likely to bring out about a food security crisis similar to that of 1991-2 and much worse than last year's, which resulted in an estimated 650,000 requiring emergency food aid.
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Agencia de Informação de Moçambique via AllAfrica.com, March 4
Project to help poor families' school costs
Mozambique's Education Minister, Alcido Nguenha, says that education is the key to eradicating poverty and is not just a task of the state, but for all of society. Through the Bolsa-Escola ("Scholarship-School") program, the Government of Brazil is helping pay school costs for poor families in Mozambique. The project has started in Maputo and currently involves 100 families.
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2003 Southern Africa Trip Page
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