Full Coverage: Southern Africa

30.08.2005 The Botswana government's attorney has dismissed foreign financial support for the Bushmen - with whom the administration is locked in a land dispute - as "Europeans telling us what to do and what not to do...but we really don't care, and we resent their involvement in our affairs."

30.08.2005 The biggest thetha SANGONeT information communication technology (ICT) discussion forum with Civil Society Organisations of South Africa have started in Cape Town with an opportunity for the general public to learn about the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

29.08.2005 A study conducted by the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) with support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, demonstrates that that one of the reasons why information and communication technology (ICT) projects in schools do not succeed is that principals are often not properly informed about what ICTs can or cannot do.

25.08.2005 Synthesis report on 20 ICT case studies from organisations in South Asia, Southern Africa and Central America. Their activities vary from offering wireless communication equipment to tribal nomads and teaching slum children how to use a computer, to training NGOs how to build a website and online broadcasting of radio programmes.

25.08.2005 The biggest SANGONeT information communication technology (ICT) discussion forum with Civil Society Organisations of South Africa have started in Cape Town with an opportunity for the general public to learn about the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

25.08.2005 THE Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) has produced a series of electronic lessons that will help students studying physical science.

24.08.2005 United Nations special envoy Anna Tibaijuka’s report on Zimbabwe's Operation Murambatsvina has continued to attract heavy media attention. But while the private media in the country have carried fairly investigative and balanced reports on the topic, the government-controlled media’s coverage is rigid, characterised by shrill defence of government’s implementation of Murambatsvina while simultaneously parading the clampdown’s mop-up successor, Operation Garikai, as a worthy programme.

24.08.2005 A massive government campaign that has forced the Gana and Gwi of Botswana from their ancestral lands is ongoing and only international support can save them, says Survival International, and asks you to join the fight for the Bushmen’s survival.

23.08.2005 The Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf), based in Lusaka, Zambia, is looking to recruit an Executive Director. The Institute was set up in 1996 under the auspices of the Panos Institute London. PSAf has since attained autonomy from the Panos Institute London, and is now governed by a board of respected citizens from several southern African countries.

20.08.2005 JOHANNESBURG, Aug 20 (IPS) - They are trends that show little sign of abating: the influx of refugees and economic migrants to South Africa, and the extent to which these persons become the target of xenophobia.

18.08.2005 When European settlers landed in South Africa, they hardly saw the locals as cutting-edge scientists and health practitioners. In fact the indigenous people harboured a treasure trove of remedies for all kinds of diseases, knowledge of how to farm effectively and principles of good nutrition. And African women who were mostly the gatekeepers of this knowledge always had a traditional fix for life’s problems.

18.08.2005 While the government purports to have acted within the confines of the law, a close examination of the relevant legislation and international human rights provisions establishes a case of noncompliance at both municipal and international levels. Fundamental principles of administrative justice such the right to be heard and to appeal were not respected. The situation is further compromised by a judiciary that is perceived as lacking in impartiality. Basic rights such as the right to life, housing, education, decent and humane treatment were disregarded in contravention of the many international human rights treaties to which the Zimbabwean government is signatory.

16.08.2005 An inflationary environment and political pressure is making Zimbabwean newspapers financially vulnerable, according to media sources.

15.08.2005 Zimbabwe’s current political and economic turmoil will be high on the agenda when the Southern African Development Community Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (SADC-CNGO) meet from 13 -16 August in Gaborone, Botswana, prior to SADC’s 25th Summit on 17 August.

10.08.2005 JOHANNESBURG, Aug 9 (IPS) - Images of skeletal children in Niger, wasted away by malnutrition, have featured prominently in the media over recent weeks. Amidst efforts to alleviate this suffering, however, there are fears that the crisis in Niger may undermine donor willingness to tackle problems elsewhere on the continent -- notably in Southern Africa.

10.08.2005 UN officials are warning that the Niger crisis may undermine donor willingness to tackle problems elsewhere on the continent – notably in Southern Africa, where about 10 million people will need food aid until mid-2006.

09.08.2005 Zimbabwe's President Mugabe has a week to decide to agree to carry out political, economic, and social reforms in his country or lose a $500 million loan package from South Africa, which would help his country stave off IMF expulsion, increased international isolation, and further economic decline.

09.08.2005 If you knew you were about to die, how would you want your children to remember you? The Memory Box Program in South Africa records family histories of parents with AIDS to help children cope with the emotional effects of their parents' illness and death.

09.08.2005 As the UN marks Indigenous Peoples Day, the world's tribes have been rocked by a wave of violent attacks and killings, says a group that defends tribal peoples.
Their plight has also been spotlighted by Amnesty International, which said that despite some progress in the last decade, indigenous peoples "continue to live in hardship and danger due to the failure of states to uphold their fundamental human rights."

05.08.2005 US jewellery designer Neil Lane is targetted by Survival International in its continued battle with De Beers over the eviction of the Central Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana to make way for diamond mining.