By Zukiswa Zimela
Feb 24 2012 (IPS)

South Africa wants to promote the use of breast milk across the country and big strides have been made in the KwaZulu-Natal province in taking formula off the shelves in primary health care clinics. Zukiswa Zimela looks at the pro’s and con’s of this step.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20120224_breastmilk_Zimela.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
Dec 13 2011 (IPS)

Civil Society organisations are sticking to their guns: Women will be hardest hit by the climate change. Zuki Zimela reports from COP 17 in Durban.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsnews/20111213_maremawomen_Zimela.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
Nov 20 2011 (IPS)

Zuki Zimela reports from Libreville, Gabon: Farmers organisation say oil discoveries in Africa are holding back agricultural development.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20111121_gendercoffee_martha.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
Nov 15 2011 (IPS)

Stakeholders in agriculture from Western and Central Africa are meeting in Gabon for the 6th International  Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) regional forum. As Zukiswa Zimela reports, they are talking about the challenges facing smallholder farmers.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20111114_gabonopening_zimela2.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
Nov 12 2011 (IPS)

The South African Development Community says states need to protect their forrests as a region. SADC is preparing to put their case before COP 17 in Durban later this month. Zukiswa Zimela reports from the SADC headquarters in Botswana.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20111107_REDD_Zimela.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
Nov 12 2011 (IPS)

The head of SADCs gender unit, Magdeline Mathiba-Madibela, says climate change affects women in Southern Africa and their plight must be discussed at COP 17 in Durban later this month. Zukiswa Zimela interviews Mathiba-Madibela in Gaborone and asked her what is needed to protect women against climate change.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20111111_climatechangewomen_Zimela.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
Oct 25 2011 (IPS)

Legal experts say that the African Court on Human and People’s rights needs to be more visible on the continent. Zukiswa Zimela reports from the Pan African Parliament in Johannesburg that governments and leaders will also have to give up some power to make the court work.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20111024_PAP3_Zimela.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela and - -
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 21 2011 (IPS)

With six weeks to go before the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, civil society organisations say the elections will not be fair, as many doubt the ability of the country’s electoral authorities to ensure transparency.

The DRC is set to go to the polls on Nov. 28, in the country’s second democratic elections since 2006.

The Central African country of 71 million people was the scene of what has been called Africa’s World War – a conflict that saw the death of approximately five million people between 1998 and 2003.

However, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), committed to deepening democracy, protecting human rights and enhancing good governance in the region, says the DRC’s National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) has not yet released information that will be vital to ensuring a credible election.

Specifically, there are still insufficient details regarding the location of polling stations and the plan for how these will be made secure for both voters and ballot boxes.

OSISA also says the electoral commission has not said anything about the provision of election monitors and observers, both from the international community and local civic actors, how the results will be tallied, or the process by which ballot boxes will be transported to the vote counting centres.

Several irregularities, including a spike in the number of people on the voter rolls, have caused members of the opposition to protest the legitimacy of the elections.

Leonnie Kandolo, founder of Cadre Permanent de Concentration des Femmes Congolese, a network of women’s organisations in the DRC, says after coming out of civil war the numbers should be down, not up.

“Why has the number increased because we are in a war? A lot of people have died. Now the number of voters has increased very much – and they have increased especially in the provinces that agree with the president,” she said at a briefing in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Kandolo said in 2006 almost 26 million people voted during the country’s first elections. This year the number stands at an estimated 32 million. The country’s constitution does not permit the military, police, foreigners or minors under the age of 18 to vote. But there is suspicion that some of them have been registered.

Jean Robert Efalema, deputy director of the Congolese Media Observatory, a self-regulatory media body which investigates public complaints about press coverage in the DRC, says that when civil society asked the government to clean up the system, it refused.

OSISA says the police also appear to be using excessive force, including live ammunition to manage political demonstrations. Efalema says the ruling party is using young people to try and sabotage the opposition.

“They loot the offices of the opposition parties and they have burnt the opposition party television station,” he said.

Efalema added that both opposition and civil society suspect that the CENI is not independent and is supporting the people in power.

Jonas Tshiombela Kabiena, founder of a national network of 200 associations called “The New Civil Society on the Congo”, says the composition of CENI disregards civil society organisations. The board of the electoral commission consists of four representatives from the governing party and three from the opposition.

“They tried to push civil society organisations to align themselves with one or the other camp, but this is not the case – we are independent and we are outside; our presence is very critical for greater transparency in this process,” he said.

As a post-conflict country, the DRC needs the elections to be fair. Several areas in the eastern part of the country are still at war. Kabiena says there are fears that if the elections go ahead with the current insufficient measures in place, the country could be plunged back into civil war.

“We are very, very afraid to go back to a cycle of violence; if the election goes ahead there will be cries of illegitimacy and we don’t want to go back to that kind of thing,” he added.

The 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections were monitored by many international observers to ensure that the elections were free and fair. Efalema says the international community needs to be involved with these elections as well.

“We are launching a cry of distress on behalf of the people of the Congo. We ask that governments not be distracted by what others are saying; we need help,” he said.

“It is the wish of the Congolese people for the international community to be there, to support free and fair elections,” he added.

Nick Elebe, programme manager in OSISA’s offices in the DRC, says it is time for the country to embrace democracy, and that it is important for CENI to deal properly with these elections and to ensure that they are free and fair.

“We have to make progress. These elections are an opportunity for the Congolese to prove that they now understand that they cannot go back to war and clash continuously any more, that now they have to build on new principles of good governance – and all of these principles start with having a free election.”

Despite the protests by the opposition and calls by civil society for them to be postponed, the elections are scheduled to take place on Nov. 28.

Excerpt:

By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 18 2011 (IPS)

As the India Brazil and South Africa Summit of heads of state and government starts Tuesday, editors from the respective countries have resolved to provide better coverage of the economic body.

“This meeting was very important and critical. As we know there has been a major shift in the world in terms of economic power, political power and so on towards the south and the countries of India, South Africa and Brazil have become very important players in the world,” South African Editors’ Forum (SANEF) chair Mondli Makhanya said Monday as editors met at the IBSA Editors’ Forum in Johannesburg.

The forum was co-hosted by SANEF and Inter Press Service Africa in conjunction with the World Bank and the South African department of Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS).

Members of the editors’ forum will be among the “people to people” organisations presenting their recommendations to the IBSA Heads of State and Government Dialogue Forum in Pretoria on Oct. 18.

Makhanya said it was important that IBSA received relevant and sufficient coverage and it was vital for the three countries to tell their stories to the rest of the world.

“So the purpose of today was to put in place infrastructure and a framework within which we are able to communicate those kinds of messages without the media being a spokesperson for the respective governments,” he said.

Jimmy Manyi, chief executive officer of GCIS, said the South African government was interested in working with the editors. He added that the way IBSA was portrayed by the media would affect the way other countries engaged with the economic group.

“If we continue not to talk about our agenda it means people will know less and less about us and we would really like this forum to be a stepping stone to promoting and marketing the three countries among ourselves and with the north as well,” he said.

He said that the relationship between the countries could be more than economical. Manyi said that there is a wealth of information to be shared by the trio and the media could help disseminate this information.

“What are the opportunities around education? What are the trade skills we can assist each other with? Because from time to time we have skills gaps so we have to piggy back on each other to make sure that we are as skilled as (the other countries),” he said.

Lola Nayar, the associate editor of Outlook magazine in India, agreed saying the countries can work together to share information on important issues like climate change mitigation strategies. Nayar said that in the field of energy and agriculture the three countries where looking at similar issues.

“India has become a major player in wind energy and in solar power energy and these are technologies it could share with South Africa,” she said.

Claudia Antunes, foreign affairs editor at Folha de Sao Paulo in Brazil, said that the three countries have to commit to speaking in a unified voice in order to achieve their goals. “IBSA as a group lacks a strong personality,” she said.

Excerpt:

By Zukiswa Zimela
Oct 5 2011 (IPS)

Members of the Pan African Parliament say legislative powers will help them to better represent the people of the continent. Zukiswa Zimela is at the fifth ordinary session of PAP in Midrand and she filed this report:

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/200111004_madasa_PAP_Zimela.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
Oct 5 2011 (IPS)

Women should take a more active role in ensuring peace and security on the African continent. Zukiswa Zimela reports from the fifth ordinary session of the Pan African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20111004_AgyemanPAP_Zimela.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
Oct 3 2011 (IPS)

South Africa wants to move from its reliance on coal for the generation of electricity to renewable energy sources like wind power and solar electricity. Zukiswa Zimela compiled this audio report:

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20110930_costofreneableenergy_Zimela.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, May 16 2011 (IPS)

Come rain or shine, single mother of five, Sylvia Mathebula,* can be found selling fruit and cigarettes at the roadside because it is the only way her family can survive. “Since the government is not helping us with jobs, rather than work as a maid for a white person I decided to start this little business by myself,” she says lamenting the lack of opportunities for unskilled women.

Civil society is calling for women's issues to be prioritised by political parties. Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

This is despite the fact that 45 percent of female-headed households live below the poverty line, according to Statistics South Africa.

Janine Hicks from the Commission on Gender Equality says that none of the five major parties have mainstreamed the issue of gender. “We have looked at a sample of party manifestos and we did a scan and analysis and in the main parties have not mainstreamed gender in their manifestos. Their main focus seems to be on service delivery,” she says.

Hicks says service delivery means something different for women and men as women have different needs compared to men. Municipalities need to recognise this and plan accordingly for service delivery. If there is no adequate sanitation in schools, girls tend to drop out of school because of the lack of private, functioning latrines and water when they menstruate, she adds.

During the last general elections in 2009 the Africa Media Monitor found that gender issues only featured in one percent of the rhetoric, this is despite the fact that women constitute more than half the country’s population and more than half the registered voters.

This is also despite the fact that South Africa has achieved a 45 percent female representation in parliament. This places the country third in the international women in Parliament rankings, behind Rwanda and Sweden.

Lisa Vetten, from the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, says that while there has been an increase in the number of female representation in parliament, the situation on the ground has gotten worse for them. There has also been a decline in policies that would improve women’s lives.

Vetten says this is because it is difficult for women to fight for women’s issues if they are not on the party’s agenda. “What we need to remember is that women represent political parties, we don’t vote for them as women. They are there to represent the line that their political parties take which makes scrutinising party manifestos very important,” she says.

Vetten further adds that is important not to think of women as one homogenous group but to identify their specific needs. She says that some women are more at risk than others. Lesbians in South African townships are vulnerable targets for corrective rape and homophobia. Corrective rape is when men rape homosexual women with the belief that they can change their sexual preference.

The country has been rated by Interpol as having the worst incidence of rape among Interpol states.

“Already we have had two murders (of lesbians) in KwaThema in Springs. We need to ask what local government is doing. Clearly there is a problem in that area,” she says. Eudy Simelane, a lesbian, was raped and murdered in 2008. In April 2011 Noxolo Nogwaza, a victim of corrective rape, was gang raped and murdered.

Vetten says that sex workers are also a vulnerable and marginalised group. “Loitering and some municipal by-laws are used to unlawfully arrest women who engage in sex work. We see police abusing women when they arrest them. Women are reluctant to go and report when they have been raped as sex workers,” says Vetten.

“I think there is also reluctance sometimes, people feel like women have enough equality and they don’t need more,” Vetten says.

Hicks points out that although men and women deserve equal access to energy and services, their positions in their family and in society means that they need them for different things.

Often the onus is on women to provide fuel for the family. This is something that municipalities need to consider when prioritising who should be able to access electricity, and even the cost of electricity for poor communities Hicks adds.

“So you look at women gathering coal, and dung and other unclean forms of energy using productive hours that they could use for running a small business in gathering energy,” says Hicks.

“There is a general assumption that because we have gender equality in the constitution, gender equality has been achieved,” says Vetten.

Vetten called for civil society to be louder in voicing the needs of women and making sure that women’s needs do not fall off the agenda.

Meanwhile, Mathebula will not be voting on May 18. She have given up hope and lost faith in government. “This voting that we do does not work. All they want is for us to vote while they get all the money,” she says.

* Not her real name.

Excerpt:

By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, Apr 13 2011 (IPS)

Many farms and crops were devastated when the January floods hit South Africa at the start of this year. Farmer organisation Agri South Africa (AgriSa) estimated damages as high as 270 million dollars.

Some critics say that as managers of the country’s water resources, the Department of Water Affairs should have done more to prevent the devastation.

IPS Africa spoke to the department’s Peter Pyke about the importance of flood mitigation strategies.

Q: Did flood mitigation measures put in place by the Department of Water Affairs fail this year? A: For a long time now, the system has been to try and manipulate the floods so that the peaks in the Vaal River and the Orange River do not happen at the same time when they meet at the confluence. The strategy was to let the water in the one river go and to hold on to the water in the other. This is to lessen the impact on the downstream users.

In the case of the very recent floods, somebody had been making estimates of the water flows and according to our estimates round about the tenth of April we would have had the equivalent of seven times the capacity of the Vaal Dam passing Upington.

Q: When too much water is held back in the dams, does this not cause the river banks to break and flood the areas around them? A: if you look at the river morphology you will find that very small floods are caused by the overflow of river banks, and that is probably a flow of about one in two years return period anything above that goes above and to the flood plains.

The problem is that we have had a lot of development on flood plains. These are areas that are naturally prone to flooding and have always been flooded periodically in the historic past and they will be flooded in the future because it is not possible to completely eradicate floods.

Q: Why are people moving onto the floodplains? A: Well the first thing is that it is a flat area and this is the area closest to the water. It is obviously fertile ground, and so people go there for agriculture.

We have legal requirements that every developer has to show the flood lines on any proposed development. We can’t prevent them from building on the flood plain, but we can at least make certain that they are aware of the fact that they are in a flood plain.

Q: Is there an early warning system to warn the people who are in flood-prone areas about releases that are scheduled to take place? A: Yes. You will find that in the case of the Orange, the people in the Lower Orange River had more than a week’s notice before the water reached them. Obviously people closer to the dams had less time.

But we have real time information on the internet, available on the departmental website. During flood times there are predictions on how much water will be where and what will flow into the river.

Q: What about those without internet access: how do they get the information? A: The information is made available to disaster management of each municipality, local authorities over the radio and on the television so the information is broadcast all over. Remember It is possible to prevent the smaller floods but when the huge rains come the dams become full and the water flows out of them as if the dams weren’t there.

Excerpt:

By Zukiswa Zimela
NAIROBI, Mar 23 2011 (IPS)

Climate change has become an important part of the development agenda. In Africa, farmers and consumers alike are feeling its effects on productivity and food security.

Professor Judi Wakhungu is the lead researcher on the Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change project, which is gathering data and case studies of adaptation to provide policy makers with technical and scientific evidence to guide them.

Q: How will the results from the research project help farmers? A: We are working in eight different countries and looking to see how communities are coping with climate change.

What we are doing in Kenya is comparing the dry land area in eastern Kenya with another one which is in western Kenya, close to Lake Victoria. The experiences in the two zones are almost opposite each other in this regime of erratic weather that we are experiencing.

The one closest to the lake is challenged with continual flooding every year, while in the zone on the eastern side, rains fail to fall.

We don’t have the answers: what we are doing is trying to look at what the different communities are experiencing and then drawing on that to inform policy.

What we hope to see is plans to be implemented as international policy so that we can have institutions and laws on how we are supposed to respond when the situation becomes tragic. At present we do not have a response mechanism.

Q: What are examples of farmers who are already successfully adapting to climate change? A: For instance in eastern Kenya in the Makueni district, we saw a lot of innovation in terms of how farmers were coping with drought. Whereas in Oyola and Wakesi, which is near Kisumu we saw that farmers were having difficulties coping with the flooding.

In some cases farmers depend almost entirely on the national government  to get seed [with drought or flood-resistant qualities]. On the other hand, in some communities, we have found that the farmers themselves have really become innovators. In the sense that some farmers now became specialists and are able to produce hybrid seeds which could cope with the extreme climate.

Q: What are your concerns with farmers relying on the government for seed? A:  It brings a sort of dependency which as a subsistence farmer is a very dangerous position to be in. The whole notion of being a subsistence farmer is to be self-reliant.

On the other side we have seen that farmers have started to depend on what we call “orphaned crops”. Farmers used to depend on sorghum and millet, then they moved on to maize and in some cases rice. Now they have turned back to the old crops.

Farmers ought to be the custodians of the seed.

Q: But would it not be better for farmers if governments had a well-managed system that would provide them with seed in times of need? A:  Absolutely. That’s why we continue to do the work that we do is so that government can put programmes in place where they have the infrastructure to get food to people who need it.

Q: If agriculture and food security are priority areas when facing climate change, how can using arable land for biofuels be justified? A: The answer is yes and no. You have to look at the conditions in each and every African country; we cannot make a blanket statement.

Let me give you an example: Tanzania has made agriculture a national priority – they even have a national slogan which says, Agriculture first and agriculture for the future.

Tanzania has a lot of land and a different land tenure system in that the land belongs to the government. So they have set aside a trust and some of the land has been set aside for biofuels in the form of jatropha and sugar cane farmers for ethanol. The argument is that if the ethanol production is successful, then the people will be able to earn revenue in order to grow food.

Q: Yet in the case of Tanzania, IPS recently reported on a botched biofuels project in the Kilwa District… A: That particular project was badly planned, and they also chose to use one biofuel – jatropha – which is not the best for this area.

So this was rushed through, without the policies in place and the company seemed ill-prepared to deal with the local conditions and the local politics. Also, misinformation was given to the farmers on how they were to benefit.

We have used this project to show how important it is to have the right policies in place, the right legal framework in place so that all partners understand what their responsibilities are.

A: In Kenya, we just don’t have that kind of land [available], to put aside tracts of land to attract foreign investors for biofuels production. This has been attempted, but it has been very politically charged with people coming out and saying that some of these deals are not being conducted above board.

So it would be a disaster here and it would lead to food insecurity.

Excerpt:

By Zukiswa Zimela
Dec 1 2010 (IPS)

New medications, simpler testing and a concerted effort by Government and NGOs to combat HIV and Aids are making inroads in fighting the pandemic. However, as Zukiswa Zimela reports, more communication is needed with those that are affected by the disease.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20101129_Aidscommunity_Zimela2.mp3[/podcast]

By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 14 2010 (IPS)

Chronic hunger is intensifying in Africa, despite the world’s commitment to address this Millennium Development Goal and reduce world hunger by half by 2015.

This is according to the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), which said on Oct. 13 that 75 percent of the world’s ultra poor, those living on living on less than 50 cents per day, are in Africa.

World hunger and the progress of various social protection programmes in Africa and across the world were part of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) International Policy for Inclusive Growth dialogue held in Johannesburg from Oct. 11 to 13. The event brought together experts from 28 countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America for the south-south learning event on long-term social protection for inclusive growth.

Countries shared information on the different social protection programmes that they are implementing. And feedback was given by African countries on the progress they had made since March 2006 when leaders from 13 African countries met in Zambia to discuss ways of coming up with budgets to institute national protection programmes.

The Livingstone Declaration means that governments have to come up with ways to protect vulnerable populations in their countries by providing them with social protection; it also states that social security is a right.

Some governments have been reluctant to implement national social security programs on account of affordability; however, others have already started and seen significant benefits. In many cases not only have the beneficiaries used the money for their survival, but it also allowed them to improve their quality of life. For example; in Zambia and Botswana beneficiaries of cash transfer programmes also started sending their children back to school; and in Kenya children’s health was monitored.

In 2006 Chipata district in Zambia instituted the Chipata cash transfer scheme which benefits 1,101 households. Alfred Chibinga from CARE International, an organisation that works to defend the rights of the world’s poorest people, said that before the introduction of the Chipata scheme many of the poor, particularly the children, would beg on the streets to survive.

These children were too poor to attend school. They did not have enough money for food let alone the money to pay for school fees and school supplies such as uniforms, Chibinga said. But since the implementation of the programme, the benefits have been diverse.

Each household receives between 10 to 12.50 dollars per month. Those households with children of school-going age receive an extra 2.50 dollars per month for school supplies.

“With the coming of the social cash transfer we have seen an increase of these children going back to school, and their uniforms are in good condition. Some of them didn’t have uniforms and now they have uniforms and their faces look brighter,” Chibinga said.

The Chipata cash transfer programme has also raised the nutritional levels of households. Now, twelve percent more households consume proteins daily. Vulnerable families are identified by the community and are then registered to receive this grant.

Botswana’s social security program was implemented 11 years ago by the ministry of local government to benefit orphans under the age of 18. Children who are orphaned are provided with a food voucher worth 69 to 107 dollars per month.

Instead of actual food the beneficiaries are given a card that they swipe at grocery stores to get their parcels.

The country also has school feeding scheme that provides one meal per day to children in primary and secondary schools. These programs aim to minimise child malnutrition and stunting, while enhancing learning.

Papadi Nguvuava, deputy commissioner from the Botswana social benefits ministry says over the last decade these programs have had a positive impact on the number of children going to school.

“The attendance rate at the school was improved because of the feeding at school. Some children were leaving school because they didn’t have any food to eat, so they (were forced) to go and fend for themselves,” she said.

Nguavuava said that over the years, government found that orphans who were recipients of social security were no longer stigmatised. “For the orphans we have reduced stigma because now they look like all the other children.”

Kenya also gave feedback on the progress of one of its schemes. In 2004 the ministry of gender, children and social development in Kenya implemented a cash transfer for orphans and vulnerable children (OVT). Currently the beneficiaries receive 37 dollars every two months.

However, there are conditions attached to the grant. Each child up to the age of one has to attend a health facility for immunisation every two months.

Children aged between one to five years have to be taken to a health facility for growth monitoring and Vitamin A supplements every six months; while children between aged between six and 17 have to attend primary school and should not be absent for more than three days per month. This ensures that the beneficiaries are healthy and get an education.

Jacqueline Odour, the Secretary of Children Affairs at the ministry of gender, children and social development, says that currently 85,000 households are benefiting from the cash transfers.

“By the end of June next year we should cover about 122,000 households,” she said. The country has 2.4 million orphans.

Emmie Chanika from the Civil Liberties Committee in Malawi says social protection may seem expensive but it is much cheaper than having to deal with catastrophes of extreme poverty and hunger.

Excerpt:

By Zukiswa Zimela and Kelvin Kachingwe
JOHANNESBURG and LUSAKA, Jul 23 2010 (IPS)

James Banda, 27, is an unemployed youth although he occasionally is hired to act as a bus conductor at Lusaka’s Kulima Tower Bus Station. He may not have a permanent job, but it is easy to find him. Anyone looking for him just has to go to the bus station and ask. Everyone knows who he is. Banda, or ‘ba-Jay’ as people call him, is a young man who commands a lot of respect from his friends – he is a thug for hire.

He may find it hard to get employment during the year, but come election time Banda becomes a young man whose services are fervently sought after. He is hired together with his friends by different political parties to conduct campaigns.

But Banda is not a card-carrying member of any political party. And the kind of campaigns he is hired to conduct do not involve explaining policies to the electorate but is about intimidating opponents and voters. Party officials give him and his friends money, alcohol and hire a van for them to travel round the constituency to disrupt the meetings of rival parties and to intimidate opposition voters.

When rival cadres or voters resist, they either beat them up or threaten them with machetes.

“Our job is simple, it is just to convince people in whichever way to vote for the party we’re supporting in a particular election. Whichever party comes first, and with a good offer in terms of money, we go,” he says.

And research shows that he is not the only one. The Southern Africa Trust report ‘Ending the Age of Marginal Majority’, released on Jul. 20 found that many young people in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region were vulnerable to violence as victims or perpetrators when they did not have access support structures or networks.

The study noted that the SADC region has been characterised by violence and conflict and this violence had become normal part of society in the region. As a result it was “rare for people engaged in, or affected by, these forms of violence to view them as criminal.”

Emily Mabusela, programme manager of the Youth Violence Prevention Programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation says that one of the reasons for youth violence is the pervasive nature of violent acts in our society.

“Violence is in all our spaces, at homes, in our communities and in our schools children are getting murdered, we cannot avoid it. What are we teaching young people when they see Xenophobic attacks and violent road rage?” she asked.

Mabusela pointed out that unless an intervention takes place violent young people grow up to be violent adults. “Violence is like learning to read, when you are young you are not that good but when you grow up you get better. When you start being violent at a young age the chances are you will get worse,” she said.

According to Helene Perold, executive director at Volunteer and Service Enquiry South Africa and one of the contributing researchers to the report, during adolescence young people are often trying to foster their identities and are going through a confusing period of change.

During this time the youth are susceptible to several influences. She further highlighted that it is important to engage the youth and integrate them into mainstream society.

“We live in a society where it is acceptable for parents to beat their children and husbands to beat their wives. We are saying that there needs to be a way to include the youth, most young people feel alienated in the society because their issues are not taken into context,” she said.

Masebula said that it was important for interventions to be carried out to mitigate violence among the youth. “If we ignore violence then it gets worse and worse. We know that violent behaviour is learnt. Children start by pushing each other and then gradually move on to slapping and hitting each other. Once some one learns that being violent makes them powerful then they see that as a way to solve problems in the future.”

South Africa currently has some programmes and policies which try to rehabilitate young people. Ansa Verster is a manager of a Diversion Programme for young people at the Restorative Justice Centre. The centre mediates a resolution between victims and perpetrators of crime and also offers life skill programmes for youth who have been in trouble with the law. She believes violent youth can change, if given the correct support and proper guidance.

The report findings concurred with this and called for public policy in the region to take into account the needs of the youth and to address the circumstances that prevented the youth from gaining employment, among other things.

And it seems as if it could be a solution. Banda admits that if he had a permanent job he would not hire out his services to intimidate voters.

“If we had other alternative sources of livelihood, we wouldn’t be doing this. But there are no jobs, what we do here in the station is just piece work, and the money is hardly enough. But when these politicians come, they offer us good money, and also buy us beer,” he says.

He adds that he is looking forward to next year’s elections because it will be an opportunity for him to make money.

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By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG , May 19 2010 (IPS)

The department of social development hopes government will increase the child support grant based on the outcome of a rigorous nationwide study on the positive effects the grant has on South African society.

The department of social development wants to evaluate the positive effects of the country's child support grant. Credit: Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi

Currently government pays 32 dollars a month per child, for a maximum of six children, to the primary care-giver of a child under 15 years. This money is meant to cover the cost of the child’s basic needs.

In order to qualify for a grant single care-givers or parents have to earn under 3,700 dollars a year, while married care-givers or parents have to earn under 7,600 dollars a year.

According to Stevens, social cash transfers are seen in policy circles as a highly effective instrument for combating poverty. Excerpts of the interview follow.

Q: Previous research by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) on child support grants has shown a positive impact, so why is the department of social development undertaking such rigorous evaluation research?

A: One of the main studies that we are using is the KIDS study – the KwaZulu Income Dynamics Study – and it was only based in KwaZulu-Natal. We felt that we wanted to have a more universal study that covers more of South Africa with a bigger sample size. That is why we thought we would do a nationwide study.

Q: How will this research be conducted over the next few years?

A: The base line study comprises of a qualitative preparatory study and a quantitative study. The field work will start in September this year, and the report will be out in May 2011.

Q: What do you hope to achieve with the qualitative and the quantitative research?

A: The qualitative research will give you the story behind the quantitative – which is the hard facts and figures. So hopefully we will learn some lessons in the field, and we hope to refine our quantitative instruments based on what we have learnt in the field.

In the end when the quantitative study is finished we will see if we can integrate some of the findings to explain some of the hard facts that we find in our quantitative study. So we want to integrate the two and make sure that we have a more rigorous study out.

Q: What kinds of indicators are you looking at?

A: We are looking at two groups; 0 to 2 years, and the older 14-year-olds. For the first group we have a matrix to measure things like the nutrition of the child and for the older children we look at risky behaviour and school attendance. We also (look at) nutritional issues but not as much as the first group. There are other impacts that will come out but we want to be focussed we do not want to try and measure everything so that in the end we get good results.

Q: What challenges have you encountered in the field?

A: The main challenge for us at the moment is finding our households in terms of our sample strategy. What we are looking for are children that enrolled early for the child support grant between the ages of 0 to 2 years; children who registered later over the age of 14 years old; and children who have not enrolled for the child support grant.

The data we are using (to find the participants) is from the Social Pension System (SOCPEN) data. SOCPEN is a state electronic system that records government welfare transactions.

But people move around between provinces, between areas and they do not change their address on the registration system so that is one of our big issues – to try and find our research participants.

Q: How will the research be used?

I am in monitoring and evaluation, I think if we can have a good monitoring and evaluation then that will motivate my own department to give me more money to do impact evaluations in other departments.

One area that we would really like to go into is our early childhood development programme, which is our second-largest programme that we are spending money on.

As I said, these are long-term projects and we do not have funding to run two of these kind of studies at the same time so we would like to do a good job on this one and to get people interested to see what the value is. (We want) to convince policy makers that having an impact evaluation done on your area is just going to have positive benefits.

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By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, Mar 29 2010 (IPS)

Sixteen-year-old Neo Malema and his brothers and sister live with his grandmother in the impoverished Alexandra Township in Johannesburg. Despite his poor background, Malema dreams of one day playing football for the country’s national squad, Bafana Bafana.

Neo Malema has a passion for soccer and helping other disadvantaged youths. He hopes to one day manage an organisation like Football for Hope. Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

“Football for Hope has changed my life, I used to be so naughty, I would wander around playing football in the streets. One day a coach found me and put me in his team, I have been playing for four years. Now I know that if you work hard you can achieve your dreams,” Malema said.

Malema and eight other young football players are part of Team Alexandra, which will represent South Africa at the FIFA Football for Hope festival in Alexandra in July 2010.

The Football for Hope initiative was established in 2007 by FIFA and Streetfootballworld to use football as a tool for enhancing global peace and social development. The movement relies on the universal appeal of football to achieve its mission, and so far 1.5 million youngsters have benefited from the programme.

Speaking at the official opening launch of the event in Alexandra on Mar. 25, managing director of Streetfootballworld Jurgun Griesbeck said that the aim of the event was to encourage young people to take responsibility for their own lives.

“The participants were chosen to show the world that they are young leaders so that when they are talking about themselves and where they are going, you yourself become inspired,” he said.

Thirty-two teams from disadvantaged communities from all over the world will participate in the exciting event taking place from Jul. 4 to 10. The delegates come from over 40 countries and some teams comprise of players from more than one country.

The tournament will have mixed teams of girls and boys from countries such as Kenya, Cambodia, Israel and Palestine.

But each of the 12-minute games will be played without official referees.

So all disagreements will be resolved through dialogue, a method which organisers hope will enhance mutual understanding and personal development in the young players.

The players will also participate in activities which promote the exchange of ideas and life experiences, including talks on issues like HIV/AIDS and football coaching workshops.

Also speaking at the launch, the chief executive of the local organising committee for the FIFA 2010 World Cup, Danny Jordaan said that the upcoming world cup was not only about the famous football stars that are coming to South Africa for the event but also about the youngsters participating in the Football for Hope Festival.

“It is a World Cup of hope, a World Cup of change, a World Cup of opportunity, a World Cup that focuses on the young people and their ambitions and their dreams,” Jordaan said.

Sibongile Mazibuko, the executive director of the 2010 World Cup for the City of Johannesburg, said it was important to use football as a tool for social development and change.

Malema has a passion for soccer and helping other disadvantaged youths, he hopes to one day manage an organisation like Football for Hope.

“Football has brought me back to the right path, it taught me that when you work hard you will definitely achieve your dreams,” said Malema.

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By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, Mar 5 2010 (IPS)

Twenty-two-year-old Sara Allen* uses prescription medication to get high.

An increasing number of people who are becoming hooked on prescription drugs globally. Credit: Tom Varco/Wikicommons

“I usually get them from someone who gets prescribed them, otherwise one of my friend’s mother has a drawer full of rad Codeine pills.”

According to Allen, prescriptions are harder to get than illegal drugs. However, when they are available she uses them. Allen also takes illegal drugs but she finds that the prescriptions offer a different high.

Allen is just one of an increasing number of people who are becoming hooked on prescription drugs. According to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) annual report, globally there is an increase in the abuse of prescription medication.

While no information is available for Africa, other countries show an alarming rise in the use of prescription medication. The study found that in the United States 6.2 million people were abusing prescriptions and in several European countries like France, Italy and Lithuania between 10 to 18 percent of students use sedatives or tranquilisers without a prescription.

The report states that although most countries recognise the abuse of prescription drugs, countries do not systematically collect information of prescription drug abuse. However, the report stated prescription drug abuse is not limited only to first world countries; the same trend is being seen in developing countries like South Africa.

The reason for the increase in prescription drug abuse can be attributed to the fact that these particular drugs are not themselves illegal, said Dr. David Bayever – the deputy chairperson the Central Drug Authority (CDA).

He explained that because the drugs were legal medication, when a person is caught with them they cannot be arrested. Bayever called this a “disturbing development”.

According to the INCB report, the abuse of pharmaceuticals can be partially attributed to fact that medication, which is banned in other countries, can be obtained without prescription or at unregulated markets in most countries in Africa

Paul Kruger the executive director of Narconon, an addiction treatment and rehabilitation programme in Johannesburg, says that there has been an increase of about 25 percent in the last year in the number of patients addicted to prescription medication at the clinic.

According to Kruger, the medications are obtained one of two ways: patient’s either get their prescriptions filled out by their doctor; or they get the medication from the black market. He explained the most common method of acquiring the drugs is through prescription scripts.

IPS spoke to pharmacies around Johannesburg and many said they discovered only a few cases of forged prescriptions. Eugine Jonker, an assistant pharmacist from Clicks Pharmacy in Boksburg said that while they have seen forgeries of prescriptions, particularly schedule 6 prescription medications, they had not discovered many forgeries. In the event of a suspected forgery the pharmacist has to call the doctor to confirm the prescription. The pharmacy is also required to keep a record of this in compliance with the requirements set out by the South African Pharmacy Council.

Amos Masango, chief executive officer of the South African Pharmacy Council also says that they are not aware of an increase of the misuse of pharmaceuticals. “Nothing has officially been reported to us, the council does inspections in all pharmacies to look at compliance with the standards set out by the council.”

With the FIFA 2010 World Cup being held in South Africa in less than three months, the CDA is worried that illegal drugs will flood into the country. The CDA has also discovered websites which advertise the availability of drugs in the country to foreign tourists.

Although the country has been preparing years in advance for the 2010 World Cup and there will be an increased border post policing, and airports will be more vigilant in screening people entering the country, the CDA is concerned this will not be sufficient.

“I fear whatever we do will not be enough,” said Bayever. “People will see this as a picking field and will take advantage of the event. In spite of all the measures taken one must remember that these are well-organised groups who know where the loopholes are.”

“The drug problem in South Africa is twice the world norm,” he said. “One out of every four Rands in circulation in the South African economy can be linked to the substance abuse problem.”

A CDA report presented by Bayever showed drugs can be linked to several other social problems including poverty, crime, sexual abuse and HIV/Aids.

“Unfortunately when we talk of substance abuse of any nature it knows no boundaries and happens on all levels” said Bayever.

*Not her real name

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By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 3 2010 (IPS)

The International Criminal Court is to review its earlier decision not to add genocide to the charges against Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.

A Darfuri refugee shelters from rain: ICC prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo remains determined to trying the Sudanese president for crimes against humanity. Credit: Claire McEvoy/IRIN

The initial warrant for Bashir’s arrest, issued on Mar. 4 2009, indicted the Sudanese president on crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The court also charged Bashir with directing attacks on civilians not taking part in the war and pillaging, but it rejected the prosecutor’s charge of genocide.

The ICC Appeals Chamber has ordered the Court to look at the genocide charges afresh, saying that the Court applied an incorrect standard of proof to the evidence presented by the ICC prosecutor. The decision is not a ruling on Bashir’s guilt or innocence, it only directs the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber to reconsider whether the Sudanese president should face trial on the charge of genocide.

In 2009, African Union member states requested the warrant for Omar al-Bashir be deferred; but civil society in various countries has prevented the Sudanese president from visiting several states for fear of arrest. Credit: Erin Siegal/UN Photo

“The prosecution maintains that President al-Bashir’s intention is to destroy the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. Hunger and rape are his weapons. This is genocide,” said Moreno-Ocampo.

Even if the Pre-Trial Chamber now adds this serious charge to the already weighty international arrest warrant for Bashir, he does not appear to be in any danger of imminent arrest; he is preparing to contest presidential elections in Sudan in April.

A spokesperson for the Sudanese government told media the timing of the ruling was political and could hinder elections to be held in Sudan in April this year.

“This procedure of the ICC is only to stop the efforts of the Sudanese government toward elections and a peaceful exchange of power,” said Rabie Abdelati, a senior information ministry official.

Bashir is relying on the support of African Union (AU) countries and some Arab states who have refused to back the charges against him. This is despite the fact that 30 African states are members of the ICC.

Dismas Nkunda, co-director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative, says most African states are still under the impression that Western countries are trying to interfere in African affairs.

“African states feel as though they are targets. Most of the serious crimes against humanity are committed in Africa. Several former AU heads of states have been tried by the ICC. The decision made by the AU was a political,” Nkunda told IPS by phone from Kampala. “The ICC has made the legal decision.”

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