ZIMBABWE: EC funds bring welcome relief

JOHANNESBURG, 3 June 2009 (IRIN) - The European Commission (EC) has allocated US$11.3 million in humanitarian aid to help people in Zimbabwe affected by the breakdown of essential health and water services.

"The new unity government has to address numerous challenges to place Zimbabwe on the path to recovery. The country ... is facing an enduring humanitarian crisis, compounded by the collapse of basic social services," Olli Rehn, the EC's Acting Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said in a statement on 2 June.

The funds have been earmarked for medicines and medical supplies, water treatment equipment, and spare parts to upgrade water infrastructure; projects are to be implemented by non-governmental relief organizations, UN agencies and the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement.

Health system in crisis

As a result of Zimbabwe's protracted socioeconomic crisis, access to health services and safe water has sharply deteriorated, "as demonstrated by the largest cholera epidemic ever recorded in Africa," the statement noted.

Life expectancy has been dropping, maternal mortality has dramatically increased and high rates of HIV infection prevail. "It is our duty to bring timely and consistent support to assist ... at this critical juncture," Rehn said. The EU is the biggest donor to Zimbabwe's public health sector, providing at least 60 percent of essential drugs available.

Govt won't seize white farms, says minister

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Jun 16 2009 13:57

South Africa's new Agriculture Minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, said on Tuesday the continent's biggest maize producer would not seize white farms to redistribute to black South Africans as this would harm its economy.

"With our willing-buyer, willing-seller policy there are times when the land becomes too expensive for the state to purchase, and if we face a programme of expropriation, it would further destabilise the economic industry of agriculture," she told an agribusiness conference in Cape Town.

After the fall of apartheid in 1994, the African National Congress set itself a target of handing 30% of all agricultural land to the black majority by 2014.

But progress towards the target has been slow, and only about 4% of land has been acquired from private owners amid funding problems that government officials say might hinder the government from meeting its goal.

Land reform is a sensitive issue in Africa's biggest economy, where critics say the programme has hurt investment in the commercial farming sector and drastically reduced the land that is available for commercial agriculture.

Eskom to tax the rich?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:18

Wealthy consumers and companies may face an electricity price increase of more than 34 percent this year, Eskom spokesperson Fanie Zulu conceded on Wednesday.

Zulu said he "can't guarantee" that higher income groups would not be asked to pay more than the 34 percent hike Eskom was demanding to cover its operational costs, in the likely event that the increase was staggered to grant the poor relief.

"So the rich may pay more," he told Sapa after briefing Parliament's public enterprises portfolio committee.

"It happened last year when Nersa (National Energy Regulator of SA) said 14.5 percent and then the affluent paid more," Zulu added, referring to the cap the national regulator put on price hikes for low income consumers after granting a general tariff hike of 27 percent.

Zulu said industry might also have to pay more.

He added however that the decision was not up to Eskom but to Nersa, which was considering the tariff increase application.