Digest of Adriana Stuijt's "journalism during apartheid "site--

AdrianaStuijt ^ | 7-6-02 | staff

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Subject: Daily digest for Adriana Stuijt's "journalism during apartheid "site

	Daily Digest of Messages on Adriana Stuijt's "journalism during apartheid "site

Today's New Messages

Famine is spreading in southern Africa, warns United Nations (1 new message) Farm News from 7/2002 (1 new message) </FONT< TD>

SA Human Rights commission hearings on farm abuse (1 new message)

Famine is spreading in southern Africa, warns United Nations

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Message 29 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

UN confirm Malawi in "severe food crisis"

13 Apr 2002 15:50  SA Press Association

 

Famine threatens 4-million people in southern Africa right now

 

EMERGENCY FOOD AID URGENTLY NEEDED WARNS UN - Serious food shortages have emerged in rural and urban areas of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe where maize stocks are at extremely low levels, reflecting the production shortfall and difficulties in imports. Emergency food assistance is urgently required until the next main harvest from mid-April 2002 for over 2 million people in these countries:

 

URGENT TRANSPORT NEEDS FROM SOUTH AFRICA -- There is also an urgent need for concerted effort to expedite delivery of commercially imported maize from South Africa to prevent further deterioration of the food supply situation. There is a serious bottleneck on South African transport systems heading north.

 

MALAWI - Its 2001 maize harvest dropped by one-third from previous year. In southern areas, nearly 650,000 people face famine as they suffered crop losses.  Emergency food aid needed at once: 20,000 tonnes. WFP has already distributed 9 000 tonnes in flood affected areas but only 60,000 tons of the Malawian government order for 150,000 tonnes of maize from South Africa have arrived thus far - due to transport bottlenecks in the sub-region due to competing demands from various countries for the transportation of imported fertilizers and maize.

 

MOZAMBIQUE - Elsewhere in the sub-region, emergency food aid is being distributed to 172 000 people in southern Mozambique where the harvest was reduced for the second consecutive year.

 

SWAZILAND - In Swaziland, households affected by drought in the Middle and Lowerveld provinces face food shortages. The Government has started distribution of emergency food relief to the most needy.

 

LESOTHO, NAMIBIA - In Lesotho and Namibia, poor cereal harvests and commercial imports are causing shortages. Vulnerable groups in urban and rural areas are experiencing food difficulties.

 

ANGOLA -  In Angola, emergency fo

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Message 29 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

SA gears up to relieve famine crisis - and SA taxpayers also face a lavish R97-m bill for African Unity bash

 

July 5 2002 - CAPE TOWN -- A senior editor of The Cape Times, Tony Weaver, reports that "as Southern Africa teeters on the brink of a massive humanitarian disaster, the South African government is treating the famine facing the subcontinent as a top priority."

 

"Big priority is to just keep people alive:"
The World Food Programme's regional director Judith Lewis, based in Johannesburg, said she was "so impressed by the outpouring of support from ordinary South Africans. We are overwhelmed with telephone calls." She also said that "at this stage, we can't even think longer term, our big priority is just keeping people alive".
 
Zim needs 1,2-million tons of cereals:
Within the coming month, Lewis estimates that some 13-million people in southern Africa will face outright starvation -- and will need 1,2 million tons of cereals to prevent this. Worst hit is Zimbabwe, where five million people need "urgent assistance" right now.

 

African Unit summit costs R97-million (some US-$10-m):
- Just to put the ANC-government's real priorities into perspective, that lavish ego trip for 52 African presidents -- the African Unity 'summit launch' in Durban --  already costs the South African taxpayers at least R97-m, instead of its original R60-m (ceilingless?) budget.

 

Deputy Finance Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said on July 4 that "as the host country of such an important event, money obviously had to be found from the national budget...."

However DA spokeswoman Sandy Kalyan slammed the soaring costs, warning: "...(Africa) cannot plead poverty on the one hand and wine and dine delegates on the other.

link:

http://www.anc.org.za/briefing/index.html: posted July 5, SA Press Assocation)

 

President Robert Mugabe's seizure of his country's 2,900 remaining commercial farms is widely blamed as a key factor in turning a country that was once one of the main bread baskets of the region into one facing mass starvation.

 

Farm News from 7/2002

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Message 5 in Discussion

From: Top Cop

SA Policeman murdered on farm named "Peace" (Vrede):
Killed: Willie Fredericks, 38; injured, Haneline Jantjies, police reservists, Vrede farm, Stellenbosch: (Farm Murder Nr. 1,336 in South Africa since 1994)

 

13th farmer murdered in Zimbabwe:
Killed: Dr Roy "Tom" Raub, 79, US citizen, Zimbabwean game rancher

 

July 2, 2002 - STELLENBOSCH -- SA Police reservist constable Willie Fredericks (38) has died after being shot on a Vrede farm near Stellenbosch, and his colleague, Haneline Jantjies, is in hospital after the two police reservists were ambushed while investigating a complaint about strangers on the farm.

 

The two police reservists were attacked by an armed seven-member gang upon their arrival, overpowered, robbed of their service pistols and shot.

 

Police have arrested the entire gang of attackers.  A Tokarev pistol, 9mm ammunition and a vehicle were also recovered.

 

"Only good white farmer is a dead farmer..." comment by police superintendent

Meanwhile the police trade union Popcru has defended a recent public statement by a non-white senior police officer in the Northern Cape, superintendent Anthony du
Preez, who was quoted in the media as saying that "The only good (white) farmer is a dead farmer."

 

Popcru's Northern Cape chairperson Tony Modise said Du Preez remarks had been "taken out of context." Apparently Du Preez had made these remarks while conducting a
so-called "capacity-building workshop" for police officials in Vanderkloof in April.

 

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has called for Du Preez's suspension, while the alleged comment is being probed further. "Du Preez does not belong in
public service, if that was comment had been quoted correctly in the newsmedia, and what he allegedly said is viewed as a crime," ACDP provincial leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe said.

 

Popcru's Modise said: ". the malicious and unfounded attack by the ACDP before a probe is finalised is

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Message 5 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

Mugabe faces SA farmers protest

Top SA journalist Jimmy Seepe of City Press reports on July 5 2002 that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who is expected to attend the launch of the African Union in the coming week together with other African statesmen, could find himself at the centre of a protest by South African farmers, who plan to march in Durban in solidarity with farmers in the neighbouring state.

 

In an interview with City Press this week, Transvaal Agricultural Union president Gert Ehlers said although the agricultural sector welcomed the launch of the African Union, they planned to protest at the conference against Mugabe's policies against Zimbabwe's white farmers .

 

Ehlers said they hoped to drive home a message to Mugabe that he is destroying the potential of Zimbabwe and the Southern Africa Development Community to produce food . He accused Mugabe of creating uncertainty in farming communities, not only in Zimbabwe but in the rest of the region.

 

"We are going to put our plans on the table in the coming week. We can't let things go on (like this) and we want the black community to join the farmers in putting pressure on Mugabe to change his policy (on farm seizures)."

 

He also warned that unless African leaders make a pledge to support the farmers all their plans will fail and farming on the continent will collapse.

 

Ehlers' statement comes as the process for the launch of the African Union got under way on Friday, ahead of the arrival of heads of states in the coming week.

 

Plans are already at an advanced stage to make the launch of the union, which will also be attended by Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi and proponents of the New Partnership for African Development, a memorable event.

 

Zimbabwe government officials were this week not willing to reveal whether Mugabe will be attending the union launch or not .

 

The government's diplomatic office in Pretoria referred all questions regarding Mugabe's attendence to their offices in Harare.

SA Human Rights commission hearings on farm abuse

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Message 3 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

Human rights commission farm condition hearings

start in Malmesbury town hall, July 3.

 

These hearings will be open to the public and can be attended as follows:

 

3 July, Wednesday 2002 -4 July 2002, Thursday Western Cape ( Malmesbury Town hall)
15 July 2002, Monday - 16 July 2002, Tuesday Northern Cape (Keimoes Town hall)
18 July 2002, Thursday - 19 July 2002, Friday Eastern Cape (Port Elizabeth City hall)
22 July 2002, Monday - 23 July 2002, Tuesday Limpopo (Thabazimbi - Regorogile Town hall)
29 July 2002, Monday - 30 July 2002, Tuesday North West (Ventersdorp Town hall)
1 August 2002, Thursday - 2 August 2002, Friday Free Sate (Viljoenskroon Town hall) 
5 August 2002, Monday -6 August 2002, Tuesday KwaZulu-Natal (Cool Air Community hall)
14 August 2002, Wednesday, 15 August 2002, Thursday Mpumalanga (Nelspruit - Nelsville Community centre) 
19 August 2002, Monday, 20 August 2002, Tuesday 21 August 2002, Wednesday Gauteng (Johannesburg Council chambers) 

 

For more information contact

Mr Mogambri Moodliar: Head of Legal Services on tel 011 484 8300 and fax at 011 484 1360

 

Link to SA human rights commission website:
http://www.sahrc.org.za/main_frameset.htm

(Also see: News Bulletins: ANC statements)

 

JOHANNESBURG July 1 2002 Sapa - The ANC-appointed SA Human Rights Commission starts provincial hearings into "human rights abuses in farming communities."

 

Each of the hearings, the first of which begins in the Malmesbury Town Hall in the Western Cape on Wednesday, July 3 (tomorrow), is to last two days. There will be hearings in all nine provinces.

 

The SAHRC's investigation into the sociological situation on farms, is entirely

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Message 3 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

Malmesbury hearing, July 4: Subject: "dop System"

 

Farmworkers in South Africa's wine district accuse some wine estate owners of forcing them to undergo skin implants to stop them from drinking alcohol. The SA Human Rights Commission has been told that if workers "don't want the implants they are being chased away or dismissed" and that this was unconstitutional.

 

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't..."
This is the "Damned if you do, and damned if you don't" scenario: throughout the apartheid era from 1948 to 1994,  there also were widespread and indeed very well-founded accusations by Western Cape wine farm workers that they were constantly being forced to take a part of their wages in "dop" -- half-litre bottles of 2% estate wine -- and that this "dop system" had also turned them into generational alcoholics.

 

Highest alcohol-related crime rate in the country:

Not surprising therefore that the Cape regions records the country's highest level alcohol-related crimes in the SA police statistics.

• Equally, there also is no doubt that the "dop-system" ("tot system" in English) has been one of the worst customs for many generations throughout the South African wine regions long before 1948  -- and one very nasty agricultural workers' abuse which the local agricultural community had been equally determined to eradicate even before 1994.

Low genetic tolerance to alcohol:
Many of these wine estate workers often are descended from the region's indigenous San-Griqua peoples as well as Malay slaves from the spice islands, both populations who all,  similar to native American tribes,  have a much lower tolerance to alcohol than do the wine estate owners, mainly descended from North-European stock.

 

Why force the workers?

However according to the testimony by Trevor Husky at the human rights commission hearing in Malmesbury this week, some wine estate workers are now allegedly being "forced to comply by undergoing implants".

 

These implants just beneath the skin cause extreme nausea to even small quantities of liquor, but have no other side-effects. Husky felt that "forcing them to comply was unconstitutional. If they don't want to do it, they are being chased away

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