THE SADC: A YEAR-END GLANCE AT THE REGION

In South Africa, an ongoing story of 2002 was the chaotic and ongoing delays experienced in the issuing of the HIV/AIDS drug nevirapine to sufferers of the epidemic. Another big South African - and global - story of the year was the lead up to and aftermath of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), hosted in Johannesburg during August. Meanwhile, South Africa's landlocked neighbour, the mountain kingdom of Swaziland, attracted international attention and protests from gender activists when King Mswati III's took an 18-year-old woman as his bride. Towards year-end, the trial of those accused in the assassination of Mozambican journalist Carlos Cardosa took centre stage as the nation was gripped by live coverage of the trial. The end of 2002 saw Malawi and other neighbouring African countries struggling with an ongoing food crisis and famine, while in Zimbabwe contentious March presidential elections were followed by a food crisis and petrol shortages.

Indeed, Zimbabwe featured as the most prominent story of the SADC region and faced its fiercest economic crisis, worsened by a food shortage that has driven more than six million people into famine. According to the World Food Program (http://www.wfp.org) about 6.7 million Zimbabweans - about half the population - are facing hunger and depending on food aid to get them through the coming months.

"There is no doubt that the developing famine in Zimbabwe is rooted in bad governance and corrupt practices," said John Prendergast, Africa Director at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank. As elsewhere in the region, there has been a drought in Zimbabwe. But in years past, Zimbabwe was able to sustain itself though similar drought periods, and even continue exporting to its neighbours.

This year has been a different story. President Robert Mugabe's land-reform policy - taking land from minority white farmers and giving it to the landless black majority - has crippled the commercial farming sector.

LINKS:

* AIDS lobby groups and the Treatment Action Campaign take national and provincial health ministers to court for failing to provide nevirapine to pregnant women in one of nine provinces.
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=752

* Articles such as 'Post Johannesburg: The Future of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development' give an idea of the aftermath of the WSSD and the various implementation plans on hand.
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=674

* In Swaziland, the Monarch was criticised in articles such as these, which were responses from Africa Pulse readers.
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=727

* The Malawian government, faced with millions needing food aid from a population in which the majority are already classified as poor decided to sell maize at last year's price of 17 Kwacha per kilogram (US 20 cents) and subsidise the difference.
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=762

* For more background on Malawi's food crisis, visit the link below.
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/dd6e57c e465764d5c1256c640056252d?OpenDocument

* And for an overview of food shortages in the Southern African region as a whole, visit:
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=768

* Background information on the Carlos Cardosa murder trial can be found by visiting the link below. http://africapolicy.org.master.com/texis/master/search/?s=SS&q=Carlos+Cardos o+murder+trial

* For full coverage of the Carlos Cardosa murder trial, visit: http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=742

* For daily news from Zimbabwe, visit:
http://www.zwnews.com

ENDS