Thursday, December 4, 2008
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shona Kohler.
Making headlines:
The World Bank has issued a statement saying that Africa's economic growth could suffer from the knock-on effect of more people dying from HIV/Aids. This will happen if donors cut funding for prevention, because of the global financial crisis.
Elizabeth Lule, manager of the World Bank's Aids team for Africa, explained that major economies going into recession, means that both donor and recipient countries will be juggling competing priorities. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to see how targets to improve HIV/Aids prevention and care can be maintained.
Lule explained that HIV/Aids has an impact at the microeconomic and household level. If a country loses skilled workers to the disease, then there is little hope of recovering from the recession. She added that in a climate of scarce financial resources, anti-Aids programmes should focus on prevention to rein in new infections. This is because not enough money will be available to cover the costs of future drug treatment.

In South African news, the Department of Education has announced the publication of a revised Human Resource Development for South Africa strategy. The government aims to implement this strategy by April 2009, in order to ensure the coordination and integration of the provision of scarce and critical skills in the country, especially in priority areas such as science and technology. The government's Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition will also be incorporated into this strategy.
DoE DG Duncan Hindle said that the Foundation for Learning Campaign, which guides teachers and schools in the outcomes based education system, is already bearing fruit, noting an improvement by young learners in the areas of maths and languages.
In response to recent media reports, Hindle emphasised that South Africa will not face a shortage of 94 000 teachers by 2015. He explained that while there may be a shortage of teachers in some subject areas and in some provinces, there will be "no overall shortage".

Moving to Zimbabwe, the country's government has declared the cholera outbreak and its "malfunctioning" hospitals as national emergencies. It has also called for aid from donors to ease the crisis.
Zimbabwean Health Minister David Parirenyatwa stated that there is a critical shortage of resources in the health sector. The emergency appeal will help the country to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with the current socioeconomic environment, by December 2009.
Cholera is preventable and treatable under normal circumstances, but Zimbabwe's health sector is collapsing, with insufficient funds to pay for essential resources, and doctors and nurses often striking over pay.
Western governments have shunned President Robert Mugabe's government, blaming his policies for the crisis.

Also making headlines:
The Independent Electoral Commission will oppose the African National Congress's application against the Congress of the People.
The World Wildlife Fund says that a new United Nations pact may be needed for victims of climate change.
The Southern African Customs Union is to meet over Economic Partnership Agreements as the January European Union deadline looms.
And, the Institute for Security Studies issues a report saying that government crime prevention strategies are a failure.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit polity.org.za.