South Africa

PRETORIA - Corruption within the Home Affairs department has rendered South African identity documents suspect internationally, says Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Regardless of the security features in the new passports, some countries still demand a visa because a South African passport is not secure enough. There is a lot of work to be done in cleaning up South Africa's national register, she says. Part of this campaign will be an effort to minimise late birth registration, as well as determine the right age for children's fingerprints to be taken, to be stored in a database until application is made for an identity document.

JOHANNESBURG - New Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has called on businesses to become involved in government's efforts to deal with the backlog of 2,2-million houses. The department will work at mobilizing resources that are supposed to subsidise "unbanked" people, he says. The financial sector will also be asked to create new forms of finance and access to finance. Sexwale calls the provincial executive council members for housing his "war cabinet" against poverty. The department wants to move from those "RDP things" and provide homes, not just houses. Informal settlements, which fall under his portfolio, are a complex issue, says Sexwale, as they are "staging points" for jobs for people in South Africa as well as from neighbouring countries, providing homes for extremely poor people.

JOHANNESBURG - Poor remuneration, ageing infrastructure, and general and financial management continue to hamper the public health system, the Health Department acknowledges. Spokesperson Fidel Hadebe says that the new Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, has expressed his commitment to tackling many of these problems, which largely concern financial and human resources management. This comes in reaction to a newspaper report claiming that South Africa has one doctor for every 3 800 people without medical aid, which is three times lower than the World Health Organisation recommendation of eight doctors for every 10 000 people. Hadebe says that a hospital revitalisation programme is geared at building new infrastructure and rehabilitating existing facilities, with about R3-billion being spent in the current financial year, increasing to R4,1-billion in the 2011/12 financial year. Gauteng Health and Social Development MEC Qedani Mahlangu will soon outline a detailed plan with clear timelines on how Gauteng's public healthcare sector can be improved. Elements of the plan will respond in detail to the plight of health workers and patients. There is also a "dire need" to change working conditions within the sector, she says.

Africa & the world

HARARE - Norway says that it is renewing aid to Zimbabwe, which was cut off in 2000, despite worries about what it calls "years of misrule, embezzlement and hyperinflation" under President Robert Mugabe. Norway, one of the first to renew badly needed aid, says that it will give 58-million kroner through nongovernmental organisations the World Bank and the United Nations, avoiding the government financial system. The money will be used mainly to boost health and education, and support the new government of national unity. Norway's Minister of International Development, Erik Solheim, says that it is important to support Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the new unity government to help them rebuild the country. Western aid is only just beginning to trickle into the battling country. The World Bank has announced a $22-million grant, its first since 2001, while Britain announced £15-million in humanitarian aid last month.

ROME - The investment gap in sub-Saharan Africa's electricity sector amounts to $31-billion a year, says a senior World Bank official, urging Group of 8 Energy Ministers not to forget the world's poor. Of the 1,6-billion people who do not have access to electricity around the world, 550-million people live in Africa, says Jamal Saghir, director for energy, transport and water at the World Bank. While large-scale electrification programmes are under way in Asia and Latin America, the number of people deprived of electricity in Africa is set to rise to 650-million by 2030 if current trends are confirmed. Redressing Africa's power deficit could boost growth by 2%, he says.