SA, Mozambique to ratify trade protocol | Miners retrenched | Fund for livestock breeding | Mozambique forms committee on HIV/AIDS | World population reaches 6 billion

SA, Mozambique to ratify trade protocol
Mozambique and South Africa have indicated they will, before the end of this year, ratify the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Trade Protocol, which aims to set up a free trade area in the region.

Mozambique's Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Oldemiro Baloi, revealed this at an annual private sector conference in Maputo. He recalled that when the protocol was signed, in 1996, it was initially envisaged that ratification would follow fairly quickly.

Some countries did indeed ratify speedily, he added, "but the weaker members, including Mozambique, thought it necessary to alert business and society to the content of the protocol, because of the drastic consequences it would have for the economy".

In a related development, South African members of parliament were urged to ratify the ground breaking free trade deal so that implementation can proceed on schedule, by January 2000. President Thabo Mbeki has been on record as saying this target date will still be met, despite the fact that it is now only three months away.

Seven countries - Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe have already ratified the protocol while South Africa and Swaziland have expressed their intention to do so before the end of the year. (AIM)

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Miners retrenched
Mining workers in South Africa will be forced to return to rural areas and neighbouring countries as the mining industry sheds off another 28,000 jobs, according to trade union officials.

The bulk of the miners come from the rural areas and neighbouring countries where there is little prospect of finding alternative employment.

The steel and engineering industry is also suffering job losses as a direct result of the mining industry retrenchments. The steel and engineering industry is shedding between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs per month due to loss of contracts with the mining industry. (IRIN)

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Fund for livestock breeding
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) says that it will spend an estimated US$2.6 million on a three-year regional project which is aimed at preserving the diminishing animal genetic resources.

Louise Setshwaelo, one of SADC's chief technical advisors said that there was need to build an inventory of the available livestock breeds and their genetic characteristics.

She also said the project would provide information to the policy makers, farmers and other stakeholders on the regions potential in overall food security and poverty reduction. (IRIN)

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Mozambique forms committee on HIV/AIDS
Mozambique is to create a national committee to deal with sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), as well as HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) before the end of the year.

President Joaquim Chissano, who made the announcement, speaking during the conference on the National Strategic Plan for the fight against HIV/AIDS, in Maputo, recently, said that this committee will include members from various sectors of society. Chissano warned the Mozambican society of the dangers of this disease.

"AIDS is not a joke," he said, adding that "the current scenario of this disease is a gloomy one". He also urged society to abandon the secrecy and taboos surrounding AIDS and deal with it with more seriousness and responsibility, "because it is the future development of the country that is at stake".

"The country's economic development may be disturbed by this disease," said Chissano, adding that "the government, civil society, political parties, and the international community should work together to check its spread".
He said that all development and poverty reduction programmes should take into account the Strategic Plan Against HIV/AIDS.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has promised to enter into partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support the Mozambican HIV/AIDS programme. "We take seriously all the challenges of the fight against HIV/AIDS," said James Coates, the World Bank representative in Mozambique.

The UNDP representative, Emmanuel de Casterle, said that his institution would lend unconditional support to the Mozambican programme. "It is possible to reverse the AIDS situation in the country, if the appropriate strategies are adopted," he said. (AIM)

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World population reaches 6 billion
Six billion people will be alive in the world at the end of this year, an addition of a billion in only 12 years according to The State of the World Population 1999 Report which was launched on 22 September.

Of that six billion, about 200 million are in the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) of which just over 50 percent are women.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative in Zimbabwe Etta Tadesse urged government and the international community to acknowledge gender discrimination.

"Population growth is not about being born only but survival," said Tadesse. Personal choice and collective action guaranties better health and longer life, she added. (SARDC)

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