Cape Town's asylum seekers struggle to get documented

CAPE TOWN, 16 May 2013 (IRIN) - When Jean Baptiste*, a medical student from Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), arrived in South Africa in September 2012, he headed straight for Cape Town, where he knew he would be able to stay with his brother. No one at the border told him that it was no longer possible to apply for asylum in Cape Town. full report

Quelling xenophobia in South Africa's townships

PHILIPPI, 14 May 2013 (IRIN) - This week marks five years since tensions between foreigners and South Africans living in impoverished communities across the country erupted in xenophobic violence, leaving more than 60 people dead and tens of thousands displaced, their homes and businesses robbed and abandoned. full report

Circumcision plans go awry in Swaziland

MBABANE, 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - It was an ambitious plan to circumcise the majority of men in Swaziland, an effort to reduce the risk of HIV transmission in a country with the world's highest HIV prevalence. How could it have gone wrong? full report

Zimbabwe short on climate change funds

HARARE, 7 May 2013 (IRIN) - Inadequate funding and limited resources are frustrating Zimbabwe’s efforts to develop plans to deal with the impact of climate change, says a government progress report. full report

Food insecurity opens door to TB in Madagascar

TOLIARA, 1 May 2013 (IRIN) - Health experts fear the interruption of food assistance in Madagascar is increasing incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in Toliara, the capital city of Madagascar’s southern Atsimo-Andrefana region. full report

South Africa's flawed asylum system

JOHANNESBURG, 30 April 2013 (IRIN) - South Africa attracts the largest number of asylum seekers in the world, but grants refugee status to very few of them, ranking only thirty-sixth in the world for the size of its refugee population, which the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts at about 58,000. full report

Shortages of new one-a-day ARV pills in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, 19 April 2013 (IRIN) - Just days into the rollout of fixed-dose combination (FDC) antiretrovirals (ARVs) by South Africa’s HIV treatment programme - the world's largest - activists are raising fears of drug shortages. full report

Unwelcome side effects of mining in Mozambique

TETE, 11 April 2013 (IRIN) - It is 15.45 in the afternoon and two young women are already sitting outside the Night Clinic in Moatize, a small town in Mozambique's northern Tete Province, near one of the largest coal mines in the southern hemisphere, owned by Brazilian mining giant, Vale. The national 123 road cuts through the town, and the clinic lies just off it, intentionally located to bring its services as close as possible to its target patients: miners, truck drivers and sex workers. full report

Informal employment sustains Zimbabweans

HARARE, 11 April 2013 (IRIN) - Five years after Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis peaked in 2008, the economy continues to perform poorly, with the manufacturing sector still shedding jobs and unemployment estimated at 75 percent. But the real level of unemployment is almost impossible to gauge as countless Zimbabweans are making a living in the informal sector. full report