Pambazuka News 489: Remembering Lumumba; Afrophobia and the Cup

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, Zimbabwe, China strengthen economic cooperation, China Cement Maker Signs S. Africa Deal, Chinese-built hospital risks collapse in Angola, India commits USD 6.7 mn to African bank, and Lula da Silva to visit Cape Verde in July.

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A series of meetings to educate residents about xenophobia in the informal settlement of Du Noon, Cape Town, will begin on 7 July and run until the final game of the FIFA World Cup on 11 July. On 27 June units of the South African army were deployed to the township in what police described as an "anti-crime operation", after widespread reports had been circulating that foreign nationals would be attacked on 12 July - the day after the final soccer world cup match.

An initiative by the Tanzanian government hopes to reduce HIV transmission along the country's expanding road network by targeting construction crews and the communities that surround them. "The government requires that road construction companies implement HIV prevention services for their workers and for the community because this is one way through which HIV can very easily spread in a community," said Moses Kisimo, community HIV/AIDS coordinator in the northeastern district of Tanga. "The...read more

Lay counsellors in South Africa can now legally perform HIV tests, but delays in paying them and shortages of test kits are threatening a national campaign to scale up voluntary HIV testing and counselling (VCT). Before new regulations came into effect in May 2010 only nurses were allowed to administer finger-prick HIV tests, but AIDS activists had long argued that this not only added to an already heavy work load, but could also hamstring the VCT campaign aiming to test 15 million South Afri...read more

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