Mother-of-two Nyasha, desperate to put food on the table for her family back home in Zimbabwe, turned to sex work in neighbouring Mozambique after being told that it was a surefire way of earning United States dollars. "The money is little, but if I save it properly I will be able to send groceries that will sustain my family for some days," said the 23-year-old.
Taurai Chimombe queues up patiently for the chance to land a job as a mineworker in Mozambique — a far cry from his dreams of running his own business back home in his Zimbabwean homeland. ”As long as I’ve got a contract I will be here,” says the 24-year-old.
At least 80 Mozambican children lost their parents to the blasts at the national army’s Malhazine armoury in Maputo in March. Spokesperson Luis Covina told national Radio Mozambique that authorities had finished compiling a ”social impact report” of the blasts. According to official figures the death toll was 103, while more than 500 were injured.
Last week’s blasts at the Malhazine armoury in Mozambique were due to a robbery that went wrong, military sources told an independent newspaper on Monday. In its Monday edition, Tribuna Fax, quoting anonymous military sources, said the blasts came after officials, who were stealing mercury, failed to tightly close containers.
The death toll in Thursday’s explosions at a Maputo armoury has reached 100 while about 500 people were injured. Mozambique Health Minister Ivo Garrido said the number could increase as some victims were still in critical condition at Maputo central hospital.
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/ 24 November 2006
Industry players bemoaned a crippling lack of government funding at the Sithengi Film and Television Market last week. Fred Katerere reports.