Southern Africa

Traditional emphases of the Heinrich Böll Foundation include support for environmental activists and grassroots groups in the areas of mining, biodiversity and water. Both currently and in the future, the topic of "Energy" will come to the forefront as well.

The Zimbabwean struggle for democracy looks set to continue for some time to come. The MDC-T needs to ensure that future rounds of mediation will take place within a more equitable, framework.

For more than one week South Africa has been shaken by violent attacks against migrants. According to the police, more than 40 deaths are already recorded. Hundreds of people - among them women and children - were attacked, injured, raped, and their homes were plundered and burned down.

Leonie Joubert, a renowned journalist and photographer, reports on the impact of climate change in South Africa. Her essay is accompanied by striking photographs of  South Africa’s vulnerable landscapes and of the people depending on them for their livelihoods.

"Boiling Point", a publication of the Heinrich Böll Foundations' Southern Africa Office, explores the lives of ordinary South Africans as climate change sets in. The stories of a rooibos tea farmer, a traditional fisherman, a maize farmer, a political refugee, and a traditional healer show the manifold impacts of a heating world. The book is complemented by a series of spectacular photographs.

Media and organisations that report mainly on and from Zimbabwe.

A Zimbabwean journalist - one of the few who reports from inside the country and thus prefers to remain anonymous - on the culture of fear and the atmosphere of frustration within the country: "People have reached the stage that if they go to the polling stations, they will not be intimidated into voting for Mugabe. The problem is that Mugabe will instill so much fear in people so that they will be too scared to go the polling stations."

On Saturday March 29th, 2008 I realised that whatever inspired Munch’s famous painting “The Scream” it was probably comparable to being locked in a room with Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) officials trying to count to 410.

The atmosphere in Zimbabwe is characterised by anxiety and anger. Since midnight March 29th, 2008 Zimbabweans have been eager to hear the official pronouncement of results by the body running the elections – but to no avail.