U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa

Tel: +27 11 880 4633
Fax: +27 11 880 1421
e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 47
24 - 30 November 2001


CONTENTS:

ZIMBABWE: Government placed under increased pressure
DRC-ZIMBABWE: IRIN Focus on UN panel report
ANGOLA: Humanitarian agencies appeal for US $232 million
MALAWI: Tobacco production to boost economic growth
NAMIBIA: Nujoma's departure a challenge for SWAPO - analysts
ZAMBIA: IRIN Focus on maize shortages

ZIMBABWE: Government placed under increased pressure

The Zimbabwean government found itself under renewed pressure from the
international community this week. On Wednesday 28 November the US
Congress passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act that
calls on the Zimbabwean government to respect the rule of law and
institute democratic reforms or face sanctions. The legislation also
allows for overseas assets of senior government officials to be identified
and then seized. The US administration said earlier in the week that its
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs was expected to visit the
country between 7-13 December.

An EU official told IRIN on Tuesday 27 November that European Union
consultations with the government of Zimbabwe would continue, despite last
week's unsuccessful meeting between representatives and President Robert
Mugabe. "We're hoping a ministerial delegation from Harare will be in
Brussels before the end of the year for talks," the source said.

Earlier this month, EU foreign ministers agreed to invoke Article 96 of
the Cotonou agreement that governs relations between the 15-member bloc
and its African, Caribbean and Pacific partners over concerns with human
rights in Zimbabwe. The move could lead to sanctions.

For more on the EU's consultation with Zimbabwe please go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16345&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ZIMBABWE

Closer to home, South African President Thabo Mbeki this week warned that
free and fair elections were under threat in Zimbabwe and that civil
conflict could break out if April's presidential election were stolen.
Mbeki said the special Zimbabwe committee of the Southern African
Development Community needed to revisit the country to ensure that
democratic election conditions, particularly freedom of the press, were
respected. He said all attempts by international committees to achieve
this objective so far had failed.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said on Tuesday 27 November
that Commonwealth ministers will next month hold consultations on
Zimbabwe.

"Terrorist" journalists vow to continue

Zimbabwe correspondents working for foreign newspapers told IRIN on Monday
26 November that they would continue to report on events in their country
despite being accused by the government of assisting "terrorists". "I take
great exception to being called a terrorist, I'll carry on reporting the
truth," said Basildon Peta, who files for Britain's Independent and South
Africa's Star. "I'm now getting death threats on a daily basis, today I
found a box of live ammunition on my doorstep," he added.

A government representative said on Friday that correspondents for
Britain's Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, and The Independent
newspapers distorted the truth and assisted terrorists through their
reports. The state-run Herald newspaper quoted an unnamed government
representative as saying that South Africa's Star, The Zimbabwe
Independent and The Associated Press (AP) news agency were also guilty.

In a related development, independent journalists vowed on Friday 30
November to fight proposed new legislation that would authorise fines and
imprisonment for violations of "professional end ethical standards"
imposed by a government-appointed commission, news reports said. The
access to information and protection of privacy bill would permit the
government's media and information commission to strip journalists of a
planned license to work. Reports said that as part of an effort to control
foreign media organisations only Zimbabwean citizens would be allowed to
get the license.

"This must be fought with all the legal powers we have to prevent it
seeing the light of day," Trevor Ncube, publisher of The Zimbabwe
Independent and Sunday Standard - two major independent weeklies - was
quoted as saying. Information minister, Jonathan Moyo said the legislation
would impose sentences of up to two years in prison and fines of US $1,800
for defying the law.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16108&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ZIMBABWE

Government to bar observers from "hostile states"

Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa said this week that the government
would not accept election observers and representatives from organisations
and foreign countries that have been calling for sanctions against
Zimbabwe. "We cannot allow people who are our enemies to come to our soil.
Those organisations and countries who come with the prejudicial view that
ZANU-PF (the ruling party) will not win the election will not get the
privilege to tread on our soil," Chinamasa was quoted as saying. "There
are organisations and countries who have been campaigning for sanctions.
They know it themselves and cannot expect any invitations from our
government."

DRC-ZIMBABWE: IRIN Focus on UN panel report

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean government dismissed findings by a UN panel of
experts that it is involved in the plundering of natural resources in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). "We are not really worried about the
report because we know that it is a pack of lies," Minister of Foreign
Affairs Stan Mudenge said on Tuesday. "In fact, we know that the report
has been created by the British government, who are keen to discredit
Zimbabwe at all costs," the official Herald newspaper reported him as
saying.

The findings by the panel, an addendum to an earlier report on the Illegal
Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC,
was submitted to the UN Security Council earlier this month. Alongside the
detailed description of Rwandan and Ugandan activities in the Congo,
Zimbabwe was accused in the addendum of using its military presence in the
DRC to directly benefit "top military and party officials".

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16674&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=DRC-ZIMBABWE

ANGOLA: Humanitarian agencies appeal for US $232 million

UN agencies and non-governmental organisations appealed on Tuesday for
more than US $232 million to fund humanitarian operations in Angola next
year, highlighting once again the dire humanitarian situation across the
country as a result of the country's ongoing civil war.

In its 2002 Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Angola, the United
Nations said the humanitarian situation in Angola did not improve in 2001,
with displacement reaching three times the projected levels and
resettlement stagnating, putting further strain on "over-stretched"
emergency operations.

"Although agencies were able to stabilise acutely distressed populations
in accessible areas and efforts made by the government to reach vulnerable
groups, little progress was made in reducing the emergency caseload and
virtually no improvement occurred in social indicators," the appeal noted.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16344&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ANGOLA

For the appeal please go to
http://www.reliefweb.int/appeals/2002/files/ang02.pdf

Officials meet over border clashes

On the same day Zambian and Angolan officials met in Luanda, the Angolan
capital, to find ways of stemming cross-border raids which have killed
seven Zambians and seen 140 others abducted over the past three weeks.

Senior army officials led the Zambian government team in the talks, which
were a follow-up to a meeting in Lusaka the previous week between Zambian
officials and an Angolan delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister George
Chikoti.

Chikoti told reporters on arrival in Lusaka on Friday 23 November that
Angolan government troops (FAA) were not involved in the recent
cross-border attacks. He suggested that the dead Zambian villagers were
caught in crossfire between FAA and Angolan rebel UNITA fighters, that
Luanda allege are using Zambian territory. Chikoti's denial of government
involvement came after Zambian President Frederick Chiluba announced that
10 FAA troopers were killed last week by Zambian soldiers on the border,
and reports of the capture of two Angolan army officers who had strayed
into the country.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16346&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ANGOLA-ZAMBIA

Hopes for peace in spite of war - UN

Earlier in the week, on Monday, IRIN reported that according to UN Special
Envoy to Angola, Ambassador Mussagy Jeichande, Angola is closer to peace
today that it was a year ago.

"This year we witnessed positive signs towards peace, in spite of the
government's offensive against UNITA. I can not believe that someone in
Angola is under the delusion that the military solution is viable in a
short term. Everybody must be aware that the war is the major factor of
terror and human suffering of Angolan people," said the Representative of
the UN Secretary-General.

"Last year this time, the warring parties would not even accept the idea
that dialogue was the sole and realistic avenue that could bring peace to
Angola," he said. "Now both the government and UNITA have said that they
conceive that the Lusaka (peace) Protocol is a basis for dialogue."

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16095&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ANGOLA

MALAWI: Tobacco production to boost economic growth

Increased tobacco production and prices are expected to lift economic
growth in Malawi to 4.2 percent in 2002 and 4 percent in 2003, the
London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in an update on
Tuesday. It said that greater fiscal discipline and a larger maize crop
should help inflation ease to an average 24.8 percent in 2002 and 17.3
percent in 2003.

The EIU added that the country's economic policy would continue to be
strongly influenced by the need to satisfy donors, with the interim
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper published in August last year continuing
to be part of the policy. The interim PRSP focuses on three specific
goals: raising the productivity and income of the rural poor (with an
emphasis on small holder agriculture), promoting private-sector growth to
expand non-farm employment and improving and increasing social service
provision.

WFP food-for-assets programme fill the gap

For now it is a road to nowhere, but not for long. Rose Nowa hopes that in
about a month, the gravel road she and her neighbours are building will
take their children to school safely and lead to greater development in
the TA Makata district.

TA Makata is a bumpy half-hour drive from Blantyre's city centre, but its
18,000 residents have not benefited from the city's relative wealth at
all. It is rural. Almost no development has taken place in the years she
can remember, says Nowa, who was born in the nearby Soche mountains which
rise over Blantyre.

However, earlier this year, the community's Area Development Committee,
headed by the local traditional leader, decided to build a simple local
school to prevent the children from walking up to 10 km to the nearest
ones every morning. The community provided 20 percent of the resources
needed to build the school, including bricks and labour. They had to carry
the building equipment for several kilometres over hilly terrain because
there was no road leading to the school. It prompted them to start
building a road.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16110&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=MALAWI

For an interview with WFP official Abdelgadir Musallam Hamid:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16109&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa


NAMIBIA: Nujoma's departure a challenge for SWAPO - analysts

Namibia's media was dominated this week by news that President Sam Nujoma
would retire after his third term in office ends in 2004. Political
analysts and commentators have hailed his decision not to stand for
re-election in 2004 as positive for his ruling party, SWAPO, for Namibia
and for the southern African region.

After much speculation and debate during the past year over whether Nujoma
would try to force a constitutional amendment allowing him to exceed the
statutory two presidential terms, SWAPO announced at the weekend that he
would definitely not be its presidential candidate in presidential polls
due in 2004.

"It's his own decision. He wants to comply with the constitution. He feels
that somebody else should take over and that he's getting old and that the
pressure is getting too much," SWAPO's secretary general, Hifikepunye
Pohamba was quoted as saying in the Namibian on Tuesday.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16685&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=NAMIBIA

UNHCR and government to discuss UNITA suspects' fate

In another development, the United Nations refugee agency told IRIN it
would meet government officials next week to discuss the future of 80
suspected UNITA rebels who have been held in Dordabis, about 100 km
southeast of the capital Windhoek, for almost 18 months.

The Namibian on Wednesday quoted Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Niilo
Taapopi as saying that his ministry would recommend to the political
leadership that the 80 be given refugee status and moved to a camp of
their own - not the one at Osire which already houses about 22,000
refugees, mostly from Angola.

Hesdy Rathling, UNHCR representative in Namibia, told IRIN on Wednesday
that last year the government asked the agency to help "find a solution in
terms of a third country" for the detainees. "We said that before we look
for a third country, let's determine if they (the detainees) are of
concern to us. We were allowed access to them, interviewed them and
presented to the government our recommendations somewhere in the second
quarter of this year," he said.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16524&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=NAMIBIA

ZAMBIA: IRIN Focus on maize shortages

The snaking queues in Kamwala township's business district bring to mind
Zambia's socialist era of the 1980s, when everything from cooking oil to
bathing soap was scarce and shoppers arose before dawn to be first in line
when the supermarket opened.

The country faces a 300,000 mt grain shortfall. The anticipated shortage
has seen the price of maize meal almost double to 29,000 Kwacha (about US
$7.5) per 25 kg bag in recent weeks. In a country where an estimated 80
percent of the people live on less than one dollar a day, that represents
a significant proportion of the household budget.

Fortunately for the urban consumer, maize imports from neighbouring
Zimbabwe and South Africa are beginning to push the price down again.
According to figures from the Agricultural Commodities Exchange [ACE],
imported maize is currently fetching around $240 per mt, compared to $305
for the local crop. The price difference is significant for consumers in
low-income groups, whose impoverishment mean they are obliged to jostle
for hours in the sweltering sun for their turn at the counter.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=16451&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=ZAMBIA


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001


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