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

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


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 33
18 - 24 August 2001


CONTENTS:

ZAMBIA: Ruling party names Chiluba successor
ANGOLA: Dos Santos to bow out
ZIMBABWE: Government crackdown on press
ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: Bank boss slams Harare
SOUTH AFRICA: Pretoria explains Burundi role


ZAMBIA: Ruling party names Chiluba successor

Zambia's ruling party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) this
week ended months of speculation and named prominent lawyer and former
vice-president Levy Mwanawasa as its candidate in presidential elections
due later this year. Mwanawasa, 53, served as President Frederick
Chiluba's vice-president soon after elections in 1991 in which founding
leader Kenneth Kaunda was ousted.

"The MMD has decided to nominate Levy Patrick Mwanawasa as its
presidential candidate in this year's presidential elections," Information
Minister and MMD spokesman Vernon Mwaanga told a news conference in the
capital Lusaka on Thursday.

Reports said the move surprised local political commentators because
Mwanawasa was an outsider who had been chosen over the ranks of far more
senior MMD party members. Addressing the same news conference Mwanawasa
told journalists he was delighted with the MMD's decision to handpick him
as successor to Chiluba, a former trade unionist who has ruled Zambia
since 1991. "I am greatly overwhelmed by the decision. I did not expect it
but I have gladly and willingly accepted the challenge," Mwanawasa said.
"I am confident we shall work together with the party cadres to deliver
the presidency during the elections."

Opposition attacks Chiluba over defamation charge

Meanwhile, Zambia's opposition parties this week launched a civil
disobedience campaign aimed at undermining President Frederick Chiluba and
challenging an archaic criminal law that is widely seen as restrictive.

Over 2,000 people, including some leading opposition leaders, have over
the past few days put their signatures to a petition describing Chiluba as
an alleged thief. Their action is a response to criminal defamation
charges the state has slapped on an opposition leader and two journalists
who last week accused Chiluba of misappropriating US $4 million that was
meant for emergency grain stocks four years ago.

Forum for Democracy and Development leader Edith Nawakwi, 'The Post'
editor Fred M'membe and journalist Biven Saluseki, on Thursday pleaded not
guilty to defaming Chiluba. They were released on bond and are to face
trial on 5 September. Police said another FDD leader, Dipak Patel, would
face similar charges when he is discharged from a Lusaka clinic where he
is hospitalised. An IRIN focus report on the political clamp down can be
found at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/zambia/20010820.phtml

US "deeply concerned" by arrests of journalists

Meanwhile, the United States said on Wednesday it was "deeply concerned"
by the arrests of the journalists and opposition figures and called on the
Zambian government to reverse it. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker
said the four arrests combined with the closure of Radio Phoenix cast
doubt on Lusaka's commitment to free speech and democracy, particularly
ahead of elections scheduled for later this year.

"These actions by the government are deeply concerning," Reeker told
reporters. "Free speech and free press are essential parts of democracy
and with elections due to take place in the last quarter of this year,
it's critical that the government of Zambia respect the independence of
the media and safeguard the legitimate freedoms of political parties and
all other elements of civil society."

ANGOLA: Dos Santos to bow out

In a surprise move this week, Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos
announced on Thursday that he would not stand as a candidate in the next
presidential election. Addressing the central committee of the ruling MPLA
party in Luanda, Dos Santos said the party should prepare to find a
candidate for the next electoral contest, which he said could take place
in 2002 or 2003. "It is clear that the name of that candidate will not be
Jose Eduardo dos Santos," he said.

Dos Santos began his address to the party on Thursday with an optimistic
view of the military and economic situation in Angola but admitted there
were "serious and difficult problems to resolve" in the country. He said
that holding an election would require the establishment of municipal
administration and ensuring freedom of movement. However, independent
observers suggested that this could take much longer than the one or two
years suggested by Dos Santos - with the consequence that if his departure
was pegged to elections, the president could remain in office for some
years yet.

Observers are divided on the issue of how big a role Dos Santos will play
in determining his successor. Some say that Dos Santos favours MPLA
secretary-general João Lourenço. Angolan political analyst Vincente Pinto
de Andrade said it was time for the Angolan political establishment to
make way for a new generation of leaders. "Both Dos Santos and Savimbi
should withdraw in order to close the political circle that the country
has been living to date and allow the Angolan nation and the political
leaders and parties to start a new political circle," he said.

No conditions for elections - US assessment team

An assessment team from the United States concluded on Monday that
conditions were not appropriate for Angola to hold elections as planned in
late 2002. "Today there are no conditions, but those conditions may be
created in the short term", David Kramer said at the close of a two-week
visit to the country.

Kramer led a US team composed of representatives from his International
Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for Foreign
Affairs and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. Their
mission was to assess electoral conditions in the war-torn country.
According to the report, Kramer emphasised that elections should take
place in a climate of peace, and said that "other conditions" included a
number of adjustments to the country's legal framework, including revision
of the laws on political parties and party financing.

Kramer cautioned against believing that elections would bring peace to
Angola. "Elections have to be part of a process in which the people who
are going to take part agree that, whether they win or lose, they will
respect the results and continue to work within the process," he was
quoted as saying, adding that "the Church has a very strong role to play
in the process of achieving peace".

WFP anticipates food shortages

The United Nations' food agency WFP said on Monday that it was likely to
face a maize and sugar shortfall in October and November in spite of new
contributions. The shortfall comes at a time when the number of internally
displaced persons (IDPs) is increasing across the country.

WFP said in its latest emergency report that the registration of new IDPs
had resumed last week in Camacupa, in the central Bié Province, after an
eight-day break because of security concerns. "It is estimated at least
30,000 IDPs are now eligible to receive WFP rations in Camacupa," the
agency said in its report. It also said that about 85 cases of pellagra
were being reported each week in Kuito, the provincial capital, prompting
Medecins Sans Frontieres-Belgium (MSF-B) to distribute Vitamin B to all
Kuito residents on 18 August.

In a separate development, MSF-France on Monday described the condition of
some 2,000 newly displaced in the northern Angolan town of Maquela de
Zombo as "not so good". The humanitarian agency told IRIN that in a "quick
assessment" of 240 children - to be confirmed at a later date - a 15
percent moderate malnutrition rate was recorded, "but not many cases of
severe malnutrition".

In a nutrition survey in May in Maquela among residents and displaced,
moderate malnutrition stood at seven percent. The 2,000 newly registered
displaced fled fighting between UNITA rebels and the Angolan army south of
Maquela around the towns of Bue and Cuilo Futa at the beginning of August.
Approximately 10,000 people also crossed the border into the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). MSF-France said that there were reports that some
of the refugees had since begun to return to Angola, complaining of food
shortages and hardships in DRC.

Angolans march against UNITA attacks

Thousands of Angolans marched through the capital Luanda on Saturday to
protest against a recent train attack by UNITA rebels which the government
charged had killed more than 250 people, reports said. The demonstrators
assembled at the capital's central Kinixixi Square on Saturday morning,
before making their way down the hill to the United Nations building.
There, Angolan Minister for Women and the Family, Candida Celeste, handed
over a letter to the UN representative in Angola, calling for tougher
action against Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebel movement. Angola's Permanent
Representative to the United Nations has written to the Security Council
asking that Savimbi be prosecuted for war crimes.

ZIMBABWE: Government crackdown on press

The editor of a Zimbabwean independent weekly, 'The Standard' was charged
on Wednesday with defamation over an article which alleged that President
Robert Mugabe was haunted by the ghost of a liberation war hero. Mark
Chavunduka was picked up and later released following an article which
appeared in the newspaper's weekend edition that alleged the head of state
was tormented by the ghost of the military commander of the country's
liberation war army, Josiah Tongongara. The story was reproduced from
Britain's 'Sunday Times'.

The arrest of Chavunduka brought to seven the number of Zimbabwean
journalists arrested in a week, AFP reported. On Tuesday, two newsmen from
another independent weekly, the 'Zimbabwe Mirror', were taken in by police
for questioning over an article alleging the police were involved in
looting on white-owned farms in the country's northeastern farming region.
Last week four journalists from the country's only independent daily, the
'Daily News', were arrested over a story making similar allegations
regarding the role of the police in the looting in Chinhoyi.

Israelis debate sale of riot equipment

Controversy has been stirred in Israel over the planned sale of riot
equipment to Zimbabwe by a kibbutz-based firm, the 'Christian Science
Monitor' has reported. The issue of sales by Beit Alfa Trailer Company
(BAT) to Zimbabwe emerged in public discussion last week. Zimbabwean
weekly, the 'Financial Gazette', reported recently that Zimbabwe was
seeking at least 30 riot control vehicles as part of a US $10 million deal
with BAT. Company general manager Reuben Canfi said BAT planned to sell a
much smaller number of vehicles in a deal amounting to far less than US
$10 million, but he would not elaborate. "As long as they are using water
... instead of live ammunition, I'm happy," Canfi said. "It does not
matter if it is Zimbabwe, Chile, or Angola, we help the government to save
lives."

Land programme affecting agricultural output - Makoni

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Simba Makoni warned last
Thursday that the government's controversial fast-track land programme had
contributed to a decline in agricultural output, the private 'Daily News'
reported on Monday. Speaking in Parliament Makoni said the decline in
output was because of "sub-optimal operational conditions on farms
affected by the fast track resettlement programme", high input costs, the
mid-season dry spell and floods caused by Cyclone Eline, as well as
belated payments to farmers by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
Large-scale farmers had also reduced the area planted with maize by 54
percent. Makoni said the 2001 budget would now have to accommodate
unavoidable additional expenditures on drought and food relief, especially
maize and wheat imports, to make up for shortfalls.

Meanwhile, 21 farmers charged with inciting public violence after clashes
with war veterans occupying their farms were this week released after
being granted bail by the Zimbabwean High Court. The court set stringent
bail conditions, including paying Zim $100,000 (US $1,960), a surety of
another Zim $100,000 and the surrender of their passports to the police.
The farmers have also been banned from returning to Chinhoyi for at least
another four weeks, and must report to the police every Friday. An IRIN
focus report on the land conflict can be found at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/zimbabwe/20010821.phtml

Mugabe makes ally chief justice

And in a move to further consolidate the power of his ruling ZANU-PF
party, President Robert Mugabe this week appointed a controversial judge
who is a strong supporter as the country's new chief justice. Godfrey
Chidyausiku, sworn in by Mugabe, succeeded Anthony Gubbay, one of the most
respected judges in the Commonwealth. Gubbay resigned in March after being
threatened with violence by Mugabe's ruling party militias.

Also on Monday, Mugabe swore in three new High Court judges, none of whom
had any significant record, reports quoted legal experts as saying. One of
the three, Nicholas Ndou, was a magistrate in 1984 when he refused to
convene an inquiry into the discovery of the bodies of two opposition
party officials in a riverbed in southern Zimbabwe. The bodies showed
signs of torture and were found during a state security force campaign to
eliminate opposition supporters and officials.

Focus on public health service crisis

This week IRIN focused on the Zimbabwe's deteriorating public health
system that a decade ago was a showcase of social service provision. At
independence in 1980, along with promises of education and housing for
all, the then avowedly socialist government of President Robert Mugabe
made universal health by the year 2000 its pledge to its people. From only
14 percent of Zimbabweans with access to modern health facilities in 1980,
that number shot up to 87 percent thanks to a national programme to build
hundreds of clinics and hospitals across the country. An aggressive
vaccination campaign by the government with the aid of non-governmental
organisations saw polio eradicated in 1992, neo-natal tetanus in 1998,
while measles was brought firmly under control with only one death from
the disease recorded in 1998.

Three out of every four children in Zimbabwe have been vaccinated against
the six major child killer diseases, according to a health study carried
out last year by the government's Central Statistics Office and a US firm.
While fertility was reduced by about 60 percent from seven children per
woman per year in 1980 to 4.3 children per woman per year now, infant
mortality was also slashed to about 102 deaths per 1,000 births. But 20
years down the line, ask any ordinary Zimbabwean what they think about the
collapsing public health system - the only access to health services for
more than 80 percent of the 12 million population - and the answer is far
from complimentary. An IRIN focus on the crisis in the health sector can
be found at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/zimbabwe/20010822.phtml

7,000 cattle to be destroyed

At least 7,000 cattle at Cold Storage Company (CSC) feedlots in Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe's second city, would be destroyed after an outbreak of
foot-and-mouth disease, the government said on Thursday. The state-owned
'Herald' newspaper quoted a senior quarantine officer in the Department of
Veterinary Services as saying that the cattle would be slaughtered and
that the European Union, the Southern African Development Community and
the World Organisation for Animal Health would be officially informed of
the outbreak.

Land, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Joseph Made said that
the disease would be contained but called for all farmers' co-operation.
He was quoted saying that vaccines had been airlifted from Namibia as back
up. According to the report, the outbreak was detected at the CSC firm's
Willsgrove feedlot, about 15 km from Bulawayo, off Harare Road. The CSC,
Zimbabwe's sole beef exporting agency, had an annual export quota of 9,100
mt to the EU and 5,000 mt to South Africa, the report said. All beef
exports to the EU and other African markets were immediately suspended on
Monday. The South African government said on Thursday that it was ready to
help the Zimbabwean government to contain the disease should the
Zimbabwean government request its help.

ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: Bank boss slams Harare

Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has blamed the Pan African Congress
(PAC) and the Zimbabwean government for the slump in the rand. In what
news reports described as off-the-cuff comments at an African investment
seminar in the Western Cape, Mboweni said "the wheels had come off" in
Zimbabwe. "In a globalised world, no country can behave as if it is an
island", he added. The support expressed for the Zimbabwe land grabs by
the PAC had also damaged the rand, Mboweni said.

"The situation has become untenable when it is seen that the highest
office in that land seems to support illegal means of land reform, land
invasions, the occupation of land, beating up of people, blood flowing
everywhere," Mboweni said. "The land problem in Zimbabwe must be solved,
but this must be done within the law. Anybody who acts outside the law ...
must be locked up and brought before the courts." Mboweni said he had
decided to "break my silence" because the leadership in Zimbabwe appeared
not to understand diplomatic language and it was "time to call a spade a
spade".

"I am saying this as forcefully as I am because the developments in
Zimbabwe are affecting us and are stressing us unnecessarily," Mboweni
said. President Thabo Mbeki has refused to deliver a similar condemnation
of Mugabe, saying for more than a year that the only way to exercise
influence was to keep communications open.

Meanwhile, Southern African leaders have pledged to mobilise international
opinion to seek a peaceful solution to Zimbabwe's land crisis, Tanzania's
president said on Tuesday. "A task force comprising of leaders from
Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique met to help form an
understanding of the nature of the land issue," President Benjamin Mkapa
was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.

The leaders met on Monday on the sidelines of a meeting of Malaysian,
African and Caribbean government and business leaders near the Ugandan
capital, Kampala, according to the report. They were part of a task force
created at last week's Southern African Development Community (SADC)
summit to deal with Zimbabwe's land crisis because of fears that it is
affecting the entire region's economy. Mkapa said South African President
Thabo Mbeki, Malawian President Bakili Muluzi, Mozambique President
Joaquim Chissano, Zimbabwe Vice-President Joseph Msika and Namibian Prime
Minister Hage Geingob had discussed the land issue.

SOUTH AFRICA: Pretoria explains Burundi role

South Africa had not yet decided whether it would send troops to Burundi
if a ceasefire was not first reached, a senior government official told
IRIN this week. "The position of Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who assists
chief negotiator former (SA) president Nelson Mandela, is that all avenues
should be explored to achieve a cessation of hostilities and ceasefire
agreement between the Government of the Republic of Burundi and the two
armed groups opposed to the government," the deputy president's
spokesperson, Lakela Kaunda, said.

Recently Zuma said that South Africa may consider deploying troops to
Burundi even if no ceasefire was in place. Shortly before Zuma's
statements, South African National Defence Force (SANDF) chief General
Siphiwe Nyanda said he was not in favour of sending troops to Burundi
before there was an effective ceasefire. He did, however, add that he
would have to if "the politicians" ordered him to do so.

Jan Van Eck, an expert on Burundi, recently told IRIN it would be "a big
mistake" for South Africa to send troops before an effective ceasefire was
in place. "South Africa should only consider going in as part of a United
Nations force," Van Eck said. "We have two large groups in the country
that haven't come to a ceasefire agreement. The country is unstable and if
SANDF troops were sent as part of a non-sanctioned UN force or on its own,
SANDF troops would have to engage rebel troops, who are well armed and who
know the terrain well. This will end-up being a bloody war with South
African troops engaged in guerrilla warfare."

Kaunda said Zuma's position was that conditions in Burundi would change
after 1 November, when the interim government is meant to be installed.
"The government of the day will no longer be solely the military
government that the armed groups took up arms against, but a government
that also includes parties opposed to the government of President Pierre
Buyoya," she said. "This is also expected to create more favourable
conditions for negotiations and the process of moving towards democracy.
The deputy president also believes that this will diminish the reasons for
the armed groups to continue the armed struggle."

Government criticised over farm violence

Human Rights Watch has criticised the South African government for not
doing enough to protect rural farming communities, and in particular black
farm workers and residents. The report, 'Unequal Protections: The State
Response to Violent Crime on South African Farms', says that although the
state's response to violent crime against white farm owners and managers
could and should be improved, black farm workers and their families have
much more difficulty in getting help from the criminal justice system.

According to media reports, 1,000 farmers have been killed in farm attacks
over the past decade. But the HRW findings released on Wednesday said that
attacks against white farm owners and managers have received most of the
attention, both from the media and the state, but attacks against farm
workers and residents were a far bigger problem.

Bronwyn Manby, deputy director of the Africa Division of HRW told IRIN
that there was no intention on the part of the rights group to diminish or
lessen the seriousness of the attacks on farm owners. "In terms of numbers
there are simply more farm workers affected. There has been quite a bit of
research into the attacks against white farmers and media coverage and not
much research had been done on the plight of farm workers and we thought
that this was one area we could focus on," Manby said.

According to the report, black farm workers and residents face "great
problems" if they wished to report assaults by farm owners or managers. It
added that the state response to violent crime against white farm owners
and managers were much more "determined and effective" even when the
police were working under constraints such as inadequate resources. A more
in-depth IRIN article on HRW's report can be found at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/southafrica/20010823.phtml
The HRW report can be found at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/safrica2/


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