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 63
16 - 22 March 2002


CONTENTS:

ANGOLA: Talks continue as IDP crisis worsens
ZIMBABWE: Stayaway protest flops
COMOROS: Voters reject new constitution in Grande Comore
ZAMBIA: "Mr Integrity" wins over rivals
MADAGASCAR: National strike called off
SWAZILAND: IRIN Focus on Maguga dam

ANGOLA: Talks continue as IDP crisis worsens

The week ended with the World Food Programme (WFP) warning that on-going
skirmishes between rebel UNITA guerillas and the Angolan Army (FAA) had
forced more internally displaced persons towards provincial capitals.

WFP told IRIN on Friday that while peace talks between the FAA and UNITA
continued in Moxico province the influx of IDPs would further stretch the
limited resources of aid agencies.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26758

On Thursday IRIN reported that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan dispatched
his Special Advisor on Africa, Ibrahim Gambari, to Angola to clarify what
role the United Nations could play in peace talks. Gambari had on
Wednesday briefed the Security Council that there was greater hope for
peace in Angola following the death of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26581

IRIN reported on Tuesday that a weakened UNITA faced two choices,
incorporation into government forces or demobilisation, as talks got
underway.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26396

ZIMBABWE: Stayaway protest flops

A hastily organised three-day stayaway called by Zimbabwe's labour
movement, in the first overt challenge to the controversial election
victory of President Robert Mugabe, largely failed to take off this week.
The Daily News on Friday quoted Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
president Lovemore Matombo as saying that poor communication between the
labour leadership and its 200,000 members resulted in the work stoppage
being generally ignored.

The ZCTU called the stayaway on Wednesday to protest against the
continuing government harassment of workers after the presidential
election. "Some people may see it as a flop but we see it as a
developmental process where we need to learn from our mistakes," Matombo
said. "We are dealing with government heavy-handedness and this particular
battle might not have been won, but the war is not lost."

Economic analyst Tony Hawkins told IRIN that - especially urban
Zimbabweans - were "punch drunk" after a gruelling election campaign
marred by political violence and intimidation. He said it was not
surprising that there had been only a patchy response to the ZCTU call.

Earlier in the week senior ruling ZANU-PF official, Emerson Mnangagwa,
dismissed the impact of the planned strike. He told IRIN it was only of
"political nuisance value" and would not effect the government's plans to
pull Zimbabwe out of its deepening economic crisis. He also spurned
regional appeals for a government of national unity, as has opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26395

But Hawkins said that without a donor-backed political settlement in
Zimbabwe between President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's
economy would continue to shrink. Factoring in the impact of this years
drought, he forecast that gross domestic product could fall by more than
12 percent in 2002, leading to possible civil unrest by the end of the
year.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26580

In the wake of the 9-11 March presidential elections, the persecution of
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters has continued,
human rights groups have warned.

Francis Lovemore, medical director of the non-governmental organisation
Amani Trust, told IRIN: "There's an enormous amount of persecution (of MDC
supporters). (There's) a witch-hunt for people who voted MDC. Whole areas
are on the run - a community of about 3,000 people who are unable to
remain at home. About 1,200 MDC polling agents, who were registered to
monitor for the MDC, are unable to stay at home, they are on the run."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26564

Meanwhile, some civil society leaders have also rejected the idea of a
national unity government championed by the presidents of Nigeria and
South Africa in meetings with Mugabe and Tsvangirai on Monday. Presidents
Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki left Harare for a meeting in Britain on
Tuesday with the Australian Prime Minister John Howard where the troika
agreed to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth for 12 months over the
conduct of the election.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26106

COMOROS: Voters reject new constitution in Grande Comore

The reconciliation process in the Comoros was dealt a blow on Tuesday when
59 percent of voters on the main island of Grande Comore rejected a new
local constitution. Analysts are hoping that the latest setback, in an
archipelago that has seen more than twenty coups since 1975, will not
trigger another political crisis.

"The rejection of the constitution is not necessarily the nail in the
coffin for the reconciliation process but instead a sign of the growing
pains most countries experience on the road to peace and stability,"
Michel Davis, director of the South African-based Africa/Asia Foundation
told IRIN.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26754

ZAMBIA: "Mr Integrity" wins over rivals

He was widely decried as an incompetent impostor and a hostile public
voted overwhelmingly against him in a controversial election last
December. Three months on, however, the detractors are lining up to curry
favour with President Levy Mwanawasa.

His unlikely new allies include Christon Tembo, the head of the opposition
Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), who had refused to accept the
result of the presidential poll and filed an electoral petition
challenging Mwanawasa's legitimacy.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26077

MADAGASCAR: National strike called off

Roadblocks choking the capital of fuel and essential supplies were still
in place on Wednesday night, after self-declared president Marc
Ravalomanana called an end to a national strike he launched in January to
pressure President Didier Ratsiraka out of office.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26565

SWAZILAND: IRIN Focus on Maguga dam

Swaziland's new Maguga dam, with its promise of regional benefits, is not
merely the largest public works project in this tiny African kingdom's
history. It seems a throwback to a time when dams were erected as an
automatic answer to myriad problems.

In the days before environmental assessments, any potential negative
impact was either unknown or dismissed in the name of "progress". The
Maguga, a South African-Swaziland joint venture in the northwest of the
country, carries with it that type of old-fashion optimism in a nation
that is desperate to combat the twined problems of unemployment and
poverty.


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

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