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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Southern Africa: IRIN Weekly Round-Up 3 covering the period 14-20 Nov 1998
ANGOLA: Half the country inaccessible as fighting increases
The humanitarian community in Angola said this week it was "extremely concerned" that intensified fighting between government troops and UNITA forces in the central highlands in recent days was making it difficult to sustain relief operations.
Friday, 20 November, marks the fourth anniversary of the UN-brokered Lusaka Peace Accords between the government and UNITA which has all but broken down and which the government said earlier this week should be annulled.
In its latest situation reports on Angola, the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (UCAH) said half the country was now inaccessible because of insecurity on major roads. As a result, UN agencies and NGOs were unable to assess the living conditions of 40 percent of the population.
In those areas that can be reached, 489,253 people have been reported displaced since January this year. The province most affected is Huila with 68,943 displaced, followed by Malanje where 67,504 people have been made homeless. Huambo has the third highest toll, with 36,255 forced to flee their homes.
"The humanitarian community is extremely concerned at the increasing number of security incidents that has led to the closure of several roads around the country," UCAH said in its latest report on Thursday. "Most recently the closure of the Lobito-Humabo highway, following the alleged occupation of Alto Hama by UNITA, is leaving the provinces of Huambo, Bi, and Kuando Kubango inaccessible to food deliveries and humanitarian relief by road."
UCAH said a prolonged closure would have a serious impact on the ability to provide relief and require possible airborne operations. At a monthly humanitarian coordination meeting in Luanda on Tuesday, UNICEF and WHO officials in Angola said they were concerned at the threat of deteriorating health conditions resulting from the breakdown in infrastructure and the national health system.
The fighting
Meanwhile, as fighting raged in the central highlands this week, a senior Angolan government official, General Higino Carneiro, has said that Luanda wanted to annul the 1994 Lusaka Peace Accords. Implementation of the accords has been at a standstill since March when UNITA, which has been at war with the government since independence in 1975 stopped ceding territory to central government administration, and sporadic fighting resumed.
Monitors of the UN observer mission, MONUA, were to have declared when conditions were met for a second round of presidential elections which were originally aborted in 1992. A MONUA official in Luanda told IRIN on Wednesday he was aware of Carneiro's remarks, but declined further comment, while the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Angola, Issa Diallo, travelled to neighbouring countries in a bid to shore up support for the accords.
But the Angolan government has suspended all dialogue with UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi following the emergence of a dissident faction in UNITA favouring implementation of the Lusaka Peace Accords. Analysts said that since September, MONUA, had found it difficult to fulfill its mediating role because the government had not only branded Savimbi an "outlaw", but that it had formally recognised the breakaway UNITA "renewal committee".
NAMIBIA-BOTSWANA: Protection needed for Caprivi refugees
The UNHCR this week called on the government of Botswana to guarantee protection for Namibians fleeing the Caprivi Strip into the north of the country. As the number of refugees grew daily, officials put the number of those seeking asylum in southern Africa's latest refugee crisis at over 700. The UNHCR Director of Southern Africa operations, Nicolas Bwakira, after preliminary interviews with a cross section of refugees, asked the Botswana government this week not to send people back against their will, to drop charges of illegal entry brought against some of them, grant them protection and allow their applications to be considered fairly.
"We expressed our readiness to support efforts in assisting and addressing the needs of the asylum-seekers," Bwakira said. Bwakira said he was satisfied after talks with Vice-President Lieutenant-General Ian Seretse Khama that Botswana was respecting its obligations towards the refugees under international law.
Botswana government officials and media reports said up to 1,000 San bushmen had also fled, but that most had not formally applied for asylum. The refugees include the leader of Namibia's opposition Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), Mishake Muyongo and Chief Boniface Mamili, the traditional leader of the Mafwe, part of a Lozi-speaking federation of ethnic groups believed to be at the heart of the Caprivi secessionist movement. The remote Caprivi strip is home to some 100,000 mostly Lozi speaking people.
Most the refugees, who include women and children were being housed in the Dukwe reception centre in northern Botswana. UNHCR, said that contrary to media reports, only a handful of those who had entered the country were armed. "There are also women and children among them," a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN. "Upon arrival, those carrying arms willing and readily surrendered their weapons and themselves to the authorities. They have since been detained and charged with illegal entry and possession of arms. It is hoped they too, will be allowed out to the reception centre where they can be properly provided for."
Journalists ordered to leave Caprivi
Meanwhile, two South African television journalists sent to report on the situation in Caprivi, were briefly detained and questioned this week by the Namibian authorities. A spokesman for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) told IRIN that they had been barred from the area and later told to leave because they did not have the necessary work permits.
NAMIBIA: Constitution amended for third Nujoma term
Namibia's National Council this week approved a controversial constitutional amendment which will enable President Sam Nujoma to run for a third term in office. The council approved the Namibian Constitution First Amendment by 19 votes to four enabling Nujoma to stand as a presidential candidate next year for a third five-year term. The bill only requires Nujoma's signature to become law.
Nujoma, 69, leader of the governing South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), has held the presidency since independence from South Africa in 1990. The ranks of the opposition DTA were reduced during Thursday's vote because three of its members, DTA leader Mutongo, and two other DTA councillors, Mukelabayi Walubita and Francis Sizimbo joined the Caprivi exodus to Botswana.
ZIMBABWE: Industrial actions brings business to a halt
Industry and businesses across Zimbabwe shut down on Wednesday in response to a second weekly stay-away called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). Sources in Zimbabwe told IRIN that the capital, Harare, the country's second city, Bulawayo, and other urban areas had virtually been brought to a standstill, but that no violence was reported.
The ZCTU called the strike after talks with the government aimed at reaching a compromise had failed. Mike Auret, director of the Catholic Church Justice and Peace Centre (JPC) told IRIN government economic policy was unsustainable and that the action grew of out the way the government had handled issues ranging from compensation to independence war veterans, land redistribution, the country's military intervention in the Congo crisis, and recent food and fuel price increases.
In an economic crisis posing the most serious threat yet to President Robert Mugabe's hold on power since independence in 1980, the unions have said the latest 67 percent fuel price increase announced at the beginning of the month should have been phased and organised in consultation with business and labour leaders. The government has said the fuel price hike was inevitable after the Zimbabwe currency lost 80 percent of its value against the US dollar during the past year.
Business community considering disciplinary action
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe, warned in a joint statement that the magnitude of production losses resulting from the daylong strikes would force businesses to take action against their workers. The Chamber of Commerce president, Nhlanhla Masuku, said: "Employers cannot sit there when workers are not coming to work. We are working hard to attract investments and create more jobs, but our efforts are being impeded."
Farms seized
As the industrial action continued to make headlines, newspapers reported that 841 farms mostly owned or operated by white farmers had been seized by the authorities in "acquisition of land orders". Nick Swanepoel, president of the predominantly white Commercial Farmers' Union, said the agriculture minister had told him that it had sent letters to the farmers last week. He was quoted by the South African Press Association as saying the orders meant that land and everything on it became the property of the state president as soon as the letter was delivered.
In an editorial on Friday, the 'Zimbabwe Independent' said: "Mr President, you are now a liability. News that the government has seized 841 farms without consultation with stakeholders, donors or even, we gather, the Ministry of Finance, will compound the impression of a government unable to keep its word and indifferent to the fate of the economy."
The paper recalled that the government earlier this year had made specific written undertakings to donors such as the European Union that it act in accordance with the law, avoid disruption of farming and consult on land reform policy. The assurances, it added were reaffirmed at a September donors' conference.
"It has now betrayed those assurances and jeopardised what little confidence donors and investors have left in this country," the 'Zimbabwe Independent' said. "What is at risk here is Zimbabwe's self-sufficiency in food. Affected farmers have already said they are unable to commence planting., Their status as reliable borrowers will have been compromised. And the whole pattern of production upon which the people of this country depend for their food supply is now under threat. So are land and property values."
SWAZILAND: New cabinet appointed
Swaziland's King Mswati III appointed a new cabinet this week retaining six members of his old government and bringing in nine newcomers. Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini was reappointed on Friday last week. In other key appointments, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Khoza retained his position in the 15-member cabinet, as did Foreign and Trade Minister Albert Shabangu and Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Maweni Simelane. Former Housing Minister John Carmichael became finance minister, and Prince Sobandla was appointed home affairs minister.
Aids patients crowd into hospitals, care centres
Swaziland's health secretary, Myekeni Vilikazi, said this week that hospitals and health care centres in landlocked Southern African kingdom were becoming congested with people suffering Aids-related illnesses. He said existing facilities in health establishments were now overstretched and that the ministry intended introducing home-based care centres to cater for the treatment of Aids patients.
According to the latest UNAIDS report of June 1998, 18.5 percent of the country's population suffer from Aids. Of a total of 84,000 patients with the disease aged between 15 and 49, 41,000 are women. The number of children up to the age of 14 with Aids was given at 2,800.
Trade union leader briefly detained
The secretary general of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), Jan Sithole, said he had been questioned by police for six hours on Wednesday in connection with a bomb blast which damaged a bridge two hours after King Mswati III had driven past.
South African news reports quoted police as saying Sithole was one of several activists questioned in connection with the blast. Sithole told reporters police had searched his home and offices in the capital, Manzini, and removed documents which included correspondence between the union and an umbrella opposition group called the Swaziland Democratic Alliance.
LESOTHO: Prominent opposition leader dies
One of Lesotho's most prominent opposition leaders, Everistus Retselisitsoe Sekhonyana, died in a South African hospital on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. A key figure in recent negotiations establishing an interim political authority in the mountain kingdom last month, Sekhonyana, who was in his late sixties, served in senior cabinet positions since 1966.
For more than 20 years, he served as finance minister of former prime minister, Chief Leabua Jonathan. Sekhonyana also played a key role in initiating investigations into alleged election irregularities in May this year which eventually resulted in a South African-led Southern African Development Community (SADC) military intervention.
MOZAMBIQUE: WFP food distribution
WFP said on this week it was distributing food this month to 143,000 people across Mozambique. A WFP spokesman told IRIN the aid amounted to 3,200 tonnes of maize, beans, vegetable oil, sugar and milk. A total of 23,000 people mainly living in areas affected by recent floods in the central provinces of Tete and Sofala and Cabo Delgado in the north of the country, will receive free food.
The majority, however, were receiving the aid under "food-for-work" programmes mainly in the southern drought-affected provinces of Gaza, Inhambane, Maputo and the southern areas of Sofala and Manica.
Johannesburg, 20 November 1998, 1300 gmt
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