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-SA Weekly Round-up 27 covering the period 3 - 9 July 1999
SADC: Free trade on track
South African President Thabo Mbeki told the World Economic Forum southern African summit meeting in Durban on Sunday that Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders were determined to introduce a free trade area to boost trade and regional integration. Mbeki said: "SADC trade ministers will meet in a week's time to consider the matter." He added: "We are convinced that our parliament will ratify the SADC Free Trade Protocol in time for implementation by 1 January, 2000."
Only a few key issues remain to be resolved before the finalisation of the SADC free trade protocol first agreed in 1996, SADC Executive Secretary Kaire Mbuende said on Tuesday. He told Reuters that 70 percent of inter-regional trade already took place at tariff levels of zero-10 percent. Of the remaining 30 percent, a special approach was needed in a few specific sectors. SADC trade ministers are to thrash out conditions for the deregulation of trade in the automobile, textile and sugar industries. All three sectors are regarded as particularly sensitive for regional members and would be spared the immediate scrapping of tariffs.
Meanwhile, South Africa's proposal to tighten the rules of origin to govern trade within SADC makes economic sense, analysts told IRIN on Thursday. "South Africa produces much bigger volumes than most of its SADC counterparts, and the insistence on tight rules of origin is meant to prevent SADC countries from repackaging imported goods and trading them in the region on behalf of 'fly-by-night' operations," the analysts said.
Rich and poor clash
At the Durban meeting on Monday, southern African countries slammed the G-7 industrialised states for their approach to debt relief. "For the G-7 to be cautious on debt is criminal," South African Trade Minister Alec Erwin said. "(The) G-7 can help, not by preaching, but by taking the debt off the books so we can proceed with proper public/private partnerships."
He was responding to blunt criticism by US Deputy Commerce Secretary Robert Mallet who told the gathering of regional leaders and industrialists that SADC was moving too slowly on regional trade integration and therefore threatening investment opportunities.
In a separate development, opening the Durban meeting, President Mbeki castigated a plan by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and G-7 to finance partial debt relief through the sale of gold. "We do not believe that it can be correct that we seek to solve one problem by creating another, focused on undermining our efforts at strengthening our economic and development capacities."
Gold mine layoffs
Close to 12,000 miners in South Africa are threatened with job losses as a result of the tumble in international gold prices, news reports said on Wednesday. The Gold Crisis Committee - a forum of government, labour and mine owners - were to discuss applications for 11,700 lay-offs from six mines at a meeting on Thursday. The South African gold mines are a major employer in the region and retrenchments could have a significant impact on neighbouring countries, analysts said. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said this week that 6,000 jobs have already been lost in the industry this year.
SOUTH AFRICA/DRC: Small peacekeeping role
South Africa does not intend to play a leading role in any planned peacekeeping mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), regional security analysts told IRIN. "South Africa wants to play a role but a low profile one," said a source who attended a meeting this week which brought together civil society groups and officials from the ministry of defence, foreign affairs and the police to discuss the DRC situation.
Defence ministry spokesman Puso Tladi said on Wednesday: "It has been agreed that there will be a joint monitoring commission and we have definitely agreed to participate in that. The monitoring of the ceasefire doesn't necessarily mean the sending of (units of) soldiers."
ANGOLA: Hunger stalks Malange
More than two people die daily through lack of food in the besieged city of Malange, crammed with tens of thousands of displaced people, Angolan TV reported this week. "The situation in Malange is extremely difficult," WFP spokeswoman Maria Flynn told IRIN on Thursday. Although unable to verify the Angolan TV report, she acknowledged that people could be dying from malnutrition or malnutrition-related diseases in a city tenuously linked to the rest of the country by its airport - intermitently shelled by UNITA rebel forces.
There have been no food deliveries to Malange since the end of May. But Flynn said that WFP food stocks, enough for two months rations for the "most vulnerable", were handed over to the agency's partners in the city for distribution in mid-June. However, as with the rest of Angola, the rations do not cover all of the needy. "One hopes the others will have some other coping mechanisms," Flynn said.
In response to the agency's most recent appeal, WFP has received pledges for a total of 20,000 mt of food from the European Community, Germany and France. "But with the time it takes to process, load and unload, it's doubtful the food will reach here before September," Flynn added.
Fowler upbeat on sanctions
The Chairman of the UN Sanctions Committee on Angola Robert Fowler has held a series of "upbeat" meetings in Britain this week with government officials and the diamond giant De Beers, sources told IRIN. At a briefing at the Royal Institute of International Affairs on Tuesday, Fowler said that he would shortly announce the names of members to two specialised panels on sanctions busting by UNITA, a source at the meeting said. Fowler acknowledged that what the UN needed was the intelligence capacity to verify the allegations surrounding arms supplies to UNITA and its diamond trade which the committees would provide.
"Fowler realises that it is impossible to stop the arms and diamonds trade completely, but he can raise the cost significantly to the point where it is achieving collatoral damage on UNITA's war machine," the source said.
Pretoria-Luanda strain
The appearance of a UNITA representative at a South African embassy reception in Washington has further soured relations between Luanda and Pretoria, the South African newspaper 'Business Day' said this week. Angola's ambassador reportedly wrote to his South African counterpart in protest over what he described as a breach of UN sanctions against UNITA. South African officials said they were unaware of the affiliations of Jardo Muekalia when they invited him to the reception to celebrate President Thabo Mbeki's inauguration.
Action to support journalists
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has declared 8 July as a day of action to highlight the worsening situation under which Angolan journalists operate. A researcher at the media rights watch dog told IRIN on Tuesday: "At least four journalists were beaten up in May and June either because of reports they wrote or while carrying out their work."
MISA argues that the absence of a constitutional court makes the situation all the harder for working journalists. "Although Angola's constitution provides for freedom of expression and of the press, journalists in Angola have no judicial recourse for the protection of their fundamental rights," MISA said, adding that the day of action would emphasise the need for the establishment of a constitutional court.
Moscow calls for crew release
Moscow on Tuesday called on UNITA to release the Russian crew of a plane shot down by the rebel movement on 30 June, Itar-Tass reported. A foreign ministry spokesman said the An-12 plane was "used exclusively for transporting peaceful cargoes and had nothing to do with the on-going fighting in UNITA." A UNITA statement on Sunday described the An-12, flying from Luanda to Saurimo, as an "MPLA" plane with an "important military delegation of the eastern front command on board." UNITA said it was downed in the area of Xa-Muteba. UNITA are still holding the Russian crew of another transport plane shot down on 12 May.
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe calls for unity
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe used the occasion of the burial of vice-president and liberation hero Joshua Nkomo on Monday to call for unity and to say Zimbabwe's struggle for independence continues, news reports said.
"Unity is essential to retain a peaceful environment for economic development," he said in a 90-minute eulogy. He called on whites not to "stand aloof, arrogant and conceited" and again urged the rapid transfer of white-owned farms to blacks. Mugabe also attacked the IMF for imposing aid conditions and freezing payments. "The IMF can go there way if they want. The struggle continues," he said. Nkomo's successor
Meanwhile, analysts told IRIN that speculation continues over who will replace Nkomo - the leader of the minority but increasingly politically restive Ndebele - as vice-president. "It has to be somebody that the Ndebele can accept and somebody that is not regarded as a threat to presidential hopefuls in the party," one source said. Mugabe told journalists on Wednesday that the ruling party will name a successor at the end of the year, after taking into account the outcome of a constitutional review process.
IMF not blocking aid
The independent 'Financial Gazette' on Thursday quoted IMF Africa Desk Assistant Director Michael Nowak as saying there was a need to iron out a few "technical details" before the fund's board considered a new US $212 million aid programme for Zimbabwe.
"The board is not going to meet on 9 July to discuss Zimbabwe. That meeting will take place at some other date that shall be announced once we are sure everything is in place," the paper quoted Nowak as saying. "We still have some small technical details we need to finalise first before the board can meet. We hope that by early next week we will have come up with a firm date." The IMF has withheld a US $53 million tranche of a US$175 million standby loan since last August.
Millers resume production
Maize meal shortages have eased in Zimbabwe following an agreement between millers and the government, residents told IRIN on Monday. Most major millers reportedly resumed production last Thursday following an assurance by the government that it would allow a further 20 percent rise in the retail price of maize meal. Last month the government sanctioned only a 20 percent hike. Millers had demanded 62 percent to offset an 88 percent increase in the cost of maize grain and halted production in protest over price controls.
NAMIBIA: More Caprivi refugees return
More than 600 Namibian secessionist refugees in Botswana are due to be transported home to Caprivi next week following assurances of their safety, a senior UNHCR official told IRIN on Thursday. A group of 237 are awaiting security clearance from the Namibian government and are expected to be repatriated next Tuesday. The list of a further 400 refugees in the Dukwe camp in Botswana is being finalised by UNHCR and they could be returned next Thursday. That would leave some 1,300 Namibian refugees left in Botswana out of the 2,500 that fled Caprivi last year claiming persecution by the Windhoek authorities.
ZAMBIA/NAMIBIA: Lusaka holds six Caprivi separatists
The Zambian authorities are holding six Namibian Caprivi secessionists in Lusaka, although it is unknown under what charge the men are being detained, diplomatic sources told IRIN on Thursday. Media reports originally said that four secessionist leaders, who had absconded from Botswana last month where they had been granted temporary asylum, had been detained in the western Zambian town of Mongu, close to the Angolan border. The Zambian government has not released details of the other two men, the sources said.
Caprivi secessionism is closely linked to separatist demands in Zambia's western Barotseland region. The pre-colonial Barotse kingdom straddled the border between the two countries, and Lozis in Zambia share close cultural and political ties with ethnic groups in the Caprivi that were assimilated under Barotse rule. Zambian President Frederick Chiluba said in April following a meeting with his Namibian counterpart Sam Nujoma that neither country would tolerate secessionism.
Meanwhile, regional analysts told IRIN there is mounting evidence that UNITA is training Caprivi dissidents inside Angola. The sources said that some villages in Caprivi close to the border have emptied, with the inhabitants believed to be with UNITA. The four Caprivi leaders in Mongu were reportedly planning to cross into Angola.
ZAMBIA/DRC: No early return of refugees
A ceasefire agreement for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), due to be signed by regional leaders in Lusaka on Saturday, would not trigger the early return of the 25,000 DRC refugees in Zambia, a senior UNHCR official told IRIN on Thursday. "We are hoping that with the political process advancing positively it will eventually have an impact on humanitarian work," UNHCR's resident representative in Zambia, Olusai Bajulai said. "But (the refugees) need to see security and stability in the country. Until then they will hold back to see how things pan out."
MALAWI: Opposition spurns unity call
Malawi's opposition parties have rejected calls by re-elected president Bakili Muluzi to "work together as a people in the best interests of our country". Heatherwick Ntaba, the general secretary of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) told IRIN on Thursday that as far as his party is concerned, Muluzi did not win last month's presidential elections. "We reject Muluzi's so-called mandate to govern the country," Ntaba said.
"Muluzi did not win the elections against our candidate Gwanda Chakuamba, he stole the votes. That is why we are going to court on 12 July to ask the judge to annul the presidential elections. We won't concede defeat because we know we did not lose," Ntaba said. He expressed disappointment that international observers declared the 15 June elections "substantially fair", despite at least four of the nine-member national electoral commission having refused to certify the poll results.
Youths charged over political violence
The court cases of 68 Malawians accused of violence and looting following last month's elections were due to start this week in the northern town of Mzuzu. All the suspects, mostly youths, pleaded not guilty when they were formally charged on Wednesday, news reports said. Homes and mosques were torched in the political disturbances following the 15 June poll, and supporters of the ruling United Democratic Front in the opposition stronghold fled their homes
AFORD on Thursday absolved itself from the violence blaming it instead on "sectoral in-fighting'' within the Muslim community itself. Dan Msowoya, publicity secretary of AFORD, told DPA that the attacks on mosques in the north had nothing to do with party politics. Muluzi is a muslim and draws the bulk of his political support from the south of the country.
Fuel price hike
Malawi's fuel prices regulator the Petroleum Control Commission (PCC) last Friday increased the price of fuel and electricity by 15 percent, raising fears of an immediate hike in the prices of commodities and services, news reports said on Monday.
MOZAMBIQUE: Debt relief improved
Mozambique's debt service payments have been cut by US $41 million per year - US $28 million more than expected - under a debt relief initiative announced by the IMF and World Bank, the debt pressure group Jubilee 2000 said in a report this week.
"This year Mozambique's debt service payments will be 17 percent of the government budget and will be larger than spending on health," the report said. "By 2001, however, debt service payments will be down to 11 percent of the budget and will be similar to government spending on health."
Under the original HIPC computations made in April, Mozambique stood to save just US $13 million a year on debt payments to Paris Club creditors in a country where 70 percent of the population live in poverty. John Garrett of Jubilee 2000 described the new proposal, ostensibly based on corrected projections by the IMF, as "broadly positive". But he added that "increased conditions have been attached to debt relief under the offer and it is highly questionable whether they are to the benefit of Mozambicans."
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