SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 43 covering the period 23-29 October 1999

ANGOLA: Pretoria committed to closing sanctions loopholes The South African government is working on legislation to provide greater oversight of a traditionally secretive banking industry, sources close to the UN’s Panel of Experts on Angola Sanctions told IRIN, this week. In a briefing to the South African parliament last Friday, the chairman of the UN panel of experts, Andreas Mollander, said his team was investigating allegations that banks in several countries - including South Africa - have been involved in laundering money made by the Angolan UNITA rebels out of illegal diamond sales. “New legislation is being drafted (on money laundering), the government at the moment doesn’t have all the tools to act more effectively,” one source said this week. “If we could have a success story in South Africa to close some sanctions loopholes it would have a significant impact in Angola.” The UN panel, were in South Africa as part of a regional tour to investigate reports of sanctions-busting, and held a series of meetings with the government, the Reserve Bank, the state-owned weapons manufacturers Armscor and security experts. A South African foreign ministry spokesman told IRIN that the government had assured the team of its commitment to sanctions policy, and “promised to keep working” with the Angola sanctions committee headed by Canadian ambassador Robert Fowler. ZIMBABWE: Government defends DRC intervention A spokesman for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe said this week the government had the support of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in its military intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In an interview with IRIN, presidential spokesman George Charamba, said the regional power, South Africa, which had expressed reserve on the intervention by SADC neighbours Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola, had been more supportive since Thabo Mbeki succeeded Nelson Mandela as president earlier this year. “Contrary to what you may read in the press, there is now a better understanding between our two countries,” he said. What was at stake, he said, was the sovereignty of DRC. Mugabe did not know DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila, until they were introduced by the presidents of Uganda and Rwanda. “Then, they (Rwanda and Uganda) turned around to use a Tutsi ethnic identity to launch an operation in DRC. They regularly libelled Kabila because of his democratic temperament,” Charamba said. “What right does a neighbour have to depose leader on behalf of his people? This sets a very dangerous precedent.” “At the next level, where you face an insurgency which ignites a neighbour whose jurisdictional powers are limited, is the right course of reversal eroding that neighbour?” Charamba asked. “Do you redress a genocide like this?” Nothing, he said, could sustain the agreed ceasefire in DRC except goodwill on all sides. “Remember that Zimbabwe spent its precious dollars helping restore the peace in Mozambique. Remember, we used to have more troops in Mozambique, and now we have peace there. The DRC intervention in official figures Earlier, a senior Zimbabwe government official told IRIN that Harare currently deployed an estimated 10,000 troops in DRC at a cost of about US $3 million a month. Zimbabwe had lost 39 men, and 36 were held as POWs in Rwanda. He said Zimbabwean forces held an estimated 300 POWs at its DRC bases and a further 49 in Zimbabwe itself. Donors concerned at cost of DRC intervention Meanwhile, major international donors said they were concerned that the cost of Zimbabwe’s military intervention in the DRC was outstripping the country’s ability to sustain development in key social sectors such as health, farming and education. Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank said this week they still did not have a clear idea of how much the country was spending on its DRC intervention. Analysts in Zimbabwe insisted that the cost would decline now that a ceasefire had been signed. Earlier this month, the IMF and the World Bank put aid programmes worth over US $340 million under review. Budget concerns “A lower budget deficit than that presented to parliament is needed for the year 2000 in order to reduce upward pressure on prices and interest rates and increase the resources available to finance private sector activities,” the IMF office in Harare said. In a terse statement, it added: “Another fiscal issue covered in the discussions was the need to assess and clarify the costs of the war in the DRC.” It said the IMF would remain in close contact with the government and that follow-up talks would be held in coming months. IMF officials declined to discuss the issue further. An EU diplomat told IRIN Zimbabwe needed a clear strategy to sustain budgetary support in the social sectors, and the EU funding for support in the education, health, agriculture and rural development sectors was in place. “But aid for structural budgetary support could be a problem. It is likely we would follow the lead here set by the IMF and the World Bank. What we do not know is how much the DRC intervention is costing or when it will end. There is no doubt that this is a complicating factor.” Italy sets conditions for major dam project Meanwhile, Italy said this week that it would only go ahead with a US $40 million dam project for Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo if the Zimbabwean government provides a time-table and obtains donor funding for a pipeline to deliver the water. “We do not want this project, which was agreed in July, to become a white elephant,” Luca Fratini, the Italian embassy’s first secretary told IRIN. The proposed Gwayi-Shangani dam is expected to help bring relief to one of the most arid areas of Zimbabwe. “Over the past two to three years, Italian aid to Zimbabwe has amounted to roughly US $70 million,” he said. “This dam is a very important project, one of the kind of projects that has to be supported and encouraged by donors, and we are still quite optimistic that they will come up with the donor funding for its pipeline.” Growing health sector crisis As doctors in Zimbabwe’s public health sector vowed this week to remain on strike over salaries, working conditions and outdated equipment, the country’s Community Health Working Group (CWGH) has said that the national budget for the year 2000 has not allocated sufficient funds to meet the country’s basic needs. In a detailed analysis of the health budget published this week by the CWGH, Dr Rene Loewenson, said there “is little to give confidence” in a health budget which allocated approximately US $13 per capita against defence spending of US $19 per capita. “It indicates that while the 2000 budget has improved the real per capital allocation for health by about 40 percent from US $9 to US $13 per capita, it still falls short of the estimated US $18 per capita needed for health services,” she said. The CWGH was particularly concerned that preventive health services had only been allocated a total of 10.6 percent of the 6.2 billion Zimbabwe dollars (US $155 million) health budget for next year. That figure compared with 15.8 percent in 1993 and the allocation has dropped steadily in the years since. For the full IRIN Focus report on the growing health sector crisis go to ZAMBIA: UNHCR confirms refugee influx from Angola UNHCR confirmed this week that there has been an influx of Angolan refugees into Zambia in recent weeks. UNHCR said that since 8 October about 650 new arrivals had been registered in the North Western Province, with a further 200 at Kalabo in Western Province. UNHCR said that the recent influx of refugees was largely because of fighting between the UNITA rebel movement and government forces in Angola’s Moxico Province, which borders Zambia’s Western and North Western Provinces. The UN agency said that some of the refugees were reported to have been in a weak condition after having walked for several days before reaching Zambia. “We have already deployed relief food to Chavuma and Zambezi and are presently preparing another consignment for Kalabo in Western Province,” UNHCR spokesman, Dominik Bartsch said in a statement. Anglo buys ZCCM The South African-based industrial conglomerate Anglo American this week finally agreed with the Zambian government to buy the country’s ailing state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) for US $90 million, the World Bank confirmed to IRIN. Anglo’s subsidiary Zambia Copper Investments (ZCI) and Zambia’s government have ratified an agreement that will see a new company buy an 80 percent stake of ZCCM’s Konkola and Nchanga copper divisions as well as the Nampundwe pyrite mine for US $30 million in cash. In addition, ZCCM will be entitled to a deferred consideration of US $60 million and the benefits of copper and cobalt price participation schemes up to a maximum of US $125 million over the life of the company. A World Bank official told IRIN: “The Zambian government is now in the driving seat of the ZCCM privatisation process, and will have to maintain the momentum in order to move the process forward.” The World Bank, added the official, is facilitating donor funding for the process, which, he said, is at a very delicate stage. In a parallel deal, ZCI will sell its 27.3 percent stake in ZCCM to the government on a deferred payment basis. The new company, however, will have to spend more than US $700 million in capital expenditure to rehabilitate and develop the mines. This will be made up of an initial investment of US $200 million on the mines over the next three years, and a further US $523 million that will be set aside to develop the Konkola Deep mine. ZCCM, which has been reportedly losing the government of Frederick Chiluba at least US $1 million a day over the past two years, also intends selling the Nkana mines, concentrator and cobalt plant as a separate package, according to news reports. However, should a sale not be concluded within the timetable of the main transaction, Anglo would also assume the management of these assets. Women to get 10 percent of land Zambian women are to get 10 percent of all future land allocations, the government said this week. It said that this was seen as a way of “economically empowering” women. But, gender activists were quoted as saying that “this does not go far enough” and that women needed more than 50 percent of all land allocations, because “women constitute the majority of all food grain producers in the country.” The chief registrar of titles and deeds Abdu Khan was quoted as saying that “it was now the deliberate policy of government to enable women to have title to land and in this way encourage them as tillers to have the means of accessing credit and loans.” MALAWI: IMF approves new loan The IMF this week approved a loan facility for Malawi of about US $10.6 million under the third annual arrangement of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF), which the government can access this week, an IMF official confirmed to IRIN. “The government of Malawi can use this money as a budgetary support facility and it will be repaid over 10 years with a five-year grace period,” the official told IRIN. In its letter of intent to the IMF requesting the loan, Malawi’s government pointed out that the country’s economic growth and inflation objectives for 1999 are unlikely to be achieved. Said Malawi’s government: “Real GDP is projected at about 4 percent in 1999 compared with the ESAF target of 5 percent, as the impact of a good maize crop is likely to be offset by that of a decline in tobacco production.” The government added that the 12-month rate of inflation accelerated steadily to nearly 57 percent by March this year before falling to 50 percent in July. Food security scheme launched Meanwhile, the government has launched a US $29 million food security scheme to boost agricultural productivity by providing 2.8 million farming households with free fertiliser and seeds. The World Bank has contributed US $12 million to the scheme, while the British government has come up with US $4.4 million and the government has contributed to the remainder from its coffers. Malawi, whose annual domestic maize needs are estimated at 1.9 million mt, has an agriculture-based economy and about 60 percent of its population derive the largest portion of their livelihoods from off-farm income-generating activities. Last year’s initiative was widely criticised as ineffective after many households who received the “packs” sold their allocations to buy food. MADAGASCAR: Government balks at the idea of joining SADC The government of the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar is still hesitant about joining the Southern African Development Community (SADC). News reports said that the hesitation was mostly because of South Africa’s dominant role within SADC and fears by the Malagasy people that by joining SADC the island nation could become involved in conflicts within the community. Finance ministry officials were quoted as saying that the financial commitment to SADC might prove to be “too much” for the country. Madagascar is already a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African States (COMESA). SWAZILAND: Children’s court to be established Swaziland is planning to establish a special children’s court to handle the increasing cases of crimes against minors. The minister of health and social development, Phetsile Dlamini, said abduction, rape and incest led the list of crimes committed against Swazi children. The minister said the court was an “urgent need” and added: “Our nation has to fight for survival from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and government priorities must recognise the importance and commit the resources for the protection of women and children.” Central bank report indicates lower living standards A report by the Swazi central bank indicates lower living standards. Last year the economy grew by just 2.3 percent, compared to 3.7 percent in 1997. “Set against a population rate of 2.7 percent, the economy’s performance implies further worsening of Swazi living standards,” the report said. The report said that direct foreign investment had declined, amounting to an estimated US $33.75 million last year. According to the report government expenditure and expansion, has not been matched by increased revenue, resulting in a budget deficit. SOUTH AFRICA: New environment report says water resources are unsustainable South Africa’s first ‘State of the Environment’ report by the national department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, this week showed that water resources in the country were already almost fully utilised and that with the projected population growth and economic development rates, it is unlikely that the foreseen demand on water resources will be sustainable. “Water is increasingly becoming the limiting resource in South Africa, and supply will become a major restriction to the future socio-economic development of the country,” the report said. According to the report, maintaining sustainable water resources is a critical element in the battle against poverty and a “cornerstone of prosperity.” The report cites a number of reasons for the declining water resources, the most important being population growth and increased economic activity. This has led to intensification of land practices, which has in turn led to increased water demands and increased deterioration of water resources. It said that most of the country’s major rivers have been dammed to provide water to an expanding population. Most of the natural wetlands have been converted for other land purposes, and the report estimated that up to 50 percent of the country’s wetland have already been lost. It said that ground and surface water resources have been severely affected by pollution adversely affecting fresh water ecosystems. The full report can be found at http://www.ngo.grida.no/soesa/nsoer/index.htm Workers dissatisfied with proposed SADC free trade deal And the country’s largest trade union, COSATU, says that the proposed Southern African Development Community (SADC) free trade deal is a threat to South African jobs. “The textile industry firmly believes that the proposed structure and design of the agreement will hold dire consequences for the textile industry and its jobs,” the union was quoted as saying. The proposed deal which was tabled in parliament last month and which is expected to take effect from 1 January covers US $2.94 billion in trade between South Africa and the 13 other SADC members. COSATU urged that a social clause be inserted into the agreement to prevent jobs from being lost and shifted to other countries where labour might be cheaper. SOUTHERN AFRICA: Land degradation threatens food security Land degradation is threatening food security in the Southern African region, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in its recent GEO-2000 Global Environmental Outlook report. “Land degradation is a serious problem threatening economic and physical survival,” the UNEP report said. It warned that slow progress in increasing food production has meant decreasing per capita supplies for many Africans over the past 40 years. While per capita food production in the rest of the world has increased, in Africa it has actually declined. According to the report, key issues to be addressed include escalating soil erosion, declining soil fertility, agrochemical pollution and desertification. The report said that an estimated 500 million hectares of land have been affected by soil degradation since 1950, including about 65 percent of agricultural land. In South Africa it estimated on average of about 400 million mt of soil is lost annually. Soil erosion affects other sectors such as energy and water supply and affects the crop yields of arable land. “In a continent where too many people are already malnourished, crop yields could be cut by half within 40 years if the degradation of cultivated lands were to continue at present rates,” UNEP said. The full report can be found at http://www.unep.org/unep/eia/geo2000/index.htm New US regional AIDS effort United States government envoys in 10 Southern African nations this week launched a new initiative to help bring improved American assistance in the campaign against HIV/AIDS. The US ambassador in Zimbabwe, Tom McDonald, told IRIN that he had hosted a meeting at his embassy this week with the American ambassadors to Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zambia, as well as the directors of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) staff from washington. “The meeting arose from the fact that a number of us believe there is no more critical issue than the spread of AIDS,” he said. “HIV/AIDS is an overriding crisis that cuts across all aspects of society and government.” An estimated US $6 billion needed to repair roads An estimated US $6 billion is needed to repair roads within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). According to the reports a large portion of these are in Angola and Mozambique. Joa Mabombo, roads expert at the Southern African Transport and Communication Authority of SADC, was quoted as saying that only half of the main road network was in good condition. “The SADC road network is one of the region’s biggest assets with current replacement costs estimated at R300bn (US $6 billion),” Mabombo said. AFRICA: Military makes progress towards adopting African peacekeeping standard Africa’s militaries are making “encouraging” progress towards adopting a common standard for planning future peacekeeping operations, officials from the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) told IRIN. ISS’s Mark Malan said a common “African” standard for peacekeeping operations would help future missions on the continent succeed by ensuring planners applied lessons learned from past operations. “Africa’s conflicts are more brutal and more protracted than anywhere else in the world, however, African forces have fewer technological and logistic resources than any other region,” he said. “This is why we need our own doctrine to take account of these limitations. For instance, I know of no Western-trained peace support operation that has actually been deployed to alleviate suffering in Africa.” Chris Lord of the Prague-based Institute for International Relations agreed: “Capacity building for African forces that is focused on education and dialogue has been more effective than direct training. What is needed from the Western countries is a better awareness of what you can and cannot do.” EU says it will give US $1 billion for debt relief The European Union says that it will give an estimated US $1 billion towards debt relief for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The debt alleviation would take three different forms. The first would be to write off some debt owed by the world’s highly indebted poor countries, the second to provide budget support to those countries linked to World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes, and thirdly an international trust fund would be established to help ease the debt burden on poor countries.