Policy issues from South Africa and
its neighbours. Reports every two weeks.
v19/08 16 April 04
CONTENTS
Angola
Call for more transparency on diamond sector revenues
Botswana
Diamond record as resources go to AIDS fight
Congo
Concerns focus on constitutional provisions
Tensions with Brazzaville eased after 'coup attempt'
International
EU, SA move into 'special relation'
Region
US organises regional anti-terrorism meeting
SA politics
ANC gains all provinces in 70% win
Strike threat reveals new political landscape for ANC
Zambia
EU education support to counter HIV effects
Key Chiluba witness says he will return
Opposition fails to challenge Mwanawasa in the courts
Zimbabwe
UN rights body again stands by Mugabe
SA politics:
Strike threat reveals new political landscape for ANC
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] It is uncertain whether the African National Congress will be allowed a honeymoon period after its famous victory in the polls this week. Instead signs are that - getting away from the 'racial referendum' of the election - the next five years will see an increasing clash between the interests of workers in the formal economy, the rich and newly rich in business, and the marginalised underclass. This may create new tensions inside the ANC Alliance and the outcomes may look different from those of the past few years.
After winning nearly 70% of the vote the most effective opposition to government policies will come from inside the Alliance, and primarily from the labour movement there. Already the unions have thrown down the gauntlet....
Transforming the economy...
Insufficient growth...
ANC successes...
HIV/AIDS factor...
SA politics:
ANC gains all provinces in 70% win
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] In the election the African National Congress (ANC) won 279 seats out of 400. The party won 69.68 percent of the national votes as well as winning all provinces including KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, where it won the majority of seats....
International:
EU, SA move into 'special relation'
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] the Euro-African dialogue seems back on track a year after the cancellation of the EU-African summit in Lisbon, and South Africa is emerging as the key partner. This was demonstrated at the European Union troika meeting in Dublin with foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma on April 2, just after a meeting between the EU and African Union ministerial troikas in Dublin and has been buttressed by the favourable attention paid to the general election there this week.
European commissioner for development Poul Nielson, an anti-apartheid activist in the '70s when as Denmark's minister of energy as he urged Danish electricity utilities to boycott coal imports from the apartheid state, considers "without reservation" that the European Union and South Africa have developed a "special relationship".
In an interview with SouthScan he praised South Africa's "well functioning, good government" which has "delivered a very credible policy". ...
EU disbursements...
Zimbabwe:
UN rights body again stands by Mugabe
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] The European Union's sense of powerlessness concerning Zimbabwe was heightened by UN Human Rights Commission this week when it rejected a resolution condemning violations
The EU put forward a draft resolution at the Geneva-based commission on Thursday accusing Harare of violating human rights, but 27 largely African and Asian member states - one fewer than the previous year - rallied around a "no action" motion....
UN appeals for aid...
Angola:
'60,000 expelled' to regain control of diamond sector
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] The diamond mining industry in the DR Congo and Angola remains in some disarray as Angola expels tens of thousands of illegal diggers and the Kinshasa government insists that mass smuggling of stones is continuing.
Angolan officials say there has been a "mass influx of foreigners" in the country since civil war ended in 2002. Luanda press reports claim that Angola has deported some 60,000 illegal immigrants since launching a major crackdown on clandestine diamond prospecting by foreigners in December. While the government says it has deported 11,000. More than 3,000 people have been arrested in recent days in a crackdown on illegal trafficking of diamonds in southern Angola, the army says....
Angola:
Call for more transparency on diamond sector revenues
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] Angola's diamond industry is not contributing enough to peace and prosperity and its revenues are being milked by top officials, say 'conflict diamonds' activists in Europe
A meeting to review the Kimberley process, held at the Development Committee of the European Parliament, heard the Coordinator of the 'Fatal Transactions' campaign led by the Amsterdam-based Nederlands Instituut voor Zuidelijk Afrika (NIZA), Kirsten Hund, insist that now that the war is over in Angola the issue is no longer conflict diamonds but improved social responsibility in the Angolan diamond sector....
Gems still smuggled...
Botswana:
Diamond record as resources go to AIDS fight
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] The Botswana diamond industry is racing to exploit its diamond wealth at an ever-increasing pace. All known reserves of this mainstay of the economy will be exhausted by 2012, say industry experts. Meanwhile increasing resources need to be ploughed into its HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programme, and analysts say that AIDS deaths will begin putting increasing strain on its institutional framework in the next few years. Botswana has the second highest rate of HIV infection in the world, barely supplanted now by Swaziland....
31-m carat target...
Congo:
Concerns focus on constitutional provisions
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] The international watchdog committee to oversee the transition in the DR Congo has warned that it could still come unstuck. Concerns are rising that certain key constitutional formulae are proving unworkable, that the elections are not being adequately prepared, and that the integration of the army is going ahead too slowly.
In addition insecurity is still chronic in the eastern part of the country and the country is not yet reunified on the political and administrative front....
Monuc's task...
Congo:
Tensions with Brazzaville eased after 'coup attempt'
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] Diplomatic relations between the DR Congo and its neighbours are far from relaxed. On 2 April, President Joseph Kabila sent his adviser on security matters, Samba Kaputo, to Congo-Brazzaville to calm tensions between the two countries, after accusations that President Denis Sassou Nguesso was behind the so-called coup attempt of end March (SouthScan v19/07).
The visit should be followed by further discussions to sort out differences. While Sassou Nguesso complains about the presence in Kinshasa of supporters of former president Pascal Lissouba, Kabila continues to be nervous about the presence in Brazzaville of ex-members of Mobutu's Special Presidential Brigade....
Zambia:
Key Chiluba witness says he will return
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] Fugitive Congolese businessmen Moses Katumbi, who is being sought by the Zambian government over his "dubious" arms deal with embattled former president Frederick Chiluba, said last week he is ready to co-operate with the Task Force investigating economic plunder in the previous administration - but said he feared he would be locked up for theft of motor vehicle, an unbailable offence, and asked for immunity from the charge.
Two weeks ago, President Levy Mwanawasa warned Chiluba would soon be arrested for vehicle theft (SouthScan v19/07)....
Zambia:
Opposition fails to challenge Mwanawasa in the courts
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] Three opposition political parties are considering an alliance to get rid of get rid of President Levy Mwanawasa, after failing in a court challenge.
However, opposition political Alliances have often failed to work in Zambia because each political leader wanted the presidency....
Zambia:
EU education support to counter HIV effects
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] The European Union has allocated EUR10 million to support Zambia's Education Strategic Plan over the next four years, with a focus on basic education and the possibility of expanding support at a later stage to secondary and tertiary education. The plan bids to counter the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on education.
A European Commission internal document says that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is aggravating the trend by increasing teacher attrition and absenteeism. It has raised the number of out-of-school children to over 600,000. The situation is "particular critical" for children aged 7 - in 2001, 55.6% of them were not enrolled in school....
Region:
US organises regional anti-terrorism meeting
[© SouthScan v19/08 16 April 04] With the terrorist threat looming large in East Africa a high profile regional meeting of security organizations from seven nations under the US central command system will meet at Entebbe, Uganda, from April 21.
Uganda's internal insurgency has now been classifed by the US as 'terrorist', a marker for other African states....
Money laundering laws...