Policy issues from South Africa and
its neighbours. Reports every two weeks.
v19/14 9 July 04
CONTENTS
Mozambique:
Frelimo banks on timing and divisions in the opposition
Region:
AU seeks to bring Nepad fully under its control
AU troops for Darfur
SA signs Rwandan military deal
Zimbabwe:
IMF delays expulsion for six months
Mugabe again rules out talks
Region:
Amnesty condemns Equatorial Guinea
Zambia:
Zimbabwe seeks maize imports
Congo:
Transition hovers on the brink
Namibia:
Mega gas power project
Region:
Nujoma suggests copper price control
Region:
French-speaking Africa opposes
ivory sale bid
ABBREVIATED REPORTS
Mozambique:
Frelimo banks on timing and divisions in the opposition
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] Just before Mozambique's independence day on June 25 outgoing President Joaquim Chissano finally announced that the third multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections would take place on December 1 and 2.
The date, in the midst of the rainy season, is likely to favour the ruling Frelimo party which usually performs better in urban areas. In the last election in 1999 it was difficult to get electoral material to isolated parts of the country....
Curbing corruption...
Frelimo grip remains...
Underscoring problems...
Risks for Renamo...
Manipulated by the Right...
Region:
AU seeks to bring Nepad fully under its control
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] The African Union summit in Addis Ababa this week focused on conflict issues and its own funding. But more or less behind the scenes another critical agenda was being worked on - the AU's relationship with South Africa.
The key issue is ownership of Nepad, the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Like the AU itself, this has benefited from serious input and direction from the South Africans and especially from President Thabo Mbeki. Yet now it is felt to be too much under Mbeki's control, based in Pretoria and an alternative source of influence and power while the AU is seeking to assert itself on the continent....
Donor support......
Funding the AU...
Region:
AU troops for Darfur
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] About 300 members of an African Union peace force will be deployed to the Sudan's conflict area of Darfur, the AU Peace and Security Council announced on Monday.
Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Botswana had been approached to supply members of the protection force, council director Sam Ibok told media at the AU summit in Addis Ababa. South Africa has also said it will send troops - about ten to act as platoon leaders. Rwanda will send 100 troops....
Region:
SA signs Rwandan military deal, as with Congo
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] South Africa this week signed a military deal including the supply of arms and training - parallelling a deal it signed two weeks ago with the DR Congo (SouthScan v19/13).
SA Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota signed the joint military agreement with his counterpart, Gen. Marcel Gatsinzi in Kigali. The bilateral agreement makes provision for the training of the Rwandan military, peace-keeping operations, and the provision of military equipment. The first military cooperation between the two will be in the joint force they are sending to the Sudan....
Dlamini-Zuma elected...
Zimbabwe:
IMF delays expulsion for six months
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] Zimbabwe is being quietly encouraged back into the international fold, in a deal presaged by its reserve bank governor Gideon Gono last month (SouthScan v19/13).
The executive board of the International Monetary Fund this week decided to postpone recommending that Zimbabwe be removed, providing it with "another chance to strengthen its cooperation with the Fund in terms of economic policies and payments"....
Zimbabwe:
Mugabe again rules out new talks with opposition
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has again ruled out any new talks with the opposition on the country's economic and political crisis, citing its alleged ties with Britain, the former colonial power.
Addressing a ruling party assembly, Mugabe claimed the Movement for Democratic Change was taking orders from British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his government....
Mass graves uncovered..
AU report...
Region:
Amnesty condemns Equatorial Guinea
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] South Africa's steadfast support for the judicial process in Equatorial Guinea was dealt a blow this week by an Amnesty International report condemning extrajudicial executions, torture and rape by security personnel there.
SA has refused to seek the extradition of a group of 70 alleged mercenaries being held in Harare and due for trial on July 19. They are likely to be sent on to Equatorial Guinea under an extradition deal with the government of President Robert Mugabe, allegedly involving oil (SouthScan v19/13)....
Zambia:
Zimbabwe seeks maize imports
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] Zambia's ministry of agriculture and co-operatives has revealed that Zimbabwe applied to import excess maize to avert starvation in that country.
Zambia's Agriculture Minister Mundia Sikatana says the Zimbabwean authorities applied to his government through his ministry to supply excess maize. "We are still considering that proposal and will soon make a decision," he said....
Congo:
One year later and the transition hovers on the brink
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] The first anniversary of the DR Congo's transition to democratic rule, which also coincides with its independence day, was probably one of the saddest since 1960 for Kinshasa's inhabitants. All official ceremonies were cancelled and only a few religious celebrations took place. This reflects the extreme fragility of the transitional process in a capital which has witnessed two failed coup attempts since the beginning of the year and two rebel uprisings in South Kivu province.
In a report released on July 7 the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said the crisis provoked by the struggle in late May and early June for control of Bukavu was "another phase of the war that began in 1998"....
Worst crisis...
Diplomatic blow...
Border opening...
Jail escapes...
Namibia:
Mega gas power project
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] The biggest investment deal ever in Namibia was signed on Monday for the construction of a billion-dollar gas-based power project that will eventually quadruple the country's electricity production.
Top officials of the Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower), South African firm Energy Africa and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia signed a joint development agreement in Windhoek on the Kudu Gas to Power Project....
Region:
Nujoma suggests copper price control
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] Namibia's President Sam Nujoma has called for an end the civil war in the DR Congo, and suggested with his country the DRC and Zambia could then control world copper prices.
"Congo needs our assistance. We need to help put to an end to civil instability," he said on a visit to Zambia last week....
Zambia:
DRC still seeking Zambian
[© SouthScan v19/14 9 July 04] The DR Congo has said it is intensifying its hunt for the fugitive former Zambian intelligence director general, Xavier Chungu, who is hiding in that country.
DRC ambassador to Zambia Jean-Maire Dikanga Kazadi said his government would also hand over Congo businessman Moses Katumbi, wanted in Zambia for an abortive arms deal with former president Frederick Chiluba, facing trial for alleged corruption (SouthScan v19/13).
Congolese intelligence agents have been seeking Chungu in Lubumbashi and Pweto but without success, Kazadi said.
Region:
French-speaking Africa opposes ivory sale bid
A group of 12 Central and West African French-speaking states has set themselves against five key Southern African states in demanding that the ban on the trade in ivory be maintained.
Meeting at a symposium organised by International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the French-based National Society for the Protection of Nature (SNPN) in Paris, the states called for all elephant populations to be listed as "most endangered species, threatened with extinction"....