Policy issues from South Africa and its neighbours. Reports every two weeks.

v19/18 3 Sept 04

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CONTENTS

SA development:

Demonstrator's death spotlights government delivery P

SA development:

Land reform funding issue looms larger

 

Region:

All-round glee at mercenary case outcomes

Congo:

Great Lakes tension decreases but problems remain

Region:

Uganda raises military profile, seeks influence in Congo

Congo:

Surge in diamond sales as smuggling is cut to Brazzaville

Zimbabwe:

Injuries and arrests at demonstration

Malawi:

EU waits for results on anti-corruption drive

Botswana:

Debswana sackings cause international concern

SA development:

Demonstrator's death spotlights government delivery

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] The death in a police shooting of a young protester has again emphasized the urgency of the government's public works and social services programme.

The teenager was reportedly shot by police in the Free State on Monday during a mass protest against poor service delivery by the government. An outcry against police methods followed, but the incident has also served to cast a critical light on the government's job creation scheme, also launched this week....

Becoming official...

Structural causes...

Rural people sidelined...>>>Full report


SA economy:

Warship widens trade gap

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] South Africa's trade deficit widened sharply in June, worsened by the import of a warship.

The SA Revenue Service (Sars) said that a trade deficit of R2.3 billion had been posted in June after a R76.4 million shortfall in May, pushing the first-half trade balance into deficit....>>>Full report


SA development:

Land reform funding issue looms larger

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] The SA Communist Party is preparing a major campaign for October on land reform, including a demand for a national land summit between all stakeholders.

At the same time there have been calls for the government to reveal how it intends to finance its land reform programme, which has a target date of December 2005 for finalising claims but has no funding allocation in any budget....

Namibian land valuation...

Support for Mugabe..>>>Full report


SA politics:

ANC support expands slightly

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] The African National Congress has consolidated its support base to 68 percent of the voting public, with opposition parties sharing 22 percent, and 10 percent of eligible voters undecided, a Markinor/SABC opinion poll released last week said.

The opinion poll was conducted between April 19 and May 27 before the New National Party announced its dissolution (SouthScan v19/17); it came in with one percent but had no support among black people....

More registered to vote...>>>Full report


Region:

All-round glee at mercenary case outcomes

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] As the dust settles on the Equatorial Guinea mercenary affair the South African government can hardly hide its glee at the outcomes.

These include a list of the British Conservative elite who had been friends of the apartheid regime but who now appear to have been revealed as financiers for an abortive coup....

Open secret...>>>Full report


Congo:

Great Lakes tension decreases but problems remain

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] Tension in the Great Lakes region is decreasing as the main actors in the DR Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, stepped back from the brink. Fears had been growing of renewed war after the massacre of 160 Congolese Tutsis in a camp close to the Burundian border post of Gatumba on August13 (SouthScan v19/17)

Burundi's foreign minister, Terence Sinunguruza, was able to reassure his Belgian colleague, Karel De Gucht, after a meeting last week in Brussels. On the same day, August 26, Burundi reopened the common border with the Congo....

Burundi border shots...

Unresolved issues...

'Overmilitarised' east...

Media campaigns...

CRD weakened...

Ituri disarmament...>>>Full report


Congo:

Mbeki, Kabila sign cooperation pact

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] South African President Thabo Mbeki ended on Tuesday a two-day visit to the DR Congo, signing a series of agreements ranging from health matters to defence.

Experts from the Commission on Defence and Security met to "evaluate the progress made since the signing of the Agreement on Military Cooperation" between the two countries earlier in the year (SouthScan v19/13)....>>>Full report


Region:

Uganda raises military profile, seeks influence in Congo

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] While Rwanda and Burundi were threatening to move forces back into the DR Congo, Uganda has been tightening up its relationship with the regime of Joseph Kabila, and seeking influence through its former proxy rebel forces there.

At the same time Uganda's profile as a key element in regional security has been raised through an agreement to train the African Union's Eastern Brigade for its proposed African peace force. The Senior Officers' Staff College in Jinja, the country's second largest city, will house the training facility, Ugandan Minister of State for Defence Ruth Nankabirwa told this correspondent exclusively....

Pro-Ugandan militias...>>>Full report


Congo:

Surge in diamond sales as smuggling is cut to Brazzaville

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] The DR Congo has seen a spectacular rise in its diamond sales with record figures for July are being ascribed to the expulsion of neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville from the Kimberly process, which seeks to prevent the sale of ' conflict diamonds', and to the reunification of the country, integrating the output of former rebel-held territories.

During the first seven months of 2004, total state revenues from diamond exports amounted to $10.27m as against $6.88m during the previous year, showing a 49.1% increase....

Other minerals...>>>Full report


Angola:

Relations warm with France after Falcone spat

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] The French and Angolan governments appear to have drawn a line under the 'Angolagate' scandal, in which France has been seeking the arrest of arms dealer Pierre Falcone.

Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos refused to recognize France's ambassador to Angola for six months, but on Monday allowed Guy Azais to finally present his credentials....>>>Full report


Angola:

Unita returns to talks

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] Angola's main opposition party Unita last week began talks with the ruling MPLA party after it had announced a date for elections in September 2006.

Unita wants elections in September 2005 but leaders last week indicated they were open to talks on the date....

Polio vaccination...>>>Full report


Region:

Burundi to set up SA-style truth commission

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] The National Assembly of Burundi on Tuesday passed legislation establishing a South-African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Absent from the vote was the parliamentary group of the country's main rebel group, the Hutu 'Forces for the Defence of Democracy' (FDD)....>>>Full report


Zimbabwe:

Tobacco hits new low

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] Zimbabwe's annual tobacco crop has slumped for the fourth year running to just over 64 million kilogrammes.

According to the Zimbabwe Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) the country has sold 64.3m kg worth more than US$130 million. Last year the figure was over US$184m from a crop of 81m kg....

Farmers arrested...

Civil servants seek rise...>>>Full report


Zimbabwe:

Injuries and arrests at demonstration

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] At least 15 people were reportedly arrested and eight injured when pro-democracy National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) protestors clashed with police during demonstrations on Wednesday against the government's proposed Non-Governmental Organisations Bill (SouthScan v19/17).

Earlier Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe described NGOs in the country as imperialists working to destabilise Zimbabwe....>>>Full report


Malawi:

EU waits for results on anti-corruption drive

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] Meetings between the government and the European Union on a renewal of funding programmes are scheduled for later this month or October. But the EU says it is still waiting to see whether the government's anti-corruption drive has any effect.

This week, in another indication that senior politicians are being investigated, a newspaper published details leaked about former finance minister Friday Jumbe, who had been the head of Agriculture Development and Marketing Cooperation (ADMARC) when it sold key grain reserves three years ago at a loss of millions of dollars and threatening a third of the population with famine....>>>Full report


Botswana:

Debswana sackings cause international concern

SouthScan v19/18 3 Sept 04] The Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has protested to Botswana's President Festus Mogae about what it called "the unfair dismissals" of 444 workers from the diamond mining company Debswana, half owned by the government. Debswana is the leading diamond producer by value in the world.

The dismissals were a reprisal against a strike initiated nine days earlier against "startling wage inequality" and "flagrant discrimination against trade union members at the mines", the ICFTU said. Striking workers are calling for higher pay increases and bonuses already offered to salaried workers at the mines....>>>Full report