Policy issues from South Africa and
its neighbours. Reports every two weeks.
v19/24 26 Nov04
Congo:
New tensions as Rwanda sends troops over border
Brussels and Pretoria to train a 'mini-army'
SA development:
Mbeki's Africa forays demand rethink on military policy
SA politics:
Arms deal again questioned
Zimbabwe:
Woman slated for president - but at cost of more division
Zambia:
Bid to quell resistance to constitutional manoeuvres
International:
US piles on pressure for rejection of ICC
SA development:
HIV threatens elections base says Idasa report
International:
Threat to low-cost ARVs
Congo:
New tensions as Rwanda sends troops over border
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] The conference on peace and
security in the Great Lakes that took place on November 19 and
20 in Dar es Salaam failed singularly to defuse tensions in the
region.
On November 17 the Rwandan government reported that several Katyusha-type
rockets were fired from DR Congo territory into the village of
Rwerere in Gisenyi province inside Rwandan territory, injuring
three people. ...
Francophone summit...
SA
response... >>Full
report
Congo:
Brussels and Pretoria to train a 'mini-army'
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] South Africa and Belgium
have agreed to join efforts to train in collaboration with Angola
several brigades of the future Congolese integrated army before
the June 2005 deadline set for the elections. But even assuming
that this programme is completed, at best only 5-8 percent of
the DR Congo's estimated 300,000 fighters will be part of this
army.
Working together...
Soldiers' pay...
Undeclared
trusteeship...>>Full
report
SA
development:
Mbeki's Africa forays demand rethink on military policy
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] SA President Thabo Mbeki's
forays into the rest of Africa on mediation ventures - most recently
to Cote d'Ivoire - are increasing pressure on SA's own military
to supply the peace forces demanded. The most recent promise
from Pretoria is that it will send around 200 troops for service
in the Darfur region of Sudan, but military analysts say the
Defence Force is inadequate to the need.
The SA National Defence Force is between a rock and a hard place
- it needs to rapidly expand its current personnel, but at the
same time is constrained by a limited budget caused largely be
earlier massive capital expenditures.
In a recent submission to parliament Witwatersrand University
academic Garth Shelton argued that SA must "urgently participate
in peace keeping operations (one or two officers at each UN mission
to observe and learn) while advancing active peacekeeping and
related deployments on the African continent"....
Recruitment...>>Full
report
SA
politics:
Arms deal again questioned
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] As peacekeeping needs become
clearer SA's arms procurement programme is coming under increasing
criticism from inside the military establishment, and outside
- most recently this week from former Archbishop Desmond Tutu....>>Full
report
Zimbabwe:
Woman slated for president - but at cost of more division
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] In allowing the nomination
of a woman, Joyce Mujuru, to the post of second vice president
after Joseph Msika, President Robert Mugabe is opting for short
term security, analysts believe, but at the cost of further dividing
his party.
The nomination came only after he had backed the party women's
push for the vice presidency and after the Zanu-PF constitution
had been hastily amended to direct that one of the vice presidents
be a woman. Zanu-PF's 10 provincial executives were directed
to nominate a woman for the vice presidency....
Divided party...
'Money for votes'...
Rival groups...
Mnangagwa's group...
General
Mujuru's group...>>Full
report
Zambia:
Bid to quell resistance to constitutional manoeuvres
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] The Zambian government is
clamping down on non-governmental organizations objecting to
its approach to a new state constitution. The civic bodies have
vowed to fight back.
Recently appointed Vice President Lupando Mwape directed police
to arrest NGO officials operating in his constituency without
his blessing. Shortly after that, on November 11, the Southern
Africa Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD)
found itself in deep water for differing with government over
the constitution and was deregistered for what government said
was involvement in activities that threatened the security of
the nation. ...
Ready
after the election...>>Full
report
International:
US piles on pressure for rejection of ICC
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] A number of African states
want the European Union to provide compensation for lost US aid
if they resist pressure from Washington to reject the jurisdiction
of the International Criminal Court.
US pressures on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states
to make them sign bilateral immunity agreements were debated
during the last session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
on Wednesday (November 24) in The Hague. But the EU has refused
to provide the guarantees sought by a number of small states....
Compensation
issue ...>>Full
report
SA
development:
HIV threatens elections base says Idasa report
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] HIV and AIDS are eroding
the South African electoral base and threatening the credibility
of elections in the region, according to a new report by Idasa,
the Institute for Democracy in SA.
But the government has responded by saying it is using worst
case scenarios to with the most negative assumptions "to
heighten a sense of crisis"....
'200 percent increase'...
Demographic realities......
Company reaction...
Treatment
increases...>>Full
report
International:
Threat to low-cost ARVs
[© SouthScan v19/24 26 Nov 04] Another Indian company manufacturing
generic anti-retrovirals has withdrawn from the World Health
Organisation's list of approved drugs. The move means that economists
in AIDS-hit African countries may have to re-source their projected
drug deliveries or recalculate the cost of supplying ARVs to
their populations.
On November 19 the WHO announced that the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical
Hetero Drugs had voluntarily withdrawn all six of its generic
antiretroviral (ARV) drugs from the world body's list of approved
drugs following concerns about their laboratory tests....
Health
workers crisis...>>Full
report