Africa News Digest
Major African Dailies Hope for New U.S. Leadership
The Nairobi, Kenya daily The Nation Dec. 30 focussed on the inability of the Bush government "to appreciate the role of nationalism in other societies." The daily noted that the current Kenyan government came to power on American values, but that "the U.S. government now seems bent on taking away citizens' liberties." America is now "obsessed with fighting terrorism, instead of rectifying the environment that breeds terrorists."
An editorial in South Africa's Mail & Guardian, Jan. 2, characterizes 2003 as "hope deferred," and concludes with the wish that Americans will choose, in the next election, "to begin reintegrating their country into the family of nations," as "the world needs a different kind of America." It describes a "liberated Iraq" as an "armed garrison that shows no signs of transition to meaningful civilian rule." It adds that "the puppet ruling council would not last a day without the shield of U.S. firepower.... Far from rolling back terrorism, the war has made Iraq a new terrorist cockpit. To avoid the obvious inference that it is facing a people's war, the U.S. continues to characterize the attacks as the work of Ba'ath party remnants. Yet although 42 of those on the original list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis have been killed or captured, the insurgency continues to escalate." The American leadership must change, because "with its material and human riches, it has so much capacity for good."
Papal Nuncio Assassinated in Burundi
A leading papal nuncio, Michael Courtney, was assassinated in Burundi Dec. 29, after he was reported ambushed by Hutu members of the National Liberation Front (FNL). He was shot in the head, thorax, and leg, despite the fact that his diplomatic car was clearly identified, flying the Vatican flag. The 58-year-old Irishman, considered one of the Vatican's most valued diplomats, died during surgery. The FNL immediately denied any role in the shooting and condemned it, although the assassination occurred in an area known as an FNL stronghold.
South Africa To Expropriate Land To Speed Restitution
An amendment to the Land Restitution Act of 1994, which will allow for land expropriation, has been passed by the South African parliament and is to be signed into law by President Mbeki in January, the Sunday Independent reported Dec. 28. The amendment, according to Tozi Gwanya, the chief land-claims commissioner, will allow the minister "to expropriate without a court order and without farmers' agreement." Land owners would then be paid market-related prices for their properties. "Our view is that we would use expropriation as a last resort when negotiations are not yielding results.... We will not use it arbitrarily," the commissioner said.
Lourie Bosman, the vice president of the Agri-SA farmers' union, said his organization objected strongly to the expropriation amendment. Bosman said that the timing was particularly bad, coming on the back of land grabs in Zimbabwe.
The voluntary system, by itself, has produced only a trickle of results.
Mugabe Gov't Repossesses 400 Black-Owned Farms
The Mugabe government has repossessed about 400 farms from black owners who occupied more than one property, the Zimbabwean daily, The Herald reported Dec. 31. The farms, covering at least 480,000 acres, will now be redistributed to people still waiting for land, according to John Nkomo, Minister of Special Affairs in President Robert Mugabe's office.
Mugabe 'Received Warmly' by Indonesian President
President Robert Mugabe paid a courtesy call on President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Jan. 7 while on a private visit to Indonesia. According to Agence France Presse, he "received a warm welcome from Megawati." She is considering sending a team to Zimbabwe to improve relations, especially trade relations, her Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said afterwards. She also invited Mugabe to pay an official visit to Indonesia. "As a country that has also experienced land reform and a colonial past, we understand.... We have empathy toward the problems that Zimbabwe is facing," Wirajuda said.
Mugabe invited Megawati to pay an official visit to Zimbabwe and to attend the G-15 meeting. Mugabe is to open an embassy in Jakarta. (Indonesia already has an embassy in Harare.)
The talks were attended by Wirajuda, Megawati's husband Taufik Kiemas, and Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted a dinner for Mugabe on Jan. 7 to introduce to him Indonesian business people. According to a Zimbabwe Department of Information statement, "The Indonesians are also proposing that a bilateral agreement be arranged to enable the two countries to barter their products as a way of going round the problem of foreign currency shortages facing both countries."
Mugabe met Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Jan. 6 at the end of a week spent in Malaysia. The discussion included Zimbabwe's request for technical assistance from Malaysia's central bank, Bank Negara, for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, during its currently planned restructuring. According to the Zimbabwe Department of Information statement, Badawi's response was very positive.
Nigeria Reverses Plan To Privatize its Refineries
In a shift for Nigeria's pro-privatization Obasanjo government, the government bowed to pressure from oil workers, and announced it has dropped the plan to sell off the nation's four refineries. It was not a complete labor victory, as the agreement reached now involves seeking a strategic partnership allowing for the acquisition of a 51% equity while government retains only 49%, but nevertheless, the government did back down.
The ultimatum by unions, given some six months ago, followed a declaration by the pro-privatization government that the refineries would be sold by March 2004 at latest, and that more government funds would not be committed to their repair. But, bowing to worker pressurein the form of a Dec. 31 deadline for the government to put the refineries back in shape or face a strikethe government promised that by the beginning of May, the refineries "would operate at optimal level and could produce up to 18 million liters of petrol per day once the fluid catalytic cracking units are on stream."
The Nigerian daily the Daily Champion Dec. 31, noted these were "major fall-outs" from a crucial meeting between government and leaders of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja on Dec. 30.
Severe Drought in Southern Africa Again
The grim picture reported by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (www.fews.net) is filled out by an AFP story in Business Day Jan. 6. "A South African weather specialist says there is just three months' supply of water for human consumption and irrigation left in the country's 'critically empty' dams," but South Africa does not need food aid at present, according to the story. It continues with the following roundup of the other countries.
Zimbabwe: Food security will remain precarious until April. The number of people needing food aid in rural areas is expected to increase from 4.8 to 5.1 million.
Botswana: Total production is enough to meet only 13% of national cereal requirements. Drought "has seriously affected the animals' birth rate and worsened their mortality rate," said Musa Fanakiso, deputy director of animal health and production.
Lesotho: The UN World Food Program warns that Lesotho is "heading for its worst drought in memory." "People are already talking total crop failure," said WFP spokesman Michael Huggins.
Namibia and Swaziland: In these countries, about one-third of the people will need food assistance in 2004. "The situation is so bad ... [that] people are now losing hope, since their livestock are dying in numbers," said Nathi Vilakazi, a spokesman for Save the Children Fund in Swaziland.
Malawi: Meteorologists see hope for "good rains" soon.
Zambia: In recent months, Zambian farmers have produced enough to feed the country and export maize to Zimbabwe, but "areas of chronic food insecurity" remain, and about 500,000 people, including farmers and their dependents, as well as AIDS orphans, still require assistance, WFP says.
AFP does not mention parts of Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Tanzania, and Somalia where similar drought conditions prevail.
Zambia Shifts from Food Deficit to Surplus in One Season
Zambia has shifted from a food deficit to food surplus in one agricultural season, and, as the second agricultural season under the new government begins, is now exporting grain into the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe, according to The Times Dec. 19. The crop was so big that the army was called on to help get it harvested. Government is subsidizing fertilizer at 50%.
Zambian authorities have not relented in their continued supplies of subsidized farm inputs to peasant farmers in the country. Launching the second agricultural season on Dec. 18, the country's farmer-President, Levy Mwanawasa, used the occasion to call for a change in thinking on the part of commercial banks and lending institutions: "We have in our midst chief executives of banks. I do not intend to embarrass them, but I am just calling upon them to be more considerate in their financing activities, like farming, which leads to new capital formation."
Mwanawasa said the government would continue to offer farmers the proficiency of Zambia National Services (ZNA), which he said he wants to become more involved in providing farmers with services of tractor hire, bush clearing, improvement of access roads and haulage of farm produce.
Wealth-Sharing Agreement Reached in Sudan
An agreement on wealth sharing has been worked out by the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army. Under the agreement, signed on Jan. 7, half of non-oil revenue from southern Sudan will go to the central government during a six-and-a-half year interim period. A central bank with two branches will be established; one in the North, serving the Islamic banking system and using the Sudanese dinar, and the other in the South, operating on the basis of the Western system and using the Sudanese pound, SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN.
In late December, the government and the SPLM/A agreed to split the revenue from oil production equally, after 2% is given to the oil-producing states themselves.
EIR notes that the North has much more of the population and infrastructure than the South. Without a national agro-industrial development plan, the disproportionate income going to the South scarcely has anywhere to go, other than into the pockets of a few.
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