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Southern Africa: IRIN News Briefs, 22 March

ZIMBABWE: Fuel pipeline resumes pumping
Pumping on the Feruka-Msasa pipeline resumed on Thursday, bringing hope that the current fuel shortage would be eased while a long-term solution was being sought, Zimbabwe's state-controlled 'Herald' reported. Diesel was being discharged at the Msasa storage facility and was to be delivered to oil companies for distribution, said the report. Minister of Mines and Energy Sydney Sekeramayi said sporadic supplies were not acceptable and had prompted efforts to ensure consistent and continuous deliveries.

Prior to resumption of pumping, the Feruka-Msasa pipeline, which holds more than 11 million litres, was filled with diesel. More diesel would be injected into the pipeline while petrol and jet-A1 would be hauled from Feruka by road and rail, the report said, adding that if a litre of diesel was injected into the pipeline at Feruka, it would require 11,1 million more litres of diesel to be pumped before the first litre of diesel could be discharged at Msasa. Just more than 3 million litres of fuel can be pumped through the pipeline in one day. "We can only start injecting petrol or jet-A1 into the pipeline if we have enough stocks at Feruka," said a NOCZIM official.

Negotiations between bulk suppliers, Independent Petroleum Group of Kuwait, NOCZIM, the Government and NOCZIM's financial advisers Jewel Bank, were in progress, with involved parties preferring not to comment yet, the report said. The crucial talks with IPG centered on debt payment and re-scheduling, it added. "How long we will continue pumping will depend to a large extent on our ability to pay and the understanding from the IPG delegation on debt rescheduling," a NOCZIM official was quoted as saying.

The fuel shortage became critical in the country after pumping on the pipeline stopped because of non-payment. NOCZIM has been failing to raise enough foreign currency on the local market to settle its arrears. The country's northern areas including Harare, which depended heavily on pipeline supplies, were the worst hit by the crisis. People in the capital were forced to walk to work in the past week and industry was severely affected.

ZIMBABWE: Two editors sacked in purge

The Zimbabwean government sacked the editors of the two largest state-controlled newspapers, the 'Herald and the 'Sunday Mail', IOL news website reported on Thursday. Ray Mungosi, editor of the 'Herald' daily newspaper, and Funny Mushava, editor of the 'Sunday Mail', were negotiating exit packages after being forced out of their jobs on Wednesday, the report said.

The editors' dismissals follow a similar sacking 10 days ago of Tommy Sithole, chairperson of Zimbabwe Newspapers which publishes the two titles and four others. Sithole had refused to implement a government directive to fire editors perceived not to have been toeing the government line, according to the report. Sithole particularly refused to implement the directive by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo to remove Mungoshi and Mushava from the two key titles and to reshuffle others in a bid to improve the Zimbabwe government's battered image, the report added.

Mungoshi and Mushava were appointed eight months ago to succeed two of their predecessors who were also fired for not toeing the government line.

The 'Herald' reported that Zimbabwe Newspapers appointed Piki-rayi Deketeke as editor of the 'Herald' and William Chikoto as 'Sunday Mail' with immediate effect. Deketeke (35), who was Deputy Editor of The Herald before his new appointment, joined the Zimbabwe Newspapers Group in 1987 as a cadet reporter with 'Sunday Mail' while Chikoto (35) also joined 'Sunday Mail' as a cadet reporter in 1987, rising to the positions of night editor and managing editor, the newspaper said.

ZIMBABWE: Inflation over fifty percent

Zimbabwe's annual inflation rose to 57.7 percent last month on the back of an increase in the cost of food, recreation and entertainment, the 'Financial Gazette' reported on Thursday.

Latest statistics published by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) showed that the 0.7 percentage point rise in the February inflation figure was powered by a staggering 119.5 percent increase in the index for recreation and entertainment, the report said. Annual inflation stood at 57 percent in January following a 1.8 percentage point increase on the December 2000 inflation figure of 55.2 percent, it added. The rise in recreation and entertainment costs was a result of a huge increase in the cost of entertainment services between February 2000 and last month. This week's inflation figures were the second to be released by the CSO using the revised consumer price index (CPI) which came into effect in January. Under the new system, food still constituted the largest component of the CPI, with 33.6 percent, and was followed by rent, rates and domestic power, which accounted for 17.3 percent of the index, the newspaper said, adding that recreation and entertainment accounted for only 1.2 percent of the index.

ZAMBIA: Chiluba keeps firing in pursuit of third term

Zambian President Frederick Chiluba fired a fourth government minister opposed to constitutional change that would allow him to run for a third five-year presidential term, news agency AP reported on Thursday. Tourism Minister William Harrington was fired on Wednesday, Chiluba's spokesman Richard Sakala said in a statement. He gave no reason for the move.

Harrington, who openly opposed a constitutional change to allow for more than two presidential terms, last week said he was prepared to lose his job over his position. "I have not hidden my position on the matter," Harrington was quoted as saying. He said he was not opposed to Chiluba, but to a constitutional amendment that would damage Chiluba's integrity.

Chiluba won Zambia's first democratic election in 1991. He took over after 27 years of authoritarian rule by President Kenneth Kaunda, the first Zambian leader of the former British colony. Chiluba's ruling party changed the constitution to prevent an elected president serving more than two five-year terms, and Chiluba had repeatedly promised to retire when his term ended, the report said. However, Chiluba had expelled potential challengers from his party and done nothing to groom a successor in time to campaign for elections that must be held by November, it added.

COMOROS: Comoros military ruler says civilians to take over next year

The military ruler in the Comoro islands, Colonel Azali Assoumani, said on Wednesday that power would be returned to civilians at the beginning of 2002 and added that he would not stand for election, AFP reported. "Power will be restored to democratically elected civilians, insh'Allah (God willing), as we say," Azali told the news agency in an interview in Paris.

The handover would come early next year after new institutions had been set up, he said. "I'm going to become a citizen," said the head of state who seized power in the latest of many coups in the Indian Ocean archipelago on 30 April 1999. He "totally" ruled out standing for election himself. "If the authorities want me then, I'm a soldier, they can send me where they will. If they don't want me, I'll retire, because I'm 42 years old, I have a family and children. I have to bring them up and I think my country needs me, one way or another, to contribute to its development," he was quoted as saying.

On 17 February Azali signed an agreement paving the way for a transition to democracy with the leaders of Anjouan, one of the three islands in the Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros, who unilaterally seceded from the group in August 1997. A "follow-up committee" was set up and first met in Moroni, the capital on Grande-Comore island, early in March, with a brief to draw up a new constitution for a loose federation and to set up an independent national electoral commission. "The end of the constitutional crisis will come with free and democratic elections. We think, and this is what everybody wants, that from January 2002, the Comoros will return to a situation of constitutional normality," he said.

The opposition has refused to join the follow-up committee, accusing Azali of wanting to monopolise the proceedings and to sideline mediators from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), but Azali was quoted as saying that the crisis in relations with Anjouan had been "almost ironed out". "We have to consolidate our reconciliation, but I believe that the 17 February accord has put an end to separatism and the Anjouanese agree on living together in the same state, with the same border. The problem is to set out the degree of autonomy to be given to the islands," Azali said, adding that he would go to Anjouan in April for a meeting of the follow-up committee. He described the move as a "very symbolic decision", since no Comoran head of state had set foot on the island since 1997.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Zambezi management project gets US $3.7 million

The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) and three international donor agencies signed a three-year agreement worth US $3.7 million for the development of an integrated water resource strategy for the Zambezi River Basin, PANA reported on Thursday. The report quoted official sources as saying that in terms of the agreement signed in Lusaka on Tuesday, the signatories agreed that the ZRA would implement the project on behalf of the SADC-Water Sector Coordinating Unit, the Swedish International Development Authority, the Danish International Development Agency and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. The overall aim of the project was to develop an integrated management strategy as a tool that would facilitate cross-sectoral planning and co-ordination of the use of water within the basin.

The project also aimed at improving water availability and protection against floods and droughts, the report said, adding that the agreement was expected to encourage the use of water in the Zambezi river basin in a co-ordinated and equitable manner to avoid possible conflict of interests between local, subregional and regional users.

Swedish Ambassador to Zambia, Kristina Svensson, said at the signing ceremony that the project was part of the ZRA Action Plan launched in 1985, before becoming an official SADC programme in 1987. Svennson said the project was important to the region against the background that Southern Africa was a water-scarce region where water was distributed unevenly in time and space. She said several countries would, in the next 10 to 20 years, experience a permanent water scarcity. Svennson said the water situation in the region would worsen as a result of the increase in population and its demands for improved lifestyle and the expansion of industrial development and agriculture. Hence, she said, the joint management of rivers was necessary to guarantee an equitable use of the water resources as stated in the revised SADC protocol on shared water- course systems.

"Given these constraints, new approaches are needed to manage water in a sustainable and integrated manner for the benefit of the people, but also for the protection of the natural environment in Southern Africa for future generations," Svensson said. She said the project would first focus on setting up a regional environment for strategic and integrated water resource management. An important part of this enabling environment, she explained, would be the establishment of the Zambezi River basin committee which would provide the legal and institutional framework for the joint management of the basin. "The second phase would concentrate on the development of management systems and models, while the third would develop the integrated water resources management strategy," she said.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: ICRC to increase efforts to supply clean water

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC) marked World Water Day on Thursday with a commitment to increasing its efforts to provide disaster victims with access to clean water and sanitation.

"We are stepping up our efforts in this vital area because we see increasingly that poor water and sanitation pose the greatest threat to lives in the emergency phase of most disasters when there is a high risk of epidemics," said Dr. Alvaro Bermejo, Head of the International Federation's Health Department, in a statement.

"World-wide, the International Federation provides impoverished communities with 20 million litres of water per day, benefitting some one million people in 30 programmes. However, a lot more needs to be done given that one billion people lack access to clean water and half the world's population do not have adequate sanitation facilities. These are the people most likely to be victims of a disaster," said Uli Jaspers, the agency's senior water engineer.

In the current flood crisis in southern Africa, water and sanitation activities were an essential element of the federation's response, particularly in Malawi and Mozambique, the statement said. Red Cross regional water and sanitation co-ordinator, Robert Fraser, said: "For two years running we have been battling the floodwaters in Mozambique and this year we have had to bring in an emergency water purification unit with the support of the Swedish, German and Austrian Red Cross Societies, water and sanitation are key priorities for the Red Cross."

ANGOLA: Over 360 civilians seek amnesty in Balombo

At least 360 civilians turned themselves over to the Balombo District authorities in Benguela province, over the past two weeks within the framework of the Amnesty Law approved by the National Assembly in 2000, Angolan news agency Angop reported on Thursday. Domingos Cavango, district representative of the Assistance and Social Reintegration Ministry, said more than 833 civilians, including 496 children, 220 women and 117 men, had reported to the authorities from January 2001. They had come from the Moco mountain region in the Communal Area of Chindumbo, and had to walk 10 km to reach Balombo in search of freedom and tranquillity, the report said.

Cavango was quoted as saying that the civilians' humanitarian situation was desolate. They showed acute signs of malnutrition due to a poor diet and ill-treatment in the bush, he said, adding that civilians who had been granted amnesty were now living in the Hungulo resettlement centre. The authorities and the World Food Programme (WFP) intended to assist them, Angop's report said.

SOUTH AFRICA: Mugabe worries scare off SA's investors

A visiting delegation from the European Parliament said on Thursday that it was particularly concerned about developments in Zimbabwe and the effect these had had on investor confidence in South Africa, SAPA has reported. Speaking in Cape Town after talks with Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and with parliament's presiding officers, delegation leader Miet Smet said South Africa had a very important part to play in the region.

"The European Parliament is particularly concerned about developments in Zimbabwe. It supports South Africa's efforts, together with Zimbabwe itself, to find a solution to the conflicts, which could influence the economic attractiveness of the whole region. Any further deterioration in the situation in Zimbabwe will lead to more and more illegal immigration into South Africa and aggravate the unemployment problem," Smet was quoted as saying.

The instability in Zimbabwe was also a factor "in the will to invest in South Africa", Smet said, adding that European perceptions about Zimbabwe were "not very positive". "This, of course, is not good if you (South Africa) want to attract people from Europe," she said.

On how the European Parliament would help South Africa avoid Zimbabwe-style land grabs, European Commission (EC) official Dominique Dellicour said the European Union had provided US $10 million for land reform in South Africa. "We are trying to support the government in its overall reform strategy, including land restitution to victims of forced removals, land tenure reform and improving the security of labour tenants on commercial farms," she said, adding that the EU was also assisting a land reform credit scheme, which tried to support joint ventures between previously disadvantaged farmers and their commercial counterparts. "Compared to Zimbabwe there is a much more proactive approach here in South Africa," she was quoted as saying.

MOZAMBIQUE: EU gives US $58 million to fight poverty

The European Commission (EC) is giving Mozambique US $58 million to aid the government's fight against poverty, a commission statement was quoted as saying on Thursday. The statement said the money would contribute "to the continuity of the positive results attained in the country's economic and social areas, particularly actions contributing significantly to the reduction of poverty,"

The first US $22 million will be available immediately, while the remaining US $36 million dollars will be disbursed between June and July, the Commission said. Meanwhile news reports added that the European Investment Bank would also write off US $17.5 million of Mozambique's debt under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

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