MOZAMBIQUE: President and opposition
chief to meet on poll dispute
Opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama said
on Wednesday that he would meet President Joaquim Chissano on Thursday
for a third round of talks aimed at resolving a dispute over elections
held more than one year ago, news reports said.
"We are going to assess the work of the various joint working groups set up in our last meeting in January," Dhlakama was quoted as saying. "There are only two options to resolve the crisis -the appointment of governors where we won the most votes, or early elections in 2002," Dhlakama said. "We don't demand power sharing as such, but we want to be given space at the grassroots level."
Dhlakama's RENAMO party has never accepted the results of the December 1999 general elections, claiming the outcome was rigged despite a Supreme Court ruling that declared the poll legitimate.
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe pledges continued support for DRC
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe vowed on Tuesday to continue military aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the official 'Herald' newspaper reported. "Our support will continue until we are certain that the territorial integrity of the Congo has been restored," Mugabe told a news conference before seeing off DRC leader Joseph Kabila at Harare airport.
Kabila concluded a two-day official visit to Zimbabwe on Tuesday with a special address to parliament, which was boycotted by the country's main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In his address Kabila expressed his "appreciation" of Zimbabwe's military assistance to the DRC government.
Mugabe expressed satisfaction at a troop disengagement in the DRC. "Generally the situation is now calm. We hope the calmness will continue and will transform itself into a real peace process that will see ... the aggression end," he said.
Meanwhile Kabila told journalist that he did not believe that the DRC would ever be divided into two countries. "Our people up to now have demonstrated their willingness and their love to see Congo united as one and only one country," he said.
SOUTH AFRICA: Fast growth may not create jobs
South Africa's economy must grow by between five and eight percent to start meaningful job growth Reuters quoted economists as saying on Wednesday. "I really don't know how fast the economy must grow to bring the jobless level down. It may even be closer to eight percent," said PSG Investment Bank economist Noelani King. Others said rapid growth alone may not put people to work in an age of globalisation and corporate restructuring.
Economists admit that it is hard to estimate how fast the economy - which grew by an estimated 3.1 percent last year - must expand to create work in a country where more than a third of the labour force lacks formal employment. Andrew Whiteford of the economic consultancy WEFA Southern Africa said the five to six percent figure usually quoted as leading to job growth is no longer relevant as it is often based on outmoded assumptions about an economy that has undergone a dramatic structural change in recent years. "Now we have positive GDP growth associated with negative employment growth," he said.
The economy has grown, albeit sluggishly for the most part, since the end of apartheid in 1994. Yet it has shed well over 500,000 jobs since that time. In 1997 alone, 142,000 jobs are estimated to have been lost when the economy grew by 1.7 percent, according to one WEFA study. "There is a lot of emphasis on the skills shortage. But while we need to focus on this we actually need to create more unskilled jobs because the majority of our population is unskilled," said King. Analysts believe growth should be encouraged in select sectors that are labour intensive and don't always require skills, like tourism and construction.
NAMIBIA: Soldier dies in battle with UNITA
Namibia's defence ministry confirmed that a soldier died in battle with UNITA rebels two weeks ago, but denied reports that the killing occurred in the Angolan bush or that there were other casualties, the 'Namibian' reported on Wednesday. Vincent Mwange, spokesperson for the ministry was quoted as saying that Lieutenant Khumalo Shilongo died "along the border when there was an exchange of fire" between UNITA and Namibia Defence Force (NDF) soldiers.
Pressed about the date and whether the fighting took place inside Namibia or Angola, Mwange stuck to "along the [Angolan] border with Namibia", but people closely linked to soldiers involved in the fighting against the rebel movement said the shooting took place at least 40 km inside south-eastern Angola, east of Chimbaranda, the report said.
Asked how many Namibian soldiers had died in Angola since the NDF began sending troops after UNITA, Mwange said: "I have said what I want people to hear. Of what significance is it for you to know the number? What is the purpose of that question?" Mwange claimed he could not release "certain information" for "security reasons", the report added.
ZAMBIA: World Bank to assist Copperbelt
The World Bank has pledged more technical support to business initiatives on the Copperbelt to accelerate economic development, the 'Times of Zambia' reported on Wednesday.
World Bank country director Yaw Ansu said in Ndola, the global lending institution was determined to ensure business development initiatives on the Copperbelt were a success following the privatisation of the mines. "The World Bank has a number of unfinished projects on the Copperbelt and would like to see that these are fully supported," Ansu said. He added that the World Bank team was on the Copperbelt to tour a number of projects under the Zambia Social Investment Fund and the Rural Investment Fund.
[ENDS]
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