Weekly anb02088.txt #8

[anb-bia <anb-bia@village.uunet.be>]

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 08-02-2001      PART #8/8

* Zambie. Sondage sur le 3e mandat de Chiluba  -  Les résultats du sondage 
et de l'étude nationale (basés sur les réponses d'environ 8.500 personnes), 
réalisés pour déterminer si le président en exercice Frédérick Chiluba 
devrait postuler ou non un troisième mandat, ont révélé que 54% y sont 
favorables et 46% contre. Ceux qui y sont opposés sont principalement des 
autorités religeuses, des hommes d'affaires et des enseignants. Ils ont 
notamment souligné que cela constituerait un précédent néfaste si la 
Constitution était amendée pour répondre à des intérêts individuels; 
d'autres ont aussi évoqué les mauvais résultats énonomiques du gouvernement 
de M. Chiluba. Les personnes favorables au projet étaient essentiellement 
des commerçants, des opérateurs du secteur informel et des leaders 
traditionnels. Ceux-ci ont prétendu que le président Chiluba avait besoin 
de temps supplémentaire pour achever ses projets de développement; d'autres 
ont affirmé qu'il n'existe pas de leader alternatif performant. Le sondage, 
le premier réalisé dans le pays, a soulevé une controverse à propos de la 
motivation du sponsor, dont le nom n'a pas été divulgué.   (D'après PANA, 
1er février 2001)

* Zambie. Traité commercial de la SADC  -  La Zambie a finalement ratifié 
le traité commercial de la Communauté pour le développement de l'Afrique 
australe (SADC) qui entrera en vigueur le 5 mars prochain, a annoncé le 2 
février le ministre zambien du Commerce et de l'Industrie, M. David Mpamba. 
S'exprimant devant le Parlement, M. Mpamba a indiqué que la ratification de 
ce protocole permettra à la Zambie d'augmenter ses exportations de plus de 
$100 millions par an, en raison de l'accès préférentiel au marché 
sud-africain. Le traité commercial a fait l'objet d'intenses négociations, 
afin de lui garantir une mise en oeuvre souple et une application optimale, 
a-t-il ajouté. Il devait entrer en vigueur le 25 janvier 2000, à la suite 
de sa ratification par deux tiers des Etats membres, mais son application a 
été reportée en raison des négociations toujours en cours. La Zambie est le 
troisième pays à ratifier ce traité après l'Afrique du Sud et l'île 
Maurice.   (PANA, 3 février 2001)

* Zambia. Nuns criticise government inaction  -  Catholic nuns in the 
Zambia Association of Sisterhoods (ZSA) and the (Catholic) Religious 
Superiors Conference of Zambia -- which unites the leaders of Catholic 
orders of nuns -- have issued a pastoral statement criticising the Zambian 
government for the nation's falling education standards and poor health 
care in public hospitals and other institutions. Together the two 
organisations represent about 1000 nuns across Zambia engaged in missionary 
work and care for the poor. The Catholic nuns also claimed that the 
government was not seriously committed to reducing Zambia's widespread 
poverty. "Poverty and hunger are growing; the majority of our people live 
on one meal or less a day, and salaries of workers are not paid for 
months." (ENI, Zambia, 3 January 2001)

* Zimbabwe. The independent Press under attack  -  Readers will recall that 
on 28 January, four powerful explosions in the industrial area of 
Southerton, shattered the Daily News printing presses worth some US $1 
million. This is not the first time the Daily News has come under attack 
because in April 2000, the Daily News offices in town were bombed but there 
were no injuries. The fact is, and this must be emphasised, there has of 
late been a sustained attack on the independent Press, particularly the 
Daily News, for exposing corruption in government circles. Zimbabwe's 
independent Press has been in the forefront of questioning Zimbabwe's 
involvement in the Congo RDC war, as well as attacking the government's 
fast-track land resettlement programme. The bombing of the Daily News came 
at a time when the government had publicly threatened to "deal with the 
paper". The day before the bombing, the ruling ZANU-PF met with the war 
veterans to decide how they were going to deal with the Daily News. The 
Minister of State responsible for Information, Jonathan Moyo, was quoted as 
saying that the state would silence the Daily News because it posed a 
security risk to the nation. Moyo was also given space in the 
state-controlled Herald to attack both the Daily News and Trevor Ncube who 
is the editor-in-chief of the Zimbabwe Standard and the Zimbabwe 
Independent newspapers. A week before the bombing of the Daily News, war 
veterans had mounted roadblocks in Mkutoko, Marondera Murewa and other 
areas, where they searched cars and buses for copes of the Daily News and 
other independent publications. Those found with copies were harassed and 
had their copies taken and burnt. (Editor's update: 3 February -- Hundreds 
of police have stopped a planned protest march by journalists in Harare 6 
February -- Military analysts say they have identified the type of bomb 
used to destroy the Daily News' printing press. Government investigators 
havekept a close grip on their findings so far).   (Percy Makombe, ANB-BIA, 
Zimbabwe, 31 January 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Top judge resigns under pressure  -  The Zimbabwean government 
has announced that the country's chief justice is to retire a year early. 
The justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said that Chief Justice Anthony 
Gubbay's decision had come after a thirty-minute meeting with him. The BBC 
Correspondent in Harare says that although Mr Gubbay has made no public 
comment, it's almost certain the decision to retire early was forced upon 
him. Senior legal sources who asked not to be named, told The Times that 
the Manchester-born judge had been forced to resign after Mr Mugabe refused 
to provide judges with protection from mobs of lawless so-called war 
veterans. In recent months, the government has criticised the senior 
judiciary, and its supporters have threatened judges with physical harm. 
Following a series of court rulings last year against the government's 
controversial land reforms, Mr Chinamasa accused the chief justice -- who 
is white -- of serving the interests of Zimbabwe's white minority. A new 
Chief Justice has not yet been appointed but speculation is rife that High 
Court Judge Godfrey Chidyausiku is pencilled to take over.   (ANB-BIA, 
Brussels, 3 February 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Putting price controls across economy  -  Zimbabwe is gearing 
up for the imposition of price controls "on all commodities, goods and 
services, produced wholly or substantially" within the country. Price and 
wage restraint is part of a social contract the government hopes will be 
adopted by labour unions and employers. It is part of a new populist 
strategy it hopes will enable President Robert Mugabe to win the next 
presidential election, scheduled for April next year. Some aspects of the 
plan are already in place and others are taking shape. Interest rates have 
been so set that the yield on money market instruments is at least 45 
percentage points below the inflation rate of 55 per cent. Bank lending 
rates are also hugely negative and the government is trying to finance its 
growing domestic debt by issuing five-year government loan stock at an 
interest rate of about 25 per cent - or less than half the inflation rate. 
The plan includes doubling minimum pay for urban employees to about Z$6,300 
a month, while imposing price controls on basic items. These include the 
staple food, maize meal, cooking oil, bread, flour, milk, meat and 
paraffin. Bus fares, rents and water charges are also listed for a form of 
"price restraint". Despite these populist measures, the trade unions have 
rejected the contract, while employers make little secret of their 
opposition to a plan they say cannot work. The government's part of the 
bargain is to cut inflation to 40 per cent within the time-frame of the 
accord to cut the budget deficit from 23 per cent of gross domestic product 
last year to 3 per cent by 2003 and to "continually introduce tax 
incentives especially for exports and boost disposable incomes". The 
government also promises to continue to manage the exchange rate and 
"maintain purchasing power parity with our trading partners".   (Financial 
Times, UK, 6 February 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Démission du président de la Cour suprême  -  2 février. Le 
président de la Cour suprême du Zimbabwe, M. Anthony Gubbay, a démissionné 
au milieu d'une tension croissante entre le pouvoir judiciaire et le 
gouvernement à propos des décisions de justice sur la réforme agraire. M. 
Gubbay, aux commandes du système judiciaire depuis dix ans, s'est retiré 
après une réunion avec le ministre de la Justice. Les autorités l'ont 
accusé avec véhémence de prendre des décisions allant à l'encontre des 
intérêts nationaux. A maintes reprises il avait déclaré illégaux les 
projets du gouvernement de confisquer une partie des fermes des Blancs pour 
les distribuer aux paysans noirs sans terres. La tension entre le pouvoir 
judiciaire et le gouvernement était encore montée d'un cran le 30 janvier, 
après que la Cour suprême eut annulé un décret du président Mugabe 
déclarant illégales les pétitions déposées par l'opposition contre les 
résultats des élections législatives de juin dernier. - Le 3 février, pour 
la deuxième journée, la police était fortement présente dans les rues de 
Harare pour empêcher toute manifestation des partisans de l'opposition. La 
veille, la police avait dû disperser les jeunes du principal parti 
d'opposition, le Mouvement pour le changement démocratique (MDC), qui 
tentaient de manifester contre l'anarchie dans le pays. Huit personnes ont 
été arrêtées. Le gouvernement a placé les forces de sécurité en état 
d'alerte total, déclarant avoir éventé un complot de ce parti d'opposition 
pour renverser le président Mugabe. - Le 6 février, le vice- président et 
deux autres membres du MDC ont été arrêtés pour "incitation à la 
violence".   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 7 février 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Internal concerns  -  War veterans: The so-called war-veterans 
may be turning into a force answerable only to its increasingly extremist 
leaders. One analyst has said: "The vets have been allowed, quite 
literally, to get away with murder since they were unleashed on the 
population befor June's elections. The government is now worried they can 
no longer be controlled". Arrests: Three leaders of Zimbabwe's main 
opposition party were arrested on 5 February for allegedly making 
inflammatory statements during political rallies at the weekend. Fuel: Fuel 
queues that started reappearing at the weekend, threatened to get worse as 
some garages in Harare ran dry without any indication when the next 
supplies would arrive, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on 6 
February. (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 7 February 2001)


Weekly anb0208.txt - End of part 8/8

THE END


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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie 
(W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature)
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Everytime somebody keep silent when faced with tyranny, someone else dies 
(Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for Literature) *
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