US offers investment fund | Angola: journalists in danger | Mozambique: election date proposed | Lake Malawi's Biodiversity threatened

US offers investment fund
Encouraging direct investment in Sub-Saharan Africa is the aim of a new $350-million American fund, American Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC), said recently.

The fund will finance telecommunications, transportation, electrical power, water and sanitation projects and create at least 7,000 jobs, Munoz said at a news conference in Durban, South Africa, where he was attending the World Economic Forum of Southern African states. It is to be managed by the Sloane Financial Group, with offices in Johannesburg, West and East Africa.

"These funds work because they are linked to fixed direct investment and the creation of jobs," Munoz said.

OPIC defines itself as "an independent US government agency that sells investment services to assist US companies investing in some 140 emerging economies around the world". (IRIN)

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Angola: journalists in danger
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) recently declared a journalists'day of action in July to highlight the worsening situation under which Angolan journalists operate.

A researcher at the media rights watchdog told IRIN that "At least four journalists were beaten up in May and June either because of reports they wrote or while carrying out their work."

The researcher also said journalists working for the official media are the most vulnerable because they are closely monitored.

"For example, a government TV crew was attacked by policemen recently while filming a police station around the capital, Luanda," the researcher said.

He added that the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) have laid charges of slander and incitement to rebellion against four independent journalists.

"The four journalists were detained and interrogated for hours before charges were laid with the prosecutions directorate," the researcher said.

MISA argues that the absence of a constitutional court makes the situation more difficult for working journalists. (IRIN)

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Mozambique: Election date proposed
Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) has proposed that the country's second multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections be held on 3 or 4 December, CNE spokesperson Maria Macuacua told reporters.

The CNE proposal now goes to President Joaquim Chissano. Under Mozambican law, it is the president who makes the final decision, and formally announces the election date.

Macuacua said that the December date was agreed among the 17 members of the commission (eight of whom were nominated by the ruling Frelimo Party, six - including Macuacua - by the former rebel movement Renamo, one by the Democratic Union coalition of small opposition parties, and two by the government).

She said that, unless some disaster beyond the CNE's control occurred, then 3-4 December were perfectly feasible dates for the election. The CNE had worked out a timetable for the electoral preparations, and everything fitted in with the December dates, she said.

Macuacua told the reporters that, in the first week of voter registration (20-26 July), 701,310 citizens had been registered.

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Lake Malawi's Biodiversity threatened
Researchers have warned that soil erosion is threatening the viability of Lake Malawi, home to about 700 species of fish.

According to fish researcher Anthony Ribbink, who is managing a Southern Africa Development Community and Global Environmental Facility's Lake Malawi/Nyassa Biodiversity Conservation Project in Africa's third largest lake, this body of water is a ''treasure of biodiversity and food basket of enormous value.''

Funded by donors, including the UNDP, FAO and DANIDA, the project primarily focuses on fish conservation.

''Erosion is the most obvious cause for concern. It is carrying fertile topsoil off the lands into the lake. Plumes of sediment are carried into the lake causing huge umbrellas of shade under which primary productivity ceases,'' Ribbink warns.

He says the fish in the lake are being threatened because, after settling on the lake bedrock, the plumes of sediment cover the algae and other food sources of the fish.

''The sediment too has a negative impact on the fish which have to enter the rivers to spawn,'' he adds.
Ribbink explains that it is important to keep the soil on the land to both maintain and improve acquatic productivity and to save certain species of fish.

The rich biodiversity of the lake, shared by Tanzania and Mozambique, is most apparent in the fish which represent a significant percentage of the world's fresh water fish. (PANA)

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