ITEM NO. 99/10/01-MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - TELECOMMUNICATIONS - INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The publicly owned Mozambican telecommunications company (TDM) and the French company, Alcatel, signed an agreement for the latter to supply and install cellular phone equipment in Mozambique's central and northern regions. The project is estimated to cost about US$19.5 million. It is funded by the French Development Agency, some Mozambican financial institutions and the TDM itself. Alcatel was awarded the project after it won a public tender, launched by TDM in May, for the mordenisation and expansion of the telephone network in the country. This project is to be fully implemented by the end of the year 2000, covering the Beira, Chimoio and Tete cities, and the towns of Songo and Manica in the central region, and the northern cities of Nampula and Mozambique Island. From: TDM and ALCATEL sign agreement / AIM / 1 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/02-MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ECONOMIC CONDITION The Sugar Company "Acucareira de Mocambique", located at Mafambisse, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, plans to export 12,500 tonnes of sugar to the United States this year, said its managing director, Terry O'Connor. The contacts to firm up this export to the US market, the first since the Mafambisse sugar mill underwent rehabilitation, are almost complete, and the shipment is expected shortly. O'Connor said that in the 1998-99 campaign, the company produced 32.000 tonnes of sugar. He predicted that in the coming campaign (1999-2000) production will rise to 45,000 tonnes. 40 per cent of this will be for export, and the rest for the domestic market. The installed capacity at Mafambisse is about 70,000 tonnes of sugar a year, and in its plantation and factory the company employs some 7,000 workers. From: Sugar exports to US / AIM / 2 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/02 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - REGIONAL COOPERATION The Mozambican and Angolan governments signed an agreement in Maputo, under which they pledged to strengthen co-operation in several aspects of fisheries development, including research, inspection, administration, training and environmental matters. The agreement was signed by Mozambique's Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, and Angola's Minister of Fisheries and Environment, Fatima Jardim, at the end of Jardim's four day visit to Mozambique. She said she believed that the Angolan business people accompanying her "are returning satisfied, because they have had the chance to see on what basis our co-operation is reciprocal". Jardim also suggested a joint quality control programme, under which the two governments would work to improve the quality of their fisheries produce. "We are at a critical moment", she said, "because our products are sent to other markets, particularly to the European Union, and so we must have the infrastructures that allow us to comply with the rules demanded by the international market". From: Co-operation with Angola / AIM / 2 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/99 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ELECTIONS - VOTER REGISTRATION A total of 7,099,105 Mozambican citizens registered as voters during the voter registration exercise that ran from 20 July to 17 September, according to the country's National Elections Commission (CNE). At the time of the previous general elections, in October 1994, there were 6,396,061 registered voters. This number rose to 7,223,937 after the one and only time that the electoral registers were updated, in late 1997. All provinces bar one show an increase in the size of their electorate over the 1994 figure. The exception is Maputo City itself, where the electorate has actually declined by 0.75 percent. The largest percentage increases in the electorate took place in Manica, Tete and Niassa provinces, where the electorate is respectively 30.7, 26.7 and 26.2 per cent larger than in 1994. All these are border provinces, and the jump in the number of voters can probably be explained by the continuing return of Mozambicans who were refugees in neighbouring countries during the war of destabilisation. From: Final voter registration figures / AM / 4 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/05 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - EDUCATION Mozambique's privately owned Higher Polytechnic and University Institute (ISPU) opened a new post-graduate course in Company Management in Maputo, in partnership with the Portuguese Institute for the Development of Company Management (INDEG). The Masters course, which has enrolled its first 30 students, will be taught at ISPU's Post-Graduation Applied Research Studies Centre (CEPPA). CEPPA director Vinoda Mangalal said that this course was designed "to respond to the growing demands of the market". He explained that it "is open for all graduate civil servants and university staff who do not have updated and structured knowledge in the area of management". Mangalal added that the Portuguese Higher Institute of Labour and Company Sciences (ISCTE) will issue the post-graduate diplomas, in Lisbon, which is a department of INDEG. From: New Post-Graduate Course / AIM / 5 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/05 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - REGIONAL INTEGRATION - SOUTHERN AFRICA
ITEM NO. 99/10/06 -MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - HUMAN RIGHTS Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi admitted, "respect for human rights in the country has not yet attained the desired level". Speaking during a ceremony to launch the first report on the human rights situation, produced by the Mozambican NGO, the Human Rights and Development Association (DHD), Mocumbi said, however, that the government has been striving to respond to the calls from citizens for more respect for their rights. Among the actions carried out by the government in this regard, he mentioned the introduction of human rights as a discipline in police training courses, and the ongoing reform of the legal and prison systems. Pointing out some of the failures to respect human rights in Mozambique, the report broaches, among other issues, the matter of corruption within the state apparatus. "In some sectors, such as the health and education services, registry offices, the courts, the issuing of licences, tax payments, the police, the immigration service, housing, vehicle registration, the allocation of land and others, corruption has been evident", reads the document. From: Human Rights in Mozambique not fully respected / AIM / 6 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/06 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - HUMAN RIGHTS The Mozambican justice system is not functioning properly as a guarantor of the protection of human rights, warns the Human Rights and Development Association (DHD), a Mozambican NGO which unveiled its first report on the human rights situation in the country. The report noted that, although access to the legal system is a right enshrined in the Mozambican constitution, in reality most of the population is deprived of this right, thanks to the collapse of the legal aid system. The report attacked judges who set derisory amounts of bail for serious offences. The report claimed there are cases in which judges take their decisions "based on the economic situation, social position, race, degree of influence, religion or ethnic group of those involved". As for the police force, the DHD report accuses it of lack of professionalism, torture and arbitrary detention of citizens, corruption and abuse of authority. As for the sorry state of Mozambique's prisons the report notes that they are characterised by overcrowding, malnutrition and even the deaths of prisoners from various diseases. The report ranges far and wide, taking in many issues, which are not normally regarded as human rights. Thus one section deals with consumers' rights, including the sale of goods past their expiry date, and overcharging by the publicly owned electricity and telecommunications companies, EDM and TDM. From: Report denounces Human Rights abuses / AIM / 6 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/08 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ELECTIONS Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano registered with the Supreme Court as the candidate of the ruling Frelimo party for the forthcoming presidential election, scheduled for 3-4 December. Shortly after the Court handed him the document confirming that he has submitted his candidature, Chissano told reporters that he cannot, as yet, consider himself as standing for the elections, because, as is the case with all presidential candidates, his nomination papers must be confirmed. Presidential candidates must be registered voters aged over 35, who have never been sentenced to jail terms for any serious offence. Each candidate must also be proposed by at least 10,000 other voters: the signatures of each one of these propose must be recognised by a notary. Chissano should have no problems with the court confirming his candidature, since he presented 30,000 signatures nominating him. Chissano became President of Mozambique in 1986, following the death of the country's first President, Samora Machel, in a plane crash at Mbuzini, just inside South Africa. In the first multiparty elections, in October 1994, Chissano had little difficulty defeating the 11 other candidates, and took 53.3 percent of the valid votes cast. From: Chissano registers as Presidential Candidate / AIM / 8 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/08 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ELECTIONS Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's largest opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, registered with the Supreme Court as a candidate for December's presidential election. Leaders of the ten minor parties who have formed an "Electoral Union" with Renamo, and are backing Dhlakama's presidential bid in exchange for places on the Renamo parliamentary lists accompanied him. Dhlakama's election agent, Luis Gouveia, told AIM that the Renamo leader's nomination papers include the notarised signatures of 16,000 proposers "and we could have brought many more". Beating Chissano will be an enormous task: in the 1994 election there was a gap of almost 20 percentage points between the two. Chissano took 53.3 percent of the valid votes, and Dhlakama trailed with 33.73 percent. As for the parliamentary elections, Maximo Dias, leader of MONAMO (Mozambican Nationalist Movement), one of Renamo's allies, said that each of the minor parties in the Electoral Union will have two places on the Renamo lists, in positions that virtually guarantee seats in parliament. From: Dhlakama registers with Supreme Court / AIM / 8 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/12 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ELECTIONS Mozambique's Supreme Court rejected three candidates for December's presidential elections because they did not bring sufficient nominations. Under the country's electoral law, any candidate for the presidency must be nominated by a minimum of 10,000 registered voters. Their signatures on the nomination papers must all be notarised. Armando Siueia, leader of the National Workers and Peasants Party (PANAOC), Joaquim Nyota of the Democratic Party for the Liberation of Mozambique (PADELIMO), and Wehia Ripua, who heads the three party coalition UMO (Mozambican Opposition Union), all failed to provide enough signatures. Indeed Nyota did not provide any nominations at all. According to a report in Tuesday's issue of the newsheet "Mediafax", he told court officials that he had some nomination papers "somewhere in the car". Ripua only managed to present the court with 6,000 signatures. He claimed that his other nomination papers had been "destroyed by Dynamising Groups" in Matola. The court's rejection of Siueia, Nyota and Ripua leaves just two candidates in the race, namely Joaquim Chissano, proposed by the ruling Frelimo Party and Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the Renamo. From: Three Presidential candidates rejected / AIM / 12 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/12 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - POPULATION - CENSUS On 12 October, the Mozambican population reached 16,988,200. That, at any rate, is the projection from the 1997 census, the definitive results of which the National Statistics Institute (INE) released in Maputo. The census, carried out in the first fortnight of August 1997, physically counted 15,278,334 people. A subsequent "coverage survey" discovered an omission rate of 5.1 per cent. This means that the census reached 94.9 percent of the Mozambican population. The United Nations classifies this coverage rate as "good". 52 per cent of the population is male and 48 percent female - which means that there are only 92 men for every 100 women. The census shows that the population is overwhelmingly young. 44.8 per cent of the total population are aged 14 or under, 52,6 per cent is aged between 15 and 64, and only 2.8 per cent is aged 65 and over. The population is also overwhelmingly rural. 71.4 percent live in the countryside, while only 28.6 per cent are defined as "urban". The census gives an average life expectancy at birth of 42.3 years (40.6 for men and 44 for women). Based on the 1997 census, the INE calculates that the Mozambican population will reach 17.2 million in the year 2000,22 million in 2010, and 28 million in 2020. But these projections do not take account of the demographic impact of the AIDS pandemic, which is expected to slow down, and perhaps even reverse, population growth in southern and eastern African countries. From: Definitive Census results released / AIM / 12 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/13 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - REGIONAL COOPERATION - ECONOMIC POLICY Mozambique started to export processed milk to neighbouring Swaziland. Citing the general director of the privately-owned milk company Parmalat-Mocambique, Laranjeira Lopes, the source says that the factory will initially export 50,000 litres of milk to Swaziland every month as from October, and will strive to expand its market. Lopes said that Parmalat will gradually increase its exports to a target of 200,000 litres a month, which he expects the company to achieve by the second half of the year 2000. Parmalat also processes fruit juices, which it hopes to export to other countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). From: Mozambique exports processed milk to Swaziland / AIM / 13 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/13 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION The United States has expressed its wish to increase co-operation with the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In monetary terms, this co-operation is estimated, for the last five years, at more than 200 million US dollars. The newly-appointed US special representative for the SADC region, Robert Krueger, who is also US ambassador to Botswana, told a Maputo press conference that his country believes the region is heading towards economic growth, and hence his appointment to closely follow new developments. The SADC is the only region in Africa where Bill Clinton has appointed a special representative. Currently, he is touring the region, holding a series of meetings with the region's leaders and businessmen in a bid to encourage free trade. In Maputo he met with President Joaquim Chissano in his capacity as the president of SADC. Krueger said that in the conversations it transpired that Mozambique, in its new role, is seeking to make SADC more efficient than in the past, and he was briefed on the work currently being undertaken by four regional countries aimed at proposing a structure that will improve SADC efficiency. From: US seeks to increase Co-operation With SADC / AIM / 13 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/13 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ELECTIONS - MEDIA The Supreme Mass Media Council (CSCS), Mozambique's constitutionally enshrined watchdog on press freedom, has called on the press to cover the forthcoming election campaign in a balanced and impartial manner. Speaking at a seminar aimed at preparing the CSCS media monitoring project in the run-up to the elections, the CSCS chairperson, Julieta Langa, said the press should be impartial in the way it treats the information gathered during the campaign, so as to strengthen the country's fledgling democracy. She said that CSCS monitoring will involve statistical analysis of all information produced by the various national and foreign media bodies registered in Mozambique. After the campaign, a report will be produced, and sent to all those involved in the elections, said Langa. From: CSCS to monitor press in run-up to elections / AIM / 13 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/14 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ECONOMIC POLICY - FUEL PRICES The Mozambican government announced increases in the prices of petrol, jet fuel and cooking gas, taking effect immediately. The highest rise is for jet fuel, which now costs 3,231.5 meticais a litre, rather than 2,784.92 meticais - an increase of 16 per cent. Petrol goes up by 4.9 per cent, from 6,310 to 6,620 meticais a litre. A kilo of cooking gas now costs 7,204.46 rather than 7,017.91 meticais, which is a rise of 2.7 per cent. The price of diesel and kerosene remains unchanged at 4,340 and 2,350 meticais a litre respectively. All these prices refer to sales to the public in the main ports. Elsewhere in the country, the distributors of liquid fuels are allowed to add the costs of transport. From: Fuel prices / AIM / 14 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/14 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - POLITICAL PARTIES - ELECTIONS Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party hopes to increase its parliamentary majority in the general elections scheduled for 3-4 December. Addressing a Maputo press conference, the head of the Frelimo election office, Mariano Matsinhe, said he was confident the party would win "a comfortable parliamentary majority". In the outgoing parliament Frelimo holds an overall majority of just eight seats. Frelimo has 129 seats to 112 for the former rebel movement Renamo, and nine for the three-party opposition coalition, the Democratic Union (UD). Asked if he expected Frelimo to win a two-thirds majority, Matsinhe was cautious. "Our objective is to increase the number of our parliamentary seats", he said. "Naturally, we would like two thirds, so as to amend the constitution". From: FRELIMO aiming at larger majority / AIM / 14 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/14 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - SECURITY - IDENTITY CARD Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano inaugurated in Maputo, the first production centre for new and computerised Mozambican identity cards. This new document is believed to be difficult to forge, and the idea is that the number on it be used in other documents such as passports and driving licences. Chissano described the project as part of the Mozambican government's efforts to modernise the country, and said that it is to be expanded to cover the entire country within the next three years. Chissano pointed out that the new identity card will facilitate the production of future electoral registers by creating a data bank of updated and computerised information. He announced that the Mozambican government will subsidise by 20 percent the issuing of the new documents, making them free for people who are extremely poor, whereas the standard fee is fixed at 25,000 meticais (about two US dollars). To make it difficult to falsify, the new document will be produced on special paper, that will have a "security bar" (similar to that used in bank notes), which changes colour depending on how the document is held to the light. The first of the new identity cards were issued for Chissano and some government members, who accompanied him to the inauguration ceremony. From: Chissano inaugurates new identity card centre / AIM / 14 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/14 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - SOLIDARITY Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano broadcast over Radio Mozambique a message of condolences on the occasion of the death of one of those who made Mozambican independence possible, former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere. Chissano described Nyerere as "a friend from the first moment of the Mozambican people, of Frelimo, and of the Mozambican government. It is difficult for us to accept that this sincere friend of the unity of the Mozambican national liberation movement is no longer among us". Referring to Nyerere repeatedly by the Swahili title "Mwalimu" (teacher), Chissano recalled how the Tanzanian leader "received in his recently-liberated country thousands of Mozambican refugees and nationalists who made of Tanzania the cradle for our freedom and independence". It was Nyerere who had sponsored the foundation of the Mozambique liberation Front, FRELIMO, in Dar Es Salaam in June 1962, he said. The best way to pay homage to Nyerere, he concluded, was "to restate our firm commitment to co-operation between the Mozambican and Tanzanian peoples and states". "This is the best way of comforting our Tanzanian brothers and ourselves, shocked as we are at the death of Mwalimu Nyerere", he said. Nyerere was Patron of Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) From: Chissano pays homage to Nyerere / AIM / 14 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/15 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ELECTIONS - GOVERNMENT - POLITICAL PARTIES If it wins the December general elections, Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party will continue to govern alone, and will not form any coalition, said the party's general secretary, Manuel Tome. At a press conference held to unveil Frelimo's programme for government for the next five years, Tome rejected the formation of any "Government of National Unity", that would bring together Frelimo and its major opponent, the former rebel movement Renamo. Tome said that such a coalition would "defraud the electorate". It would deny the reality of an election result that producer winners and losers. He also warned that forming such a grand coalition would mean the end of any organised opposition in parliament. From: FRELIMO rejects coalition government / AIM / 15 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/25 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION - INVESTMENT The World Bank has approved a loan of 100 million US dollars to assist the Mozambican government in its restructuring of the country's publicly owned ports and Railway Company, CFM. A World Bank press release says that the objective of the restructuring is "to transform the railways and ports into modern systems that are competitive, efficient, market-oriented and financially viable". The money is granted by the World Bank's soft loans affiliate, the International Development Association (IDA), with a payment period of 40 years and a period of grace of ten years. The most difficult and controversial part of the restructuring is the "rationalisation" of the CFM work force. There is no doubt that CFM is very seriously over manned: some estimates put the total number of staff to be shed at over 14,000. The World Bank hopes that, with the restructuring, by the year 2002 rail traffic will reach seven million, and port traffic ten million tonnes. This should raise gross revenue from the current figure of 80 million dollars to about 150 million dollars a year. From: World Bank loan for CFM / AIM / 25 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/27 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ELCTIONS - POLITICAL PARTIES - MEDIA Manuel Pereira, the top official of Mozambique's main opposition party, in the central province of Sofala, has threatened to ban the Mozambican press from covering the Renamo election campaign. Pereira claimed that the media were distorting the truth about the campaign, and hiding the acceptance that he, Pereira, allegedly enjoys among the population of Beira. He also claimed that the ruling Frelimo Party is bribing some journalists to work against Renamo and the ten minor parties allied to it in the "Electoral Union". Pereira, who was speaking in the Beira suburb of Chipangara, said he hoped to see a change in the attitude of the media and their reporters. Otherwise, he would inform the Renamo headquarters in Maputo that he did not need any media coverage of the campaign in Sofala. "I'm the Renamo delegate in Sofala", he said. "If I say I don't need any journalists because they're hiding the truth, then I'll be listened to. Working on our own, without any coverage, we can and shall win the elections". "Today journalists are favouring Chissano, but as from 3-4 December, their boss will be (Renamo leader Afonso) Dhlakama, when he has won the elections", declared Pereira. From: Renamo threatens to ban Reporters / AIM / 27 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/29 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - ELECTIONS - POLITICAL PARTIES The Mozambican government has made 480,000US dollars available from the state budget for this year's presidential and parliamentary election campaign, but no money from foreign donors has yet been disbursed, according to Jamisse Taimo, chairman of the National Elections Commission (CNE). Taimo said that a third of the money will go to the presidential candidates, a third to the parties currently represented in parliament and a third to the lists competing in the parliamentary elections. This means that the two presidential candidates, the incumbent, Joaquim Chissano, and Afonso Dhlakama, will each receive 80,000 dollars from the Mozambican state's contribution to the campaign funds. The second third will be divided between the three forces in parliament Frelimo has 129 seats, Renamo 112 and the UD nine, and so the distribution of the 160,000 dollars involved should be as follows: Frelimo - 82,560 dollars Renamo - 71,680 dollars UD - 5,760 dollars. The final third will be distributed among all the forces competing in the parliamentary elections - meaning that Frelimo and Renamo will each get another bite of the cherry. From: Funds for election campaign / AIM / 29 October 1999
ITEM NO. 99/10/31 - MZ
MOZAMBIQUE - TRANSPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS - ECONOMIC POLICY The first 15 kilometres of the 300 kilometre long railway between the towns of Cuamba and Lichinga have been rebuilt, announced the Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano. Addressing an election campaign rally in the small Niassa town of Mitande, Chissano recalled that it was just a few weeks ago, in September that he had inaugurated the reconstruction work. The railway, heavily damaged during the war of destabilisation, is a spur off the line that runs from the port of Nacala to Malawi. It is easily the most economic way of transporting fuel and consumer goods to Niassa, and of taking Niassa's own produces to the coast. Chissano said that currently the reconstruction is relying on funds provided by the Mozambican State and by the publicly owned ports and Railway Company CFM. The rebuilding will be undertaken by phases, he added, while attempts continue to mobilise foreign aid. "We want Niassa to become a developed province", said Chissano. Once the railway is functioning fully, it would encourage rapid development, and would be the basis for new agricultural, industrial and mining projects, which in turn would generate employment.From: Niassa Rail line under Reconstruction / AIM / 31 October 1999
MOZAMBIQUE CHRONOLOGY 01-31 OCTOBER 1999 Compiled by SARDC Maputo