| AROUND THE REGION |
news briefs |
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| More SADC
states go to polls |
Old Mutual completes demutualisation
The demutualisation process by Old
Mutual, the multinational financial services powerhouse, was completed early July when
the company was listed on four stock exchanges in southern Africa.
The company was listed on the Johannesburg, Zimbabwe, Namibia and
Malawi stock exchanges. The company was also listed on the London stock exchange.
Reports say the listing resulted in major cash injections in the
southern African economies, totaling more than US$2 billion in South Africa alone. More
than 30 million shares Old Mutual shares had changed hands within one day of trading at
the five stock exchanges in southern Africa and in London.
The demutualisation process which stated in August 1997 means that
Old Mutual is no longer a mutual society owned by members but a group of companies owned
by shareholders.
Old Mutual is southern Africa’s largest life insurer and has
assets worth billions of dollars. It has 3,2 million life insurance policyholders, two
million banking customers, 270,000 general insurance customers and 790,000 unit trust
account holders.
The changing face of beauty pageants
Tourism Protocol to strengthen growth of
sectors
Children use art to condemn
violence
OAU seeks home-grown solutions
Water hyacinth cleared from Lake
Kariba
Old Mutual completes
demutualisation |
| The last quarter of the
year will see elections taking place in Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia, and preparations
are now at various stages. In Mozambique, registration of
voters started on July 20 and will run until September 17.
Although no polling date has been set, it is expected that the
elections, which are estimated to cost US$41 million, will take place in late November.
According to the electoral law, there must be at least 60 days between the end of voter
registration and the polling date.
Instead of updating the existing voter register, the government
has complied with demands by the main opposition party RENAMO that the entire electorate
re-registers afresh. Observers feel that there is need to convince those who have voter
cards from the last election that these will not be valid for the forthcoming election and
thus they have to re-register. |
Meanwhile in Botswana, only
385,369 out of 800,000 eligible voters have so far registered to vote. The secretary of
the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Gabriel Seeletso said that lack of education
on the importance of voting among the electorate was the main contributing factor, but
hoped that the ongoing voter education will have an impact on those who have not yet
registered. Election dates are still to be announced but
early October is earmarked as the most likely month.
In Namibia, constitutional amendments to allow President Sam
Nujoma to run for the third term in office sailed through Parliament and voters are
expected to go to the polls towards the end of the year. The exact dates have not yet been
announced.
South Africa and Malawi went to polls last June. |
| OAU
seeks home-grown solutions |
| Southern Africa wants to
enter the next millennium free of war and violent conflict, Kaire Mbuende, SADC Executive
Secretary said at a medica conference during the Organisation
of African Unity summit held in Algiers, Algeria in July. Mbuende estimated that there are 11 violent conflicts currently blighting
Africa with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) conflict and the full-scale civil war
in Angola among the most prominent.
The horrific 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which almost a million
Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, challenged the OAU’s founding principle of
non-intervention in the internal affairs of member states.
Thus the call by President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria that the
OAU must ostracise any future leaders taking power by force. “Africa’s
reputation as a continent at war against itself must be arrested,” he told the
Algiers summit. |
The OAU Secretary-General,
Salim Ahmed Salim, said: “It is clear to me that much as we would want to concentrate
on economic development, unless we are able to make some significant headway on the issue
of ending instability and insecurity in Africa, our efforts will continue to be
frustrated.” African leaders at the summit made a
resolution to never again embrace coup leaders into the pan-Africanist body.
“The summit was adamant that from now on no coup plotters or
designers will be taken on board and are irrelevant to Africa,” said Ibrahim Dagash,
an OAU spokesman. |
| Water hyacinth cleared from Lake Kariba |
| The Zambezi River Authority
has cleared about 2,200 hectares of water hyacinth on Lake Kariba using aerial sprays with
a chemical weed killer, according to a recent article by PANA News Agency. A recent river authority report said the aerial sprays achieved an 80
percent success rate against the “notorious water hyacinth’’ which had
covered almost the entire surface of the lake. The exercise was done with the aid of local
and international agencies.
The report said only a few patches of the weed both on the Zambian
and Zimbabwean sides were deliberately left. This was because they were at the time either
floating on or close to outlets of water required for domestic or agricultural use as well
as vital tourist points. |
Officials concerned have
arranged to remove the remaining weed mechanically or manually. Laboratory analyses of the water from the lake after the spraying has been
found to contain no trace of chemical contamination, according to the report.
An international conference is set for Lusaka in October to plan
long-term monitoring and control measures against the weed on the lake and other water
bodies within the Zambezi River basin, which borders Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Environment experts say the Kariba weed poses both environmental
and mechanical problems. It is said to inhibit natural underwater circulation of oxygen
necessary for the survival of fish and other water life. (PANA) |
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