Mozambique: Recent Documents, 12/06/'95

Mozambique: Recent Documents, 1
Date Distributed (ymd): 951206

MOZAMBIQUE PEACE PROCESS BULLETIN
Excerpts from Issue 16 - December 1995

Edited by Joseph Hanlon. Published by AWEPA, the European Parliamentarians for Southern Africa, Prins Hendrikkade 48, 1012 AC Amsterdam, Netherlands. Tel: (31) 20 626 66 39; Fax: (31) 20 622 01 30; e-mail: awepa@antenna.nl. Material may be freely reprinted.

The following are excerpts from a much longer document, with some sections rearranged for greater readability. For a complete copy by e-mail (50K+ total), contact jhanlon@open.ac.uk. For the printed version contact AWEPA at the address above. The AWEPA office in Maputo is moving to: Rua Licenciado Coutinho 77 (CP 2648) e-mail: awepa@awepa.uem.mz Tel +258 (1) 41 86 03 Fax +258 (1) 41 86 04.

===============================================
JOINING THE COMMONWEALTH

Mozambique has become the 53rd member of the Commonwealth, and is the first country to be admitted which is not a former British colony. But all of its neighbours are members, and they pushed Mozambique's application. The Commonwealth has had an aid programme with Mozambique since independence to compensate for attacks by two renegade members of the Commonwealth, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa.

IS LAND PART OF THE DEAL

The red carpet has been rolled out for former backers of the opposition. James Blanchard III and the daughters of Jorge Jardim have met with President Joaquim Chissano and been encouraged to invest in Mozambique. Blanchard, a right-wing US businessman who was one of Renamo's biggest private backers in the 1980s, is planning to take over the Maputo Elephant Reserve and the adjoining Machangula peninsula for a major tourist development. Meanwhile, the Renamo head in Sofala province, Manuel Pereira, has proposed a joint venture with an Italian company covering 250,000 hectares in southern Sofala.

Excerpts on Local Elections:

LOCAL ELECTIONS DELAYED

Parliament forced the government to withdraw its package of three bills for local elections, on the grounds that they were unconstitutional. The three parties in parliament, in consultation with the government, will agree a new elections timetable before the end of this session in late December. It is unlikely that the first local elections can now be held before 1997.

The Municipalities Law (3/94) approved by the old one-party parliament on 13 September 1994 calls for elections of mayors and city councils in at least the ten provincial capitals and Maputo city at a date set before 1 October 1996.

The government's package of three bills covered the actual election, setting up a national election commission, and registration. But the parliamentary legal affairs committee unanimously ruled the bills unconstitutional. The ruling effectively says that the original Municipalities Law is unconstitutional, which was surprising, as the committee is chaired by Ussumane Aly Dauto, who was justice minister when the Municipalities Law was passed, and who now accepts that he allowed an unconstitutional law to be passed.

The government decided to go ahead with the bills, arguing they were constitutional. But it decided to withdraw them on 8 November, after two days of debate, when it became clear that not only was Renamo opposed to the bills as unconstitutional, but that some Frelimo MPs agreed with Renamo and thus the bills would be defeated.

This was remarkable and unexpected for two reasons. First, Frelimo MPs were prepared to stand up to their own party in governmment. Second, Renamo MPs put constitutionality over their own repeated demands for early elections. Both are marks of the rapidly growing maturity of the new parliament.

'DESIGNATING' MAYORS

The key constitutional issue hinges on interpretation and language. The constitution talks of two types of local government bodies: "representative" bodies, such as councils, which are "elected", and "executive" bodies and officials, including district administrators and mayors, which are "designated". When the 1990 constitution was drafted, this distinction was made because the drafters intended that mayors and administrators would still be nominated by central government, even if councils were to be elected.

The question was: Even if the constitution's drafters did not intend it, could mayors still be elected? Supporters of the bill argued that election was a possible form of "designation"; opponents said that by making a distinction between the two, the constitution made clear designation meant nomination and not election.]

GRADUALISM

It would be "utopian" to expect to be able to hold local elections everywhere in the country next year, argued Alfredo Gamito, the Minister of State Administration.

The government's policy set out in the 1994 Municipalities Law is that when districts have a basic set of conditions - such as a small town hall with basic equipment (a typewriter, a safe for tax revenues, etc), a small trained staff, housing for officials, and places where councillors can stay during meetings (as many districts are too large for councillors to go home at night between meeting days) - they will be called "municipalities" and elect a council and a mayor (for cities) or an administrator (for districts). The law defined the ten provincial capitals and Maputo city as "municipalities" already, and said a local election date had to be set before 1 October 1996.

The Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) from last year's elections had been reappointed, with Armenio Correia as director general. It was planning for registration in March and elections in September in these 11 cities. Elections in remaining districts would be in 1997 and 1998.

The second phase would have been 18 districts - 12 which contain places already designated as cities (Chokwe, Dondo, Mocuba, Nacala, etc.) and the six districts being assisted under the Swedish pilot district (PROL) programme (Lichinga district, Mocimboa da Praia, Monapo, Angonia, Buzi, and Boane).

Elections in these 18 would have taken place in 1997. If there was pressure from parliament and sufficient donor money, then these 18 could have been added to the September 1996 list.

Elections in the remaining 102 districts would have been in 1997 and 1998.

The principle of "gradualism" in elections had three roots. First, the government felt there was no point in electing councils for districts that had no functioning administrative structure. Second, a gradual approach allows elections to be more Mozambican-run and less donor-dependent (although even elections in 11 cities will need $22 million in donor funds). Third, starting in cities that already have functioning administrations will be a good test of the whole decentralisation process and allow changes in the law and regulations before elections in other municipalities.

The new schedule to be agreed by the parties in parliament will cover all districts, and determine if elections will be phased or all at the same time.

DONOR DEMANDS

Donors have made local elections a high priority. The independent weekly Demos (1 November) published the text of demands to the government issued by the Aid for Democracy (AfD) donor group in September.

The six point statement is not signed by individual donors and does not even identify the source, because it is a collection of individual donor demands. It is somewhat confused and contradictory, and not all AfD donors support all six points. But donor representatives said they felt the need to have something in writing to give to government, even if it was not a fully agreed statement.

The first point, which does have widespread donor support, is "Consensus: The most important factor which will determine the degree of donor support . Consensus should be reached in parliament as soon as possible regarding the way in which the elections will be conducted."

Donors said that they would not support an election if the law had been pushed through parliament over Renamo opposition. Thus Renamo has an effective veto, and Gamito cited donor views when he withdrew the bill. At least some donors say they will accept a delay until 1997, so long as it is agreed by Renamo and Frelimo.

The first point also talks of consensus of "extra parliamentary parties", but this has less support.

Second, the donors effectively support gradualism. "Donors believe the elections should be held promptly in as many districts as possible" but if they are not held in all districts in 1996, then "a timetable should be announced".

The fourth point partly contradicts the second. It opposes gradualism and the structure of the 1994 Municipalities Law. "Existence of a tax base or a requirement for the local entity to be declared a municipality should not be preconditions to representative local government."

The United States, Britain and Germany are the main donors opposed to gradualism and the 1994 law, and the fourth point reflects their view. The European Union and the Like Minded Group have generally supported the phased approach, and the second point rather than the fourth reflects their view.

The third point is that "elections should be held at minimum cost. Elements which are not cost effective or verifiable by political parties and other monitors should be avoided and will not be supported."

The other two points are self-evident. Fifth, that "powers and responsibilities given to local government should be carefully delineated". (This is the core of intensive donor-funded activity already under way within the Ministry of State Administration.) Sixth, "local authorities should be accountable to local voters." (This is already covered in the 1994 law.)

Gamito's statement that he was withdrawing the law because of donor conditions drew an angry editorial from Domingo (12 November). "The donor community has returned to showing a firm hand and imposing directions on political questions in our country. ... The lessons that Domingo draws are not new: those who hand out the 'bread' continue to define the rules of the game and always do it to benefit those who support donor interests."

Privately, donors agree. They admit that such a statement made by foreign countries about their own local elections would be totally unacceptable. But they stress that Mozambique must accept such impositions because it is dependent on donors for more than half its budget. One donor representative commented: "the 1994 elections only took place because of donor pressure, and there will be local elections only if donors keep up the pressure now."

>From their side, the Mozambican government is taking a put-up or shut-up line. If donors want the first elections in more than 11 cities, they will have to pay the costs. And if they expect elections across the entire country, then they will have to provide some money to rebuild town halls destroyed in war - which so far donors have refused to do and which IMF spending restrictions make it impossible for the government to do.

Excerpts on Dual Administration:

DUAL ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES

Renamo continues to rule some of the areas it controlled at the end of the war three years ago, and to exclude government officials. The problem is most serious in Manica and Sofala provinces in central Mozambique, and in Nampula province in the north. Two incidents in Sofala in October increased tensions.

In Maringue, Renamo's war-time capital in Sofala, the first visit by provincial governor Felisberto Tomas on 10 October provoked a major confrontation. Two officials sent by the governor to prepare the visit were beaten and expelled. The governor decided to go in any case, but the party was met on the road 25 kilometres from the town by the district administrator, Nobre Meque, and the five local policemen, telling them to turn back.

Meque is a Renamo member nominated for the post by Renamo and appointed by the government under the terms of the 1992 Rome peace accord. But he and the police had been driven out the night before by Renamo, who burned the tents that housed the policemen and who said they would kill Meque if he allowed the governor to visit.

Meque told the Beira daily Diario de Mocambique (13 October): "they say I have been bought by Frelimo because I don't obey the orders of Renamo. I am a government official and I have one boss - I cannot obey two masters."

He continued: "Renamo maintains its objectives secret, but it does not want to see the rebuilding of Maringue."

Governor Tomas and the journalists continued and did visit the town, where Tomas gave a speech to several hundred people.

But it was an expedition to a foreign land; Renamo retains total control of the area. The daily Noticias (13 November) said Renamo has 1,000 armed men there. They were never demobilised and are in bases at Catema and Massala, 15 and 40 kilometres from Maringue. Men guarding weapons there told Noticias they were just awaiting orders to distribute the weapons and return to war. Renamo President Afonso Dhlakama denied the report.

The Maringue visit follows Renamo's beating and kidnapping of Rui Frank, the Frelimo party head in Gorongosa, also in Sofala, on 3 October. This highly public incident, done in front of journalists, seemed intended to be a formal expulsion of Frelimo from a district where Renamo received more than three times as many votes as Frelimo in the election last year.

The kidnapping led to a public protest by the new (and vociferously non-party) Human Rights League. In a statement on 19 October, League president Maria Alice Mabota, said that "after receiving orders from their leader, men of the security guard of [Renamo President Afonso] Dhlakama invaded the district administrator's house" in Gorongosa where they "committed corporal offences" against the administrator's heavily pregnant wife, and threatened to kill the administrator. They then "severely beat" Frank, tied him up, and took him from the house.

Dhlakama was speaking in Gorongosa on the day of the incident. Frank says that with his arms and legs bound, he was taken to the rally and shown to the crowd by Dhlakama. Still bound, he was then taken to the provincial capital, Beira, where he was put into a hotel room and then released.

IS FRELIMO TOO RIGID?

Under the peace accord, the government agreed to name Renamo nominees as district and locality administrators in certain zones formerly controlled by Renamo. In Chapa locality in Cabo Delgado, the Renamo-nominated administrator died, and Renamo asked to nominate the new one. Governor Jorge Nuanahumo refused, pointing out correctly that Renamo no longer had the right. But it seems a provocatively legalistic decision.

Domingo, the outspokenly pro-Frelimo Sunday newspaper, said it had information that Nampula Governor Rosario Mualeia had sacked a district administrator "for being a friend of Dhlakama".

As well as administrators, Renamo had also demanded the appointment of lower level officials, and the integration into the state apparatus of its teachers, health workers, and police. Here the response has been extremely variable. The Ministry of Health is already retraining 257 former Renamo helth workers, even though two-thirds have less than six years of schooling. And the Ministry of Interior has agreed to retrain and integrate into the police 141 ex-guerrillas nominated by Renamo.

But the Ministry of Education has steadfastly refused to integrate into the state system any Renamo teachers who are not fully qualified - which few are. In some parts of Manica and Sofala, Renamo teachers are continuing to teach in places where the govern- ment has still not been able to send trained teachers. People who have visited the schools say that many of the teachers are committed and despite their own lack of training, are doing an acceptable if rudimentary job. All are teaching without pay, and some have gained strong support from local parents.

(continued in part 2)

===============================================
JOINING THE COMMONWEALTH

Mozambique has become the 53rd member of the Commonwealth, and is the first country to be admitted which is not a former British colony. But all of its neighbours are members, and they pushed Mozambique's application. The Commonwealth has had an aid programme with Mozambique since independence to compensate for attacks by two renegade members of the Commonwealth, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa.

IS LAND PART OF THE DEAL

The red carpet has been rolled out for former backers of the opposition. James Blanchard III and the daughters of Jorge Jardim have met with President Joaquim Chissano and been encouraged to invest in Mozambique. Blanchard, a right-wing US businessman who was one of Renamo's biggest private backers in the 1980s, is planning to take over the Maputo Elephant Reserve and the adjoining Machangula peninsula for a major tourist development. Meanwhile, the Renamo head in Sofala province, Manuel Pereira, has proposed a joint venture with an Italian company covering 250,000 hectares in southern Sofala.

Excerpts on Local Elections:

LOCAL ELECTIONS DELAYED

Parliament forced the government to withdraw its package of three bills for local elections, on the grounds that they were unconstitutional. The three parties in parliament, in consultation with the government, will agree a new elections timetable before the end of this session in late December. It is unlikely that the first local elections can now be held before 1997.

The Municipalities Law (3/94) approved by the old one-party parliament on 13 September 1994 calls for elections of mayors and city councils in at least the ten provincial capitals and Maputo city at a date set before 1 October 1996.

The government's package of three bills covered the actual election, setting up a national election commission, and registration. But the parliamentary legal affairs committee unanimously ruled the bills unconstitutional. The ruling effectively says that the original Municipalities Law is unconstitutional, which was surprising, as the committee is chaired by Ussumane Aly Dauto, who was justice minister when the Municipalities Law was passed, and who now accepts that he allowed an unconstitutional law to be passed.

The government decided to go ahead with the bills, arguing they were constitutional. But it decided to withdraw them on 8 November, after two days of debate, when it became clear that not only was Renamo opposed to the bills as unconstitutional, but that some Frelimo MPs agreed with Renamo and thus the bills would be defeated.

This was remarkable and unexpected for two reasons. First, Frelimo MPs were prepared to stand up to their own party in governmment. Second, Renamo MPs put constitutionality over their own repeated demands for early elections. Both are marks of the rapidly growing maturity of the new parliament.

'DESIGNATING' MAYORS

The key constitutional issue hinges on interpretation and language. The constitution talks of two types of local government bodies: "representative" bodies, such as councils, which are "elected", and "executive" bodies and officials, including district administrators and mayors, which are "designated". When the 1990 constitution was drafted, this distinction was made because the drafters intended that mayors and administrators would still be nominated by central government, even if councils were to be elected.

The question was: Even if the constitution's drafters did not intend it, could mayors still be elected? Supporters of the bill argued that election was a possible form of "designation"; opponents said that by making a distinction between the two, the constitution made clear designation meant nomination and not election.]

GRADUALISM

It would be "utopian" to expect to be able to hold local elections everywhere in the country next year, argued Alfredo Gamito, the Minister of State Administration.

The government's policy set out in the 1994 Municipalities Law is that when districts have a basic set of conditions - such as a small town hall with basic equipment (a typewriter, a safe for tax revenues, etc), a small trained staff, housing for officials, and places where councillors can stay during meetings (as many districts are too large for councillors to go home at night between meeting days) - they will be called "municipalities" and elect a council and a mayor (for cities) or an administrator (for districts). The law defined the ten provincial capitals and Maputo city as "municipalities" already, and said a local election date had to be set before 1 October 1996.

The Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) from last year's elections had been reappointed, with Armenio Correia as director general. It was planning for registration in March and elections in September in these 11 cities. Elections in remaining districts would be in 1997 and 1998.
The second phase would have been 18 districts - 12 which contain places already designated as cities (Chokwe, Dondo, Mocuba, Nacala, etc.) and the six districts being assisted under the Swedish pilot district (PROL) programme (Lichinga district, Mocimboa da Praia, Monapo, Angonia, Buzi, and Boane).

Elections in these 18 would have taken place in 1997. If there was pressure from parliament and sufficient donor money, then these 18 could have been added to the September 1996 list.

Elections in the remaining 102 districts would have been in 1997 and 1998.

The principle of "gradualism" in elections had three roots. First, the government felt there was no point in electing councils for districts that had no functioning administrative structure. Second, a gradual approach allows elections to be more Mozambican-run and less donor-dependent (although even elections in 11 cities will need $22 million in donor funds). Third, starting in cities that already have functioning administrations will be a good test of the whole decentralisation process and allow changes in the law and regulations before elections in other municipalities.

The new schedule to be agreed by the parties in parliament will cover all districts, and determine if elections will be phased or all at the same time.

DONOR DEMANDS

Donors have made local elections a high priority. The independent weekly Demos (1 November) published the text of demands to the government issued by the Aid for Democracy (AfD) donor group in September.

The six point statement is not signed by individual donors and does not even identify the source, because it is a collection of individual donor demands. It is somewhat confused and contradictory, and not all AfD donors support all six points. But donor representatives said they felt the need to have something in writing to give to government, even if it was not a fully agreed statement.

The first point, which does have widespread donor support, is "Consensus: The most important factor which will determine the degree of donor support . Consensus should be reached in parliament as soon as possible regarding the way in which the elections will be conducted."

Donors said that they would not support an election if the law had been pushed through parliament over Renamo opposition. Thus Renamo has an effective veto, and Gamito cited donor views when he withdrew the bill. At least some donors say they will accept a delay until 1997, so long as it is agreed by Renamo and Frelimo.

The first point also talks of consensus of "extra parliamentary parties", but this has less support.

Second, the donors effectively support gradualism. "Donors believe the elections should be held promptly in as many districts as possible" but if they are not held in all districts in 1996, then "a timetable should be announced".

The fourth point partly contradicts the second. It opposes gradualism and the structure of the 1994 Municipalities Law. "Existence of a tax base or a requirement for the local entity to be declared a municipality should not be preconditions to representative local government."

The United States, Britain and Germany are the main donors opposed to gradualism and the 1994 law, and the fourth point reflects their view. The European Union and the Like Minded Group have generally supported the phased approach, and the second point rather than the fourth reflects their view.

The third point is that "elections should be held at minimum cost. Elements which are not cost effective or verifiable by political parties and other monitors should be avoided and will not be supported."

The other two points are self-evident. Fifth, that "powers and responsibilities given to local government should be carefully delineated". (This is the core of intensive donor-funded activity already under way within the Ministry of State Administration.) Sixth, "local authorities should be accountable to local voters." (This is already covered in the 1994 law.)

Gamito's statement that he was withdrawing the law because of donor conditions drew an angry editorial from Domingo (12 November). "The donor community has returned to showing a firm hand and imposing directions on political questions in our country. ... The lessons that Domingo draws are not new: those who hand out the 'bread' continue to define the rules of the game and always do it to benefit those who support donor interests."

Privately, donors agree. They admit that such a statement made by foreign countries about their own local elections would be totally unacceptable. But they stress that Mozambique must accept such impositions because it is dependent on donors for more than half its budget. One donor representative commented: "the 1994 elections only took place because of donor pressure, and there will be local elections only if donors keep up the pressure now."

>From their side, the Mozambican government is taking a put-up or shut-up line. If donors want the first elections in more than 11 cities, they will have to pay the costs. And if they expect elections across the entire country, then they will have to provide some money to rebuild town halls destroyed in war - which so far donors have refused to do and which IMF spending restrictions make it impossible for the government to do.

Excerpts on Dual Administration:

DUAL ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES

Renamo continues to rule some of the areas it controlled at the end of the war three years ago, and to exclude government officials. The problem is most serious in Manica and Sofala provinces in central Mozambique, and in Nampula province in the north. Two incidents in Sofala in October increased tensions.

In Maringue, Renamo's war-time capital in Sofala, the first visit by provincial governor Felisberto Tomas on 10 October provoked a major confrontation. Two officials sent by the governor to prepare the visit were beaten and expelled. The governor decided to go in any case, but the party was met on the road 25 kilometres from the town by the district administrator, Nobre Meque, and the five local policemen, telling them to turn back.

Meque is a Renamo member nominated for the post by Renamo and appointed by the government under the terms of the 1992 Rome peace accord. But he and the police had been driven out the night before by Renamo, who burned the tents that housed the policemen and who said they would kill Meque if he allowed the governor to visit.

Meque told the Beira daily Diario de Mocambique (13 October): "they say I have been bought by Frelimo because I don't obey the orders of Renamo. I am a government official and I have one boss - I cannot obey two masters."

He continued: "Renamo maintains its objectives secret, but it does not want to see the rebuilding of Maringue."

Governor Tomas and the journalists continued and did visit the town, where Tomas gave a speech to several hundred people.

But it was an expedition to a foreign land; Renamo retains total control of the area. The daily Noticias (13 November) said Renamo has 1,000 armed men there. They were never demobilised and are in bases at Catema and Massala, 15 and 40 kilometres from Maringue. Men guarding weapons there told Noticias they were just awaiting orders to distribute the weapons and return to war. Renamo President Afonso Dhlakama denied the report.

The Maringue visit follows Renamo's beating and kidnapping of Rui Frank, the Frelimo party head in Gorongosa, also in Sofala, on 3 October. This highly public incident, done in front of journalists, seemed intended to be a formal expulsion of Frelimo from a district where Renamo received more than three times as many votes as Frelimo in the election last year.

The kidnapping led to a public protest by the new (and vociferously non-party) Human Rights League. In a statement on 19 October, League president Maria Alice Mabota, said that "after receiving orders from their leader, men of the security guard of [Renamo President Afonso] Dhlakama invaded the district administrator's house" in Gorongosa where they "committed corporal offences" against the administrator's heavily pregnant wife, and threatened to kill the administrator. They then "severely beat" Frank, tied him up, and took him from the house.

Dhlakama was speaking in Gorongosa on the day of the incident. Frank says that with his arms and legs bound, he was taken to the rally and shown to the crowd by Dhlakama. Still bound, he was then taken to the provincial capital, Beira, where he was put into a hotel room and then released.

IS FRELIMO TOO RIGID?

Under the peace accord, the government agreed to name Renamo nominees as district and locality administrators in certain zones formerly controlled by Renamo. In Chapa locality in Cabo Delgado, the Renamo-nominated administrator died, and Renamo asked to nominate the new one. Governor Jorge Nuanahumo refused, pointing out correctly that Renamo no longer had the right. But it seems a provocatively legalistic decision.

Domingo, the outspokenly pro-Frelimo Sunday newspaper, said it had information that Nampula Governor Rosario Mualeia had sacked a district administrator "for being a friend of Dhlakama".

As well as administrators, Renamo had also demanded the appointment of lower level officials, and the integration into the state apparatus of its teachers, health workers, and police. Here the response has been extremely variable. The Ministry of Health is already retraining 257 former Renamo helth workers, even though two-thirds have less than six years of schooling. And the Ministry of Interior has agreed to retrain and integrate into the police 141 ex-guerrillas nominated by Renamo.

But the Ministry of Education has steadfastly refused to integrate into the state system any Renamo teachers who are not fully qualified - which few are. In some parts of Manica and Sofala, Renamo teachers are continuing to teach in places where the govern- ment has still not been able to send trained teachers. People who have visited the schools say that many of the teachers are committed and despite their own lack of training, are doing an acceptable if rudimentary job. All are teaching without pay, and some have gained strong support from local parents.

HOME OF CONSENSUS

In sharp contrast to the tensions between the parties outside and the sharp disputes that marked the first parliamentary session last December, consensus is now the word inside parliament. Cooperation is close between parties and between MPs. Few issues actually come to a vote; both sides have withdrawn bills which would otherwise have been defeated. The standing committees largely work by consensus.

This has led to divisions and some tensions between the two parliamentary parties and their respective non-parliamentary leaderships. One Frelimo MP complained that the government still thinks in a one-party way and can simply tell Frelimo MPs what to do, while the MPs themselves are now thinking in a multi-party way. "We are changing because we work with Renamo and influence each other," the MP commented.

Helder Muteia, the Frelimo chair of the Agriculture and Regional Development Committee, said: "We are not just legislators; we have to monitor the government and keep a critical distance from it. We want to be constructive critics and the government must react to comment from outside."

...

Under the new standing orders, the government comes to parliament to answer questions three times in each session. Frelimo's first questions to its own government were pointed, raising issues which were the subject of widespread public discussion: privatisation and who benefits, the soaring cost of living, criminality and drugs, IMF negotiations, and education (especially corruption). As Savana's headline said: "This week, MPs remembered the people."

Frelimo decentralised the drafting of its questions. Each of the 11 provincial groups of Frelimo MPs meets weekly during the session, and each group was told to draft a question. The heads of the 11 groups then met to combine the different questions into a shorter set.

MPs showed themselves not quite aware of how to use the question system, however. Neither Renamo nor the UD submitted their questions in time, and Renamo's two "questions" were actually statements.

The government was only prepared to answer the last two of the Frelimo questions at its first questions time. But the education replies provoked such a lengthy debate - 40 MPs asked to speak and there was extensive criticism of the education system by Renamo - that there was no time for Finance Minister Tomas Salomao to answer the IMF question.

.................. RAISING HOT ISSUES

Privatisations and agricultural marketing are two of the hot issues discussed by committees. The Economic Activities Committee has been openly critical of the privatisation programme, warning that there has been "a lack of transparency", there has been a failure to give preference to Mozambicans, workers are not always being given the 20% share they should get, and in some cases people who have won the bidding for companies have not kept the companies running and have even "turned factories into warehouses".

Committee chair Francisco has taken a particular interest in the Beira corridor and its railway and port, which he says shows that state companies can be profitable - "they prove that you don't need to privatise to end inefficiency and make a profit."

The Committee also warns of the "danger of the extinction of the national textile industry."

Both the Economic Activities and Agriculture committees have looked at agricultural marketing and warned that the (IMF-imposed) credit squeeze means that traders are unable to buy peasant produced maize and oher products. The Agriculture Committee warns that traders are paying peasants less than the official minimum price for maize. It also calls for a new agricultural finance system.

Excerpts on Donor Politics:

OPPOSITION TO IMF

Donor representatives in Maputo issued an unprecedented statement attacking IMF policies.

The issue came to a head during the visit of an International Monetary Fund official, Sergio Leite. During a 23 September televised press conference, Leite took the unusual step of publicly criticising a 37.5% increase in the minimum wage that had just been agreed in three-way talks between government, industry and labour. Although only half the rate of inflation and leading to a minimum wage of less than US$ 1 per day, Leite called the increase "excessive" and said it was being given too soon. He repeated his view during a 26 September meeting with donors, which was reported in detail the following day in the independent daily MediaFax.

Leite told donors that Mozambique had made "great efforts", including cutting government spending even more than planned, and had satisfied most of the conditions imposed by the IMF. Nevertheless, inflation was still rising too rapidly, and this required further cuts in credit and spending; thus he opposed the rise in the minimum wage.

Further, Leite warned that the IMF might be forced to declare Mozambique "off-track", which would have had automatic and disastrous consequences. Some aid would stop automatically, and Mozambique would not be allowed to negotiate further debt reductions later this year. Finance Minister Tomas Salomao was summoned to Washington for further negotiations.

This caused widespread concern among donors in Maputo, leading to a statement issued on 6 October and sent to the IMF and World Bank, as well as to the government. The statement said "the donor community is impressed with the commitment made by the new government's economic team to implement an ambitious reform agenda. A disruption in financial support could jeopardize further progress." It also appealed, in technical language, for the programme not to be declared off-track.

And in an unusually open criticism of IMF policy, it continued: "While we endorse the demand management approach of the IMF and the government to combat inflation, we are deeply concerned about the lack of a supply response in the Mozambican economy." Decoded, this means: making the world's poorest country even poorer in order to reduce demand will not rebuild a war-torn economy; something must also be done to increase production.

In the end, the statement was signed by only five donor ambassadors or representatives in Maputo, but they were key ones: United States, European Union, United Nations, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Nordic donors helped draft the statement, but were stopped from signing at the last minute by their capitals, who felt statements about the IMF should not come from ambassadors in Maputo; privately, however, they made clear their continued support for the statement.

One donor said: "inflation cannot be fought simply by monetary and fiscal measures - by controlling the money supply and government spending - as the IMF believes. The IMF doesn't understand the Mozambican economy; it is using the wrong model."

The statement worked. Soon after it was released, the government confirmed the increase in the minimum wage. The IMF did not declare Mozambique off-track, and Salomao later said this was partly due to the donor statement.

But the price was high. The donor statement specifically called on government to "increase budgetary allocations to education and health" but Salomao was forced to promise the IMF further cuts in health and education spending. Mozambique must also cut back on donor-funded rebuilding of war damaged infrastructure, such as roads, because this spending is considered by the IMF to be inflationary. And government must put aside money to pay debts to Russia, even though there is no repayment agreement with Russia and no demand for payment.

The IMF made no concessions on the supply side. Donors expect to press this when the IMF team returns to Maputo in early December.

----- QUOTES
"In contrast to what we would like to believe, the rulers of Africa are not the various African states. ... The rulers of Africa and of Mozambique are the World Bank and Internatioal Monetary Fund. ... Their programme is to integrate Africa into a system of economic neo-colonialism which takes no account of the needs of people. What counts is the free market; its god is money." Nova Vida (November 1995), published by the Mozambican Catholic Church

"The IMF is not a development agency, it is an audit agency. You cannot leave development to the auditors. Development is much more complex - you need a vision." Abdul Magid Osman, former Finance Minister

CG DELAYED

The World Bank-convened donor Consultative Group (CG) meeting in Paris which normally occurs in December has still not been scheduled. The 1994 meeting had been delayed until 14-15 March 1995, because of the elections. Now the 1995 meeting will be delayed until March 1996 or even later.

The more supportive donors see this as helpful to the government - it has enough donor funds committed until mid-1996, and this will allow government more space to meet the targets it committed itself to in March.

They also want to allow government to present a budget to parliament at this session, before it is given to donors at the CG; although they admit government will still need to negotiate the budget with donors before going to parliament, some donors feel that democratisation requires that parliament be allowed at least a token say in the budget.

Donors now accept that they forced government to commit itself to an over-ambitious programme at the March 1995 CG. The 6 October donor statement also called for the government "to focus its resources on a few key areas which, taken together, will enhance the chances for economic recovery." There must be defined "a more limited set of priorities within the existing policy ramework."

The statement went on to identify for government the four economic priority areas on which expected action is demanded before the CG: "+ tax and custom reform, + financial sector reform, + private sector development, and + combating corruption."

Roberto Chavez, the World Bank representative in Mozambique, in a Domingo (5 November) interview, said that in all four areas "things are moving very well."

Democratisation and decentralisation will be the non- economic priority areas for the CG.

(end of excerpts from Peace Process Bulletin)

********************************************************** Additional note: As the following news item from the Mozambique Information Agency indicates, Bulletin editor Joseph Hanlon has long been a critic of the impact of AID in Mozambique, and during the peace process the Bulletin on occasion expressed strong criticism of positions taken by U.S. Ambassador Dennis Jett.

US EMBASSY BANS US JOURNALIST Maputo, 6 Nov (AIM) - The United States embassy in Maputo has put a blanket ban on any of its staff talking to US journalist and writer on Mozambique, Joseph Hanlon. Hanlon was the BBC correspondent in Maputo in the early 1980s. He has written several books on Mozambique, including +The Revolution under fire+, and a devastating exposure of the aid industry entitled +Mozambique: Who Calls the Shots?+. In recent years he has covered in detail implementation of the 1992 peace accord between the government and the Renamo rebels. He has edited the +Peace Process Bulletin+, put out by AWEPA (Association of European Parliamentarians for Southern Africa). These credentials make Hanlon the best informed US journalist on Mozambique. But apparently the US embassy does not like his unashamedly left-wing politics. Arriving for one of his regular visits to Maputo, Hanlon requested, as he has done many times in the past, interviews with US embassy staff.

But press attache Adrienne O'Neal told him that nobody had any time to talk to him. +I informed her that the embassy has been talking to me for the past 15 years+, Hanlon told AIM. +So I asked her to go back to a higher authority+. On 25 October Hanlon spoke to O'Neal again. She told him: +I have talked to people here in the embassy and explained your concern and they say that nobody in the US embassy or at USAID will have time to talk to you+.

When Hanlon asked why this ban had been slapped on him, O'Neal said she did not have to give any reasons. She did however add +There is a history to this+ - which might indicate that somebody in the embassy has taken a dislike to something Hanlon has written. Not O'Neal herself, though - she claimed never to have read the +Peace Process Bulletin+ or any of Hanlon's books. Hanlon is puzzled by the ban. He never had any problem in speaking to US officials during the pacification and election periods, even though what he wrote was frequently critical of US policy towards Mozambique. +It's a bit absurd that the US embassy is prepared to ban all of its staff from speaking to the person who must be the most prominent US writer on Mozambique+, Hanlon told AIM. +Had the Mozambican government done this to me, the American embassy would have raised hell, and claimed that freedom of the press was under threat+, he pointed out. +For a country that supposedly believes in freedom of information, the embassy's position is grotesque+, added Hanlon.

Hanlon could not imagine what had provoked the ban - but the last substantial article of his that appeared in the Mozambican press (in the independent newsheet +Mediafax+) concerned corruption in the United States. Hanlon pointed out that corruption, far from being a third world phenomenon, was endemic in the United States, and made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that USAID should send experts to teach Mozambicans how to organise and regulate corruption. +Perhaps Mozambicans aren't supposed to know that there is corruption in the United States+, remarked Hanlon. Although he is a US citizen, Hanlon prefers to live in Britain where he has permanent resident status. +I really do find Britain a freer country than the US+, he said. It will be interesting to see whether the embassy's flagrant denial of freedom of information will figure in the next US State Department's report on human rights in Mozambique. (AIM)

*******************************************************

Message-Id: 199512062212.OAA06128@igc3.igc.apc.org From: "APIC" apic@igc.apc.org Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 16:59:38 +0000 Subject: Mozambique: Recent Documents, 2

Editor: aadinar@mail.sas.upenn.edu