Summer 1995 Volume 21 Issue 2 ell into the second year of the Mandela-led Government of National Unity in South Africa, the Southern African region is calm. wElections in May 1994 also peacefully ended the 30- year dictatorship of Hastings Banda in Malawi. Mozambique remains peaceful after elections in October last year completed the United Nations monitored peace process. And, in Angola, the peace treaty signed last November in Lusaka seemed to be on the way to implementation after Unita leader Jonas New Visions, Savimbi met with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in May 1995. Southern Africa's new era of normalcy makes it the Hard Realities region of Africa "most likely to succeed in escaping the economic marginalization and renewed crises which have dominated what little news reaches the and Industry, Tito Mboweni in Labour, Kader Asmal in world from the rest of the continent. Yet just as the Water Affairs and Dullah Omar in Justice, among unrelievedly negative image of "Africa" is fundamen- others. Foreign Affairs and Defense, in which Alfred tally flawed, so is its opposite media stereotype: that Nzo and Joe Modise have tended to rely on the the "Mandela miracle" has brought change overnight to establishment and were given particularly low ratings. South Africa and its neighbors. The Defense ministry has been particularly criticized Constructive relations between the United States and for continued support of South African arms exports, the Southern African region, as indeed tQe rest of the for example. Foreign Affairs Director General Rusty continent, depends on an understanding of the details Evans, a veteran of South Africa's destabilization of particular situations, as people in both places face campaign against its neighbors, has come under strong intractable problems of sustaining economic growth, criticism in Parliament and from human rights groups solving social problems and making politicians ac- for the absence of both transparency and reform in the countable. foreign policy process. As one would expect, there are mixed results on the In regional affairs, the new South African scorecard to date. i%e Weekly Mail C Guardian (April government's intention to play a constructive and non- 21-27, 1995), in its one-year evaluation of the South domineering role has been clearly expressed in African government, found that one major difference membership taken up in the Southern African Devel- between sectors, was the capacity of ministers to both opment Community and other regional organizations. shake up inherited bureaucracy and set new directions But the range of practical problems is enormous, and versus the tendancy to rely on the established order. the pressure to take conventional approaches is Thus they gave high ratings to Trevor Manuel in Trade Continued on nextpage b Printed on Recycled Paper New Visions, Hard Realities Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Representatives Dan Burton (R-IN) and Robert Dornan (R-CA), b Continuedfrom previous page was financed to the tune of $1.5 million a year by South African military intelligence. But it is correspondingly strong. Illegal immigrants, in still an open question how much of the dirty largest numbers from Mozambique but also tricks of that era will come to light. now from around the continent, are being This issue of Washington Notes on Africa blamed for unemployment, crime and the gives the observations from two recent visits by growing drug traffic. Zimbabwean manufactur- U.S. journalists, one to South Africa a year after ers, threatened by cheap South African goods, the elections, and the other to Zimbabwe after fear the country's industry fifteen years of independence. We also include will be devastated without a short list of recommended periodical sources Z%e collective a new more favorable for keeping up on the region. tariff agreement with The Washington Office on Africa, along with capacity of Africa South Africa. other groups, is engaged in the day-to-day One hotly contested battles to preserve aid to Africa and to ensure advocates in the US. subject has been the U.S. responsiveness to crises such as those in establishment of the Truth Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan. We are to have an impact on and Reconciliation convinced, however, that the collective capacity Commission, which was of Africa advocates in the U.S. to have an policy will depend on finally approved by impact on policy depends on maintaining maintaining Parliament in June, and connections with the successful initiatives as should be appointed well as the crises experienced in Africa. connections with the soon. As the commission Counting only from the initial divestment begins to examine human campaigns of the mid-1960s-and one could go successful initiatives rights violations of the even farther back-it took more than 20 years apartheid era, new to communicate to a critical mass of the Ameri- as well as the crises revelations may further can public the simple messages that apartheid is implicate South Africa wrong and that the world had a responsibility eqerienced in Vice-President F. W. de for it. It may take longer than that to communi- Klerk and other officials cate more complicated messages such as "Africa Africa. of the former regime, and, is not one place but many," "the U.S. and if they are noticed in African countries are indeed part of one world," Washington, embarrass some U.S. politicians as and "addressing inherited and structural injus- well. A July 16 Newsday story revealed that the tices is a shared responsibility." The current U.S. International Freedom Foundation, a prominent political climate makes getting such messages right-wing Washington lobby with good con- across more difficult. It also makes it even more nections to members of Congress including imperative. WASHINGTON NOTES ON AFRlCA is published three tlmes a year by the WASHINGTON OFFICE ON AFRICA, 110 Mdryland Ave , NE, Sutte 112, Washington, Dc 20002 (202) ir6-7961 ISSN 0512-610~The Washington Office on Africa IS a not-for-profit, church and labor union supported organization that works with Congress on Africa-related legislation SPONSOas OF THE WASHINGTON OmCE ON AFRIWL: Afncan Methodist Episcopal Church, The American Committee on Afnca, Chsuan Church (Disciples of Chnst), Church of th Brethren, Episcopal Church, Coalinon for Human Needs and Public Affam Office, Executive Counc~land the Washington Office, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Missionaries of Afnca, Nauonal Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Presbytenan Church <USA), Progressive Nationdl Baptist Convention, Home Mmlon Board, The Reformed Church m Amenca, Sacred Heart Fathers, Society for Afncan Mtss1on.s (S M A Fathers), United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of Amenca, UAW, United Church of Chnst, Board for World Ministnes, Office for Church m Soaety, and Commssion for Racidl Justlce, United Methodst Church, Board of Global Mmmtnes Afnca OfBce and Women's Division, Uruted Steelworken of Amenca SuBscluffnON RAm We request a $30 annual contribution to receive thls newsletter plus penodzc Iegffilative alerts on Afncan issues Addluonal coples of thls issue are available for $3 00 each for 1-10, $2 75 each for 11-50, $2 50 each for more than 50 Add 15% for postage and hamihng, all orders must be paid m advance PBODUCED BY: Imani Countess (Executive Director), Willlam Minter, Knsten Lee, AIfie DeMoss, Vicki Ferguson, and Makur Aciek Q Washington Notes on Africa Reconstruction and Development in the New South Africa By Gerald Lenoir, Jr. gram to build roads, schools, clinics and hen the African National Congress (ANC) housing and to supply electricity, water and W swept into office in the first democratic telephone service; to establish a quality system election in South Africa's history last year, many of free and compulsory education for all pundits in the country and around the world children and access to health care. questioned the ability of the ANC to transform itself from a liberation movement into an effective governing party. After all, it's one thing to criticize a regime, it's quite another thing to be responsible for governance. After a year of ANC rule, however, the Government of National Unity (GNU) can count a number of advances, not the least of which is the fact that the country did not descend into a Bosnian or Rwandan-type situation. Sitting in his Cape Town office, Reverend T.S. Farasani, a Member of Parliament from the Transvaal Province, commented, "One of our most important achievements has been the peace and stability the new government has created. It is true we still have a few flashpoints here and there, especially in kwaZulu Natal, but compar- ing this to what was happening before the elections, one begins to appreciate how much the government has achieved." But more than peace and political stability has been accomplished in the country. Unlike a lot How far has the government traveled over the of political organizations which win elections on past year in implementing this ambitious agenda? the basis of a blank check, the ANC fought and From the point of view of reorienting govern- won office based on a fairly elaborate social and ment institutions to carry out its new tasks, some economic plan--the Reconstruction and Devel- important advances have been recorded. From opment Program (RDP). The underlying premise the viewpoint of actual delivery of services, of this program is that in South Africa, there can however, there is still a very long way to go. be neither sustainable economic growth nor a : For Lithol Suka, member of the provincial long term political solution unless the GNU legislature (MPL) in the Eastern Cape Province, mounts an extensive effort to reverse the social one of the most difficult aspects of moving into and economic deprivation of the masses of the government has been putting in place the people who had been so neglected and de- structures that were not there, e.g., setting up the graded during the apartheid era.