Southern Africa Vol..11 No. 1

JJ3)~d])@lli~ November 1995 @1 ~@l!dl~Thl®~lli JA\ir~Jl© November 1995 REPORT Vol. 11 No.1 Contents

Editorial: Freeman, Cockburn & Co...... 1

NAMIIIA : Canada and South Africa: Less of the Same ...... 3 >.·· ·...... :£._,c.•,. . ... ,i SWAZILAND The U.S. Front: Newt-ering the Solidarity Movement ...... 8

Southern Africa Canadian Solidarity: REPORT After Anti-Apartheid 10 is produced 4 times a year by a volunteer collective of TCLSAC, Timeless Bombs: the Toronto Committee for Links The Mines of Mozambique 14 between Southern Africa & Canada The Southern Africa Minefield 603-1/2 Parliament St. 19 Toronto, M4X 1P9 Tel. (416) 967-5562 Decentralization in South Africa: Email [email protected] How Democratic? . . . . . 23 Submissions, suggestions and help in production are welcome and invited. South Africa: Elite Sport is Winning 27 ISSN 0820-5582 SAR is a member of the Canadian Magazine Publishers Assqciation. More on Mozambique Now: All rights reversed. 1. Not the Whole Story 30 2. Holes in the Story 32 Subscriptions Annual TCLSAC membership and Southern Africa Report subscription rates are as follows: SUBSCRIPTION: SAR Collective Individual (1 year) . . . . $18:00 Institution ...... $40.00 Margie Adam, Carolyn Bassett, Christine Beckermann, Lois Browne, Marlea Clarke, MEMBERSHIP: (includes subscription) David Cooke, David Galbraith, Dave Hartman, Richard Pathak, Regular . . $35.00 Joel Rosenbloom, JohnS. Saul, Lauren Swenarchuk, Unemployed Herb Vise , Joe Vise, Mary Vise Student . $18.00 Senior Sustainer over $100.00 Cover design by Art Work Cover photo by David Hartman Overseas add $10.00

Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No . 569607 Freeman, Cockburn & Co. ------~~~ A magazine like SAR stands or falls on the quality of its writers - and we must also rely on such writers' loyalty and shared commitment, rather than authors' fees, to keep the texts flowing. What could be more fitting, then, than to start our eleventh year of publication with an overview on the past ten years of Canadian policy-making towards southern Africa by Linda Freeman. For Freeman, as regular readers will ~now, has been our most reliable author, and perhaps our most widely read and cited one, over the first decade of SAR's existence. Each year she has provided us with an assessment - knowledgeable and well-documented, clear and acerbic - of official Canada's undertakings in the region. Now, in this her tenth instal­ ment, she presents a magisterial overview of official Canada's record over the past decade, an histori­ cal survey that effectively debunks many of the myths that have be­ gun to cluster around that record . But she also concludes on a sober­ ingly contemporary note, underscor­ ing the extent to which the or­ thodoxies of neo-conservative eco­ nomics, so prevalent in other policy spheres, also give officialdom license for the most selfish possible read­ ing of Canada's on-going interest in South Africa. Competitiveness, trade and investment, IMF rules: so Ottawa's litany goes, with any di­ rect concern for the fate of the dis­ possessed in South Africa (or else­ where, for that matter) increasingly down played. Other key articles in the present issue speak further to the implica­ tions of this kind of finding. Please note, however, that Freeman's own work - of which SAR readers (and editors) have been the most imme­ diate and grateful beneficiaries over the years - will soon take on the

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 1 ______@@~~@~~~n ______additional weight and substance of offers little real long-term prospect in the region itself. So we're pleased an about-to-be published book (by for African development anyway. to enter our second decade by of­ the University of Toronto Press) en­ We hope to sustain and further fering a range of articles, beyond titled Canada and South Africa in deepen reflection on such vexing our lead pieces, that provide novel the Trudeau and Mulroney Years. questions in forthcoming issues of and well-grounded insights on press­ This is the good news: readers SAR. Let us, for the moment, ing issues that confront southern will want to keep their eyes open for take comfort from the fact that Africans. Moreover - speaking of this volume, a stocking stuffer if ever there are support groups and NGOs authors! - we're particularly hon­ there was one (although such is the in North America (Sutton's article oured in this issue to have, along­ scope of Freeman's undertaking that comes with a preliminary listing of side veteran Linda Freeman, a no­ quite a big stocking will probably such organizations in Canada) that table first-time SAR contributor: be required). The bad news? continue both to critique their own Canada's leading singer-songwriter, Freeman's threat that her tenth government's policies and to reach Bruce Cockburn. annual contribution to these pages out to their counterparts - trade unions, women's groups, community Cockburn writes with character­ may well be her last - for she is istic eloquence and at first hand ( af­ poised to move on to other work organizations, rural cooperatives, and the like - in southern Africa. ter a recent trip to Mozambique) (albeit work that remains southern about one of southern Africa's most Africa-focused). Do we hear a haunting problems, the ubiquitous sigh of relief from Ottawa's foreign­ presence of land-mines in the rural policy mandarins? Not so fast: * * * areas. As both Cockburn and, in don't tell Freeman, but we plan It seems safe to say that, in sustain­ a related article, Alex Vines testify, to coax her out of retirement from ing such efforts, there is no substi­ these are bombs - not time bombs time to time, precisely to continue tute for information about what is so much as timeless bombs - that her heretofore successful efforts to actually happening on the ground, have been strewn recklessly across keep those mandarins a little more the path of development in coun­ honest than they might otherwise be tries like Angola and Mozambique, inclined to be! a deadly legacy of the region's long Meanwhile, the tasks of southern agony of war. And they are primed, Africa-related political work do More quite literally, to go off: again ... continue in Canada, as Sue Sutton Canadian- and again. finds in her survey in this issue of rnagaz1nes Other articles probe the current what's left of the erstwhile anti­ than ever before! state of play in various spheres apartheid movement in Canada. It's of South African policy-making - true that the loss of the political For your home and workplace, or for discerning specifically, sports policy and local focus that apartheid's evil system gift Ideas, the 1996 Canadian Magazine Catalogue offers something special for everyone. government (as analyzed by Douglas provided has reduced the salience New This Yur: 10% off on 1\No or More Booth and by David McDonald, of South Africa in Canada, and Subscriptions I respectively) - that are also proving the issues of equitable development To get your listing of more than 250 great to be mine-fields, albeit of a more and democratic empowerment that magazines, send us this coupon today with $5 {including GST, shipping and handling). We are figurative and immediately political remain are less easy to get a bead on also happy to take VISA or Mastercard kind. And there is even some good for many Canadians. Moreover, as orders by fax or phone. Tal (416) 504-0274 Fax {416) 504-0437 news , in the form of a response Jim Cason (another author familiar, by Ken Wilson to an article in over the years, to SAR readers) '" CMPA a previous issue on post-electoral observes of the support movement in '"""'"' 130 Spadina Avenue. Suite 202, ~ Toronto, Ontario MSV 2L4 Mozambique. In striking contrast the United States, there are difficult to the tone and substance of that dilemmas inherent in Africa-related Send me the new CMPA Catalogue 1996. I enclose my credit ca rd in forma t1 on or earlier article, Wilson suggests that political work in the present global ""' cheque for SS (GST, postage and handling • are covered in this amount). there is much that should inspire us context. Name in some of the current developments Cason notes, in particular, the Address in Mozambique. Could it be that irony of being forced to struggle the struggle really does continue, for a better deal for Africa (in Cit Prov both in southern Africa and in North terms of aid, trade concessions, Postal America? As we enter our second the availability of IMF /World Bank 0 Cheque enclosed 0 Visa 0 Mastercard decade of publication we can only # d.Jte funds) within a global economic make one promise on that front: our Signature system that, left untransformed, writers will keep you posted.

2 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ______©~1J]1CffiM------,-----

Canada and South Africa: Less of the Same

BY LINDA FREEMAN his first visit here as head of state of Canada's mixed record the new South Africa. Linda Freeman is SAR's Ottawa Yet, as the nine previous articles correspondent; she has just completed in Southern Africa Report have a book on Canada and South Africa in The prospect gives us a moment demonstrated, this memory is highly selective. The record was always the Trudeau and Mulroney Years. to reflect on the Canadian govern­ more mixed and the contribution ment's part in bringing apartheid more nuanced than the official view to an end and to assess its involve­ As South Africa's government of na­ would have us believe. tional unity grapples with recon­ ment in the transition. Legend struction, attention in Canada and has it that Canadian Prime Minis­ Although Diefenbaker did not the world has necessarily moved on ters from Diefenbaker to Mulroney side with the other white domin­ from the long struggle to end apart­ played a leading role in combatting ions in supporting apartheid South heid. Relations have moved to a apartheid. This common wisdom Africa's membership in the Com­ more "normal" footing since the is shared by Canadians and South monwealth, he was a reluctant con­ days of diplomatic deep freeze and Africans alike, giving birth to "ex­ vert to the opposition, regretting sanctions. Although plans for a visit cellent relations" and fairly easy ac­ to the end that some compromise, by Mandela to Canada in October cess for Canadian officials to South even a few token seats for non-whites were cancefled for domestic reasons, African Cabinet Ministers in the in parliament, could not save the he is expected in the winter of 1996, post-apartheid denouement. day. Ten years later, he strongly

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 3 ______©~Iill~~------

supported the resumption of British support for sporting sanctions and Partly the times were different. arms sales to South Africa on Cold for the arms embargo, his govern­ When Mulroney came to power War grounds. ment's record was undistinguished, in 1984, the conditions for change considerably weaker than that of the required a new response. The In retrospect, the Trudeau gov­ Nordic countries. The operations Vaal uprising signalled to the ernment also offered surprisingly lit­ of Canadian banks, investors and West that the apartheid regime tle for black South Africans. As we traders increased throughout this was vulnerable, and Western banks have seen, this was the era where period with the full knowledge and and investment capital began their Western governments monotonously approval of the Canadian state. exodus. Generally, the international expressed their abhorrence of apart­ climate of opinion had begun to heid, while refusing to put signif­ Moreover, it was on Trudeau's harden against white minority rule icant economic or diplomatic pres­ watch that a Canadian company, and Western governments began to sure on the South African regime. Space Research Corporation, sold adopt sanctions. This "having your cake and eat­ South Africa the G5 gun, the ing it too" policy became known as most advanced artillery system Yet, although Mulroney will be a policy of 'balance', giving some­ in the world and the basis of remembered for the strength of thing in theory to questions of so­ South Africa's arms export industry. his government's policy on South cial justice and human rights and This rupture of arms sanctions Africa, its tenure was very brief - a lot in practice to the Canadian strengthened apartheid at home and a matter of about two years - be­ corporate sector. A 1970 Canadian in South Africa's genocidal wars of fore it ground to a halt. Once the government White Paper on foreign destabilization in the region. South African state and military had policy formalized the contradiction, By contrast, Mulroney and his quelled the campaign to make South and it hardened into a formula for government did significantly better, Africa ungovernable, banks, West­ successive Liberal governments. We adopting concrete economic sanc­ ern governments and the Canadian were, after all, living in a material tions in 1986 and maintaining them state went into neutral, refusing to world; South Africa was a Cold War largely intact until Mandela re­ sustain the momentum of the mid- ally; and other Western governments quested their removal in September 1980s and adding little to their sanc­ played ball with Pretoria. 1993. The sanctions were neither tions programme. Breaches of vol­ Generally, Trudeau ignored the comprehensive nor mandatory and untary financial sanctions and the issue of apartheid, responding with new initiatives were rare after 1986. continuance of substantial two-way impatience to those who urged a However, they marked a clear aban­ trade - not only exports (primarily stronger policy. On the one occasion donment of the previous approach of sulphur) but also imports (of dis­ where South Africa fully occupied . and also of the Tories' general com­ solving wood pulp and ingredients his attention, at the Commonwealth mitment towards free trade. for specialty steel) - began to call conference in Singapore in 1971, he What made this policy even Canada's role into question and to slipped into the role of "helpful more remarkable was that it was diminish the importance of its ex­ fixer ." While agreement on a adopted in the teeth of strong and panded aid programmes. declaration of human rights helped growing opposition from Mulroney's Mulroney's claims extravagant prevent a mass exodus over British own party, caucus, Cabinet and With Mulroney's attention diverted arms sales to South Africa, it was a civil service, aided by the South weak compromise in a bleak era. in the late 1980s to domestic is­ African embassy in Ottawa. The sues (the question of free trade and Trudeau record undistin- private sector in Canada, especially the attempt to forge a new consti­ guished the export community, disliked the tutional dispensation), he returned Trudeau's approach to South Africa restrictions from the start. to Southern African matters primar­ was redolent with paradox: on the Sanctions also brought Mulroney ily during Commonwealth meetings. one hand, his interest in apartheid into open confrontation with his To the end, he could bask in the began early and lasted into his re­ staunchest allies: he challenged praise of African leaders who gen­ tirement. His liberal internationalist Thatcher personally and directly on erally chose not to notice how lim­ image encouraged African leaders to a number of occasions within the ited the policy had become. As expect a great deal from him. Yet, Commonwealth and took Reagan the years went on, his claims for with the exception of a few token re­ to task bilaterally and within the Canadian policy became more ex­ forms to halt the promotion of trade G7. Thus, there is no question travagant; the reality increasingly (but not trade itself) in 1977, the that Mulroney displayed a gut tawdry. The contradictions repre­ establishment of a toothless Code commitment to the anti-apartheid sented in the fading policy opened of Conduct for Canadian corpora­ struggle which was both refreshing the possibility of major embarrass­ tions based in South Africa and and new. ment.

4 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ______@~~~~------

The situation was saved at back through the dry gulch of the and investment, assistance and quiet this conjuncture by the dramatic Trudeau years to the Diefenbaker diplomatic support. South Africa's changes in South Africa which era. Striking and sobering because readmittance to the Commonwealth ushered in an end to apartheid. similar patterns are recurring in a in May 1994 has provided a cen­ Following Mandela's release and the new and even harsher era. tral focus for co-operation, partic­ reforms introduced by de Klerk in ularly on efforts to ease the cri­ 1990, the weight of opinion within Liberals recycle trade cliches sis in Nigeria. On larger inter­ the Canadian state and private This time around, the Liberals national issues like nuclear non­ sector changed to dispensing with are, if anything, even more hard­ proliferation, Canadian diplomats sanctions, the sooner the better. nosed (and certainly more up have become trusted colleagues, en­ Yet, despite this consensus, the front) about the interest of trade couraging South Africans from the government stayed the course, and and commercialization uber alles, new government to speak out. The Canada was one of the last countries and particularly over questions Secretary of State for Latin Amer­ to lift sanctions. The difficulty of democracy and human rights, ica and Africa has visited South lay in the prominent role which than when they defended Canadian Africa several times, the most re­ the Canadian Secretary of State business interests in apartheid South cently following a tour of the region for External Affairs had assumed Africa. It is a good thing that in September. as Chair of the Commonwealth apartheid ended before the Tories At the same time, Canadian Committee of Foreign Ministers lost patience and the Liberals came assistance has increased (by 44% in on Southern Africa. Although back to power. the 1990s), though it has settled at Canadian diplomats had proposed Consider, for example, the way a fairly modest level with annual this Committee as a means to Foreign Affairs Minister Andre disbursements of about $20 million. defuse the drive for additional Ouellet now recycles the same tired Since May 1994, South Africa sanctions, they could not break cliches about countries such as has become eligible for bilateral ranks later without a tremendous China, Myanmar and Indonesia, assistance but the $5 million special loss of face. Therefore, despite that were formerly used by Liber­ fund to support NGO programmes considerable impatience, the Tory als on South Africa. Irrespective in South Africa was axed in the government did the honourable of whether a country is a dictator­ February 1995 budget cuts along thing; the state did not end ship or what its record is on human with development education work . sanctions until requested to do so in rights, Ouellet told a Vancouver au­ 1993. dience in May 1995, the best way For the next three years, CIDA's Pro sanctions forces within the to promote democratic development programme in South Africa will be state, aided by an uncritical and is through trade promotion. "Isola­ focused on technical assistance for somewhat amnesiac press, have tion ... is not conducive to helping constitutional development, for civil largely ignored the shortcomings in the populations of repressive regimes servants at all levels of government, Mulroney's policy and have built ... (but) foreign trade, which cre­ for administrators in the education a legend around its successes. In ates progress in the economy, is the sector, for the black private sector doing so, they have fallen prey best way of spreading . . . ( democ­ and for NGOs and civics. Of par­ to a self-congratulatory tradition in racy) to the population." Thus, ticular interest is the programme Canadian foreign policy- the vanity as the Liberal government's state­ which twins provinces in Canada factor. They reiterate, against ment on foreign policy (Canada in and South Africa, providing orien­ all the evidence, that "Canada the World) made clear, the brutal­ tation and advice to South African led the way," that "Canada made ity of an assortment of regimes will provincial leaders visiting Cana­ a difference" and that Canadian be no impediment to the promotion dian provincial governments- Jacob policy on South Africa was "just of economic relations with Canada. Zuma of Natal in Ontario, Manne right." Constructive engagement has been Dipico, Premier of the Northern Yet a closer reading will show given a second spring, with all its Cape, in New Brunswick and Ter­ that, while the policy of the Mul­ hypocrisies and selfishness. ror (Patrick) Lekota, Premier of the roney period had its moments of dis­ But at least in South Africa, the Orange Free State in Saskatchewan. tinction, it also had its weaknesses, end of apartheid and the transition Without question, however, the compromises and ambiguities. The to a government of national unity central interest continues to be sup­ striking and somewhat sobering fact have put the linkage between eco­ port for the Canadian private sec­ remains that the latter will drift into nomic relations, democracy and hu­ tor with Minister for International oblivion while the former will be man rights to the side for the time Trade Roy MacLaren declaring his remembered, complete with an in­ being. The central themes of the "personal conviction" in its vital vented past for the period stretching new relationship have become trade importance in developing relations

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 5 ______@@,m@,m.______with South Africa. A Canadian bought a South African chemical strip mine ecologically fragile sand trade office reopened in Johannes­ company, primarily as a base for op­ dunes on the northern Coast of Na­ burg a month after sanctions were erations in the region. tal. lifted; MacLaren led a trade delega­ Earlier in the 1990s, Dundee Canadian consultants have won tion early in 1994 and announced the Bancorp purchased a 25% interest a number of important contracts, resumption of a full range of trade in a small gold mining company in notably SNC-Lavalin in the Alusaf support measures including the ex­ South Africa and Lardel Holdings project to build the largest alu­ tension of the General Preferential co-operated with Thebe Investment minum smelter in the world and Tariff to South Africa and sizeable Corp. to develop a regional airline. SR Telecom to provide microwave EDC credits. Three Canada/South Quebec Iron and Titanium, one of communications systems for South Africa Chambers of Business now the die-hard Canadian corporations Africa's national telephone com­ exist in Canada to promote trade, that stayed on through the apart­ pany. Other Canadian companies and Canadian agencies are finalizing heid era, has stirred up a national provide technical support to the a Southern and Eastern Africa Re­ protest of greens in its intention to mining sector. gional Action Plan (SERAP) to fa­ cilitate South Africa's emerging role as an African trade hub.

Trade with South Africa jumps The initial response in the trade sector has been extremely posi­ tive. Two-way trade (at over $545 million) in 1994 was al­ most double the annual average of the sanctions years, and the ., prediction of the chairman of the South African/Canadian Chamber I( tj/ I{ ( of Commerce is that it will dou­ ble again in the 1990s. Exports in­ creased by 44%, and although al­ ,L\pARTIED most half consist of primary com­ modities - forest products, met­ als and minerals and agriculture - there is some diversification into G~:~ocm£ non-traditional markets for telecom­ munications equipment, information technologies and instrumentation. However, the .big surge came in im­ ports - up by almost 120% in 1994 as Canadian companies stocked up on strategic minerals. This trend has continued in 1995 with two­ way trade for the first six months surpassing annual totals during the sanctions era. However, investment is an en­ tirely different matter. Canadian in­ terest has been modest, mostly from small- and medium-sized companies with annual sales of about $50 mil­ c lion: Newbridge Microsystems is n E developing computer networks and t Cott Corporation makes colas and r J

soft drinks from concentrates im­ ~ ported from Canada. Diversey Cor­ poration, a subsidiary of Molson,

6 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ------©~llil~~------However, the general reaction of servative and Liberal governments In this view, mass expectations will foreign capital, including Canadian have insisted on conditionality, re­ remain unfulfilled and. loyalties put capital, is cautious, holding a watch­ quiring recipients of Canadian assis­ to a severe test. If experience else­ ing brief; money is not flooding into tance to limit public sector involve­ where is any guide, the approach is the new South Africa. Reservations ment in their economies and to fo­ a recipe for political instability. continue about the heavy monopoly cus instead on increasing their com­ factor, the relative backwardness of petitive ability in the global market As Carleton University Professor technology, and the problems of place. Manfred Bienefeld suggested to adapting a highly protected econ­ a parliamentary sub-committee in omy and uncompetitive industry to Despite the distortions of the Canada: "Competition is like the global marketplace. The South apartheid legacy, the attitude to­ medicine. It is very good for you in African economy is only just emerg­ wards South Africa is no differ­ the right doses at the right time; it ing from a profound recession and ent. In 1991, the head of the will kill you if you take too much of negative or low growth rates. Cana­ Southern Africa Task Force stated it." dian investors do not like the power publicly that the government sup­ ported early IMF planning missions Given the constellation of forces of South African trade unions. On in the Chretien government, the the political side, uncertainty has ac­ in South Africa, so that the new government would "get things right" drift to the' right and recent expe­ companied Mangosuthu Buthelezi's rience of restructuring in Canada it­ erratic campaign to stay afloat polit­ from the start. The Canadian state has entered fully in the drive to open self, however, such views will have ically and the continuing high level little purchase. Many NGOs in Can­ of violence. South Africa to global forces and to promote the interests of the pri­ ada, like their partners in South Africa, have been marginalized and Generally, the South African vate sector. One former Canadian High Commissioner to South Africa cut back in the era of fiscal restraint. government is caught between its In the current conjuncture of neo­ belief in the paramount importance spoke glowingly about the prospects "across the board" for Canadian ex­ conservative fundamentalism, it will of strong economic growth and be even more difficult to advance its commitment to redress the ports opened up by trade liberaliza­ tion. The consensus accepting the the interests of South Africa's dis­ inequalities of the apartheid era. possessed than it was to encourage Lacking immediate infusions of "rightness" of neo-classical policies has become the mantra of the 1990s. serious action against apartheid in private capital from domestic or the past. foreign sources, it has turned to international financial institutions Once again, as in the '!arly years The recolonization through and bilateral donors. of the battle over apartheid, the con­ structural adjustment programmes cerns of the dispossessed in South elsewhere in Africa are a fait accom­ Yet, such sources of support Africa will be promoted in Canada pli. Although it is early days, the in­ quickly identified their preference primarily by old allies in civil so­ ability of South Africa's current gov­ for neo-classical solutions to South ciety, remote from the corridors of ernment to work out alternative vi­ Africa's economic and social prob­ power- churches, trade unions, non­ sions or to begin to deliver the goods lems, discouraging even mildly social governmental organizations and aca­ to its constituency bodes ill for the democratic reforms. Almost imme­ demics. For many in these circles, near future. At the least, it sug­ diately the South African adminis­ market driven solutions are unlikely gests that the contradictions in its tration faced a Faustian bargain: ac­ to produce sustainable growth in the approach will come into focus sooner cepting policies at odds with its goal medium and long term and will cer­ rather than later. of redistribution or being starved tainly not address the needs of the So rather than slip into self­ of desperately needed capital. The poor. drift to the right in discourse and serving rhetoric about the current policy in South Africa suggests that, The standard insistence on trade role of Canadians in South Africa in the short term at any rate, the liberalization, for example, may - through aid, diplomacy or "mutu­ administration has been forced to mean that highly protected ineffi­ ally beneficial" trade and investment choose World Bank/IMF policy ad­ cient industries of the South African - let us remember the lesson of the vice. past may disappear, but along with apartheid era. When the going gets them will go significant industrial even tougher in South Africa, as it Canadian assistance carries capacity and an important segment is likely to do, let us at least have conditions of the labour force. Should South the integrity to recognize that, in Thus the relationship between South Africa's rate of unemployment in­ our government's largely uncritical Africa and the West, including Can­ crease significantly from current es­ insistence on neo-classical solutions, ada, has entered a new and complex timates of about 50%, the prospects we play a role in South Africa's dif­ phase. In the last decade, both Con- for political upheaval are intensified. ficulties.

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 7 -----~~lffio~o W[/~~@Jill, ______The U.S. Front: Newt-ering the Solidarity Movement

BY JIM CASON U.S. have been wary of criticizing tify continuing contributions to the foreign assistance for fear of feeding IMF and the World Bank. In fact Jim Cason covers the U.S. beat for the movement for cuts. Within the U.S. officials note that the U.S. con­ Southern Africa Report. government the rightward tilt has all tributions to the World Bank and but eliminated whatever room ex­ the IMF are small compared to The conservative assault on U.S. for­ isted to press for a more develop­ the markets that those international eign aid to Africa has provoked some ment focused aid program. Gone is financial institutions open up for difficult debates in this country as even the rhetoric of sustainable de­ U.S . products or even the purchases Africa groups and their supporters velopment. This year the focus of that these organizations make from struggle to fight for aid while at aid policy discussions has been much the U.S. the same time demanding radical more practical (and some would ar­ changes in the composition, struc­ gue more true to actual policy). Jus­ Despite these arguments Repub­ ture and goals of the U.S. Agency tifications for aid are based on short­ licans in Congress have cut the for International Development (US­ term economic interests and the ar­ U.S. contribution to the World AID). A few activists are simply gument for some improvement of Bank's soft loan affiliate, the Inter­ arguing good riddance, but given third world conditions now to pre­ national Development Association, the pleas from Africa for continu­ empt the need for more dramatic hu­ to $775 million, a figure nearly 40 ing Western assistance, most U.S.­ man intervention later. per cent smaller than the contribu­ based Africa support groups joined tion last year. the push for protecting aid to Africa. "Aid to Africa is not welfare. So why not welcome the Re­ It is an investment in other people The question in Washington this publican budget cutters and elect for one's own self interest," argued the leader of the House of Repre­ year is not whether U.S . aid to USAID administrator Brian Atwood Africa will be cut, but by how sentatives Newt Gingrich honourary earlier this year. "Africa is today chair of the "50 Years is Enough" much - in October Congress was what the Latin American and Asian still debating cuts of from 16 per campaign against the World Bank? markets were a generation ago. Well in part because of appeals from cent to 34 per cent. "I have a It is the last great developing hard time justifying expenditures Africa. Nearly half of the money market. Latin America is the fastest IDA lends out each year goes to in most of the African countries," growing market for US goods, a new said the Republican chairman of the Africa and when African ambas­ middle class market of 350 million sadors in Washington got wind of subcommittee in charge of foreign people . . . In 1993, sub-Saharan aid in the Senate, Kentucky's Mitch the cuts they began a furious lob­ African imported $63 billion worth bying campaign, writing and visit­ McConnell. "I know they have of goods from the rest of the enormous problems, but I have ing with members of Congress and world. America's share of this pressing their allies in major Africa a hard time finding an American market is 10 per cent, but it has national interest." organizations to do the same. A been growing. African imports have group of African NGOs also issued Other conservative critics like risen by around seven per cent a year a statement earlier this year declar­ Senator Jesse Helms argue that $10 for the past decade. At this rate, ing that although the IDA needs to billion in aid to Africa over the the African market would amount to be reformed, they wanted the money last thirty years has done little to $480 billion by the year 2025. These to continue flowing. solve Africa's problems, or prevent figures represent millions of jobs. conflicts like Somalia, Rwanda or They reflect precisely what happens In fact, most of the major Africa Liberia. (He doesn't, however, take when the markets of developing organizations in this country argue the next step and point out that the countries grow." for more but better aid to Africa and aid in some of these cases may have almost all of them have been pushing actually exacerbated the conflicts.) This argument that aid to Africa for more money to the World Bank's In the context of these argu­ opens up markets for U.S. invest­ IDA. These groups have spent ments, many Africa groups in the ment and goods is also used to jus- the last year mobilizing grassroots

8 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT groups to lobby Congress not to the debate about foreign aid has gratulated itself on keeping the ANC cut a· d. Several organizations, been reduced to either cutting all on the correct path: "A USAID­ most prominently the Christian development aid to the Third World funded international economics con­ group Bread for the World and (because of course, "strategic" aid ference and supported research are the organization Development GAP, to allies such as Israel and Egypt credited to have led the GNU (Gov­ have developed sharp critiques of is not being cut) or making sure ernment of National Unity) leader­ these programs that are part of their the aid advances specific short-term ship to endorse pragmatic economic campaigns, but a lot of the lobbying political and economic interests. policies and a fiscally conservative is simply Don't cut aid to Africa! And this lobbying paid off to approach to the RDP, contrary to By now, of course, the failings an extent. Analysts here had the prior expectations that an ANC­ of U.S. aid in Africa are well expected even deeper cuts in the dominated government would opt for more statist solutions and fiscally documented. But the public face Africa aid budget and it is even of lobbying on this issue is often possible that, despite threats from unsustainable social programs." reduced to arguing that while aid the Republicans, the main vehicle The report probably overstates isn't perfect, it is necessary and, by for U.S. funding in Africa, the the influence of the U.S., but the way, can you please call your Development Fund for Africa, will its bluntness nicely illustrates the congressional representative today. be maintained. But what exactly dangers inherent in too uncritical an This is a reality I discovered first are we saving? advocacy of foreign aid. And at hand on several occasions this More often t an not U.S. de­ the same time it demonstrates the spring. velopment aid to Africa is part of importance of beginning to develop Speaking at a public forum on the problem, not part of the solu­ in the U.S. a capability to influence, foreign aid this June in Pennsylva­ tion. It is undeniably the fact that or at least publicly critique, the nia, all three of us on the podium U.S. humanitarian assistance has program. urged the audience to write Wash­ kept tens of thousands from starv­ Oxfam America, Development ington and press for more aid to ing, supported electoral monitoring GAP, Bread for the World and oth­ Africa. The evening began with a programs and helped provide shel­ ers have begun to articulate alter­ short video that raised some of the ter and medical aid to refugees. Yet native aid policies that generally critical problems with foreign aid. I as Joe Hanlon and others have docu­ emphasize sustainable development, then made several specific criticism mented, the U.S. programs have also consultation and equity issues. The of the way foreign aid is misused be­ often led to more dependence and Africa Policy Information Center fore launching into a plea for citizens aebt than development. and The Africa Fund are both devel­ to call Congress to press for more The easy answer, and perhaps oping more detailed critiques of the foreign aid, something that ten years the correct one, is simply to say U.S . aid program in South Africa. ago would have got me thrown out good riddance and not worry about The question will be how to begin of the Southern Africa Magazine col­ foreign aid. Western aid flows to to bring some of this discussion out lective. The other two people on the Africa are declining anyway and of Washington and into places where panel did not mention any criticisms for progressives perhaps it is best local constituencies can hear them. of the program. to begin looking at other types of Bread for the World has had Once several students from relationships. Yet, in truth, foreign some success in organizing lo­ Africa responded to the panel by aid is still a major mechanism cal programs around the country raising questions about aid in rela­ for advancing the U.S. neo-liberal that include critical comments from tionship to debt, I reverted back to agenda in Africa. The $600 million African leaders. Another hopeful a more critical (and more comfort­ U.S. assistance program to South sign is a city council resolution be­ able) stance and a fight ensued be­ Africa, in fact, proves this point. ing offered by The Africa Fund. This tween the critics and several recently The U.S. assistance agenda is resolution, which has been passed returned peace cor volunteers. But designed primarily to support the in Seattle, Washington and several the truth is that in short public in­ voices in South Africa advocating other places, notes that aid to the terventions on this issue, trying to a free market agenda. Close to poor is being cut in Africa and in persuade an audience to make one half of the money is devoted exclu­ the United States and calls for more quick call to lobby Washington not sively to promoting "marketbased assistance in both places. It's not to cut aid to Africa, there isn't much models" and much of the rest is a particularly sophisticated analy­ room for detailed critical analysis. devoted indirectly to this purpose. sis but it is a beginning, and per­ It's not that people in the And USAID is not shy about pro­ haps an important beginning to a U.S. are unaware of the critique. claiming this purpose. In reviewing new style of campaigning that looks It is just that in the face of the U.S. grant-making in the period up at the consequences of development Republican assault on aid overall to Septel)1ber 1994, the Agency con- policies in Africa and the U.S.

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 9 Canadian Solidarity: After Anti-Apartheid

BY SUE SUTTON ting from the considerable energy nizations are concerned that this se­ Sue Sutton, prepared this report for of youth, are gone. A number vere cut in funding to South African SAR on behalf of the Inter-Church of Canadian universities are linking N GOs will harm efforts to rebuild Coalition on Africa (ICCAF). with South African universities and the NGO sector there. conducting student exchanges, but The government is also encour­ The height of the anti-apartheid there are few , if any, campus groups movement in Canada saw passion­ aging increased involvement through still absorbed with South Africa. private epterprise, such as former ate public engagement, focused on The same holds true for many of the a highly identifiable and straight­ Minister of Foreign Affairs Joe provincial committees and coalitions Clark's efforts to encourage private forward evil. The institutionalized against racism and apartheid, which investment. It appears to be a racism of the South African regime are either addressing issues closer to hands-off approach. For example, was an easy rallying cry for fundrais­ home, such as the Aryan Nations the government has refused to pro­ ers, donors, and solidarity groups. in Alberta, or have disbanded alto­ mote the Business Code of Ethics But as many Canadians who gether. proposed by the South African laboured in the struggle against Ongoing efforts in Canada have Council of Churches (SACC). Ac­ apartheid quickly point out, its not been helped by the changes in cording to Bill Davis, Coordinator abolition is the tip of the iceberg. Canadian government policy. Vir­ of the Task Force on Churches and Black South Africans may be able tually all groups which are still en­ Corporate Responsibility (TCCR), to vote now, but the vast majority gaged have been damaged by cuts Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs still live under the conditions that in Canadian government funding - Andre Ouellet said in a letter that obtained prior to the elections. some of them severely - and hard Canada saw no role for itself in help­ What has happened to all that choices are being made. The re­ ing to set standards for ethical In­ activist energy since the collapse cent slashing of CIDA's Public Par­ vestment in South Africa. of apartheid and the elections last ticipation Program and drastic cuts spring? to other development education pro­ South African groups are seeing In Canada, some organizations grammes have hurt or killed at least funding from other sources dry up have moved on to address the new ninety development education and as well. The European community challenges in South Africa, while advocacy groups. The vast major­ has all but abandoned many of others have folded. Some have un­ ity of such organizations outside the its former partners. The funding dergone considerable changes, either Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto axis have for the Committee for South-South devoting less energy to South Africa been eliminated, denying communi­ Relations has dropped from 800,000 or broadening their focus to include ties across the country real access to rand to less than 300,000, and the all of southern Africa. Most are en­ information. Committee will probably fold. The gaged, alone or in partnership with The Canadian government's fo­ South African Council of Churches other Canadian groups, in the crit­ cus has clearly changed, from in­ (SACC) has been decimated by cuts ical issues of gender, housing, agri­ direct support for South African from international partners, and has culture, and the rebuilding of civil NGOs through Canadian groups, to been further affected by structural society. direct government to government changes which will see the national Broadly speaking, agencies support. The South Africa Edu­ body divided and decentralized. which came into being with apart­ cational Trust Fund, the Defense Of course, there is money avail­ heid as their sole focus have either and Aid Fund, Canada-South Africa able for South Africa - from the disappeared or turned their atten­ Cooperation, and the South Africa international financial institutions tion to the parallel issue of racism Special Fund are all gone. While such as the International Mone­ within Canada. The anti-apartheid there's a certain logic to this, given tary Fund (IMF). Indeed, Dennis groups which proliferated on Cana­ that the new South African gov­ Howlett of 10 Days for World De­ dian campuses, with a heavy fo­ ernment is largely composed of for­ velopment worries that South Africa cus on disinvestment and benefit- mer NGO partners, Canadian orga- is in danger of taking on too many

10 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ------~©li~@~~~------loans from the IFI's. The World the strongest civil society in sub­ one million new housing units by Bank is offering massive loans di­ Saharan Africa, there is still much th.e turn of the century has been rected at land, agriculture and hous­ work to be done in the areas set back somewhat by the death of ing, but these loans are highly con­ of democracy, elections, and the Housing Minister Joe Slovo, and to ditional. There is concern that the restructuring of civil society in light date only a fraction of that num­ IMF and the World Bank are skew­ of the recent changes. ber has been built. Some Canadian ering the government's Reconstruc­ But even if apartheid is gone, groups, particularly unions and co­ tion and Development Plan, and basic human rights remain a very operatives, are assisting with this ur­ that the results will benefit mid­ real concern. · The Inter-Church gent problem. dle income groups, but not the ma­ Coalition on Africa (ICCAF), which jority of the country's poor. The Others, such as OXFAM, are for many years was a locus for World Bank, for example, is dis­ devoting considerable energy to couraging communal farming, while much of the churches' anti-apartheid gender issues, particularly in the the IMF says the government needs work, has shifted its focus from areas of income equity, violence to "dampen" wage increases, which liberation politics to human rights. against women, family health, and Howlett likens to economic apart­ As part of a more general interest rural and agricultural development. in developments across the continent heid. in the human rights sphere, ICCAF The massive arms industry is Canadians have lost much of monitors the human rights record of also of concern, as is the related rise their partner base in South Africa the new South African government, in crime due in part ·to the avail­ itself. Most of the individuals who especially its activities in the area of ability of weapons from the vari­ were most heavily engaged in the socio-economic development. Briefs ous regional wars. Within the arms anti-apartheid movement are among are submitted annually to the industry itself there is a large fac­ the best qualified to help run the Canadian government, the United tion amongst middle management country, having learned valuable Nations Commission on Human and workers advocating conversion leadership skills over their years Rights, and the Organization for to non-military goods production underground. Not surprisingly, Africa Unity. using, for example, fibreglass and they have been quickly snapped up carbon technology to make bridge In addition to the monumen­ by both government and private trusses, water pipes, and different tal task of rebuilding an effective enterprise. kinds of vehicles; these ideas are be­ civil society within South Africa, ing blocked by senior management. While this is of tremendous there are immediate practical con­ benefit to the fledgling government, cerns around housing and land re­ These are complex issues - far it has also meant the loss of skills form, women's issues, and the arms more complex than the monumen­ for the churches and NGOs which industry which are engaging Cana­ tal but straightforward task of elim­ are so important as a counterfoil dians. inating official apartheid. The loss to government power. While of media attention, which has moved Housing for the close to eight some Canadians who have been on to other hot spots, has not involved for many years in South million black South Africans living helped. Africa are reluctant to state it on in townships is of critical impor­ tance. The ANC pledge to create Apart from occasional progress the record, access to power and reports, South Africa is suffering money, after people have spent years from the same lack of attention underground, can be seductive. as any other African country: if Some are bound to succumb. There it's not going up in flames, it's is therefore a serious interest in not a story. Ongoing issues of supporting those in South African II development, the building of a civil unions, NGOs and other advocacy ARTCRAFT I ACTION PRINT society, social justice: these are groups who are strongly for true complex issues that don't easily democracy there. Specialists in Multicolour and Black & White pre-press; translate into sound bites, and There is therefore a serious printing and finishing they are not subjects in which the interest m maintaining a true mainstream media excel. Given Newsletters * magazines * brochures democracy that is manifest in Envelopes of all sizes are our forte the loss of development education unions, NGOs, and other advocacy Business and Personal Stationery groups, the news media is where groups. New elections loom, and the vast majority of the public gets with them voter registration and Desktop output *& camerawork*· * services its information. Thus ICCAF, for the need to educate and inform 2370 Midland Ave., Unit C-10, Scarborough, example, is beginning to address newly empowered South Africans. Ont. MIS 5C6 (416) 412-<>412/Fax 412-<>414 this particular problem with its While South Africa probably has Call today for estimate and advice! media monitoring project, which

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 11 hopes to pinpoint deficiencies and On a positive note, if the work in engaging the energies of the also provide the media with a of Canadians concerned about South general public, for those who remain broader base of sources and accurate Africa has been harmed by funding involved in the issue, their passwn information. cuts, media abandonment, and appears undiminished. the attendant increased difficulty

c: ro E t ro I -o ·:; ro 0 List of Canadian Organizations While attempts were made to contact for Information and Documentation for ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN COM­ as many organisations as possible, some Mozambique & South Africa (CIDMAA). MUNITY COLLEGES: working with proved difficult to track down. The CIDMAA was chiefly a resow-ce centre Community Outreach Through Institu­ following is a preliminary list. We would for community organisations, trade unions tional Linkages (COTIL) on outreach and welcome hearing from any groups we've & chw-ches concemed with South Africa; adult education programs; also with PRO­ missed. they continue to support development TEO, helping youth in disadvantaged projects in South Africa and the region, areas; both programs focus on upgrading funding projects by local organisations skills in science and technology. Contact: ALBERTA YOUTH ANIMATION involved in civics, community radio {613)746-2222 PROJECT ON SOUTHERN AFRICA & newspapers. Contacts: Stephane BRITISH COLUMBIA TEACHER'S (AYAPSA): continues the work it began Corriveau, Pierre Beaudet, (514)982-6606 FEDERATION: working with the South 1989, including presentations and work­ African Democratic Teacher's Union shops with youth, the "Cry Freedom" ANGLICAN CHURCH: continues to work (SADTU), organising & developing a mem­ with partners on issues of tolerance, recon­ newsletter, hosting speakers and visitors bership and financial base, and funding from South Africa, skills training for youth ciliation, racism, gender, and reconstruc­ training programs. Contact: Larry Kuehn, tion and development. Contact: Charlotte involved in solidarity work, and develop­ (604)871-2283 ment of linkages with partners, including Maxwell, ( 416)924-9192 CALGARY COMMITTEE AGAINST youth tours to Southem Africa. Contact: ARUSHA: continues to operate as a learner RACISM: has disbanded South African Lynn Caldwell, {403)277-8718 centre and develop anti-racist education subgroup; most participants have gone on programs; co-operating with CUSO and to other areas, particularly native issues ALTERNATIVES: formed about a year OXFAM. Contact: Rosemary Browne, & local opposition to the Aryan nations. ago in Montreal, and includes the Centre ( 403)270-3200 Contact: Don Dale, {403)285-3249

12 november 1995 So ut hern Africa REPORT ------~@li~@~~~------CANADIAN COOPERATIVE ASSOCIA­ tion paid to civil and political as well as working with Planact, a planning and ur­ TION: has a three-year project providing economic, social and cultural rights; gen­ ban policy group, and the National Hous­ technical assistance and credit union spe­ der and land issues are also monitored. IC­ ing Forum, to establish sustainable housing cialists to the Savings and Credit Co-op CAF continues to publish South Africa Up­ policies and deal with housing standards, League of South Africa; helping develop date, which provides news and analysis of financing, state subsidies, and land alloca­ credit unions across the country, particu­ human rights-related issues and responses tions. Contact: Barry Pinsky, ( 416)366- larly in the townships, and helping to de­ to those issues by church partners in South 1445 velop links between the co-op and agri­ Africa. Contact: Gary Kenny, ( 416)927- TASK FORCE ON CHURCHES AND cultural sectors. Contact: Rick Weger, 1124 CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY (613)238-6711 INTER-PARES: has worked with partner (TCCR): addressing the corporate agenda CANADIAN LABOUR CONGRESS: has organisations around SADCC issues; con­ in other areas and now has little to do with been working with COSATU and NACTU tinues to be active in Zimbabwe, Zambia, SA. Supported the SACC proposal for a & SA service organisations, and continues Namibia, and Tanzania but has little to "Code of Business Ethics," largely ignored to support educational projects, such as do with South Africa. Contact: Lise La­ by the Canadian government, out of con­ COSATU's summer & winter schools, as troumille, (613)563-4801 cern that South Africa would be under in­ tense pressure to set lower standards and well as exchange programs. Contact: Paul THE MICAH INSTITUTE OF SOUTH­ Puritt, (613)521-3400 cut corners. Contact: Bill Davis, ( 416)923- ERN ALBERTA: continues to work on 1758 COOPERATION CANADA MOZAM­ third world educational issues, with a fo­ BIQUE (COCAMO), a coalition of 20 cus on Africa. Was almost entirely funded TEN DAYS FOR WORLD DEVELOP­ Canadian NGOs, church groups, labour through the PPP; is looking at new ways MENT: has no active campaign related to unions' humanity funds and solidarity to continue its work with limited funding, South Africa; continues to focus on eco­ groups, has been working collectively including the KENYA CONNECTION, a nomic justice, mobilizing the churches to since 1988 to support community groups fair trade group launched by Joy Duncan advocacy, popular education approaches, and popular organizations in Nampula, in Calgary to bring African crafts to Al­ and policy issues; maintains e-mail contact Mozambique. COCAMO has provided berta, which is looking at expanding into with organisations in South Mrica. Con­ technical assistance and training to local southern Africa. A portion of the profits tact: Dennis Howlett, ( 416)922-0591 groups that provide adult education, sup­ are being used to fund cooperative efforts TORONTO COMMITTEE FOR LINKS port to family sector farming, small in­ such as market gardens and the digging of BETWEEN SOUTHERN AFRICA AND come generating activities and credit fa­ wells. Contact: Car<;>line Brown, ( 403)262- CANADA (TCLSAC) is entering its 11th cilities for women. With the arrival of 5111 year publishing Southern Africa Report peace, COCAMO-supported groups are OXFAM: Gender and Development Pro­ magazine and continues its work in the beginning to move into previously con­ gramme currently supports over a dozen South-South-North Network. An index of tested areas where the landrnine problems women's organisations, addressing violence the first ten years of SAR will be available are more acute. Currently, COCAMO is against women and income equity, mobi­ shortly. TCLSAC is a founding member exploring ways to support programmes to lizing rural women to take economic and of Counterpoint: the Resource Centre for develop de-mining expertise in Nampula political control of their lives. Funds for Global Analysis through which the library province. Contact: Michael O'Connor, staffing office costs, communications sys­ of the Southern Africa Resource Centre is (613)562-3930 tems, research and networking are pro­ maintained. Contact: (416)967-5562 CONFEDERATION DES SYNDICATS vided for women's groups. Funding is UNITED CHURCH: continues to support NATIONAUX (CSN): from the mid-80s also being provided for information shar­ its partners, particularly the SACC and until last year was involved with COSATU ing, exchanges, and internships between related sub-groups, in justice work, is­ and member unions in educational activ­ women's groups in South Africa, other sues relating to women and youth, Recon­ ities, summer schools, health & safety is­ Southern African countries, and Canada; struction & Rehabilitation, environmental sues, gender equality, and organising. To projects for 1994-95 are bringing Canadian groups, academic and trade unions, pub­ date, partners in South Africa have notre­ and South African groups fighting violence lications, and the training of new leader­ newed their demands, and CSN is therefore against women in both countries. OX­ ship to replace those lost to government uncertain of any future involvement. Con­ FAM is also working on development and and private enterprise. Contact: Omega tact: Peter Bakvis, (514)598-2273 training for urban community-based orga­ Bula, ( 416)231-5931 nizations, and issues around civil society, CUSO: working chiefly on land, housing democracy and elections. Contacts: Lola UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMER­ and literacy projects with South African Fabowale, Jim McKinnon, (613)237-5236 ICA (Humanities Fund): working on NGOs and various Canadian partners. health & safety issues, pension funds, and Contact: John Van Mossel, (613)829-7445 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: has a staff workplace reorganisation, and with the member in Johannesburg working on land English Literacy Project and its publica­ re-allocation; also working with partners tion, Active Voice, which deals with human DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE: working rights, democracy, civil society, and voter with the National Land Committee; with in Lesotho on visitor exchanges and education. Also working with the Interna­ the National Language Program, which is assistance with nursery schools, and in tional Labour Resources and Information looking at reform based on language and association with the Presbyterian World Group (ILRIG) on regional integration linguistics programs; and with a network Service and the Sharpeville Women's Association on their community centre, themes, as well as the Canter for Adult and of advice centres in Orange Free State, Continuing Education (CACE), providi:q.g concerned with ensuring that citizens know focusing on job retraining and skills such as sewing and trading. Contact: Rick Fee, training around race & gender issues, and their rights and how to get access to ( 416)441-1111 developing a curriculum for trade unions the services to which they are entitled. and community groups. CACE has links Contact: Trevor Cook, (514)257-8711 ROOFTOPS: international development with George Brown College, COADY Insti­ arm of the Co-operative Housing Federa­ tute, and Ontario District of Steelworkers. INTER-CHURCH COALITION ON tion of Canada, with strong assistance from Contact: Judith Marshall, ( 416)487-1571 AFRICA (ICCAF): Southern Mrican CUSO; is helping South African partners Working Group (which included a major like the Housing Department of the Na­ YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSO­ focus on South Africa) has been replaced tional Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and CIATION (YWCA): maintains relation­ with the Human Rights Working Group. UMZAMO in the conversion of single-sex ships with regional YWCA; looking for South Africa remains one of the groups hostels to family accommodation for mi­ funding for anti-violence activities. Con­ eight countries of focus, with special at ten- grant labourers in mining areas. Also tact: (416)593-9886

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 13 ______n~m@mm~m®~------Timeless Bombs There's a wealth of amputation waiting in the ground was her red dress. Not just the death but the fact that But no one can remember where they put them down there was no opportunity to bury the dead had clearly Bruce Cockburn, "The Mines of Mozambique" shaken Mondlane. Will Mozambicans be able to "re­ turn to the Blues and Greens and the Joy that was Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn and ours as Mozambicans?," she asked. Mozambican singer Chude Mondlane recently toured Canada under the sponsorship of a broad coalition of Cockburn also spoke movingly of his experience in Canadian NGOs (led by COCAMO and Mozambique's Mozambique, even singing a song that he had just com­ Instituto Eduardo Mondlane). The object: to speak posed in response to what he had observed there. We about the invisible threat to the dynamics of peace are grateful to Bruce for his permission to publish both process in Mozambique that landmines - a particularly an edited version of the text of the speech he gave, grisly legacy of three decades of war in that country - as well as the lyrics of the song he has written. For represent. Mozambicans, Cockburn emphasized, demining is pos­ sible, albeit extremely difficul~ and formidably expen­ Cockburn previously toured Mozambique in 1988, at sive. But his basic message was simpler: the only long­ the height of South African-backed war of destabiliza­ term solution to the landmines problem is a total ban tion there. Chude Mondlane's father, Eduardo Mond­ on their use. lane, was the first leader of the Mozambican libera­ tion movement, FRELIMO, and was assassinated by Ban landmines. This is the goal of a coalition of Cana­ the Portuguese colonialists in 1969. Together, Cock­ dian NGOs, grouped together as Mines Action Canada burn and Mondlane spent two weeks learning about the (170 Bond St., Ottawa, ON K1R 7W1); this group calls devastating human impact of landmines. They visited on the Canadian government to push internationally for hospitals, landmine removal sites, rural communities af­ such a ban and to stop producing the Canadian land­ fected by landmines and groups working with survivors. mine, the "Elsie." Advocacy of a world-wide ban is also whose weapons were these, the principal message of a recent report from Human Rights Watch that Alex Vines - who himself works in who buried my future the UK with that organization - brings to the atten­ Chude Mondlane, "A Song for Mozambique" tion of SAR readers in a second article published here. In their meetings both spoke (and sang) eloquently Vines' article has the added virtue of locating the prob­ of the horrors they had witnessed. Thus Mondlane lem of landmines within its wider southern African re­ brought the tragedy home by recounting the story of gional context (not least by referring to Angola where a little girl, much the same age as her own daughter, the landmine problem is even graver than in Mozam­ who was blown up by a landmine in an area not iden­ bique). He thus provides a valuable pendant to Bruce itified as a mine field. All that remained of the child Cockburn's account. The Mines of Mozambique

BY BRUCE COCKBURN not maintaining the road, but cut­ What was the true course of ting shallow trenches in rows across the war? There was virtually The road from Quelimane to N am­ the paved portions in order to slow no communication between people pula winds prettily between lines of vehicular traffic to where it would be caught on opposing sides - and it's mango and cashew trees planted by vulnerable to ambush. Even though, only now that one can grasp the real the old colonial masters to draw peo­ since the peace accord was signed shape of recent history. ple to where their activities could be in October '92, scrap metal dealers monitored. It takes a long time to do When I was in Mozambique in have been busy, you can still see the the drive. The road rolls and heaves 1988, there was no evidence that twisted remains of convoyed trucks like a rough sea. A lot of rainy sea­ RENAMO had a political platform here and there along the roadside. sons have come and gone without or anything like legitimacy. They anyone working on its repair. Dur­ The war were simply "the Bandits." And ing the long years of war much of the While scavengers sort out the physi­ they had acquired a reputation countryside was emptied of people. cal detritus of war, Mozambicans in for atrociously brutal tactics with Those who remained in RENAMO­ general are trying to sort out its psy­ respect to forced recruitment and controlled zones were put to work, chic debris. the treatment of prisoners. So it

14 november 1995 Southern Af rica REP OR T came as quite a surprise to me, and I RENAMO soldiers had driven a pin population. This, among other think to others, when they emerged into it. things, alienated large numbers of from the elections with something Nevertheless, that picture didn't people. RENAMO turned this like 40% of the vote. There tell the whole story. In its attempt alienation to its own advantage by was plenty of evidence in 1988 to to replace colonial structures with presenting itself as the friend of the support the former characterization a Marxist social order, FRELIMO traditional leaders. It seems, too, of RENAMO, evidence which still had gone out of its way to humiliate that peasant communities, when abounds. I talked with the nurse and render powerless the traditional threatened by the war itself, had in charge of a rural health post village leaders who had previously to choose between fleeing toward at Luala, in Zambezia province, been supported by the Portuguese RENAMO or toward FRELIMO who was blind in one eye because as a means of controlling the bases, and their choice then led to a similar choice at election time. There was an understandable feeling of exhaustion with war and the sense that if RENAMO didn't do well, the fighting would continue. Angola is NESof currently providing an example of · that scenario. OZAMBIQUE What next? So where are we now? After 500 years of colonialism and 25 years BRUCE COCKBURN of war, we have democracy in a country which for the most part does not value or even recognize CRUDE MONDLANE any community larger than the village. Even at that level you Despite a peace accord ending 15 years don't see the acknowledgement of of war and a recent multi-party election one interdependence among people that of the legacies of the conflict continues to be you find in some other places. To what extent this is a mentality felt in Mozambique. An estimated 2 million spawned by the war is not clear, but land mines are scattered throughout the there's no doubt that the "Sauve qui countryside hampering post war rehabilitation peut" concept is what prevails. and resettlement efforts. We have a government with vir­ Bruce Cockburn and Mozambican musician tually no funds - which has, in the Chude Mondlane will speak about their recent years leading up to the peace and fact finding mission in Mozambique. those since, been compelled to re­ Land mines, democracy and what lies ahead ... structure the country's economy at the behest of the World Bank and friends, opening the way for unfet­ October 3, 1995 tered capitalism. We can now wit­ 7:30-9:30 p.m. ness the spectacle of drastically un­ derpaid teachers finding it necessary Brigantine Room, York Quay Centre 235 Queens Quay West to charge students for the release of their marks; of thousands of de­ mobilized soldiers without work or Unfinished Business : Land Mines in Post-War Mozambique other support falling back on ban­ ditry to survive, who sometimes rent

Event sponsored by: their weaponry from underpaid po­ lice who themselves frequently re­ Upfront: The Community Speaks and COCAMO sort to mugging passers-by to aug­ HAR30lR~oNJr ADMISSION IS FREE -.ENII'IE ment their wages. (About this I can For information call Harbourfront Centre at 973-3000 speak with great authority, having or OXFAM-Canada at 535-2335 COCAMO been held up by two cops outside my hotel in Maputo).

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 15 ______n~m@lliffiim®~------All this in contrast to a feeding terned cloth rather than put them­ If you need an IV, you have to pay. frenzy on the part of international selves in contact with the hospi­ If you need blood, you have to buy business and its local agents. There tal bedding. The gurney used to it. If you need medicine, your family are oil compames, mining transport patients who can't walk is has to comb the pharmacies in town companies, logging companies, an old blood-stained stretcher rigged because all the drugs have been sold Japanese trawlers, entrepreneurs of with wheels. Fecal-smelling wards off long since by the hospital staff. all sorts, many of them Portuguese are crammed with people, most of The closest thing to a bright spot in and South African. The irony whom seem to be in for treatment of the whole scene is a cop who's there is inescapable. Even the HIV infections acquired while undergoing because he shot himself in the foot virus, kept at bay by Mozambique's operations at this very institution. while chasing a "suspect." He com- relative plains because his isolation during the THE MINES OF MOZAMBIQUE supenors haven't war, is appearing as come to visit. a colonizer. There's a broad river winding through this African lowland The government Economic re- the moon is held up orange and big - see it raise its hands can't raise salaries structuring, to be the last ferry's pulling out with nowhere left to stand for fear of losing fair , created an in­ for the mines of Mozambique the support of the centive to produce, World Bank. So There's a wealth of amputation waiting in the ground and this has led to you have an improved situa­ but no one can remember where they put it down people producing in tion for some peo­ if you're the child who finds it there you will rise upon the sound a modest way, but ple. It has also, of the mines of Mozambique no money to buy though, provided Some men rob the passersby for a little cash to spend anything and no means of carrying massive incen- some men rob whole countries dry and still get called their friend tives for corruption. produce to market. There are consumer and under the feeding frenzy there's a wound that will not mend goods in the coun­ in the mines of Mozambique A country des­ try, but the mini- * * troyed mum wage is about * Night, like peace, is a state of suspension The field against $17 per month- not which this is enough to buy a 50 Tomorrow the heat will rise happening is one of lb. bag of flour. The mist will hide the marshy fields near cost of importing the mango and the cashew trees total destruction of such goods is what­ which only now they're clearing brush from under transportation, ever you can negoti­ schools and stores ate with the nearest Rusted husks of blown-up trucks in the wake of war, crooked customs of­ line the roadway north of town drought, and, in the ficial. Social spend­ like passing through a sculpture gallery north, a disastrous ing is gone - sound war is the artist - but he's sleeping now - hurricane last year. familiar? Yes, but the effects in a place and somebody will be peddling vials of penicillin The war killed like Mozambique stolen out of all the medical kits sent to the countryside all the cattle, drove are beyond our away or killed the worst nightmares. and in a bare workshop wildlife, destroyed The central hospi­ they 'II be moulding plastic into little prosthetic legs nearly all tal in N ampul a City for the children of this artist the trucks, wrecked used to be decent, and for those who farm the soil rail lines, left all if poorly supplied. that received his bitter seed but the major cities Now it's a ce~spool in ruins - left rural of misery. The * * * access roads and mentally ill wander the all-night stragglers stagger home - cocks begin to crow fields polluted with the hallways stink­ and singing birds are starting up - telling what they know landmines. With ing of urine and and after a while the sun will come and we 'II see what it will show respect to this raving. The walls of the mines of Mozambique latter, Mozambique are filthy. People is typical of who can, bring their @1995 Golden Mountain Music Inc. many Third World own brightly pat- countries which

16 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT have been the scene of wars, on a degree of physical fitness for when we explain that where we come especially civil wars, in recent years. their survival. from, women are Canadianas. Over the past two decades the The one-armed, badly scarred Landmines presence of anti-personnel mines in and blinded kid whose sister leads such places has come to constitute a him around to beg from the foreign­ Landmines come in many shapes major epidemic. The UN estimates ers at the riverfront cafe in Queli­ and sizes, but they can be loosely divided into "anti-tank" and "anti­ that there are around two million mane is representative: he hit a mine mines in Mozambique. Although with his mattock while working his personnel." Anti-personnel mines people involved in the p·rocess of family's machamba, or garden plot can be further differentiated as "blast" and "fragmentation." Blast removing them feel that number is - well after hostilities had ended. a little high, there are plenty to When you talk to the technician mines, as the name implies, work go around. There are plenty of in charge of the prosthetics work­ by simply blowing off parts of dead and maimed Mozambicans - shop supported by the French NGO the body. Fragmentation mines 10 ,000 dead from mines during the Handicap International, he tells you work like a big grenade, sending war, and at least 500 in the last that probably 60% of his customers shrapnel over a wide radius. There two years. These numbers don't are mine victims. The workshop is are various methods of triggering include the injured, or the deaths part of an orthopaedic clinic where explosions, the most common being occurring in remote areas that patients come for consultation and foot pressure, or a •trip wire. largely go unreported. The injured fitting of artificial limbs, as well Anti-tank mines are designed are generally disabled, becoming a as physiotherapy aimed at helping to blow the track off of 60-ton burden to their families and to them adjust to their prostheses. In armoured vehicles and generally what health care resources do exist. one room they are navigating be­ require a substantial weight to set They are likely to swell further tween parallel bars, getting used to them off. The front wheel of a jeep the numbers of urban beggars, walking without their Canadianas. will do it - or a road construction contributing to the instability of Their what? Canadianas. These vehicle - and there won't be much society; they can look forward to a are the short metal crutches that are left afterward. Fortunately, anti­ very poor quality of life. Victims of braced against the forearm. Nobody tank mines are present only in small mine accidents are most likely to be knows why they're called that, but numbers in Mozambique. The real civilians, rural people who depend we get a laugh from the bystanders obstacle to development is the anti-

Landmines from the war of destabilization, now deactivated by sappers - Capirizadje, Mozambique, June 1994

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 17 ______n~m@mm~m®~------

personnel mines, and the perception an area where they were to be laid. m uon for metal detectors to be of them. It's worth pointing out here He told his acquaintances what he effective. that unlike other weapons, mines are was doing, and the word spread that There is a reasonable hope activated by the victim. Nobody is the area was now unsafe. After the that the problem of mines in aiming them. Classically, mines are war, it turned out that he was only Mozambique can be solved - because used by soldiers to deny access to carrying crates of rocks - that it was of the relatively small numbers and an area - e.g. to create a defensive all a trick. It served the purpose because in many cases they can perimeter around a base or town, or though - area denial - and I wonder be worked around. Even though to prevent ambushes by laying them if anyone's farming that land even the things can remain deadly for as along the shoulders of a road. This now? When you've seen what these much as 50 years, given the money application is one seen commonly in things do, you're not inclined to take and the will to keep on clearing, Mozambique. chances. and to build alternative roads to During the war of independence, Problem is, when you're a those that are most heavily mined, the Portuguese laid mines in this subsistence farmer, you have to farm we can eventually expect to ease the way. In the late 70's, the Rhodesian or starve. So what do you do? You situation to the point where life can forces mined the border areas learn to live with the threat. You be something like normal. of Mozambique to deter guerilla start to mythologize it. If your child This may be true of Mozam­ incursions. FRELIMO laid strings decides to play with a fragmentation bique, where the war is over and no of mines around towns, hydro lines, mine and is suddenly reduced to new mines are being laid. It's not so military bases and key industrial a few bloody scraps of clothing, true elsewhere. A year ago Mozam­ sites. Private companies mined it's because somebody's offended the bique was averaging two mine acci­ their own operations as well. The ancestors. It's not because someone dents weekly. At the same time, An­ Canada Dry mineral water bottling in Russia or Italy or China or the gola was suffering 25 per day. In plant at N amaacha near the border US manufactured a lethal device and Cambodia, Afghanistan, Nicaragua with Swaziland, is surrounded by sold it for five bucks so your low and a host of other places, there is four different rings of anti-personnel budget armies could put it in your no short-term solution. mines. For all that, RENAMO still field . It isn't obvious to you that There is, however, a long-term was able to capture and destroy the the manufacturers' government will one. Only one. Anti-personnel plant. give its taxpayers' money to the UN , mines must be placed in the same so that the UN can hire that same Classically, too, records are kept special category under international manufacturers' expertise to remove of the location and number of mines, law as chemical weapons. They have the thing for a thousand dollars. and the minefields are marked with to be banned. signs and/or strands of wire. In A total ban? Mozambique is facing a fright­ practice, very little documentation ening array of difficulties. Who survives. Wire and sign posts k lot of effort is going into mine will rein in the police? Where will are removed by people in need of awareness training in Mozambique. transportation come from? Can building materials and years later It was hard for me to judge whether the country remain sovereign in the nobody remembers where the mines or not it's working. A good deal face of so much international eco­ are. of effort and expense is going into de-mining operations, not all of nomic involvement? How do you When you're the guerrillas, you them of the kind just referred to. move a nation from a nearly pre­ don't have large installations to The UN has a major program in industrial state into the age of the defend, so your use of mines is place in the south of the country, microchip without being buried by different . And you don't keep training former soldiers from both the avalanche of change? records at all. RENAMO proved sides in the location and destruction In some respects, this is a itself very effective at using its South of mines. African-supplied ones as a terror country that is still at the tourniquet weapon. Put a couple on the trail A couple of NGO's are also stage of recovery. It must be kept ( where you might expect the enemy working in other regions. Halo from bleeding to death long enough to walk, but maybe lay some near Trust, a British group and the for it to get on its feet. It's hard to the local health post or in the first NGO to have de-mining as know where to start to address the schoolyard, or maybe don't lay any, its express purpose, is at work in situation. One point might be this: but say you did. RENAMO used a Zambezia province, one of the worst I asked an activist for the disabled, lot of forced labour. In one case, a infested areas. Norwegian People's himself crippled by a mine, what primary school teacher was put to Aid has a similar program in Tete message he would like carried to the work for several days carrying boxes province using trained dogs to sniff outside world. His response - tell of mines from one of their camps to out mines where the soil is too high them to stop blowing us up!

18 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ------Il C@JJill@JTI1DJliD®~ ______The Southern Africa Minefield

Vehicles used in de-mining in southern Angola

BY ALEX VINES soil and that these mines have also being used in criminal acts in Mozambique, and were available in Alex Vines works with Human Rights claimed over 250,000 victims since 1961. Angola is the most affected Namibia and Zambia for exchange of Watch in London. country in the region, with well over food or second-hand clothing; they eight million mines in its soil (only can be bought individually on the For over 30 years landmines have Afghanistan is more heavily mined). black-market in South Africa, for claimed civilian victims in southern Angola also has one of the highest example, for as little as an old pair Africa. In 1961, in northern Angola, rates of landmine injuries per capita of shoes! a landmine took its first life. By in the world. Out of a population The trade 1995 all countries in southern Africa of about nine million, it has many The Human Rights Watch report have had landmine incidents, with thousands of amputees, possibly documents the way in which anti­ the exception of Lesotho, and every 70,000, the great majority of them personnel landmines came to feature country in the region maintains injured by landmines. Yet despite prominently in the colonial and stock-piles of such weapons. international clearance efforts in post-colonial wars that have plagued Indeed, a new report by Human Angola, landmines have continued much of southern Africa for the Rights Watch, entitled "Still Killing: to be planted by both UNITA and last three decades. During this Landmines in Southern Africa" f, government forces. But the problem period many millions of landmines estimates that southern Africa has is well known throughout the region. have been imported into southern some twenty million mines in its Moreover, by 1995, landmines were Africa (62 different types from some 17 countries) while others have 20005-1202 USA, Tel: (202) 371- t Human Rights Watch, Still Killing: been manufactured there (in South 6592, Fax: (202) 371-0124, E-mail: Landmines in Southern Africa, to Africa, Zimbabwe and, possibly, be published this month by Human [email protected]; or Alex Vines, Namibia). Rights Watch/Arms Project. For Human Rights Watch, 33 Islington further information contact: Steve High St., London N1 9LH UK, Tel: Thus, South Africa's mines have Goose, Program Director, Human (171) 713 1995, Fax: (171) 713 1800, been found in Angola, Mozambique, Rights Watch/Arms Project, 1522 E-mail: [email protected] Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe K St., N. W., #910, Washington DC and have been exported further

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 19 ______li@ID~mffi~ID@~------~------afield: to Cambodia, Rwanda and possibly Somalia. Zimbabwe's mines have been used in Namibia and Mozambique. But the trail can often be complex: stocks of landmines captured by the South African military in its invasions of southern Angola in the 1970s and 1980s were also used to supply insurgent forces in Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, for example. In covert aid the U.S. supplied U .S.-manufactured landmines to UNITA rebels up to 1991 while the Malawian military received U.S. manufactured mines as part of a military co-operation agreement. More recently, in 1993- 1994, UNITA rebels in Angola have purchased weapons, including landmines, on the open market, in contravention of U.N. sanctions. Or take the stocks of French .... landmines cleared in Algeria after u ro independence. Some of them were c. merely sold to the Mozambican E ...... government in the 1970s. Yet now, ~ in Mozambique, government and <( Renamo clearance of mines of varied Q) OJ> provenance has again not resulted OJ> consistently in their destruction: .Q c: they have been preserved for re-use u:: or sale! OJ> ....0 c: The mines themselves ro C/l Unlike many other weapons, land­ Sappers from de-mining brigade in Maputo province mines are blind weapons that can­ not distinguish between the footfall when they explode, mines frequently A second distinguishing feature of a soldier and that of an old woman and indiscriminately strike civilians of landmine use is the particularly gathering firewood. Casualty rates instead. egregious nature of mine injuries. due to landmines show that they The life of landmines is long. The majority of landmine explosions recognize no cease-fire and, long af­ A middle-age man who planted a that do not cause death result in ter the cease-fire has stopped, they landmine in northern Angola in 1965 traumatic medical effects: "The can maim or kill the children and recently returned thirty years later. result" writes the British Medical grandchildren of the soldiers who The mine was still operational and Journal, "for the individual is not laid them. could have killed or maimed at any one but, typically, a series of painful Two characteristics distinguish time over the last thirty years. In operations, often followed by a life landmines from other weapons and many cases, those responsible for at the margins of a society heavily cause them to be particularly laying the mines have long since dependent on manual labour." insidious. First, they are delayed­ died, or moved, making locating Mine clearance action weapons. They are meant not them more difficult. The on-going Mine clearance cannot effectively for immediate effect, but rather are threat created by live landmines can deal with the crisis; it is gener­ primed, concealed, and lie dormant prevent civilians from living in their ally too little, too late. Moreover, until triggered. In theory, mines homes and using their fields, and can when undertaken at all, most ef­ can be directed at legitimate targets. seriously threaten the ability of an forts are badly funded and poorly However, because of the time lag entire country to re-build long after coordinated. Only some US$45 mil­ between when mines are laid and the war has ended. lion has been invested in mine clear-

20 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ______li@Till@mffi~Till@~------

ance in southern Africa since May and economies of scale brought mine maintaining them. As a result mine 1991, resulting in less than 400,000 removal costs down by a factor of laying became uncontrolled and un­ mines being cleared, the majority of ten, the cost of mine clearance would recorded and booby trapping flour­ these from large defensive minefields still be so prohibitive that clearance ished. This was in direct contraven­ in southern Angola. alone could not readily abate the tion of the Landmines Protocol. Yet Nor are such clearance efforts CriSIS. these minefields remain lethal today, often claiming new victims. Clear­ without controversy. In Mozam­ International protocols? bique, U.N. mine clearance ef­ ance of the border minefields will be forts became victim to inter-agency The Landmines Protocol, an inter­ dangerous, costly and time consum­ competition for control over funds national treaty intended to dimin­ ing. and consequent bureaucratic de­ ish landmine use against civilians, To those unfamiliar with the lays. They were also thrown into has also proved utterly ineffective in consequences, mines may not ini­ disrepute when a US$7.5 human­ stemming the crisis. This Protocol tially evoke the nightmarish visions itarian contract for clearance of is part of the 1980 U.N. Inhumane of warfare conducted, for example, priority roads went to a consor­ Weapons Convention (and is cur­ with chemical or biological weapons, tium of British weapons manufac­ rently under international review). traditionally thought of as weapons turer, Royal Ordnance, Lonrho de 50 states have ratified it as it stands of mass destruction. However, in Mo~ambique and Mechem of South but even though southern Africa is their inability to distinguish civilian Africa, a part of Denel Ltd., the one of the most mine-affected re­ and military targets, the numerous export wing of state arms man­ gions in the world only South Africa deaths and egregious injuries they ufacturer, Armscor. Both Royal in the region has ratified it. cause, and their terrible potential Ordnance and Mechem are com­ Moreover, although the original for massive long-term devastation, panies which have produced land­ Landmines Protocol does contain landmines are not very different. In­ mines, or their components in the provisions to curb certain kinds deed, in some ways landmines are past, some of which in all likeli­ of use, it has many failings, worse than chemical weapons, which hood are to be found in Mozam­ not least the fact that, generally, at least rapidly dissipate. bique. Awarding mine manufactur­ its provisions do not apply to ers with clearance contracts, known internal conflicts in which the vast A total ban? as "double-dipping," is opposed by majority of mines, as has been Yet the use, production, stockpiling, Human Rights Watch. (Mechem in the case in southern Africa, are and transfer of biological and mid-1995 received a further multi­ used. Moreover, it lacks any toxin weapons were banned by million dollar UN contract for clear­ real enforcement mechanisms, an international treaty in 1972 as ance of priority roads in Angola.) extremely serious problem given the "repugnant to the conscience of Moreover, even if de-mining were fact that the Protocol's limited rules mankind." Now, mounting evidence given top priority, it would not be are rarely followed: armies both of the destruction caused by anti­ a solution. Mines are being laid regularly use mines deliberately personnel landmines has led many worldwide far faster than they are against non-combatants and fail to groups to call for a similar total ban being removed. The U.N . estimates take even minimal precautions to on anti-personnel landmines, such a that there are 84-100 million mines safeguard against collateral harm to ban- on the production, stockpiling, still uncleared around the world. By civilians. transfer, and use of such mines the end of the century there could Take, for example, the case of - being preferable to the existing, be between 100 and 130 million. Zimbabwe. That country inherited and largely ineffective, restrictions Clearance rates are far slower. In a lengthy border minefield, which contained in the Landmine Protocol. 1994 U.N. programmes cleared an the Rhodesians boasted was the sec­ The experience of recent decades estimated 84,000 mines in total, ond largest man-made barrier in the in southern Africa has been that about 34 times slower than tht: rate world, second only to the Great if combatants have access to land­ of laying them. Moreover while the Wall of China. Over a million mines, they will use them in abun­ average mine costs between US$10 anti-personnel mines were laid in dance, typically with complete dis­ and $20, the average direct and this minefield. Although the early regard for the Protocol. Thus, since indirect costs of removal range from minefields were constructed in con­ 1961, in every war in the region ev­ US$300 to $1,000 a mine - a ratio ventional manner, demarcated on ery group has used landmines indis­ frightening in its implications for both sides by security fencing on criminately. A complete ban would a region with roughly 20 million which was prominently displayed be easier to monitor and enforce uncleared mines and new ones warning signs, by 1977 the Rhode­ than intricate regulations on use still being planted, especially in sians stopped demarcating the mine­ which will always engender debate Angola. Even if new technology field on the hostile side and stopped as to whether a particular use is per-

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 21 ______li~m@mm~m®~------missible or not. Indeed, given the der to cause an increase in the unit already indicated their support for magnitude of the crisis, the only way cost of landmines, or how much the a total ban on landmines. The to affect use is to attach to land­ cost of landmines would have to Human Rights Watch report now mines the same stigma attached to be raised in order to affect com­ suggests that southern Africa states chemical and biological weapons. In batant behaviour and reduce land­ (Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozam­ short, the stigma must be attached mine use. But the combination of bique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, not to particular, debatable uses of a flat ban, international stigmati­ Zimbabwe and South Africa itself) the weapon but to the weapon itself. zation of users and suppliers, and should also follow this example (for the possibility that censure or sanc­ other recommendations of the Hu­ Still, it is not really possible tions against producers does make man Rights Watch report, see box) . to create universal revulsion against the proposal for a complete pro­ landmines without a simultaneous scription more promising than sim­ This is , in fact, what many of ban on production, stockpiling, and ply proposing further modest, and the citizens of these countries also transfer. As noted, southern African likely unenforceable, restrictions on seek. In Mozambique, a petition experience has shown that if com­ use. campaign in 1994 obtained, within a batants have ready access to land­ few months, over 100,000 signatures mines, they will use them. Only South African leadership for a ban. But consider also the a squeeze on supply can affect use. Fortunately, the South African gov­ view of Afonso Lumbala, a 32 year Not that a ban on production and ernment has taken a leadership role old farmer from Caxito in Angola export will drive all suppliers from in Africa on the landmines issue. who has first hand-experience of the field . But if only a much smaller In July 1994 the new majority led landmines: he stepped on one in number of prodUcers is!eft stand­ government upheld a moratorium April 1995. "All soldiers lay these ing, it will be easier to treat them as on the export of landmines. The mines. They don't care about us, international pariahs. Then mines government subsequently acceded to the people. We suffer for them. might come to be seen not as the the 1980 U.N. Weapons Convention They never warn us about mines, we relatively cheap commodity they are in May 1995, which was ratified by find out by losing our limbs. We today, but as a weapon for which a parliament in August. Meanwhile, want them to clear the mine mess premium would have to be charged. the Organization of African Unity and leave us alone. The leaders and Of course, we cannot know how far (O.A.U.), the U.N. and a number their soldiers are responsible for this. the number of producers and ex­ of governments, including those of So are the people who make these porters would have to drop in or- Belgium, Norway and Sweden, have evil weapons." Key Recommendations of the Report Only South Africa has acceded to the convention and regular independent monitoring of their production fa­ declared a commitment not to export or transfer land­ cilities. mines. Given that over the last thirty years in south­ • the Angolan government and opposition UNITA lead­ ern Africa anti-personnel landmines have been shown ership stop their forces planting new mines and assist to present a serious and long-term threat to civilians more enthusiastically national mine clearance initia­ far in excess of any short-term military advantage that tives. may be gained, Human Rights Watch calls on the gov­ ernments of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Human Rights Watch calls on the U.N. to: Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, South Africa, Zam­ bia and Zimbabwe to: • not continue to reward mine-producing companies with humanitarian clearance contracts. Mechem, a pro­ • support an international ban on landmines, and de­ ducer of landmines and the subsidiary of South African stroy stockpiles. state arms manufacturing company, Denel Ltd., should • push for Protocol II of the 1980 U.N. Weapons Con­ be encouraged to privatize and specialize only in mine vention to be amended to prohibit the use, devel­ clearance before it receives any additional contracts. opment, production, stockpiling or transfer of anti­ Mechem should allow regular independent inspection of personnel mines. There should also be mechanisms for its facilities to verify that it does not continue to pro­ verification and penalties for abuse of the terms of the duce components for landmine or engage in research for Protocol. a future production of anti-personnel mines. • South Africa, Zimbabwe and possibly Namibia have a •ensure that companies working for them do not sub­ domestic capacity to manufacture anti-personnel mines. contract to organizations or enterprises that might en­ Human Rights Watch urges these states to guarantee gage in production or active training in landmine war­ that no further production is taking place and permit fare.

22 november 1995 Sou thern Africa REPORT ------~®m~lli ~~~©~------l Decentralization in South Africa: ...I How Democratic? BY DAVID MCDONALD David McDonald is finishing a doctoral thesis at the University of Toronto on local government and environmental politics in South Africa.

The battle for a new South Africa will be fought at the local level . .. We are only at the beginning of this process of change. Thabo Mbeki, Deputy Vice-President, Government of National Unity, June 1995

Negotiations for new, non-racial local governments in South Africa may pale in comparison to the drama and excitement of events leading up to last year's federal and provincial elections, but the results are no less important. It is at the local level that the injustices of apartheid have been most keenly felt, and local governments are expected to play a major role in addressing these inequalities. But it also at the local level that resistance to change is strongest. Af­ fluent South Africans are anxious to protect the material gains they made under apartheid and local govern­ ment is seen as the last bastion of support for their suburban lifestyle. In Cape Town, local government negotiations have brought about a distribution of powers that perpetu­ ates a highly skewed and highly frag­ mented allocation of municipal re­ ..., u sources. White Capetonians (and lt1 0. a certain percentage of middle class E "coloureds") will continue to live in luxury while the costs of urban up­ c: 0 grading are off-loaded onto the ur­ I ban poor through privatization and Qj "self-help" schemes. c: <{"' The restructuring process in Cape Town has placed substantial S elf-help project in Orange Farm S quatter camp near Johannesburg

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 23 ------~©®~ill~~~~------

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limits on the ability of local access to basic services like wa­ identify and manage reconstruction government to affect real change in ter, electricity, transport, and health and development priorities. Local a "new" South Africa. care. With at least 12 million peo­ RDP Forums will be set up in ev­ The importance of local govern­ ple in the country without clean ery town and city, and RDP funds ment drinking water and over 21 million will only go to those areas that have people without adequate sanitation demonstrated a good working re­ Guidelines for local government (i .e., toilets anq refuse removal), lo­ lationship between the community restructuring are laid out in the cal governments will play a criti­ and local government officials. Local Government Transition Act cal role in poverty alleviation.t Lo­ Little wonder then that Jay of 1993, the essence of which is cal governments are also expected, N aidoo, until recently the ANC Min­ that racially divided cities and towns along with community organiza­ ister in charge of the Reconstruc­ must be amalgamated into single, tions, unions, and businesses, to tion and Development Programme non-racial, democratically elected / local governments. t Local governments will not have a reprioritization of local government I Schedule Two of the Act makes to finance all of these projects on spending is expected to represent a local governments responsible for en­ their own, but a rationalization of substantial amount of financial and suring that all South Africans have white and black municipalities and human resources.

24 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT (RDP), has referred to local govern­ tral metropolitan authority. None of CMC. Only a large metropolitan au­ ment as the "hands and feet of the these municipalities had jurisdiction thority, it was argued, would be RDP." over another and except for polic­ capable of financing urban upgrad­ ing activities very little communica­ ing in the townships and effectively Decentralization tion took place between different lo­ managing urban growth. Loss of au­ These decentralization efforts rep­ cal bodies. Services such as urban tonomy was not considered a prob­ resent a long-standing commitment planning, public transport, and the lem because "effective democratic on the part of the ANC and its dumping of toxic wastes were con­ participation in government is de­ allies to democratize decision mak­ ducted with no central coordination pendent in the main on the system of ing in South Africa. The ANC ar­ and with enormous inefficiencies. representation and on the strength gues that local government is the Needless to say, the service dis­ of civil society, not on the area of "level of representative democracy parities between African, coloured jurisdiction of an authority." closest to the people" and the most and white areas of the city are enor­ accountable. Involving civil soci­ mous - a situation that local gov­ The Local Government Demar­ ety in the decision-making process ernment restructuring is intended to cation Board responsible for making is expected to strengthen support address. But rather than creating the final decision on metropolitan for RDP-related projects and to help a strong metropolitan government boundaries decid~d to exclude these avoid costly mistakes. able to rationalize services in Cape satellite towns, despite the Board's own admission that these "fringe But calls for decentralization by Town, the negotiation process has created a relatively weak metropoli­ municipalities apparently spent lav­ the democratic movement have also ish sums of public money on consul­ been tempered by the desire for tan council and strong substruc­ tures. tants to prepare arguments against a certain degree of centralization inclusion in the metropolitan area - especially in large cities like The first blow to a strong while virtually no assistance was Johannesburg and Cape Town. It metropolitan authority was the ex­ given by these bodies to the respec­ has long been argued that the clusion from the Cape Metropolitan tive non-statutory groups who dif­ amalgamation of racially defined Council (CMC) of a number of im­ fered from them." The Board also townships and suburbs must be portant satellite towns. The mu­ gave little consideration to the argu­ accompanied by mechanisms that nicipalities of Paarl, Stellenbosch, ment (put forward by a representa­ allow for a more efficient and more and Franschhoek - home to many tive of the World Bank, among oth­ equitable distribution of municipal ofthe intellectual and financial elites ers) that splitting what was clearly resources, and a strong metropolitan of Afrikanerdom - managed to bar­ a single metropolitan area into two government is deemed absolutely gain their way out of a metropoli­ would lead to capital flight from the essential for this purpose. tan Cape Town and the associ­ city to the fringe, further weakening Accordingly, the Local Govern­ ated responsibilities of upgrading the ability of the CMC to address ment Transition Act grants Transi­ the sprawling squatter camps and the enormous backlog of services. tional Metropolitan Councils townships that fall within the CMC. (TMCs) the power to exact Representatives from these The second major blow to a metropolitan-wide tax levies, to ra­ fringe municipalities argued that strong metropolitan authority came tionalize human and capital re­ their towns were not sufficiently ur­ with the granting of metropolitan sources in the metropolitan area as a banized and not economically reliant duties, and the right to "retain max­ whole, and to ensure that bulk ser­ on Cape Town proper, and their imum control over local decision­ vices like sewage plants and waste inclusion in the metropolitan area making and implementation" of disposal are made available to every­ would bring about a loss of cultural these duties, to the metropolitan one in the city. More local services and financial "autonomy." One substructures. This devolution of (e.g. street cleaning, refuse collec­ business owner went so far as to say power will make it much easier for tion, parking tickets) were made the that the wine industry, which makes councillors from the wealthier parts responsibility of metropolitan sub­ up a significant part of the fringe of the city to resist a restructuring structures. area's economy, "was self-contained of municipal assets and service sys­ Local government negotiations and had greater links with France tems. and Australia than Cape Town"! in Cape Town The Cape Metropolitan Nego­ Before local government negotia­ Opponents of this position tiating Forum (CMNF) Agreement tions began in Cape Town, the claimed that these satellite towns also stipulates that the responsibil­ metropolitan area was divided into did fit the criteria for inclusion in ity of a given substructure to provide a patchwork of 26 municipalities, 69 a metropolitan area and that they services to "disadvantaged areas" decision-making units, and no cen- are economically dependent on the won't "impose inordinate increases

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 25 ------~@~~~ ~~~n©~------in any of its taxes and charges" to tan area. The national govern­ on the ability of the CMC to perform rate payers - yet again relieving af­ ment (with support from several na­ its intended duties. fluent Capetonians from the burden tional NP Members of Parliament) One result would appear to of urban upgrading. threatened to declare the provin­ be the privatization of municipal Metropolitan councils retain the cial government's moves "unconsti­ services. A lack of state funds de jure right to collect tax levies and tutional." at the local level, coupled with a administer bulk services for the city Marais backed down on his orig­ fiscally conservative macroeconomic as a whole, but the wording of the inal proposal but then submitted an policy at the federal level, means CMNF Agreement will make it very equally objectionable plan to twin that private sector financing will be difficult in practice for a metropoli­ the Tygerburg substructure with the the only funding option available for tan authority to tell substructures townships of iKapa and the Cen­ the enormous service expansion that what to do. Furthermore, apartheid tral substructure with the township is required. bureaucrats still control the techni­ of Khayelitsha - a proposition that In a June 1995 Report to Par­ cal and managerial systems required the leader of the ANC for the West­ liament, Jay N aidoo announced that to run a complex network of service ern Cape called "economic and ge­ of the anticipated 60 billion Rand facilities and they are much more ographical nonsense." The contro­ needed for urban infrastructure over likely to listen to white politicians versy eventually had to go to Consti­ the next ten years, only a fraction of adept at the art of municipal poli­ tutional Court and has delayed local this will come from the state. The ticking than to listen to representa­ government elections in Cape Town "major source of funding" will be tives from the townships. until at least April of 1996 (a full the private sector, either by "loans year and a half behind the original repaid through the tax base, or di­ To make matters worse, the election plans). rect private sector investment in lo­ provincial government, which is con­ A number of commentators have cal government services." Although trolled by the National Party in the suggested that the episode was it is too early to tell which services Western Cape, has been manipulat­ political gerrymandering on the part would be privatized, it is clear that ing both the composition and the of the National Party to limit the privatization will be a major fea­ rulings of important local govern­ number of African voters on the ture of urban renewal schemes in the ment decision-making bodies. The election lists in Tygerburg; others country. provincial Minister of Local Gov­ have suggested it was old-fashioned This is not the place for a lengthy ernment, Peter Marais, a long-time racism. But the incident also reveals discussion on the relative merits and apartheid crony from the ex-House the stark economic interests at play demerits of privatization in South of Delegates, replaced members of in local government restructuring. Africa. However, it can be said the Provincial Committee on Lo­ that privatizing services at a time Whatever the motives behind cal Government with National Party when local government resources the demarcation debates may be, supporters in order to reverse a de­ and powers are still so unevenly cision of the Demarcation Board. the heavy decentralization of power distributed threatens to reinforce in the Cape Metropolitan Area Marais insisted that the the racially defined class character seriously erodes the ability of a (Afrikaner-dominated) northern of the city and to balkanize even metropolitan authority to distribute suburbs in the Tygerburg substruc­ further a highly fragmented service municipal wealth and assets more ture were unable to support ur­ delivery system. Black Capetonians evenly and flies in the face of ban upgrading in Cape Town so will be forced to pay market­ the spirit of the Local Government he unilaterally drew up substruc­ oriented prices for sub-standard ture boundaries that attached all Transition Act. services while whites in the suburbs of the major African townships and Conclusion continue to enjoy publicly financed squatter camps to the southern sub­ This is not to say that all is bad facilities on par with the best in urbs. Not surprisingly, residents in local government restructuring. North America. in this (English-dominated) Central Non-racial local government will be Affluent Capetonians will not be substructure were up in arms over an immeasurable improvement on able to escape the costs of urban these proposals with local papers the local apartheid state and there upgrading entirely, of course, but predicting massive rates increases if are important political, economic, they will be able to resist efforts to the National Party plan went ahead. and social gains to be made. alter their lifestyles in any significant The ANC and other non­ What is being emphasized here way. As one ANC activist said statutory bodies were also upset is the financial and managerial recently "white South Africans feel with the plans because it weak­ squeeze that has been placed on that they have given up the country, I ened yet again the ability to trans­ a metropolitan authority in Cape and they are unwilling to give up fer resources within the metropoli- Town and the limitations this places [power in] their own backyard."

26 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ------~@@~lli ~~~~------

South Africa: Elite Sport is Winning

BY DOUGLAS BOOTH Indeed, there is much to cele­ this refers mostly to the deracializa­ brate in the new South Africa, in­ tion of elite privileges in sport. Douglas Booth teaches history in the cluding reforms in sport. But any School of Physical Education at the Sadly, one finds little evidence of analysis and evaluation of the sports University of Otago, New Zealand. structural reform in South African situation must look beyond smiling He returned earlier this year from a sport. While some former anti­ throngs and a gleeful President in a research trip to South Africa. apartheid activists use sport to Springbok jersey and cap. A useful empower local communities, the "The scenes were surely unmatched starting point in this task is John majority view it as a convenient by anything we have seen in our Saul's distinction between structural route to self-enrichment or, at best, history," wrote columnist Mondi reform and social reform. as a symbol of racial reconciliation. Makhanya describing the aftermath Few care about developing sport in Structural reform means com­ of South Africa's victory at the 1995 disadvantaged communities. Rugby World Cup: "[President] Nel­ munity empowerment. In a sports son Mandela hugged [team captain] context this involves the provision The so-called unity talks sowed Franc;ois Pienaar at Ellis Park [sta­ of sports facilities, the develop­ the seeds of the current problems dium], and black and white South ment of sporting skills and the en­ in South African sport. The unity Africans rejoiced together in city hancement of sporting opportuni­ talks, which took place between streets around the country." "While ties among the disadvantaged. It 1990 and 1994, consisted of negoti­ the emotion and joy that accompa­ also requires a critical political con­ ations between officials of the non­ nied the inauguration of President text which links sport to other so­ racial movement and establishment Mandela ostensibly marked the end cial practices. Through this pro­ sport. The objectives were to unite of white domination and the be­ cess the structural reform of sport the two blocs and put in place sports ginning of black rule," Makhanya extends into empowerment in areas development programs in the town­ added, "the past week's [rugby] cele­ such as health, education, employ­ ships. Negotiations achieved nei­ brations are supposed to have repre­ ment, transport and community rep­ ther. sented the unified nation's triumph resentation. By contrast, the social South African · sport was a bat­ over a foreign foe. It was therefore reform of sport means redressing· iso- tleground in the 1980s. The non­ an occasion for all to celebrate." 1ated grievances. In South Africa racial movement's boycott strate-

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 27 ------~©m~lli ~~~]©~------~ gies left the country's sportspeo­ energy, ruthlessness, and moral Tensions between the NSC and ple isolated, with rebel tours the resolve to tackle equity and justice establishment sport erupted into sole source of international com­ issues. For many recruits, the NSC open conflict in 1992. Several in­ petition. Rebel sport ground to was a fortuitous avenue to self­ cidents, including the playing of a halt in 1990. The year be­ enrichment in an uncertain, rapidly Die Stem, the apartheid anthem, fore, a small group of non-racial changing environment. before a rugby test between New sportspeople formed the National Unity was mostly a sham. Typ­ Zealand and South Africa, and con­ Sports Congress (NSC) which orga­ ically it consisted of a black cer­ cerns about the lack of development, nized mass demonstrations against emonial head and a sprinkling of forced NSC officials to concede the the rebel English cricket tour led by black personalities among a core of obvious. Founder member Arnold Mike Gatting. That tour collapsed white administrators who refused to Stofile admitted that the NSC had after three weeks and the NSC used change even their uniforms and ban­ lifted the boycott too soon. "We its victory to force establishment ners. Not surprisingly, many of made the fundamental mistake of sport to enter negotiations. South Africa's new sports associa­ believing that whites are ready for Unity talks were prerequisites for tions, supposedly united in tough change" he said. Mluleki George, South Africa's readmission to inter­ negotiations, were exceedingly frag­ the president of the NSC declared, national sport. International fed­ ile. Rugby officials convened a Cri­ "we have been taken for a ride. Cer­ erations, such as the International sis Committee in October 1992 to tain peoyle were never interested in Olympic Committee, would only prevent unity from collapsing. In unity. They were more interested in readmit sports governed by one na­ March 1993, the NSC appointed a international competition." tional controlling association. The retired supreme court judge to in­ The NSC and the ANC consid­ collapse of the Gatting tour ap­ vestigate political turmoil in athlet­ ered reimposing the boycott. But peared to hand the reins of sport ics. This was 13 months after ath­ they quickly learned that you can­ to the NSC: this was not so. The letics had supposedly united. In Au­ not turn an international boycott on NSC lacked the resources to nego­ gust 1993 the International Amateur and off like a tap. Sponsors, lo­ tiate with, or even monitor, every Athletics Federation cited disunity cal and international sports adminis­ establishment sport. Of the more as the reason for refusing Athletics trators, and foreign governments re­ than 120 sports in South Africa, only South Africa full membership. jected a new boycott and the ANC some two dozen entered serious ne­ Interference from the African backtracked. It realised that a boy­ gotiations. And in every case ten­ National Congress (ANC) and in­ cott would drain resources and un­ sion and conflict racked those nego­ ternational sports federations com­ dermine its strategy of social reform tiations. pounded the NSC's problems. The through reconciliation. NSC and establishment officials ANC and international sport disen­ arrived at the negotiating table with franchised the NSC and pushed it Notwithstanding the failure of completely different agendas. The into compromise. The ANC iden­ unity talks, a "consensus" between NSC wanted to deracialize and de­ tified international sport as a way the non-racial sports movement and mocratize sport; it wanted to cre­ to reassure whites about their future establishment sport began to emerge ate united non-racial administrative lifestyles under a black government. in 1993. South Africa's bid for structures that would empower dis­ Nelson Mandela played a decisive the 2004 Olympic Games marks the advantaged communities. Preserva­ role in cricket's return to interna­ turning point. The bid engendered tion of the status quo preoccupied tional competition. He telephoned a new understanding among antia­ establishment sport; it feared loss of Jamaican Prime Minister Michael partheid and establishment officials authority and dilution of privileges. Manley and asked the West Indies to about the social benefits of sport. One rugby official reflected the sus­ support South Africa's application Durban, Cape Town and Johan­ picions and sentiments of the entire to rejoin the International Cricket nesburg all investigated hosting an establishment when he said, "we will Council. Olympic Games shortly after polit­ not be bullied into surrendering all With the repeal of apartheid leg­ ical negotiations began. By 1992 we have built up through the years." islation in mid-1991, international they were preparing bids for con­ The NSC confronted numerous sports administrators claimed that sideration by the newly united Na­ internal problems. Lack of resources the boycott had worked: sport had tional Olympic Committee of South forced it to recruit the incompetent triumphed over racism. But they Africa (NOCSA). The process drew and the opportunistic. Many NSC paid scant attention to the details together interests within the NSC officials lacked the skills necessary of unity talks; many readmitted and establishment sport and to­ I for tough negotiation. Few had South African affiliates simply be­ gether they spun a fabric of hege­ training in sports management or cause they had deracialized their monic consent around the benefits administration. Most lacked the constitutions. deriving from the Games.

28 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ------~@~~lli ~~~~©~------As is their want, consultants em­ audiences no longer hear reactionary playing sport is a high priority. ployed by the respective cities pro­ invective. Given the sad history of South duced favourable economic scenar­ Second, the new political order Africa, the deracialization of sport ios for the potential host cities. killed off all left-opposition in sport. and its partial democratization are Transnational consultant Ove Arup The non-racial South African Coun­ remarkable achievements. Yet one calculated that the economic impact cil on Sport (SACOS), formed in finds precious little evidence of of an Olympic Games in Cape Town 1973 as the sports wing of the lib­ structural reform. In particular, would be R44 billion and 70,000 eration movement, split in 1989 af­ the critical political context has jobs. Supporters touted the Games ter heated debates over strategy. evaporated. In its place we have a as a social panacea. Harry N aidu, an Activists in favour of negotiations new hegemony. executive member of the NSC and with establishment sport and polit­ Two aspects of this hegemony chairman of the Durban bid commit­ ical alignment with the ANC quit require elaboration. First, crisis tee, promoted the Olympics as a so­ SACOS and launched an alterna­ plagues South African sport. United lution to high crime, to the lack of tive non-racial association - the sport is driven by competing agen­ housing, to unemployment, and to NSC. SACOS initially entered ne­ das between elite performance and diminishing living standards. But gotiations with establishment sport grassroots development, and by ri­ more important, the bidding pro­ and the NSC in 1990, but withdrew valry between the Department of cess introduced a new generation of after international associations pre­ Sport, the NSC, and NOCSA. For sports officials to a new, and very maturely readmitted South Africa. example, personal antipathies, am­ comfortable, lifestyle. NOCSA, for SACOS underwent a revitalization bitions, and a gravy train mental­ example, sent a 100 strong delega­ in 1992. Former defectors, discon­ ity kept Cape Town's Olympic bid tion to assess the three cities vy­ tented and disillusioned with united in turmoil for more than a year af­ ing for its nomination for the 2004 sport, rejoined SA COS, forming new ter the city received NOCSA's nom­ bid. The delegation received red car­ affiliates in cricket, rugby, squash, ination in early 1994. There is pet treatment in each city. Dur­ table tennis and tennis. Unfor­ wide dissatisfaction about selection ban chauffeured delegates in Rolls tunately, SACOS did not nurture on merit, lily-white representative Royces, entertained them on har­ the regeneration. Ordinary mem­ teams, and the slow pace of de­ bour cruises, and wined and dined bers either began to subscribe to the velopment. But, and this is the them at the luxurious Point Yacht NSC as a revolutionary force that second point, united sport coheres Club. A single weekend presentation would structurally reform sport, or as one when challenged. It has cost Durban's sponsors R750,000. they acknowledged the reality of the proved exceedingly adept at silenc­ Let us put this figure in perspective. new order. Significant numbers also ing alternative viewpoints. United The annual pension for old aged abandoned sport completely, tak­ sport swiftly trounces all criticism, Africans in 1992 was R2,750. Such ing with them their critical facul­ whether from inside or out. Ng­ pensions typically support the recip­ ties and administrative skills. Ulti­ conde Balfour, a former SA COS offi­ ients, their children and their chil­ mately, however, the 1994 election cial, a founding member of the NSC, dren's children: R750,000, thrown was SAGOS's death knell. For most and co-chairman of the Cape Town away on one weekend, would have black sportspeople the election ush­ Olympic bid committee, laments clothed and fed over 1,500 people for ered in the democracy for which they that "people who question the new a year! had fought. order are quickly isolated." "Some of the things that are happening," The 10 May 1994 ushered in a SACOS is now disbanding. Its he says, "make you sick but there is new political order in South Africa leaders want remaining members to nothing you can do. The top guys with the ANC inaugurated as the join united sport and influence the will shoot you down and take you to senior partner in the government of channelling of funds into true devel­ task if you challenge anyone or any­ national unity. A black-led govern­ opment in disadvantaged communi­ thing." ment changed the dynamics of rela­ ties. But the potential to use sport Paradoxically, the real winner tionships in sport in two important to empower disadvantaged commu­ here is the traditional establishment ways. First, some former establish­ nities appears minimal. South - the very group that reaped the ment figures joined the NSC to se­ Africa's limited resource base means facilities and resources in the old cure jobs in the new order. Even that the government faces difficult order. Its only serious concession committed apartheid ideologues now choices. Over five million South has been to share its privileges with had to speak the language of non­ Africans live in shanty settlements; a new, deracialized, elite. Of course, racialism, development and reconcil­ ten million live in dwellings without concessions are the essence of social iation. While it is highly unlikely electricity; a phenomenal40 per cent reform which explains why so much that they believe their own utter­ of working-age South Africans are of South Africa's past remains firmly ances, the crucial point is that public unemployed. One doubts whether in place.

So uthern Afri ca REPORT november ·1995 29 ______@@@@~@ ______More on Mozambique Now: sponding to the article is because 1. Not the Whole Story I believe it misses a number of ex­ citing, positive initiatives that are BY KEN WILSON ample efforts by the new Minister of unfolding in Mozambique, especially Ken Wilson is the Ford Founda­ Commerce, Industry and Tourism, with regard to rural development. tion's programme officer responsible for Dr. Oldimiro Baloi, to address the Your correspondent mentions the lo­ real needs of the new Mozambican Mozambique, on leave from the Refugee cal elections only because they are Studies Programme in Oxford. He has private sector. Nor are corruption becoming the focus of the next po­ been researching war, peace and de­ and the abuse of authority by petty litical struggle between Renamo and officials things that can simply be velopment in rural Mozambique since Frelimo. Yet what is really excit­ stopped by decree or by some one-off ing about these elections is that they 1989. campaign. They are deeply rooted usher in the most sincere and radical In your May 1995 issue you provide in centuries of every-day practice. experiment in decentralization yet space to a "special correspondent" Even a decade of puritanical social­ attempted in Africa, one in which based in Maputo to argue that ism made less of a mark on corrup­ all power at the district level will be the new Frelimo government is tion than is usually acknowledged, accountable to the local electorate. failing post-election Mozambique. and the subsequent decade of all-out Gone will be the centrally appointed Your correspondent describes in a war has been marked by unprece­ District Administrator - the single generally accurate way how and dented chaos even by Mozambican most durable feature of colonialism why Frelimo has successfully out­ standards. Corruption can only be in Africa for rural communities - manoeuvred Renamo so as to retain addressed when the state can pay and each of the ministries will finally almost all political power despite salaries; when massive incremental be brought to account for its policies the fact that Renamo won in five reforms destroy the present byzan­ and programmes, these to be drawn of the ten provinces. S/he then tine regulatory bureaucracy; and up by the municipal councils. argues that this means in practice when ordinary people believe they "a rerun of much of the same Furthermore, under decentral­ have rights and there really are in­ ization, all land and natural re­ kind of arrogance of power that stitutions in place to support their sources will be allocated at district has tended to mark Frelimo in struggles to realize them. level. As a result, a massive rever­ the past." The article points to sal of the chaos which has seen an the government's failures to resist In relation to crime, it may area equivalent to half of Mozam­ a chaotic implementation of neo­ indeed be the case that Minister of bique allocated to private sector in­ liberal economic policies promoted Interior Manuel Antonio has hardly terests -mostly foreign - in just five by the World Bank/IMF, to end kept his foot out of his mouth when years is on the cards. Of course the continuing corruption, and to stem dealing with the press, and that whole programme is fraught with an upsurge of criminality in Maputo. in a country where the police have never had a tradition of upholding challenges both political and eco­ But this picture is not adequate. law rather than order he and the nomic, national and local, and may For a start it fails to acknowledge government have no real idea as to yet fail entirely - in no small part be­ how limited is the space for Frelimo how to make the police useful. But it cause certain donors are so commit­ or any other Mozambican govern­ is hardly surprising that there is an ted to accelerating the process that ment to act quickly on such fronts. upsurge in crime in a city, pushing local municipalities may be elected With the economy still 80% depen­ three million in population, where before they have the framework and dent on aid, and the country's debt abject misery sits alongside (mostly capacity to undertake their func­ 4 or 5 times its GDP, and with foreign) opulence, where tens of tions. the IMF, the World Bank and cer­ thousands of demobilized people still Indeed, it does seem a shame tain bilateral lenders generally as have access to weapons, and where narrow-minded and demanding as that some key donor officials in Johannesburg crime rings are but a Mozambique, people without ac­ ever, Mozambique simply has no stone's throw away. choice on basic financial policies. It countability to a Mozambican elec­ In short a government still only torate or more than a casual ac­ can only struggle around the edges a few months old can hardly be for the present. quaintance with the realities of the held accountable for the legacies of rural areas and hence the logistic And in truth some serious effort history. challenges involved, are in such a is being made on this count, for ex- But the main reason I am re- strong position to influence the pro-

30 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ______@@@~~@ ______

cess. Of course these officials believe Congress on Culture, one curiously existing knowledge and practices, that government attempts to stag­ ignored by western analysts but as well as the potential present in ger implementation reflect a fear of often said by Mozambicans to have their own institutions to achieve local Renamo victories, rather than been one of the most important "development" if they are given half a realistic assessment of the imple­ events since independence. In an opportunity. True, there is mentation difficulties, an argument tackling these issues Frelimo's new at times some naivete inherent in bought in its entirety by your cor­ intellectuals have been accused of this new thinking - there always respondent. Doubtless, political fac­ pandering to Renamo, or of merely has been a tendency amongst the tors are now important for Frelimo, seeking to out-manoeuvre Renamo Mozambican elite to counter the but the government formulated the on the terrain of "tradition" and modernization model with a certain policy of decentralization even prior "regionalism." But while there rural romanticism- but, on balance, to the 1992 peace agreement, when has, of course, been some political the speed and seriousness of this the visionary innovator Dr. Aguiar expediency involved, these issues conceptual change is leading to Mazula ran the Ministry of State have been under discussion (and positive developments on the ground Administration. under discussion, it might be added, in several areas of Mozambique, and Thus it is only recently that by many of the same people who cannot help but bode well, more the matter has become important are engaged with them today) generally, for ~he future. since the final years of Samora to major donors and unfortunately Of course, much of this rural rev­ Machel's presidency. For the fact mainly as another arena to continue olution is not so readily noticed in is that Renamo had identified a what they consider the unfinished Maputo itself - which is the main fundamental flaw in Frelimo's ideas business of the transition- the need reason why the government is has­ about Mozambican political culture for some form of "power sharing" tening the pace of decentralization - the party's lack of a sympathetic with Renamo. For many such across this vast and little integrated grounding in the complexities of donors, then, it is local elections and country! The new government is rural existence - even though this not effective decentralization that also demonstrating a serious con­ was a flaw that Renamo alone was is at issue. For, as one donor cern to face up squarely to other not equipped to address adequately. representative recently intimated, of the country's huge problems, in­ local elections will legitimate the Particularly important here is cluding those created by its having implementation of programmes by the fact that, beyond the formal been force-marched into the embrace NGOs from his country through political arena, this re-thinking of of neo-liberal economics without the local administrations. the approach to be adopted towards institutions necessary to protect ex­ In addition to the policy of de­ Mozambican rural dwellers is sweep­ isting rights. A case in point is the centralization, and just as impor­ ing through the government depart­ recent creation of a Land Commis­ tant, there has been a remarkable ments responsible for rural devel­ sion, designed to address, at last, the re-think of the rather high-handed opment. Whether in fisheries or increasingly hot issue of land alien­ "modernization" paradigm that un­ forestry, in wildlife or livestock hus­ ation, and to work out a whole new derlay both colonial Portuguese and bandry, or in other agricultural pur­ framework that can secure peasant post-independence thinking on ru­ suits, today's Mozambican techno­ rights, facilitate honest and appro­ ral development. Appropriately crat is throwing out the formal mod­ priate private sector investment, and enough, given that becoming "mod­ els of transforming "tribes of subsis­ create a reasonably transparent and ern" in Mozambique has always been tence farmers into citizens" through implementable system for adminis­ linked to concepts of "assimilation" top down technologies and social en­ tering land claims. (either to becoming Portuguese or to gineering, recognizing that, indeed, Finally, it is important to note becoming the "new socialist man"), there never were "tribes" or "sub­ that the 1990 constitution, and a this debate has been led in part by sistence farmers" in any meaningful 1991 law of free association, have the Minister of Culture, Dr. Ma­ sense, and acknowledging that rural ushered in a new era of "civil so­ teus Katupha. And it has also Mozambicans will not become true ciety" in Mozambique. Whereas been linked in subtle ways to debates citizens unless they have the right across Africa civic institutions have about ethnicity and urban domina­ to engage with development on their often been trapped between donor tion of the countryside, about the own terms, being served rather than dependence on the one hand and alienation inherent in various no­ dominated by state structures and meddling governments on the other tions of "development," and about non-governmental organizations. and have had next to no links the nature of the arts in Mozam­ Most government departments with ordinary people, Mozambique's bique. are therefore exploring in practice civic associations - all of which Consideration of such matters how to enter partnerships with rural are membership-based- are already came to a head in the special 1993 people that recognize the latter's starting to demonstrate a genuine

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 31 ______@®@~~® ______socio-political accountability. More­ demonstrating itself to be no rubber freshness and honesty of much of the over, most of the active associations stamp - already has, in consequence, new thinking in that country. And are led by women and are assertively a special working group on gender despite the fact that Mozambique's committed to issues of social justice issues. Furthermore, two of the bril­ weakness means rural people will and to the very real representation liant new governors - that in N am­ continue to be messed about by a of marginal people. There is still a pula mentioned by your correspon­ hostile global economic climate and long way to go, of course, in the es­ dent, and Dr. Virgilio Ferrao,the by a fickle international aid bureau­ tablishment of locally-based institu­ new Governor of Tete - were not po­ cracy, I believe, nevertheless, that tions across the rural areas, and in litical hacks prior to their appoint­ they will continue to make the mas­ their gaining of financial and man­ ments but the heads of their regional sive strides towards improving their agement strength, but the prospects associations. Given the thrust of livelihoods that have already begun are also encouraging. the article, it is a shame that your since the 1992 peace agreement. correspondent did not even mention The rise of civic institutions al­ the campaign of the N am pula gover­ Make no mistake: this is not ready impacts on the political scene nor both to check the abuse of state a clarion call for more of the kind - described so unfairly as being power in the province and to counter of naive and total commitment to quite dismal by your correspondent. continued attempts by some govern­ Frelimo, with uncomfortable truths One of the reasons why Mozambique ment officials to manipulate or abuse swept under the carpet, that was all now has the highest proportion of local Renamo officials or Renamo­ too prevalent in the past. Nor is women members of parliament in supporting communities. it an attempt to say that Renamo Africa (and one of the highest in the In short, committed scholars is a political irrelevance, which it is world), and why there are now four should remain interested in and en­ not. Indeed I welcomed the critical women ministers and vice-ministers gaged with Frelimo and Mozam­ freshness of your correspondent in is precisely because of their emer­ bique and take seriously the new spurning such mythologies. I only gent strength in civic society. The attempts to nurture rural develop­ reply because for me the article is national assembly- which is already ment. I for one am excited by the not the whole story.

debate and it didn't look remotely 2. Holes in the Story desperate. Furthermore it was successful. BY PAUL FAUVET it will come from political parties, churches, trade unions, employers' Frelimo won the vote over open Paul Fauvet IS a Mozambique based bodies, cultural and humanitarian voting versus secret ballots, and so journalist. associations, etc. Renamo, in normal Renamo fashion, 28 June 1995 walked out of the chamber and In your May 1995 issue, your Thus the forum is not "for the boycotted the rest of the session. special correspondent in Maputo opposition": Chissano made it clear This didn't matter much because devoted two lengthy paragraphs he wanted this body to be broadly Frelimo can form a parliamentary to the Presidential Forum for the representative of Mozambican politi­ quorum on its own, and in the Opposition. I regret to •tell you that cal and civil society. So far it has not second parliamentary session, in there is no such thing. moved from paper to reality, but it is March, a humbled Renamo retook Your correspondent seems to improbable that Chissano is deliber­ its seats. have confused two completely dif­ ately slowing things down. A more The second session reached a ferent forums. One is the long likely reason for the delay is that Re­ compromise on voting procedures. mooted "Extra-parliamentary Op­ namo leader Afonso Dhlakama an­ The parliament will in future hold position Forum" which a dozen mi­ nounced that he would boycott the secret ballots for votes concerned nor opposition parties set up at a Forum and Chissano may be reluc­ with "individuals" (e.g., the election meeting in May in the southern city tant to go ahead without the par­ of the speaker, or a decision of Inhambane. ticipation of the principal opposition to remove parliamentary immunity The second is President J oaquim party. from an MP charged with a criminal Chissano's "Presidential Consulta­ As for your correspondent's offence.) But the vast majority of tive Forum." During last year's elec­ remarks about Frelimo's "desperate parliamentary votes are over matters tion campaign, Chissano promised attempt to maintain the system of of policy and legislation, and these to set up this body to advise open voting" in the Mozambican will be voted on by a show of hands. him on matters of national impor­ parliament, I was present in the Renamo had wanted an automatic tance. People invited to sit on press gallery during the entire secret ballot whenever ten per cent

32 november 1995 Southern Africa REPORT ______@@@@~@------~------of MPs called for one (i.e., whenever was Renamo's Raul Domingos, a its representatives are casting their Renamo wanted): it was persuaded man who a few weeks earlier was votes. this was a non-starter and dropped threatening not to accept the results the idea. of the general election. As Frelimo MP Sergio Vieira warned: "Secrecy tends to be the There is no sign that Frelimo is Your correspondent insults the enemy of democracy." having the difficulty in maintaining integrity and intelligence of Mozam­ cohesion among its MPs that your bican MPs when he claims that Fre­ Frelimo was elected on a detailed correspondent claims. Of course, limo wanted open voting in order program of government that all there are disagreements inside the to "ensure voting discipline." The Frelimo MPs pledged to defend. Frelimo parliamentary group and, suggestion is that MPs only express Without open voting, it will be of course, not everyone was in their true feelings in a secret ballot, impossible to know whether they are favour of the decision to propose but will sheepishly follow the party all honouring that pledge. former Attorney-General Eduardo line when a vote is taken by a show Of course, issues will arise that Mulembue for the job of Speaker. of hands. are not covered by the program. But the majority backed Mulembue, But open voting is the norm There will always be unforeseen and in a vote, no Frelimo MP was in parliaments all over the world situations where MPs have to make going to desert Mulembue given for the excellent reason that the their minds ' up and some, in all that the only alternative on offer electorate have a right to know how conscience, may find it impossible to accept the decisions of the majority of Frelimo MPs. Fine. They can and will vote against. But their electorate has the right to see this and to hear an explanation. As regards the local elections, your correspondent is quite wrong to say that the government has in­ dicated they might be postponed (a story that is being assiduously spread in Maputo by the U.S. em­ bassy). On the contrary, Prime Min­ ister Pascual Mocumbi has repeat­ edly stressed his intention to respect the law establishing municipal dis­ tricts which calls for elections in 1996. The key issue is not whether but where the elections will be held - in some of the country or all of it? Renamo wants nationwide local elections while the government wants them initially only in those districts that can generate a significant local tax base (which means the provincial capitals and a few other relatively prosperous areas.) ~ Logically Renamo should be de­ u lighted at the government position, since this would allow it to con- 5 centrate on winning control of sev­ ~ eral key cities - Beira, Quelimane,

Southern Africa REPORT november 1995 33 WHAT CAN BE DONE... COOPERATION CANADA- MOZAMBIQUE (COCAMO), a coalition of20 Canadian NGOs, Canadians can encourage our Government to take Church groups, labour union more leadership. As a start, the Government could solidarity declare a unilateral rium on the production, llandmines, setting COCAMO r Government to increa ine clearance, local trainin of land mines and their fami have already ta Letters can be • The Right Honourable Prime Minister, • The Honourable David Collenette, Minister of Defence, • The Honourable Andre Ouellet, Minister of Foreign Affairs, • Your local Member of Parliament. and how to get involved in Long Term development issues contact:

The eradication of mines and the support to countries CANADA- MOZAMBIQUE emerging from conflict are long term concerns. Suite 510, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KIN 787 A global ban on antipersonnel mines will not happen (613) 562-3930 (phone) (613) 241-5302 (fax) immediately. Until there is a ban, innocent people will email: [email protected] continue to be killed or maimed. Cooperative efforts £006~ by groups and individuals around the world will one COCAMO Members day wipe this scourge from the earth. Now is the time Adventist Development and Relief Agency • Anglican Church of Canada Canadian Cooperative Association • Canadian Feed the Children • Canadian Hunger Foundation to start. For information contact Mines Action Canadian Lutheran World Relief • CARE Canada • Carrefour Tiers-Monde Canada, 170 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1 R 7W1, CIDMAA • Christian Children's Fund of Canada • CUSO • Canadian Catholic Organisation for (613) 233-1983 (phone) or (613) 233-9028, (fax) Development and Peace • Dxfam-Canada • Presbyterian World Service & Development Save the Children Fund of British Columbia • Steelworkers Humanity Fund • TCLSAC [email protected] .org (email). USC Canada • United Church of Canada • World Vision Canada