モザンビークNews135号（2008年9月3日）

MOZAMBIQUE 135

DEVELOPMENT
   GUEBUZA: Poverty has declined
   Debate on 7 million
   Crackdown on unused land
   Mphanda Nkuwa dam
   Chickens

PRESS FREEDOM
   Journalists convicted in secret trial
   Media expands, but harassment increases

=========

DEVELOPMENT ISSUES

GUEBUZA INSISTS POVERTY HAS DECLINED

Those who say that poverty has not declined in Mozambique
suffer from “adeficit of information”, that does not allow them to
have a full view of what　has been done over the past 16 years
of peace and reconstruction, according to　President Armando
Guebuza. Speaking at a press conference in Dondo on 22
August, he said the idea that there has been no real reduction,
or even an　increase, in poverty, is completely wrong.

Instead, the country had changed dramatically from the scenario
of desolation　and absolute penury that marked the end of the
war in 1992. Many Mozambicans　had been pulled out of the pit
of poverty to which the war had condemned them,　and there
could be no doubt that Mozambique was in much better shape
now than16 years ago.

Guebuza cited the expansion in the education and health
services, in the　national electricity grid, and in the fixed and
mobile telecommunications　networks clearly showed that
“the Mozambique of today is much better than theMozambique
of yesterday. Previously, we scarcely had any of this, and this is
all proof that we are overcoming poverty, that we are improving
our lives, that　poverty is on the decline”.

7 mn MT TO DISTRICTS - 1
   GUEBUZA DEMANDS
   MORE TRANSPARENCY

“Consultative councils should give more information to the public,
including　the amount of money provided for each project, the
repayment period, and the　list of people lent money,” Noticias
reported on 30 August, as the　recommendation of President
Armando Guebuza at the conclusion of his tour of　Inhambane.
The paper added that he warned that sometimes results need
more　time, and that “repayment could only be demanded after
verifying … that　agricultural produce had been sold.”

7 mn MT TO DISTRICTS - 2
   CALL FOR EXPERT HELP

The 7 million meticais going to each district annually is doomed
to fail　without more expert help, writes Gustavo Mavie, director
of the government news　agency AIM, in Noticias (29 August,
attached). It is a “laudable initiative”,he writes, but there are
few people with the skills and ability to use the　money well.

“It is obvious that the risk of failure is particularly high for our
compatriots in the countryside, where illiteracy reigns, meaning
those who　analyse, select and approve the projects, as well
as the beneficiaries of the　funds, are, for the most part, people
with little or no knowledge of economics,and even less of book
-keeping and management.” It is not to criticise the
consultative councils to say this is the “blind leading the blind”.

The answer, he argues, is training for the use of the 7 million.
In particular,he argues for “experts whose mission is to give t
echnical assistance to new investors until the time they can
continue on their own.” They would surely need to be accompanied
closely until the first loans were repaid.

Another proposal (which has been increasingly widely proposed i
n rural areas) is to create machinery parks, which lease out machinery
to the farmers or actually do the heavy work. This reduces both the
investment needs of individual farmers and also means they do not
need to become skilled at using and maintaining the machinery.
Mavie writes that he has seen this system working well in Germany, a
nd that it is used in other countries.

CRACKDOWN ON UNUSED LAND

More that 5 million hectares of land will be inspected to see if it is
being used according to the licences granted, declared Agriculture
Minister SoaresNhaca. (Noticias 26 August, 1 September)

Under Mozambican law, land belongs to the state and cannot be
sold ormortgaged. But people can obtain long leases (DUAT, Directo
de Uso e Aproveitamento de Terra). Individuals and communities who
have used land for more than a decade can obtain permanent use
rights (which also carry the right to negotiate with investors).

Outside investors, foreign and national, can obtain 50 year leases
(renewable once), which must be based on development plans.
Mozambique’s land area is 78 million hectares, of which 36 mn ha
is considered arable. Formal leases have been issued for 12 mn ha,
according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

“We have situations in which, for example, people have been given
10,000 ha based on a plan, but a decade later than have not succeeded
in using more than 100 ha,” Nhaca said. In that situation, the landholders
will be fined or have their land area reduced, he said.

Over the past two decades, substantial tracts of land have been given
to senior and even junior government and party officials. Often this land
is left unused, and is being held purely for speculation, hoping that a
foreign investor might lease it. Pressure is growing for farmland,
particularly for biofuel, and outside investors are unwilling to pay the high
rents being demanded. The new crackdown should force officials to
lower the rent they demand, or force them to give up some of the unused
land.

MPHANDA NKUWA DAM
TO START NEXT YEAR

Mozambique hopes to start work next year on the Mphanda Nkuwa
dam on theZambeze river, downstream from the Cahora Bassa dam.
The project will cost$1.65 bn and generate 1500 MW. (Noticias 20
August)

The project will be run by a consortium of the state electricity company
Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), the Brazlian firm Camargo
Correia, and a new Mozambican company Energia Capital. Work
will start as soon as funding can be organised, and the consortium
hopes to obtain some of the money from the World Bank.

The project is linked to a new 1400 km power line to be built from
Tete to Maputo. It will draw on electricity from Cahora Bassa, Mphanda
Nkuwa, and a new coal-fired power station at Moatize. At present there
is no north-south power line; Cahora Bassa electricity is mostly exported
directly to South Africa and then re-imported for Maputo and the south
of Mozambique.

ELECTRCITY GRID
REACHES 73 DISTRICTS

The national electricity grid has reached 73 of 128 districts, and should
be extended to 80 districts by the end of the year, according to
Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM). (Noticias 29 and 30 August)

TIGHTER CUSTOMS
CONTROL PROMOTES
LOCAL CHICKENS

Tighter controls on imported (largely Brazilian) chickens have
created space for Mozambican chicken producers to expand.
Commercial chicken production is up four-fold in four years,
according to Jake Walter of Tecnoserve. (Noticias 25 August,
attached)

After 20 years of support by the Brazilian development bank,
Brazilian small scale producers now have the lowest costs,
and Brazil has become the world’slargest exporter of frozen
chickens. But there has been a problem that shiploads of
chickens are bought for resale in the middle East, and if they
arenot sold as they get close to the end of their shelf-life, they
are dumped at low prices in east Africa.

To beat this, Mozambican customs now only allows import
of frozen chickens within 80 days of their being killed, and
ensures that all customs duties are paid. This pushes up the
price enough to make local chickens competitive. This has been
matched with government help on animal health and units to
produce day-old chicks, as well as campaigns to eat national
rather than imported chickens.

But Walker warns that the Mozambican chicken industry still f
aces a problem of lack of government support -- both with help
to invest in production of feed and other inputs and construction
of slaughterhouses. Very high interest rates also restrict growth,
he says.


PRESS FREEDOM

JOURNALISTS CONVICTED
IN SECRET TRIAL

Three journalists from the weekly Zambeze were convicted on
29 August of libeling Prime Minister Luis Diogo and sentenced
to six months imprisonment, converted into a fine at the rate
of 30 meticais a day -- 5,400 meticais ($220) each. Fernando
Veloso, Luis Nhachote and Alvarito de Carvalho were tried under
a clause in 1991 state security legislation that had never been
used before, which says that libelling certain high figures of
state constitutes a security offence.

The trial was controversial on two grounds. First, instead of
waiting for Diogo to bring a libel suit, the Maputo branch of the
Public Prosecutor’s Office brought the case under the security l
aw, and rushed it to the front of the queue, so the case was
heard in weeks instead of years. Second, it was held insecret
until provisions of the 1926 fascist Portuguese penal code and
a 2007 Mozambican law which permit trials to be held in secret
in limited circumstances. (Journalists have also been tried in
secret in Pemba and Beira.)

The weekly Savana reported that President Armando Guebuza
first heard about the case on television, and was annoyed
about the Maputo prosecutors using national security legislation
without first talking to central government. Earlier this year, Maputo
prosecutors were criticised for interrogating a popular rapartist,
Edson da Luz (who uses the stage name Azagaia) about the
supposedly violent lyrics he had written in a song about the riots
against minibus fare rises on 5 February.

The offending article accused Diogo of not being Mozambican, a
nd was blatantlyfalse. It was part of a long running campaign by
Zambeze against Diogo’shusband, lawyer Albano Silva, and
in defence of some criminals he helped tojail, including the
murderer of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso.

The article was based on the nationality law introduced afte
independence. It stated that people born outside Mozambique
but who had lived more than half their lives in Mozambique
were entitled to Mozambican nationality, if they applied within
three months of the proclamation of independence. But a
discriminatory clause in the law stated that Mozambican
women who married foreigners lost their Mozambican n
ationality (no such penalty was suffered by Mozambican men
who took foreign wives). Silva was born in northern Portugal,
and Zambeze claimed that by marrying him in 1981, Diogo
lost her Mozambican nationality. In fact, Silva applied for
Mozambican nationality in September 1975 and was granted
it two years later.

MEDIA EXPANDING,
BUT PRESSURE ON
JOURNALISTS
INCREASING, SAYS MISA

Independent media is expanding rapidly. There are now
over 60 radio and television stations in the public, private
and community sectors, and over 25 regular publications.
Over 900 people work on the editorial side of the media,
ranging from volunteer producers in local community radios
to professional journalists on the national media.

In Maputo, there has been an “enormous opening” to the
press. However, the Mozambican media is also facing
increasing harassment from the courts, prosecutors
and district administrators, particularly as one moves
away from Maputo, according to Tomas Vieira Mario,
recently re-elected chair of the Mozambican chapter of
the regional press freedom body, MISA (Media Institute of
Southern Africa).

“In the districts, freedom of the press is still something
strange for the great majority of local public authorities”,
he said. Both district administrators and provincial branches
of the Public Prosecutor’s Office were
violating the fundamental rights of journalists.
 
The figure of the district administrator, Vieira Mario argued,
had so far escaped all the reforms that have reshaped the
Mozambican state, and “he continues, essentially, to be the
leader of the colonial state -- the chief of the village.” The a
dministrator “is still a centralizing figure … who believes
that he is the centre of power. This is reflected in everything
that goes on in the district. Sometimes a simple survey in the
district can be stopped if the administrator has not been
informed. He can order the survey stopped to find
out who the people are, where have they come from, and
why are they doing this work. As for freedom of the press,
basically he doesn’t know about it”.
 
=