by Richard Chidowore
With the gradual normalisation of life in Mozambique, the nation has shifted its resources toward the improvement of the country’s socioeconomic status.
According to the Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi, the key tasks of the government are to promote peace and stability, to reduce the level of absolute poverty and to improve living standards through its rural development, health, education and employment policies.
The prevailing peace suggests that the country is no longer facing an emergency situation and peasants are being persuaded to resume the system of keeping back a portion of their harvest for the sowing season.
“The time of waiting for donations is coming to an end”, warned the Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Agostinho do Rosario. “In future, all citizens must know that only through their own work can they acquire what they need”.
According to Silvano Langa, director of the country’s relief agency, the DPCCN, the Emergency·;
Programme which began in 1987 to deal with chronic food shortages caused by the war, is being phased out. The DPCCN will continue its humanitarian work, but Langa sees its future role as concerned with disaster prevention and early warning systems.
The key target in the government’s education policy for the next five years is to ensure that by the year 2000, at least 86 percent of school age children are in schools. The corruption in the education system where teachers demand money from parents to enrol their children, and even sell exam passes is expected to come to an end. The government hopes to curtail corruption through improving teachers’ wages and working conditions to raise their morale and motivation.
In health, the government’s main concerns are preventive medicine and mother and child care.
The programme states that the government will give priority “to the poorest sectors of the population, to the rural areas and to the groups at greatest risk, such as women, children, displaced people and returning refugees and displaced people.
Health posts destroyed by Renamo rebels during the war of destabilization will have to be rebuild. More than 300 health posts and health centres are to be rehabilitated, and 11 health centres in priority districts will be transformed into rural hospitals.
In an effort to reduce unemployment, the Mozambican government is prioritizing the development of the formal sector of the economy, promoting labour intensive investment to ensure job creation. It also promises to stimulate the informal sector by mobilizing funds for small scale projects to generate employment and self·employment
“With the war in Mozambique over, and the democratic process under consolidation, all efforts are being made to attract further investment to the regional development projects that we have already defined,” said Dr Kaire Mbuende. SADC Executive Secretary.
Both domestic and foreign investment is a priority and neighbouring South Africa has been especially a big player. At the beginning of this year, a delegation of white farmers discussed agricultural investment with President Chissano.
This was followed in April by a meeting between Presidents Chissano and Nelson Mandela in Pretoria where the two signed the “Mosagrius Agreement” on agriculture. In August, a delegation of 23 white South African farmers toured Niassa province to inspect land offered by the Mozambican government
The main lesson to be drawn from the successful peace process in Mozambique, according to Aldo Ajello, the former UN Special Representative in the country, is that .. a strong will for peace by the parties involved and by the international community is imperative for the success of any peace keeping operation”.
Speaking earlier this year at a seminar on Elections, Democracy and Development, Ajello said that the major factor explaining the United Nations’ success in the country was the commitment to consolidating peace by Mozambicans.
Ajello believes that the international community should continue to assist Mozambique’s democratic institutions. A great deal had been invested in Mozambique, and if the elected institutions, principally the Mozambican parliament, failed to function “everything is wasted”.
“I don’t understand why it is easier for the international community to fund dams and bridges rather than democratic institutions.” Ajello declared.
Municipal elections are planned for next year and Cabinet has submitted a bill to Parliament which could lay the legal basis for holding the country’s first ever municipal elections. The draft legislation includes proposals for the electoral Jaw, the voter registration law and a law creating a national elections commission.
The draft legislation also proposes an electoral period starting 180 days before the elections, to include the creation of institutions to lead the process, voter registration, production of electoral sheets, presentation of candidates and other activities to culminate with the electoral campaign.
It is widely known that Renarno had no political and or administrative experience before last year’s multi~party elections, and the international community assisted it financially and materially to attain the minimum level necessary to participate in the electoral process.
The UN in particular felt that Renamo must feel it had sufficient political and economic capital invested in the peace process to dissuade it from returning to war. Peace would only be maintained if both sides felt it was in their interests, it was observed then. However, one year after the elections, Renamo is finding it hard to sustain the new status as a political party.
The former rebel movement wants money. Its leader Afonso Dhlakama warned in September that if he did not get more funds, the party could split, plunging the country back into war.
Dhlakama, whose party has long been funded from abroad, in July wrote to the Ambassador of Spain, which then held the rotating European Union presidency, saying “it will be necessary to assist Renamo financially until the next elections, thus guaranteeing its survival, so that all may respect peace”. The next elections are expected in 1999.
In an effort to consolidate peace, democracy and national reconciliation. President Chissano fulfilled his promise to provide Dhlakama with a salary drawn from the state budget and several other privileges in April. Dhlakama was to receive 10 million meticais a month (about SUS 1 250) plus a diplomatic passport, a house and a car. But Dhlakama rejected the offer, claiming that it was unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the removal of landmines planted during the war in Mozambique is to be speeded up following the introduction of more sophisticated equipment. Currently, sappers are using manual detonators to demine an area of about 300 square metres per week. but the latest equipment is able to do the job in an hour according to Paul King, technical chief of the Accelerated Demining Programme.
However, the most secure way of removing mines is through hands because one can be sure a mine has been removed. The success of the demining operation will depend. to a large extent on the money donors will give for the purpose.
Landmines have been the main obstacle to the resettlement of internally-displaced persons and returnees.
More than a million Mozambicans lived in Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and up to four million fled to relatively peaceful areas of the country.
UN experts estimate that there are more than 2 million mines in Mozambique and an average of 20 people are killed or injured by landmines every day.
The consolidation of peace in Mozambique, however, will need the support of every Mozambican in ridding the country of illegal firearms. Home Affairs Minister. Colonel Manuel Antonio blames the increase in crime lo large quantities of guns scattered throughout the country. The United Nations Operations in Mozambique (UNOMOZ) left the country at the end of the UN mandate last December before completing the dismantling of arms caches.
On international relations, the forthcoming Commonwealth summit in Auckland. New Zealand is expected to consider Mozambique’s application to become a member. President Chissano says all Mozambique’s neighbours are Commonwealth members, and it was them who thought it would be a good idea for Mozambique to join.
”We have many economic, social and cultural affinities with these countries.” said Chissano.
Mozambique has been attending Commonwealth meetings as an observer since 1985. At the height of the war of destabilization, the Commonwealth actively supported Mozambique against South African aggression and even set up a fund for Mozambique. “If we are welcome in the Commonwealth, then we will enter,” said Chissano. “We see advantages for our country, and so we will join”. (SARDC)
