Infrastructure development top priority for regional ... · HIV and AIDS; and Crosscutting Issues such as eG n d e r, Statistics, Enviro n-ment and Sustainable Devel-opment, Private

Other intervention areas are the provision ofefficient, cost-effective and safe transport, com-munications and meteorology systems; and pro-motion of integrated water resources develop-ment and management and their equitable shar-ing for mutual benefit.

Significant strides have been made to improvethe level and quality of infrastructure in the re-gion in order to attract investment, increase com-petitiveness and promote trade.

In the area of energy, power pooling has beenat the core of regional initiatives. The plan is toachieve 100 percent connectivity to the regionalpower grid for all Member States by 2012 and tohave at least 70 percent of all rural householdswith access to electricity by 2018.

A lot of effort has gone into boosting southernAfrica’s electricity generation capacity, with al-most 50 short and long term projects currentlyunderway or earmarked for future development.

continued on page 2

7

12-14

SADC MEMBER STATES are cooperating oninfrastructure development and have identifiedfour key intervention areas to drive initiatives inthis area.

Infrastructure support intervention has beenplaced at the core of the region’s community-building agenda and concerted efforts are beingmade to ensure the availability of an integrated,efficient and cost-effective system to sustain re-gional economic development and trade.

The intervention areas are highlighted inSADC’s Regional Indicative Strategic Develop-ment Plan (RISDP)– the region’s 15-year blue-print.

These include ensuring the availability of re-liable and cost-effective energy supplies; and useof tourism to achieve sustainable socio-econom-ic development and as an incentive for conser-vation of the region’s natural resources.

Infrastructure developmenttop priorityfor regional integration

by Joseph Ngwawi

POLICY 3-4

TRADE 5-6

ENERGY 7-8

ELECTIONS 9

DISASTER MANAGEMENT 10

FOOD SECURITY 11

D E V E L O P M E N T CORRIDORS 1 2 - 1 4

PROFILE 15-16

ENVIRONMENT 17

CLIMATE 18

INNOVATIONS 19

BUSINESS 20

COMMUNITY 21

BOOKS 22

EVENTS 23

HISTORY TODAY 24

framework at national and re-gional levels to ensure har-monised policies and legislation.

A strategic Water Infrastru c-t u re Development Programme isbeing developed, aimed at ad-d ressing the three pillars of waterfor food security, water supplyand sanitation, and water for hy-d ropower generation.

The SADC Protocol onS h a red Wa t e rcourses, whichtook effect in September 2003after ratification by two-thirds ofSADC Member States, has beeni n s t rumental in stre n g t h e n i n gcooperation in joint manage-ment of the region’s 15 share driver basins and avoiding con-flict over water re s o u rces. �

Infrastructure development

routes to the sea via road, railand port systems of adequatecapacity. Recent and ongoing in-vestments are expected to in-crease the range of choice.

There has also been consider-able interest in transport corri-dors, which link ports and theirconnecting road and rail sys-tems to investment in industry,mining, agriculture andtourism. The concept is beingrolled out all over the region.(see p 12-14)

A lot of work has also beenput into facilitating developmentof water infrastru c t u re, particu-larly comprehensive, integratedbasin-wide plans and impro v e-ment of the legal and re g u l a t o r y

The new projects will in-crease SADC’s total electricitygeneration capacity by morethan 42,000 megawatts (MW)between 2007 and 2027. Presentcombined capacity is only52,743 MW, of which 45,000 MWis available for distribution toconsumers.

The ultimate goal is to trans-form the Southern A f r i c a nPower Pool (SAPP) from a coop-erative to a competitive pooland to create a regional electric-ity market.

To strengthen self-suff i c i e n-cy in petroleum and gas re-s o u rces, southern Africa is alsoundertaking joint explorationand development of these com-modities.

Cooperation in this area in-cludes harmonisation of poli-cies, regulations and legislationto facilitate cross-border trade,improve capacity utilisation andliaison in joint procurement ofp e t roleum products in theworld market.

Robust tourism infrastru c-ture is also seen as key to deep-ening regional integration anddevelopment. Among the tar-gets for SADC Member States isthe introduction of a universalvisa by 2008.

The SADC UniVisa systemwill facilitate intra-re g i o n a ltravel through the removal ofvisa restrictions and harmonisa-tion of immigration procedures,as well as easing the cross-bor-der movement of internationaltourists.

Harmonisation of tourismand immigration policies, legis-lation and standards must becompleted by 2008.

Encouraged by the Protocolon the Facilitation ofMovement of Persons in

SADC signed in August2005, at least sevencountries in the regionhave signed bilateralagreements to waive

visa re q u i rements for eachother’s citizens.

The region’s transport sys-tems, particularly the railways,were initially constructed to ra-diate from the coastal ports toprovide former colonial powerswith access to and control overthe inland areas. As urban andindustrial centres began to de-velop, the focus switched to in-land transport.

H o w e v e r, from a re g i o n a lperspective, port-based ro u t e sor corridors continue to be im-portant for the landlocked coun-tries, particularly in internation-al trade. The regional transportsystem offers most of the land-locked countries a choice of

2 SADC TODAY April 2006

continued from page 1

SOUTHERN AFRICA’ S r a i l-way network spans the SADCmainland.

The network covers 36,000route-kilometres, operates150,000 freight wagons using4,000 locomotives and conveysover 200 million tonnes of traff i cper year.

The network constitutes thebiggest proportion of the 51,000route-km in the whole of Africa,and has an estimated capacity of350 million tonnes per year.

The steady decline of rail traf-fic share in the region in the early1990s and the inability by gov-ernments to continue financingsubsidies necessitated the adop-tion of market-based appro a c h e sto the railway business.

Cost efficiency and the provi-sion of one-stop seamless servic-es became the goals.

The heads of all railways insouthern Africa met in 1993 anda g reed on a Regional A c t i o nPlan (RAP), with implementa-tion to be spearheaded by theSouthern African Railway Asso-ciation (SARA) after its forma-tion in 1996.

The RAP entailed a redesignof rail services in line with cus-tomer requirements and provi-sion of the service at competi-tive cost, improvement of pre-dictability and safety of the railtransport services and the offer-ing of a seamless one-stop serv-ice throughout the region irre-spective of national borders.

Harmonised standards andpractices were seen as a contribu-tion to the promotion of tradewithin the region as well as on theinternational global market by re-ducing the contribution of trans-port to the cost of pro d u c t i o n .

Regional cooperation in thisarea has revolved around com-mon and reciprocal replacementof spare parts on rolling stock,exchange of equipment includ-ing pooling of resources to in-crease utilisation, uniform main-tenance cycles for equipmentand joint staff training.

While general harmonisa-tion of practices was re c o g-nised as key to improved serv-ices, the variances in the natureof traffic flows in the diff e re n tsections of the region meant

Railway network spans 36,000route-kilometres

that some railways had to workm o re closely with one anotherthan with others.

As a result, the various nation-al railway companies were cate-gorised into corridor gro u p s ,each consisting of railways thatformed a route carrying consis-tently similar flows of traffic.

Eleven corridors were initial-ly identified but these were lateraligned to some of the regionaleconomic corridors created tospearhead development by at-tracting investment. �

April 2006 SADC TODAY 3

A N E W partnership frameworkis expected to emerge from ahigh-level consultative confer-ence between SADC and its In t e r-national Cooperating Pa r t n e r s(ICPs) in the Namibian capital,Windhoek, on 26-27 April 2006.

The 2006 SADC Consulta-tive Conference seeks to mo-bilise resources for the imple-mentation of the regional com-munity’s two development blue-prints. These are the RegionalIndicative Strategic Develop-ment Plan (RISDP) and theStrategic Indicative Plan of theOrgan on Politics, Defence andSecurity Cooperation (SIPO).

The two strategy documentsidentify the main interventionareas that will drive the region’sintegration and developmentagenda over a 15-year period.They range from socio-economicdevelopment to politics, defenceand security issues.

With milestones that are di-vided into periods of one year,five years and 15 years, the blue-prints are stru c t u red andaligned to the wider goals, ob-jectives and implementationframework of the New Partner-ship for Africa’s Development( N E PAD) and the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs).

In addition to helping Mem-ber States achieve national, con-tinental and internationallyagreed goals, the strategic plansplay a critical role in positioningSADC as one of the buildingblocks of the African Union, anda key global player.

The regional plans wereadopted by Summit of Heads ofState and Government in 2003and launched the followingyear. The missing link has beenthe partnership that can drive,sustain and monitor their imple-mentation.

Under the theme, “Partner-ship for the Implementation ofthe SADC Regional IndicativeStrategic Development Plan and

the Strategic Indicative Plan ofthe Organ on Politics, Defenceand Security”, the Wi n d h o e kCo n f e rence will do pre c i s e l ythat – rally a new partnershipinvolving member states, SADCS e c retariat, ICPs, civil societyand the private sector.

“The expected significantoutcome of the Co n f e rence willbe an agreement on a SADC/ICPNew Partnership,” said BaleziGoalathe, Botswana’s minister offinance, when he announced theadoption of the conference themedocument during the Council ofMinisters in Febru a r y. Goalatheis the current Chairperson of theSADC Council of Ministers.

The “Windhoek Declarationon a New SADC/ICP P a r t n e r-ship”, will be tabled for adoption.Goalathe said the Conference willreview development cooperationbetween SADC and its ICPs, anddetermine the way forward invarious areas of common intere s t .

The 2006 Conference hasbeen structured in a way that

e n s u res optimum interactionand exchange of views amongdelegates. Discussions will dwellon SADC’s common interven-tion areas which have been con-solidated into sub-themes on:� Trade, Economic Liberalisa-

tion and Development;� I n f r a s t ru c t u re Support for

Regional Integration;� Sustainable Food Security;� Social and Human Develop-

ment;� Implementation of SIPO;� HIV and AIDS; and� Crosscutting Issues such as

G e n d e r, Statistics, Enviro n-ment and Sustainable Devel-opment, Private Sector De-velopment, and Science andTechnology.Attendance is expected to be

high level, attracting ministersfrom Member States and ICPs, aswell as civil society and businessleaders from the region.

The coming on board ofSADC’s two development plans,which clearly define the regional

community’s development aspi-rations, has prompted the needto review development coopera-tion. The Windhoek Declarationwill specify the roles of all keystakeholders in future develop-ment cooperation.

The historic Windhoek Dec-laration favours a holistic pro-gramme approach as opposed toimplementation of isolated proj-ects. The agreement is expectedto mandate a SADC/ICPs JointTask Force, consisting of Mem-ber States and ICPs, to under-take follow-up activities in orderto realise the objectives of thenew partnership.

While there is no doubtabout Member States’ commit-ment to funding the RISDP andSIPO, resource constraints meanthat cooperating partners arecalled upon to play a criticalrole. The magnitude of the re-gional plans is such that moresubstantive participation by co-operating partners is neededthan before. �

Towards a new partnership

SADC Consultative Conference 2006

THE CONSULTAT I V E c o n f e r-ence, which has been stru c-t u red in a way that ensures op-timum interaction and ex-change of views among dele-gates, will be a combination ofplenary and interactive work-ing group sessions.

The plenary sessions will beconvened for the official open-ing and closing sessions. Theopening plenary will includesome speeches, followed by pre-sentations on:� The relations between theAfrican Union (focusing on theN E PAD Framework) and re-gional economic communitiessuch as SADC. The thrust of thispresentation will be to demon-strate the AU as a continental in-stitution while the Regional Eco-

nomic Communities (RECs) arethe implementing bodies orbuilding blocks. Clear synergiesand linkages will be drawn be-tween NEPAD and the RISDPand SIPO.� Overview of the RISDP a n dthe SIPO. This pre s e n t a t i o nwill be a brief overview of theSADC Vision, Mission andCommon Agenda; the scopeand purpose of the RISDP a n dSIPO; social, economic andpolitical situation in theSADC region; priority inter-vention areas; sustainable fi-nancing; implementation andc o o rdination mechanisms; andmonitoring and evaluationm e c h a n i s m s .� The New SADC-ICP Partner-ship. This presentation will

make a case for the need for aNew Partnership for the effec-tive implementation of theRISDP and SIPO. It will outlinethe overall goal of the New Part-nership, its objectives and guid-ing principles. It will also makeproposals on the effective struc-ture for dialogue and respectiveroles of the key stakeholders inthe New Partnership.

The presentations will thenbe followed by open discus-sions. The interactive workingg roup sessions will deliberateon the implementation of theR I S D P and SIPO, in the contextof the sub-themes. The pre s e n t a-tions will cover the priority in-tervention areas focusing on theoverall goals, focal areas, strate-gies and targets. �

Structure of the meeting

New energy pact for the region

SADC HAS taken a decisivestep to avert a looming energ ydeficit by signing a re v i s e da g reement that brings innew players and takes intoaccount present realities inthe sector.

The agreement, signed on 23F e b ruary by the Council ofMinisters in Gaborone, is a re-vision of the 1995 Inter- G o v-ernmental Memorandum ofUnderstanding establishingthe Southern African PowerPool (SAPP).

The revised MOU is an “in-tegral part of SADC’s efforts toc reate an appropriate enablinge n v i ronment for the develop-ment of the private sector andf o reign direct investment intothe region,” said BaledziGaolathe, Botswana’s financem i n i s t e r, who chaired theC o u n c i l .

The reconstituted powerpool takes on board privateinvestors to widen supplyand meet demand that isrising with industrial gro w t hamid lack of corre s p o n d i n gi n v e s t m e n t .

The revised agreement alsorecognises other new develop-ments such as the restructuringof SADC and its institutions,particularly the dissolution ofthe electricity sub-committee,and puts in motion a joint effortby electricity utilities and theirgovernments to combine re-sources in the supply of power.

T H E C O U N C I L of Ministershas approved the 2006/07budget of US$40.5 million forSADC institutions and pro-grammes.

The budget, approved byCouncil in February, representsan eight percent increase fromlast year’s US$37.5 million.

The increase is meant tocater for the newly constitutedSADC Tribunal and financingof the ongoing re s t ru c t u r i n g

of the Secretariat. Therestructuring process has

centralised manage-ment at the Secre t a r i-at in Gaborone, clus-tering the previous 21country-based sector

S A P P membership has in-creased from 10 to 12 countries,thus covering all mainlandSADC countries. The IndianOcean islands of Madagascarand Mauritius are not parties tothe agreement.

It is estimated that the regionhas a combined total installedgeneration capacity of 52,743

megawatts (MW) while net gen-eration output is about45,000MW.

A generation reserve capaci-ty of 10.2 percent must be main-tained but it is feared this maybe exhausted as early as 2007 atcurrent demand growth levels.

S A P P is now undertakinge fforts to implement the priori-ty generation and transmissionp rojects as spelt out in its 2005-2010 strategic plan. The targ e t-ed projects are those that areintended to address the im-pending deficit in generationc a p a c i t y.

Priority is also on connectingthe SADC Member States that arenot yet linked to SAPP: A n g o l a ,Malawi and the United Republicof Tanzania. Efforts are under-way to connect the re m a i n i n gcountries to the regional grid.

Another ambitious new pro j-ect, the Western Corridor Pro j e c t ,aims to initially interc o n n e c tpower utilities of A n g o l a ,Botswana, Democratic Republicof Congo, Namibia and SouthAfrica, before extending the ini-tiative to the rest of the region. �

Council approves budget for 2006/07

c o o rdinating units and com-missions into five dire c t o r a t e s .

The directorates are Tr a d e ,I n d u s t r y, Finance and Invest-ment; Food, A g r i c u l t u re andNatural Resources; Infrastru c-t u re and Services; and Socialand Human Development andSpecial Programmes. A fifth di-rectorate on Politics, Defenceand Security Affairs was recent-ly created.

Council allocated re s o u rc e sto programmes that are criticalto the deepening of regional in-tegration, poverty alleviationand sustainable development.

The budget will fund activi-ties and programmes articulatedin the Regional Indicative

Strategic Development Plan(RISDP) and the Strategic In-dicative Plan for the Organ onPolitics, Defence and SecurityCooperation (SIPO).

The two are the developmentblueprints of SADC and set outpriority areas for the region overa 15-year period.

After the SADC RISDP w a sa p p roved in 2003, the SADC Sec-retariat spent the first two yearsunbundling it into smaller pack-ages that are easier to implementand monitor. An implementationplan was put in place in 2004with three five-year plans.

The first five-year plan cov-ering the period 2005-9 was bro-ken down into yearly business

plans, defining short-term mile-stones and resource needs.

SADC principal economist,Angelo Mondlane, said re g i o n-al integration cannot beachieved without the interven-tion are a s .

He stressed that regional in-tegration is a long and windingprocess that must absorb vari-ous critical issues to be dealtwith by Member States as theymove towards the agreed long-term objectives.

He explained that beforeSADC could create a commonmarket in 2015, it had to transitt h rough a free trade area in2008, and a customs union in2010. �

by Patson Phiri

SADC ministers sign the revised SAPP agreement. The chairperson of Council,Botswana's Minister of Finance, Baledzi Gaolathe, is on the left.



Economic Partnership Agree-ments (EPAs) are trade and de-velopment contracts that the EUis presently negotiating with thesix African, Caribbean and Pa-cific (ACP) regions: theCaribbean; Central Africa; East-ern and Southern Africa; Pacific;Southern Africa (the SADCgroup) and West Africa.

STICKY MARKET access con-cerns and technical barriers totrade have generally dominatedeconomic partnership negotia-tions with the European Unionbut the real challenge for SADChas proved to be the issue ofoverlapping membership.

The EPAs will replace thetrade chapters of the CotonouA g reement reached in 2000 be-tween the EU and the A C P c o u n-tries. This will replace the one-way trade pre f e rences under theCotonou A g reement with re c i p-rocal trade arrangements be-tween the A C P states and the EU,m o re in line with the World Tr a d eO rganisation (WTO) re g u l a t i o n s .

Substantive negotiationsstarted in January 2005 and willrun until June 2007. These nego-tiations are on market access foragriculture and non-agricultureproducts and fisheries, trade inservices, development coopera-tion, other trade-related issuesand legal provisions.

They will seek to strengthenSADC integration in all theseareas and, over time, define a re-ciprocal trading relationship be-tween SADC and the EU.

Finalisation of the agreementshould take place by December2007 and the EPA will enter intoforce on 1 January 2008.

The issue of overlappingmembership has forced SADCMember States to negotiateunder different banners.

Member states with dualmembership of both SADC andthe Common Market for Easternand Southern Africa (COMESA)a re negotiating as the Eastern andSouthern Africa (ESA) re g i o n a lg rouping. These are the Democra-tic Republic of Congo, Madagas-car, Malawi, Mauritius, Sey-chelles, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

SADC-EU talks werelaunched in Windhoek, Namibiain July 2004, with seven countriesnegotiating under the SADC con-figuration. These are A n g o l a ,Botswana, Lesotho, Mozam-bique, Namibia, Swaziland andthe United Republic of Ta n z a n i a .South Africa participates only asan observer, after concluding itsown trade agreement with theEU in the late 1990s.

The ESA g roup met the EU inMauritius in February and closed

the first phase of the negotiationswhile the SADC group was ex-pected to hold its RegionalP reparatory Task Force (RPTF)meeting in late March 2006.

On both groupings much isyet to be agreed upon with theEU. Sticking points remain onTechnical Barriers to Trade, San-itary and Phytosanitary Stan-dards, Rules of Origin, access toEU legislation, the effect of theEU’s farm trade reform, andfisheries.

Some A C P countries havecomplained that they are into thenegotiations without vital infor-mation on the implication of theE PAs regime. Important impactassessment studies are yet to bedone for some, and the con-straint has been lack of funding.

The divided SADC is expect-ed to have a negative effect onthe quality and progress of thenegotiations with the EU.

The issue of regional config-urations is a sore point in the ne-gotiations, particularly with re-spect to the ESA group.

The SADC members in theESA group have made it clearthat negotiations should notproceed as if these countries be-long only to COMESA, reflect-ing the existence of other region-al obligations.

The depleted SADC andloose ESA configurations arenot the best tools for negotiat-ing deals that can be good forregional integration. The pro b-lem has the potential of hold-ing up the talks until appro p r i-ate institutional mechanismsa re in place.

S A D C - C O M E S A re l a t i o n swill converge with respect tothose states with dual member-ship of both blocs.

Elijah Munyuki is a Pro g r a m m eAssociate with the Southern andEastern African Trade Informa -tion and Negotiations Institute( S E ATINI) working mainly on theE PA negotiations. �

M A L AWI AND M o z a m b i q u ehave signed a preferential tradeagreement, which will strength-en trade relations between thetwo countries.

The agreement re p l a c e sa 1959 trade pact signedbetween Portugal and the thenFederation of Rhodesia andN y a s a l a n d .

It will facilitate trade in sugar,m a n u f a c t u red and unpro c e s s e dtobacco, edible oil, poultry andp e t roleum products.

Implementation of the agre e-ment is expected to start in July.The Malawi-Mozambique tradea g reement comes at a time whenSADC is working towards a Fre eTrade A rea target for 2008.

Several countries in the re g i o nhave signed or are in the pro c e s sof negotiating bilateral agre e-ments. For example, as part of atrade pact, Mozambique andSouth Africa agreed in 2005 on awaiver of visa re q u i rements.

The free movement of people,coupled with the removal ofbarriers to trade between coun-tries in the region, is essentialin achieving economic integra-tion and closer ties amongmember states.

The Mozambique-SouthAfrica pre f e rential access agre e-ment is a wide ranging pre f e re n-tial arrangement regulating minel a b o u r, railway and port matters,and trade. �

Challenge of overlapping membership inEPA negotiationsby Elijah Munyuki

Malawi, Mozambique sign tradeagreement

Preferential agreement to strengthen bilateral trade in sugar and other products.

Madagascar

Johannesburg

Durban

Air Namibia

Air Malawi

Air Zimbabwe

Kenya Airways

South African Airways

Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique

Linhas Aéreas de Angola (TAAG)

Air Botswana

Key

Zambia Airways

Air Mauritius

Air Madagascar

ComAir

Beira

Air Tanzania

Hewa Bora Airways

Lubumbashi

R E G I O N A L C O O P E R AT I O Nin air transport has beenthe cornerstone of southernAfrica’s aviation industry,with activity revolving aroundthe Johannesburg InternationalAirport.

J o h a n n e s b u rg airport func-tions like the regional air traf-fic “switchboard” thro u g hwhich flights to and fro mother destinations in the re-gion are dire c t e d .

About four out of everyfive trans-boundary commer-cial flights pass thro u g hJ o h a n n e s b u rg InternationalAirport, from where passen-gers are re - routed to their des-tinations within the region ore l s e w h e re .

This arrangement has, how-ever, not been without its owndisadvantages, particularly interms of airfares and other coststo business.

T h e re are no direct flightsbetween most countries,meaning that travellers haveto use the circuitous route ofgoing via Johannesburg. This

There are also costs associatedwith time wasted in waiting forconnections from Johannes-burg.

Safety is paramount in civilaviation and a project to devel-op capacity at regional level forsafety oversight is curre n t l ybeing developed.

SADC Executive Secre t a r y,Tomaz Augusto Salomão, told ameeting of African aviation ex-perts in January that there is aneed to ensure there are moredirect flights between countriesin the same region.

“Europe has overcome thisundesirable phenomenon withregular inter-state city to cityflights and it is now possible totravel from any significant cityin Europe directly to another.Africa needs to realise such adispensation and even adopt aradical review of its freedomsof the air,” he said. �

makes it expensive to travel byair across borders, especiallyw h e re countries are neigh-bours and are a bit further fro mSouth A f r i c a .

Route cooperation drives regional air transport


Air Mauritius is one of the regional airlines which pass through JohannesburgInternational Airport.


Namibia considers water, power rationing

makes the Western Cape vulner-able because it has no coal re-s o u rces and is furthest fro mMpumalanga where the bulk ofthe stations are located.

The province is vulnerablebecause the transmission lineconnecting it to the national gridcan only take 3,500MW, leavinga shortfall of 1,500MW.

The cost to the national econo-

my is estimated at more thanUS$81 million, according to theSouth African Chamber of Busi-ness.

The South African economyhas expanded at an average offive percent per annum and, ac-c o rding to Eskom, demand forelectricity has been growing by1,200MW a year.

This translates to a need to

NAMIBIA IS taking precau-tionary measures to save waterand electricity in the face ofpower blackouts experiencedby South Africa.

The country’s water utility,N a m Wa t e r, has warned thatthe power shortage could alsoa ffect the supply of wateraround the country.

N a m Water chief executive,Vaino Shivute, said the shortageof electricity was affecting hiscompany’s ability to pumpwater to its customers.

N a m Water and NamPower,the country’s power utility,have been meeting businessleaders to inform them ofthe electricity shortage and pre-

p a re them for the effects itcould have on them.

One of the options beingconsidered is the introductionof load-shedding measures al-though NamPower managingdirector, Leake Hangala, sayssuch action will only be takenas a last resort.

The power utility has alsoasked mining companies to useless power to prevent outages.

Hangala said NamPowerplanned to invest N$8 billionover the next four years tostrengthen Namibia’s capacityto import power from countriesother than South Africa.

Namibia is also working onlong-term projects such asKudu gas and Baynes hy-dropower stations to increaseits power generation capacity.

C u r rent generation capaci-ty is only 384 megawatts whenall its stations are operatingat full capacity, compare dto a peak demand of 500megawatts. �

build one nuclear power stationsimilar to Koeberg every 18months.

T h e re has been no invest-ment in new generation capaci-ty in South Africa since a 1998proposal by the department ofminerals and energy to increasecompetition in the electricitysector by reserving 30 percent ofgeneration capacity for inde-

SOUTH AFRICA’ S We s t e r nCape is facing a power crisisthat has also affected Namibiaand Eskom has embarked on aprogramme to return the dam-aged Koeberg nuclear station tofull production.

Rising demand for electricitycaused by high economicgrowth, lack of investment innew generation capacity anddamage at the Koeberg nuclearstation near Cape Town havet r i g g e red power blackouts inthe Western Cape and Namibia.

Koeberg is a major source ofelectricity for Namibia, whichimports about half its powerfrom South Africa.

South-western parts of SouthAfrica have been plagued bypower outages since December2005 when one of the generatorsat Koeberg was damaged by aloose bolt.

Eskom, South Africa’s powerutility company, has announcedplans to repair the nuclear powerplant, which is capable of pro-ducing about 1,800 megawatts(MW) of electricity. The We s t e r nCape re q u i res about 5,000MW ofelectricity to power its industriesand households.

Eskom chief executive, Thu-lani Gcabashe, said the utilityhad acquired a 200-tonne rotorneeded to repair the plant.

A delay is anticipated inbringing the nuclear station tofull production due to refuellingand maintenance that will needto be carried out at the plant. Itis expected to take until the endof July to finish the mainte-nance.

Short-term plans to improvesupply to the Western Cape in-clude securing non-Eskom co-generators for an additional 80MW at a cost of US$18.8 million,and procuring a number of mo-bile generation plants for an ad-ditional 100MW in the winterperiod.

Most of South Africa’s powerstations are coal-fired, which

Rising demand, low investment behind South Africa’spower shortages

The Koeberg nuclear station near Cape Town (left) and fuel pools inside the power station (right)

Electricity pylons facilitate regional trade in power

Invocavit Swai, director forplanning at the Ta n z a n i a nMinistry of Energy andMinerals, said SADC hasa p p roached the New Partner-ship for Africa’s Development( N E PAD) for funding ofthe project.

The Tanzania-Zambia inter-connector project will bring theUnited Republic of Ta n z a n i ainto the regional grid.

A feasibility study on the pro j-ect has already been completedand construction work will startonce funding is available.

Swai said the new Inter- G o v-ernmental Memorandum of Un-derstanding, signed at the SADCCouncil of Ministers in Febru a r y,will enable new private powerutilities such as IndependentPower Tanzania Limited to boostregional supply of electricity.

Regional body aims to ease Tanzania’selectricity problems

Gender considerations in rural electrification

THE SOUTHERN A f r i c a nPower Pool (SAPP) is lookingfor funds to help the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania re d u c ethe impact of a power crisisthat has seen the country under-go a lengthy load-sheddingprogramme.

In the spirit of regional coop-eration, SAPP wants the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania to tap intothe Zambian power grid.

GENDER MAINSTREAMINGis one of the key strategies ofensuring equal benefits forwomen and men from infra-s t ru c t u re projects taking placein southern A f r i c a .

T h e re is recognition withinthe region that, in order to bemeaningful, infrastru c t u re de-velopment has to address gen-der disparities in the availabili-t y, management and usage off a c i l i t i e s .

This is aptly captured inSADC’s Regional IndicativeStrategic Development Plan, a15-year blueprint for the region,which advocates for an efficientand least-cost infrastructure sys-tem that will unleash the poten-tial of communities.

Rural electrification has beenone of the strategies employedto ensure women benefit fromdevelopment of infrastru c t u rein the region.

The target is to have at least70 percent of rural communitieswithin southern Africa havingaccess to electricity. Memberstates undertook to implementrural electrification programmesbetween 2004 and 2018, during

which they should meet orsurpass the agreed region-

al target.Z a m b ia passed a

Rural ElectrificationAuthority Act in 2003.About 17 percent of

Zambia’s population has accessto electricity at present and itsRural Electrification Pro g r a m m eaims to raise this figure above 50p e rcent.

Namibia plans to incre a s ethe electrification level to250,000 households by 2010while Zimbabwe has extensiveplans to provide electricity torural homes and small andmedium rural industries usingfunds raised from a levy onpower tariffs.

To empower the rural com-munities, the Zimbabwe Elec-tricity Supply Authority pro-

c u res equipment for income-generating projects, which itloans out to women and otherg ro u p s .

The United Republic of Tan-zania is finalising preparationsfor the establishment of a RuralEnergy Fund (REF) to be used tofinance rural electricity projects.

The REF will be used to bringdown the cost of investing inmodern rural energy pro j e c t sand investors will get subsidiesor grants to enable them to co-fi-nance rural electrification.

The rationale is to reduce in-vestor risks and improve re-

turns on modern rural energyinvestments in the United Re-public of Tanzania.

Other SADC Member Stateshave similar programmes toelectrify their rural areas, eitherthrough solar energy or by con-necting households to nationalpower grids.

Most rural communities usetraditional sources of fuel suchas firewood for household ener-gy needs. This is, however, un-sustainable as it contributes todeforestation, soil erosion andland degradation.

Increased deforestation andlack of accessible fuel sourcesforce most women to walk longdistances to get firewood.

The consequences are thatwomen spend a lot of time onsurvival activities, which have alow productive value withincash economies.

Access to electricity has long-term benefits to do with health,poverty reduction, easing oftask loads for rural women.

In addition to efforts to main-stream gender in the energy sec-tor, SADC wants to increase par-ticipation of small-to-mediumenterprises, marginalised com-munities, the youth and womenin the tourism sector.

This involves programmes toencourage increased private in-vestment in tourism projects inmarginalised communities. �

by Patience Zirima

The revised SAPP I n t e r-Governmental MOU aims tobring on board member statesthat are not yet connected tothe regional power grid andencourage participation byprivate players in electricitygeneration.

Due to poor rains, the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania’s energyproduction is at its lowest. (EastAfrican) �


Infrastructure development to incorporate gender mainstreaming

Movement for Democracy,Wivine Nlandu of Bandundu-BasCongo-Kinshasa Holding (BBK-Holding) and Cathérine Nzuziwa Mbombo, leader of Move-ment for Popular Revolution.

Kasavubu is daughter of thefirst post-independence pre s i-dent, Joseph Kasavubu and has

served as a minister for civil ad-ministration and also ambassa-dor to Belgium during the ad-ministration of the late LaurentKabila, father to the incumbentpresident.

These will be the first demo-cratic elections in the DRC sinceits independence from Belgiumin 1960.

P revious attempts to holdelections have faltered due toarmed conflict often triggeredby disagreements on the Consti-tution and how the vast centralAfrican country should be run.

Conditions for the holdingof democratic elections bright-ened after the 2003 signing ofan all-embracing peace dealthat ushered in a transitionalgovernment led by Pre s i d e n tJoseph Kabila.

The transitional governmenthad until 30 June 2005 to organ-ise polls, a deadline later movedto 30 June this year. �

of the Convention of Democrat-ic Congolese (CODECO).

Others include Jean-PierreBemba of the Movement for theLiberation of Congo (MLC) andEtienne Tshisekedi of the Unionfor Democracy and Social Pro g re s s .

The three women candidatesa re Justine Kasavubu of the

measuring more than 2.3 mil-lion sq kms.

Years of war have destro y e dmost of the infrastru c t u re in DRC,particularly the road network. It isp resently not possible to join twomajor cities by road. The conse-quence of this is that, while peoplea re going hungry in urban centre s ,t h e re is an abundance of crops inrural areas that cannot be trans-ported because of poor roads.

In the North Kivu province ineastern DRC, people have to leavetheir homes with perishable cro p sand travel long distances to selltheir produce. As a result, most ofthese products waste away.

In cooperation with the Wo r l dBank and other international fi-nancial institutions, the DRCgovernment has embarked on ap rogramme to rehabilitate roads.

So far, the road linking Kin-shasa to Matadi, the gateway tothe Congo river, has been reha-bilitated.

Work is underway on othermajor roads such as that connect-ing the agricultural belt of NorthKivu province to Kisangani in theeastern province. Kisangani is animportant river port from wheregoods are easily moved to Kin-shasa via the Congo river.

The reunification of thecountry also depends on an effi-cient telecommunications infra-structure. The DRC had one ofthe first mobile phone networksin Africa, Telecel, which startedoperating in the country in theearly 1990s.

Two new private companies– Celtel and Vodacom – wereinstalled during the time ofL a u rent Kabila who was theDRC president between 1998and 2001.

A c c o rding to Vodacom andCeltel, more than 50 percent ofpeople in Kinshasa use mobilephones. Internet facilities are alsoavailable in the major cities. �

THE FIRST stage of the peaceprocess in the Democratic Re-public of Congo (DRC) ends inJune 2006 with the installationof an elected leadership.

Since the signing of the peaceagreement in South Africa on 17December 2002, the former bel-l i g e rents have been trying towork as a functional govern-ment should do.

While they are implementingthe electoral process – theirmain mandate under the peacedeal – they are also trying to re-pair what was destroyed duringthe civil war. The transitionalgovernment has identified twopriority areas of construction ofroads and the telecommunica-tions infrastructure.

The main objective is to re-unify the country, accord i n gto the Minister of Planning,Alexis Thambwe Mwamba.The DRC is a huge country,


THE DEMOCRATIC Republicof Congo (DRC) has set 18 Juneas the date for its first democrat-ic elections in over four decades.

This follows the promulga-tion of a new Constitution andelectoral law in February andMarch, respectively.

Apollinaire Malu Malu, pres-ident of the country’s Indepen-dent Electoral Commission, an-nounced on 9 March that presi-dential and parliamentary pollswould take place on 18 June andnot 29 April as pre v i o u s l yplanned. The postponementwas due to delays in enactingthe electoral law.

Registration of candidateswas initially set to end on 23M a rch but was extended by a fur-ther 10 days to 2 April, with thecountry’s Interior Ministry say-ing some 270 parties had re g i s-t e red to contest the polls by theclose of the initial deadline.

Aspiring presidential candi-dates were re q u i red to pay a non-refundable nomination fee ofUS$50,000 while parliamentarycandidates were to pay US$250 tofile nomination papers.

These are part of new meas-ures contained in the electorallaw and aimed at discouragingopportunists from contestingthe polls.

“This is to prevent some ad-venturers from applying,” saidOlivier Kamitatu, president ofthe Congolese National Assem-bly, after the promulgation ofthe country’s new Constitutionon 19 February.

At least 27 candidates, includ-ing three women, have declare di n t e rest in contesting for the pre s-idency of the former Zaire .

They include Pre s i d e n tJoseph Kabila who will repre-sent the People’s Party for Re-c o n s t ruction and Democracy(PPRD); Azarias Ruberwa con-testing on a Rally for CongoleseDemocracy (RCD) ticket; andPierre Pay-Pay wa Syakassighe

DRC polls 18 June the first in four decadesby Juakali Kambale

Focus on roads and telecoms as peace beckons in DRCby Juakali Kambale

DRC voters waiting to cast their ballots in December 2005 referendum


THE VIOLENCE of the waterssix years ago washed away a 10-metre tract of the road, isolatingthe Mozambican capital of Ma-puto from its satellite industrialcity of Matola, about 10 km tothe northwest.

I ro n i c a l l y, nature dealt a fur-ther blow to both cities by cuttingan alternative road somewhereelse, causing delays for thou-sands of commuters travellingdaily between the cities. For al-most two weeks, road travel wasi n t e r rupted, resulting in majorlosses to business in both cities.

Maputo was also cut off fromneighbouring South Africa andSwaziland.

In addition, low-lying areasof Xai-Xai, 200 km north ofMaputo, remained swampedby floodwaters of the Limpoporiver for more than two monthsafter the defensive dykeswere breached.

The year was 2000, and this isjust a microcosm of what hap-pened throughout the countryduring the 2000 floods. Whenthe waters finally receded andthe counting began, more than700 people had died, a quarterof a million people had lost theirhomes, and as much as 12 per-cent of the population had beenseriously affected.

Some 140,000 hectares of cul-tivated and grazing land waslost in the floods, about 200,000head of cattle drowned. Agricul-ture took severe losses becauseof an estimated 90 percent lossof irrigation infrastructure, andtellingly, an economy that waspreviously growing at a two-

digit rate sputtered to fourpercent growth.

At a United Nationsdonor conference inRome, the Mozambicangovernment re q u e s t e dUS$450 million for

Mozambique strengthening management ofnatural disasters

post-flood reconstruction activi-ties – not all the money was dis-bursed.

Six years on, significant in-f r a s t ru c t u re development hastaken place. In the Limpopo val-ley the dykes have been shoredup. However, there is still a longway to go before Mozambiquecan deal effectively withnatural disasters.

Climatology history showsdisasters are tied to a cycle, withfloods and droughts.

Scientists are well aware thatone way to forestall the insidi-

ous cycle is putting infrastruc-ture such as dams in place. Therationale is that during the rainyseason the dams would hold thebulk of the water flowing intothe sea, which would preventflooding; and then the samewater could be used for irriga-tion purposes during the dryseason.

The Mozambican govern-ment has proposed a hy-dropower scheme, the Mphan-da Nkuwa dam, 70 km downs t ream of the Cahora BassaDam. The Mphanda Nkuwa

dam is expected to be one of themost competitive re g i o n a lpower projects in southernAfrica, and a priority project forthe New Partnership for Africa'sDevelopment (NEPAD).

With the region preparing toface a power deficit by nextyear, the Mphanda Nkuwa damwould help to avert the impend-ing power crisis. The hy-dropower project is expected togenerate 1300 megawatts (MW)at a total cost of approximatelyUS$2 billion.

The Mozambican govern-ment is in the pro m o t i o nphase of the project to attractpotential investors from aroundthe world.

The project was also select-ed on the basis of its low unitgeneration cost and its addi-tional function to provide re -regulation for Hydro CahoraBassa. Development of Mphan-da Nkuwa is supposed to en-able Hydro Cahora Bassa to in-c rease the value of the energy itp roduces by producing moreduring peak hours and lessduring low-tariff periods. Thisis currently not possible dueto the re q u i rement to maintaina river level variation at a cer-tain level.

But the Mphanda Nkuwa isjust one such project. Owingto its geographical location,Mozambique lies downstre a mof most regional rivers and ism o re prone to floods becauseof its low capacity to holdw a t e r.

T h e re f o re, investment indams can forestall the cycle ofdisasters and spur developmentnot only in hydro p o w e r, butalso in agriculture. It is criticalthat the violence of the watersbe harnessed in order to boostand sustain regional economicdevelopment. �

by Bayano Valy

The strong earthquake that hit Mozambique on 23 February 2006 measured 7.5 onthe Richter scale. The epicentre was at Espungabera, Mossurize district inMozambique’s Manica province but the tremors were felt throughout central andsouthern Mozambique, and as far as Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambiaand Zimbabwe. Earthquakes are a common occurrence in Africa’s Great Rift Valley,which stretches from Eritrea to the Save river in central Mozambique, but this wasthe first one to occur at its southern tip. Tremors in the valley are normally felt upto 1,000 km from the epicentre due to unique rocks in the area. The mostlyhomogenous rock above the junction of the South African plate and Somali plateoffers few obstacles for travelling seismic waves.


SOUTHERN AFRICA is pro j e c t-ing a cereal deficit of about 1.07million tonnes during the2005/06 agricultural season andcountries with shortfalls willhave to rely on intra-re g i o n a ltrade to meet their consumptionre q u i rements for this year.

Preliminary figures releasedduring the SADC Council ofMinisters in February show anoverall cereal supply for the2005/06 marketing year of 30.94million tonnes, made up ofabout 26 million tonnes of grossharvest and 4.68 million tonnesof carry-over stocks.

This is insufficient to meet aregional re q u i rement of 32.01million tonnes of cereals and theshortfall is almost equivalent tothe 2004/2005 deficit of 1.11 mil-lion tonnes.

A c c o rding to the SADC FoodSecurity Early Warning System,all SADC countries, except South

Region forecasts a million tonne cereal deficit

Africa, are assessed with overallc e real deficits, ranging fro m100,000 tonnes in Zambia to 1.62million tonnes in Zimbabwe.

The region is, however, pro-jecting a maize surplus of about2.28 million tonnes in 2005/06, re-sulting from significant incre a s ein maize production and hugecarry-over stocks in South A f r i c a .

Shortfalls are expected in allthe other cereal crops, includingwheat (2.18 million tonnes), rice(1.05 million tonnes) ands o rghum/millet (121,000 tonnes).

South Africa has surplusmaize assessed at 5.46 milliontonnes. Price and other factorspermitting, the maize surplus inSouth Africa is more than enough

to cover import needs of theother Member States.

SADC Member States hadmade plans to import 5.56 mil-lion tonnes of cereals by mid-January 2006, including intra-re-gional imports of maize mainlyf rom South Africa.

SADC Executive Secre t a r y,Tomaz Augusto Salomão, toldjournalists ahead of the Councilof Ministers in February thatabout 10 million people willneed humanitarian assistancein the region.

“ C u r rent reports indicatethat the number of people inneed of humanitarian assis-tance has gone up from 9.71million people to 10 millionpeople since the A p r i l / M a y2005 vulnerability assessmentsin the six countries of Lesotho,Malawi, Mozambique, Swazi-land, Zambia and Zimbabwe,”said Salomão. �

“Our health and agricultur-al authorities at all levels arec o o rdinating efforts to evalu-ate the risks, prevent and pre-p a re for the outbreaks includ-ing surveillance, public aware-ness creation on the flu toavoid anxieties, as well as shar-ing information, expertise andfacilities,” said Sianga.

Ministers responsible foragriculture, health, wildlife andlivestock in SADC MemberStates met in April in SouthAfrica to consider the SADCAvian Influenza Epidemic Pre-paredness Plan.

Avian flu, also known asb i rd flu, is a disease that nor-mally attacks birds and is be-lieved to be caused by theH5N1 virus. The virus is an In-fluenza A subtype that occursmainly in birds and is highlycontagious among the species.

Bird flu does not spread eas-ily among humans, but there aresome fears that the virus couldmutate to a more deadly straincommunicable among humans.

Migratory wild bird speciesa re thought to facilitate thelong-distance spread of the dis-ease from Asia and Europe. �

Drought insurance cover for Malawi farmers

SADC MEMBER States are co-operating on ways of curtailingthe impact of the avian flu viru sin the region and health authori-ties have taken measures to pre-vent the spread of the disease.

These measures include banson imports of poultry productsin some countries and mobilisa-tion of resources to facilitate dis-ease diagnosis and surveillance.

Stephen Sianga, Director ofSocial and Human Developmentand Special Programmes at theSADC Secretariat, said the regionis ready to deal with a possiblet h reat posed by the avian influenza.

SMALLHOLDER FA R M E R Sin Malawi are set to benefit froma new pilot programme thatgives them access to agriculturalloans and risk cover in the eventof drought.

The programme was launchedat the end of last year and seeks toboost the farmers’ ability to re c o v-er from the effects of dro u g h t s .

Malawi's National Small-holder Farmers' Association andthe Insurance Association ofMalawi designed the scheme,with the support of the WorldBank and the Opportunity Inter-national Network.

The insurance will helpfarmers to obtain the financingnecessary to get certified seeds,which can produce incre a s e dyields and revenues, withg reater resistance to disease.

The Drought Insurance P i l o tP roject will give small-scalefarmers an opportunity to getloans from banks and havetheir money secured whent h e re is dro u g h t .

If there is a drought that ne-cessitates a payout from the in-surance contract, funds will bepaid directly to the World Bankto pay off the farmers' loans.

Nearly 900 farmers in fourareas will participate in the pilotphase of the programme, whichcovers groundnuts. If success-

ful, the project could be scaledup to include other crops, suchas maize, and may be intro-duced in other parts of Malawiand Africa.

"This project is being imple-mented for the first time inMalawi and there are likely tobe a lot of challenges. One major

challenge is that the rainfall pat-tern in Malawi is not equal. So itwill still happen that some farm-ers will not harvest enough toensure that they repay the loansas required," said Duncan War-ren, crop production director forthe National Smallholder Farm-ers' Association. �

Harvesting wheat in the SADC region

Southern Africa prepares Bird Flu plan

Beira and ZambeziDevelopment CorridorsThe Beira and Zambezi developmentcorridor initiatives aim to develop aneconomic region linking Malawi,Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe,anchored to the port of Beira.

Key objectives are to re - e s t a b l i s hand upgrade the infrastructural linkagesinland. Infrastructure development proj-ects include upgrading of Beira port,electricity supply, gas and liquid fuelpipelines; the proposed Harare-Beira toll

road, the Harare-Beira railwayline upgrade and upgrade ofairports.

Projects already being im-plemented include the Senarailway line commissioned in2004. Development of the Shireand Zambezi rivers into navi-gable waterways is a strategicp roject aimed at incre a s i n gtransport options for access tothe sea for landlocked Malawi.

The implementation of anumber of natural re s o u rc e s -based projects include re-opening of Moatize coking

coalmine and development of a thermalpower station, agricultural develop-ment in Dondo and Chimoio, as well astourism in the Eastern Highlands ofZimbabwe and the Zambezi Va l l e y.

Limpopo DevelopmentCorridorThis initiative by Mozambique, SouthAfrica and Zimbabwe (and ultimatelyBotswana and Zambia) is spatially fo-cused on the Limpopo river basin. Theprimary development and investmentfocus areas are in the agriculture, miningand mineral processing, tourism, and re-lated infrastructure sectors.

The mining and mineral processingprojects are focused on mineral sand de-posits at the Limpopo river mouth. Re-habilitation and expansion of irrigatedagricultural development in the Combo-mune-Chokwe area is in progress.

A p rogramme has been implement-ed to rehabilitate the irrigation infra-s t ru c t u re and work is underway to re -establish sugar growing and pro c e s s i n gactivities at Maragra Sugar and at Xina-vane Sugar.

The initiative also aims to establish anature-based tourism development zoneof some 260,000 sq km. This will includethe key anchor projects of the Gre a tLimpopo Trans-Frontier Park.

Lubombo SpatialDevelopment InitiativeThe Lubombo SDI covers eastern Swazi-land, the southern part of Maputoprovince in Mozambique and the north-eastern areas of KwaZulu Natal in SouthAfrica. At its epicentre is the develop-ment of new roads and upgrading ofothers to open up the area to agricultureand tourism uses.

The Lubombo region has six major in-terlocking ecosystems. The area hasg reat diversity of plant and bird l i f e ,game reserves and an extensive un-spoiled coastline.

The natural resources include coastallakes such as the St Lucia Wetland Park,which is a World Heritage site, and arange of archaeological sites.

The climate and soils in the Lubomboarea combine to provide an excellent en-vironment for agriculture and there is athriving sugar and forestry industry.

Tourism projects planned in the areaare the Machangulo Peninsula and Ma-puto Elephant Reserve, and Trans-Fron-tier Conservation Areas.

CORRIDORS ARE the focal point for regional developmentinitiatives. Initially based on transport routes, the corridorsare critical to the achievement of the region’s economic andpolitical objectives. This is particularly so given that almosthalf of the SADC Member States are landlocked and requireefficient regional transport links for access to the sea.

Over the past decade, the corridors have become micro-cosms of regional integration as manifestations of initiativestargeted as regional development within the framework ofSpatial Development Initiatives (SDIs).

We profile some of the corridors in this issue.


Cabeça do velho, “old man’s head”, a prominent feature nearChimoio in the Beira Corridor.

Cahora Bassa dam in the Zambezi corridor is a major source ofhydroelectric power for the region.

Bridge infrastructure such as this one over the Limpopo riverfacilitates movement of people across the region.

The Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative is hometo diverse wildlife resources.

Mtwara Development CorridorThe Mtwara Development Corridor fallswithin the territories of Malawi, Mozam-bique, the United Republic of Tanzaniaand Zambia.

The corridor runs from the port of Mt-wara in the east to Mbamba Bay in thewest on Lake Malawi. Transport pro j e c t sinclude expansion and upgrading of theIndian Ocean port of Mtwara, and theports of Mbamba Bay and Manda locatedon Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa. Otherp rojects include upgrading of Mtwara A i r-port, and road and railway infrastru c t u re .

The Unity Bridge, proposed acrossthe Rovuma River, will contribute signif-icantly to improved road network con-nectivity within the region. Other impor-tant projects are the Mchuchuma Ther-mal Power Station, the Mtwara-MbambaBay petroleum pipeline and SongoSongo gas.

Maputo Development CorridorThe Maputo Development Corridorwas the first of the SDIs to be imple-mented in 1995. It links Gautengp rovince of South Africa to the port ofMaputo in Mozambique.

Developments along the corridorhave focussed on rehabilitation and up-grading of the traditional trade andtransport links as a basis for broad eco-nomic development. The road, railwayand port infrastructure and operationshave been concessioned in Mozambique.

Private sector participation plays animportant role in the corridor, particular-ly investment in the construction of a tollroad linking Witbank in South Africa toMaputo (the N4 toll road), and the im-provement of rail and port operations inMozambique.

Other major private sector investmentsinclude the Mozambique A l u m i n i u mSmelter (MOZAL), the Maputo Iron andSteel Plant, Beluluane Industrial Park andvarious natural gas industry projects. It isestimated that the corridor develop-ments have created over 15,000 jobs.

The Maputo Corridor Logistics Initia-tive (MCLI) was launched in 2004 as apublic-private sector partnership to cre-ate greater awareness and utilisation ofthe corridor. The MCLI has emerged asone of the most vibrant and inclusivep r i v a t e - s e c t o r-driven corridor institu-tions in southern Africa.

Walvis Bay CorridorThe Walvis Bay Corridorserves the central and south-ern parts of SADC, via theTrans-Kalahari Corridor link-ing Botswana, Namibia andSouth Africa, and via theTrans-Caprivi Corridor con-necting Namibia and Zambiato Zimbabwe and the DRC. Italso links Angola and Namibia via theTrans-Cunene Corridor.

Due to its location and efficiency, theport of Walvis Bay offers substantial reli-ability gains for time-sensitive cargo. Ini-tiatives within the corridor have fo-cussed on strategies to strengthen effi-ciency of the corridor transport systemsalong its three arms.

Initial development efforts focussedon the Trans-Kalahari Corridor.Botswana, Namibia and South A f r i c ahave already concluded an agreement tostrengthen use of the corridor.

The northeastern arm, the Tr a n s -Caprivi Corridor, was completed in 2004with the opening of a newbridge at Katima Mulilo andp rovides an alternative import-export route for the Coppper-belt and for agricultural anda g ro - p rocessing industries inthe DRC and Zambia.

The Trans-Cunene Corridorhas great potential as a supplyroute for the infrastru c t u re andeconomic rehabilitation ofsouthern A n g o l a .

Walvis Bay has beenranked among the best threeharbours in Africa since 2000.In 2003 the UN Conference forTrade and Development (UNCTA D )chose it as a model corridor on theAfrican continent.

Tazara Development CorridorThe Tazara Corridor (also called the Dar esSalaam Corridor) is a strategic artery link-ing southern Africa with east and centralAfrica. There is increasing traffic on thisroute from two directions: from SouthAfrica, Zimbabwe and Zambia in thesouth, and from the Nacala Corridor inMalawi and Mozambique. The traffic isl a rgely sugar, cement, fuel and machinery.

The Tazara Corridor, which pro v i d e sthe shortest distance by rail from the Cop-


Kitulo National Park in the Mtwara Corridor has outstandingbotanical diversity.

The N4 toll road links Maputo and Witbank.

Walvis Bay Corridor is rated a model corridor in Africa.

Tazara Corridor is the shortest distance by rail from Zambia’sCopperbelt to Dar es Salaam port.

perbelt to a port, is owned by the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania and Zambia. Thecorridor traverses some of the most fertileland in southern Tanzania and northernZambia, and has potential for agriculture ,tourism, mining, forestry and fishing.

Nacala Development CorridorThe Nacala Development Corridor aimsto develop an economic corridor linkinglandlocked Malawi to the port of Nacalain Mozambique. About 70 percent ofMalawi’s population lives in the corridor.

T h e re is need to expand andrehabilitate the transport infra-s t ru c t u re to unlock the invest-ment potential in the corridor.

Railway systems in Malawiand Mozambique have alre a d ybeen concessioned and re h a b i l i-tation work has started on sec-tions that are in poor condition.

Swaziland/South AfricaTourism and BiodiversityCorridor (STBC)The south-eastern part ofMpumalanga province in SouthAfrica and western Swazilanda re endowed with rich plantand animal species, ancient ge-ology and arc h a e o l o g y.

The Barberton GreenstoneBelt rocks in the area evolvedbetween 3.5 and 3.2 billionyears ago, making them thesecond oldest in the world. T h eSTBC aims to combine thesea reas into a contiguous band forthe protection of ecosystems,species and geology. The strate-gic objective is promotion of

sustainable and collaborative socio-eco-nomic development.

Specific objectives aim to utilisetourism and conservation potential, and toi n c rease the benefit to rural communities.

Okavango Upper Zambezi InternationalTourism (Ouzit) SDIThe Ouzit was initially conceived andpresented as a wildlife sanctuary to belocated within the context of the Oka-vango and Zambezi wetland systems.The project centred on a core develop-ment area comprising 260,000 sq km in-corporating game parks in A n g o l a ,Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

I n f r a s t ru c t u re development pro j e c t swithin the SDI comprise of the network-ing of the inland park regions, the fast-tracking of improvements to the air traf-fic and transport infrastructure in partic-ipating countries, and establishment andmanagement of a logistics platformlinked to the improved regional airtransport system. The Ouzit SDI con-nects to the Namibe Development Corri-dor in southern Angola.

Lobito Development CorridorThe Lobito Development Corridor pro-vides a strategic outlet to the sea thro u g hAngola for much of the DRC and Zambia,and is the shortest route linking the majormining regions to their export markets.The corridor serves several regions of A n-gola, about 40 percent of the population.

The main transport infrastructure isthe port, the Benguela Railway line andthe roads to the DRC and Zambia. Criti-cal initiatives are the ongoing rehabilita-tion and upgrading of the Benguela Rail-way and the port of Lobito. The otherkey element is the rehabilitation of theexisting road network that extends forabout 1,800 kilometres.

North-South CorridorThis is a transport corridor linking SouthAfrica to countries to its north and is thebusiest regional transit link in eastern andsouthern Africa. The North-South Corri-dor (also known as the Durban Corridor)is also the most extensive corridor in theregion, linking the largest number ofcountries in eastern and southern Africa.

It connects eight countries and inter-links to other corridors including theTrans-Kalahari, Beira, Lobito, Dar esSalaam and Nacala corridors.

This corridor is critical because SouthAfrica is the largest African trading part-ner for most of the countries in the re g i o nand the port of Durban handles a signifi-cant portion of transit traffic for the land-locked states. Key infrastructure is theport, the roads and the railway lines. Theport of Durban has the largest capacityamong regional ports.

While the corridor is a strategic ro a droute, rail transport handles a significantamount of cro s s - b o rder freight traffic. Theopening of the Beitbridge-Bulawayo rail-way link in 1999 contributed significantlyto reducing railway distances. �


Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa in Nacala Development Corridor

An aerial view of part of the vast Okavango delta.

North-South corridor to and from Durban, a busy regionaltransport link.

Air travel is a catalyst to regional trade and tourism.

SOUTHERN AFRICA’S reasonably well-developed infrastructure and diverse natu-ral resource base have the potential to playa leading role in driving Africa towards amore prosperous 21st century.

Aw a reness of past mistakes, togetherwith new opportunities, demands that af resh look be taken at the roles that gov-ernments or public sector agencies and theprivate sector should play in pro v i d i n gm o re efficient and more responsive infra-s t ru c t u re for Africa’s development. Thechallenge is to determine those areas inwhich competitive market conditionscan work and those that re q u i re publicintervention.

The Development Bank of SouthernAfrica (DBSA), through partnership andmobilization of its resources, contributes tothis leadership opportunity through thefunding of necessary supporting economicinfrastructure. It is through this growth-driven strategy that the DBSA intends to actas catalyst for the common vision of an em-powered and integrated region.

The effective and integrated delivery offinancial and non-financial (or knowl-edge) products and services is at the heartof the DBSA.

The Bank’s ability to combine financialsupport and development knowledge iswhat sets the DBSA apart from commercialfunding institutions. Through its uniqueproduct and service offering, the DBSA isable to address the needs of clients and po-tential clients in a comprehensive and sus-tainable manner.

In this context, the DBSA plays a triplerole of Financier, Advisor and Partner tomobilize finance and expertise for infra-structure and development projects.

Smart Partnerships deependevelopment impactAs a partner, the Bank leverages private,public and community players in the devel-opment process. By combining forces andsharing resources we are able to enhancethe commercial viability of our pro j e c t swhilst at the same time deepening the pro-ject’s development impact.

The Bank’s involvement in the MaputoPort Rehabilitation Project, as the first PortPublic-Private Partnership on a Build Oper-ate Transfer (BOT) basis in southern Africa,provided significant comfort to private andinstitutional lenders. DBSA’s role, in addi-tion to partly funding the project, includedfacilitating participation of other lendersand contributing to structuring of the dealto ensure its bankability.

The Bank’s insistence on inclusive, trans-p a rent, participatory planning pro c e s s e soften contributes significantly to the successof the projects it supports, and has enabledthe DBSA to build a cohesive network ofkey players in the region.

The DBSA’s participation in large, com-plex projects such as the Mozal Smelter, theN4 Toll Road between Witbank and Ma-puto, the Marromeu Sugar project and theLesotho Highlands Water project has result-ed in the strengthening of re l a t i o n s h i p swith commercial and development financeinstitutions.

Where commercial banks’ participationis limited because of the tenor of the loan orthe perceived riskiness of the project, theDBSA will partner with its sister Develop-ment Finance Institutions (DFIs), donoragencies and the Multi-lateral LendingAgencies (MLA).

It is this recognized relationship with theinternational DFIs, amongst others, thatwon the DBSA the mandate to lead, arrangeand underwrite the ZAR1.47 billion DFItranche of the Sasol Gas Pipeline Project.

Smart Money targets sustainabledevelopmentThe DBSA aims to be a source of “smartmoney” in southern Africa that will im-p rove the financial and operational eff i-ciency of both public and private compa-nies to enhance economies so theregion can become further integrated,m o re competitive, better developed andw e a l t h i e r.

“Smart money” refers to funds that aredirectly targeted at addressing the develop-ment needs of the region in a sustainablemanner. This implies structuring finance ina way that addresses needs and, in somecases, this may involve an appropriate mixof non-investment funds such as technicalassistance for capacity-building or knowl-edge products.

To deliver on its mandate to promoteeconomic development in southern andSouth Africa, the DBSA focuses on thoseeconomic sectors that provide an enablingenvironment for development and privatesector involvement, and that contributemost to regional integration.

In this re g a rd, the Bank has beenfocusing primarily on power, telecommu-nications, transport, tourism, mining,agri-industrial, commercial and financials e r v i c e s .

The DBSA has financed over 60 perc e n tof the public power utilities operating inthe region and the commitment beyond fi-nancing is illustrated by the longstandingrelationship with Zambia Electricity Sup-ply Corporation (ZESCO). Since 1998, theBank has assisted ZESCO overcome manychallenges, through investment andextensive technical assistance, with theresult that today ZESCO is a commer-cialised utility looking to tap commerc i a lmarkets.

The DBSA’s cumulative commitments inSADC exceed US$ 1.2 billion, and comprisemedium and long-term finance in a range ofcurrencies for both public and private insti-tutions and projects.

The distinct ability to invest in bothpublic and private sector projects meansthat the DBSA can offer compre h e n s i v esolutions to the region’s developmentneeds.

Expanding the frontiers of delivery for sustainable development

The Development Bank of Southern Africa,in partnership with NEPAD

DBSA in Midrand, South Africa

“Partnership is afundamental principle…

DBSA believes thatdevelopment is co-created

with others.”


Developing local financialmarkets for economic growthIn addition to providing limited re c o u r s efunding with long maturities, the DBSA i sable to credit enhance projects by underwrit-ing some of the financing (thus pro v i d i n gcomfort to the market) or by providing a par-tial risk guarantee on a bond issue wheret h e re may be a lack of investor appetite or thepricing does not adequately reflect the risk.

The objective is the development of localcapital markets, seen as a prerequisite to un-lock local capital to achieve sustainable eco-nomic growth. This will also reduce the en-terprise’s exposure to foreign exchange risk,a barrier to doing business in the region.

DBSA has been involved in bond issuesin SADC, such as the Lunsemfwa HydroPower Company’s US$7 million corporatebond issue in early 2004 in Zambia.

Also in 2004, together with the Interna-tional Finance Corporation (IFC), the DBSAstructured and provided the City of Johan-

ed Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia. In addi-tion to the impact that longer term financingo ffers to local economies, the DBSA e n s u re sthat its activities are complemented by skillstransfer and capacity-building of its partners.

With NEPAD in support ofregional integrationThe DBSA is recognised for its ability to pro-vide financing using innovative instru-ments, ensuring that its participation pro-vides comfort to private investors. This haspositioned the Bank as anchor financier andas an ideal conduit for international fundsdirected to NEPAD projects.

Through its African Partnership Unit, theBank can provide an early review of NEPADprojects and advise on the criteria necessaryfor projects to achieve bankability. If neces-sary, the DBSA is able to grant technical andpreparatory assistance by way of the jointProject Preparation Facility in partnershipwith Agence Française de Développement.

Regional projects that have received sup-port through this initiative include the EastAfrica Submarine Cable Project and theZambia-Tanzania-Kenya Inter-connector.

Having the NEPAD Secretariat housed inthe DBSA ensures that the Bank remains wellinformed and very close to NEPAD.

A regional partner of choiceD B S A’s unique ability to provide long-term fi-nance in a number of currencies to both theprivate and public sector, combined with itsappetite and mandate to take risk and itsb road focus on financing viable projects to pro-mote socio-economic development, ensures itsposition as the regional partner of choice.

An excellent network and re l a t i o n s h i p swith key players in the region, combined withvast experience and in-depth understandingof the challenges in financing infrastru c t u redevelopment, ensures DBSA a central role inrealizing the common vision of a region free ofp o v e r t y, inequity and dependency. �

nesburg with a 40 percent partial guaranteefor a 12-year bond issue worth R1 billion.The Bond had a higher credit rating than theM u n i c i p a l i t y, allowing Johannesburg toissue at a longer maturity with a substantial-ly lower spread.

Given the need for capital markets devel-opment, the DBSA has reoriented itself to in-clude financial advisory and arranging serv-ice for clients wishing to raise funds andbroaden their capital base. The importanceof local enterprise in creating employmentand broadening the tax base is often under-mined by the lack of appropriate capital tosupport long-term investments.

The DBSA attempts to play a major role inremoving this constraint to enterprise devel-opment in SADC by providing long-termc redit lines to strong financial intermediarieswith the capacity and specific mandate to sup-port this sector of the economy.

D B S A has extended several credit lines tointermediaries in Angola, Mauritius, the Unit-

InvestorTo contribute to the delivery of basicservices and promote economic grow t hthrough infrastructure funding.

AdvisorTo build institutional, financial,technical and knowledge capacity for development.

PartnerTo leverage private, public and communityplayers in the development process.

Partners in Knowledge for Development

SADC DEVELOPMENT plans set targets and timeframes for goals in various fields of co-operation ranging from trade liberalisation to macroeconomic convergence, human devel-opment to food security, infrastru c t u re development to environmental management, andgender equality to good governance.

One of the greatest challenges now lies in strengthening mechanisms for monitoringand evaluation in order to track progress towards the set targets. For this purpose, asmooth and efficient flow of information and knowledge becomes essential.

In order to take up the challenge of effectively implementing the two strategic plans,SADC’s partnerships with knowledge institutions must be strengthened.

Prof. J. A. van Ginkel, former rector of the United Nations University noted that, “AnAfrica without a sustainable, strong knowledge sector of its own will always remain in adangerously dependent position.”

One characteristic of knowledge is that it can be obtained from individuals, groups ofpeople, and sometimes in organizational routines and processes. It is delivered thro u g hs t ru c t u red media such as documents, Internet and person-to-person interactions. Newknowledge is created or acquired through experience, interacting and learning.

In organizations, knowledge often becomes embedded not only in documents orrepositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms. The samecan be said about countries and regional communities, SADC included.

Whatever the form, the right knowledge needs to be harvested, managed and availed tothe right people at the right time if it is to be relevant to any aspect of social advancement.

SADC needs strong regional knowledge centres that fully understand the region’s his-torical context and share its development agenda and vision. Among these are the DBSAand the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), a long-timeknowledge partner of SADC for more than a decade, whose founding patron wasMwalimu Julius Nyerere, the first chairperson of the Front Line States.

In a paper to the Economic Commission for Africa, Jacques L. Hamel says, “As wemove into the 21st century, superior development knowledge bases, knowledge as-sets and knowledge capital are conceivably the ultimate development resources for

the sustainable advancement of the African continent.”This is pertinent for SADC as the regional community rolls out its RISDP and SIPO.

www.sadc.int www.dbsa.org www.sardc.net



Plan (RISDP) and the fact that 10years have elapsed since the firstregional report.

Ten contributors were engagedto re s e a rch and write the chapters.The draft manuscript was then re-viewed at a regional workshop inSouth Africa. This gave a cro s s -section of stakeholders an oppor-tunity to discuss the draft chap-ters and the stru c t u re of the re-port. Comments from the work-shop and from regional re v i e w e r sw e re used by the Technical Editorto finalise the chapters, for re v i e wby the partners.

Although this has been anambitious undertaking, it wasdeemed to be a worthy initiativethat continues to showcase theresults of SADC activities andpartnerships, and it is a targetedoutput of the RISDP.

FrameworkThe traditional approach of envi-ronmental reporting in the re-gion focused on national bound-aries, sectors or natural re-sources. In this report, the issuesare presented in an integratedmanner, using the Drivers Pres-s u re State Impact Response(DPSIR) framework.

Drivers and pressures are de-fined as the root causes of envi-ronmental change, and they canbe natural or human-induced.The State is a reflection of thecurrent situation and trends overthe last decade, while Impactsare the consequences of the envi-ronmental change on humanand ecological systems, and onsocial and economic develop-ment potential.

Responses include nationalpolicies, plans, laws and strate-gies, and regional and globalagreements and strategies for co-operation.

The DPSIR framework de-scribes societal developmentsand natural processes to explainchange in environmental state,using appropriate indicators toshow trends over time. A nanalysis of the impact of the var-ious pre s s u res on ecosystemsand human welfare in the regionis made, and appropriate re-sponses that have been taken tomitigate the impacts articulated.

The integrated assessmentand reporting approach, throughthe DPSIR framework, answersfour questions that are key to ef-fective decision-making. Thequestions are:� What is happening to the

environment?� Why is it happening?� What can we do, and what

are we doing about it?� What will happen if we do

not act now?

FormatThe Southern Africa EnvironmentOutlook 2005 contains nine chap-ters, which are interlinked asthey address the southernAfrican region, its physical envi-ronment and the way its peopleinteract with the resources.

The book includes a regionaloverview and covers topics suchas land, atmosphere, freshwaterresources, marine and coastal re-sources, forests and woodlands,wildlife, and human settlements.

tation Centre (SARDC) throughthe Musokotwane EnvironmentR e s o u rce Centre for SouthernAfrica (IMERCSA).

IMERCSA is the collaboratingcentre in southern Africa for theAfrica Environment Outlook(AEO) and the Global Environ -ment Outlook (GEO), pro d u c e dby United Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP).

The Southern Africa Environ -ment Outlook benefited from a ca-pacity development pro c e s sdriven by UNEP t h rough theAfrica Environment InformationNetwork (AEIN). Areas coveredin the capacity-building initia-tive included integrated environ-mental assessment and report-ing, policy analysis, scenariobuilding, and data managementand analysis.

The process leading to thisO u t l o o k started in 1998, initially tobuild the foundation through is-sues identification, consensusbuilding on the ideal frameworkto use in the analysis, as well asa g reement on the core datasetsand indicators to support theanalysis.

The research and compilationof data for the various topicsstarted in 2002, and contributorswere engaged in 2003 to developchapters containing data andanalysis. Priority was given toresearch and writing of the man-uscript following a CEP partnersmeeting hosted by SADC inGaborone in October 2003.

This meeting acknowledgedthe targets for environmental re-porting given in the Regional In-dicative Strategic Development

THE S O U T H E R N Africa Enviro n -ment Outlook (SAEO) 2005 a s s e s s-es the current state of the enviro n-ment in the region, provides anintegrated analysis and offers areflection on trends over the pastdecade and the next one beyond.

The book, to be publishedduring the first half of 2006,highlights key emerging envi-ronmental issues in southernAfrica and presents a set of fu-ture scenarios for the region.

The SAEO comes a decadeafter the first comprehensive S t a t eof the Environment in SouthernAfrica published by SADC andpartners at the end of 1994, andfive years after the first report ona single ecosystem, State of the En -v i ronment Zambezi Basin 2000.

P reparation of the O u t l o o kwas based on a wide consulta-tive and participatory process inthe region, during which con-sensus was built around region-al perspectives and priorities.

The findings were constru c t e da round a firm data and indicatordevelopment process. In particu-l a r, regional projects on geograph-ic information systems and on in-dicator development for enviro n-ment assessment and re p o r t i n gw e re supportive to the pro c e s s .

Experts from specialised or-ganisations and from nationalinstitutions mandated to carryout state of environment report-ing were involved in providinginputs, as well as in the reviewof the manuscript. This ensuredregional balance, scientific cred-ibility and compre h e n s i v e n e s sof the report.

Communicating theEnvironment ProgrammeThis process was coordinated byCommunicating the Enviro n-ment Programme (CEP), whichis a long-established partner-ship of the Southern African De-velopment Community (SADC)with IUCN-The World Conser-vation Union and the SouthernAfrican Research and Documen-

Southern Africa

ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK

Diverse subjects covered in the Southern Africa Environment Outlook

continued on page 18

THE PLANET is heating up, al-most certainly due to the incre a s ein greenhouse gases caused byhuman activity, and the signs areto beginning show in variousparts of the SADC re g i o n .

Debate on climate changeand its link to natural disastershas been revived in the wake ofrecent floods that swept acrosssome areas of the region follow-ing a prolonged drought.

Speaking at the UN ClimateChange Conference held inQuebec, Canada, in December2005, the principal secretary inthe Ministry of Lands, Housingand Surveys in Malawi, GeorgeMkondiwa said although localscientists are yet to publish theirfindings, there is no doubt thatclimate change has influencedclimate trends in southernAfrica over the last decades.

“Everyone is asking ques-tions such as, ‘…is this due toclimate change or not?’ We don’tthink that there is any doubtthat this is due to climatechange,” said Mkondiwa.

The flooding followed heavyand continuous rains thatpounded many parts of south-ern Africa from December 2005through March 2006 and causedconsiderable structural damage,d e s t roying schools, cro p s ,telecommunications and roadswhile in some places whole vil-lages were flooded promptingthe relocation of people andlivestock to higher ground.

In Zambia, the floods disru p t-ed power supplies after the mainh y d roelectric power station atKafue Gorge was damaged.

I ro n i c a l l y, the downpourcompounded the challenges of as e v e re drought which causedBotswana, Malawi and Zambia

to declare a state of disaster asstarvation threatened.

With recent research show-ing that due to global warmingthe 12,000-year-old glaciers atthe summit of Mt Kilimanjaroare melting so quickly that theycould be gone by 2020, there iswell-founded concern that ex-cessive emission of greenhousegases may have already set inmotion irreversible climaticchanges.

The sub-Antarctic MarionIsland, 1,700 km southeast ofCape Town and the site of aSouth African weather station,is one of the most isolatedplaces on earth and is present-ed by scientists as another clearindicator of the impact of glob-al warming.

T h e re is alarming new dataf rom the island on rainfall pat-terns, temperature, plants andanimal behaviour. The data re-veal that monthly rainfall figure sa re dropping, the island is hotterthan ever, and overrun with rats,mice and alien vegetation.

The South African NationalWeather Services regional officehas been monitoring annualrainfall patterns on Marion Is-land for the past 20 years,showing a steady decline fromaround 2,500mm to 1,750 mm,and says, “…it just seems to begetting drier and drier.”

Scientists and governmentofficials in South Africa havewarned that such changescould soon be commonthroughout the region as theplanet heats up.

South Africa has set upmonitoring and research mech-anisms, and the Department ofE n v i ronmental A ffairs andTourism has called for climateissues to be integrated into alllevels of government.

In the Zambezi Basin cli-mate variability has been mostfelt through water shocks

caused by droughts and floods,and this has worsened food in-security. The variation in the be-ginning of the wet season hasleft farmers in the basin unsureabout when to plant their crop.

A c c o rding to Mkondiwa, in2004 Malawian farmers who hadplanted during the first rains onthe advice of agricultural exten-sion scientists had to helplesslywatch their crops wilt.

Zambia has experienced ashift in recent years in the onsetof the rainy season and whenthe rains do come they are inter-spersed with dry spells. This re-sulted in a food deficit for 2005as production fell from 1.2 mil-lion tonnes in 2004 to 866,000metric tonnes.

In the SADC Zambezi ActionPlan Project 6, Phase II (ZA-CPRO 6.2) initiative, develop-ment of measures to mitigatethe effects of hydrological ex-t reme events (floods anddroughts) is a key activity.

A c c o rding to Jefter Sakup-wanya, the Water Resources Ex-pert in the ZACPRO 6.2 project,h y d rologists from the eightbasin states are spearheading ap rocess to establish synerg i e swith all meteorological depart-ments in the basin. Early warn-ing and communication mecha-nisms in the region still need tobe improved.

All countries in SADC haveacceded to the United NationsFramework Convention on Cli-mate Change which compelsthem to regulate levels of green-house gas concentration in theatmosphere so as to avoid theoccurrence of climate change ona level that would impede sus-tainable economic development,or compromise initiatives infood production.

The entire African continentproduces only five percent oftotal output of greenhouse gasesworldwide. �

Global impacts

Are current floods in the region an indicator ofclimate change?by Tigere Chagutah

continued from page 17

The final Outlook chapter isa presentation of trends andscenarios, giving a 10-year, for-w a rd-looking analysis of theway three scenarios are likelyto play out: Market Forces, Pol-icy Reform and Fortress World.

Call for ActionThe S A E O is also a call for ac-tion, emphasising the need toa d d ress environment and devel-opment together, as one optionfor reducing poverty and mov-ing towards a sustainable devel-opment path.

A key aim is to provide poli-cy options for re v e r s i n gthe current environmen-tal degradation trends in

southern Africa.Of concern to the re-

port is pro g ress to-w a rds achieving goals

ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK


and targets as set out in keycontinental and global strate-gies such as the RISDP,N E PAD, Johannesburg Planof Implementation and theUN Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGs).

T h e re f o re the target audi-ence for the book includes deci-sion and policy makers in gov-ernments, environmental prac-titioners and organisations, ed-ucational institutions, privates e c t o r, cooperating partnersand development agencies,parliaments, journalists and ed-itors, people of the South andpeople of the North.

The Southern Africa Environ -ment Outlook 2005 is the begin-ning of a long-term pro c e s scontained in the strategic planfor the region, the RISDP,which calls for five-yearly stateof environment reports. �

A N G O L A P L A N S to intro-duce a new electoral manage-ment system that will enablevoters to register electro n i c a l-

the country’s National ElectoralCommission (CNE) and theInter-Sectoral Commission forthe Electoral Process (CIPE).

CNE president, Caetano deSousa, said the system meetsthe requirements of the elec-toral process and is fast.

He noted that the system willalso serve as a voters' roll, withvoters identified by their finger-p r i n t s . (Angola Press Agency) �


High-tech voting system for Angolaly and identify voters thro u g hf i n g e r p r i n t s .

The new system was un-veiled in Luanda recently by

SOUTH A F R I C A has em-barked on a project to turnNguni cowhides into carseat covers.

The project is a partnershipbetween the University ofLimpopo, the Limpopo Depart-ment of A g r i c u l t u re, andthe Industrial DevelopmentCorporation (IDC) of SouthAfrica.

The IDC has provided fund-ing, which will be used to buyNguni cattle, build facilities,o ffer training to farmers, re-search and other resources toroll out the project.

Each farmer will be giventhree to five cattle for breedingpurposes over the nextfive years.

Nguni cattle are indigenousto Africa and were chosen forthe project because they copewell during droughts, have

SOUTH AFRICA is about toembark on a larg e - s c a l emaize-to-ethanol project fol-lowing the announcement ofa US$1.1 billion venture tobuild the first of eight ethanolplants in major maize-pro d u c-ing are a s .

The ethanol plant will bebuilt in the Bothaville are a ,which has large quantities ofmaize. Of the 400,000 tonnesof maize produced in Bothav-ille annually, the plant is capa-ble of consuming as much as375,000 tonnes, accord i n gto Ethanol Africa, one ofthe companies spearh e a d i n gthe pro j e c t .

C o n s t ruction of the firstplant is expected to commencethis year and should be in fullp roduction by the middleof 2007.

The plant is expected top roduce more than 470,000l i t res of ethanol daily and theinitiative is expected tosupply up to 12 percent ofSouth Africa's fuel needsby 2015.

Ethanol Africa was estab-lished by commercial farmersto turn surplus maize into en-v i ronmentally friendly biofu-el. It is being partnered in thep roject by Sterling Wa t e r f o rd .(Business Day) �

ZIMBABWE SAYS a new con-coction of herbal drugs underclinical tests in the country hasproved effective in prolongingthe lifespan of people livingwith HIV and AIDS.

A c c o rding to the country’sDeputy Minister of Health andChild We l f a re, Edwin Muguti,clinical tests done on the herbalmedicine, locally called g u n -d a m i t i , have so far pro v e dthat it possesses healingp roperties for people livingwith HIV.

Clinical trials started on 1December 2005 with 45 patients.Muguti said preliminary resultsare encouraging as the conditionof patients on the herbal therapyhas improved tre m e n d o u s l ywith some opportunistic infec-tions disappearing.

“I can safely say their CD4count had increased, while viralload decreased,” the deputyminister said, adding, “Thisherbal combination is very safewith no deaths recorded and noside effects detected so far. ”(Daily Mirror) �

high resistance to ticks and astrong immunity against tick-borne diseases.

The cattle also have beauti-ful markings and the cows canp roduce at least 10 calvesin their lifetime, about oneevery year.

Carmaker BMW has shownan interest in the Nguni cattleproject. (BuaNews) �

Nguni hides for car seat-covers

Maize-power fuel plant on the cards inSouth Africa

Zimbabwe herbal medi-cine shows promise

SOME COMMUNITIES i nNamibia now have rights tomanage forests in their vicinityunder a new empowermentp rogramme.

The Namibian governmenthas designated eight forests inthe north of the country as com-munity forests and has, withtechnical assistance from GermanDevelopment Service (DED),been offering training in fore s t r ymanagement and planning.

The eight community fore s t sin the Kavango and Caprivi re-gions as well as Tsumkwe, arepart of 13 gazetted by the Namib-ian government in Febru a r y.

The Community Forestry inNorth-Eastern Namibia (CFNEN)is a joint venture between theMinistry of A g r i c u l t u re, Wa t e rand Fore s t r y, DED and the Ger-man Development Bank.

The project also promotes theestablishment of private or-chards and vegetable gardens.

“ Within the declared com-munity forests local people areable to control the sustainableuse and protection of valuablewood and non-wood forest re-sources against over-utilisation,illegal harvesting and wildfires,” said DED.

The communities now havethe right to issue permits for useof trees, firewood and other for-est products, and can link re-sources utilisation to manage-ment plans and relevant regula-tions or by-laws. ( N a m i b i a nEconomist) �

Namibia introducescommunity forests

Nguni cowhides, trendsetting innovation from southern Africa

SOUTHERN AFRICA h a ssome of the most developed In-ternet country markets on thecontinent. As a result, a numberof trends developing in the re-gion are beginning to spre a dacross the continent. These arethe findings of a new re p o r tpublished by Balancing Act.

The region has the larg e s tbroadband market. South Africaleads the way in this area, with120,000 users at the end of 2005,

The region is also a pioneer interms of Voice over Internet Pro t o-col-based (VoIP) calling. Vo I P is atechnology that allows one tomake phone calls using bro a d b a n dInternet connection instead of aregular (analog) telephone line.

South Africa again leads theway in this area but at least twoother countries in the re g i o n(Zambia and Zimbabwe) haveembarked on policy pro c e s s e sthat will see Vo I P l e g a l i s e d .( A l l A f r i c a . c o m ) �

and is the largest bro a d b a n dmarket in sub-Saharan Africa.

Outside of South A f r i c a ,competition on fibre infrastruc-ture is growing with four com-panies getting licenses in thepast year, two in Zambia andtwo in Zimbabwe.

Most of these companies arepower utilities and the networkof regional energy providers of-fers many opportunities for con-necting the region.

MOZAMBIQUE HAS conclud-ed an agreement with Portugalfor the transfer of ownership ofthe giant Cahora Bassa Dam.

Teams from the two countriesfinalised “technical negotiations”in March, paving the way forsigning of the final agreement byP resident Armando Guebuza ofMozambique and PortuguesePrime Minister, José Socrates.

‘The two countries will lateragree on the date for the formalsignature in Mozambique of thedocument resulting from the ne-gotiations,” said Salvador Nam-burete, Mozambique’s Ministerof Energy.

A memorandum of under-standing (MOU) on Cahora

Bassa Dam was signed in No-vember last year during Pre s i-dent Guebuza’s visit to Portugal.

Under the MOU, control ofthe company that operates thedam, Hidroeléctrica de CahoraBassa (HCB), would pass fro mPortuguese into Mozambicanhands. Portugal owns 82 perc e n tof shares in HCB, with Mozam-bique holding the re m a i n d e r.

On conclusion of the agree-ment, Mozambique will control85 percent of the company, withPortugal owning the remainingshareholding.

The deal re q u i res Mozam-bique to pay US$950 million be-f o re transfer of the dam andcompany. (Aim) �

ZAMBIA REDUCED prices ofp e t roleum products by up toseven percent in January, passingon the benefits of its appreciatingcurrency.

In trying to encourage the useof unleaded petrol, the country’sE n e rgy Regulation Board (ERB)has made prices of leaded and un-leaded fuel the same.

"The ERB has benchmarkedthe new prices to those of un-leaded petrol," ERB chairpersonMwangala Zaloumis said. Un-leaded petrol used to cost morethan leaded fuel.

Zambia has announced that itwill phase out leaded petrol fro mM a rch as part of an African Unionpledge to use cleaner fuels consid-e red less harmful to human healthand the environment. (The Post) �

A N G O L A P L A N S to hold an in-ternational mining fair to show-case its mining industry ands o u rce funding for the sector.

The International Mines Fair,which will take place from 27-30April, is being organised by thecountry’s Ministry of Geology and

Mining, Angola DiamondCompany and Expo-Angola.

The event will be used toestablish new partner-ships for Angolan min-ing industry.

A c c o rding to Edgar deCarvalho, director of studies atthe Ministry of Geology andMining’s Planning and Statis-tic Office, the fair has attractedhuge interest from localand international companies.( A l l A f r i c a . c o m ) �

Southern Africa leads the way in IT trends

Mozambique, Portugal concludenegotiations on Cahora Bassa

Fair showcases Angola’s mining industry

Zambia reducespetrol prices

Namibia joins drydock elite

THE DE Beers Group has an-nounced plans to invest US$150million in a new processing plantat Mwadui Williamson DiamondLimited (MWDL) in the UnitedRepublic of Ta n z a n i a .

The world's leading diamondmining company said the newp rocessing plant will enable thefirm to process 16 million tonnesof ore annually and increase dia-mond production to a millionc a r a t s .

P resently MWDL has a pro-duction capacity of 3.5 milliono re tonnes a year and the newplant will increase diamond pro-duction to 1 million carats fro m190,384 carats.

The expansion and constru c-tion of the processing plantwould enable MWDL to extendthe life of the mine by a further 25years. (East African) �

De Beers to investin new Tanzanianplant

SOUTH AFRICA’S Te l k o mhas set its sight on expansioninto five African countries – in-cluding Angola, Botswana andDemocratic Republic of Congo– it considers ripe for invest-m e n t .

Faced with tough competi-tion from cellphone operators athome, the fixed-line operatorhas turned its attention to thethree SADC member states aswell as Kenya and Nigeria in itsquest to boost revenues. (Busi -ness Day) �

Telkom eyes Angola,Botswana, DRC


CURRENCY CHECKLISTCountry Currency (US $1)Angola Kwanza (100 lwei) 80.36 Botswana Pula (100 thebe) 5.44 DRC Congo Franc 432.00Lesotho Maloti (100 lisente) 6.15 Madagascar Ariary 9,400.00 Malawi Kwacha (100 tambala) 132.72Mauritius Rupee (100 cents) 30.68 Mozambique Metical (100 centravos) 26,775.00 Namibia Dollar (100 cents) 6.16South Africa Rand (100 cents) 6.16 Swaziland Lilangeni (100 cents) 6.15 Tanzania Shilling (100 cents) 1,193.25Zambia Kwacha (100 ngwee) 3,295.00 Zimbabwe Dollar (100 Cents) 99,201.00

March 2006

A MASSIVE dry dock arrived inthe Walvis Bay harbour in Janu-ary – the first of its kind alongthe western coastline of Africa.

The floating dock representsan alternative to Cape Town andDurban as the only ship-repairfacilities in the region.

“This is a deliberate effort by theNamibian government thro u g hNamPort to intensify ship-repairactivities with the aim of job cre-ation and economic development,”said NamPort managing director,Sebby Kankondi. (The Namibian) �


tive At Large, and Mozam-bique’s Ebano Multimedia.

Other countries in the regionsuch as Angola, Mauritius andMozambique have pro d u c e dshort films that have featured atinternational festivals.

has in the past few years pro-duced award-winning filmssuch as Everyone’s Child by Zim-babwean film-maker Tsitsi Dan-garembga and Fools, a collabora-tive effort between SouthAfrican production house, Na-

Regional cooperation hasbeen crucial to the developmentof the industry, with events suchas the Zanzibar InternationalFilm Festival, Zimbabwe Inter-national Film Festival and CapeTown World Cinema Festivalplaying an important role. �

TSOTSI, A South African dramafilm, put the southern Africanfilmmaking industry under theinternational spotlight when itwon an Oscar for the best for-eign language movie.

The film is about a townshipthief who learns to take care ofan infant whose mother he shotduring a car hijacking.

This was the second time aSouth African was nominated forthe Oscars, the highest re c o g n i t i o nthat a film can get in the UnitedStates. Last year’s nominee wasYe s t e r d a y, a feature film about awoman who was HIV positive.

D i rected and written by GavinHood, Ts o t s i stars Pre s l e yChweneyagae as a violent younggangster who realises the value ofhuman life after discovering ababy in a car he had stolen. Hisoutlook to life changes after beingf o rced to care for the baby.

It beat four other films thatw e re also vying for the Best For-eign Language Film Aw a rd. Thesew e re Paradise Now ( P a l e s t i n e ) ,Joyeux Noel (France), The Final Days(Germany) and Don't Te l l ( I t a l y ) .

The Oscar for Tsotsi dramatis-es southern Africa’s filmmakingrenaissance and points to the vasttalent available in the re g i o n .

The region’s filmmaking in-dustry has undergone majorchanges since the late 1990s and

ABOUT TEN groups from fiveSADC countries are to competein a regional musical contest inMozambique.

The Music Cro s s roads South-ern Africa contest takes place fro m27-30 April and will feature musi-cal groups from Malawi, Mozam-bique, United Republic of Ta n z a-nia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The show is part of an inter-national programme that em-powers young people aged be-tween 15 and 25 years through

A RTISTS AND the youth fro msouthern Africa are set to bene-fit from a continental pro j e c ton fighting HIV and A I D St h rough theatre .

The puppet theatre project re-sulted from one of the re s o l u t i o n staken by re p resentatives of theo rganisation, African Theatre forC h i l d ren and Youth Centres, atits annual meeting in the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania in Marc h .

Puppet theatre is an innova-tive way of getting across themessage on HIV and AIDS tochildren and young people.

The project is designed to en-able young people to contribute tothe alleviation of HIV and A I D Sby supplementing efforts by theirgovernments. It is targeted atartists and nationals of southern,west and east Africa, and will beimplemented around the theme,"Save This Generation".

SADC is re p resented byBotswana, Malawi, Mauritius,Mozambique, Namibia, SouthAfrica, Swaziland, United Re-public of Tanzania, Zambia andZimbabwe. Other participatingcountries are Benin, Buru n d i ,Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nige-ria, Rwanda and Uganda.

The 18 countries are membersof the International Association ofT h e a t re for Children and Yo u n gPeople. The African networkand cooperation programme isfunded by the Swedish Interna-tional Development CooperationAgency (Sida). (New Era) �

musical skills and HIV andAIDS education.

It also seeks to increase thelevel of professionalism amongmusicians and acts as a platformfor launching their careers. It en-courages the participants to takepride in their cultural heritage.

Each competition is pre c e d e dby a workshop where the youngmusicians learn marketing skills,public relations, music manage-ment, contract negotiation, copy-right laws and musician rights.

Winners of this year’s com-petition will land a trip to Eu-rope and a recording contract.

Music Crossroads was initi-ated by Jeunesses Musicales In-ternational (JMI) recognised asthe premier global network foryouth and music. JMI has mem-bers in 70 countries worldwide.

The Norwegian A g e n c yfor Development Cooperation,Swedish International Develop-ment Cooperation Agency andUNESCO have funded the pro-gramme since 1996. �

Mozambique hosts Music Crossroads

Theatre project to“save this generation”

Oscar winning film raises regional profile onfilm industry

developing countries the largest possiblepolicy space so that that they can workout what is good for them and find theirown ways to achieve it. An immediatesuspension of the NAMA n e g o t i a t i o n suntil a new and pro - d e v e l o p m e n t t e x tcan be agreed would be a good place tos t a r t .Available in electronic and print formatf rom South Centre, Geneva, Switzerland.E-mail: south@southcentre . o rg .h t t p : / / w w w. s o u t h c e n t re . o rg .

Knowledge Management and theDevelopment Bank of SouthernAfrica: A Knowledge Strategyby Debbie Blackburn, Snowy Khoza andGraham Ta t eSouth Africa, Development Bank ofSouthern Africa, 20036 1 p pI n t e r n a t i o n a l l y, it is well recognised thatcorporate society is on the verge of anew horizon in which intellectualcapital is rapidly becoming the newc u r re n c y. In this context, the question ofimplementing a knowledgemanagement way of doing thingsbecomes one of paramount importanceand will enable it to align more closelywith emerging global trends. Inadopting this path the Bank allows itselfthe freedom to apply institutionalre s o u rces to all types of socio-economicdevelopment. Available in print ande l e c t ronic format from the DBSADevelopment Information BusinessUnit, P O Box 1234, Halfway House,1685 Midrand, South Africa.d e b b i e b @ d b s a . o rgh t t p : / / w w w. d b s a . o rg

and their exploration of the re l a t i o n-ship between people and animals,the physical and the spiritual. Thebook of 154 pages is written byDamon and Craig Foster withMichael Hutchinson, and has a Fore-w o rd by the South African Pre s i-dent, Thabo Mbeki. Published in2005 by New Africa Books in CapeTown, this source of knowledge andimagery is available through book-shops or contact the publisher.i n f o @ n e w a f r i c a b o o k s . c o . z ah t t p : / / w w w. n e w a f r i c a b o o k s . c o . z a �

THIS GEM of a book taps into awealth of re s e a rch and experience todepict the relationship betweenAfricans and our environment, in-cluding conservation of the land bythose who have had the longest con-nection with it over time. It capture son paper startling and unusual filmimages that can last only a second orsplit second on screen. The images inthis book are exceptional not onlyfor their visual impact and beauty,but for the vision they communicateof oneness with the physical world

PUBLICATIONS

THIS BOOK was published to commemorate25 years of regional cooperation and integra-tion since the founding of the Southern AfricaDevelopment Coordination Confere n c e(SADCC), which fostered confidence and aspirit of solidarity that laid the foundation forthe Southern African Development Commu-nity (SADC) established through the Wind-hoek Treaty in 1992.

The book profiles “a region with poten-tial”, gives some historical background andexplains the institutional restructuring and fi-nancing. It reviews policies and strategies, in-cluding the Regional Indicative Strategic De-velopment Plan (RISDP) and the SADCOrgan on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation (SIPO).

Many achievements are noted, especiallythe signing and ratification of a number ofprotocols in areas such as trade, finance andmanagement of shared watercourses, agree-ments on sugar, textiles and clothing amongothers, and establishment of the SouthernAfrican Power Pool (SAPP).

The book also presents current challengesfacing the region, including HIV and AIDS,socio-economic and human resources chal-lenges, political, defence and security chal-lenges, as well as regional integration, institu-tional restructuring, and policy harmoniza-tion and implementation.

In closing, the book reviews the way for-ward as SADC moves into higher levels of

integration as a building bloc of the AfricanUnion.

The book is available from theSADC Secretariat [email protected] orh t t p : / / w w w.sadc.int. �

SADC: Major Achievementsand Challenges –25th Anniversary 1980-2005

Africa: Speaking with Earth and Sky

What UN for the 21st Century? ANew North-South DivideThe South Centre, 2005170pp.This is a collection of comments andworking papers prepared in the contextof the most recent drive to reform theUnited Nations. It begins with the paperentitled “Multilateralism Besieged”,which was submitted in June 2004 as aninput into the proceedings of the HighLevel Panel on T h reats, Challenges andChange. It ends with a comment on theUN Secretary General’s Report “In Larg e rF reedom: To w a rds Development, Securityand Human Rights for All”, which wasc i rculated to the member states of theG roup of 77 in June 2005.Available in electronic and print formatfrom South Centre, P O Box 228, Chemindu Champ d’Anier 17, 1211 Geneva 19,[email protected]://www.southcentre.org.

Why Developing Countries NeedTariffs? How WTO NAMANegotiations Could Deny DevelopingCountries’ Right To A Futureby Ha-Joon ChangThe South Centre, 20051 2 9 p p .If they are to fulfill the developmentalp romises made in Doha and prevent thec reation of a world economy divided bya growing gulf between haves and have-nots, the powerful players in the Wo r l dTrade Organization (WTO) must ensurethat any NAMA ( N o n - A g r i c u l t u r a lMarket Access) agreement gives



EVENTS DIARY 2006

April2-5 South Africa World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety

PromotionTheme is “Data to Action”. The focus of the 8thconference is on how injury and safety informationcan be translated into concrete prevention policiesand practices. Injury and safety researchers,practitioners and decision-makers will attend theconference.

25-30 Zimbabwe Harare International Festival of the ArtsA multi-cultural celebration of the arts, encompassingtheatre, visual arts, dance and music, and attractingparticipants from all over southern Africa and otherparts of the world.

26-27 Namibia SADC Consultative ConferenceSince the last Consultative Conference in 2002, SADChas developed a 15-year Regional Indicative StrategicDevelopment Plan (RISDP) that provides strategicdirection for SADC programmes. The 2006Consultative Conference is aimed at marketing theRISDP and the Strategic Indicative Plan of the Organon Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (SIPO).Focus will be on mobilisation of resources forimplementation of the plans and adoption of aWindhoek Declaration on a New SADC/ICPPartnership. International Cooperating Partners,representatives of civil society, the private sector andgovernments will attend the Conference under thetheme: “Partnership for the Implementation of theSADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Planand the Strategic Indicative Plan of the Organ onPolitics, Defence and Security.”

27-30 Angola International Mines FairAn international mining fair organised by the Ministryof Geology and Mining, Angola Diamond Companyand Expo Angola, to showcase the country’s miningindustry, establish new partnerships and sourcefunding for the sector.

May24-26 Ethiopia International Conference on ICTs for Development

The conference is a capacity-building event forstakeholders engaged in planning and implementation oft e chnology-supported learning and training in Africa.Supported by the United Nations Commission forAfrica, the conference will be accompanied by anexhibition.

31-2 June Africa Economic SummitSouth Africa Organised by the World Economic Forum, the summit

brings together private sector, civil society and politicalleaders to discuss trade and investment opportunitiesin Africa.

June17-20 South Africa Cape Town Book Fair

In partnership with Frankfurt Book Fair, the PublishersAssociation of South Africa will host the country’s firstinternational book fair. To be held at the Cape TownInternational Convention Centre, the fair will showcaseleading international and local publishers and isexpected to attract thousands of visitors.

21- 23 Regional Adjudication on the SADC Media AwardsSouth Africa A SADC sub-committee is to adjudicate on the entries

for the 2006 media awards. This year the mediaawards will focus on HIV and AIDS to encouragedissemination of information on the pandemic.

THE SO U T H E R N AF R I C A NDE V E L O P M E N T CO M M U N I T Y TO D AY

SADC Today, Vol 9 No 1 April 2006

SADC TO DAY is produced as a reference source of activities and opportunities in the SouthernAfrican Development Community, and a guide for decision-makers at all levels of national and re-gional development. Articles may be reproduced freely in the media and elsewhere, with attribution.

EDITORMunetsi Madakufamba

EDITORIAL COMMITTEEBayano Valy, Eunice Kadiki, Mukundi Mutasa, Chenai Mufanawejingo, Patson Phiri,

Joseph Ngwawi, Chipo Muvezwa, Alfred Gumbwa, Maidei Musimwa,Pamela Mhlanga, Phyllis Johnson

EDITORIAL ADVISORHead of Corporate Communications Unit, SADC

Leefa Penehupifo Martin

SADC TO DAY is published six times a year by the Southern African Research and DocumentationCentre (SARDC) for the SADC Secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana, as a reliable, knowledge sourc eon the Southern African Development Community. The contents consider the MillenniumD e velopment Goals (MDGs) and the New Partnership forA f r i c a ’s Development (NEPAD) as integra lto the region’s deve l o p m e n t .

© SADC, SARDC, 2006

SADC TO DAY welcomes contributions from individuals and organisations within the SADC regionin the form of articles, photographs, news items and comments, and also relevant articles from out-side the region. A standard fee is paid for articles, photos and illustrations used in the publication.The publishers reserve the right to select or reject items, and to edit to fit the space available. Th econtents do not necessarily reflect the official positions or opinions of SADC or SARDC.

Subscribe today

SADC TO DAY is available through an annual subscription fee. For six issues a ye a r, the fee is US$75for outside Africa, US$55 for the rest of Africa and US$45 for SADC. Your subscription will enableyou to receive the newsletter by airmail or email. For more details on subscriptions, pleasecontact the Editor.

SADC TODAY is published in English and Portuguese and is available electronically in English,Portuguese and French at www.sadc.int www.sardc.net.

DESIGN & LAYOUTTonely Ngwenya, Arnoldina Chironda

PHOTOS & ILLUSTRATIONSp1, Office of the governor of Malanje Province in Angola;

4, SADC Secretariat; 5, 11,14 (three), Copyright South African Tourism;6, 12, (one), UNDP, 12, (two), 13, (two) CDFF;

7, (top 2) Eskom, (bottom) NamPower; 8, DWAF South Africa; 9, Juakali Kambale;12, (three) DEAT; 12 (four), 13 (one, four), 14 (four), 24, APG; 13, (three) NamPort;

14,18 Illustrative Options;15, DBSA; 21, MalGo Media Services, Ltd.

ORIGINATION & PRINTDS Print Media, Johannesburg

Correspondence should be addressed to:The Editor, SADC TODAY

SARDC, 15 Downie Avenue, Belgravia, Harare, ZimbabweTel 263 4 791141 Fax 263 4 791271

[email protected]

SADC HOJESARDC, Rua D. Afonso Henriques, 141, Maputo, Moçambique

Tel 258 1 490831 Fax 258 1 [email protected]

Information 21 Websiteswww.sadc.int www.sardc.net www.ips.org www.saba.co.za

SADC TO DAY is supported by the Belgian government under the SADC Information 21 project,whose aim is to strengthen regional integration through information and know l e d g e - s h a r i n g ,

based on the longstanding historical, social and cultural affinities and links among the peoples ofthe region, and to advance SADC’s agenda into the 21st century.

Thanks to the Development Bank of Southern Africa for their generous support for thisSpecial Edition of SADC To d ay.

Thanks to the following airlines for assisting with distribution of SADC To d ay :Air Botswana, Linhas Aeresde Moçambique, Air Namibia, South African A i r ways,

TAG Angolan Airlines, Zambian A i r ways and Air Zimbabwe

Lest we forget…

The long road to South African freedom

THE ROAD to freedom in South Africa was littered with institu-tionalised racial discrimination, brutality and cross-border foraystargeted at liberation movements and their supporters.

Through a series of repressive laws, successive South Africanregimes entrenched the system of white supremacy and disenfran-chised millions of blacks, Indians and people of mixed race.

Enactment of apartheid laws in 1948 institutionalised racial dis-crimination. Race laws touched every aspect of social life, includ-ing prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites, andintroduction of “whites only” jobs.

The Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 was used to create ethnic gov-ernments in African reserves, known as “homelands”. The home-lands were “independent” states to which all non-whites were as-signed according to the record of origin, even though many of themdid not actually live in these areas.

All political rights, including voting, held by non-whites were re-stricted to the designated homelands. The idea was that they wouldbe citizens of the homeland, losing their citizenship in South A f r i c a .

The homelands denationalised millions of South Africans whobecame aliens in their own country following the introduction of arequirement that they must have passports to enter South Africa.

The 1950 Population Registration Act required that all SouthAfricans be racially classified into one of three categories: white,black (African) or coloured, with the latter including major sub-groups of Indians and Asians.

All blacks were required to carry “pass books” containing fin-gerprints, photo and information that determined where theycould live and work.

Resistance to the apartheid system eventually led to majorityrule in 1994. The resistance came from black, Indian and colouredmovements, political parties and other countries, organisationsand individuals.

Led by the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africaand the South African Indian Congress, South Africans launched aDefiance Campaign in 1952 in which they abandoned tactics ofmoderation such as petitions in favour of militant protest. This in-cluded mass actions, boycotts, strikes and civil disobedience.

About 300 black South Africans in Sharpeville refused to carrytheir passes, resulting in a state of emergency. The emergency last-ed for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 wounded inSharpeville on 21 March 1960.

The Sharpeville Massacre, as the event became known, sig-nalled the start of armed resistance in South Africa, and promptedworldwide condemnation of South Africa's apartheid policies.

All of South Africa’s neighbours right up to the United Repub-lic of Tanzania – long independent but targets of the apartheidregime’s destabilisation campaign – provided logistical and moralsupport to South African exiles and freedom fighters.

“OUR ACHIEVEMENT of independence imposes upon us a heavy re s p o n s i-b i l i t y, not only to defend our hard won liberty, but also to set for ourselves high-er standards of equality, justice and opportunity for all, without re g a rd to race,c reed or colour.” – Sam Nujoma, first post-independence president of Namibia,in his inauguration address on independence day, 21 March 1990.

A shared future within a regional community

Responsibilities of independence

Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere joins the soils of Tanganyika and Zanzibar at aceremony to mark their union as the United Republic of Tanzania on 26 April 1964.

Public holidays in SADCApril - June 2006

4 April Peace and National Reconciliation Day Angola7 April Women’s Day Mozambique7 April Sheik Abeid Amani Karume Day Tanzania14 April Good Friday All except Mauritius, DRC, Mozambique, Madagascar15 April Public Holiday Botswana15 April Holy Saturday Zambia15 April Easter Saturday Zimbabwe17 April Easter Monday All except Mauritius, DRC, Mozambique, South Africa17 April Family Day South Africa18 April Independence Day Zimbabwe19 April King’s Birthday Swaziland21 April* Maulid Day Tanzania25 April National Flag Day Swaziland26 April Union Day Tanzania27 April Freedom Day South Africa

1 May Labour/Workers Day All4 May Cassinga Day Namibia25 May Ascension Day Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Namibia, Swaziland25 May Africa Day Angola, Zambia, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe

1 June International Children’s Day Angola5 June Whit Monday Madagascar14 June Freedom Day Malawi16 June Youth Day South Africa25 June Independence Day Mozambique26 June Independence Day Madagascar30 June Independence Day DRC

* Depends on visibility of the moon

Documents

Infrastructure development top priority for regional ... · HIV and AIDS; and Crosscutting Issues such as eG n d e r, Statistics, Enviro n-ment and Sustainable Devel-opment, Private