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ISSUE ONE 2015
MOZAMBIQUE AFTER THE ELECTIONS: THE RISE OF FILIPE NYUSI
The articles in ACTSA News do not necessarily represent any agreed position of ACTSA itself.
EDITOR/
John Paterson
FRONT COVER/
Mozambique election CREDIT Adrien Barbier
LAYOUT/ Zeborah Design
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Introduction ACTSA’S DISTINCTIVE ROLEK ACTSA is one of the few organisations campaigning on Swaziland. In March 2015 with support from UNISON we hosted a visit to the United Kingdom of Vincent Ncongwane, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland. There is an interview with Vincent in this issue of ACTSA News. Vincent’s visit was to increase awareness of the situation in Swaziland and meet Commonwealth organisations, the UK government, trade unionists and others. Marking Mozambique’s 40th anniversary of independence (25 June), we look at the situation following the country’s recent general election. ACTSA is about action for southern Africa and we remain committed to cover little-reported issues from across the whole region. On 11 November, Angola too marks 40 years of independence. Both Angola and Mozambique suffered from terrible civil wars actively promoted by apartheid South Africa in its campaign to destabilise the region. ACTSA’s authoritative Angola Monitor, published quarterly in English and Portuguese, covers politics, economics, human rights, aid and development – sign up for this at www.actsa.org. ACTSA is campaigning for justice for South Africa’s ex-miners suffering from silicosis, an incurable, debilitating disease. They need good health care and decent compensation. We brought the chair of Health and Safety at the National Union of Mineworkers to the UK to attend the Anglo American AGM so that he could press their case. No other UK ngo in has taken up this issue. This visit helped ensure that justice for these ex-miners and their families is on the agenda of the mining companies – but we are pushing for quicker action. To find out more about this campaign see www.actsa.org or email campaigns@actsa.org. In April five supporters ran over 26 miles in the London Marathon to raise money for ACTSA. They all finished and we should receive around £7,500 from their combined efforts: thank you! ACTSA has places in the 2016 London Marathon. Interested? Get in touch, call us or email info@actsa.org. ACTSA makes a significant impact but we are a small organisation and this support makes a big difference. Tony Dykes Director, Action for Southern Africa ISSUE ONE 2015 / ACTSA NEWS / PAGE 03
Vincent Ncongwane is secretary general of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland. He describes the challenges facing the trade union movement, the calls for democracy, and some of the arguments used against them.
People in Swaziland are said to love their King. How do you know they want democracy? They may not always call it democracy but people are clear that change is essential. It’s not a question of whether
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you love the King or not, it is about the lack of democracy in the system which he happens to head. If the system was open enough so people could make choices, then we believe that this question would not arise. Some say that people don’t want political parties, but we would like those who maintain that position to have the courage of their convictions and give people the opportunity to make their choices through the ballot box. The fact that all we have is the demonisation of political parties tells you what the true picture is. The authorities constantly refer to political parties as divisive and say there will be no peace with political parties, when the evidence from elsewhere shows us something quite different.
IMAGE / VINCENT NCONGWANE AT CONGRESS HOUSE. CREDIT: MARK BEACON
SWAZILAND OPPOSITION CALL TO OPEN UP POLITICAL SPACE
The law has been changed to allow the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) to register. What does this mean for workers rights? The law may have changed, due to immense domestic and international pressure, but TUCOSWA is far from being a legal organisation. Since TUCOSWA was deregistered in 2012 we have been subjected to immense intimidation and harassment. Meetings for World AIDS Day and May Day celebrations have been crushed by the Royal Swaziland Police, who have been blatantly disregarding the law governing the right to hold meetings. Regrettably the government has looked the other way, indicating that they were the ones who instigated the police action.
Has this intimidation increased in recent times? Yes it has. Only on 26 February the authorities intimidated the landlord of the Catholic Church’s BOSCO Skills Centre in Manzini, telling him not to give us the venue for a meeting until the police had give us permission. The landlord was forced to withdraw the facility and we had to postpone our meeting. We then made plans to hold a mass meeting at the SNAT Teachers’ Centre in Manzini on 7 March. On the day of the meeting the police barged in, led by the regional commissioner who demanded that of the five labour issues on the agenda we remove the one dealing with multiparty democracy. In his view that was not a worker related issue. He then commanded his officers to crush the meeting. We arranged a meeting of the TUCOSWA national executive committee to take place at the same venue on 14 March. This time we decided to hold the meeting without the multi-party democracy item, but again the police crushed the meeting. This goes to show that the attitude of the Swaziland government is to frustrate any meetings of TUCOSWA which is indicative of a general negative attitude to trade unions. Why don’t you avoid discussing issues deemed to be political? The crushing of the meeting of the 14 March which did not have a political item on the agenda shows that the government intends to frustrate TUCOSWA’s operations at all costs. The call by the police for us not to discuss political issues is not only a no for us but it is also illogical. We are supposed to be
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SWAZILAND OPPOSITION CALL TO OPEN UP POLITICAL SPACE Continued citizens and voters so we should have the right to discuss important issues of interest to our members. Their inability to quote any law that empowered them to crush these meetings shows that they are indeed a law unto themselves.
Vincent was speaking to Mark Beacon, of ACTSA, during his recent visit to London
VINCENT WITH UK MINISTER FOR AFRICA JAMES DUDDRIDGE
Why have you come to the UK? I have come to the UK to tell the truth about the situation in Swaziland and highlight the calls for democracy and rights. All the opposition are demanding is: •T he amendment of section 79 of the constitution to allow the political parties to represent their members in the governance structures through participating in elections. This means coming up with legislation to allow them to register because currently they cannot even do that.
•T he opening of talks between the government and the opposition in a broad based forum to level the playing field as it is currently fraught with hurdles. •T he release of political prisoners and allowing the return of exiles. •S etting up of a process for a multi-party system. •D iscussions of a transitional structure to manage the democratisation process. •T he opposition in Swaziland is not talking about the removal of His Majesty as the head of state, but is calling for the opening up of political space to allow for the operation of political parties to be able to do the work such organisations do the world over.
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MOZAMBIQUE AFTER THE ELECTIONS: THE RISE OF FILIPE NYUSI
By Paul Fauvet
For the first time, Mozambique has a president who did not take part in the war for independence from Portuguese colonial rule. Felipe Nyusi, 56, was 16 at the time. The new president’s only previous government position was as defence minister between 2008 and 2014. He was not a member of Frelimo’s powerful political commission and was only elected
to the central committee at Frelimo’s 10th congress in September 2012. Yet in the internal party elections in March 2014 Nyusi defeated much better known candidates, including the then prime minister, Alberto Vaquina, and two former prime ministers, Luisa Diogo and Aires Ali. It is widely believed that Nyusi became the Frelimo candidate because he was the protégé of President Armando Guebuza, banned under the Mozambican constitution from standing for a third consecutive term of office. The elections were held under the shadow of renewed conflict. The main opposition party, Renamo, a faithful tool of the apartheid regime during its war of destabilisation against the front line states, had never fully demobilised.
ISISSUE ONE 2015 / ACTSA NEWS / PAGE 07
IMAGE / FILIPE NYUSI CAMPAIGNING / CREDIT: ADRIEN BARBIER
Mozambique elected the surprise Frelimo presidential candidate, the little-known Filipe Nyusi, in the general elections late last year.
In violation of the 1992 peace agreement, Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama held back a few hundred men whom he described as “bodyguards”. This illegal militia went back into action in mid-2013, staging ambushes on the main northsouth highway, and attacking civilian and military targets in the central province of Sofala. Renamo had the luxury of negotiating in Maputo, while murdering in Sofala. The party’s main demand was for a rewrite of the electoral laws to completely politicise the electoral bodies, stuffing them with political appointees. The government accepted every significant Renamo demand for legislative change. Renamo boasted that, by placing thousands of its supporters as polling station staff and as members of the electoral commissions, it would be impossible for Frelimo to commit electoral fraud which, Renamo claimed,
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was the only reason it had lost every previous election. Yet Frelimo won again, albeit with a substantially reduced majority. Nyusi took 57 per cent of the presidential vote, and Frelimo won 144 of the 250 parliamentary seats. It was actually a good result for Renamo. Dhlakama recovered from his dreadful result in 2009, when he only took 16 per cent of the vote, this time taking 36 per cent. The Renamo group in parliament grew from 51 to 89. Yet Dhlakama again claimed fraud. The press did uncover some undoubted examples of fraud – but nowhere near enough to account for the million-vote gap between Nyusi and Dhlakama. The whole election was a gigantic fraud, Dhlakama alleged. As the price for keeping the peace, he demanded
that Frelimo form a coalition with Renamo. When Frelimo rejected this, he threatened to take control of the provinces where he had topped the poll and create an openly separatist “Republic of Central and Northern Mozambique”, or “autonomous regions” where Renamo would be in control. Constitutional lawyer Gilles Cistac, a naturalised Mozambican of French origin, pointed to a clause in the constitution that would allow, not “autonomous regions” but a measure of autonomy for provinces which could be treated as extremely large municipalities. Renamo grasped at this, and dropped calls for separatism. But Frelimo publicly denounced Cistac and social media scribblers linked with the most conservative wing of Frelimo called him a “French spy”. On 3 March, character assassination was followed by physical assassination. Unidentified gunmen pumped bullets into Cistac outside a central Maputo café in broad daylight; he died in Maputo Central Hospital a few hours later. Frelimo denied having anything to do with the murder, and Nyusi ordered the police to make solving the crime their top priority. But at the time of writing no arrests have been made. The Cistac murder was the backdrop to the fall of Armando Guebuza. Since independence in 1975, the president of the Republic had always also been president of Frelimo. The only exception was in 2005 when Guebuza was sworn in for his first term one month before
his predecessor, Joaquim Chissano, resigned. But Guebuza showed no sign of relinquishing his grip on the party leadership. Far from resigning, he began a central committee meeting with a tough speech denouncing opponents outside and inside the party. He attacked unnamed Frelimo members who “publicly undertook activities which disturbed the normal functioning of the party bodies”, and which would only “generate division and confusion among us”. The speech was a disastrous misjudgement, and hardened opinion that Guebuza must go. The public face of discontent was Jorge Rebelo, former head of the Frelimo ideology department, who accused Guebuza of trying to intimidate central committee members and suggested it was the duty of members to raise the question of the succession. By the final day of the meeting, Guebuza was isolated. Recognising that his position was untenable, he submitted his resignation “to strengthen Frelimo’s unity and cohesion”. A few hours later Nyusi was elected unopposed as party president. In the space of just over a year Nyusi has risen from obscurity to head both state and party. He needs the added authority as president of the party to face the challenge of rebuilding Frelimo’s moral standing in Mozambique society, and the threat of a resurgent Renamo. Maputo, April 2015 ISSUE ONE 2015 / ACTSA NEWS / PAGE 09
FIVE MONTHS IN HOBENI
My task in Hobeni was to set up the Woods Foundation’s library and archive, cataloguing Donald’s books and documents.
States, to promote sanctions against South Africa while Wendy became involved in the British Defence and Aid Fund, assisting South African refugees.
Donald Woods was the newspaper editor who exposed the murder of Steve Biko, the black consciousness leader, by the apartheid security police in 1977. The exposure earned Donald a banning order, subjecting him to house arrest. Donald and his wife Wendy decided to flee the country with their five children after their six-year-old daughter Mary was the victim of an acid attack. The story of their dramatic escape to exile in London is told in the film Cry Freedom. Donald travelled widely, especially the United
I was in a beautiful location not far from the Wild Coast on the Indian Ocean. I was living in the house where Donald Woods was born in 1933; his cousins still live in the area, and they welcomed me with open arms. I found an extraordinary organisation working to transform the lives of the people living in the Transkei region.
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Doctors and nurses working to deliver the vaccination and other campaigns of the provincial health authority.
IMAGES/ COMMUNITY EDUCATION AND HEALTH PROJECTS/ CREDIT: DONALD WOODS FOUNDATION
LIBRARIAN AND ACTSA NEC MEMBER DAVID KENVYN SPENT FROM AUGUST TO DECEMBER LAST YEAR WORKING AS A VOLUNTEER AT THE DONALD AND WENDY WOODS FOUNDATION IN THE EASTERN CAPE
Ann had kept secretly. This children’s story about a horse was banned for reasons quite beyond understanding. There were signed copies of books from a panoply of South African writers – Alan Paton, Nadine Gordimer and Mandla Langa among them. There was Donald’s own book Biko which he smuggled out of South Africa in manuscript form when he fled the country. This was the book, along with Aelred Stubbs’s edition of Biko’s own book, I Write What I Like, that alerted the world to the greatness of the man and the atrocity that was his murder.
Teachers training others to deliver the educational resources needed in the schools round about. People working to improve the health and care of livestock. Researchers investigating the practicalities of improving peoples’ lives. Funders prepared to invest time and resources in the work being done. And, of course, I found the library and archive - over 1,000 books and more than 4,000 documents reflecting the life and interests of both Donald and Wendy Woods. Obviously, when they fled South Africa in 1977 they had not been able to bring their books and documents with them, and it is the case that they did not keep any documents that could have been used as evidence against people by the apartheid security police. So what there was had been acquired in exile, except for a battered copy of Black Beauty, which Donald’s cousin
The documents, however, tell an extraordinary story. Jackie Kennedy writes to say that she will ask “Teddy” to support the sanctions campaign. David Bowie writes to say he has been asked by Edward Kennedy to donate money to the Lincoln Trust, which is providing scholarships for South African exiles in the USA. Oliver Tambo seeks advice in obtaining a scholarship for an ANC member. Peter Gabriel reports that he has given money from his record “Biko” to the Black Consciousness Movement. Nelson Mandela thanks his fellow countryman for his campaigning. Steve Biko’s mother, Alice, writes in Xhosa. It is a unique record of the campaign against apartheid. The Donald Woods Foundation’s primary focus is on the most severely deprived and isolated areas of the Eastern Cape where millions survive without piped water, sewage systems, electricity, roads or public transport. In parts of the region,
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unemployment runs to 89 per cent, and most people live at or below subsistence level. Local people also have to contend with the national epidemic of HIV infection and drug-resistant TB, alongside high levels of crime, particularly crimes of sexual violence, without adequate police protection for the vulnerable in many areas. When I was at Hobeni I noticed a considerable amount of new housing. I was told that there is a plan to build 15,000 new houses in the area by the end of the year. So far 1,500 (10 per cent). Meeting the target will be a considerable challenge. One of the schools that serve the Hobeni area is Elliotdale Technical and Commercial Senior Secondary School. It was started in 1997 as the result of a community meeting convened by the local chiefs and the Bomvana Chamber of Commerce. The school faces challenges, one of which is the
lack of flushing toilets for the 800+ pupils. There is no school library, a lack of computer equipment and a shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff. The headmaster said the average class size was 100. Despite all this, the school has a consistently improving examination pass rate. The high rate of pregnancy among the female pupils has dropped recently. There is a high rate of dropouts because of insufficient transport. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that the pupils’ parents are predominantly illiterate, which limits their ability to contribute to the education of their children. The apartheid state did not consider it necessary to educate the parents because their role was to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water”. Elliotdale is a typical school. Many of its problems are beyond our ability to help. But there is one thing that we can do something about. It has no library. There is a room for a library, but no books. We can help to ensure that these books are delivered, through the Community HEART project “A Book and Ten Pence”. At Elliotdale, they are looking in particular for books on mathematics and the sciences, but books on any subject will be a help. Books that assist the pupils in learning English are vital. Even in remote Hobeni it is impossible to be unaware of the politics of South Africa. Racism is still deeply entrenched in sections of the white community.
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IMAGES / DONALDWOODSFOUNDATION.ORG
Communist Party also loomed large. There are legitimate arguments, but the language used was at times bitter, personal and deeply abusive. Insulting people does not take a discussion forward. The question is, how much progress has been made in transforming the country 20 years after the end of apartheid? One group says nothing has been achieved and that the majority of people are still living in poverty. A second group says not enough has been achieved, and that a great deal remains to be done to transform people’s lives, and yet another group argues that as much as is reasonably possible has been done, although there is still work to do. This simplifies, but I hope does not oversimplify, the arguments and there are many nuanced positions in between.
Students at Stellenbosch University, during their rag week, dress up as a minstrel show, claiming this was a tribute to the Cape Town Carnival, which they described by its apartheid name, “The Coon Carnival”. In a bar, a stranger told me that a toddler “had a touch of the tarbrush”, so I played with her, pulling faces. She pulled faces back, and soon the whole bar was laughing goodnaturedly. The racism was so prevalent it reminded me of growing up in north-east London, 60 years ago, when such things were said with no-one batting an eyelid. The current troubles in the tripartite alliance of the ANC, the unions and the
In my view, much has been achieved. People are alive now who would not have been under apartheid, they would not have been vaccinated against diphtheria, polio, TB, measles and other child-killing diseases. This has knockon effects in the demand for sanitation, schooling and other infrastructure, which in some cases has yet to be provided. Much of Hobeni for example does not have electricity. Twenty years ago, most of the country did not have access to the national grid; now, most of the country does. There is much still to be done. That is why a solidarity movement is still needed. That is our job.
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round up take action Swaziland – Release these activists ACTSA is supporting calls for the release of four human rights activists in Swaziland (see ACTSA News 3:2014). Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini were arrested in May 2014 and charged under the Suppression of Terrorism Act for allegedly shouting “Viva Pudemo” at a May Day rally. Pudemo is a political party and as such is banned in Swaziland. The two have been held for over a year, often in solitary confinement and have not yet been brought to trial. There are growing concerns about Mario Masuku’s health - he is diabetic and has not received the medical treatment he needs. Bheki Makhubu and Thulani Maseko were sentenced to two years’ jail in July 2014 for contempt of court after expressing concern about judicial independence - the usual sentence for contempt of court is a fine or maximum 30 days in prison. ACTSA is asking people to sign a petition to be presented to the Swaziland High Commissioner in London calling for the release of all four. Contact campaigns@actsa.org.
news update
South Africa–Xenophobic violence Violence against foreign nationals erupted again in South Africa in April. At least eight people died, many more were injured and hundreds, possibly thousands, had to take refuge locally or fled to neighbouring countries. In South Africa, the violence was widely condemned and criticised as “non-South African” and in Johannesburg over 30,000 people marched against xenophobic attacks. In 2008 more than 50 people died in similar xenophobic attacks, and these latest attacks show it is a continuing problem. Why do such ISSUE ONE 2015 / ACTSA NEWS / PAGE 14
support actsa Run, cycle and support ACTSA Five people ran in the London Marathon in support of ACTSA, raising about £7,500. That money makes a real difference. ACTSA has five places in the 2016 London Marathon. You could be one of them or know someone who want to run and raise money for ACTSA. If running 26 miles is not for you, how about cycling 54 miles? The popular London to Brighton cycle ride takes place in September. In 2014 cyclists raised over £1,000 for ACTSA– and enjoyed it! To find out more, contact us on info@actsa.org.
YOUR LEGACY
Freedom, rights, development & solidarity
Do consider ACTSA if you are making or amending your will. A legacy to ACTSA supports freedom, rights, justice, and sustainable and equitable development for the people of southern Africa. Your gift would be an enduring legacy. ACTSA is distinctively different and, for a relatively small organisation, we make a big impact. You can make a real difference. For advice, please contact us: email info@actsa.org or call 020 7186 0750. attacks occur? Reasons advanced include poverty, high unemployment, scapegoating (blaming the “other”), and the attitude of the authorities varying from indifference to suggesting some of the blame lies with the foreign nationals for not integrating. Civil society groups have been critical of a police operation in May, ostensibly an anti-crime initiative, for targeting areas where there are significant numbers of non-South Africans. South Africa has a population of 54 million and an estimated 2.2 million non-South Africans but it is thought this figure significantly underestimates the number of foreign nationals many of whom may be there without permits.
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Since 2012 ACTSA has been campaigning for Justice for South African gold miners. It’s a long fight, but when we win, as win we must, it will improve the lives of tens of thousands of former miners afflicted with silicosis and their families. It will give them some justice and dignity. Daniel Thakamuakau worked at the President Steyn Mine from the age of 19. Silicosis makes breathing difficult, and his chest is “always burning”. He says “While Anglo American became rich from the work that we did on their mines, we are now suffering.” We need to act now. Please give £20, or as much as you can today and help us win the fight.
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FIVE MONTHS IN HOBENI