By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Aug 29 2012 (IPS)

Legendary and controversial Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera, who once famously told people to let him write and drink his beer, has been dead for 25 years. However, interest in the life and work of the author, who has become a cult icon to aspiring young writers in Zimbabwe and abroad, will not die.

His work continues to inspire authors and readers alike.

Emmanuel Sigauke, a Zimbabwean poet and English teacher at Cosumnes River College in the United States, is a student of Marechera’s work. He tells IPS that many people are drawn to the famous author because of the way he exercised his art, the risks he took, and his total commitment to writing.

Indeed, critics hail Marechera as a genius. His most famous book, House of Hunger, won the prestigious Guardian First Book Award in 1979, making Marechera the first and only African to win the award.

After being expelled in the early 1970s from the University of Rhodesia, now known as the University of Zimbabwe, Marechera was admitted to the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. But he was expelled from there too for unruly behaviour.

He died in Zimbabwe at the age of 35 after spending most of the last five years of his life living in the streets, writing furiously but publishing just one more book, Mindblasts.

Now a book on his life, soon to be released in Zimbabwe, provides new and interesting insights into Marechera’s personal and professional relationships.

Dr. Dobrota Pucherova and Julie Cairnie co-edited the book titled “Moving Spirit: The Legacy of Dambudzo Marechera in the 21st Century”. The book, published in Germany in May, is a compilation of essays by various writers that focus on how Marechera continues to inspire others.

“I believe it provides many new insights into Marechera’s relationships with his contemporaries, with other authors, and with his fans and inspirees. For example, Carolyn Hart’s essay explores Marechera’s relationship with African-American postmodern writers, while Katja Kellerer’s piece examines the intertextualities between House of Hunger and Ignatius Mabasa’s Mapenzi,” Pucherova says.

She holds a PhD on southern African writing and studied Marechera’s writing as part of her thesis. She also lectures on his work.

Excerpts of the interview follow.

Q: What drew you to the Marechera phenomenon?

A: Marechera’s writing expresses very well the desire for mental freedom that concerned me when studying southern African authors. He believed that overcoming oppositional identity discourses and freeing the imagination to create space for individual reinvention could achieve true liberation from oppression.

At the same time, Marechera’s vision of the political as sexual and the sexual as political provided new insights into power relationships in colonial and post-colonial conditions. Last, but not least, his flair for language and his infectious humour make his books very pleasurable to read.

Q: What inspired this book?

A: When I was writing my thesis chapter on Marechera, alongside I wrote a play based mainly on (his novel) Black Sunlight. To me, this novel is immensely comical and at the same time sophisticated. I felt that it has been misunderstood due to Marechera’s unwillingness to edit his work, as (leading academic publisher on Africa) James Currey has documented.

In adapting the novel for the stage, I wanted to bring forth its audacity and deeply sophisticated comedy. And so, when I decided to produce the play at Oxford, I felt: ‘Why not organise an entire festival on Marechera?’

The festival, which took place from May 15 to 17, 2009, was an international multi-media event that included film, theatre, fiction, poetry, painting, photography, memoirs and scholarly essays – all inspired by Marechera’s work and life.

The book is the proceedings of the festival, with a few additional pieces. Julie Cairnie, who has co-edited the book with me, was a participant at the Oxford Celebration.

Dr. Dobrota Pucherova and Julie Cairnie co-edited the book titled “Moving Spirit: The Legacy of Dambudzo Marechera in the 21st Century”. Courtesy: Dr. Dobrota Pucherova.

Q: Essays by Marechera’s contemporaries like Musaemura Zimunya, Stanley Nyamfukudza and Charles Mungoshi are conspicuously absent from your compilation. How do you explain this?

A: The majority of contributions in the book were presented at the Oxford Celebration. The people you mention did not respond to the call for papers, which was widely distributed.

Q: Some people think this is the chink in this book’s armour. What impact do these omissions have on it?

A: No book on Marechera can possibly be complete. There are other famous contemporaries of Marechera who are not included in the book.

Q: This new book comes with rare, archival materials that include audiovisuals such as Marechera’s address at the Berlin Conference in 1979, and the speech on African writing that he gave in Harare in 1986. How important is it?

A: This material shows Marechera in various periods in his life. For me, seeing Marechera interviewed by (veteran journalist) Ray Mawerera in Harare in 1984 was a completely different experience than watching him drunk and deeply depressed in the London squat as he appears in Chris Austin’s film (based on House of Hunger). In the Mawerera interview, Marechera is an entirely different person – calm, communicative and composed.

Q: After this book – which is complete with archival material, footnotes, references as well as German scholar and Marechera’s former partner, Flora Wild’s, contribution – what else remains to be learnt about Marechera?

A: I believe no book on Marechera can be complete and I am sure there will be other books on (him). Helon Habila’s biography of Marechera is due to be published next year, and I look forward to reading it.

Q: What, in your view, sets Marechera distinctly apart from his contemporaries and today’s writers?

A: Marechera reacted to the Marxist and nationalist tradition in African writing with cosmopolitanism and post-racialism at a time in Zimbabwean history when it was most controversial to do so.

He described the violence of the colony and post colony with a liberating laughter and dared to laugh even at the power presumptions of the anti-colonial struggle. Identifying language’s key role in upholding systems of power, he explodes language to create new meanings and paradigms.

Moreover, Marechera dared to go to those places in the human psyche where no other black African writer before him had gone.

Others have done so after Marechera – of these, I would mention Yvonne Vera and Kabelo Sello Duiker, who similarly explore the dark spaces of the mind and whose highly poetic but authentic language sets them apart from other African writers. It is very sad that both of these writers have died young, just like Marechera.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Apr 1 2010 (IPS)

Obed Kamburona has tried to grow many different crops on his large farm, but the dry sandy soil in Otjovanatje has thwarted him every time.

Dr Chimwamurombe (right) and a local farmer lift a marama tuber: they can weigh as much as 10 kilos. Credit: Moses Magadza/IPS

Namibia is one of the driest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Its two deserts – the Namib and the Kalahari – are expanding annually. Poor soils and a shortage of water are limiting factors for farmers like Kamburona. The country imports 80 percent of its food from South Africa.

When Kamburona, who lives in the Omaheke region, 400 kilometres north of the capital Windhoek heard that the University of Namibia had begun experimental cultivation of the marama bean, he was among the first to volunteer.

Marama is the Setswana word for Tylosema esculentum – a pod-bearing perennial that grows wild across Southern Africa. It is under threat from urbanisation – the construction of roads and shopping malls – and from over-exploitation – in places where the plant still occurs in Namibia, South African and Botswana, harvesting is uncontrolled and often involves uprooting of its tuber, which is rich in starch.

The plant’s oil-rich seeds – slimy and unpalatable raw, but delicious roasted – are highly nutritious, with a protein content of more than 30 percent. The beans may also be boiled with maize meal, or ground into a powder and used to make porridge or a hot beverage.

It thrives in deep, sandy soil such as can be found in Omaheke.

Dr Percy Chimwamurombe, the principal investigator on the marama domestication project, said planting of the plant got off to an enthusiastic start in February.
 
Chimwamurombe and three fellow researchers joined Kamburona and 11 other locals to prepare two hectares of land and plant marama seeds.

Another 44 farmers across the Namibia are also planting experimental fields to assess the possibility of domesticating marama in this project funded jointly by the UK-based Kirkhouse Trust of the United Kingdom, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the University of Namibia.

“Crop diversification is urgently needed in all parts of the world considering the bad effects of climate change on agriculture. All our crops and domestic animals used to be wild. We have seen some plants and animals become extinct. Ours is an attempt to stop this from happening to marama beans,” Chimwamurombe told IPS.

Scientists in the United States declared the marama a potential candidate for domestication in the early 1960s, and according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation it is being grown in Australia.

Chimwamurombe said the first objective was simply to demonstrate that the plant can be cultivated, harvested and sold. His team will study the growth and development of the plants in the experimental plots to select and later breed the most suitable qualities for sustained cultivation.

“Poverty and unemployment are major challenges in our region. Given the high protein and starch contained in marama, the plant can easily be converted into a cash crop, creating jobs and generating household and national income,” the researcher says.

Chimwamurombe said protein deficiency is a major challenge in Southern Africa, and if the plant can be developed to become an economically viable crop – especially on land that is now underused – it will be a valuable option for farmers across the region where similar conditions prevail.

The research process itself will also benefit the building of plant-breeding skills. “The SADC region has many resources but few experts to lead the exploitation of these resources. This programme is expected to train many scientists over the projected 18 year period that it will run,” says Chimwamurombe.

Kamburona and other communal farmers who have volunteered to be part of the marama domestication project are optimistic the venture can change their fortunes if it succeeds.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Oct 12 2009 (IPS)

“The old man died beneath the wheels of the twentieth century. There was nothing left but stains, bloodstains and fragments of flesh… And the same thing is happening to my generation.” – Dambudzo Marechera, House of Hunger

Dambudzo Marechera: 'Insist upon your right to go off on a tangent. Your right to put the spanner in the works.' Credit: Ernst Schade

Marechera died in 1987 at the age of just 35, but the handful of slender novels, short stories and poems he left behind continue to hold the imaginations of readers all over Africa. A controversial figure, winner of the Guardian Prize for Fiction with his first novel, House of Hunger, Marechera and the explosive, rude stream-of-consciousness of his writing stood in sharp contrast to the sober realistic novels of his contemporaries.

As he wrote, he lived. His personality disturbed the way his literature was read, says Memory Chirere, himself a writer and a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. “I am beginning to think that people are now more comfortable with Marechera’s literature in his absence.”

Indeed – Marechera may be on the school syllabus today, but when he returned to liberated Zimbabwe in 1982, his book Black Sunlight was on a banned list. He spent most of the last five years of his life living in the streets, writing furiously but publishing just one more book, Mindblasts. In this interview, Chirere reflects on the domestication of one of Africa’s most feral minds.

IPS: Twenty-two years on, what work of Marechera is most read and which is least read and why?

Students who go up to university in Zimbabwe tend to prefer the House of Hunger maybe necessarily because it is part of their syllabus.

People who don’t go very far with their education tend to prefer Mindblast, maybe because in Zimbabwe the book is locally available.

Some people read Mindblast for the sheer novelty of its title and for the wide variety that it offers the reader in the sense that you find short stories, poems, plays and journalese in it.

IPS: Is literature by Marechera difficult to comprehend? If so, how so and where?

MC: If you look at the sheer intensity of language, the use of intense imagery, the fearlessness and openness in texts like House of Hunger and Black Sunlight you might say Marechera is difficult. However, when you are patient with Marechera and read him in the context of Rhodesia in House of Hunger, open windows into what Rhodesia was.

Having said that, I want to say that Marechera’s Black Sunlight is probably the most obscure of all his literature in that, unlike House of Hunger and Mindblast, it does not pay attention to a specific setting, personality and sensibility. He was trying to write an international book that does not identify with a specific sensibility… Scrapiron Blues is less militant, if not mellow.

IPS: Would you say that Marechera is better understood now than ever before?

MC: People who like Marechera now can do so with freedom knowing that he is not around. There is Marechera the man and Marechera the literature and these tended to come together.

Musaemara Zimunya (Marechera’s contemporary at the then-University of Rhodesia and now Zimbabwe’s most anthologised poet) once said that Marechera “wrote as he lived and lived as he wrote”. People seem to agree that they are more comfortable with his work without his “troublesome” presence.

IPS: Why is Marechera getting attention even beyond his grave?

MC: Simply because of the sheer intensity of his work, the beauty of his language, the complexity of his imagery and also what his personality represented: the desire to be independent from the self and society. The stubbornness in Marechera keeps coming back again and again.

IPS: When you teach House of Hunger, what is your focus? 

MC: I am concerned with history and how the book captures the turmoil of Rhodesia of the 1970s, when it was conceived and written. The book demonstrates the viciousness of the police state of Rhodesia and the resultant poverty of the times. I take a thematic approach.

IPS: What influence does Marechera have among young writers and ordinary young people in Zimbabwe? 

MC: Marechera has reached a cult figure status in Zimbabwe especially among the young writers.

For instance, when I read all the other books on the Zimbabwean literary scene with university students, they are calm. As soon as I introduce Marechera and go into his background and read some of the scenes in the House of Hunger, especially that scene where a man starts by beating up his wife in front of the township crowds and ends up raping her in front of the same crowds, students become crazy.

All of a sudden, some of them begin to grow dreadlocks. They start drinking and smoking and interestingly some of them begin to write their own poems and short stories for the first time.

Unfortunately some of them begin to be anti-social; not meeting deadlines, not coming to class on time, and not taking down notes when I teach. You find that they are doing this so that they keep within the Marechera tradition. You begin to think that each one of them think they are little Marecheras.

Interesting as he is, Marechera can be very destructive. He has destroyed so many people. Some people have failed to earn their degrees in imitation of the Marechera tradition.

IPS: Does Marechera’s work have the same influence on female students? 

MC: It’s usually the male students who prefer Marechera. A certain section of the female students think that his literature is macho and difficult and sometimes they find him a bit insulting, especially the violent sex in his work. Female students tend to frown at Marechera literature.

IPS: If Marechera was alive, what do you think he would say or write about Zimbabwe in its current state? 

MC: I think that is a political question and it came up at the Marechera Celebration seminar (held in Oxford in May 2009).

The house was divided into two. There were people who felt that if Marechera was alive he would have protested against the establishment the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) way.

The other part of the house, which included people who knew him when he was alive said it’s not predictable that Marechera would have been oppositional in the sense that if you look at his literature and if you read some of the interviews he gave in the 1970s, sometimes he came out clearly nationalist. In one interview he said his support was with (Zimbabwean President) Robert Mugabe and the guerillas.

Much later in House of Hunger he says there won’t be any cabinet in independent Zimbabwe because when people come back after the war, the cabinet they will get into would be a coffin… He had friends in Mugabe’s cabinet and it’s not predictable what he would have said about Zimbabwe today.

IPS: Did Marechera REALLY try to burn down Oxford? 

MC: At Oxford this is now put down as part of the Marechera myth. Fraser says when Marechera was called in by the authorities for a caution or warning, (Fraser) and Ben Okri (Nigerian author of the Booker Prize-winning Famished Road) went with Marechera.

When they got into the office the three of them were holding their cigarettes because they were still smoking. They were told that Marechera was being “sent down” (expelled) and in a fit of rage Marechera threw his cigarette on a very expensive carpet and stamping it out shouted: “Burn this place!”

That’s how the myth that he wanted to burn Oxford began. He was simply condemning the place, its structures and attitude towards people like him.

IPS: Do you think enough is being done for the Marechera heritage?

MC: Yes. I think Marechera occupies a privileged position in Zimbabwean literature.

First, he is widely studied in Zimbabwe. Secondly, stories about him are everywhere becoming part of folklore of Zimbabwe. Third, there is a section of the archives in the country dedicated to Marechera where you can find his original manuscripts and letters that he wrote and those he received in the 1970s.

Although dead, he is one of the most remembered writers in the country and abroad.

IPS: Talking about militancy in Marechera, as he approached the sunset of his short life, what discernible changes occurred in his lifestyle and convictions?

MC: I think he was becoming more mature and mellow. In one interview towards the end of his life he says he is coming to terms with himself and even says: “I want money now”.

These are the days when he tried to get a teaching job at one of the private colleges in Harare. There is a rare picture of him writing on the chalkboard in front of students. He even went back to UZ and spoke to his former classmate Musaemara Zimunya who tried to arrange for him to offer tutorials.

This did not work because suddenly he became Marechera again. He did not find time to go back. He even wanted to finish his degree and it is there in some of the interviews he gave.

IPS: What can you say about the availability of Marechera’s books and the fact that they are often stolen from those who buy them? 

MC: Marechera has become a cult figure in Zimbabwe. Even relatives steal Marechera’s books from each other. Reading Marechera is considered a sign of being extremely learned or a rite of passage of sorts. Being able to read Marechera or to be seen carrying any one of his books is a point of prestige.

IPS: The myth that Marechera was mad is very widespread. What may he have done to create this impression? 

MC: Maybe his personality and his literature have given some people the impression that he was mad. He had very outstanding results at “A” level while at St. Augustine’s Mission in Mutare. The way in which House of Hunger was written is another factor. It is a pathfinder text in Zimbabwean literature in its seemingly disjointed narrative and also in the intensity of the descriptions.

Some people may think he was mad because of his flamboyant behavior. He was very outspoken and always picking a quarrel even with people who would have helped him. He worked extremely hard. In his work there are references and allusions to Russian, Greek, Roman, American literature and so on, on every page.

You get the impression that he was an exhibitionist and was bent at showing that he was extremely well read. And he was well read. A picture shows him receiving the Guardian Prize holding a very big (volume of) Ezra Pound in his hand!

IPS: Why did he live and write in the open in Harare? 

Memory Chirere: This is something that our African world has not seen in an artist: the desire to be an outsider.

Marechera believed that for one to produce rich art, one must stay at the fringes of society and never be tied to love, family or bureaucratic links. He was consciously married to his art.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Apr 8 2009 (IPS)

Namibia is experiencing flooding on a scale last seen nearly 50 years ago. The northern parts of the country are the worst hit.

U.N. team assessing the needs of an estimated 54,000 people displaced by floods in Namibia. Credit: UNDAC team

Simon Nhongo, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Namibia visited the worst-affected parts during the first week of April.

IPS: You have just returned from a survey of affected areas. What did you find? Simon Nhongo: Overall, it’s amazing that so many people could be displaced – approximately 54,000. We are not talking about those who were affected, who number over 350,000 in the north-central [region] as well as the north-east (Kavango and Caprivi). The displaced either lodge with friends or move into relocation camps and about 16,000 people have moved into such facilities. They are in a very desperate state, with no clue what will happen to them.

Added to this is disruption in the education sector, where pupils are not attending schools. In camps that have tents, some displaced teachers are offering classes. It is pathetic the way people have to cope.

IPS: It has been reported in local media that in some areas the flooding has been so severe that it has reduced the distance between people and predators. What did you see? SN: Not that we saw anything dramatic like crocodile or hippo attacks as such but, indeed, out of the reported 100 people who lost their lives country-wide, there are cases of people who were killed by crocodiles or by hippos.

Most deaths resulted from drowning when people underestimated the currents’ flow along river channels. However, one small positive aspect is that in many areas – particularly in the North – some fish has been washed up from Angola; so, there is a lot of fish being sold on road sides, which provides protein but this is a small consolation, given the scale of the crisis.

IPS: Has the country been caught unawares? SN: The country was obviously caught unawares. This is a unique situation last seen nearly 50 years ago. Anticipating it would not be easy.

The government is making efforts to devise means of coping with such crises on a long-term basis. Thus, the Prime Minister (Nahas Angula) has presented to Parliament, a national contingency planning machinery, which would constitute a long-term instrument for the country to avoid being caught unawares.

IPS: Would this involve resettling people? SN: It would, especially those who are already settled in places they should not be, such as low-lying areas susceptible to flooding even under normal circumstances. It will also involve some extensive land-use analysis, planning and storm-water drainage. These are programmes in which the U.N. is helping the Government. We are indeed looking at developing long-term sustainable means of coping with humanitarian crises like this.

IPS: President Hifikepunye Pohamba has declared some affected areas disaster areas. How important was this? SN: This was extremely important and I am sure it was instrumental in mobilising the resources as quickly as they are being raised. If the government had not declared the emergency, it would not have brought out the magnitude of the disaster. More lives could have been lost. The declaration helped mobilise international opinion and resources – thus relieving suffering and saving lives .

IPS: How would you characterise the enthusiasm with which this flash appeal has been met by potential contributors since it was launched? SN: Well, the response has been quite good. Already we have received $350,000 from the U.S. and $317,000 from the Germans. Significantly, we have managed to mobilise about $1.3 million from our own United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund; even a small neighbouring country like Botswana has already contributed over $60 000 in the form of tents, food and other supplies.

IPS: Responding to an emergency like this one calls for not just money, but personnel and equipment like helicopters, boats and so on. From your assessment, how is Namibia faring in this regard? SN: Under normal circumstances, Namibia could have managed with the resources available within the country, but the scale of the problem is so huge that Namibia needs some external assistance. It is gratifying that, for our assessment mission, we were flown using the government’s own resources, which is most commendable. These were regular resources at their disposal but when a country gets into a major humanitarian crisis, the country needs external help.

That’s why the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, through its regional office in southern Africa, managed to field some personnel to come and help us assist the government in these efforts. We had a team of between five and 10 UN Staff from the U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team helping the Government to refine the assessments in affected areas.

IPS: What other interventions have been recommended? SN: People in the Caprivi have been cut off by the floods from their usual sources of socio-economic services like hospitals and schools so we have recommended boats. Other basic needs are tents. We visited a number of camps where most of the men were sleeping outside to make way in the tents for children and women. Food is yet another problem. Mosquito nets too, because in a flooded environment like this, mosquitoes breed freely and transmit malaria. Malaria cases have been gradually rising over the past few weeks.

Mobilising all these requirements in good time is the major challenge.

IPS: Namibia is just one of several countries facing flood-related problems. Angola is another example. This seems to be a perennial regional problem. Do you think it is about time the region developed a regional response to floods? SN: You are very correct. The effects of flooding could be localised in the individual countries but with closer collaboration among regional countries through harnessing and trans-boundary water management, the burden could be eased.

IPS: Are there areas that are still inaccessible? Do you envisage the numbers of displaced people growing as you gain access? SN: There are areas that cannot be accessed. Fortunately, latest reports predict reduction of water levels along the major rivers. However, that could be deceptive because river levels are going down as the water percolates into the flood plains, thus affecting more people.

Most predictions indicate – barring a major storm – that the numbers of affected and displaced people will stabilise. The fact remains, however, that the damage has already been done and people are yet to suffer for a long time. The problem will get bigger as people’s recovery needs become more apparent. There are roads and bridges that have been swept away.

The US $2.7 million we have asked for is miniscule. The damage done will run into billions of Namibian dollars and the government will need to look further afield to better-endowed development partners like bilateral, the EU and the World Bank.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Mar 30 2009 (IPS)

Namibian women’s rights activists say existing gender legislation has failed to improve women’s lives because it is not being implemented widely enough. Last August, Namibia signed the Southern African Development Community (SADC) gender protocol but politicians have yet to ratify it.

Lucy Edwards, a feminist activist and sociology lecturer at the University of Namibia in Windhoek, says government needs to put laws into practice, especially with regard to women’s reproductive rights and maternal mortality.

"I would like to see laws that infringe on the reproductive rights of women either repealed or reformed," she explained. "To give an example, under Namibian law, abortion is outlawed, except in special circumstances, such as rape. This has led to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, baby dumping and infanticide."

In April 2008, officials at Gammams Water Treatment Works in Windhoek said they discovered an average of 13 bodies of newborn babies each month among human waste flushed down toilets, which indicates that illegal abortions are rampant.

Edwards highlighted the fact that legislation is only effective if it is accompanied with financial support and strategies for implementation. "Law reform should be backed by budgetary allocation to support implementation and structural changes in various sectors," she explained.

She also calls for policies aimed at ending women’s economic dependence on men, arguing that "women need to be supported in income-generating ventures".

Michael Conteh, coordinator of the HIV and gender programme at the University of Namibia, says the country’s gender-related legislation, such as the Domestic Violence Act, has not yet led to "concrete changes" in the lives of women. He wants to see speedy implementation of gender policies in Namibia and the region, suggesting one way to make this happen is to create more awareness on gender issues among both men and women.

"Consider gender violence. We have a very good law [to prevent it], but gender-based violence persists. A police report on gender-based violence of 2007 [released in 2008] shows that there were more than 12,500 such cases. It is imagined that not all cases are reported," he said, so numbers should even be higher.

Economic dependence

According to police statistics, reported cases include indecent assault, attempted rape, grievous bodily harm, murder and rape. More than 10,500 Namibians – of a population of less than two million – reported grievous bodily harm in 2007 alone, and more than a thousand cases of rape were reported. More than 300 women were murdered.

Rachel Coomer, public outreach officer at the Legal Assistance Centre, says notwithstanding progressive legislation, Namibian women "have a lot to mourn about".

"There are still a lot of problems. Even hearing about one case of rape is tragic. There were 1,100 cases of rape, and a third of those involve people below the age of 18. Acquaintance rapes, involving partners and relatives, are high," she said.

Kudzai Makombe, Gender Advisor at SADC Parliamentary Forum (PF), points out that Namibia is not the only SADC country that has failed to ratify the protocol – the most binding of SADC legal instruments – so far. In fact, not a single country in the region has legally approved it.

However, as a first step towards ratification, Namibia is currently translating aspects of the SADC gender protocol into two local languages to make it more accessible to the public.

It is hoped that the gender protocol will expedite the process of achieving gender equality and equity in the region, improve the status of women and foster women’s empowerment. It contains specific targets and timeframes to ensure accountability and transparency.

The protocol addresses a wide range of gender-related issues, such as inequalities in constitutional and legal rights, governance, education and training, productive resources and employment, gender-based violence, health, HIV/AIDS, peace building and conflict resolution as well as media, information and communication.

Delayed ratification

Despite the delay, gender activists like Edwards say Namibia has generally enacted "progressive legislation championed largely by [former president] Sam Nujoma".

For example, progressive legislative interventions have included the Child Care and Protection Bill, Combating of Rape Act of 2000, Domestic Violence Act, Married Persons Equality Act of 1996, Maintenance Act of 2003 and the Children’s Status Act of 2006, which was enacted in 2008.

The Combating of Rape Act in particular has contributed to the empowerment of women because it has given them legal support in reporting cases of sexual abuse and violence, says Coomer.

"Under the old law, in case of rape, a court could delve into [the plaintiff’s] sexual history, for instance, which is not relevant [to the case]. It does not matter if you had sex with your husband before. He can still rape you. The new law has liberated women as they can now report rape without the fear of being interrogated about their sexual history in court," she explained.

Other positive examples of the country’s women’s rights supporting legislation are the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, under which abused women can ask for a protection order or a formal warning of the perpetrator, as well as the Married Person’s Equality Act, which establishes that men and women are equal in relationships – a law that reduced the marital powers of men.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
Windhoek, Mar 6 2009 (IPS)

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum has set its sights on becoming a regional parliament with law-making powers. The body was established in 1997 to create a platform for the region's legislators to share knowledge and experiences in governance.

Kasuka Mutukwa -- 'Remember me as an institution builder.' Credit:

IPS: What contribution has the Forum made to advance democracy, progressive change and economic development? Kasuka Mutukwa: I am proud to say that the SADC Parliamentary Forum has experienced exponential growth from very humble beginnings. It is a regional institution that is now known internationally as one of those organisations which have a role to play in inter-parliamentary cooperation.

We have developed strategic plans since 2000 to show the work that the Forum has done. We have developed a programme of orientation and training for parliamentarians which ultimately led to the establishment of the Parliamentary Leadership Centre. We orient members of parliament so that they are more familiar with their work in parliament. This is important because being a member of parliament is one job that does not have a job description and so MPs face challenges implementing their tasks. We have even developed manuals for them.

The centre piece of our debate is the role of parliaments in advancing democracy, development, wealth creation and poverty reduction. Other issues debated include the energy crisis, food shortages, floods and droughts and what mechanisms parliaments should have in place to exercise oversight. The Forum has observed 21 elections since 1999 to advance the cause of democratic, peaceful and transparent elections.

IPS: When it comes to elections, some people have accused the Forum of being a "toothless bulldog". KM: It is true that we are not mandated to physically stop bad things. We document them and our reports are considered when a verdict on the conduct of an election is passed. It is not entirely true that people can still do strange things during an election even while we are present. The presence of election observers has a profound restraining effect on the contesting parties.

We have moral authority. We have arrived in some places where people say: "If only you had arrived earlier, some bad things would not have happened." So, we have actually diffused potentially explosive situations by just being there. We have also written documents on how to conduct peaceful elections.

We have been active in promoting gender equity and full participation of women in positions of decision-making. The culmination of these efforts was the adoption of a SADC Protocol on Gender in August 2008.

In the area of combating HIV and on seeking to promote knowledge and information sharing among members or parliaments, we have developed a very rigorous programme and a model law on HIV/AIDS in southern Africa.

IPS: What value would a SADC parliament add? KM: If established, the SADC parliament would become the legislative arm of SADC and would compliment the role of the SADC Summit, Council of Ministers, and the Tribunal. It will have an oversight role and have law-making powers. It would approve the SADC budget, among other functions.

IPS: How would the SADC Parliament be funded? KM: There is a lack of information in that regard among even ministers of finance in the region, and this is one of the issues that have delayed the SADC parliament. The plan is that the envisaged parliament should be set up and run on a budget not more than that required to run the Forum at present. So there won't be additional financial obligations to member states.

IPS: How enthusiastic are the region's political leaders about this parliament? KM: I think more lobbying needs to be done. We paid courtesy calls on heads of state and government of the SADC member states. This was part of the Forum's efforts to build regional consensus on the need for a regional parliament. Some countries have had a change of leadership and so more needs to be done. It is a costly exercise.

IPS: You step down in a few months; how would you want to be remembered? KM: Remember me as an institution builder. I have done nothing but build regional institutions over the past 20 years. I wish we had started lobbying for this parliament earlier. I nevertheless draw solace from the fact that we have done significant groundwork and it may not be long before the parliament becomes a reality.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Jan 21 2009 (IPS)

Despite the new free trade agreement linking southern African states, it still costs as much to move goods between African states as it costs to move goods from Asia to Africa, according to an economist.

A convoy of haulage trucks approaches Chirundu on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border. Credit: Moses Magadza/IPS

While the SADC FTA is an important milestone, economists who spoke to IPS pointed to various hurdles that still litter the road to regional integration and increased trade among SADC countries.

‘‘It was a good start but reducing tariffs is just one aspect of regional integration,’’ economist Klaus Schade, acting director at the think tank called the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU), told IPS.

He argued that, for the SADC FTA to achieve its objectives, non-tariff barriers need to be removed. These include cumbersome customs procedures, lack of transport infrastructure and delays at border crossing points. ‘‘If these issues are not addressed we won’t see strong growth in intra-regional trade.’’

Schade recalled an observation he made while on a recent trip to Tanzania: ‘‘The cost of moving a container from Tanzania to Uganda or Rwanda is the same as that of transporting a container from China to Tanzania because of the high transport costs.’’

Working towards common customs documents and harmonising other systems may draw the region closer to its integration objectives.

He also pointed out that ‘‘SACU (Southern African Customs Union) had already removed tariffs for SADC imports about three years ago. Therefore, imports to Namibia from SADC countries are not going to become cheaper because SADC has launched a FTA.’’

While admitting that the SADC FTA could increase access to the wider SADC market for SACU member states like Namibia, Schade said the relatively low purchasing power of SADC citizens leads to low demand for goods in the region.

Save for South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius, the rest of the 15 SADC countries is classified as either poor or developing.

‘‘We produce almost the same products and raw materials. There is no trade in manufacturing products, hence the scope for increased intra-regional trade currently is very limited,’’ he explained.

He is optimistic that the launch of the SADC FTA would create awareness of the SADC market and its potential. But, while "that might provide momentum for addressing non-tariff barrier issues, the SADC FTA alone will not solve all our problems.’’

These problems are not new. Towards the end of 2007 a meeting was held as part of efforts to develop the Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi trade corridor to link Namibia, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

There businesspeople from DRC expressed concern over the lack of return trip loads, should they use the corridor. They said driving back empty trucks doubled their transport costs.

Another perennial concern has been SADC states’ multiple memberships to different trade blocs, according to University of Namibia economist Dr Joel Eita.

‘‘Consider this: Zambia is a member of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and also hosts the COMESA secretariat. At the same time it is a member of SADC.

‘‘Now we have a SADC FTA. South Africa is a chairing member of SADC but is not a member of COMESA. By virtue of being a member of SADC, Zambia should not impose tariffs on goods entering it from South Africa.

‘‘Yet as a member of COMESA, Zambia must charge tariffs on goods coming from outside COMESA. How does Zambia deal with South Africa? This presents a policy headache,’’ Eita expounded.

Other trade blocs to which some SADC members are affiliated to include the East African Community and the Economic Community for West African States.

Turning to attempts by African states to launch an Africa-wide FTA early this year before the success or otherwise of the SADC FTA has been ascertained, Eita said such moves are ‘‘over-ambitious’’.

‘‘My view is that we should start integrating regional trading blocs before we can hope to integrate the whole continent,’’ he argued.

Eita also said there was need for SADC economies to diversify, saying only South Africa was sufficiently diversified to benefit meaningfully from a SADC FTA. ‘‘Zimbabwe also has a very strong industrial base. It is actually a sleeping giant because of the things happening there.

‘‘Other SADC countries must develop their manufacturing sectors and add value to their products. Botswana, for instance, cannot sell diamonds to Namibia or Angola,’’ he said.

He warned that unless SADC economies diversified, the direction of trade would remain as it was before the SADC FTA: from South Africa to smaller SADC economies while raw materials would continue to flow to the West and Asia.

Takawira Musavengana, a senior researcher with the Institute of Security Studies in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa, said peace and stability are important for trade to flourish.

‘‘Plural politics has come to southern Africa and I think in spite of some problems in parts of the region, southern Africa has been a model of peace and stability on the continent, certainly when you consider what is happening in West Africa; the horn of Africa and other hot spots, for example.

‘‘That must not, however, make us complacent. There are pockets of instability that need attention: DRC, Angola, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. Trade can not grow in an environment that is pregnant with uncertainty,’’ Musavengana said.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Dec 18 2008 (IPS)

As southern Africa braces for the negative effects of climate change, calls for integrated water resources management become more strident.

Phera Ramoeli Credit: Moses Magadza/IPS

IPS: Widespread poverty is among the challenges facing Southern Africa. What role can water play in poverty eradication efforts?

Phera Ramoeli: Water does and can play a crucial role in the overall drive towards poverty eradication in SADC in several ways. First as a source of water for domestic purposes including drinking, which if provided in good quantity and quality will improve people's health and hence their productivity in their various activities.

Secondly, water can have direct impact on poverty if it provides for improved livelihoods activities such as small-scale irrigation and gardening.

At a much higher developmental scale, providing water for industrial development that creates jobs and improved countries' economic development will ensure that people get services and facilities such as electricity and goods and services.

This can be realized through improved access to water for basic and developmental needs through improved infrastructure and maintenance and rehabilitation of existing infrastructure.

IPS: How would you characterise the region's water in terms of quality and quantity? Is it improving?

PR: The region is relatively well-endowed with water which includes both surface and groundwater. However, there is a lot variability in time and space. The quality varies, so those watercourses that drain or pass through industrial and high population centres will have pollution problems and water quality problems.

SADC within its current programme does not have a project dedicated to water quality; however, member states and some of the river basin commissions have water quality programmes that assist in monitoring water quality. Each of our river basin organisations are engaged in joint basin-wide studies that are aimed at determining both the quantity and quality of water that exists in those basins.

IPS: What challenges did the region face in managing the quality and quantity of water in the region this year and what lessons were learnt in this regard?

PR: In terms of quantity of water in the region, a number of country initiatives are ongoing. They include the SADC Hydrological Cycle Observing System (SADC-HYCOS) project, a regional component of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) programme aimed at contributing to regional social-economic development through the provision of management tools necessary for sustainable and cost effective water resources development, management and environmental protection.

The project looks at hydro meteorological data collection, processing and dissemination that will allow all member states to have equal access to data, particularly on shared watercourses. At river basin level, a Zambezi Water Information System has been developed. These systems have water quality elements in them covering basic water quality parameters.

IPS: In the past we have relied on outside skills to solve some of our problems in the water sector, as when Asian scientists were called in to identify an outbreak of a disease among fish in the Zambezi River towards the end of 2006. What is being done to strengthen the capacity of the region's experts to deal with the region's problems?

PR: There are a number of capacity building initiatives that are being promoted within the region that include formal training, short courses, and experiential learning, for instance within the Waternet and other related training programmes. The region has a dedicated capacity building programme for river basins which among other things will facilitate training of basin experts to deal with water management challenges such as water quality as well as quantity.

IPS: What is your feeling over the level of investment in water management by SADC governments?

PR: The level of investment in water management in the SADC region varies from country to country but in general it is not very high. There is a clear need to improve the level of investment particularly in respect to information and data collection, infrastructure development, operations and maintenance of infrastructure once developed. There is also a need to invest in capacity building and institutional strengthening of those institutions responsible for water resources management and development.

IPS: What plans does SADC have for better water management for 2009 going forward?

PR: The SADC Water Programme is governed by the Regional Strategic Action Plan, which has number of dedicated programmes and projects some of which are currently under implementation, so we will continue to facilitate the implementation of these projects and programmes particularly those within the Regional Strategic Water Infrastructure Development Program. As the region is said to be among those in Africa which will be affected by Climate Change and variability we will also focus more of our attention to developing adaptation strategies for climate change.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
GABORONE, Nov 22 2008 (IPS)

A shortage of trained specialists who can assess and manage groundwater resources is a factor inhibiting its use in the Southern Africa region.

Mozambique’s Ana Isabel Fotine, the only female civil engineer at a recent workshop on groundwater on Nov. 18 and 19 in the Botswanan capital Gaborone, said lack of capacity to locate underground water resources or determine its quality and quantity was among the challenges faced by her country.

“Just knowing how much groundwater we have is a challenge. We have only one hydrological map in the country and so it is not easy to know the resources that we have. Getting communities to look after the boreholes once they have been drilled is another challenge,” she told IPS.

She suggested community mobilisation and education to help communities better appreciate communal water points. Fotine was speaking at a two-day workshop on the management of groundwater in the Southern African Development Community region, organised by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), the University of the Western Cape through UNESCO’s Chair in Hydrogeology and GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, the German agency for sustainable development).

Mozambique has an area of just over 800,000 square kilometres and Fotine said trying to monitor groundwater exploitation was a nightmare for the handful of experts in the country.

“We do not even know how many boreholes there are in the country,” she said. Without basic knowledge of this kind, it is impossible to track the impact of exploitation of groundwater over time and develop sound management policy.

Professor Eberhard Braune, UNESCO’s Chair in Geohydrology based at the University of the Western Cape, said the lack of qualified people in the public sector is a challenge.

“That lack of capacity is perhaps even more serious in groundwater management because groundwater, geology and mining are related. When the mining sector booms you will not see people in groundwater because they have a qualification that enables them to go into the mining sector,” he said.

He added that national capacities to generate data on water management variables needed to be beefed up so that each country can have a holistic picture of its groundwater situation and potential for future exploitation.

Phera Ramoeli, the senior manager for water at the SADC secretariat, said groundwater remains largely undervalued.

“Economic valuation of water is still a process that will take a long time and we need to be able to demonstrate to policy makers that water is a basic resource that we can’t do without,” he said.

Speaking to IPS by telephone from Windhoek, Namibia-based economics professor John Odada concurred. “Economic valuation of groundwater should not be pegged to secondary uses of water such as electricity generation. The value of groundwater should be pegged also on its satisfaction of human and livestock needs.”

Odada said the significance of groundwater to national economic development varies from one country to another.

“For the countries that need it more, it is essential that it is included in the policy framework for water management,” Odada said.

At the end of the workshop, participants recommended more aggression in bringing groundwater into river basin agreements and addressing the institutionalisation of groundwater at regional level.

They resolved to take advantage of 2009, which is the year for Transboundary Water Management, to strengthen groundwater management and confront the persistent lack of capacity for groundwater resources management at all levels through the building of a variety of strategic partnerships and emphasising groundwater’s social and economic role.

Other recommendations include censuring groundwater’s inclusion in resource assessments and promoting sustainable management of groundwater resources.

They also stressed the need to address the capacity of local government to rely on groundwater for their water services and establishing a strategic and mutually beneficial relationship/partnership with the media as part of the major awareness-building challenge for groundwater was also stressed.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
GABORONE, Nov 19 2008 (IPS)

Groundwater – water located beneath the ground in soil or rock formations – is a secure source of water that if properly managed can last for centuries. The challenge is how to locate it and monitor the effects of its use.

“Being a largely invisible resource, groundwater is vulnerable in many places, and sometimes it is polluted from surface activities and lack of sanitation,” says Dr Willi Struckmeier, newly-elected president of the International Association of Hydrogeologists.

“There is need for not just legislation but enforcement of legislation to protect groundwater.” he said

Struckmeier said Africa had done well to bring groundwater high on the political agenda. He was speaking at a two-day workshop in Botswana on the management of groundwater in the Southern African Development Community region.

Over 50 people with varying levels of expertise in groundwater management from SADC and other parts of the world met on Nov. 18 and 19 for discussions revolving around groundwater issues in the sub-region.

In a message to the workshop, SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomão said groundwater remains little appreciated in the region despite being a source of potable water for about 60 percent of the region’s approximately 240 million people.

“[Groundwater is] an important resource that although less understood due to its occurrence underground should be well managed and conserved to ensure it is available in terms of quantity and quality,” Salomão said in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Remmy Makumbe, the director for infrastructure and services at the SADC secretariat.

Salomão said the centrality of water to SADC in terms of addressing the region’s overarching objective was not in question.

“The SADC Protocol on shared watercourses recognises groundwater as an integral part of the integrated water resources management which is our key programme.”

He said in SADC the management of groundwater was being incorporated into river management programmes under the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) programmes, especially the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan.

“Our resolve to meet the Millennium Development Goals as a region is a must and this process today is one of the means to an end in an attempt to achieve these. Our scorecard suggests that we are on track but we need to do more… With the spectre of climate change, SADC is expected to face challenges regarding availability of water resources in future and groundwater will play a critical role as the majority of rural populations rely of groundwater as their potable sources,” he said.

Salomão said there was therefore need for greater understanding of groundwater, its management, use and protection to prepare for challenges ahead in the availability of water.

Expectations are running high at the workshop. It is envisaged that participants will develop a way to ensure that groundwater contributes to poverty-reduction and spur economic development in the region.

Dr Richard Owen, a water expert from the University of Zimbabwe, said he hoped to get an insight into better groundwater management techniques from the workshop.

“One of the most difficult things about groundwater is that it is a hidden resource and so its management is more complex than that of surface water. If you have a surface water body you can see that it is nearly empty and with that sort of information, users such as municipalities, farmers and so on can plan. Not so with groundwater,” Owen said.

Struckmeier reckons SADC has very well-trained hydrologists but admits retaining them, especially for the public sector, is not easy. Many are in the private sector, where they are better paid.

One participant, speaking on condition he was not named, said among the greatest challenges in groundwater management was lack of awareness and difficulties in providing access to it in rural settlements where people need it most.

“We need to create stakeholder awareness amongst policy makers who we believe are catalysts in terms of coming up with a programme that can be put in place to implement the ground water programmes. Lack of resources is also a challenge, especially when it comes to exploitation of groundwater. What is required is therefore a coordinated and focused programme. We need to mobilise resources from public and donor sectors,” he said.

SADC, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), the University of the Western Cape through UNESCO’s Chair in Hydrogeology and GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, the German agency for sustainable development) organised the workshop with funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development from Germany.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Oct 6 2008 (IPS)

Namibian gender activists applaud the goal of a 50/50 split of women and men in government by 2015, but warn that the real work is only just beginning.

Political rally: dancers, cooks, or leaders? Credit: Moses Magadza/IPS

Lucy Edwards, a sociologist and lecturer at the University of Namibia (UNAM), believes that the Protocol's targets are desirable and attainable but might remain pie in the sky if women do not fight to achieve them.

"Women must lobby for monitoring mechanisms," she said. "So while we welcome this proposed 50-50 representation, we know that it has yet to be translated into action."

Out of 15 SADC countries, only Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa have attained the 30 percent target. Namibia reached it in May, after several MPs died or resigned and were replaced by women.

This puts Namibia well over the sub-Saharan average of 17 percent of women in Parliament and among the 20 countries of the world with a critical mass of women Members of Parliament (MPs).

In Namibia's last general election in November 2004, eight political parties contested 72 parliamentary seats. The ruling South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) won 55, and has 22 women MPs. The Congress of Democrats (COD) won five seats and has three women MPs. Among the smaller opposition parties who hold the remaining seats, only the United Democratic Front (UDF) has a female MP.

A voluntary quota of 30 percent of women in party lists helped get more women elected.

"Neither Parliament nor the government compelled political parties to include women on their lists," said David Nahogandja, the Parliamentary liaison officer, adding that, in the absence of legislation, parties that have few women in their structures cannot be penalized.

In spite of the voluntary quota, many women candidates were placed at the bottom of the lists and failed to secure seats. The solution for the next elections in 2009 would be to use the zebra or zipper system, which alternates equal numbers of women and men on party lists.

Namibia follows the proportional representation electoral system based on party lists for parliamentary positions and a winner-takes-all system for the president.

A study by UNIFEM says that, worldwide, more women tend to be elected in systems of proportional representation than in constituency-based systems.

Serving tea

Edwards said that, although most political parties in Namibia have incorporated women in their structures, she was disappointed because women had not "created waves".

"The mere fact that there are some women in various political parties does not mean that they will challenge the status quo or that they will challenge patriarchy. Presence alone does not create conditions for a feminist agenda, which is to attain complete equity," she said.

The protocol defines gender equity as the "just and fair distribution of benefits, rewards and opportunities" and gender equality as "equal enjoyment of rights and the access to opportunities and outcomes, including resources".

One thing Edwards would like to see is a feminist critique of the national budget to analyze how its allocations benefit women.

Another is to see women as leaders in political parties. Often, says Edwards, women are relegated to "the catering wings" of their parties: "When serious debates are in progress, men are at the table while women are outside cooking or serving refreshments. How do they influence policy?"

Still, the Protocol came into action through the combined forces of the women's movement in Southern Africa, with strategic lobbying at country and regional level.

Michael Conteh, a gender activist based at UNAM, said the Protocol now needs to be "domesticated by being made part of the national laws of member states".

He said that some men who stand to lose their "patriarchal dividend" might resist the Protocol but that women had the numbers to prevail. "They just need to organise themselves," he said.

Conteh expressed optimism that Namibia would meet the 50/50 target. Already, women head 59 of the country's 119 diplomatic missions, and 13 out of 31 parastatals have women in senior management.

Phanuel Kaapana, a political analyst, warns that numbers alone don't do the trick.

"Some women who get those positions can also become oppressors of other women and become elites. They might see themselves more like men because they have broken into the men's domain. Some powerful men can also bring in [women] who will not challenge them," he said.

Lovisa Namutenya, the first woman secretary general in the Student Representative Council at UNAM, said the Protocol would embolden women to demand meaningful participation. She noted that, in student politics, women seldom run for the top posts.

"Structures of influence all over the region remain male-dominated and the tragedy is that women seem to have accepted men lording over them as the norm," she said.

With the 50/50 target officially adopted, one might see more women discussing policy and more men serving tea.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Sep 17 2008 (IPS)

Water ministers of countries that share the Zambezi River will finally launch a long-standing initiative to promote sustainable utilisation of water resources at a meeting in Tanzania in November 2008.

The Zambezi River flows through eight southern African countries (Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and sustains more than 40 million people in its 2,700 km journey to the Indian Ocean.

Experts say the great river faces a plethora of challenges that include pollution, acidity, deforestation, agricultural expansion and outbreaks of diseases among fish.

Hilary Masundire, who has conducted research focusing on waste disposal and pollution along the Zambezi, said one study revealed that pollution in the river basin had reached appalling proportions.

“In Kasane/Kazungula (a district between Botswana and Zambia) as you drive in, one of the first things you see is the dump site. In Victoria Falls as you are driving from the airport into the city of the ‘Smoke that thunders’, you are welcomed by the ‘Smoke that stinks’ because dumpsites are at the entrance to the city,” he says.

Imasiku Nyambe, a geologist with the University of Zambia’s School of Mines, says mining activity has also contributed to pollution in the Zambezi River Basin.

“For many years, copper mining has supported the social and economic development of Zambia, accounting for about 93 percent of Zambia’s foreign exchange in 1991. By 1995, mining employed 47,500 people, although this dropped to 23,000 people in 2000,” he said.

However, Nyambe says, there was scant regard to the effects of the industry in the environment and people’s health. “This led to contamination problems that include industrial effluent discharge into water bodies, eutrophication, erosion and sedimentation as well as air pollution,” he said.

Nyambe says a study between 2002 and 2006 to determine the extent of industrial contamination and its impact on agricultural plants revealed problems and underscored the need for a basin wide approach in managing water resources.

“Among the findings were: deterioration in the state of health in the local population – skin allergies, chronic poisoning, chronic bronchitis – loss of aquatic species, death of cattle due to drinking contaminated water, harmful elements in agricultural produce leading to low yields.”

Other experts say the greatest challenge facing the Zambezi River Basin is lack of collaboration among water experts.

Sithabile Tirivarombo of Zimbabwe’s Chinhoyi University of Technology says a basin-wide water quality management mechanism is needed in the basin.

Abwino Munjoma, the communications expert for the Zambezi Action Plan Project 6, Phase II (ZACPRO 6.2) a SADC body set up to improve water availability and protection against floods, droughts, water resources pollution and environmental degradation in the Zambezi River Basin, told IPS the ministers were scheduled to meet Nov. 5.

Phera Ramoeli, an official with the 15-member SADC’s secretariat in Botswana said countries that share the Zambezi had agreed that Botswana will host an interim ZAMCOM secretariat which is expected to be in place by January 2009, “while the process of ratification and coming into force of the ZAMCOM Agreement is taking place”.

In 2004, ZACPRO 6.2 facilitated the signing of the ZAMCOM agreement. However, ZAMCOM can only be established once six of the eight Zambezi basin countries ratify the agreement. So far, only Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia have ratified the agreement.

Munjoma says the function of an interim secretariat will be to facilitate the establishment of ZAMCOM.

“The interim secretariat will also be expected to facilitate the implementation of the just developed Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Strategy for the Zambezi River Basin.

The IWRM Strategy was developed under the auspices of ZACPRO 6.2 to facilitate ratification of the ZAMCOM agreement and establishment of a permanent ZAMCOM secretariat as well as facilitate the implementation of the IWRM strategy and implementation plan for the Zambezi River Basin,” Munjoma said.

Turning to the benefits expected from an envisaged ZAMCOM, Munjoma said they would include coordinated collection, evaluation and dissemination of all data and information on the Zambezi Watercourse as may be necessary for the implementation of the Agreement.

“It would also advise Member States on measures necessary for the avoidance of disputes and assist in the resolution of conflicts among Member States with regard to the planning, management, utilisation, development, protection and conservation of the Zambezi Watercourse,” she said.

Zimbabwean scientist Christopher Magadza, part of the team of scientists who sit on the 4th Climate Change Assessment Panel who were collectively awarded a Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore, believes that there is need for a body that goes beyond shared watercourses for the protection of all the basin’s water sources and encourages greater cooperation between government and non-government experts.

He says although SADC has a protocol on shared watercourses, the protocol is limited in that it has no jurisdiction over water bodies that are entirely contained within one state.

“ZAMCOM needs to come with a protocol that engages non-governmental institutions such as the Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences and the Zambian Academy of Sciences and promote cooperation between public and private sector scientists,” Magadza.

Excerpt:

By Moses Magadza
WINDHOEK, Aug 5 2008 (IPS)

A top businessperson and some economists in Namibia are optimistic that the proposed Southern African Development Community (SADC) Customs Union will break down trade barriers in the region and create competition that will benefit the ordinary consumer.

Few of these Zimbabwe-bound cross border traders are aware of the planned customs union for SADC. Credit: Moses Magadza/IPS

Not everyone is aware of or preparing for the impending broader customs union. Three cross-border traders who spoke to IPS in Katutura, on the outskirts of the Namibian capital Windhoek, did not know when the broader customs union was expected or how they stood to benefit from it.

Observers say this shows lack of education and involvement of key stakeholders in the negotiation of regional integration.

"The fact that they do not even know that a bigger customs union is being planned shows that their ideas have not been solicited," economist Professor John Odada said.

Currently, Namibia is a member of SACU, which involves free movement of goods among five member countries (South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia), and a uniform external tariff regime on goods from outside the SACU region.

This uniform external tariff regime has two functions. First, it protects industries operating within the SACU region against competition from outside SACU by raising prices of imports from outside the union so that goods produced within SACU have an immediate advantage over products from outside.

Secondly, it serves as a source of revenue for members of SACU. Revenue generated by the external tariff regime is channelled to a common revenue pool and shared among the five member countries according to a formula.

Odada said the revenue sharing formula has tended to favour the smaller members of SACU, namely: Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland, which are commonly referred to in SACU as the BLNS countries.

"This is because these smaller members of SACU do not benefit much from the protective function of the external tariff regime because almost all the industries protected by the tariff regime are located in South Africa, which is the dominant member of SACU. The revenue sharing formula is, therefore, being used to appease the BLNS countries, so that they do not make noise about the skewed distribution of industries within SACU," Odada said.

"The establishment of a broader SADC Customs Union is bound to impact positively on the BLNS countries in two important ways. First, it will enable the BLNS countries to diversify sources of their imports. Currently these countries get good proportions of their imports from South Africa because of the current protective tariff wall created by the SACU external tariff regime," he added.

Harold Pupkewitz, the owner of Pupkewitz Holdings, Namibia's largest trading company, said "only gain" would come out of a broader customs union.

"We will have access to a bigger market. A bigger customs union will bring about stiffer competition among producers of goods and services, which in turn will lead to higher productivity and efficiency. The scales of production will be in favour of everyone in the region," Pupkewitz said.

While skirting speculation over the fate of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which is the oldest customs union on earth, established in 1910 to cover Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa, Pupkewitz was effusive in his praise for the union, saying it had proved its usefulness to its members.

"SACU led to the integrated and coordinated economic development of its members even though a certain polarisation whereby big businesses are concentrated in South Africa took place. Revenue shared among SACU countries has not just helped those countries fiscally, but has given them the chance to develop economically. It is up to the political leaders in those countries to use the revenue to develop their countries," he said.

Pupkewitz does not, however, anticipate South Africa’s dominance in trade matters going away with the coming of a broader customs union but is convinced that there will be rich pickings for SADC countries.

"This is the reality of the situation and until there is a bigger union there is no use trying to **** against thunder. However, I think this polarisation will end once there is a bigger customs union, but SADC countries need to develop the skills of their people and do something about their production capacity to survive the impending competition," he said.

Odada said when a country decides to join a customs union; one of the sacrifices the country has to make is that of giving up discretion in fiscal matters. Since the SACU Agreement covers tariffs, excise duties and some sales taxes, these instruments cannot be used for pursuing the goals that each member country has set in its economic policy and strategy formulation. The unilateralism on the part of South Africa in this regard has in the past piqued some members, prompting two renegotiations of the SACU Agreement.

Odada and other economists in Namibia welcome the envisaged broader customs union but urge governments, commerce and industry players to start planning now on how they can benefit from the arrangement. He said the SADC Customs Union would provide an opportunity for all SACU countries to actively participate in intra-regional trade, by producing goods for export to other member countries.

Odada said smaller members of SACU including Namibia are not producing and exporting products because South Africa is able to take advantage of large-scale production.

Trade statistics show that Namibia, for example, obtains about 80 percent of its imports from South Africa. Such imports range from basic agricultural products like milk, fruits and vegetables, to manufactured products.

"South African products are cheaper than products from smaller SACU countries, which have relied on South African products to satisfy their domestic needs. It is therefore impossible for products from smaller SACU members to compete with South African products even in their own domestic markets; leave alone the South African market," he said.

Dr Joel Eita, formerly a researcher at the Namibian Economic Policy and Research Unity (NEPRU) and now a lecturer in Economics at the University of Namibia, said Namibia has the capacity to produce for export to other SADC countries. For example, Namibia’s national herd of cattle currently stands at 3.5 million. Namibia can produce and supply beef, mutton, fish, live cattle, sheep and goats to other SADC countries. He said Namibian economic policy-makers and planners need to identify those products that can be produced in Namibia for export to the broader custom union.

However, another economist, Dr Omu Kakujaha-Matundu, does not think that much will come out of the proposed broader customs union.

"Theoretically, a broader regional integration will increase the market and increase prospects for economic growth and development. However, economic realities on the ground tell a different story. Currently trade within SADC is so limited that a miracle is required to change the situation. Unless important structural changes take place in SADC countries, trade potential for the region is bound to remain limited.

"(The) natural trade partners for primary goods producers are industrialized countries and the scope for trade within SADC is limited. Only South Africa and to a lesser extent Zimbabwe in SADC can provide adequate manufactured products. In addition, even in this field, the range of products remains limited. No competitive supply can be found within the region for numerous branches (motor vehicles for instance). So the EU will be the boss in this area," he said.

He said there is also the possibility of trade diversion when South Africa and the other SADC countries erect protective tariff walls around the region. This, he said, would mean buying more costly goods from South Africa instead of cheaper goods from outside SADC.

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