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Putting the Southern Africa region into clearer perspective
Inter Press Service (IPS)
May 05, 2004

By Moyiga Nduru

When compared with other parts of the continent, Southern Africa can seem relatively wealthy and peaceful - the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, and ongoing conflict in certain areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo notwithstanding. The civil wars in Angola and Mozambique have ended, and South Africa has confounded sceptics by emerging from its first decade of democracy in good political health. This rosy view of the region was questioned, however, by 25 journalists from Southern Africa who met in the Zambian capital - Lusaka - from Apr. 29-30.

The reporters, who were attending the second 'SADC-EU (Southern African Development Community-European Union) Media Practitioners Workshop', identified a host of problems in the area. These included the lack of free movement of people, which they felt was hindering the progress of Southern Africa and its 210 million inhabitants.

One of the writers, a Tanzanian, took this swipe at certain immigration laws: "When we arrived in Zambia, we were accorded VIP (very important person) treatment. But when we are returning home we would not be allowed to get out of Johannesburg airport. We will spend the night at the airport before flying home the following day. I'm just wondering about South Africa's commitments to SADC."

The free circulation of people and goods was envisaged as one of the main goals of SADC at the 14-member organisation's inception in 1980. However, certain countries in the region still demand visas for nationals from neighbouring states who wish to travel to them. "Free movements of people cannot come immediately after joining a community. There are processes that must be followed," SADC spokesman Anjelo Mondlane told a meeting at the workshop. "When people move from poorer countries into wealthy ones for example, it creates problems. Waiving visas depends on negotiations between governments. It also involves sovereignty," he added.

In spite of the economic imbalances between its member states and the relatively small size of its market (comparable to those of Belgium and Norway), SADC's annual gross domestic product (GDP) of 226.1 billion dollars is more than double that of the 16-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - this according to the 'Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan', a 148-page SADC document issued in March this year. The SADC market also accounts for more than half the annual GDP of sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2002, says the development plan, the region's GDP grew by about 3.2 percent, exceeding the population growth rate of about 2.1 percent. However, there are fears that illegal immigrants from poorer countries will swamp the wealthier SADC nations of South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius. According to SADC, 40 percent of the region's population - or 76 million people - live below the poverty line of a dollar per day. World Bank figures from 2003 show that this figure rises in certain member states like Mozambique and Zambia, where about 80 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty.

Another problematic issue highlighted at the Lusaka workshop was that of the poor media environment in the region. Delegates from Zimbabwe complained that their country was being singled out for unfair criticism by the British and American press. But Kaitira Kandjii of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), a regional watchdog based in Namibia, said Zimbabwe had itself to blame for the poor coverage it was receiving. He said repressive media laws enacted by the Harare government had entrenched perceptions of a lack of press freedom in the country. "We need an enabling media environment in the region," Kandjii told reporters in Lusaka.

In its annual publication 'So This Is Democracy?: State of media freedom in Southern Africa' - issued in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day on May 3 - MISA said it had put out 188 alerts in 2003 about violations of freedom of expression in SADC countries.

On the positive side, this marked a decrease of 9.7 percent from the 208 alerts recorded the previous year. "The nature of the 188 alerts and their bearing on the psyche of journalists have culminated into an environment in which journalists practice self-censorship, where media organisations are either closed down by governments through the application of repressive legislation or as a result of degenerating economic conditions - and where the pursuit of independent journalism is often labelled as unpatriotic," wrote MISA's Zoe Titus in the report. "In Zimbabwe the forced state closure of The Daily News on Sep. 12, 2003, on charges that it was publishing illegally without a state license, was undoubtedly the worst media freedom violation recorded in 2003," she added.

Titus said the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act in Zimbabwe had accounted for 54 percent of all violations recorded by MISA last year. This law, widely criticised by media and human rights activists, obliges journalists and media houses to register with a government appointed commission before they can operate.

Titus also warned that in those countries where the state of media freedom had not overtly deteriorated, there remained a need for reforms to deal with the legal obstacles that undermined press freedom. A breakdown of the188 alerts issued in 2003 reveals, amongst others, that 33 journalists were attacked, 53 detained and 37 censored. Juliana Mwila, SADC's National Media Co-ordinator in Zambia, urged journalists "to bring out issues affecting the region in their writings". "Important issues in SADC are usually received in another SADC country via foreign news agencies," she noted.

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