Polity - News this week

South Africa

RUSTENBURG - While opposition parties claim to respect the rule of law, they are quick to oppose it when a person exercises his Constitutional rights, says African National Congress president Jacob Zuma. Opposition parties have gone to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to make submissions to prosecute him instead of focusing on their election campaigns. Zuma accuses opposition parties of challenging decisions before they are taken, and in the middle of elections. This is a reference to the Democratic Alliance's submission to the NPA in which the official opposition gives its reasons for believing that the NPA should continue its prosecution of Zuma.

PRETORIA - Former Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) boss Willie Madisha has likened the removal of workers' rights to choose their own political affiliation to tactics used by the apartheid government. At the launch of a new, allegedly politically independent trade union, Madisha says that Cosatu oppresses and takes away its members' choice. Madisha says that the new union will put an end to workers being viewed and treated as "objects". He adds that workers' interests are being put aside as leaders of trade unions such as Cosatu are furthering the interests of their political affiliates. Labour expert Terry Bell spoke at the launch, emphasising the importance of an independent trade union movement. Once a trade union is tied to a political party, he explains, control is passed from the workers to the political party whose interests are generally broader than those of the workers. Madisha stresses that union members will be free to choose their political affiliation.

JOHANNESBURG - Foreign investors are cautious about a Jacob Zuma Presidency in South Africa even though he has pledged not to steer economic policy to the left, say executives from Merrill Lynch. The financial advisory firm explains that foreign fund managers attending its annual South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa investor conference cited political risk in Africa's biggest economy as an issue. Some foreign investors worry that Zuma's trade union and communist allies are pushing him to adopt pro-poor policies at the expense of big business. Local investors, however, are not concerned about any shift away from business-friendly policies after the April 22 election when Zuma is expected to become President, and Merrill Lynch says that foreigners would be wrong to worry. Winston Monale, head of equity sales at Merrill Lynch South Africa, says that the credibility of a Zuma Presidency and a possible change in policy is at the front of offshore investors' minds. On the other hand, local investors are not concerned. It is not a case of investor apathy, he explains, but South Africa has seen big political changes, while markets have continued to function. Zuma, who has insisted he will stick to policies championed by former President Thabo Mbeki, recently announced that South Africa's economic policy will not swing to the left. John Morris, Merrill Lynch South Africa's investment strategist, notes that there is a disconnect between international and domestic investors, and that domestic investors are much less pessimistic about South Africa's outlook.

Africa & the world

HARARE - In anapparent challenge to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's land policies, the new Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has warned people invading commercial farms that they are committing theft and will be arrested and prosecuted. The seizure of white-owned farms to give to poor black Zimbabweans has become a controversial but important Mugabe strategy, and his opponents say this has helped to destroy the agriculture sector that was once the backbone of the economy. Hundreds of white commercial farmers who have survived often-violent land seizures by Mugabe's government since 2000, as well as some black resettled farmers, have in the past month reported a rise in incidents of invasion. Tsvangirai says that the government is aware that most of the ongoing disruptions of agricultural production carried out in the name of the land reform are actually acts of theft. Thousands of white farmers have fled the country since 2000 and critics say that the land reforms were responsible for the plunging farm output and accelerated the collapse of the economy, the recovery of which is the biggest challenge of the new government.