Increasing local power

The Ministry of State Administration (MAE) has published a proposal [anteprojecto] for a new law giving more powers to lower level administrations - districts, administrative posts and localities.

The new proposals would set up a formal district government composed of the administrator, district directors and heads of administrative posts (the next level down), which would meet every two weeks.

The district administrator is appointed by the Minister of State Administration and clearly remains a person carrying out central government policy and programmes. But the district government is given a wide range of powers over economic development, planning, and environmental issues, and is expected to raise more of is own funds through fees.

The new proposals would also create a consultative district council which would include the district government, presidents of any elected municipal councils in the district, community leaders (both "traditional chiefs" and village secretaries), and representatives of economic, social and cultural organisations. It is not stated how these people would be selected. But the council would meet three times a year, and would discuss and comment on economic, social and cultural issues dealt with by the district administration as well as plans, budgets and fees to be charged.

Heads of administrative posts are nominated by the governor and appointed by Minister of State Administration. Heads of localities are nominated by the district administrator and appointed by the governor. At both administrative post and locality level, there are to be similar "governments" and advisory councils.

District, post and locality governments and councils are known as "local state bodies" [Órgãos locais do Estado], where officials are still appointed rather than elected. MAE uses the term "decentralisation" for the shift of power to local elected bodies, and the term "administrative deconcentration" for the shift of power to appointed officials, as in this case.

 
Local salaries legalised

Local government salaries were finally given a proper legal footing again with the issuance of new regulations in January. The laws setting up the new elected municipalities (8/97 and 9/97) set the salary and expense payments for elected officials on a scale linked to the government salary scale. In December 1998 the government career structure was modified and a new salary scale adopted, but no link was made for local government, so there were no salary rules. Two years late, the new decree finally makes this link.

For Nampula and Beira, the salary for the president (mayor) is 10.3 million meticais per month with an equal amount of expenses (totalling $1080 per month), for a small city the president receives 5.6 million mt plus expenses ($590) and for a vila 2.8 million mt plus expenses ($300). Vereadores (local ministers) at the three levels receive 7.3 million mt plus the same amount as expenses ($770) in Beira and Nampula, 2.8 million mt plus expenses ($290) in a small city, and 1 million mt plus expenses ($110) in a vila. Many municipalities simply pay the "expenses" as extra salary.

The president of the municipal assembly receives no salary but has the right to the same expenses as the president of the municipality, so effectively earns half of what the municipal president earns. Ordinary members of assemblies have the right to the same expenses as a vereador, so typically "earn" half that of a vereador.

For comparison, a doctor earns between 4 and 8 million mt and a nurse earns between 2 and 6 million mt.

 
Catching up on 1999 elections

Two hangovers from the 1999 elections are still awaited. Under its aid contract with UNDP, the technical election secretariat STAE promised to produce a book of the detailed results, including each individual polling station. Such a book was published after the 1994 elections, but it took several years to produce. In 1999, STAE undertook to publish the detailed results more quickly, but the process has been moving very slowly. Donors became concerned and wrote a letter to UNDP, whose head Emmanuel de Casterlé has written to STAE asking about the detailed results. The problem, as was clear after the 1994 elections and as well as during provincial and national counts in 1999, is the very large number of errors in polling station reports (editais).

The other issue is the computerisation of the electoral register, which should have been completed a year ago but which is still under way.

The law calls for annual registration, but this is impossible since there is no National Election Commission. But STAE is proposing a special registration, especially in areas affected by floods in 1999, 2000 and 2001 and where tens of thousands of people lost all their possessions, including their registration cards.

 
Book Reviews

Travellers Survival Kit, Mozambique, by Adam Lechmere, Vacation Work, Oxford. 1999
Lonely Planet Mozambique, by Mary Fitzpatrick, Lonely Planet. 2000
Maputo, by David Martin, Africa Publishing Group, Harare. 1999

Mozambique is now a tourist destination and these new guidebooks are all good. Lonely Planet and Travellers Survival Kit both cover all of Mozambique well. Both have good maps and detailed information. I check guide books by looking at places I know - neither made mistakes and both made assessments I agree with. I found Travellers Survival Kit slightly better; it has a few more of my favourite places. But either can be recommended.

David Martin's little book is a goldmine of information about Maputo, even for the knowledgeable resident. Just the thing to keep on the shelf to give to visitors.
 

Mozambique and the Great Flood of 2000, by Frances Christie & Joseph Hanlon, James Currey (Oxford), 2000.

By Bulletin editor Hanlon and long time Mozambique resident Christie, this is the untold story of record floods.
 

Observing the 1999 Mozambique Elections, Final report/Processo de Observação das Eleições de 1999 em Moçambique, Relatório Final, Carter Centre, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

A year after the elections, the Carter Center quietly issued its mixed report, noting that "credibility of the process was undermined by technical problems and a lack of transparency" but also "the Centre had not seen evidence of serious irregularities that would affect the ... outcome."
 

Peace in our Time, by Anders Nilsson, Padrigu, Gothenburg University, Sweden, 1999.
The State Against the Peasantry, by Merle Bowen, University Press of Virginia, 2000.

Understanding Mozambique requires understanding the daily reality of the peasants. These two books each reflect research on the ground over 15 years, and thus have unprecedented credibility. Anders Nilsson did interviews for several years in the area around Homoine before and after its famous massacre in 1987, and he draws a fascinating picture of what the war looked like to its peasant participants. Merle Bowen looks at Ilha Josina Machel and how its relatively better-off peasants struggled under colonial rule, Frelimo-socialism, and then the war. Both books are important reminders that real peasants don't fit handy simplifications of journalists or aid workers.