NO CONGESTION IN MOZAMBICAN PORTS, SAYS CFM

Mozambique’s publicly-owned port and rail company, CFM, on Tuesday categorically denied claims by Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika that the Mozambican ports of Beira and Nacala are congested.Mutharika made the claim at the weekend, in an attempt to defuse protests against the country’s chronic fuel shortages. He was unsuccessful: several hundred people attempted to march on the government offices in Lilongwe on Monday, but were dispersed by riot police.Mutharika went on the radio and told marchers not to take any inspiration from the recent events in Egypt, where street protests toppled the dictator Hosni Mubarak after 30 years of misrule. He claimed the fuel shortages were entirely due to Malawi’s landlocked position. It had to depend on fuel reaching it via other countries, and Beira and Nacala ports were congested.The police dispersed the Monday march in Lilongwe on the grounds that it was unauthorized. Leaders of Malawian NGOs were detained for several hours, but after their release they promised to go on organizing fuel protests,“We are saying in two weeks, we will demonstrate across the country,” Undule Mwakasungula, chairperson of the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), cited in the daily “Nyasa Times”, said. “They will shoot us, kill us but we will not relent. This country belongs to all of us. This country is not a one man project.”The Malawian government has given contradictory explanations for the fuel shortages. More honest than Mutharika, the Finance Minister, Ken Kandodo, has told parliament that the country runs out of fuel simply because it does not have the foreign exchange to pay the suppliers. Speaking on a private radio station, the Energy Minister, Grain Malunga, said that fuel importers are no longer prepared to lend the government money. The importers are demanding cash up-front, because the parastatal Petroleum Importers Ltd, has not repaid all its debts for past fuel deliveries made on credit.That the real problem lies, not in the Mozambican ports but in the Malawian Treasury, is clear from a statement last week by the Malawian government that it is seeking a 50 million US dollar credit line precisely in order to buy fuel. The dispersal of Monday’s peaceful demonstration will do nothing to heal Malawi’s fraught relations with its major donors. The Heads of Mission in Lilongwe from France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Britain and the United States issued a statement on Saturday declaring that they “share the concerns voiced by many Malawians about certain negative trends in the country”.The most obvious of these “negative trends” is an onslaught against press freedom. Mutharika recently signed a law that will allow the information minister to ban any newspaper or publication.“As partners and friends”, the group of donors said, “we would like to recall that good governance and respect for human rights – including freedom of expression, observance of democratic principles, and freedom from discrimination – are the foundation upon which our partnership is built.”At much the same time, the German government announced that the parliamentary state secretary for economic cooperation and development, Gudrun Kopp, has cancelled a visit to Malawi scheduled for this week over governance concerns.That announcement came the day after the Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dirk Niebel, said Germany is suspending aid worth 2.5 million euros (3.4 million US dollars) because of the media bill, and the Malawian government’s refusal to discuss it. Mutharika is learning that in this case there is quite literally a price to be paid for attacking press freedom.The Malawian press has published embarrassing details about Mutharika’s recent visit to Addis Ababa for the African Union summit. The AU had arranged accommodation for Mutharika at a cost of 1,500 US dollars a night: Mutharika turned this down and took a room costing 9,000 dollars a night. The AU refused to pay such a bill, and passed it back to the Malawian government.