From: barnhart@netcom.com (Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:MOZAMBIQUE: PEOPLE REELING UNDER EC
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 92 21:57:44 GMT
Organization: Netcom
Reply-To: barnhart@netcom.com

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Agriculture
Title: MOZAMBIQUE: PEOPLE REELING UNDER ECONOMIC REFORMS /SERIES/


an inter press service feature

by accadoga chiledi

maputo, aug 12 (ips) -- dressed in dirty shorts and t-shirt
rags, eusebio cabral wanders and scavenges for food around the
popular ''barracas'' market stalls in the museu area of the
mozambican capital.

''i came here to look for food. there is no food at home.
there is nothing'', 12-year-old eusebio told ips one evening.

cabral has been doing the ''barracas'' rounds for the last
three years after leaving his mother in the industrial suburb of
matola, 20 km south-west of here.

''my mother is alone. she doesn't work. she has no money. my
father went to the north and he hasn't come back. i don't know
why he went there, what he's doing and when he'll return'', adds
cabral as he shivers from the cold.

robita andre kovela (25) owns a ''barraca'' at the museu,
where she sells beer, soft drinks, wine and spirits imported
from south africa and portugal, as well as fried chicken, eggs
and fish.

''life is very difficult nowadays'', she told ips. ''before
the economic reforms, we used to have money but nothing to buy.
now, there are lots of things, but no money. it's a bitter
struggle.

''i like good living. i like to wear good things'', adds the
mother of two, pointing to her golden necklace. ''my husband is
a sailor and can't afford such things. that's why i'm here, day
and night. life is tough''.

kovela blames the government for the difficult economic
situation mozambicans face following the introduction in 1987 of
economic reforms to shore-up the country's war-battered economy.

the government endorsed the world bank and the international
monetary fund-induced reforms as the panacea for the country's
economic maladies.

a 17-year civil war has combined with the reforms to bring
about widespread corruption and misery to the majority of the 15
million mozambicans.

''corruption is a way of life in mozambique. this is what the
war has brought to mozambique'', carlos cardoso, editor-in-chief
of an independent newssheet, 'mediafax'', told ips. (more/ips)


mozambique: people (2)

''you have to steal in order to live. what can you do with 10
or 15 dollars (the minimum salary) at the end of the month?''

personal ambition and ignorance about how to get rich legally
have driven some mozambicans at all levels of society to enrich
themselves quickly, adds cardoso, the former director of
mozamqbique news agency (aim).

on may 4, aim reported a ''spectacular aborted attempt'' to
steal military equipment from the country's airforce and smuggle
it ''over the border'' -- possibly to south africa.

three junior airforce officers and some civilians were
arrested and detained for planning to steal six engines from
combat aircraft and helicopters and other military equipment.

''barracas'' and ''avenidas rand dollar'' have mushroomed,
and markets have been flooded with goods of all types, mainly
from neighbouring south africa and portugal, which are beyond
the reach of most mozambicans.

in the ''rand dollar avenues'' the south african rand and
the u.s. dollar are exchanged freely, with the dollar going for
more than 3,100 meticais against the official rate of about
2,900.

this is the new mozambique that was ushered in with the 1990
constitution guaranteeing human rights and abolishing the death
penalty.

before the new constitution, which introduced political
pluralism, even the idea of currency dealing would have been
deemed a crime against the state, punishable by death.

with the reforms, even 14-year-old januario muthemba can
openly boast of what he is doing on the ''avenidas'': ''this is
the heart of our lives'', he told ips, pointing to the street.

however, antonio palange, vice-president of the liberal and
democratic party of mozambique (palmo), argues the reforms
cannot work admidst ''widespread corruption''.

a veteran of mozambique's war of independence, palange
alleges the whole machinery of the ruling front for the
liberation of mozambique (frelimo) is ''corrupt''.

''all projects in this country belong to frelimo. all foreign
assistance goes to frelimo where it sinks'', palange, a senior
physician at machava general hospital here, told ips.
(end/ips/apc/ar/oa/92)

-- 
Aaron (Barnhart@netcom.com) -- posting from Evanston, Illinois