Maputo — Despite the drought that hit southern and central Mozambique this year, Mozambique recorded "advances in the struggle against hunger, illness, underdevelopment and misery", declared President Joaquim Chissano in his end of year message to the nation on Tuesday.
Chissano said that Mozambique's Gross Domestic Product had grown at a rate of 12 per cent in 2002, and that inflation and the depreciation of the national currency, the metical, are now "under control".
The grain crop this year had reached 1.7 million tonnes, he said, and the national cattle herd now stood at 750,000 head - twice the number of cattle that Mozambique had possessed at the end of the war of destabilisation in 1992.
"The production of cotton, sugar cane, sunflower, tea, and other cash crops, is reaching high levels, putting more cash into the hands of peasant farmers, increasing employment, and exports and contributing decisively to the growth of our economy", said Chissano. The rehabilitated sugar industry alone had created 27,000 jobs throughout the country.
The clothing industry "after a long period of lethargy", was once again putting items of clothing manufactured in Mozambique on the international market, the president added.
He noted the advance of heavy industry, as the second phase of the MOZAL aluminium smelter on the outskirts of Maputo nears completion. Other major investments under way include the gas pipeline from Inhambane to South Africa, and the mineral sands projects at Chibuto in Gaza province, and Moma in Nampula.
But Chissano passed over in silence those sectors of the economy that are in crisis. There was not a word in his speech about the destruction of the cashew processing industry: most of the country's large-scale processing factories are closed, because, in the name of free trade, the nuts have mostly been exported to India unprocessed, thus depriving the local industry of its raw material.
Nor did Chissano have anything to say about the collapse of the textile industry, or the threat that the vegetable oil industry, threatened with cheap contraband oil, may be pushed into bankruptcy.
The president also noted advances in consolidating democracy and the rule of law. Efforts were being made "to consolidate the role of the courts as just, impartial and independent interpreters of the law".
In particular, the country "is following, attentively and critically, the unfolding of the trial in the case of the murder of Carlos Cardoso. For the first time in independent Mozambique, the courts are attracting, in a dramatic, intense and passionate fashion, the attention of the entire people".
Chissano said that those on trial before judge Augusto Paulino and the Maputo City Court "are not only the murderers of Carlos Cardoso and their accomplices, but also the integrity, competence and professionalism of the men and women who form the sovereign judicial branch of state power, and the trust and credibility that they inspire among the people".
Chissano said the fact that 60 per cent of the Mozambican population still lives in absolute poverty "is unacceptable. It violates our conscience and creates instability in our society".
Reducing, and eventually eliminating, poverty "has been at the centre of our concerns", he said, stressing that agricultural development was the speediest and most effective way of implementing the government's Programme for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA).
He warned of the imperative of "winning the battle against HIV/AIDS". Chissano pointed out that Mozambique is among the ten countries worst hit by the AIDS pandemic. Current estimates are that, at the end of 2002, over 1.5 million Mozambicans are infected by HIV, of whom 98,000 are suffering from full-blown AIDS. He put the AIDS death toll so far at 200,000, and said that 300,000 children have been orphaned by the disease.
Anti-retroviral drugs, which prolong the lives of those infected with HIV, are now available in Mozambique. But Chissano warned that these drugs "are just a panacea, While this disease remains incurable, the most viable treatment is prevention".
He called for "multiplication and diversification of prevention campaigns", to get the message across, particularly to young Mozambicans.
For 2003, "We have the will to win, and many tasks to undertake", said Chissano. "We want to make our country a pleasant and agreeable place where, in a sustainable fashion, life in peace, security, stability, harmony and development is a reality".
That would only be possible through "organised, coordinated and productive work", he insisted, "through the joint and complementary efforts of the private and public sectors".
"We must continue fighting against absolute poverty", he stressed. "We must continue strengthening state institutions; we must continue the struggle against organised crime and corruption; we must halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and other endemic diseases; we must guarantee education for all our children, and food for all our citizens".
