Leader of the National Assembly Harry Thomson has said nobody in the United Democratic Front [ UDF] can force the party's MPs to support a bid to change the Constitution to allow an incumbent President to run for more than two term. He described UDF Regional Governor John Kapito statement that the party would fire MPs who did not support the amendment in Parliament as "emotional."
Thomson, who also noted that MPs have a right to speak their mind, was speaking in an interview. "I think it [Kapito's ] was an emotional statement. MPs will have to do their own soul searching and make their own decisions. You can say anything but you can't force everyone to think the same way," said Thomson.

RADIX has just begun to develop a page devoted to the current food emergency in southern Africa. We would welcome any materials (brief comments, reports on work-in-progress, suggestions of web links, electronic reprints of good background essays, etc.) from anyone and everyone. We are particularly interested, from both scholarly and humanitarian points of view, in the differences between 1991 and 2002. The earlier event amounts to a 'success story' in drought mitigation and prevention of famine. A preliminary analysis suggests three sets of differences:
Stresses: more numerous and severe in their interactions this time (HIV-AIDS, cholera, flood followed by drought, standing crops damaged by hungry mega fauna/ stolen by hungry thieves, mismanagement of stored food reserves, deterioration of democratic governance, level of corruption) Regional cooperation: possibly less vigorous SADC level activity (could this be because of tensions due to members taking different sides in the conflict in Congo?)
International response: slower (?) (Are there signs of 'compassion fatigue'? or distraction by Afghanistan and the Middle East? or reluctance to provide aid to regimes seen as corrupt?).
Among the countries currently included in WFP bulletins on the food emergency (Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Mozambique), there are very great differences in terms of history, political economy, political ecology, regime stability and credibility. Nevertheless, the composite factors give rise to concern that this time around more lives could be lost (400% rise in the price of maize in Malawi in the face of which many of the rural poor who have already sold off all assets simply starve). Another question is why Botswana appears to be escaping the current crisis. We are also particularly interested in what happened to the large number on NGO initiatives in this region in the early 1990s that were designed to build local capacity to cope with drought and other hazards. Have some been successful? Is the current crisis simply too large for these to provide much protection or resilience? Are women faring much better this time around? (Megan Vaughan's book on the 1949-50 famine in Malawi -- then Nyasaland -- provides an excellent baseline study of gender and famine: The Story of an African Famine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). We invite comments in this discussion list and also contributions of documents for posting on the RADIX web site addresses to [email protected] or [email protected].

Malawi has started implementing its controversial national land policy even though parliament hasn't ratified it. The controversial policy insists that foreigners owning land renew their residency every seven years, failing which the government will seize the land and give it to landless people. Critics say this will deter foreign investment.The ministry of land has bought Makande Tea Estate in the southern Thyolo district from the Lonrho Company and started registering landless people from neighbouring Mulanje district.