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INSIDE AFRICA

Ethiopia`s Election Contested; Sports in Africa

Aired September 11, 2005 - 12:30:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MERERA GUDINA, ETHIOPIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: There are in fact random killings in Addis Ababa itself.

MELES ZENAWI, ETHIOPIAN PRIME MINISTER: It was necessary for us to face a quasi-insurrectionary movement in parts of this town.

ANAND NAIDOO, GUEST HOST (voice-over): The war of words between Ethiopia's politicians as the post-election squabbling continues. But what is a way out of the current political stalemate in the country?

Giving back to society. Kenya's Moses Tanui and his training camp that's helping to prepare a new generation of runners.

And buildings bodies and healthy minds. A new health craze in South Africa's townships.

This is INSIDE AFRICA.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NAIDOO: Hello, and welcome to the program. I'm Anand Naidoo. Femi Oke is away.

It's been four months since general elections in Ethiopia, and the political crisis resulting from those polls linger. The government and its rivals continue to exchange harsh words as the opposition demands new elections in some areas. The alternative, they say, is a national unity government. Dr. Merera Gudina, the head of a leading opposition coalition, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, tells us why.

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GUDINA: In fact, we have been struggling, and we continue to struggle peacefully and legally and politically, either to force this government to accept to it or to force this government out of power.

NAIDOO (voice-over): For Ethiopia's opposition, the one sure way out of the current crisis is the formation of a government of national unity.

GUDINA: You know, the role of the national unity government is to civilize the country, to create a condition where all the stakeholders, the major stakeholders can be in, can salvage this situation.

NAIDOO: Salvage a situation brought about by alleged vote rigging in the May elections.

GUDINA: And that's where that international observers were not present, and they could not observe. Then there was massive rigging, massive rigging, especially with votes, tampering with votes in the country.

NAIDOO: The National Electoral Board says it's investigated those allegations, and held rerun elections for at least 30 seats in late August. And on Monday, after counting those votes, the board declared Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's party the official winner of the elections, giving it 327 seats out of the 547-member parliament. But the opposition coalition once again rejected the results, saying the election board was not qualified to investigate allegations of vote rigging.

GUDINA: It was hand-picked by the - these - the members of the board were handpicked by the present regime. (INAUDIBLE) along, as neither being neutral and non-partisan.

NAIDOO: Criticisms of the elections also came from the European Union observer team. In a report, the head of the team, Ana Gomes, has noted, "the E.U. Observation Mission regrets that the election process didn't live up to the international standards and to the aspirations of Ethiopians for democracy."

Prime Minister Zenawi called the European Union report garbage.

Security in post-election Ethiopia is another concern of the opposition. It accuses the government of terrorizing the population in order to force Ethiopians into accepting the results of the elections.

GUDINA: And there was in fact random killing in Addis Ababa itself, where the government media say about six people killed, but I think a lot more people were killed during, you know, random killing by the government.

NAIDOO: Human rights groups say about 40 people were killed when police fired on post-election demonstrators in May. The government says it's investigating those killings. The opposition also accuses the government of stifling freedom. Just this week, the opposition coalition says its rallies in five urban centers were stopped by local authorities. The government denies that, saying at least one gathering in the capitol was stopped only after it became chaotic.

Despite the controversy, the opposition won far more seats in parliament than it did in previous elections, going from 12 MPs to 174. But there is still no decision on whether opposition members of parliament will take their seats.

GUDINA: Yes, we continue to weigh our options, and then we'll decide (INAUDIBLE) in due time.

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NAIDOO: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi continues to refute claims that his government tempered with the votes. Mr. Zenawi responded to some of the allegations against him in a recent interview with CNN's Richard Quest in Addis Ababa.

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RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Prime Minister, the Carter Center - - you know the quote from the Carter Center, which suggests that there was irregularities, there are many people who say the same, governments -- one or two governments have withheld aid pending a final resolution of these elections. So, Prime Minister, what are you going to do? People say you piddled the election.

ZENAWI: Some people say that we piddled the elections, and the answer to that is let's have a transparent investigations into this alleged piddling, and we have set very transparent investigations in the presence of international observers. That's unique. The National Election Board has already started reporting on some of its findings, and its findings seem to show that in the overwhelming majority of cases there were no serious irregularities. In some cases, they have found some irregularities, and in those cases they have decided that there should be reruns. You might be interested to note that the majority of those cases have been seats won by the opposition.

QUEST: Let's talk about the much more serious business, the violence that followed the election. Was it necessary?

ZENAWI: Well, it was not necessary for us to face a quasi-insurrectionary movement in parts of this town. We had an election; everybody agreed that until polling day, the conduct of the elections were exemplary by any standard. Some had concerns about the counting. We had by then made it abundantly clear that those concerns will be addressed through investigations and a transparent monitoring, the presence of foreign observers. And therefore, there was no cause for that type of insurrectionary activity. There are those friends who have criticized or alleged that we might have used excessive force. That, again, has to be established by an independent investigation that we're going to put in place.

QUEST: When all is set and done, Prime Minister, what should have been a landmark democratic election in this country's history has been tainted by allegations of fraud and fiddling, by allegations of excessive force of violence, by at least - by your own admission two investigation that will have to take place.

ZENAWI: Yes, this is very unfortunate, but we - people have to learn, people have to understand that this is a very old country that has never had democracy in its history; this is an emerging democracy. It would - we would not wish to have a rough stretch in the process of democratization, but we cannot be surprised when we have such rough stretch. The issue is, how we overcome that - and that's my point.

QUEST: I have a question. How long, do you think, you want to be prime minister for?

ZENAWI: I'm not particularly enamored by the position. For me, this is just a continuation of my guerrilla fighter days, and as I'm sure you can see, I'm getting long in terms of years, and - and then therefore, perhaps it's time for me to leave. I don't expect to be around for -- in this position, for much longer.

QUEST: Will you fight a third election as prime minister?

ZENAWI: That's - that's for the party to decide what I .

QUEST: Sure. I'd read your answer on this before, so let me push you into the corner on this. You can plead - you can plead you don't want to answer it, but would you wish to fight a third election as prime minister?

ZENAWI: I don't really start thought, at all.

QUEST: I`ll take that as a no.

ZENAWI: Yes.

QUEST: So, you're going to retire in the next few years from prime- ministerial office.

ZENAWI: I'm not saying that. I'm saying that if I have my way, this will probably be my last term.

QUEST: If you have your way.

ZENAWI: Yes.

QUEST: Prime Minister, thank you very much.

ZENAWI: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NAIDOO: Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi talking to Richard Quest.

And still to come on the program, a master swimmer, and her hopes for a new generation of Olympic champions in Egypt. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NAIDOO: Welcome back. We shift focus now to sports and the men and women who use their talent, fame and at times wealth to bring glory to their homeland. Women like Egyptian master swimmer Rania Elwani, who is counting on her vast international experience to help young Egyptians aim for gold. Shahira Amin is in Cairo with that story.

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SHAHIRA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 11-year old Ahmed (ph) is working on perfecting his butterfly stroke. He is one of 40 students enrolled at the newly established Elwani swimming school in the greenland suburb just outside Cairo. The young swimmers at this school are divided into groups of four or five to ensure they get individual attention from their coach, none other than master swimmer Rania Elwani.

Elwani has come a long way since she herself wore armbands in the swimming pool. In the spun of a nine-year career as a competitive swimmer, which started at the tender age of 14, Elwani repeatedly brought home gold medals from Arab, African and Mediterranean games.

RANIA ELWANI, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: The fun part was breaking the records, which was always breaking my own records, which is even more -- more enthusiastic, and more challenging. So, when I came into international competitions, this is when I liked it more, because they weren't my own records anymore. It could beat other people's records, which is really, really satisfying to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rania Elwani .

AMIN: She never struck gold at the Olympic Games, but her talent did not go unnoticed there either. In Sydney 2000, she ranked 11th in the 50-meter freestyle, and 16th in the 100-meter race.

ELWANI: And that was my proudest moment as an athlete.

AMIN: Swimming may seem like an unconventional sport for a young girl growing up in Egypt's conservative society, where more and more women are taking on the veil, and staying away from public life, but not to the sports-oriented Elwani family.

DR. AMIR ELWANI, RANIA'S FATHER: Sport. It's something in our blood and genes.

AMIN: Her father, Dr. Elwani, is current president of the African Volleyball Confederation and vice president of the International Volleyball Federation. Her brother Mahmoud, too, is a swimming champion in his own right.

Although family support and the regular training were major contributors to Elwani's success, she admits it took a lot more to make her a swimming sensation.

ELWANI: It's not just about six hours a day of training, it's about getting enough rest and getting good nutrition, so it was a lot of commitment and a lot of discipline.

AMIN: It is this discipline that Elwani is trying to instill in her young students. The sign at the gate reads "Swim it the Olympic way," and mothers who have enrolled their kids at the school are hoping the little ones may some day follow in the Elwani's footsteps. Armed with goggles and rubber boards, this group is ready to take on the water and the challenge.

Elwani's career as an Olympic swimmer has been over for some years now, but she's kept up a torrid pace. She's now a member of the International Olympic Committee, and her responsibilities include helping China prepare for the 2008 Games in Beijing. And Elwani carries out her new role with the same enthusiasm and dedication she was known for in her swimming days.

For INSIDE AFRICA, Shahira Amin, CNN, Cairo.

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NAIDOO: And from Egypt to Kenya, a nation that's produced some of the greatest runners in the world. Today, many young Kenyans attempt to model themselves after some of the big names in the business, but there is a problem - a lack of opportunities. Gladys Njoroge meets a champion runner who is trying to help.

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GLADYS NJOROGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kenya's famous for producing world-class marathon runners. These men could be the sport's next stars.

Training in high-altitude areas like this (INAUDIBLE) forest in Kenya prepares these aspiring runners for the world stage. Few athletes here can afford to buy their own running gear, let alone pay for their training.

Moses Tanui, a successful marathoner, has literally taken these dozen or so athletes under his wing to sharpen their edge. The talent pool is crowded, because many young Kenyans see the marathon as their road to success.

CLEMENT KOECH, ASPIRING RUNNER: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) because it is so competitive, we're so many, so many athletes. There is a (INAUDIBLE) there is (INAUDIBLE), there are individuals. So it's very hard.

NJOROGE: Moses Tanui came from a similar background.

MOSES TANUI, CHAMPION RUNNER: I feel that if I can see that athlete running out there, I feel that I should do something for him or her. And this is what I want to do for my fellow athletes, the young athletes, especially from poor family.

NJOROGE: Fighting his way to the top, his fortunes changing when he became the world champion in 1991 in the 10,000-meter race. Two years after that, he became the first man to run a half marathon in under 60 minutes, bagging even more medals and cash by winning the Boston Marathon twice, in 1996 and 1998.

He then built his training facility with part of his prize money, with the helping hand from sportswear company Fila, food and fuel costs (ph) were paid for. But it was not to last. Tanui now single-handedly pays for the athletes' upkeep, and on occasion (INAUDIBLE) international competition.

It's training camps like this one that have been tapping into raw talent and transforming them into world-class runners. And athletes here say they have one dream - to fly high in their running careers as well as in life.

TANUI: Some of the cross-country cups.

NJOROGE: Back home, Tanui's trophies cluster his living room. Also on display, a photo with U.S. President George Bush. He was in Washington for a charity run with Kenyan runner Paul Saigat (ph). Then they got a surprising call, an invitation to the White House.

TANUI: I wanted to see him and shake his hand. So, (INAUDIBLE) for me.

NJOROGE: But he is now fighting a difficult battle. A knee injury that threatens to end his active marathon career. He is 40, but he doesn't want to go into retirement. So he keeps fit for the daily two-hour regiment in the gym he begun. He says he still has some unfinished business.

TANUI: I think Kenya is one of the superpower countries in athletics, and I would like them to show that we're still there, and we will win all of -- all the rests, and come back home.

NJOROGE: A dream to see young Kenyan athletes live up to the high standards of their predecessors.

Gladys Njoroge, Atsugat (ph) training center, Bisksali (ph), Kenya.

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NAIDOO: There is more to come on INSIDE AFRICA. Just ahead, the new health craze that's keeping young people off the streets in South Africa. And women's football on the rise in Tunisia. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NAIDOO: Hello again. Our focus on sports continues with a visit to the gym. That's where many young men in some of South Africa's poor townships are headed these days. They're being lured by a desire to build bulging biceps and abs like steel, and as Alphonso Van Marsh reports, some of them are keeping - some of that is keeping them off the streets and away from a life of crime.

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ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This South African athlete isn't as big as the guy in the poster behind him, but he is one of the growing number of jobless Johannesburg men turning to bodybuilding instead of a life of crime.

PROFESSOR NDEBEDYA, ASPIRING BODYBUILDER: If I am sitting at home, I think about doing things bad, but if I come here, that mind of bad goes out.

VAN MARSH: Here is Vungase Gym in Alexandra Township. It's one of the fancier gyms populating Johannesburg's toughest and poorest neighborhoods. Gym owners are using low-cost memberships to lower youth from delinquency to sport discipline.

THOMAS VUNGASE, GYM OWNER: They have nothing to do, so that you can practice, young people out of the street, committing crime, robbery, hijacking cars, because it's what they're doing to (INAUDIBLE). So what I am trying to do is just trying to put them out of those things.

VAN MARSH: Almost a third of all South Africans are unemployed. Thug life is tempting in the townships, even though local authorities are trying to bring more jobs and more development here.

The fact remains that some townships neighborhoods are hotbeds for crime, prostitution and drugs, but as more young men come to more gyms like this, well, they say that the violence stops here.

Past the gate and the dirt path of the gym leads to what members call a crime-free zone -- no weapons, no fighting, no drinking, no smoking allowed.

VUNGASE: You see, when you're healthy, your mind is healthy.

VAN MARSH: The healthy living message hits home in South Africa, where an estimated one in nine people carries HIV/AIDS. Some of these guys admit they're pumping iron primarily to attract the ladies, and in a neighborhood where muggings are common, it can't hurt to be pumped up, too.

Alphonso Van Marsh, Alexandra Township, South Africa.

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NAIDOO: We end this show with Africa's number one sport: Football. Currently, the Tunisian male team holds the prestigious Africa Nations Cup. But another triumph in the country is a team of women who are breaking ground and aspiring to new heights. Sylvia Smith reports on their achievements and determination.

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SYLVIA SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The culmination of almost a year's hard work -- the Tunisia's national female football team. The start of their first international match on home ground, but against the mighty Arsenal from London.

It's been a journey that no one could have plotted. Beginning just a few years ago, women's football here involved a few university teams and local matches. To build a full league, goals were lured from other sports.

HEIFA GUEDRI, TUNISIAN NATIONAL TEAM (through translator): I used to do athletic and play basketball. Now all I'm interested in is football.

SMITH: Heifa's father says he encouraged her to be sporty. Now she's abandoned everything to devote herself to football, he says.

Each year, the Tunisian League holds its championship game on National Women's Day.

But the national team was formed only eight month ago. The step to the international arena requires more than just dedication. It takes years of practice and plenty of equipment. Standards are high, so Tunisia's team is strengthened by recruiting more experienced strikers from Senegal, who've played in plenty of international matches.

AISSATOU SECK, TUNISIAN NATIONAL TEAM (through translator): There are people who don't believe in us, because they say women's football doesn't count. But we can do as well as men in Africa, whether it's a winning the Africa Cup or the World Cup, providing we get backing, of course, because we've got food players, whether Tunisian, Senegalese or Ivorian.

SMITH: The final results of this match was 3-0 to Arsenal. But it was a hard fought game.

MASA BEN ALAWATE, TUNISIAN NATIONAL TEAM (through translator): We may not have won, but we played as well as we could. We have only been playing together a short time, so in the future, we're bound to do better.

SMITH: There are more than 20 women's clubs in Tunisia, and nearly 1,000 women involved in one way or another in football -- as physiotherapists, strainers, referees or players. Most of these women agree that there's just one thing that gets in the way of female players winning cups, and that's financial support.

For CNN's INSIDE AFRICA, I'm Sylvia Smith, in Sousse, Tunisia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NAIDOO: Please, e-mail us and let us know what you think of the program, the address insideafrica@cnn.com. That is our show this week. I'm Anand Naidoo.

END

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