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COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
Farm Invasions and Security Report
Monday 2nd April 2001

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Every attempt is made to provide a comprehensive report of ongoing activities in relation to farm invasions, but many incidents are unreported due to communications constraints, fear of reprisals and a general weariness on the part of farmers.  Farmers names and in some cases, farm names, are omitted to minimise the risk of reprisal.
 
NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF: 
  a.. Over the weekend, numerous section 8 (compulsory acquisition) and section 7 (notice to appear in court) orders were served in some parts of the country.
  b.. An attempted eviction of the owner of Chidikamwedzi Farm in Mvurwi has been defused.
  c.. 15 illegal occupiers armed with axes and sticks reacted to a labour dispute on Leopard's Vlei in Glendale last week.
  d.. It would appear that the Presidential campaign is well under way in Mashonaland Central.  There has been a marked increase in political activity in Glendale, with assaults of workers and forced attendance of ZANU PF rallies.  On Saturday, the entire belongings of a tenant at Verona were removed from the house in an attempt to evict him due to alleged opposition political activity.  In Shamva, a large group of ZANU PF youths attacked farm workers and demanded opposition material.  Four farm workers and two illegal occupiers were injured in a dispute which was only broken up when a crop guard fired shots into the air.
  e.. Many of the farms in Chegutu that are expected to be fast-tracked shortly do not fit the government's criteria for acquisition and are highly productive.
  f.. The value of lost revenue due to poaching in the Bubiana Conservancy in the West Nicholson area for the month of February is Z$ 1.8 million.
Reports were not available from: Masvingo,  Manicaland, Midlands and Matabeleland.

REGIONAL REPORTS:
 
Mashonaland Central
Centenary - Invaders have been attempting to evict the owner of Chidikamwedzi today. The situation is stable and police have responded.
Horseshoe - Invaders have planted beans in lands prepared for tobacco at Chingoma Farm.  The DA has endorsed the prevention of land prep at Manovi since the owner has received a Section 8 Order.  Planting of green maize was prevented at Chiringi due to death threats from invaders.  Building of illegal structures is ongoing at Muzhanje.
Glendale - 15 illegal occupiers armed with axes and sticks reacted to a labour dispute on Leopards Vlei last week, but the owner managed to defuse the situation.  Police responded later and spoke with the invaders.  Political activity has increased dramatically, with assault of farm labour and forced attendance of political rallies.  On Saturday, the entire belongings of a tenant at Verona were removed from the house in an attempt to evict him due to alleged political activity.  Police negotiations were unsuccessful - the situation is ongoing and extremely tense.
Mutepatepa - About 100 head of cattle were driven into Rhodes Grass seed at Katanya yesterday and a gate has been stolen from the farm boundary.  A hut is being constructed outside the homestead fence today.  Tractors have been prevented from working at Amanda today.  Both cases have been reported to the police, who are expected to respond tomorrow morning.
Shamva - It was clarified that the houses on Beacon Hill taken over by illegal occupiers as reported on 19/03/01 were not vacant and that the farm workers and their families were evicted by invaders.  A large group of Zanu (PF) youths arrived at Bamboo Creek demanding opposition material while attacking some people in the farm village.  A dispute arose resulting in four farm workers and two illegal occupiers being injured and was only broken up when the crop guard fired two shots in the air.  Police did respond and two illegal occupiers were later arrested.  War vet leadership accompanied by police visited the farm the following day and detained some farm workers who are expected to appear in court.
    
Mashonaland West North  - nothing to report
 
Mashonaland West South 
Norton - There was a re-invasion of Idaho Farm.  Illegal occupier Austin Chirambadere has maliciously damaged tobacco plants and an illegal occupier is building a new structure despite instructions from the DA and police to desist.  Police have reacted.
Chegutu - The District Administrator says that he is going to proceed with the fast tracking of farms that have recently received Section 8 orders.  Many of these farms are single owned, fully productive, are not adjacent to communal or resettlement areas and do not fit any of the Government criteria for acquisition.  One property received a section 8 order, having never been listed.  Another property was listed then received a Certificate of No Present Interest in December and has now received a section 8 order!

Mashonaland East
Beatrice - Last Thursday, 5 invaders claimed Kerry Farm and restricted the farmer and workers to the barn area only to finish grading.  Police have instructed the invaders to follow the channels through the Lands Committee.
Enterprise - Voting for the RDC by-elections went off without problems.  Land preparation for a rye grass pasture was stopped on Chibvuti.  There is interference with the cut flower export operations on Strathlorne.
Marondera - 20 cattle belonging to illegal occupiers have been left on a farm in Marondera and yesterday another 12 were bought onto the farm. On Saturday, illegal occupiers pushed down the homestead security gate and drove the farmers dairy cattle into the yard on Esperance Farm, in an attempt to force him to concede the farm. Police attended.  Drivers have been warned by illegal occupiers not to proceed with land preparation.
Marondera North - Illegal occupiers on Dorset have stated that they intend to plant beans.  Illegal occupiers are preventing the harvest of 70ha of maize for silage for the dairy herd on Welcome Home. They claim that the owner destroyed their own plots by establishing this maize field.
 
Matabeleland (late report for 29th March)
West Nicholson - In Bubiana Conservancy, for the month of February, the following animals were found alive in snares: 1 Wildebeest; 2 Kudu; 2 Zebra; 1 Giraffe; 1 Eland; and the following animals were found dead: 6 cows (bovines); 2 Buffalo; 15 Eland; 3 Giraffe; 7 Impala; 26 Kudu; 1 Klipspringer; 5 Sable; 14 Warthog; 2 Waterbuck; 3 Wildebeest; 16 Zebra.  The lost revenue this month, at 50% of trophy value, is $1 787 250.
 

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aisd1@cfu.co.zw

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Angry White South Africans Bury Another Victim

By REUTERS

RUSTENBURG, South Africa, April 2 — Hundreds of white farmers, unnerved by a wave of killings they believe are intended to drive them off their land, threatened today to take up arms against their black attackers.

About 800 farmers gathered to bury the latest victim; the attacks have killed almost 500 white farmers since 1995.

The dead farmer, Nicholas van Rensburg, was killed last week and his mother was wounded when she tried to flee seven black men who attacked their farm in the Rustenburg district, near Johannesburg.

Many of the mourners, some of whom had traveled more than 150 miles for the service here, said they were ready to take up arms. They fear that the attacks are intended to drive them off their land, much the way some whites have been forced to flee their farms in neighboring Zimbabwe, where seven white farmers have died in a year. In South Africa, 13 farmers died just in January.

After Mr. van Rensburg was killed on his arrival home last week, the gunmen fled empty-handed across the farm of a neighbor, Andre Korp. "The killers were lucky I wasn't at home that day," Mr. Korp said. "I would have killed them. If nothing comes from the government in the next few months, the farmers will take matters into their own hands."

The safety and security minister, Steve Tshwete, visited the area last week and promised government action to protect the farmers.

Farmers at the funeral insisted that the killings were not revenge for poor treatment of black workers, who continue to live an almost feudal existence on most white farms.

At the Rustenburg cemetery, seven of Mr. van Rensburg's black laborers stood in threadbare clothes among the trees, coming forward only to finish filling the grave. "They told us we must wait here," one worker said. "They said we don't need to mix with the white people at the church because they are very worried about this murder."

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• Govt considers CFU plan - IRIN
• School fees rise - N24
• Electoral petitions resume next month - IRIN
• Village banks rescue farmers - African Eye
• First phase over say Zim - Star
• Coltan monopoly ends - SInd
• Further charges against Milosevic - Guardian

From IRIN (UN), 3 April

Government Considers New Proposals From Commercial Farmers

Nairobi - Zimbabwe's government is looking at a new plan from the mainly-white CFU that seeks to solve the crisis on the land. Malcolm Vowles, CFU deputy director, told IRIN on Monday that the proposals agreed to at last weeks' special CFU congress were being considered by the government. "We've handed our ideas to government and we've already had a positive response," he said. Asked for details, Vowles said that the CFU did not want them made public. "We're trying to keep this thing between ourselves and the government at this stage," he said. Last week, farmers pledged to work with the government to resolve the nation's land reform crisis - this after an apparent split within their ranks.

From News24 (SA), 2 April

Zim state school fees up

Harare - In a new blow to Zimbabwe's economically stricken populace, the education ministry announced on Monday it was hiking fees at government schools by between 18 percent and 100 percent. A spokesperson said that from May 1, primary school fees in poor urban townships would double to Z$100 for a four-month term, and fees for township high schools would go up 70 percent to Z$250. In the better-off low-density suburban areas, primary school fees would go up 20 percent to Z$225 while those at high schools would be 25 percent more at Z$500. "When all is taken into consideration, the figures are still very low," education ministry finance director Regis Chinembiri. The last fee increase was by 35 and 70 percent three months ago.

However, education experts point out that parents also have to pay levies set by individual schools - because government funding is well below the cost of running schools - that amounts to at least double the cost of fees, as well as uniforms and books. Education is taking an increasing bite out of the salaries of ordinary workers, who earn about Z$3000 at the lower levels. About 80 percent of Zimbabweans are now classified as "very poor". The state-run Consumer Council said last month that urban households had cut expenditure on meals by 35 percent between November last year and January this year.

With the government effectively bankrupt as the national economy slumps deeper into crisis, government real spending on education has dropped sharply, and pupils have to endure classes of often 100 in run-down, unlighted buildings where repainting and window repairs have been virtually abandoned. The state of the system is in stark contrast to promises by President Robert Mugabe's government of "free education for all". Inflation is set to reach at least 70 percent this year, economists say, with no indication in sight that the regime will introduce economic and political reforms demanded by Western donors as conditions for aid.

From IRIN (UN), 3 April

Election Petition Hearing to Resume Next Month

Nairobi - Zimbabwe's opposition MDC petition hearings in which the party is challenging 37 results in last June's parliamentary election, have been postponed to late April, Saturday's 'Daily News' reported. So far, the High Court has delivered judgment in one case where Farai Maruzani of the MDC lost to ZANU-PF's Pearson Mbalekwa in Zvishavane. A number of judgments that were reserved are expected to be handed down when the court re-opens. One of them is the case in which Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president, is challenging Kenneth Manyonda's victory in Buhera North.

From African Eye (SA), 2 April

Village Banks Rescue Farmers

Harare - For five years Kudzaiashe Madiro of Chawanda communal lands about 60 km northwest of Harare tried to eke a living selling as little as five chickens a month. Today, he runs a thriving chicken business with 10 000 broilers and employs five people, thanks to a loan from a village bank.

"I had been looking for money to buy more chickens but I was scared to approach the banks in Harare because I didn't think they would give people like me money," Madiro said. He had gone to Chawanda Village Bank out of curiosity and walked away with a loan of Z$3 000, using his bedroom suite as collateral. He quickly paid the loan back and received another Z$10 000 using his father's four cattle as collateral. The village bank is one of 42 run by the National Association of Cooperatives Savings and Credit Unions of Zimbabwe (NASCUZ).

Madiro now earns Z$120 000 a month - a benefit accrued from a group of 18 communal farmers in Chawanda who started as a savings club in 1993 and then registered with NASCUZ in 1996 as a village bank to borrow money for operational costs such as fertilisers and pesticides. Said Chawanda bank manager Jacob Shava: "Most of the large commercial banks have shunned us. So people had problems and found it expensive and inconvenient to go all the way to Harare. We have a number of burial societies, small businesses who are affiliated to us, who need more than one signature so it is really expensive for more than one person to travel."

Another reason villagers are turning to village banks is that interest rates are too high at commercial banks where they hover at around 80 percent. There is runaway inflation of about 55 percent. Compounding the situation are the debilitating shortages of fuel and power and surging joblessness. Interest rates at Chawanda Village Bank are 20 percent and it varies at other village banks. "Most of these people have potential to grow but their biggest problem is the high interest rates. Another problem is lack of acceptable collateral," he said. Chawanda Village Bank accepts anything that is considered to be of value in a particular community as collateral, such as cattle, refrigerators and farm machinery.

The NASCUZ scheme targets semi and rural areas where a group of people pool their money together and then save and lend money to their members at competitive rates. The village banks are not registered as banks because they only cater for members. "We do not accept deposits from outsiders because we do not have adequate facilities to safeguard their money," said national co-ordinator of NASCUZ Alex Mushaike. He said the scheme aims to establish cash flow in the rural areas and avoid a cash flow from rural to urban areas. "The emphasis is on self reliance where members own the funds they invested into the establishment of the bank. They are controlled by members who raise money for the bank by buying shares which is deposited and earns interest when the money is borrowed by members," Mushaike explained.

Each bank operates according to its own needs and environment. It also determines not only interest rates or acceptable collateral but also the kind of products on offer. Shava's bank for instance offers loans for medical expenses, school fees payments, funeral expenses. Even a headmaster who wants to buy a television can get a loan. "We are in the process of introducing an educational loan so that parents can borrow money to pay school fees for their children," said Shava. He said the repayment rate was high. "This is largely because everyone here knows each other and can't run away," he explained. Village banks have become so popular that they are spreading to high-density urban areas. The community pays for the builder and materials to build the bank while NASCUZ trains the manager and subsidises his salary until the bank breaks even. NASCUZ then monitors each bank's performance regularly. NASCUZ has 38 000 members nationwide, most of whom are peasant farmers in poor, dry areas. Membership is expected to grow to 100 000 by the year 2003.

From The Star (SA), 3 April

First phase of withdrawal over - DRC allies

Harare - The military allies of the Kinshasa government have completed the first phase of a troop disengagement in the DRC, a spokesperson for Zimbabwe's army has said, denying claims to the contrary by the United Nations. Mbonisi Gatsheni said for the army on Monday that rebels fighting the Kinshasa government had attacked the allied troops during the disengagement process. The UN Observer Mission in the DRC said last week there had been no evidence of a withdrawal from the frontlines by forces from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, which have been bolstering government troops in their battle against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. However, it said there were reports that Rwandan forces and Rwandan-backed rebel fighters from the Congolese Rally for Democracy were pulling out from conflict zones.

The special rapporteur on human rights for the UN, Roberto Garreton, said in Geneva on Monday that President Joseph Kabila had made little progress on restoring human rights in the DRC since he took over the reins of government on January 26. Speaking before the commission in Geneva on Friday, Kabila said human rights would be fully restored in the DRC only once "troops of aggression" leave the country. He said the emergency regulations and restrictions on civil liberties that have been in place in the DRC since 1997 are necessary because of the continued existence of "an exceptional danger threatening the existence of the nation".

From The Sunday Independent (SA), 1 April

Monopoly on DRC wonder mineral ends

Kinshasa - Rebel authorities in the DRC announced on Saturday that they were scrapping a monopoly on exports of colombite tantalite, or coltan, the lucrative mineral that is allegedly fuelling the war in the east of the country. Coltan, an ore rich in the element tantalum, is the wonder mineral of the moment. In processed form, coltan is vital to the manufacture of advanced cellphones, jet engines, air bags, night-vision goggles, fibre-optics and, most of all, capacitors, the components that maintain an electric charge in a computer chip. Last Christmas, when shoppers fumed at the shortage of PlayStation 2 platforms the reason was a global shortage of the black sand.

An exclusive contract to export 100 tons of coltan every month was granted last November to the Somigl company, which offered $10 (about R80) a kilogram export duty to the rebels, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD). But in February Somigl bought only 27 tons and paid only $270 000 tax, say the RCD authorities, who blame smuggling for most of the shortfall. "We realise the monopoly isn't working so we've decided to get rid of it," said Dr Adolphe Onusumba, the president of the RCD. "We want to raise as much as possible from coltan so that we can realise our main objectives of saving lives, fixing hospitals and getting medicines for people in need."

Thousands of labourers digging and sifting black mud on the hillsides of eastern Congo would be glad to learn that the vast profits from their labours will have an impact on social services. At the village of Luruo in North Kivu, where coltan miners and their bosses say each digger makes between $2 and $5 a day, social services are virtually non-existent. Milenge Gasaza, the local teacher, said the school has closed down due to insecurity, and Justin Amani, the village pharmacist, appears to have run out of the most basic medicines. A few huts have been roofed with corrugated iron and some miners have taken second wives, said Emanuel Molindwa, a local priest, last weekend. "But living standards are worse than they were before the war," he said.

When war broke out in the Congo in August 1998 hardly anyone had heard of coltan and it was selling on the international market for less than 15 percent of its current price. "At that time no one could know what coltan would cost," said Onusumba, who denied UN reports that coltan is an implicit motive for the war. In the past 18 months the price has doubled and redoubled till it reached about $440 a kilogram last December, before settling at about $330. The miners see little of the proceeds. On average they might dig 5kg a month of coltan ore, which averages about 15 to 18 percent coltan. Each kilo sells for about $10 to the middlemen, who have been forced to sell to Somigl for $20 a kilo.

The product is partially refined, till it averages 20 to 50 percent coltan, and then exported to Kigali, the Rwandan capital, and from there to Europe. The value of the Congo's exported coltan ranges between $30 and $80 a kilo, said Nestor Kyimbi, the head of the RCD's mining department. The RCD said coltan raised more for them than gold or diamonds combined. Kyimbi estimated that about 100 to 150 tons had been exported legally or smuggled from the Congo each month since the middle of last year, a claim backed by Victor Ngezayo, the former president of Sakima, a United States-owned mining company in Kivu whose equipment has been confiscated by the rebels.

RCD figures suggest total proceeds from Congolese exports of the mineral could amount to $5,5-million to $8-million a month, with the companies exporting from Rwanda making further profits. Ngezayo believes the value per kilogram of the exports could be much higher. UN experts have been investigating how much the top people in Rwanda and the Congo benefit from coltan, and their report was due to be heard on Friday at the UN security council in New York. It may be no coincidence that Onusumba announced the end of Somigl's monopoly on the same day.

Politicians and security chiefs in Congo and Rwanda are essential partners for any company doing business in their territory, said Ngezayo, who said the Somigl monopoly was not intended to clamp down on smuggling but to encourage it, thereby netting more profits for an inner group of rebels and Rwandans who organise the smuggling themselves. It is a charge that Onusumba hardly bothers to deny. "I can't say yes or no," he said, when asked if the security chiefs were involved in smuggling. "I can't say that such and such a person is more involved in smuggling than others. We're living in a country where there is no respect for any normal value."

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, whose country's revenues from gold have risen tenfold since Ugandan troops moved into Congo in 1997, has estimated he can keep 20 000 soldiers in the field for just $3-million a month. President Joseph Kabila, whose army is thought to number about 70 000 men, was estimated to be spending $1-million a day on his war effort, including arms purchases, fuel and payments to Zimbabwe. Unlike the Ugandans and Rwandans Kabila is investing heavily in aircraft. A few million a month could go a long way towards financing the lightly armed Rwandan and Congolese forces, who live off the country in the regions that they occupy.

Whether the money is in fact spent that way, or lines the pockets of a few in power, is another question. Rwanda's policy is clearly to create a buffer zone to cut off the "negative forces" from their homeland in the hope that they will wither away in a foreign country. Analysts believe Rwanda's exploitation of the Congo has been more systematic than Uganda's, and much of the proceeds may well be channelled into maintaining a buffer zone. In the final analysis, exploiting mineral resources and maintaining border security look like inseparable objectives for the ethnic minority regime in Kigali.

From The Guardian (UK), 3 April

Further charges against Milosevic

Belgrade - The former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was faced with further legal proceedings last night when a second warrant was issued by the international tribunal in the Hague, this time for war crimes in Bosnia. The Serbian authorities also brought new charges of resisting arrest by force at the weekend, and masterminding the assassination of political opponents.

As the charges piled up, Momcilo Grubac, the federal justice minister, confirmed that he was putting the finishing touches to a bill covering Yugoslavia's future cooperation with the Hague tribunal. It could come into force by the end of next month. "There is no clause to prevent an indicted person being transferred to the Hague, even if a court case is already under way here," Mr Grubac said. Mr Milosevic had hoped to benefit from President Vojislav Kostunica's repeated promise not to transfer him to the Hague, and supporters have claimed that he was given such a guarantee before he surrendered early on Sunday morning. "I know nothing of any guarantees. I don't think anyone had the authority to negotiate about guarantees," Mr Grubac said.

Mr Milosevic and four colleagues, including Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian president, have already been indicted for war crimes in Kosovo. The UN's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, told an Italian newspaper yesterday that she would probably sign a warrant to arrest Mr Milosevic for crimes in Bosnia by the end of the month. Mr Milosevic is to be charged with inciting his bodyguards to shoot at officers trying to arrest him, General Sreten Lukic, Serbia's deputy interior minister said. The bodyguards wounded four policemen, one seriously, when the police charged the villa early on Saturday morning. The initial arrest warrant involved a summons on suspicion of abuse of power and corruption involving hundreds of millions of pounds.

Gen Lukic was in charge of police operations in Kosovo during the ethnic cleansing in 1999 and his name may figure on a secret indictment by the Hague tribunal. He showed reporters yesterday a vast cache of weapons found in Mr Milosevic's villa after he surrendered. They include a grenade launcher, 27 AK47 rifles, a sniper rifle, a machine gun, 40 hand grenades, several handguns, and 1,700 rounds, Reuters reported. "After the first police intervention, a number of the private security personnel left the residence... but Sinisa Vucinic and eight others stayed behind," Gen Lukic said. "Slobodan Milosevic had a 9mm Sig-Sauer gun and 25 bullets and he was showing it to negotiators and all those present saw the gun."

Gen Lukic said his staff were investigating which weapons were there illegally. "The two armoured personnel carriers belonged to the army," he said. The police are also trying to discover if the bodyguards and Mr Milosevic were planning an armed rebellion. Three bodyguards are in custody. Mr Milosevic's daughter Marija fired a gun as her father left for prison and the police are investigating what or whom she was shooting at. She is not under arrest. The former president's wife, Mira Markovic, is still living in the villa, under police guard. Investigators searching the premises found her sitting in her coat because the heating was still off: power and water were cut to force her husband to surrender.

Although the new law will allow him to order Mr Milosevic's transfer to the Hague as soon as it is in force, Mr Grubac said: "It would mean a lot for the rehabilitation of our legal system and courts to have him tried in Yugoslavia for war crimes. Our courts would show they can work properly even in the most difficult cases. The Hague tribunal was created as a substitute for national courts in countries where they were not working correctly." The Yugoslav government is also close to deciding whether or not to set up a truth commission, though it would not involve amnesty for serious crimes, as happens in the South African model, Mr Grubac said. He added that it would be best to have a regional commission for Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia, "but it's difficult to form that, because you can't count on cooperation from all three states".

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Zimbabwean experts to help fight foot-and-mouth in UK

4/3/01 8:31:43 AM (GMT +2)


Daily News Correspondent in Mutare

BRITAIN is considering hiring Zimbabwean veterinary surgeons to help it
tackle its foot-and-mouth crisis, government officials said yesterday.


Zimbabwe’s veterinary experts are considered among the world’s foremost
authorities on the disease.“I have received nothing official yet, but I am
aware there is such
correspondence coming to me,” Dr Stuart Hargreaves, the director of the
Department of Veterinary Services, told The Daily News. The department falls
under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement.“I am aware
that the UK is seeking veterinarians from throughout the world to assist
 it,” he said. “I believe a request will be made to this office.” Zimbabwe
has about 340 registered veterinarians.
There was no immediate comment from the British government.
The now six-week-old foot-and-mouth epidemic in Britain has led to the
slaughter of thousands of cattle, sheep and pigs.
The disease has turned large areas of the British countryside into
quarantined “no-go” areas, led to export bans, cost millions of dollars in
lost tourism and spread to Ireland, France and the Netherlands. The military
have been called in to help fight the outbreak.
Britain’s chief scientist has warned that half of Britain’s 62 million
livestock could be lost. The disease has forced British Prime Minister Tony
Blair to postpone a widely expected 3 May general election by a month to 7
June to enable him to concentrate on fighting the epidemic. “We now have in
place a massive upgrading of the practical means and resources to deal with
the disease,” he said. All cloven-hoofed animals are
susceptible to this highly contagious disease which is transmitted by
contact with infected animals or by the use of common grazing or drinking
areas. Symptoms include high temperature and blisters in the mouth and
around the hoof margin. The Zimbabwean government, for its part, is not
taking any chances against the disease and is now monitoring all
international aircraft into the country.
Locally, under new measures announced by Lands and Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made, all agricultural, livestock and wildlife products entering
through Zimbabwe’s borders will be inspected.

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Nzarayebani dies

4/3/01 8:31:01 AM (GMT +2)

Staff Reporter

One of Zanu PF’s most outspoken politicians, Lazarus Nzarayebani, has died.

A former Member of Parliament for Mutare South constituency, Nzarayebani died yesterday at the Metropolitan Clinic in Harare at around 11.30am. He succumbed
to a long illness.
In the early 1980s when it was still unheard of for Zanu PF politicians to criticise or challenge the party, Nzarayebani rose to fame, alongside Sidney Malunga of Bulawayo and Dzikamayi Mavhaire of Masvingo, for their daring stance in criticising both Zanu PF and President Mugabe.
A controversial politician who served three terms as MP, Nzarayebani was born 52 years ago in Munyarari Village in the Zimunya District of Mutare.
Moses Mvenge, a close friend of Nzarayebani and former Zanu PF parliamentary chief whip, said yesterday Zimbabwe had lost a man committed to the good of the country.
“He was among the first group of parliamentarians to be vocal in Parliament,” said Mvenge. “He openly tried to tell President Mugabe that the country was taking a wrong political and economic direction.”
Mvenge said it was unfortunate that Mugabe did not take heed of the concerns raised by Nzarayebani and some of his parliamentary contemporaries.
Last year, Nzarayebani made headlines when he said although he had lost his bid to return to Parliament, he would run for the Presidency if Mugabe decided to run again.
Nzarayebani said then: “I am going to run for President as an independent in 2002 unless Zanu PF finds a reasonable candidate.” Nzarayebani began his education
at Munyarari Primary School, after which he proceeded to Highfield High School, Harare, for his secondary education.
In 1971, he joined the United Theological College where he was trained as a priest.
After he was ordained, he served at Hilltop United Methodist Church in Sakubva before moving to the Rupinda Circuit in Honde Valley.
From Honde Valley, Nzarayebani joined the armed struggle. He received military training and fought alongside Zanla combatants.
He survived the historic shooting at Chimoio base in Mozambique. After the Lancaster House conference, which brought the armed liberation struggle to an end, Nzarayebani campaigned for Zanu PF in the 1980 election.
After the election he joined the army, but was demobilised soon afterwards.
He then enrolled at the University of Zimbabwe and later taught at Tafara High School.
Nzarayebani was appointed MP for Mutare South after the then MP for the area, Simba Makoni, now the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, was assigned to the Southern African Development Community as executive secretary.
He rose to become a member of the powerful central committee of Zanu PF.
In the 1985 election, he retained his seat in Parliament and held onto it until last year’s parliamentary election when he lost to Sydney Mukwecheni of the Movement for Democratic Change.
Nzarayebani is survived by his wife, Joyleen, and four children. Mourners are gathered at Number 13 Dougal Road, The Grange, Chisipite.

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Kangaroo courts of 88 Manica Road have been revived

4/3/01 8:37:30 AM (GMT +2)

Janah Ncube

THE real reason why the tourism industry has dropped by more than 60 percent in
activity and why we are not receiving foreign investment is not because Farmer Brown, a third generation Zimbabwean whose ancestry is British, owns a farm in Bindura.

It is not because of the existence of the Movement for Democratic Change.
The truth behind why so many of our skilled nationals, black and white alike, have joined the great trek from Zimbabwe is because we have reached a stage where one’s life is endangered, while there is no law to protect or provide retribution and/or justice.
Soon after independence, in the early 1980s, there was a place well known to many in Harare called 88 Manica Road.
If you had a domestic dispute or a personal grievance against anyone, you went to 88 Manica Road.
It was not an arm of any of the official law enforcement agents, but was an arm of “the party” – Zanu PF.
They would hold “kangaroo courts” and would ruthlessly mete out instant justice. They would deal with the persons complained about. They exercised their own laws.
More than 15 years later where three whole ministries are allocated and dedicated to deal with issues of security, defence and law and order, we see again a parallel of this law, which is linked to the same political party.
In a situation where a Ministry of Defence, a Ministry of Home Affairs and a Ministry of State Security exist one, is baffled by the increased infringements by a small group of former freedom fighters who are masquerading all over Zimbabwe as a law unto themselves.
Many of us remember war veterans from their 1997 meeting with President Mugabe which resulted in them being awarded $50 000 each in gratuities and a monthly pension of $2 000. This was when the dollar started its plunge. It has never recovered since.
The war veterans surpassed their own reputation when they invaded commercial farms immediately after the February 2000 referendum on the rejected government-sponsored draft constitution.
They first invaded white-owned farms and moved on to black-owned residential areas, creating chaos all over the country.
Dumiso Dabengwa, who was then Minister of Home Affairs, did not know what to do.
He would give one directive, but his master would counter him. This way war veterans were given the liberty to continue with their invasions, plunder and terror campaign.
Zanu PF openly used the war veterans as campaign tools for the June 2000 parliamentary election. They killed without remorse, raped women and young girls without shame, maimed and burnt farm workers and rural folk – our brothers and sisters. They looted property and vandalised most of it with impunity. That is when the great trek from Zimbabwe by both black and white began.
The economy started to disintegrate and soon after that, we saw the closure of many businesses, small and large.
Productivity suffered as a result of the breakdown of the rule of law.
Today hardly a day passes without a diary of the lawlessness of criminal activities by war veterans.One is even more baffled, disappointed and angered by Zimbabweans who continue to engage them in order to “solve” their problems.
I question the sincerity of the respect paid to war veterans. I am puzzled by the attention given to them by those who “hire” them Last month there was a report about staff at The Chronicle in Bulawayo seeking to engage war veterans to settle their dispute with their editor and the newspapers’ management.
Pakistani investors lost revenue from their commuter taxis after their employees sought the help of war veterans.
Now war veterans are no longer vagrants on farm outskirts, but are moving into boardrooms because of their “effectiveness”.
This is confirmed by the case of Joseph Chinotimba who stormed into a board meeting of a privately owned company and demanded the reinstatement of retrenched workers after the workers sought his “proficient tactics”.
More workers are seeking the services of war veterans in an effort to deal with varied industrial disputes.
The predicament of the former Kadoma Bakery workers is one case in point.
These were retrenched because of viability problems. What these retrenched workers should do is engage in action which fights the causes of their job loss.
The workers are deliberately ignoring the real reason. They are engaging war veterans in the mistaken belief that they will solve their grievances.
Instead of being progressive and civilised, we see our nation regressing. We are being taken back to the 1980s and 88 Manica Road.
The indiscipline by war veterans has overstepped the limits civilised society can tolerate. They are the same people now firing district council staff, they are closing local government offices, and, in some instances, closing our children’s schools, firing teachers and replacing them with temporary teachers they themselves hire (never mind that most of them cannot read).
Their invasions have extended to orphanages. Is this what they went to war for?
We have seen the government incorporate the war vets and try to legitimise them as a reserve force in the army. This has also seen many of them being promoted to senior
positions in the police force.
Allowing these thugs into the army shows the hypocrisy of the government.
Where are the war veterans getting their arms and ammunition from? Where are those camped in farms all over the country getting their food supplies from?
Zimbabwe will pay the price of inaction, as did the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda and many others who let the law of the jungle supersede the law of their country. We are already beginning to pay for it.
Though the flame is flickering in the gusty winds around us, it has not yet been extinguished.

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If the cap fits, let them wear it

4/3/01 8:46:24 AM (GMT +2)

Susan Lennox

TWO items caught my eye and gave me cause to laugh, although certainly not with a great amount of gusto. The alleged uttering of one George Potgeiter on the President’s manhood is known worldwide. I often am asked if it's true, so it’s no State secret!

My answer, however, is not for a family paper such as yours.
Such utterings are apparently going to cause “god” to tumble from his throne to wallow in “hatred, contempt and ridicule”. The exalted leader has done many things this past year and a half to put himself in any of those positions all by himself.
Secondly, I was concerned by the pathetic utterings of misinformation by Professor Jonathan Moyo, saying that The Daily News is trying to portray the African as “a permanent, incorrigible buffoon”.
Well, sir, you said it and if that shoe fits you and all others in the present “government” of Zimbabwe, well then wear it, but please don”t dare to lump all Africans in one mould – how could Nelson Mandela ever be compared to some of the brutal African leaders, past and present, who rule with hod-nailed boots?

Susan Lennox
British Columbia
Canada