Zim Online
Sat 22 April 2006
BULAWAYO - The Zimbabwean government
plans to compel internet service
providers (IPS) to install equipment worth
billions of dollars to enable the
state to snoop on online communication,
according to a proposed new law.
Under the Interception of
Communications Bill, the state will be
empowered to monitor and intercept
internet communications between citizens
while ISPs will be required to buy
and install software that will enable the
interception of information by
state security agents.
But the Harare authorities who are battling
a severe six-year old
economic crisis, are said to be too broke to fund the
huge operation.
Section Three of the controversial Bill says that
internet service
providers should have facilities to re-route user
information to the
monitoring centre that will be monitored by state
agents.
"A telecommunication service provider is
required to install hardware
and software facilities and devices to enable
interception of
communications," reads part of the Bill.
Internet service providers who spoke to ZimOnline yesterday criticised
the
proposals saying they had no capacity to raise the required funds to buy
the
equipment and software.
The service providers said the interception
equipment alone without
the software, costs in excess of five million rand
(about Z$180 billion).
"If this Bill is enacted into law in its
current state, most of the
ISPs will be out of business because we cannot
afford to buy the equipment
which is over five million rand," said an
internet service provider who
refused to be named for fear of
victimisation.
Last week, Zimbabwe's privately owned media resolved
to challenge in
court the proposed new law saying it was an unreasonable
piece of
legislation that should not be allowed in a democratic
country.
Zimbabwe already has some of the worst media laws in the
world, with
journalists for example, being liable to two-year jail terms if
they are
caught practising without a licence from the state's Media and
Information
Commission.
At least four newspapers including the
biggest daily, the Daily News,
have been shut down in the past three years
for violating the country's
tough media laws. The World Association of
Newspapers says Zimbabwe is among
the three worst countries for journalists.
- ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 22 April
2006
HARARE - Two candidates from Zimbabwe's divided main
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party will slug it out with
a candidate
from the ruling ZANU PF party in a by-election in Budiriro next
month after
the Nomination Court accepted their papers.
At the
close of the nomination court at 4pm yesterday, presiding
officer, Simon
Muchemenye, said three candidates had been duly nominated to
stand in the
election scheduled for May 20 to fill in a seat left vacant
following the
death of legislator for the area, Gilbert Shoko in February.
Emmanuel Chisvuure will represent a faction of the MDC led by Morgan
Tsvangirai with former legislator for Harare South, Gabriel Chaibva
representing the other faction of the party led by Arthur Mutambara while
ZANU PF will be represented by Jeremiah Bvirindi during the
by-election.
This is the first time that the two warring factions
of the MDC will
lock horns in a high-profile by-election since the break-up
of the
opposition over the senate election late last year.
The
two factions have since held separate congresses earlier this year
dealing a
serious blow to efforts to reconcile the two factions.
Chisvuure
said he was confident of winning the seat.
"The people of Budiriro
will not allow a reject (Chaibva) from Harare
South to disturb them. I don't
want to mention ZANU PF because the party is
a walkover," said
Chisvuure.
Chaibva, who was absent at the nomination court, could
not be reached
for comment on the election.
The MDC, which
presented the greatest challenge to ZANU PF's
stranglehold on power during
the past six years, is split into two warring
factions after several leaders
broke away from Tsvangirai after disagreeing
over last year's senate
election.
But Tsvangirai still appears to have retained grassroots
support
following the huge turnout at his rallies. Mutambara's faction has
struggled
with very few people attending his rallies. During the past two
weeks, his
faction suffered further blows after several leaders defected to
Tsvangirai's
camp. - ZimOnline
From News24 (SA), 21 April
Craig Bishop
Durban - A Zimbabwe opposition party MP
has applied for asylum in South
Africa claiming that his life is in danger
from state security forces.
Former MP for the opposition party, MDC, Roy
Bennett fled Zimbabwe in March
and is currently in SA, after the state-run
Herald newspaper alleged that he
was linked through the discovery of an arms
cache to a plot to topple Robert
Mugabe's Zanu PF government. Bennett's
Gauteng legal consultant, Danie
Fourie confirmed that Bennett was "safe, but
unwilling to talk to media
during a delicate negotiation phase." Bennett
applied through Lawyers for
Human Rights for international asylum, claiming
that his life was in danger
from state security forces, including the
Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO). The Witness is in possession of a
letter dated April 06, 2006 from
Amnesty International's Africa regional
programme director, Kolawole
Olaniyan to the South African department of
Home Affairs supporting
Bennett's application. The letter concludes that
field research, carried out
over six years by Amnesty, confirmed that
Bennett's life was in danger and
provided "compelling grounds" that he
should be granted immediate
international protection.
The
application follows media allegations on March 08 that Bennett was
linked to
the discovery in March of an arms cache on the property of 1980's
security
force boss turned professional hunter, Michael Hitschmann.
Hitschmann was
arrested at 17:00 on March 06 at a fast-food outlet in
Harare. Police
discovered one AK 47, four FN rifles, seven Uzis, 19 pistols
and revolvers
and 11 shotguns all unconcealed at his house in Mutare, some
240 kms east of
Harare. Hitschmann, who is still in police custody, claimed
that he was a
legitimate arms dealer, and that he had licenses for each
weapon. Sources
told the Witness this week that Hitschmann's defence counsel
told the Mutare
court during an unsuccessful bail application hearing that
the arrest was a
state-orchestrated ploy to shut down MDC meetings and
rallies by fuelling
fears of social unrest. In addition, the court heard
that Hitschmann had
been unable to produce licenses for the weapons as he
had been kept in
police custody. Seven other men, including MDC Defence
spokesman, retired
army Major Giles Mutsekwe were also arrested and
subsequently released.
Several of the detainees later claimed that they had
been tortured by
security officers into falsely implicating Bennett with a
coup plot
connected to the arms find.
The Amnesty letter points out that
Bennett, his family and his workers had
all been subjected to a six year
campaign of intimidation. "Since 2000
workers on his farm have been
subjected to beatings and torture, including
rape, both by state security
agents and Zanu PF supporters." On April 09,
2004, Bennett was evicted form
his farm in the Chimanimani district in
defiance of court orders prohibiting
acquisition of the farm by the state.
Bennett was sentenced to one year in
Chikurubi prison in October 2004 after
an incident in May that year when he
pushed justice, parliament and legal
affairs minister, Patrick Chinamasa to
the floor, during a heated exchange
in parliament in which Chinamasa branded
Bennett's father and grandfather as
"thieves and murderers". Amnesty
questioned the conviction, arguing that the
whole process, which took place
under Zimbabwe's Privileges, Immunities and
Powers of Parliament Act was
"patently politically motivated and failed to
meet even the most basic
standards for a fair trial." Amnesty's letter
states that there had been a
complete lack of independence and impartiality
"a grossly disproportionate
punishment and denial of any right of appeal."
Asked if being seen to
be sheltering an alleged conspirator could sour South
African diplomatic
relations with Zimbabwe, Foreign Affairs Communications
director, Nomfalelo
Kota declined to comment. She referred all questions
about the status of
Bennett's application to the department of Home Affairs.
Home Affairs
spokesperson, Nkosana Sibuye told the Witness that the
department was
currently processing a backlog of some 110 000 refugee
applications. "Being
a member of the MDC does not in any way disadvantage
Bennett's application
for asylum. The allegations against Bennett have to be
dealt with by the
Zimbabwe government. We will apply our own rules in terms
of the Geneva
Convention and the Refugees Act," he added.
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 15 April
Godwin Gandu
A farm meant to be a showpiece for
the Zimbabwean government's land reform
programme is lying derelict because
three senior Zanu PF ministers have
looted essential equipment. Members of
the military disclosed this to
Vice-President Joice Mujuru during her tour
of Manicaland recently. Army
units are routinely deployed by the government
to run appropriated
enterprises and intimidate the populace. Kondozi farm in
Odzi was once a
thriving horticultural enterprise that exported fresh
vegetables to various
European markets and earned an annual US$15million
dollars in foreign
exchange, employing about 5 000 people as seasonal
workers. The farm was
appropriated by the state two years ago. Last weekend,
Colonel Ronnie
Mutizhe, the deputy army commander of 3 Brigade now charged
with running the
farm, told Mujuru that Agriculture Minister Joseph Made,
Transport and
Communications Minister Christopher Mushowe and State Security
Minister
Didymus Mutasa had all appropriated various pieces of agricultural
equipment
from the farm.
Mujuru, accompanied by six Cabinet
ministers and other senior Zanu PF
officials, was on a trip to assess
progress of the state's land reform
programme. Mutizhe told her it would be
a miracle if the farm, which is now
producing maize and sorghum, managed to
harvest any of the 40ha of maize
under cultivation. "The maize wilted
because we no longer have irrigation
equipment," said Mutizhe. This
infuriated Mujuru, who demanded to know what
had happened to the irrigation
equipment there. "It's not something I can
say in public, Your Excellency, I
need to discuss it with you in private,"
replied Mutizhe. Mujuru would have
none of that. "Let the cameras roll, I
want you to tell me now what happened
to the equipment.I'm the
vice-president," said Mujuru. Mutizhe reluctantly
admitted that the pump was
taken by Mushowe, who had "not returned it
since". He added that "another
minister, Nyathi, took the tractors". When
Mujuru demanded to know who
Nyathi was, he responded: "It's the Minister of
Intelligence, Didymus
Mutasa, Your Excellency." Mutizhe also alleged that
the provincial governor,
Tinaye Chigudu, had removed various other tractors,
saying: "It's for that
reason that we are unable to do much on this
farm."
Owners Piet de Klerk and Edwin Moyo were kicked off the farm
by Made in May
2004 with the support of erstwhile information minister
Jonathan Moyo and
Mushowe. Vice-President Joseph Msika tried to stop the
government from
acquiring the property in 2004 and, at the time, described
Moyo, Made and
Mushowe as "immoral little boys" for their actions. Moyo and
De Klerk have
since relocated to Mozambique. Mujuru told the crowd that such
"behaviour
was unacceptable" and she "would take measures to ensure that
production was
restored". Deputy Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere described
the looting of
the equipment as "corruption" of the highest order. "If it
had been small
fish that had taken this equipment, they would have been
jailed and even
denied bail, Your Excellency," said Kasukuwere. "But it's
the chiefs, and
nothing will ever happen to them." Women's Affairs Minister
Oppah Muchinguri
said the farm was in a deplorable state because of greed,
adding that she
was shocked her peers had destroyed a previously vibrant
property. The once
bustling business complex on the farm is now derelict,
empty of equipment
and with storage facilities stripped bare.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
THE
government of Zimbabwe announced last month it will soon be
introducing laws
allowing it to snoop on e-mails, telephone calls and other
communications,
all seen as a bid to crush rising opposition and dissent.
This law
will impact heavily on the media, the opposition, dissident
Zanu PF members
and legislators as the succession rift grows, business
people and all
thought to be against Robert Mugabe's continued rule.
The
proposed legislation - the Interception of Communications Bill -
will give
powers to Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation, the
Commissioner of
police and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to spy on citizens'
phones and
e-mails and use the information gleaned through spying for its
operations.
The information obtained in this way this will now be admissible
as evidence
in court.
If passed into law, the bill reverses a Supreme Court
ruling in 2004,
which declared Sections 98 and 103 of the Posts and
Telecommunications (PTC)
Act unconstitutional because they violated the
constitution. The full bench
of the Supreme Court upheld contentions by the
Law Society of Zimbabwe that
the presidential powers provided for in the act
to intercept mail, telephone
calls, e-mail and any other form of
communication were unconstitutional.
Zimbabwe will actually become a police
state if the Bill is passed into law.
Countries like South Africa have
similar laws but carry fines of up to two
million Rands is anyone abuses the
system and snoop on private
communications with state approval. Activists
are worried the Interception
of Communication law will be abused in Zimbabwe
to give the Zanu PF
government and urge above its critics by snooping on
their plans and
pre-emptying them or even using information to intimidate
journalists and
the opposition.
Section 20 provides for freedom
of expression, freedom to receive and
impart ideas and freedom from
interference with one's correspondence.
The law will authorise the
minister of transport and communications to
issue a warrant to state
functionaries to order the interception of
information if there are
"reasonable grounds for the minister to think that
there is a threat to the
safety of the country".
For those who want to peruse the Bill, you
can find it in our
documents section. It has not yet been gazetted but has
been uploaded to
facilitate debate.
If you would like to
share your thoughts and recommendations with
civil society organisations
committed to advocacy around the Bill in
Zimbabwe, please copy your email
communications to the following:
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR) - zlhr@icon.co.zw
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum - admin@hrforum.co.zw
Kubatana.net
- info@kubatana.org.zw
Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) - monitors@mmpz.org.zw
Media
Institute of Southern Africa - Zimbabwe - misa@mweb.co.zw
National Association
of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) -
tmuzondo@nango.org.zw
BBC
Zimbabwe's white
farmers say they have been invited to apply for
land - in an apparent U-turn
by the government which has seized their land.
All but 300 of the 4,000
white farmers have been forced off their land
since President Robert Mugabe
started his "fast-track" land reform in 2000.
A farmers' leader
says some 200 applications have already been made
and more are coming
in.
Critics say the reforms have devastated the economy and led to
massive
hunger.
Foreign currency
Much of the
formerly white-owned land is no longer being productively
used - either
because the beneficiaries have no experience of farming or
they lack finance
and tools.
Many farms were wrecked when they were invaded by
government
supporters.
The government has admitted that the
exercise has been beset by
corruption.
But Mr Mugabe blames
Zimbabwe's economic problems on a plot by Western
countries to topple
him.
"There is an understanding that our members want to play a
significant
role in agriculture production, food security and generation of
foreign
currency for the country," Trevor Gifford, Commercial Farmers' Union
vice-president told Reuters news agency.
"It is within this
context that we were invited to submit the
applications and I do know that
instructions have been given to provincial
land committees to process the
applications and we are now awaiting
responses," he said.
'No
going back'
Didymus Mutasa, the minister in charge of land reform,
could not be
reached for comment.
But on Wednesday he said:
"There is definitely no going back on our
policy on land."
He
also said that 99-year leases for commercial farms would be
distributed by
June, which he hoped would lead to higher agricultural
output.
Earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told the BBC News
website that any Zimbabwean was free to apply for land, whether white or
black, as long as they used it.
Under colonial rule, the best
agricultural land was reserved for
whites - a policy which Mr Mugabe says he
is trying to reverse.
But many white-owned farms were highly
mechanised, productive
businesses which formed the backbone of the
economy.
The opposition says Mr Mugabe is using the land to buy
votes.
By
Tichaona Sibanda
21 April 2006
The economic recovery
blueprint unveiled this week 'will never work'
unless Robert Mugabe
overhauls the way he governs the country, a political
commentator said on
Friday. On Wednesday Economic Development minister
Rugare Gumbo said
government was hunting for investment and cash to pump
into a massive
economic revival program.
The ambitious program aims to stabilise
the economy within the next
nine months. Every three months the equivalent
of US$2.5 billion would be
sought in cash and investments to revive key
sectors of the economy.
Political commentator Bekithemba Mhlanga
voiced doubts that the
program will ever take off the ground unless there is
an implicit admission
or statement to say the political climate will
change.
'Unless the government knows something that the rest of
Zimbabweans
don't know, I don't see how they can be able to pump US$7.5
billion into the
country within nine months,' Mhlanga said.
The
Blueprint also seeks to reduce the country's debt and restore its
image
abroad. Mhlanga said it would be difficult to transform the economy as
long
as there were fundamental problems to do with structures, policies and
the
way the country is governed.
'I see no other way of stabilising the
economy outside the political
context. The reason why investment hasn't
flown into the country is because
people are afraid of property rights, they
are afraid human rights abuses
and they are also afraid of social toxicity
in the air in Zimbabwe at the
moment,' he said.
The country is
suffering its worst economic crisis since independence
in 1980, with acute
shortages of hard currency, food, fuel and essential
imports. About 3.5
million Zimbabweans have fled political persecution and
economic hardships
at home and are now living and working abroad.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Bill Saidi
THE 26th independence
anniversary celebrations on Tuesday 18 April
were not as lavish as the
Silver Jubilee bash last year. I remember someone
at the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe announcing rather blandly, a few weeks after
the last drop of
whisky had been quaffed, that the country was facing a
crisis: there was
little foreign currency left.
I mentioned this to a friend from a
foreign country. I wondered aloud
what kind of government would spend the
taxpayers' hard-earned cash on what,
in the end, was just a shindig, when
they must have known, having looked at
the books, that there would be very
little cash left in the kitty after the
last foreign head of state had
left.
My friend said the government would probably hit back with
this robust
response: the people deserved to celebrate their 25 years of
independence.
It would be unconscionable to deny them this grand
party.
The fuel shortage followed shortly after this. There was much
gnashing
of teeth among the same people for whom the party had been held:
there was a
terrifying transport crisis. The loss in productivity everywhere
was
incalculable.
Like most things this government has done
since independence, the
decision to hold the mother of all parties during
the Silver Jubilee was
based on emotion, and not reason. A reasonable
decision would have been to
scale down the festivities, on the logical
grounds that there was just not
enough foreign and even local currency for
such a grand party.
Moreover, a reasonable decision would have
taken account of the fact
that productivity in all spheres, having begun its
decline after the farm
invasions of 2000, would not be helped by this
senseless extravagance. But
most political decisions in Zimbabwe since 1980
have not been inspired by
reason, but rather by emotion.
The
latest example relates to new proposed legislation on the
ownership of
mines. Everyone, including those people closely involved in
this rather
hare-brained idea, appreciate that there will be a decline in
investment all
round once that law becomes effective. But the emotional
drive is
irresistible: ' we own the land, which has the mines with the
precious
minerals. We should be paid for this: the investors may make their
profits,
but we should get the larger share of the proceeds.'
In the final
analysis, the potential investor is being told: "Look,
take it or leave it."
Most of them will leave it. Not many of them are
philanthropists in the
mould of Bill Gates. They want a return on their
investment, a good return.
Admittedly, there are sharks out there, investors
who are determined to take
and take and take and not put anything back in.
Most countries have
a gradualist method of ensuring they reap maximum
profits from their natural
resources. They allow the investors a period of
grace, a time for them to
make reasonable profits, before "the owners of the
land" take
over.
Talking of the land brings us to the land reform programme,
an
emotional roller coaster that threatens to plunge the economy into an
abyss
of non-productivity. Six years down the line, nobody argues against
the
theory that, more than the droughts, the disruption caused by the land
invasions was responsible for much of the decline in food production in this
country. Take the dairy industry: an expert told us recently that Zimbabwe
had established one of the most stable dairy industries in the region, going
back 45 years. He said the infrastructure that had been "left behind: by the
farmers could be resuscitated and made use of by the "new
farmers".
Not once did this expert spell out what had happened: the
people, who
had, for 45 years, developed this thriving dairy industry, had
been kicked
out during the farm invasions. In the six years that they have
not been
here, the industry had almost ceased to exist.
Again,
had the politicians curbed their emotions in 2000 and decided
on a
step-by-step programme of the farm take-overs, there probably would
have
been much less disruption than there was. My theory, which I have had
no
opportunity to check with Sigmud Freud, is that emotion is unlike
passion,
which some of our politicians insist drives them to perform such
so-called
heroic works for their country and their people.
My definition of
emotion does not come from Freud or any of the great
psycho-analysts. It
comes from the humble dictionary and says: disturbance
of mind, mental
sensation or state; instinctive feeling as opposed to
reason. Any account of
the liberation struggle, given by President Robert
Mugabe, his two
vice-presidents or the Speaker of Parliament, John Nkomo, is
bound to be
emotional. Unfortunately, they seem to bring the same volume of
emotion into
a discussion of the economy or agriculture or the future of the
mining
industry.
This explains, in part, why Simba Makoni, could not last
as a cabinet
minister in Mugabe's government. His cold, calculated proposal
for the
devaluation of the dollar was devoid of emotion. Mugabe must have
been
flabbergasted. The Marxist-Leninist in him protested at the inherently
capitalist logic behind the proposal.
Today, even the RBZ
governor, Gideon Gono, can do little to rescue the
Zimdolar from its
near-moribund state. In fact, there is very little chance
of the economy
"turning around" until Zimbabwe returns to the basics: a
readmission into
the international financial community. The "Look East"
policy, touted, as an
alternative to the "Look West" policy of the early
years of independence is
not premised on an entirely solid foundation. Both
India and China enjoy
healthy trade with the United States.
In China's case, while
Zimbabwe is "looking east", China is actually
"looking West". This week, the
Chinese president, Hu Jitao, was in the
United States. His first meeting was
not with George W. Bush, but with Bill
Gates, the Microsoft
billionaire.
Chairman Mao would be aghast at what Hu is doing -
supping with the
capitalist devils and trying to beat them at their own
game. Would Hu
possibly mention Zimbabwe in his talks with Bush? Would he
put in a good
word for Comrade Mugabe, perhaps so that Bush can end the
"illegal
sanctions" which Zimbabwe claims have crippled its
economy?
The origin of the bad blood between Zimbabwe and the West
is steeped
in the Mugabe government's emotional attachment to the history of
the
liberation struggle. If Zanu PF had reacted with reason to the emergence
of
the Movement for Democratic Change, there would have been no need for the
outrage, which followed the MDC's
sterling performance in the 2000
parliamentary elections.
A large number of voters thought the MDC
stood a good chance of
presenting them with a development programme that
would improve their lives
better than anything that Zanu PF had ever offered
them since 1980: they
were prepared to change horses. But Zanu PF would
have none of it:
emotionally, the party could not adjust to being an
also-ran, second best,
of not being king of heap.
As long as
Mugabe and Zanu PF embrace this emotional attachment to the
origins of the
nation of Zimbabwe, then we can forget about democracy for
many, many years
to come.
Politics in Zimbabwe must now be anchored on reason and not
emotion.
The dangers of continuing on this emotional path have been evident
for some
time. They have brought us to the present crisis, where the
government
prints money, which contributes little to solving the problem of
shortages -
of everything, from good governance to honest
politicians.
The Namibian
Friday, April 21, 2006 -
TANGENI AMUPADHI
A FEW months ago on a
farm near the town of Banket in Western
Zimbabwe, one of my friends saw a
man with a whip on a ploughing tractor.
It soon
became obvious the new black farmer was whipping oxen pulling
the tractor to
till the land.
The farm is one of many expropriated in the last
five or six years
during President Robert Mugabe's so-called "fast track"
programme to hand
land to his country's black citizens.
The
scene of oxen pulling a tractor may seem surreal, but it is true.
In fact, there are many similar experiences.
Mugabe's desperate
tricks to cling to power have backfired on ordinary
Zimbabweans.
I saw first-hand on a whirlwind Easter holiday
what can be described
as nothing but hell for the poor (the blacks for whom
Mugabe allegedly
appropriated white-owned farms).
As you may
guessed, the tractor had no diesel.
The most likely reason is that
the resettled black farmer has no money
to buy diesel or other implements to
maintain production on the land.
But it could also simply be that
the farmer could not find any diesel
to buy.
Fuel stations are
the most inactive businesses in Zimbabwe.
My journey began in
Windhoek on Friday morning, 14 April, via Maun and
Francistown in
Botswana.
Most of us would be aware of the hardships in Zimbabwe
just from
reading news or having experience of personal visits in the
past.
But a harsh reminder hit me as two kind Zimbabwean men who
gave me a
lift stopped at a Spar supermarket in the last town in Botswana
before the
Plumtree border post.
Their shopping cart contained
10 kg of rice, one litre of cooking oil,
2 kg of washing powder, two loaves
of bread and deodorant, all of which took
an hour of picking up and putting
back things they wished to buy but could
not fit into their 100 Pula
budget.
Used to the Namibian dollar and aware of the fact that the
Botswana
Pula is strong, the goods seemed a little too
expensive.
But the two men assured me they were not only a great
deal cheaper
than in Zimbabwe, but that they might also not find those
products back home
in Harare.
Having emptied two 50-litre and
one 20-litre drum of diesel into the
bakkie, the drive to Zimbabwe got
underway.
At Plumtree border post everyone else (all five
Zimbabweans in the
vehicle) had little trouble getting through
immigration.
They were then reminded to pay 100 000 Zimbabwean
dollars (N$3) as
import duty for the rice.
It is an apparent
attempt to discourage people from taking rice,
flour, maize meal and other
such commodities into the country, apparently
because they are available
there.
One Zimbabwean remarked to the customs officials that it
must cost
more than Z$100 000 to print the paper, affix a stamp and fill out
forms in
triplicate.
He agreed, but that's the
law.
Having been warned of the Zimbabwean government's allergy to
journalists, I tried to soften the immigration official's keen interest in
my passport by describing myself as a "writer".
"What type of
writer are you?" he asked.
"A journalist and
researcher.
I write a lot of different things," I said, by which
time the two men
who had offered me a lift had already explained that I came
from a friendly
country.
The immigration officer would not be
fooled.
He filled in my name on a form forbidding me from "writing
anything
about Zimbabwe because you are just a visitor and have no right to
work".
He also warned that any writing during or after the trip
would lead to
my being banned from entering Zimbabwe again.
So,
here we go.
About 50 km from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's fuel crisis was
telling.
A car that was pulling a bakkie carrying several drums of
fuel had
left the road and crashed into a ditch and motorists and other
passers-by
stopped to look or to help.
The journey
continued.
My first purchase in Zimbabwe was in Bulawayo, 100 km
from Plumtree.
It was a Nando's quarter chicken and chips - lemon
and herb flavour.
It cost Z$590 000 (N$18)! The cooldrink was Z$70
000 (N$2).
I had to borrow the money, having carefully avoided the
black-market
currency exchange for fear of arrest.
After all,
we hear Mugabe's secret service is everywhere.
Although I had been
to Zimbabwe three years earlier, the price stunned
me.
Three
years ago, a Nandos's half chicken and chips cost about Z$8 000.
It
should not really have been such a shock, considering I was aware
the
Zimbabwe government measured the inflation rate at over 913%.
But
still...
So, how often in a month do they raise prices? "Aaah, my
brother,"
said a woman going to Gweru with the same lift, "you will get into
a taxi in
the morning which costs Z$35 000 (N$1) and by the time you come
back late
evening they will tell you the price has gone up to Z$100 000!"
Some friends
told a story of a man who went into a shop to buy
beer.
When he came to the till, he realised he had brought enough
money to
buy two beers.
He went to the back of the store to get
another beer.
By the time he returned to the till, the price had
gone up.
He could only afford one beer! Internet provider fees rose
from Z$300
000 to Z$1 million in a month.
A teacher friend I
travelled with says their salary is Z$5 million a
month.
As if
that is not enough of an insult, the salary is paid three months
late.
It seems the government does not even have money to buy
ink and paper
to print the worthless money.
The government has
discarded the official currency and prints "bearer
cheques" in denominations
of Z$10 000, Z$20 000 and Z$50 000.
Most of these notes have
expired but that does not bother anyone.
Trade goes
on.
In Harare, a taxi driver tells me he charges Z$1 million from
the city
centre to the Borrowdale suburb where I was going.
I
negotiate to pay Z$800 000, careful not to squander the Z$2 million
my host
had given me as equivalent to N$50.
The taxi driver says if he
makes Z$10 million a day, business has been
extremely good.
Tourists who used to be his customer base have stopped going to
Zimbabwe.
Even the Chinese, whose packets of sweets and
biscuits dominate store
shelves, have cut their travel back home to fellow
communist pretenders (a
drop of 70 percent over the past year).
The radio in the taxi announces that citizens should go to the stadium
with
pride to celebrate the 26th independence anniversary the next day (18
April).
"What are we going to celebrate?," asks the taxi
driver, well aware
the radio announcer could not hear him reply to her
unconvincing invitation.
He bemoans the fact that Zimbabweans have
become a poorly dressed
nation compared to their neighbours in Malawi,
Mozambique and Zambia, who
they had teased about their ragged clothes just
over 10 years ago.
Rubbish is strewn on the pavements as dogs and
human scavengers
rummage for whatever meal they can salvage.
The Harare municipality has no money to buy fuel to pick up the
trash.
Trying to evade potholes makes driving seem like Formula One
cars
trying to avoid crashing into one another.
Lampposts stand
skew with electric wires dangling dangerously above
children playing in
upmarket suburbs.
Despair is engraved on the faces of most
Zimbabweans.
It is hard to miss.
On the way back to
Namibia, the minibus is filled with Zimbabweans.
Many are traders
but several say they are holiday makers, visiting
relatives and
friends.
"But I will also see if I can find a job in
Namibia.
I hear it's easy to get one," says a teacher.
A Namibian immigration officer, seemingly weary of the influx, asks
the
Zimbabwean woman who wrote on the entry form that she is a housewife,
"how
are you going to survive on N$300 for a three-month holiday?" She
stares at
the immigration officer as if he does not know what he is talking
about.
N$300 is a lot of money in Zimbabwe.
"The
politicians have destroyed our country with this so-called land
redistribution.
I don't need land that I cannot afford to
maintain.
I need a job," says one of the people on the minibus to
Namibia.
"But you guys could be going the same way as
us.
I read last year you expropriated a farm."
He was
referring to Ongombo West, 50 km outside Windhoek.
While following
all procedures and rules by paying some compensation
to the Wiese family,
the expropriation was ill conceived.
It began with a fight between
workers and their employer Andreas
Wiese, whom they accused of
maltreatment.
Then President Sam Nujoma, apparently frustrated with
the constant
abuse of farm workers around the country, declared Wiese a
criminal and said
the farm would be expropriated for the dismissed workers
to take over.
Flower production stopped.
The Wieses
say a N$10 million investment was cancelled.
The source of
livelihood of more than 10 families has crumbled.
The Government
took over the farm in December.
Decay has already set in at Ongombo
West as at other resettlement
farms.
Wiese has refused to go
back and help run the flower production or
offer his export contacts in
Europe.
People who have followed the Zimbabwean land grab wonder
whether the
black people benefiting from Namibia's relatively orderly land
distribution
programme can keep production going, seeing that they lack
experience and
skills.
The comparison by the Zimbabwean
jobseeker is unavoidable.
He is a telling sign of how election
gimmicks, such as promising land
to the landless, can go horribly wrong if
not handled carefully.
It's hard to imagine that Namibia could
plunge to the level of
economic meltdown where Zimbabwe is now.
But it was just as hard for Zimbabweans to imagine they'd reach the
state of
decline that Zambia was in in the 1970s.
The decline begins slowly,
almost unnoticeably.
Thereafter it goes into freefall.
All because the voters failed to put the brakes on looting and
murderous
politicians whose only ambition was to be in power at all costs.
How happy I was being back home after only a few days in Mugabe's
hell.
Sadly, the Zimbabweans riding with me were also relieved
to turn their
backs on their country.
It is a decision that
could not have been taken lightly.
But as the Associated Press
quoted a prostitute in Harare as saying:
"What can I do? I have to
eat".
By
Violet Gonda
21 April 2006
The MDC led by Morgan
Tsvangirai will be finalising its post congress
rallies in Mutare this
Saturday, before winding up their weekend rallies the
following day at the
Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare.
A statement by Nelson
Chamisa said; "This Saturday President
Tsvangirai and the Liberation Team
will meet the people at Chisamba Ground
in Mutare at 12pm. The President's
message will centre on how as a nation we
will proceed in liquidating
dictatorship and tyranny. The MDC will also
articulate the roadmap to a new
Zimbabwe."
MDC sources said after this weekend the party will then
embark on an
intensive nationwide campaign to mobilise the people for mass
confrontation.
The Tsvangirai led opposition party has been holding
provincial rallies in
the last few weeks to re-endorse resolutions made at
its national congress
last month. The source said after this weekend, "the
leadership will be
divided and deployed to lead from their provinces and
start working on the
democratic resistance strategies from ward to district
levels."
Zimbabwe is experiencing a serious economic and
humanitarian crisis
with record inflation nearing 1000%. The MDC is under
pressure to do
something about it. The recent defections from the Mutambara
faction has
given the Tsvangirai side a major boost and it is understood
that the nature
of the democratic resistance will be announced soon after
this last process.
Observers believe the time is now right for mass
action and that
popular sentiment has reached a critical point because of
the economic
crisis. The opposition party said; "Euphoria is high as
Zimbabweans continue
to give notice to the regime to brace for a long winter
of people power and
resistance against tyranny."
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Rural Zimbabweans Hit by Health
Crisis
Growing concern over conditions for rural people resettled on
confiscated
commercial farms.
By Oswald Sithole in Odzi (AR No. 61,
21-Apr-06)
A huge health crisis is developing in areas where hundreds of
thousands of
poor rural Zimbabweans and their families have been resettled
on commercial
farms as part of President Robert Mugabe's socially and
economically
disastrous land reform exercise.
Mugabe's ZANU PF
government moved some 400,000 rural families on to
Zimbabwe's mainly
white-owned commercial farms over the past six years
without a corresponding
development of health and sanitary structures.
As conditions have
deteriorated on the once rich and highly developed farms,
a major health
crisis is developing.
As rural people were resettled on the farms, some
900,000 farm workers and
their families were simultaneously displaced from
their homes on the land,
according to new statistics by the Farm Community
Trust of Zimbabwe, FCTZ,
an organisation created by trade unions and the
Save the Children Fund UK to
raise farm labourers' standards of living.
However, these workers remain
huddled in some pockets of the farmland and
continue to compete with the new
peasant settlers for increasingly scarce
and ill-equipped health services.
Most farms no longer have fresh water
supplies because pipes are in
disrepair and pumps have stopped working for
lack of spares. The new
settlers cannot afford water purification chemicals,
and the main water
sources are now streams and dams.
"The situation
is terrible. We know the risks of waterborne diseases such as
bilharzia,
cholera and dysentery that we could catch, but there is really no
choice,"
said Savious Muromba, a veteran of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war
resettled
at a farm in Odzi, about 32 kilometres outside Mutare in
Zimbabwe's Eastern
Highlands. He said most settlers had hoped the government
would quickly move
to provide basic sanitary facilities on the farms when
the land confiscation
process was deemed to be complete.
People, said Muromba, were using open
land as toilets while they waited for
the government to construct pit
latrines called Blair Toilets. The latter
were developed to improve rural
sanitation during the 1980s at Zimbabwe's
Blair Research Institute. Its
clever design makes use of air currents, a
septic tank-like pit and fly
traps to create an odourless and hygienic
toilet not dependent on water
supply.
Most of the settlers cannot afford the six bags of cement
necessary to
construct a Blair Toilet. During the rainy season, just ending,
human waste
from the surrounding bush has been seeping into the reservoirs
from which
the new settlers draw their water for domestic use.
With
the government unable to afford to build clinics for the resettled
villagers, their leaders have proposed using abandoned white farmhouses as
health centres. "This is the best option, pending the establishment of
permanent clinics," said Farai Bazaya, a health worker.
In
desperation, the Zimbabwe government has appealed to the United Nations
Development programme, UNDP, to provide help for people resettled on the
confiscated farms. But first, the UNDP has called for a comprehensive survey
to identify the scale of the problem. Agostinho Zaccharia, UNDP's resident
representative in Zimbabwe, told IWPR, "Before this has been achieved, we
can't even talk about the next step."
FCTZ's national director
Godfrey Magaramombe told IWPR that his organisation
is deeply concerned by
the lack of sanitation on the farms. "The situation
is bad," he said.
"People are drinking surface water from streams and dams
and this water
needs to be treated or boiled to reduce the risk of
infection. Since farm
occupants cannot afford electricity they are not able
to get the power
needed to pump their water from unpolluted boreholes."
In the first two
months of this year 51 cholera deaths were reported
countrywide. In the
absence of toilets and clean water on the occupied
farms, further and more
serious disease outbreaks are feared.
Even before Mugabe launched his
land reform programme, government policy had
contributed to the
deterioration of health facilities on commercial farms by
discouraging the
development of public infrastructure on private land.
Research conducted by
the FCTZ showed that up to nine out of ten farm
workers had to walk more
than 20 km to get to the nearest clinic, contrary
to government policy that
no one should have to travel more than eight km.
For the majority of farm
worker communities, the only contact with health
services is through basic
health care workers employed by the FCTZ. These
workers were recruited from
among the farm labourers and their families and
trained in first aid and
other simple health care provision.
The disruption of farming communities
has resulted in a corresponding
dislocation in this programme on most
resettled farms. Some of the health
workers have been displaced from the
farms where they used to live, while
those health activities that were
supported financially by the former farm
owners have collapsed. Previously,
each heath care worker covered two or
more farm villages consisting of about
400 people.
Four charities running home-based care projects for HIV/AIDS
patients on
farms in Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central provinces had
to abandon
this work in the face of the farm invasions and the violence that
accompanied them. These were the Batsirai AIDS Group, the Red Cross Society
of Zimbabwe, Silveira House and the FCTZ.
UNAIDS estimates that more
than 20 per cent of adults in Zimbabwe are
infected with HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS, and that there are over 100
000 AIDS orphans on farms in the
country. Farm worker communities are among
the worst hit by the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
The government has yet to announce what, if anything, it plans
to do about
the deteriorating conditions on the resettled farms or even
acknowledge the
looming public health disaster there.
Oswald Sithole
is the pseudonym of an IWPR contributor in Zimbabwe.
April 21, 2006
By
ANDnetwork .com
The food situation at Bulawayo's two major referral
hospitals, Mpilo
Central Hospital and the United Bulawayo Hospitals, has
improved after the
authorities secured new deals, Chronicle has
learnt.
A source at the United Bulawayo Hospitals said the
situation at the
hospital had improved slightly as Willsgrove Farm
Enterprises had resumed
supplying vegetables while the Cold Storage Company
and a private butchery
were providing meat. "The situation has not improved
that much. Willsgrove
resumed supplying vegetables to the hospital.
Authorities at the hospital
are also sourcing meat from CSC and West Acre
butchery," he said.
The meat is bought using Government requisitions
and payment would be
made at the end of the month.
The source added
that the hospital would soon be getting money from
the Government to boost
its finances.
Hospital authorities from the two hospitals were last
week reported to
be in Harare to appeal for more funds to buy food.
Willsgrove, the sole suppliers of foodstuffs at the two hospitals, cut
off
supplies over an unpaid $15 billion debt, forcing authorities to reduce
food
rations.
Miss Letwin Phiri, who has been admitted to Mpilo's Ward B4
for more
than one week, said the food situation was now better. "Over the
last few
days, there has been an improvement in the quantity of food that is
being
provided by the hospital. Previously, the food quantities were limited
as
hospital authorities said they were having problems in sourcing the
food,"
she said.
Source : Zimbabwe Chronicle
Journal
There comes a day, at this time of
the year, in our part of the country,
when the Poinsettia puts out its vivid
scarlet flowers. Poinsettia and
Bougainvillea and the washed blue sky of
April are for many of us evocative
of this country at this most special time
of year. Yet neither plant is
native to the continent. Bougainvillea is an
import from South America, I
discover. I had always thought it came to us
from Madagascar but my
gardening books tell me different. I also thought
they were named for one
Bougainville, a French admiral but I have no
authority for this. From where
ever they hale, and for who ever they may be
named they immeasurably enrich
the garden. We have them all up the drive to
the house, and with the
poinsettias blazing red against the darker green of
the frangipanis and bush
trees they make a brave and cheerful
display.
This April has been much more like the month we used to always
expect: warm,
even hot days, with clear skies and cool, invigorating
evenings interspersed
with the odd day of guti and even the occasional
thunder shower. And so it
has been. The rainy season ended with two days of
heavy rain at the end of
March, giving us a welcome additional 26 and 47 mm
that topped us up nicely
for the dry months ahead. But we have had some very
pleasant showers in the
last week as well, not much to register in the rain
gauge but good for the
garden and the grazing.
We have a new heifer
calf born while we were away, to our little Dexter x
Jersey heifer who was
also born here a couple of years ago. And the tough
old matriarch should
calve down soon too if Jimu-Buru has done his duty. The
latter is our
exceedingly stout little Jersey-Dexter bull, born on the 1st
of January 2000
and called, inevitably, Millennium. But it is a name too
alien for local
tongues (Mureniyumi) and, as his services are shared by our
neighbours, who
frequently send messages for him to visit, phrased as
requests for "Jim's
bull", he has taken on this rather unflattering
nickname. As he is rotund
and rather black, there may be some who might be
tempted to draw other
conclusions.
It would be tedious for me to recount the incredible cost in
Zim. terms of
everyday purchases: bread has risen since I got home from
Zim$65K to 80K; a
packet of Maddison costs 130K, sugar at last count, if you
can get it, is
over 250K for 2 kgs! And so on and on. Fuel seems to be
available at
filling stations at the moment, mainly I think as people simply
cannot
afford to fill up. I put half a tank into the old series 3 we use
around
Feoch for carting sand and stone and compost, and it cost me 6 "bar".
I
think I explained this curious term to describe a million. Where it comes
from I have no idea but the word has general currency, if you will pardon
the pun, certainly in Harare and our part of Mashonaland.
People are
now complaining openly and it will be interesting to see what the
next
months bring forth, with some sort of action being promised by
Tsvangirai to
commence with 1st May. Of course Didymus Mutasa has threatened
an armed
response to any sign of protest. He has subsequently denied having
said so
which would seem to authenticate his remarks. He was ever a fairly
unpredictable and voluble character - "foot in mouth sort of chap", I
suppose would sum him up really; and of course absolutely rabid in his
dedication to party and leader. Nor has he any love for those not blessed to
be of his ethnic hue and culture.
He first came into my experience in
the early sixties in the Save (Sabi)
Valley where he pursued a vigorous
campaign to make the irrigations schemes
along the river unmanageable. Of
course this included Devuli Irrigation
scheme at Birchenough Bridge which
fell in the Buhera district. During this
same period a much more cultured
and learned nationalist also became known
to me. This was Ndabaningi Sithole
from Mt. Selinda. He had a store near
Birchenough and his "keeper" sold off
much of the stock without material
benefit to his boss. The matter came to
my court as a civil action
culminating in me finding for the plaintiff. The
storekeeper pleaded extreme
poverty, a necessary part of the script in these
situations. Sithole could
have sued for civil imprisonment after lengthy
process but instead announced
that he 'would not be Shylock and demand his
pound of flesh." (I was to know
him much better many years later when I
served on his staff during the days
of the interim government.) Rob too knew
him as he managed his affairs for
him after he acquired Albany the former
home of the Sinclair's in
Chimanimani, and for long years Brightside's
nearest neighbours.
To get to Brightside from the south and east, the
easiest root took you
through Albany and a farm called Wonganela (was it
first named by an
Australian, I wonder). On Wonganela one crossed a strongly
running river,
the name of which I now forget before climbing up and over
the long range of
hills that formed the bulk of the farm Brightside which my
father had bought
in the early fifties. Here brother Rob and Pam were to
spend many years in
ardent toil, growing coffee; and here our mother spent
much of her time.
We would visit from time to time. On one such visit we
were in our old Opel
Caravan, a vehicle I had brought down from Tanganyika
and which was nothing
if not wilfully unreliable. On this occasion we
crossed the river at the
fast flowing drift, which was running a fairly
deep. It was notorious for
getting wet plugs and points and sure enough we
spluttered through the last
few yards and stalled. Nothing would get her
going again except a long rest.
Jill and I elected to walk on to the farm
(about ten miles I guess) rather
than sit in what promised to be a very dark
night waiting for the car to dry
out.
So off we set. It is a long and
sometimes steep walk and the night was very
dark. Some time some hour or two
later we had passed what was called Jim's
gwasha (kloof or ravine - ChiNdau)
and were nearing the little homestead of
Mack, the foreman, when the night
was split by the most startling and blood
curdling noise to our immediate
front.
I was reminded by Jill of this event quite recently. It had quite
departed
from my consciousness for many years, for reasons Freud or some
other
equally neurotic "behavioural scientist" would wisely point out was
because
I wished it so. The truth is I very nearly had a bowel collapse.
Dimly ahead
of me a shape loomed on the road. Jill says to my credit I
pushed her behind
me. I might have muttered something about lions. I have no
memory of this
either. But I do remember peering forward, my heart racing
and stomach
turning to ice. I do remember, with the blood rushing to my face
in shame
and embarrassment, seeing against the dim horizon a pair of large
ears and a
head lifting as one of Mack' donkeys vented its ass-like
frustration on the
night sky. I have seldom felt such a fool.
This
must have happened well over forty years ago. It is testament to the DL's
infinite patience that she could wait all this time to quietly remind me of
my bush craft. There is no one quite so able when it comes to deflating the
balloon of pomposity.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe's government has blocked the United Nations Food and
Agricultural
Organisation (FAO) from scrutinising Zimbabwe's crop harvest,
which
independent food monitors have already described as
inadequate.
Government and aid agency sources told The Financial Gazette
yesterday that
the Ministry of Agriculture had written to the UN food agency
just before
the Easter holiday informing the organisation of the
cancellation of the
joint crop assessment, which was scheduled to start this
week.
The sources said Agriculture permanent secretary Simon Pazvakavambwa
wrote
to FAO country representative Geoffrey Mrema advising him of the
cancellation of the exercise.
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made confirmed
the development yesterday.
"We will not, as Zimbabweans, have multilateral
organisations doing crop
assessments. Zimbabwe needs to have full facts
itself. We are a sovereign
state," he said:
The assessment known as the
FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission
(CFSAM), which was scheduled
to have taken two weeks, would have seen the
crop assessment team
undertaking research in the country's 10 provinces to
ascertain Zimbabwe's
actual crop yield.
FAO, which leads international efforts in the fight
against hunger, was
expected to second three of its staff from Rome to
assess the food situation
and estimate food import requirements, including
food aid needs, for the
2006/07 marketing year after Harare had earlier
requested technical support
from the food agency.
Mrema yesterday
confirmed the cancellation of the food survey.
"We were preparing to bring a
mission from Rome," said Mrema, who is also
the sub-regional representative
for FAO for Eastern and Southern Africa.
"But the Ministry of Agriculture
wrote to us saying 'due to circumstances
beyond our control' they had to put
the mission on hold," he added. Mrema
said the CFSAM's figures were critical
as they were usually utilised by most
countries for consolidated appeals in
times of insufficient harvests.
The government veto lends credence to claims
that it was jittery over a
round of crop assessments whose outcome was
likely to reveal another deficit
despite an above-average rainfall
season.
This is not the first time Harare has blocked multilateral agencies
from
conducting food assessments. In May 2004 the government rejected food
aid
from the international community and effectively cancelled the CFSAM by
recalling members of the mission from research in the provinces.
The
latest development comes at a time when the World Food Programme (WFP)
has
discontinued its food assistance programme in various provinces.
The WFP,
which has been feeding millions of hungry Zimbabweans, says its
budget runs
out at the end of the month and will now only consider acute
cases.
Zimbabwe is facing a serious grain deficit, largely a result of
the
government's controversial land redistribution programme under which it
seized productive land from white farmers and handed it over to landless
black peasant farmers who lack the necessary expertise and financial
resources.
In spite of sufficient rainfall received this season the
government has
failed to give the new black landowners skills training or
financial and
farm inputs support to maintain production on the
farms.
Independent food monitoring agencies have forecast a staple maize
yield
within the 800 000 metric tonnes to 900 000 metric tonnes range, about
half
the country's annual requirements. Last year Zimbabwe, which is facing
an
unprecedented foreign currency crunch, spent US$135 million to import
maize.
FinGaz
Nelson Banya
UNRELENTING
interest in HHK Safaris, the hunting business linked to Policy
Implementation Minister Webster Shamu and Charles Davy, has led to
revelations about a fallout with the powerful retired general Solomon
Mujuru, who charged that HHK was part of a consortium that sought to
monopolise the arcane but lucrative industry.
This follows recent
disclosures by HHK managing director and major
shareholder Graham Hingeston
that Shamu was "only a front man" in the
business, with no
shareholding.
Documents made available to this newspaper show that Shamu and
Mujuru
clashed in early 2003 when their safari interests collided head-on at
an
auction for the government-controlled Chete concession on the shores of
Lake
Kariba.
Bamakino Safaris, a company then represented by Constance
Tsomondo, Shamu's
wife, won the bid after fighting off Mujuru's Trans Africa
Ventures.
However, this did not go down well with Mujuru, who wrote an angry
letter to
the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management, claiming his
rivals had
breached the rules.
"I was representing Trans Africa Ventures
as a director. There were about 12
bidders. The auction started very well
until we got to the figure of $200
million. From then on, it was Trans
Africa Ventures and Bamakino Safaris,
represented by Constance Tsomondo who
remained on the floor bidding. Trans
Africa stopped its bidding when the
figure reached $575 million.
"However, what surprised me was that the woman
with whom I was bidding, a Ms
Tsomondo, was always getting instructions from
Charles Davy and Webster
Shamu MP as they were seated opposite the woman who
was bidding.
Furthermore, the consortium that won the Chete Safari tender is
already
operating the Chirisa Concession under Famba Safaris/HHK Safaris. In
addition to the above, HHK Safais is already operating a hunting camp on the
Chete Concession itself, managed by Mr Shawn Lamb, thus putting Trans Africa
Ventures at a disadvantage.
"It is important to note that the Zimbabwean
government's policy, in terms
of hunting safari concessions, is one
concession per consortium. In this
case there is a clear breach of this
policy. We do hereby appeal to your
good offices to look into these
irregularities as a matter of extreme
urgency as it is grossly unfair for
one consortium to have a monopoly of
safari concessions throughout the
country," Mujuru wrote.
Apart from Chete and Chirisa, HHK also controls the
Deka, Matetsi and
Riverside Ranch Matetsi safari areas in Matabeleland
North, Lemco
Conservancy in the South Western Lowveld, Omay Campfire Area
and Sijarira
Lodge on the South Western shores of Lake Kariba.
Mujuru
also offered to bring in the police "to get to the bottom of this
matter."
"We as Trans Africa Ventures are prepared to invite the Police
Fraud Squad
to investigate the company accounts of the two companies that
competed so
that we can all get to the bottom of this matter," he
wrote.
Wildlife conservancies, which were opened up to greater participation
by
previously marginalised indigenous groups after the land redistribution
exercise, have been at the centre of tussles involving members of the ruling
elite with competing interests.
FinGaz
Njabulo
Ncube
BRITISH premier Tony Blair, has laid into President Robert Mugabe's
government, branding it a "disgrace" to Africa, in a development that put a
damper on talk of building bridges between the former colonial power and its
erstwhile colony.
Responding to questions in the House of
Commons on Wednesday last week,
Blair said Zimbabwe had cast a shadow over
the whole of Southern Africa with
its poor human rights record and
policies.
He was answering a question from Conservative legislator Michael
Jack, who
wanted him to explain why western diplomatic efforts appeared to
have
floundered in dealing with Harare in light of reports of worsening
socio-economic conditions as well as reported rights abuses.
"The right
honourable gentleman is absolutely right in his analysis," said
Blair. "The
question is, what is the solution? I am afraid that the
solutions are
necessarily limited. Yes, what the regime in Zimbabwe is doing
is a
disgrace. People are suffering in a country that is potentially
wealthy. We
as a nation have had to give humanitarian assistance and food
aid to people
in circumstances in which, if the country were properly run,
they could be
looked after properly," Blair said.
His comments come on the backcloth of
President Mugabe's statements that he
was prepared to build bridges with
London.
Harare accuses Britain and its allies of working with opposition
parties to
topple an elected government and imposing sanctions on the ruling
elite as a
way to hit back at President Mugabe's government for embarking on
land
expropriations.
"Blair must talk to us," President Mugabe said in
February when receiving
the new British ambassador Andrew Pocock.
The UK
has, however, set terms for building bridges, with a British
spokesman in
Harare telling this newspaper two weeks ago that the
Zimba-bwean government
needed to address all concerns of the international
community as set out in
the United Nations report on Operation
Muramba-tsvina, among other
issues.
Blair added: "The only issue is what we can do about it. What we are
doing
in this country is our best to ensure that the right diplomatic
pressure is
put on the Zimbabwe-an regime to change, but I am afraid there
is a limit to
what we can do. I believe that while Zimbabwe remains as it
is, it casts a
shadow over that whole part of southern Africa. It is a
tragedy,
particularly - as the right hon. gentleman rightly says - for the
people
concerned."
Despite the icy relations on the political front, the
UK has emerged as one
of the largest donors of humanitarian aid in
Zimbabwe.
It recently donated over US$18 million towards Zimba-bwe's
Consolidated
Appeal to raise US$151 million required to feed 4.6 million
people reeling
from food shortages blamed on drought and the controversial
land reforms.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
AS
Zimbabwe heads for a winter filled with uncertainty amid daunting
prospects
of mass protests led by a faction of the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC), the government has responded by threatening to
crush any such
demonstrations.
Although President Robert Mugabe has cautioned MDC
president Morgan
Tsvangirai, who has warned of an impending "cold season of
protests",
against mass action, indications are that there are worries in
government
over the issue, especially as living conditions continue to
deteriorate
because of the deepening economic crisis.
In his Independence
Day address this week, President Mugabe said Tsvangirai
would be "playing
with fire" if he persisted with his planned programme of
democratic
resistance.
"I would want to warn those who want to disregard maitirwo enyika
edemocratic country . . . those who don't want to go through elections and
organise demonstrations to stop business," President Mugabe, who is in his
26th year of unbroken rule, said as he departed from his prepared speech at
the National Sports Stadium.
"Tinovayambira kuti murikutamba nemoto
unopisa," (They are playing with
fire).
However, government sources this
week revealed the deep worry within the
corridors of power, saying state
security agents anticipated trouble from
June onwards.
Army chiefs have
previously warned government to ensure food security or
face the prospect of
violent protests.
The government this week announced a new economic
blueprint, dubbed the
National Economic Development Priority Programme,
targeted at stabilising
the economy, reducing inflation from current
record-highs, rejuvenating
foreign currency generation and addressing the
problems blighting
agriculture and impairing food security.
An expanded
Zimbabwe National Security Council (ZNSC), which analysts say
could
supersede the Cabinet, will oversee the implementation of the economic
revival programme.
President Mugabe chairs the ZNSC, which has been given
the task of raising
US$2.5 billion in cash and investments within the next
three months.
The "turnaround" of the economy is expected in "six to seven
months",
according to Economic Development Minister Rugare Gumbo.
The
magnitude of the challenge and the timeframe given for its
accomplishment
suggest desperation within government, which recently sent a
team to Russia,
reportedly for negotiations on economic partnerships in the
energy and
minerals sector.
No information has been given on what the team sought on the
latest Eastern
sojourn.
Tsvangirai's MDC, on the other hand, buoyed by
huge crowds at rallies called
to ready the masses for "democratic
resistance" as well as the progressive
weakening of its rival faction
following a spate of high-level defections
over the past month, has vowed to
defy President Mugabe and force his
administration to embrace political and
economic reforms.
Party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told The Financial
Gazette yesterday that
the MDC was unfazed by President Mugabe's
threats.
"We can't take insults and verbal abuse anymore. The threats are a
tired
strategy, which is not going to work on people, who have been battered
and
assaulted by poverty.
"Zimbabweans are facing threats to their
livelihood everyday, as well as the
indignity of spending hours in fuel and
food queues. Zimbabweans are going
to take their destiny in their hands . .
. " declared Chamisa.
Tsvangirai recently told crowds attending his
nationwide rallies that he was
prepared "to pay the ultimate price" in order
to deliver Zimbabweans from
the clutches of ZANU PF's rule.
Zimbabwe is
battling its worst economic crisis since 1980, dramatised by the
highest
inflation in the world, widespread job losses, foreign currency and
food
shortages.
An estimated 90 percent of the Zimbabwean population is wallowing
in
poverty, with the jobless rate at about 80 percent.
A poorly managed
land redistribution programme embarked on in 2000 is blamed
for the
country's inability to feed itself.
According to a United Nations report,
last year's controversial government
programme to "clean up" urban
settlements left over 700 000 people without
shelter, while denying some 2.4
million others the opportunity to earn
incomes through informal
trade.
Critics blame President Mugabe's administration for the troubles
afflicting
Zimbabwe, which until recently was southern Africa's
breadbasket.
FinGaz
Rangarirai
Mberi
INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) chief executive Rodrigo Rato says
he has
told Zimbabwe to improve its human rights record if its attempts at
economic
reform are to succeed.
Zimbabwe's government needed to
change course both in economic policy and in
how it ran the country in
general, Rato said yesterday.
In March, Zimbabwe cleared its arrears on the
eve of a board meeting, but
the IMF voted to maintain a ban on the country's
voting rights.
The IMF said it had taken the decision because there were
many "outstanding
issues", but Zimbabwean officials suggested the decision
had been driven by
political considerations.
"We are really engaged in
the future of Zimbabwe and we have been advising
the authorities of Zimbabwe
to change their course, both in macroeconomic
terms and also in respect of
plurality and human rights and governance,"
Rato told a press conference
ahead of the IMF's spring meetings.
Zimbabwe's repayment of the US$210
million arrears came at a cost to the
economy, with the country having to
print a staggering $21 trillion to fund
the repayments, a strategy that
critics say has fuelled inflation to world
record highs. Despite the
payment, the IMF says Zimbabwe still needs to
clear more
hurdles.
"Those arrears have been cleared but also there are issues right
now
regarding the consistency of data and we are working on that," Rato
said.
The IMF says Zimbabwe's GDP fell 4.7 percent last year, and forecasts a
further decline of 4.1 percent this year.
President Robert Mugabe
this week forecast the economy to grow by between
1-2 percent in 2006 on a
projected 9 percent growth in agriculture, and
announced a new programme
that he says will stabilise the economy inside the
next six months.
Rato
said economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa in general was expected to
be the
best in 30 years at least but the region needed more aid, trade and
investment along with better governance and the removal of some "impossible
regulations."
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S civil society - frantically trying to preserve the
country's
shrinking democratic space - is outraged by fresh attempts by the
state to
push a new law, which seeks to monitor electronic mail and Internet
access
by citizens.
Representatives from the media, Internet
Service Providers (ISPs), lawyers
and the generality of civil society met in
Harare last Thursday and resolved
to raise a case against the
constitutionality of the Interception of
Communications Bill if passed into
law.
With ZANU PF having a clear numerical advantage in the bicameral
parliament,
the bill is assured of easy passage.
In what amounts to
unacceptable invasion of personal privacy, the Bill
authorises police and
intelligence chiefs to pry into private
communications.
Reads part of
the draft Bill: "Under this part, the minister is authorised
to issue an
inception warrant to authorised persons where there are
reasonable grounds
for the minister to believe (among other things) that a
serious offence has
been or will probably be committed or that there is a
threat to safety or
national security of the country."
Among other things, it also orders
telecommunications service providers to
install hardware and software
facilities and devices to enable interception
of
communications.
Chris Mhike, a media lawyer, described the bill as an
unconstitutional piece
of legislation considering that the Supreme Court
struck out certain
sections of the Postal and Telecommunications Act that
were infringing on
people's freedoms.
ISPs predict that a number of
players in the sector would be forced to close
shop due to the prohibitive
costs of procuring new equipment as demanded by
certain sections of the
proposed law.
"We are looking at doing a feasibility study on its impact
among ISPs but it
is clear that a number will wind up because of the huge
costs of buying the
equipment, which is not available locally," said James
Holland, a
representative of the ISPs. "All stakeholders should begin now to
fight the
proposed law by firstly engaging ZANU PF legislators before it is
signed
into law. I think it is also imperative to petition the President
(Robert
Mugabe) as was done with the NGO (non-governmental organisations)
Bill. If
all this fails and it is passed into law, the last course of action
is to
fight it in the courts," added Holland.
Journalists'
representatives described the Bill as worse than the
controversial Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA),
which has claimed private
newspapers among them the Daily News and its
sister weekly The Daily News on
Sunday.
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) secretary-general Foster
Dongozi said
the union would mount a legal challenge reminiscent of its
battle against
repressive sections of AIPPA.
"This should be the route we
should take if we are to maintain our freedom
of expression because it is
scary to have our emails and Internet monitored
by moles," said Dongozi.
FinGaz
Rangarirai
Mberi
DON'T worry. Be happy. In just six months, the economy will be
fixed. That
is if the National Economic Development Priority Programme
(NEDPP),
Zimbabwe's latest magical cure, can indeed deliver the miracle
promised by
its backers in the "next 6-9 months". The sponsors of NEDPP
tried hard not
to sound like snake-oil salesman when they announced the new
plan on
Wednesday, saying this time they were bringing out all the right
tools. "We
have the right formula," Economic Development Minister Rugare
Gumbo said.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono said:
"Previously we have been very good
at crafting turnaround programmes that
have fallen short at the
implementation stage. This time round the
programmes we have got are
action-oriented."
But the fact that this new
plan is only the latest in a string of programmes
that were touted as the
cure-all remedy makes NEDPP a hard sell.
There has been ESAP and Vision
2020 and the Zimbabwe Programme for Economic
and Social Transformation and
the National Economic Recovery Porgamme and
the Millennium Economic Recovery
Programme and the Ten-Point Plan in 2002.
And the fact that the NEDPP -
reportedly another gift from Malaysia - is
strewn with promises of
heaven-on-earth within short periods also makes it
that much harder to
believe, especially given the advance of Zimbabwe's
economic decay.
An
injection of US$2.5 billion "in cash or in the form of investments" is
expected in the next 90 days.
There will also be a sharp spike in
agriculture output this year.
So how will this work?
According to
Gumbo, the strategy for success will be to cut the red tape.
But the
implementation of the new plan will in fact be through an elaborate
maze -
the government prefers to call it an "institutional framework" - of a
chain
of committees, evidence that Zimbabwe is not letting go of its love
for
bureaucracy just yet.
First, President Robert Mugabe set up the Zimbabwe
National Security Council
(ZNSC), which then formulated the NEDPP.
But it
is not actually the ZNSC that is responsible for NEDPP. That's a job
for
another committee, the National Economic Recovery Council (NERC),
chaired by
Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
That's not all.
The NERC will have to
"work with" yet another committee, this one chaired by
the Chief Secretary
in the Office of the President and Cabinet.
The new programme also appears
laden with contradictions.
While talking up Zimbabwe as "a conducive
investment destination", President
Mugabe on Tuesday took another stab at
the already frayed nerves of miners.
Only those willing to conform to
planned government control of mines should
stay, he suggested: "Vanoda
kubatana nesu, ngavabatane nesu pachiKristu"
(They should cooperate like
good Christians).
And while packaging the NEDPP as a turn towards more
progressive economic
policies, Gumbo insists the government has never
mismanaged the economy: "We
are not apologetic about what we are doing in
Zimbabwe."
Makes one wonder then why the country needs a "recovery"
programme.
President Mugabe said the economy would grow between one and
two percent
this year.
Importantly, that is a downgrade on Finance
Minister Herbert Murerwa's
forecasts in December last year of two to 3.5
percent growth.
If it happens, it will be the first year of positive growth
since 1998.
President Mugabe also firmly refuses to take the fall for the
crisis. "An
evil programme of unjustified sanctions" is responsible, he
says.
There will inevitably be much marketing put into this latest policy
over the
next few months.
The good thing though is that, by October,
Zimbabweans will know what to
make of the ZNSC, NERC and NEDPP.
FinGaz
Comment
FACTS speak
loudest and most forcibly when they speak for themselves as can
be
exemplified by the shrunken state of Zimbabwe's agriculture in the
aftermath
of the controversial land reform exercise. Yet in the debate
surrounding the
success or lack thereof under the fast-track land reform
programme, highly
charged rhetoric from government has more-often-than-not
been substituted
for informed and reasoned analysis. A situation which,
instead of shedding
illuminating light, adds a sense of confusion to the
whole issue.
But
for the public which takes the official position as an implication of
insincerity and exaggeration, a number of issues influence the scepticism
and uncertainty with which the land reform initiative is perceived. Chief
among these is the fact that the results of the exercise embarked on some
six years ago have so far been grossly disappointing. The much-expected
enhanced agricultural performance has remained a pipedream. And the major
agro-business success story that we were told was in the making is, to all
intents and purposes, a could-have-been-that-never-was. It is because of
this that government's every move in this key sector is always
questioned.
It is with this in mind that we hope against hope that the
government which
this week confirmed taking over the Lowveld-based 5
000-hectare Hippo Valley
(Anglo Amercian) and Triangle
(Tongaat-Hulett)-owned Mkwasine Estate in
Chiredzi to resettle indigenous
sugar cane farmers has learnt a lesson or
two from such previous schemes.
Lessons from the pioneering out-grower
scheme at the Chipiwa Settlement
Scheme, which is adjacent to the large
Mkwasine commercial sugar estate are
particularly instructive.
Established in 1981 by Mkwasine Estate, which
ironically owes its existence
to an attempt at shoring up white minority
rule after it came into being to
grow cotton and wheat as a sanction-busting
strategy, the Chipiwa scheme was
by 1997 home to 191 small-scale
farmers.
As our Editor-in-Chief found out when he was commissioned to
evaluate and
write on how well Chipiwa was working in 1997, the scheme was
initially a
testament to the excellent synergies which can develop between
small-scale
producers and commercial agri-businesses. The Mkwasine Estate
provided the
Chipiwa farmers with all their input requirements, supplied
haulage tractors
and maintained irrigation facilities at the settlement
scheme, among others.
But then problems set in once this symbiosis broke
down after the Mkwasine
Estate could no longer extend its services and
infrastructure to the
settlers in the wake of the devastating 1991/92
drought. Thus the project
manifestly failed to achieve its goal because the
farmers could not stand on
their own. And there is no guarantee that this
will not happen again. Which
is why the government has to draw from the
experience of Chipiwa to prepare
against such eventualities.
After
being weaned from Mkwasine the farmers, whose financial matters were
hitherto handled by the Estate, started borrowing heavily from the
Agricultural Finance Corporation (now Agribank) which they considered a
source of cheap funds and thereby unnecessarily mortgaging themselves. Worse
still, most of the farmers were buying tractors on hire purchase. Yet on
plots of 10 hectares which they had been allocated per individual, there was
simply no justification for a tractor. Farming experts had repeatedly warned
government about the viability of 10-hectare plots in the long term. But
this fell on stony ground. The experts had argued that there was need for
bigger plot sizes because it was difficult to deal with crop rotation on a
10-hectare plot. And without crop rotation it was difficult for the farmers
to unwind from their highly geared positions.
Without assistance from
Mkwasine Estate there was also no more efficient
resource utilisation. As a
result, the farmers found it increasingly
difficult to produce sufficient
tonnes of sugar per unit of water. Their
yields averaged between 68 tonnes
and 114 tonnes of cane per hectare
compared to Mkwasine Estate's average of
116 tonnes.
The situation was compounded by the fact that although it would
be
advantageous for the farmers to have individual access to water this was
however not even considered because the small plots of 10 hectares per
farmer rendered such a system uneconomic. If anything, given the sizes of
the plots, the farmers found it prudent to cooperate where economies of
scale were evident in areas such as cane haulage and irrigation. Still, this
meant that less productive farmers had undifferentiated access to the scarce
resource because communal pump houses were shared at an average of six
farmers to a pump house. This created a lot of payment problems. The ideal
situation would be where water usage is monitored by a bailiff on a daily
basis so that the farmers are charged for what they actually
use.
Last but not least, instead of continuously romanticising the land
reform
initiative, government must revisit the farmer selection process.
Unlike
what happened at Chipiwa where the majority of the resettled farmers
lacked
business experience, government should consider people for
resettlement at
Mkwasine, only on the basis of skills level and initiative
to ensure the
most effective utilisation of technology and expertise so as
to guarantee a
successful outcome. Otherwise the Mkwasine project would be
another flop
just like "the back to the land idealism" has seen the launch
and subsequent
failure of so many small-scale commercial agricultural
schemes.
We need not belabour the fact that a deep understanding of these
issues
requires far more serious commitment of time and effort than the
government,
which is obsessed with pork-barrel projects, has been known to
devote to
such critical issues.
Africa cannot continue blaming whites for its
troubles
EDITOR - I lived for a short time in the then Salisbury in
1967 when the
Smith regime was in power and thereafter for two years in
Zambia. Say what
you like about white repression, no black Africans ever
starved. Now
Zimbabwe relies on white countries for food aid. I say this
because I find
inappropriate comments here about the white-rule
era.
I have never seen African acknowledgement of the benefits handed to
newly
independent countries, such as intact physical and administrative
infrastructures now decaying, as well as science, technology, education and
medicine.
True, black Africans fought bravely and rightly so against the
Smith and
other regimes but until they recognise the good that the
colonialists did
and fight against tyrants of any skin colour, Africa will
continue to
descend into chaos.
Africa cannot continue to blame whites
for the troubles that are caused by
its own people who have been independent
now for a long time - and were
gifted thriving economies by the
whites.
Wake up! The continent is heading for starvation.
Chris
King
United Kingdom
-----
Don't lose sleep over
defections
EDITOR - The Mutambara-led MDC component should not lose sleep
over the
opportunists that are now crossing the floor to the other side.
What is
important now is to strategise and work to build the
membership.
It's not about loud and hollow talk now - we need
brains.
Gavin Hopin
Harare
----------
Tsvangirai's
coverage
EDITOR - I have been following with keen interest how Morgan
Tsvangirai has
all of a sudden become a darling of the state media. The
amount of coverage
that Tsvangirai's events (so-called congress and rallies)
have been
receiving from ZBH, Herald and Sunday Mail leaves most of us
wondering where
the link is missing from ZANU PF.
Can the "former" leader
of the MDC explain this. The world awaits an answer.
Chinobhururuka
Chinomhara
Buhera
---------
We don't understand why you hate us so
much, Geoff
EDITOR - Sir I write to comment on your correspondent,
Geoff Nyarota's
continued attempt to hurt the Ndebeles. I and perhaps a
million other
Zimbabweans are in 'economic' hiding in the land of the people
that
President Mugabe and his gang hate with a passion.
We however,
no longer have any shame whatsoever about living here (even
though many of
us would rather be home under normal and peaceful conditions)
because in the
western world, things work. So why are we staying away from
home?
The
answer is simple - because of the dark, sinister and incredibly soulless
hatred of ZANU PF and its cronies. So, to Geoff, let me explain what it
feels like to be a Matabele man.
Probably born into a family of
law-abiding, easy-going, friendly, ambitious
and very neighbourly family.
Very bad history of being hated - the whites
came into Zimbabwe and hated
our pride and self-confidence to an extent they
sought to subjugate us. How?
They denied us the education they gave to the
Shonas (no reflection on
Shonas) and created a terrible lie under which
people like President Mugabe,
Nathan Shamuyarira, Nicholas Goche, Emmerson
Munangagwa, Didymus Mutasa, et
al, grew up - believing that if it were not
for the coming of the white man,
the Ndebeles would have annihilated all
Shonas.
For any mature black
person, this would not have been a problem because they
would have divined
that divide and rule was the classic tactic of the white
man when he came to
Africa.
But, unfortunately, the present-day leaders of Zimbabwe believed that
lie
hook, line and sinker to the extent that even before independence, the
ravages of Gukurahundi were already in progress. And even before that, the
new government continued the white man's tradition of suppressing the
Matabeles - but with more venom than had ever been seen before.
The best
teachers were taken away from Matabeleland, businesses with Shona
heads
relocated from Matabeleland even when there was no need to (witness PG
Timbers, etc), mundane jobs such as lifting the boom of cars at the
Beitbridge border post were filled by people (Shona) from outer areas when
there were jobless thousands locally, and the worst thing was that all
Ndebeles became figures of ridicule, derision and scorn.
We were told
that we were uneducated, were poor and did not fit in with the
modern day
dynamics of a free Zimbabwe and the best places for us were
either back in
Zululand where we came from or in disused mine shafts,
prison, hospitals (as
patients of the physical wounds suffered from savage
beatings), as the
Gukurahundi genocide took place.
And to cap it all, you had complicit editors
like your Geoff Nyarota who
actually was egging on the Ndebele-bloodthirsty
savages to kill, maim,
torture, humiliate, insult, denigrate as many as they
could find. And today
it would appear that the killing of over 20 000
innocents was not enough for
your Geoff. The man still wants to see
unleashed on us a worse force than
Gukurahundi.
And because he can no
longer eat from the same table with his previous
masters, he thinks
attacking them will make us forget his role in this.
Trying to blind us with
clever diversionary tactics will not work.
Blaming the Ndebeles for the anger
and disappointment they feel under
President Mugabe and his friends is plain
unacceptable. The story is told
that a CIA agent was asked how he would
catch a bear and he talked about
setting a trap for it using nets and so on.
The same question was asked of a
CIO operative in Zimbabwe and the reply
was, "I'd catch a Ndebele and beat
him up until he agrees that he is a
bear!" Not amusing in the slightest!
No, we will never forget Geoff! That
will never happen - even Ndebeles have
a long memory. We accept the
strangeness of a man from poor and
underdeveloped Manicaland being so
hateful towards us as the cruelty of
sick-mindedness. The blood of the
innocents of Matabeleland is crying out
for vengeance, for justice, for
appeasement, for retribution against the
likes of your Geoff.
Forget the
Mthwakazi thing he is talking about; indeed his own conscience
may be
hurting, hurting, hurting . . . and the Matabeles, as other children
of God
continue to survive, even under the murderous conditions abetted by
people
like your correspondent, Geoff Nyarota.
Tom Albert
United
Kingdom
--------
Jump out of the sinking ship before it is too late,
Arthur
EDITOR - Arthur 'Ago' Mutambara has always been my hero dating
back to his
days as a student activist. The man has always been a crowd
puller and he is
a genius in the field of academics. However the recent
events in the
political arena have been a litmus test for Ago and he has
shown us where he
really stands in terms of political maturity.
From
my own conclusions academics and politics are two different things
altogether. Arthur needs real political orientation where he can be schooled
so that he may become a good leader. His idea of hi-jacking a sinking ship
shows some political immaturity.
Ago should have taken his time to digest
the offer that came his way from
the pro-senate faction. If the truth be
told, he was not their first choice
for the position of president. We are
told there are other prominent people
who turned down the very same post
after realising that it would not take
them anywhere.
Politics requires
someone who is pro-active with a high degree of foresight.
If Arthur was
really serious about being president of Zimbabwe, I think he
should have
formed his own party which is well composed and has a clear
manifesto.
The people of this country are now conscious of what they want
and will not
be swayed around. Jump out of the sinking ship before it is too
late Arthur.
Innocent Nyamatore
Harare
--------
Am I plain dumb
or I'm missing something here?
EDITOR - Am I dumb or have I missed
out on something. What is the outcome of
the court case involving ZABG? The
bank is already declaring dividends when
its existence is being challenged
at law!
Why is it being allowed to operate when all arguments point to
the fact that
it was "illegal" - born out of wedlock, so to speak! So there
is a different
law for the RBZ, and another for other banks. And this is
expected to
inspire confidence in the banking sector.
No wonder we have
another ailing sector which is supposed to insure those
who are sick and
ill, being granted a verbal licence to operate a medical
aid fund by the
minister, as claimed by the beneficiaries of this verbal
licence. Talk of
conflict of interest, it's no longer applicable in
Zimbabwe. Cry the beloved
country!
Kahondo L
Australia
Financial Gazette (Harare)
April 21,
2006
Posted to the web April 21, 2006
Stanley
Kwenda
Harare
THE Zvobgo family has announced the setting up of a
scholarship programme in
memory of the late nationalist Eddison Zvobgo, who
died about two years ago.
The scholarships, to be financed by Zvobgo
Holdings, a family business
mainly involved in the hospitality industry,
will benefit secondary school
children and university
undergraduates.
Another Zimbabwean company, Econet Wireless, recently set
up a scholarship
fund in honour of former vice-president Joshua
Nkomo.
Eddison Zvobgo Jr, managing director of Zvobgo Holdings, said the
scheme
would be structured to take beneficiaries from Form One right through
to
university.
"What we want to do is to follow the same people as
they progress and we
will consider a combination of merit and need in
selecting beneficiaries,"
Zvobgo said, adding that the initiative was meant
to ensure continued
involvement in the community which his late father had
served throughout his
life.
A veteran of Zimbabwe's liberation war,
Zvobgo Snr was to become one of the
country's most colourful politicians
before he succumbed to lengthy illness
in September 2004, a few months after
the death of his wife Julia. Both were
declared national
heroes.
Zvobgo Jr added that apart from the scholarships, Zvobgo Holdings
would also
take over two wards at Masvingo General Hospital.
"We are
also taking over two wards at Masvingo General Hospital -- the
maternity
ward and the children's ward. This we will be doing in both our
late
parent's name," Zvobgo said.
"We are currently waiting for the budget and
then we will take it over from
there," he added.
Asked if he was
abandoning a budding political career he had appeared to
embark on following
his father's death, in favour of philanthropy, Zvobgo
said while he remained
politically active in Masvingo province, he also felt
the need for
involvement in the development of the community in which the
family business
operated.
"It is out of this realisation that, as a company, we put aside
a modest
$240 million for developmental projects, in service of the
community."
Zvobgo currently chairs the Masvingo United Residents and
Ratepayers'
Association, which, he says, seeks not only to champion
residents'
interests, but also to complement the municipal
authorities.
He says his association enjoys a "very good" relationship
with the Movement
for Democratic Change-dominated council led by mayor Alois
Chaimiti.
Financial Gazette
(Harare)
April 21, 2006
Posted to the web April 21,
2006
Stanley Kwenda
Harare
THE Harare International Festival of
the Arts (HIFA) roars into life on
Tuesday. The festival, which has grown to
become Zimbabwe's finest cultural
attraction, enters its ninth year as a
major arts event on the international
calendar.
Widely viewed as
being in the same league of world-renowned events such as
the Edinburgh and
Grahamstown festivals, HIFA is now ranked among the
world's top 10 arts
festivals.
HIFA is the brainchild of concert pianist Manuel Bagorro and
actress Maria
Wilson. Bagorro will make his debut performance at this year's
festival.
The festival, which runs from April 25 to 30, will transform
the Harare
Gardens into a hive of activity, with various performances taking
place that
range from dance, poetry and music to theatre.
The streets
of Harare will once again be festooned with banners and engulfed
in a
carnival mood.
HIFA has over the years continued to showcase the richness
of diverse
cultures and amply demonstrate the qualities of Zimbabwean
art.
Despite the continued economic difficulties characterised by an
inflation
rate that is rising faster than that of a country at war, local
businesses
have continued to throw their weight behind the well-run
festival.
Companies such as CABS, Jewel Bank and Delta Beverages have
supported the
festival in previous years through their different
brands.
Support has also come from various embassies and the donor
community, in the
true spirit of cultural exchange.
The French
embassy, for example, is sponsoring the La Voix programme at this
year's
festival, which will feature internationally acclaimed Benin-born
diva
Angelique Kidjo.
Arts and culture are now a major source of social and
economic development,
and HIFA, which attracts art lovers from across the
world, can easily be a
vehicle through which the under-marketed Zimbabwean
tourism sector can
benefit.
The festival will be held under the theme
"hAND in hAND.
It will feature artistes such as Rex Omar from Ghana,
Tiken Jah Fakoly of
Ivory Coast and Ntare Mwine Baho, an acclaimed Ugandan
poet now based in the
United States.