Zim Standard
BY
WALTER MARWIZI & GODFREY MUTIMBA
EMBATTLED Sekesai
Makwavarara, chairperson of the commission
running the city of Harare, has
sought Grace Mugabe's assistance in order to
save her
job.
But it could all prove too little too late. The Standard
understands that the ruling party wants to dump Makwavarara. Zanu PF
heavyweights are believed to be pushing for a top party official, preferably
a member of the politburo, to head the commission.
Makwavarara's term of office expires in June and The Standard
understands
that a Zanu PF stalwart, businessman Tendai Savanhu is being
touted as a
possible successor to Makwavarara.
Makwavarara, a political
turncoat who arrived at Town House on
an MDC ticket, defected to the ruling
party and was elevated to the top
position by Ignatious Chombo, the Minister
of Local Government, Public Works
and Urban Development.
Chombo has offered support to Makwavarara over the past few
months despite
persistent and mounting criticism over her alleged
extravagance.
Insiders however noted that elements in
Zanu PF were fast
growing tired of Makwavarara as news about her profligacy
continues to make
headlines.
Apart from the storm of
protest that was ignited by the proposal
to furnish the mayoral mansion at a
cost of $35b, Makwavarara was recently
asked by the commission to explain
how she spent over $175m on groceries at
the commission's
expense.
She also recently irked officials at Town House when
she
demanded the city council pay a $100m bill for a satellite dish she had
installed at the mayoral mansion without approval.
Only
last week, the commission blocked the sale of a council
house to Makwavarara
at a cost of $780m. Independent experts said the house
could fetch as much
as $20b on the market.
Sources said Makwavarara, feeling
threatened, took her case to
the State House where she met Grace Mugabe two
weeks ago. Makwavarara to the
First Lady to use her influence with her
husband to ensure she keeps her job
in the face of growing opposition from
officials in Zanu PF.
Presidential spokesperson George
Charamba yesterday said he was
not aware of the issue.
"In any case, if Makwavarara met the First Lady, I am not the
right person
to talk about the issue. Talk to Lawrence Kamwi (her
spokesperson).
Kamwi could not be reached for comment
yesterday.
"I can't comment on that issue," Makwavara said
late yesterday
afternoon. She had however, in an earlier interview with The
Standard,
defended her actions at Town House.
Savanhu
told The Standard that he was not interested in
Makwavarara's
position.
"I have a lot of these reports about my interest in
becoming the
Chairperson of the Commission. But look my brother, I am the
Chairman of
Wankie Colliery and there is no way I can leave that position to
come and
work full-time at the Town House."
He also
dismissed reports that President Mugabe summoned him
after Makwavarara
complained to the First Lady that he was eyeing her
position.
"These are malicious rumours and I don't know
where they are
coming from," Savanhu said.
Zim Standard
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
FORMER members of the pro-Senate Movement
for Democratic Change
(MDC) faction, who recently resigned or defected to
the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led camp, say they quit because the Professor Arthur
Mutambara-led faction does not have the support of the
people.
Speaking to The Standard yesterday, the members said
they felt
that the battle to unseat President Robert Mugabe's government
could not be
won without the support of the people, which the pro-Senate
faction lacks.
Among those that have deserted or resigned
from the pro-Senate
faction are the camp's national chairman Gift
Chimanikire, director of
elections Blessing Chebundo, his deputy Sam Sipepa
Nkomo and Binga MP Joel
Gabbuza.
Reports say more members
are set to join the defection
bandwagon.
Nkomo, the chief
executive officer of the Associated Newspapers
of Zimbabwe (ANZ), said he
resigned from the pro-Senate faction after
discovering that the faction was
unable "to carry the democratic agenda
forward".
"I did
not believe the team (Mutambara faction) was able to
carry the democratic
agenda forward, that is why I resigned, " he said.
"The team
has virtually lost the support of the people. You
cannot lead a revolution
without the people."
The ANZ boss said he would only consider
rejoining the
anti-Senate - which has of late been drawing huge crowds at
its rallies - if
approached.
Nkomo denied allegations
that he resigned under pressure from
government following the revival of an
old fraud case or as a compromise for
him to get back his publishing
licence. He is facing allegations of
defrauding the Mining and Industry
Pension Fund (MIPF) of $5m in 2001.
He said he was still keen
to see The Daily News and Daily News
on Sunday get back their publishing
licence. He said if the two papers get
the licence, the ANZ would take on
board all journalists who were rendered
jobless following the
closure.
Chebundo, who is the MP for Kwekwe, said he defected
to the
anti-Senate faction because that was what the people from his
constituency
wanted.
"Several people including church
leaders and businesspeople came
to my home and told me to respect the wishes
of the people, and I did that.
Also, the issues on which we clashed with
Tsvangirai were ironed out during
the anti-Senate faction congress,"
Chebundo said.
He said the question of participation in the
Senate polls was no
longer relevant because the elections were held and
concluded, while the
issue of the "kitchen cabinet" was also resolved at the
congress.
Chebundo said he also realised that the ideals of
the struggle
against President Robert Mugabe's repressive regime would not
be realised if
the MDC remained split.
The Kwekwe MP said
the MDC has "re-energised" the opposition
party as it had virtually
collapsed after the March 2005 parliamentary
elections. However, the split,
he said, has thrown back the party into the
limelight and it has gained the
relevance it had lost.
Chimanikire, who labelled Tsvangirai a
dictator when the MDC
split into two camps over participation in the Senate
elections, could not
be reached for comment to explain why he has left the
pro-Senate faction.
Gabbuza could also not be reached for
comment.
Meanwhile yesterday, Chebundo featured at a rally
addressed by
Tsvangirai at Chisamba stadium in Sakubva, Mutare. He told an
estimated 15
000 cheering supporters that turned up to listen to Tsvangirai
that he had
advised Mutambara to go back to South Africa and pursue his
business
ventures.
"We did not form the MDC to remove
Tsvangirai. We formed it to
remove Mugabe," he said.
MDC
National Chairman, Isaac Matongo, said he welcomed the
defectors saying
Chimanikire had expressed his desire
to reunite with
Tsvangi-rai.
"We met Chimanikire yesterday and he said the
Mutambara camp has
nothing to offer. Chimanikire said he is coming back to
the party that we
started together."
Addressing the
supporters, Tsvangirai said they should be
prepared for mass action without
fear of threats by Mugabe to crush the
protests.
"The
struggle is for the people and the people shall liberate
themselves," he
said, amid applause. "We are going to tell Mugabe
to go. Zizi
harina nya-nga,"
Tsvangirai, however, fell short of
announcing the programme and
timetable for the mass protests.
Zim Standard
BY
GODFREY MUTIMBA
MASVINGO - Government's failure to finance
important projects
with the potential to transform the economic fortunes of
this semi-arid
region has riled people in the province.
Although government has made repeated promises to provide
funding, several
projects started more than 10 years ago in the province
remain uncompleted
due to lack of funds.
The unfinished projects include the
giant Tokwe-Mukorsi dam,
Nuanetsi irrigation scheme, Gutu-Kurai road,
Masvingo-Renco road and several
bridges that were destroyed by Cyclone Eline
back in 2000.
Politicians are however not ashamed to talk
about these projects
each time election comes up.
"The
only time you hear of the projects is when the president or
his two deputies
tour the province or when there is an election,'' said
Justice Mapiye, a
Mucheke resident.
At Tokwe-Mukorsi dam, construction stopped
in 1999 after
government failed to pay an Italian contractor, Salin
Implreligo, 12 million
euros. The contractor last year said they would only
resume operations when
government settles the arrears, a 3 000 euros a month
payment for breach of
contract.
But hopes by Masvingo
politicians that the project would be
completed soon were dealt a heavy blow
by President Robert Mugabe last year.
Mugabe rebuked politicians at a
campaign rally at Ngundu growth point,
saying they should stop "shouting"
about the project when they were failing
to utilise water from several dams
dotted around the province.
Speaker after speaker at the
rally had implored Mugabe to
facilitate the immediate funding of the project
with the potential to
transform parts of the semi-arid province into a
greenbelt.
But Tokwe Mukorsi is not the only project that has
riled the
communities in Masvingo.
Work at the Nuanetsi
irrigation scheme has also been halted
after government again failed again
to pay the contractor.
Government wanted to clear vast tracks
of land in Nuanetsi,
which would be irrigated by water from the unfinished
Tokwe-Mukorsi dam. It
intended to embark on winter cropping in a bid to curb
perennial food
shortages in the province.
Project
promoters, who included former Masvingo Governor Josaya
Hungwe, said
Nuanetsi would produce crops needed to feed the whole nation
using water
from Tokwe-Mukorsi.
But as the government continues to reel
from financial
constraints the projects remain a dream, just like many
others in the
province.
Repair work at Runde bridge,
destroyed by Cyclone Eline rains in
2000 has not yet started, forcing
desperate villagers in Chilonga communal
to cross the crocodile-infested
Runde river each time they decide to travel
to Chiredzi.
Government also requires about $200b to repair the bridge and
reports say it
has so far managed to raise only $30b. Another equally
important project,
the Gutu- Kurai road, which was started in the mid-1990s,
is still to be
completed. Bridges along the dusty road were constructed as
early 1995
through funding from the Japanese government but up to now, the
tarring of
the road that links Mpandawana growth point and Masvingo-Mutare
road is yet
be completed.
Zim Standard
BY GIBBS DUBE
BULAWAYO - The Minister of Industry and
International Trade,
Obert Mpofu, says he does not harbour any ambitions of
succeeding ageing
Vice President Joseph Msika.
Mpofu told
The Standard that reports linking him to the vice
presidency were "crazy
statements made by people who are politically
mischievous".
"That (taking over from Msika) is crazy,"
he said. "I have
laughed at those reports as crazy because they are totally
unfounded. It is
wild speculation with no foundation of any truth at
all."
However, senior ruling party officials in Matabeleland
region
have indicated that Mpofu is interested in the position of Vice
President,
although he had ceased to belong to PF Zapu led by the late Vice
President
Joshua Nkomo by the time the party signed a unity agreement with
Zanu PF in
1987.
"We are aware that Mpofu wants to
succeed Msika when he finally
decides to leave active politics," said a Zanu
PF politburo member.
"Although Msika recently announced that he was still in
active politics, he
has already indicated in political circles that he wants
to rest and look
after his family and grand children."
He
said: "There is a lot of resistance among former PF Zapu
cadres who believe
that Mpofu cannot take over from Msika who was (Joshua)
Nkomo's right-hand
man during the liberation struggle. To make matters
worse, Mpofu crossed the
floor before we signed the unity pact with the
ruling
party.
"As a result, there is no way that the minister can
occupy that
position," he said noting that people who were likely to land
the post were
former ZIPRA intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa, former Zapu
secretary-general Welshman Mabhena, and Speaker of Parliament John
Nkomo.
Dabengwa is tipped to land the
post.
The first ZIPRA commander, Ackim Ndlovu, said in terms
of
seniority in PF Zapu, "Dumiso is supposed to take over from Msika.
Whether
he qualifies or not, is another matter. He is more senior than Mpofu
and
(John) Nkomo put together."
"As far as I am
concerned, the person who took over a senior
post in the old Zapu was an
individual who was more senior than any other
party member. This is how
Msika was elevated to the post of vice president.
As such, it is likely that
Dabengwa will occupy that position when Msika
resigns or leaves on medical
grounds," Ndlovu said.
Although Mabhena appears to be out of
the race following his
clash with President Robert Mugabe for his fight
against the marginalisation
of the Ndebele people, he says he believes that
he can still lead the people
as the vice president after Msika's
departure.
"I am prepared to serve the people as long as
Zimbabweans are
not oppressed on tribal lines," said Mabhena. "I have never
declared that I
have left the ruling party. I am not a political fool and as
a result, I
represent the interests of the people."
Both
Nkomo and Dabe-ngwa were attending the funeral of Nkomo's
wife and could not
be reached for comment.
Zim Standard
BY
VALENTINE MAPONGA
UNCERTAINTY persists over the extent of the
country's crop
production estimates, almost a month after the beginning of
the marketing
season for maize.
Zimbabwe has over the
past five years struggled to feed its
population due to a combination of
poor agricultural policies and natural
disasters.
Independent observers have blamed this year's poor harvests on
the
authorities' failure to provide enough fertiliser and seeds to take
advantage of the good rains. This year's planting season was marred by a
serious shortage of essential inputs, such as seed, fertiliser and
fuel.
The government recently barred all independent
organisations
from carrying out crop production estimates for this season
saying it was
the mandate of a committee chaired by the Central Statistical
Office.
However, the US-funded Famine Early Warning Network
has reported
that the overall food security situation in the country would
remain
critical this year due to poor harvests.
"With
generally normal to above normal rainfall in the 2005/06,
preliminary
indications of maize production this year are for improved
production
compared to last year's harvest of 550 000 tonnes, but well below
the 1990's
average, and well below national consumption requirements
estimated at
between 1,6 m and 1,7m metric tonnes," reads part of the report
published
recently.
Other organisations forecast deficits, with maize
production
estimated at between 700 000 and 900 000 tonnes, compared to a
domestic
demand of 1,4m tonnes. They have however noted that there has been
an
improvement in food security in recent months, including increased relief
food aid distributions that have been essential in feeding insecure
households.
The director of the Agriculture Research
Extension, Shadreck
Mlambo last week refused to give out information on the
department's
findings referring all questions to the Ministry of
Agriculture.
"We no longer give out such information to the
press but we
report to the (Agriculture) ministry on all our findings,"
Mlambo said.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of
Agriculture, Simon
Pazvakavambwa, was not immediately available for
comment.
Grain Marketing Board marketing director, Zvidzai
Makwenda,
confirmed that the company had already started receiving grains
but would
not divulge the quantities received so far.
"Yes, the marketing season opened on 1 April and some farmers
have started
delivering their crops to the GMB. Right now farmers are busy
harvesting and
we expect the deliveries to improve around July and August,"
Makwenda
said.
Zim Standard
By our staff
THE Zimbabwean government is
plugging legal loopholes that allow
people it accuses of terrorism and
banditry to escape conviction, The
Standard has learnt.
The government has in the past-suffered embarrassment after
terrorism
charges could not be sustained in high profile cases.
Two
years ago, the government arrested 77 suspected mercenaries
who landed at
Harare International Airport on 7 March en route to Equatorial
Guinea where
they were alleged to be planning a coup. However, the
government failed to
have the men sentenced to longer jail terms because the
country did not have
a law that specifically dealt with mercenaries.
The suspected
mercenaries, mainly from South, Africa, Angola,
Namibia, the Democratic
Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe ended up being
charged with light
offences.
In an effort to avoid such legal embarrassment in
future,
sources say, the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs has
come up with a Bill that is set to make it easier for the state
to secure
conviction on terror suspects.
The Suppression
of Foreign and International Terrorism Bill is
set to be pushed through
Parliament in the coming weeks. House copies of the
Bill are already out and
were distributed to parliamentarians on 30 March.
"The
phenomenon of terrorism that is waged on an international
scale is not
adequately addressed by our existing laws nor is the problem of
mercenaries
covered in our legislation," reads part of the Bill.
It
outlines how the government intends to deal with suspects of
international
terrorism and the probable sentences for the offenders.
"Any
person who, whether he or she is a member of a foreign or
international
terrorist organisation, engages or participates in any foreign
or
international terrorist activity shall be guilty of an offence and liable
to
imprisonment for life or any shorter period," reads part of the
Bill.
The proposed Bill also deals with issues of recruiting
and
training of international terrorists and the probable sentences. It also
states that if a person is found in possession of weapons that cannot be
accounted for, "it shall only be presumed that, unless the contrary is
proved on a balance of probabilities" the accused person possessed the
weaponry with the intention to use it for the purposes of
terrorism.
The Minister of Home Affairs, according to the
Bill, shall
identify international terrorist organisations, after
consultations with the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the purposes of the
act. This could come in
handy as authorities seek to blacklist the shadowy
Zimbabwe Freedom Movement
Zim Standard
BY
Godfrey Mutimba
MASVINGO - The United People's Party (UPP)
says it has
intensified its mobilisation amid revelations that it has
started selling
party cards in the rural areas, traditionally a Zanu PF
stronghold.
Daniel Shumba, the party's interim president,
said his party was
concentrating on endearing itself to people at grassroots
level.
He said mass mobilisation of people in the rural areas
started
on a high note in February and was being "received well" even in
Zanu PF
strongholds such as Mashonaland West, Masvingo, the Midlands and
some parts
of Matabeleland.
"UPP advocates for a
non-violent democratic political landscape
through the ushering in of a new
political dispensation which needs not be
violent or undemocratic," Shumba
said. "We are on a nationwide drive
mobilising people and the selling of
party cards is at an advanced stage.''
Shumba said the crisis
in Zimbabwe needed a new political party
with fresh ideas because Zanu PF
has failed the nation while the MDC has not
been able to capitalise on the
mistakes of Zanu PF.
"The truth is Zanu PF no longer has a
democratic mandate to
continue to govern in the face of failed political and
economic policies.
Zimbabweans are starving. They are homeless and the cost
of living is no
longer sustainable,'' he said.
He blamed
Zanu PF for using the history of the liberation
struggle to oppress the
people so as to entrench its undemocratic rule.
UPP's
Mashonaland Central Adminstrator, Brian Mafuka, said
people in the province
were giving the party an enthusiastic welcome despite
harassment by State
security agents.
"Mash Central is a Zanu PF stronghold but we
are making
meaningful progress. People are tired and fed up with the ruling
party. Our
party cards were sold out and we are in the process of printing
more," he
said.
Canciwell Nziramasanga, national
co-ordinator in charge of
mobilisation, said all provinces had established
existing structures.
Zim Standard
By GIBBS DUBE
BULAWAYO - In what
appears to be a clear reaction to media
reports exposing the indiscriminate
allocation of "Operation Hlalani Kuhle"
houses in Gwanda, more than 58
beneficiaries, including relatives of a
government Minister and senior State
and security officials, have been
deleted from the original list of
beneficiaries.
According to authoritative sources in Gwanda,
some of the
affected beneficiaries include two children of the Deputy
Minister of Public
Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Abednigo Ncube,
senior police, army,
prison service and Central Intelligence Organisation
officers, and other top
government officials.
"I am
reliably informed that 58 people who were not supposed to
benefit from
Operation Hlalani Kuhle houses have been struck off the final
list that was
submitted to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works
and Urban
Development," said Gwanda mayor, Thandeko Zinti Mkandla. "These
are the
people who grabbed houses earlier this year when they were not
victims of
Operation Murambatsvina."
He said most of the dumped
beneficiaries were believed to be
senior State officials who were currently
staying in government houses in
the town.
A source in the
Ministry of Local Government said an
Inter-Ministerial Committee tasked with
overseeing the implementation of
"Operation Hlalani Kuhle" in Gwanda was
compiling a new list of
beneficiaries after striking off names of people who
had clandestinely
benefited from the housing scheme.
"It
is true that names of some senior government officials and
relatives of
Minister (Abednigo) Ncube have been struck off the list of
beneficiaries,"
said the source. "However, there may be clashes again
between the
Inter-Ministerial Committee and Gwanda Town Council over the new
list as the
council has not been consulted."
Mkandla said the committee
was busy compiling a new list without
consulting the
council.
He said: "These people are making the same mistake
of allocating
houses without consulting the local authority. "If they don't
follow proper
council and government policies in the allocation of the
houses, we will not
allow anybody to occupy those houses. We have the
backing of senior
government officials on this issue."
Other sources said the new list of beneficiaries included at
least 10
homeless people who were displaced during "Operation Murambatsvina",
widely
condemned by the international community.
Zim Standard
By
Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAY0 - THE only cancer treatment equipment
in Zimbabwe,
which has been working during the past few months, has broken
down, forcing
patients to seek treatment in neighbouring
countries.
The equipment at Parirenyatwa hospital, called a
Radio Frequency
Driver, broke down a couple weeks ago and has not been
repaired due to
foreign currency shortages.
Patients now
have to seek expensive treatment abroad in
neighbouring countries like
Botswana and South Africa.
In Botswana, they have to fork out
close to 47 000 pula for
treatment excluding travel costs, admission and
other related charges.
Edward Muguti, the Deputy Minister of
Health and Child Welfare,
confirmed that the RFD had broken
down.
He said: "We sympathise with the patients that cannot
access
treatment because of the machine breakdown. Most of our equipment is
old and
this is a sad development but the government will try to make sure
that the
machine is fixed.
"We are working on the
rehabilitation of hospital equipment and
at the same time making sure that
we make outright purchases".
The breakdown occurred just a
few weeks after Mpilo Central
Hospital ran out of a dialysis concentrate,
forcing the Bulawayo hospital to
suspend dialysis on kidney
patients.
The hospital last year received a donation of close
to 20
dialysis machines from Vice President Joice Mujuru, which are yet to
be
commissioned.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - An electrification programme initiated by
members of
the ruling party in the run up to last year's senate elections to
drum up
support from residents of Emganwini suburb in Bulawayo has been
shelved.
Since November last year, only four poles have been
erected in
the suburb with two of them almost falling as the project was
abandoned soon
after the elections.
Emganwini is one of
the new suburbs in the city without
electricity. Most residents depend on
firewood which costs $50 000 a bundle.
Bulawayo South
Senator, Rita Ndlovu of the pro-Senate faction
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), dismissed the electrification project
as part of the ruling
party's campaign gimmicks.
Ndlovu won against the ruling
Zanu-PF candidate, veteran
politician and former PF Zapu military supreme,
Dumiso Dabengwa.
The councillor for Ward 25, covering
Emganwini and Nketa
suburbs, Alderman Charles Mpofu, echoed the same
sentiments noting that the
ruling party was always making promises during
the run up to national and
local government elections.
Mpofu said: "It is very unfortunate that residents have always
been promised
electricity but nothing has ever been implemented. This has
always been a
political gimmick by the ruling party in elections.
"The
issue of lack of electricity has always been of concern to
us but what we
deplore is what the ruling party always does during
elections. They asked
the electricity power authority to come and erect four
poles in November
last year but the company abandoned the project soon after
the Senate
elections. This is a total disgrace."
However, when contacted
for comment, the Zimbabwe Electricity
Distribution Company spokesperson,
James Maridadi, refuted allegations that
the electrification project was a
political campaign gimmick. Maridadi said
the project was put on hold due to
lack of materials that had to be
purchased from China.
He
said ZEDC had managed to source the materials from China,
adding, "work on
the project will resume within the next few weeks".
Zanu PF
Bulawayo provincial spokesperson, Effort Nkomo, referred
The Standard to
Dabengwa who was the party candidate for the November Senate
polls. Dabengwa
also dismissed charges that the electrification project
stopped because it
had been a campaign gimmick.
He said: "There is no
electricity in that area but what happened
is that the materials ran out
while work was going on."
The ruling party has been accused
of initiating various projects
during election campaigns and abandoning them
after the polls. A number of
projects including the Zambezi Water Scheme,
Lupane University and Lupane
Gas Project have surfaced in almost all
election campaigns in Matabeleland
North Province, only to be abandoned soon
after the polls.
Zim Standard
BY GODFREY
MUTIMBA
COMMUTER bus drivers and their conductors had a
torrid time last
week when soldiers assaulted them at Chinhamo service
station along the
Harare- Chitungwiza road before forcing them to pick up
human waste using
their bare hands, The Standard can
reveal.
The soldiers, who are based at an army training base
close to
the service station, accused the drivers and conductors of
relieving
themselves in the nearby bush while queuing for fuel. They
complained
about the foul smell pervading their base that comes from the
area.
When The Standard arrived at the scene just after the
soldiers
had left, drivers who were assaulted said the soldiers pounced on
them using
sjamboks.
"We were waiting in the queue to
refuel our vehicles when
uniformed soldiers from the base came and
force-marched us into the bush,"
said a bus driver who declined to be
named.
"They accused us of using the bush to relieve
ourselves. They
started whipping us using sjamboks. After that we were all
forced to pick up
human waste with our bare hands. Then we were ordered to
dig a pit and bury
it."
Army public relations director,
Simon Tsatsi, was quick to deny
the soldiers assaulted drivers but admitted
that they were forced to pick up
"litter".
"We would
like to state that no drivers were beaten as alleged.
Instead, the drivers
had a tendency of randomly throwing away litter from
food takeaways while
queuing for fuel at Chinhamo service station. Following
the accumulation of
the litter to unhygienic proportions the drivers were
then gathered and
addressed by authorities from the nearby military
cantonment to pick up the
litter they had thrown around.
"It was during the same
address that they were advised to use
toilet facilities at the service
station if they wanted to relieve
themselves,'' Tsatsi
said.
However, a conductor who only identified himself as
Collin said
he sustained injuries after three soldiers took turns to assault
him with
their fists and boots.
This is the third
incident in a month involving soldiers
reportedly assaulting members of the
public. In the first case soldiers
assaulted workers at a hotel in Mutare
and in the second, they attacked
revellers at several night clubs in
Gweru.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
MORE than two years after the government impounded a
US-registered cargo plane carrying 64 suspected mercenaries, the State has
failed to make use of the plane, The Standard has
established.
The Boeing 727-100 was detained at Harare
International Airport
on 7 March 2004 after its owners allegedly made a
false declaration of its
cargo and crew. Sources at Manyame Airbase, where
that plane is parked, said
the seized plane is idle.
"Ever since that plane was parked there, nothing has been done
to it and I
don't think the authorities have decided on how to use it," said
a
source.
Repeated efforts to get an official comment from
officials last
week proved fruitless.
Didymus Mutasa, the
Minister of State for National Security,
Lands, Land Reform and
Resettlement, said he was not aware of the plane's
status.
"Yes, I know about that plane you are talking
about, but you
know, I wouldn't know about what transpired before I was
appointed
Minister," he said.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
A RECENT survey
conducted by Women and AIDS Support Network
(WASN) has established that
several thousands of children were victims of
the government sanctioned
"Operation Murambatsvina" which displaced more
than 700 000 people last
year.
The survey was carried out in 20 schools in Harare and
the few
areas that were sampled reveal a frightening pattern of children
being
displaced by the government's ill-advised move.
The
operation launched last May right in the middle of the cold
season was
condemned internationally.
After the operation, it emerged
that the ruling class was uneasy
with the level of disgruntlement among
ordinary people because of the regime's
poor economic and political
policies.
Rugare Primary School had 1 753 pupils before the
operation. It
was found that after the operation, 397 children could not be
accounted for.
Chitsere Primary lost 313 children to the
Tsunami.
At Tafara Primary School, there were 1 785 children
before the
clean up but 1 489 after the exercise, meaning the whereabouts
and welfare
of 296 children is unknown.
Epworth primary
school authorities are not aware of what
happened to 250 children as they
disappeared from the school during the
clean up exercise.
Several schools lost on average between 50 to 80 pupils and no
known
programmes have been put in place by the government to cater for their
welfare.
There have been reports of increases in cases of
child labour on
farms and in the number of child prostitutes around the
country.
Mary Sandasi, the executive director of WASN, said:
"Overall,
the girl child has been greatly affected as most parents found it
difficult
to leave them with their neighbours or relatives. As a result, a
greater
percentage of the children who moved were girls.
They also dropped out of school. When girls drop out of school,
chances of
getting involved in sexual activities become high, thereby
increasing the
chances of being infected with HIV and STIs."
Sandasi said
teachers who had been interviewed complained of
losing very intelligent
pupils while infants who were suffering from HIV had
also been
affected.
She said her organisation was deeply concerned
about the fact
that a lot of children were now exposed to abuse after the
displacement.
"Some of the children now stay with relatives
and this increases
the chances of children being abused as people are
squatting in small single
rooms. Some cases of rape have been reported to
the school heads and senior
teachers," Sandasi said.
She
said the research was designed to assess the impact of
displacement on
school-going girls and the impact on children who were on
treatment for HIV
and Aids.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
CORRESPONDENT
MUTARE - The trial of three prominent Zanu PF
politicians in
Manicaland on fresh charges of fraudulently obtaining
government fuel has
been postponed to 19 June to allow defence counsel more
time to prepare for
the case.
The three politicians,
Enock Porusingazi, Esau Mupfumi and Fred
Kanzama are jointly charged with
sourcing 15 000 litres of fuel from the
State-run National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe (Noczim) valued at $323m. The
State says they pretended it was for
use during a visit to Manicaland by
Vice President Joice Mujuru last
October.
The accused are alleged to have converted the fuel,
10 000
litres of diesel and 5 000 litres of petrol, to their own
use.
The three run separate businesses in the province. They
also
face a separate set of charges also involving the fraudulent sourcing
of
fuel and maize earlier last year.
They were granted
varying amounts of bail on these charges and
are to be tried
separately.
In the matter in which they face joint charges,
the three men
were initially given $75m bail when they appeared before
Provincial
Magistrate Hosiah Mujaya.
The State, led by
Senior Prosecutor Levison Chikafu, however,
revoked a section of the
Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act initially in
opposing bail for the three
politicians on the grounds they could abscond.
Porusingazi,
who is also the provincial leader of the ruling
party's youth wing, has
pending charges involving 70 000 litres of diesel
which he is alleged to
have falsely obtained, claiming it was for public
projects in his
constituency.
He also faces charges of buying more than 1 000
tonnes of maize,
valued at $708m, from the State-run Grain Marketing Board
and selling it to
National Foods Limited in contravention of GMB
regulations. He was granted
$500m bail in the matter and is set to go on
trial on 26 June.
Mupfumi, who runs a transport fleet, was
granted $300m bail in a
case in which he is accused of obtaining 20 000
litres of fuel from Noczim,
worth about $300m, on the pretext all of it was
for use to ferry Zanu PF
supporters to the party's national conference held
last year in Esigodini,
Matabeleland. It is alleged he used only 5 000
litres of the fuel for the
trip and converted the remainder to his own use.
His trial on this matter
has been set for 30 May.
Kanzama, who was elected last year to represent the Mutare South
constituency, has a separate case involving $19m he is said to have
collected on behalf of villagers in his constituency on the promise he would
buy maize for them from the GMB. He did not, the State
says.
He was granted $10m bail.
Zim Standard
BY
OUR STAFF
MILK producer DZL Holdings Ltd has embarked on
an ambitious
project designed to increase milk output by 44% to 140 million
litres by the
end of the year.
The project, Built Operate
and Transfer (BOT), involves
rebuilding dairies through the transfer of
dairy management skills to A2
dairy farmers.
Under the
scheme, DZL will increase the dairy herd size through
importation of heifers
from neighbouring countries. So far DZL has imported
50 heifers from South
Africa. The heifers, valued at $10b, will be run by
Wooler Farm in
Glendale.
DZL manufacturing director, Theo Nyamandi told
Standardbusiness
recently that the milk producer would import an additional
450 heifers from
South Africa for nine farms working under the
scheme.
Under BOT, DZL provides dairy farmers access to
Agricultural
Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility. DZL will work with
the farmers for
five years after which the farmers would have doubled the
dairy herd and
have the know-how to run the business without assistance from
DZL.
Nyamandi said DZL would also work with small- scale
dairy
farmers to boost milk output, which has been on the decline over the
years.
From a peak of 256 million litres in 1990, milk output plummeted to a
97
million litres last year.
Nyamandi said DZL was
working with farmers to increase the dairy
herd, which has been on a decline
for the past 12 years. The national dairy
herd fell to 35 000 last year from
a peak of 104 483 in 1994.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
THE Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) is
crying foul
after it emerged last week that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) has
frustrated efforts by the chamber to adopt the internationally
acclaimed ATA
Carnet project.
The ATA Carnet system is an
international customs document that
permits duty-free and tax free goods for
exhibition by members in the chain.
ZNCC CEO, Cain Mpofu told
Standardbusiness last week that the
chamber is still waiting for RBZ's
response three months after requesting
assistance from the monetary
authorities.
RBZ had instructed ZNCC to open a pooled Foreign
Currency
Account with a reputable financial institution, an instruction that
was
followed.
ZNCC then applied to RBZ through its bank
on conditions it would
use the FCA.
Mpofu said: "Our
bankers seem not to make headway in getting
instructions from
RBZ."
Mpofu blamed the slow pace towards the conclusion of
the deal on
RBZ officials whom he said were not conversant with how the
system operates.
The ZNCC boss was at a loss for words,
saying the delay had
frustrated efforts by the chamber to put the facility
in place for the
Zimbabwe International Trade Fair
(ZITF).
But Mpofu is optimistic that the ZNCC and ZITF "will
continue to
work towards the attainment of ATA Carnet"
status.
ZNCC has been battling to attain the ATA Carnet
status over the
past decade and a silver lining seemed to have been found
after RBZ provided
a US$100 000 guarantee.
The ATA Carnet
system was necessitated by the need to encourage
free movement of goods for
exhibition among member countries without paying
custom duties seen as
inhibiting trade promotion and growth.
For a member to join
the ATA Carnet system, they have to furnish
the International Chamber of
Commerce with a guarantee from the central bank
that it would pay in the
event that there is default in payment. Goods
brought in through the ATA
Carnet are not charged duty when they are for
exhibition.
However, a member may decide to sell the goods if there are
offers for the
products. In such a case there is need to reimburse the host
country through
the payment of import duties and taxes. The ZNCC has got the
guarantee from
the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC), an arm of
RBZ.
The ZNCC is the guarantor for Carnet certificate
holders in the
event of defaults while ECGC would be the final
guarantor.
Zim Standard
Comment
THE country's independence leaders do
not need to die in office.
There are many ways of rewarding them so they
have time to enjoy the fruits
of their contribution to the struggle for
liberation.
Vice President Joseph Msika was in South Africa
two weeks ago
for medical treatment. His condition - as is the norm in this
country - was
not disclosed but was serious enough to require the company of
the Deputy
Minister of Health, Edwin Muguti, a medical doctor, during the
journey to
Cape Town.
Msika denied he had a heart problem
but declined to say what
condition had necessitated his travel to South
Africa.
Several other independence leaders, notable among
them Joshua
Nkomo and Simon Muzenda, died while still in office. Both had
been thwarted
in their attempts to retire. This should not be their reward
for their role
in liberating this country. They, like Julius Nyerere and
Nelson Mandela,
should have been allowed space to reflect on their
invaluable contribution,
free from the stress of governing the country,
because while they may have
been good strategists during the struggle for
independence, it does not
follow that they were astute government
leaders.
In fact, as elder statesmen, they could have been
more useful in
an advisory capacity to those who took office after them.
None of the other
independence leaders in the region has had to die in
office.
Both Msika and President Robert Mugabe, who is 82,
have said
they will remain in active politics and that they are not
contemplating
retiring any time soon. Both claim to be answering the call of
the people.
But by remaining in office for so long they are contributing to
the
instability of the country, especially given the spectacular collapse of
the
economy over the past decade and the general decline in standards of
living,
education, health and life expectancy. The panacea to Zimbabwe's
crisis is
un-
likely to come from the architects of
failure.
In fact the country's leadership has had to travel
abroad to
seek medical attention, when the goal should be to ensure that the
country
has the facilities and expertise to deal with all the conditions
that
require Zimbabwe to spend millions of dollars in scarce foreign
currency in
South Africa or the UK.
President Levy
Mwanawasa of Zambia recently travelled to the UK
to seek medical treatment.
It is a sad commentary on the state of the public
and private health
services in countries in the region. Independence should
have come with
health facilities that are readily available to citizens of
countries in the
region.
If Zimbabwe had first class health facilities, it
would benefit
other nationals from the region who would come here for
treatment, improving
the country's foreign currency
levels.
If the various bilateral agreements between Zimbabwe
and
countries such as Egypt, France, Cuba, Italy, Spain, India and nations
making up former Yugoslavia are brought into effect, they could provide
specialist doctors and with the appropriate facilities, all the complicated
medical procedures could be performed here at a fraction of what the country
is paying for treatment abroad, with resources it can scarcely
afford.
An alternative lies in Church mission hospitals,
although most
of their institutions are in rural areas. For example the US
Baptist Church
sends a contingent of medical doctors here for several months
of the year.
With appropriate facilities, a request could be made so that
the medical
specialists would include those with skills to attend to the
list of
identified cases awaiting treatment. This way the government's
commitment to
health would have meaning.
The way forward
lies in providing an environment that makes it
worthwhile for investing in
the health sector.
Zim Standard
sunday view by Netsai Mushonga
THE Women's Coalition of
Zimbabwe was shocked by recent
responses to the supplement, which raised
awareness on the scourge of
domestic violence and called on policy makers to
speedily pass the Domestic
Violence Bill.
The responses
seem to support the abuse of the human rights of
women and girls by calling
on the policy makers not to enact the Domestic
Violence Bill. The responses
attack women who are calling for this Bill as
being out of hand and make a
passionate plea to church leaders to thwart
effort to pass the Bill.
Somehow this language sounds very much like the
language of abusers
themselves.
The view that we should not have a Domestic
Violence Bill
because it is uncultural and will destroy our culture borders
on a very
insensible way of reasoning. And one dares ask the church to
intervene and
make sure that the Domestic Violence Bill does not pass. How
cultural is
the church in Zimbabwe? Isn't it that the church has
transformed our
traditional culture into something else?
Our experience is that the church is horrified by domestic
violence and
works with women's NGOs and Padare to confront the problem.
Women's non-governmental organisations were founded to address
the gender
disparities that are inherent in our societies. For example,
Women's Action
Group (WAG) was formed in 1983 as a response to harassment of
women by the
police during the so-called "Operation Chinyavada". The police
had rounded
up about 6 000 women who were walking unaccompanied after 7.00PM
because
they believed they were soliciting for commercial sex work.
The 6 000 women who were arrested were coming from work, going
for funerals,
or just going about their ordinary tasks. The police were
daft enough to
judge, arrest and throw them in prison for soliciting for
commercial sex
work. Their crime according to us was simply being women.
Men walking alone
were not arrested; they were left to do their business as
citizens of a
country.
Women came together to lobby and advocate for the
release of the
arrested women as well as lobby and advocate for their basic
human rights.
WAG has remained active up to now since our human rights, as
women are still
not being respected.
We have researched
the issues that we are working on in Zimbabwe
and we realise we have a
serious problem of domestic violence. We do not
need Americans and
Europeans to tell us that women and girls are suffering
gross violence and
abuse if we see that in our lives and on women we live
with and serve on a
daily basis. A research by Musasa Project in 1996
revealed that 42% of
women above the age of 16 years suffer
mental/psychological violence, 39%
suffer economic violence, 37% suffer
psychological violence while 32% suffer
violence of a physical nature.
Physical violence refers to
women being hit, kicked, punched,
and assaulted by weapons or being hit
whilst they are pregnant. In the
sample of 1 000 women interviewed by
Musasa Project in urban, peri-urban and
rural areas only 15% responded that
they were not suffering any form of
violence.
Other
organisations like Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association,
Girl Child Network
and Family Support Trust receive victims and survivors of
gender based
violence on a daily basis. The victims include women who are
psychologically tortured and some who are battered either to death or
receive injuries that cause permanent disabilities. Girl children are at
even more risk of rape now by elderly men who believe that having sex with a
virgin cures one of HIV/Aids. We are all patriotic Zimbabweans but it's a
pity that most of our cultural aspects uphold patriarchy and uphold the
abuse of women by placing a serious code of silence on abused women, and
blaming gender violence on the victim.
When a woman is
abused society will ask her why that happened to
her and find an excuse to
exonerate the man. We note that this abuse
continues to happen and we
urgently need legal remedies to address it. We
are intelligent women and we
do not need foreigners to push us into
anything. Africa has actually been
setting precedents in terms of achieving
set targets for the protection and
enhancement of women's rights. Africa
has one of the highest levels of
representation of women in decision-making
positions. We want to be able to
live freely and make decisions that affect
us within our families, whether
we are married or single, girls or elderly
women.
The
real cause of gender-based violence is the issue of power
and control.
Abusers believe that they have authority over their victims
and would want
to assert themselves and control the woman through violence.
It is
definitely not the "absence of durable marriage and fellowships
between
elders and the younger generation", whatever that means.
Our
researches have revealed that girls in the 16-24 age groups
are actually
targets of older men who prey on these young ones for sex.
Ever heard of the
famous sweet 16? The girls are comparatively younger and
men perceive them
as being free from HIV/Aids and easier to persuade into
sex. A UNIFEM
research in Zimbabwe revealed that the prevalence of HIV/Aids
among girls in
the 15-24 age group was 2.6 times higher than in men in the
same age group.
Girls do not get themselves pregnant but older men get into
improper unions
with them and impregnate them. These men are much older and
more
sophisticated than the young girls; in fact old enough to be fathers to
the
girls. Who then is to blame to for this?
We urge men and
women to educate themselves on the issues of
gender based violence and fight
actively to stop this violence. Men should
remember that they are fathers
and uncles to some of the girls: would they
like some men to cut their
throats as happened in Masvingo recently, or
psychologically abuse them into
insanity?
Gender based violence prevents women from being
equal citizens
in their country. Have men ever asked themselves why women
do not own land
in the traditional setup? Land is passed from father to son
and a single
woman finds it very difficult to live freely in her rural
home. Why are our
property rights so limited when we are equal citizens, or
would some men
feel good about denying women these basic human rights even
in this age?
Lastly there is a new breed of women who are not
under anyone's
hand and would want to take charge of their destiny. The
number of these
women is growing by the day and Minister Oppah Muchinguri is
one of these
women. We have declared our freedom from violence, control and
abuse and
are not under anyone's hand. The Domestic Violence Bill will be
passed in
parliament very soon and a critical mass of men in Zimbabwe
believes that
gender violence is a crime.
We, the
feminists, will not allow violence against any women.
Gender violence should
simply go and with a law against domestic violence we
will get out of hand
and not let anyone beat and abuse us. We shall
overcome.
Zim Standard
sunday
opinion by Rejoice Ngwenya
NOW that there is a flurry of
litigation activity around the
"Right Reverend", what makes this case
attractive for me is not merely that
the man's exaggerated self-worth drew
notorious public attention, but that
politics and gender are subjects on the
side plate of my literary diet.
Therefore, if Zimbabwe was a
normal modern-day civilisation, the
"Right Reverend's" spiritual epitaph
would have been engraved already with
something like: "Here lies a religious
impostor who cursed God for giving
man the greatest gift of all -
woman."
I have mentioned time and time again in my writings,
that the
woman is the most powerful force on this planet ever since the
creation of
gravity. And I still insist that if political "First Ladies"
used their full
potential of positive, motherly influence, the caricature of
African
presidents would assume a more civil nature.
But
now that the facts concerning the "Right Reverend" have been
bared in neon
lights, his gallivanting around like a village bull, wining
and dining with
the greatest in the miserable A2 Farm Animal kingdom has
been brought to a
timely and grinding halt, but only after women threatened
to unleash an orgy
of venom on a system that was pampering him.
The lesson for
those of us testosteronic mammals is that women
might be charming and
pleasant to the eye, but they are not for everyone's
taking. This includes
your girlfriend, wife, college mate, secretary,
subordinate and maids,
anaSisi - the Sisters of the Kitchen!
But what is it about
anaSisi that makes them magnetic to the
"Right Reverends" of this world?
Number one, they are painstakingly
submissive, obedient and articulately
humble - what we testosteronic mammals
term "The Axis of Blind Allegiance".
This is the epitome, prototype, ideal
woman model that does not question my
motives, my decisions, my plans and
chimes the loudest bells in the
cathedral of inner macho conscience.
She greets me in the
morning, makes my tea and closes the door
behind. She feeds our children and
walks them to kindergarten. She cooks for
our visitors, and does our
laundry. She dusts our shelves, and empties the
trash bin. She does not
answer back when I admonish her; neither does she
reverse any of my
instructions. In fact, anaSisi are so much part of our
'emotional and
domestic vibe' that the "Right Reverends" of this world
mistake them for
second wives, and then insist on more than the poor women
can give
away.
Number two, her demands and expectations are of earthly
nature,
and therefore can easily be fulfilled at any time of the "salary"
month, but
thanks to civilisation, her individual rights are as sacrosanct
as anyone
else.
Yet the irony of Zanu PF's governance
mysteries continues to
raise the question why the "Right Reverend" was not
arrested before women
threatened to cause "Musindo" in the
streets.
One thing comes to my mind - the fear of spontaneous
uprising.
For a long time, many beneficiaries of the Zanu PF patronage
system have
profited from amnesty and immunity. Some, who have committed
heinous crimes
of violating private property rights and expropriation, sit
on the benches
and pass judgement. Others have beaten up and kidnapped
political
competitors or abused labour rights, but sit in Parliament and
play
gentlemen. Civic society, law analysts and the public have raised the
issue
of protective patronage time and again, but in typical Zanu PF
obstinacy,
the system has plugged its ears with sisal wool. The answer to my
question
therefore lies in the people's renewed call for mass
uprising.
Proponents of popular democracy in Zimbabwe are in
a quandary
over why citizens in this wretched country are in a sedate state
of
political paralysis.
We are so stunned by the crisis
that we watch as events unfold.
As you read now, there are
trillions being poured into suspect
"winter wheat" programmes that will only
yield a bumper harvest of
petrodollars for a few - and there will still be
no accountability, no
arrest, and no comment. A deafening political
silence.
And so when women of Zimbabwe threatened to go into
streets to
cause "mutsindo", vibrations around the "Right Reverend" saga,
Zanu PF
political strategists were jolted from their drunken stupour. Many
questions
troubled their minds. Would it be possible, they mused, that the
MDC would
lay claim to the thousands of women in the streets? If women like
Jenny
Williams managed to attract 100 000 anti-protesters against the "Right
Reverend", would it not set a precedent that Zanu PF is not, after all,
invincible? One hundred, perhaps 500 000 women in the streets - ah - whose
women would they be anyway?
This is really fun! You
remember when the late Chenjerai Hitler
Hunzvi threatened to send his
colleagues onto the streets in protest against
being "neglected"? Mugabe
promptly responded with payouts of millions of
unbudgeted dollars as
"compensation", thus heralding the beginning of
Zimbabwe's descent into
economic gloom and doom.
My point is that women have always
been at the forefront of the
struggle. They remained home to look after
families when their men
disappeared into the forests of Zambia and
Mozambique. They laid their lives
on the line just to ensure the guerrillas
were well fed.
Only time will tell who betrayed the
people
THE majority of Zimbabweans have been misled into
believing that
Morgan Tsvangirai is a political messiah whose mission is to
liberate the
people of Zimbabwe, but who has been stalled by his colleagues
after they
broke away from the mainstream MDC.
Tsvangirai
himself has claimed that those who broke away from
the MDC are a group of
power-hungry sell-outs bent on wresting power from
him.
These are Tsvangirai's fallacious and baseless claims. In any
case, most of
them have long been proved false.
Those who have lived with
Tsvangirai or worked under his
administration will testify that while he is
articulate on political issues,
the man is a disaster when it comes to
administration and totally lacks the
necessary skills required of a leader
of his stature.
For six good years, the man has lived under
siege, unable to
extricate himself from the web of indecision and fear of
the unknown. The
man was a virtual prisoner and could not distinguish
between those who
sought to gain favours from him and those who wanted to
exploit his
administrative weaknesses.
However, once he
gave legitimacy to information supplied by the
rumour factory, which came to
him via the kitchen cabinet, he gradually
began to lose faith in the advice
from elected office bearers of the party.
The kitchen cabinet
assumed control of Tsvangirai and began to
determine what information was
suitable for his appetite and the intervals
at which he would be fed this
information.
For nearly a year, the party was operating on
two parallel
structures at all levels - one under the auspices of the
kitchen cabinet and
the other under legitimate party organs. Structures
aligned to the kitchen
cabinet were more visible because of the abundance of
resources availed to
them. No one up to this day has tried to demand that
this group account for
the resources they were using. Tsvangirai listened to
it and regularly
sought opinion from it.
It is sad and
unfortunate that the people of Zimbabwe who had
built so much hope and faith
in the MDC may now have to contend with a new
reality that the man may not
be the messiah they thought he was. His recent
claims that he will unveil
the programme for mass action and lead it from
the front will be the test of
his sincerity.
On this basis Zimbabweans will be able to
judge whether this is
the man who will take them out of the political
wilderness into a new
Zimbabwe of milk and honey.
History
is a cruel judge. Time will tell as to who really
betrayed the people of
this country.
Vision foretold
Harare
------------
Power shortages: nuclear
power the answer
THE perennial power outages, which have
plagued
Zimbabweans over the years, are set to get worse and persist well
into the
foreseeable future.
This is so because the
amount of electricity currently
produced by the national power utility, ZESA
Holdings - about 1 650
megawatts - falls far short of the current national
requirement now in
excess of 2 100 megawatts.
ZESA
makes up for the difference by importing the
shortfall from regional power
utilities such as Eskom of South Africa, SNEL
of the Democratic Republic of
Congo and HCB of Mozambique.
However, as the demand for
electricity continues to
increase there are indications that the countries
currently exporting their
surplus electricity to Zimbabwe will not be in a
position to continue doing
so beyond 2007 as their domestic electricity
requirements are also surging.
To make matters worse,
all is not well at ZESA Holdings.
They made an operating loss of Z$8
trillion in 2005 and are saddled with a
foreign debt amounting to US$334m.
Just recently ZESA lost 450 megawatts
power imports from South Africa after
being apparently disconnected by
Eskom. HCB of Mozambique has offered ZESA a
strategic 25% shareholding stake
in HCB but the local power utility is
broke, and that's not surprising
because ZESA sells electricity at
Z$218.18/kW hour after producing the same
amount of energy at about Z$1
386.20/kW hour. It doesn't make any business
sense - does
it?
Power generation plants at Hwange Power Station
have
become redundant because of coal shortages yet there is a huge coalmine
at
Hwange; it's mind-boggling. All this mess adds up to the frequent,
erratic
and prolonged power outages which people hate and industrialists
dread so
much.
As the country draws closer to the
looming blackouts, ZESA
has not shed any light on how it plans to avert the
impending power crisis.
Looks like people just have to get used to firewood
and candlelight.
It is saddening to note that Zimbabwe
is on the verge of
plunging back to darkness yet it has a natural resource
which if exploited
can provide Zimbabwe with all the electricity it needs.
Geological surveys
have confirmed the presence of substantial deposits of
uranium, a rare and
precious mineral used to fuel nuclear power reactors to
generate
electricity.
A single moderately sized
nuclear power reactor could
produce more than enough electricity for
Zimbabwe. Building a functional
nuclear power facility is obviously well
beyond Zimbabwe's competence, and
given the bad blood that exists between
Harare and the international
community, the transfer of nuclear related
technology to Zimbabwe will be
very difficult, but not
impossible.
The use of nuclear reactors to generate
electricity has
numerous benefits for the country. Affordable electricity
will be available
in abundance for domestic, industrial and agricultural
use.
Zimbabwe could even earn enough foreign currency
to import
fuel from exporting surplus electricity to regional power
utilities.
Huge amounts of scarce foreign currency
currently being
used by ZESA to import electricity - a staggering Z$600b
every month - will
be saved and probably reallocated to resuscitate our
ailing health system.
Nuclear power is an attractive
and economical alternative
for carbon-free energy that holds a great deal of
promise for Zimbabwe's
energy needs. So let us go nuclear and let there be
light and energy in
Zimbabwe.
Cassius
Sande
Harare
------------
Age catches up with Mugabe
I DON'T know whether other
readers have noticed what I
have seen and heard at President Robert Mugabe's
rallies of late.
Not only is Mugabe a dictator or
despot, he is also a
commendable comedian, who chooses the most unusual
places to tease his
political opponents - the MDC party and its
leadership.
At the recent burial of Winston Changara,
he could not
resist the temptation to have a go at the opposition again.
Denouncing the
MDC's slogan, "Chinja Maitiro", Mugabe said: "Unonzwa vanhu
kuti chinja,
chinja. Ndopauchachinja kuita chura
here?"
It has become typical of him to lambast the MDC
at the
burial of national heroes. Shouldn't his address be an appraisal of
the dead
hero, his/her war credentials and the good things he accomplished
which made
her/him eligible for such status?
His
speeches of denunciation should rightly belong at
political rallies. I
recall listening to one of Mugabe's speeches last year
as he referred to
Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC saying: "Mukomana atakakura
naye tichidya
matumbu akamonwa." I am not sure what the relevance of this
was.
It would be unfair for me to end this letter
without
saying something that Mugabe is good at.
I
believe in making every experience educational, although
Mugabe does not
know where and when to make his jokes, he proved that he is
a man who stands
by his word.
He does not like change, something that is
different from
what is happening in the MDC. Mugabe does all sorts of things
to keep
himself looking like a youngster, doing away with the physical
change in
him, but he should consult Michael Jackson, who I am certain will
share with
him a testimony that will make Mugabe realise that God was not
insane when
he created man the way he is.
G C
Machete
Glen View
Harare
----------
The way ahead for
Zimbabwe
IT is difficult to plot the way forward in this
country.
At a time when our finance Minister, Herbert Murerwa, and Reserve
Bank
governor, Gideon Gono, have recently been in the United States,
striving
valiantly to restore some respectability in the eyes of the
international
investment community, the Minister of Mines proudly announces
government
plans to appropriate 51% of foreign-owned
mines.
One's reaction tends to be, "Surely they can't
be
serious!" Unfortunately, they may well be serious, if past performance is
anything to go by. All is not gloom and doom, however. There are patches of
sunshine in the cloud banks. We, the business community, must realistically
assess our current situation as a country, as an economic unit competing for
scarce investment resources in this global village. Where do we stand today,
and how can we work with government to improve the
situation?
A number of problems must be addressed. Our
horrendous
inflation rate, the perceived lack of democracy, the aftermath of
"Operation
Murambatsvina", belief that the rule of law does not apply here,
farm
invasions, the belief that courts are corrupt and that property rights
are
not respected/honoured. These perceptions - and realities where
applicable -
must be changed.
We must get back to a
situation where fixed assets are
securely held and can be used as security
for financing business.
The IMF Board is granting 19
countries debt relief.
Zimbabwe did not qualify. We should attempt to meet
their standards. We
cannot continue to pour vitriol on the heads of
potential benefactors, the
leaders of Britain and the US. Their votes at the
IMF count.
Food shortages are a serious problem. We
destroyed our
commercial farming sector and have been denying such shortages
existed.
There has been no real drought during the past five years, as has
been
alleged; statistics prove this. Bad management has brought us to the
brink
of mass starvation.
The foreign currency
shortage is disastrous. We must first
export to earn it. Investors are
afraid to commit to developing mines and
businesses and of course farms,
where export revenue came from.
Financial indiscipline
must be controlled. The economy is
in severe, prolonged decline.
Washington's Centre for Global Development
estimates Zimbabwe's economic
crisis "has set the country back more than
half a century." It is time to
reverse this process.
Natural resources are abundant.
We have a proven record in
agriculture, tourism and mining, all of which
could be resuscitated, given
an investment-friendly
environment.
What can we, at Association of Business in
Zimbabwe and
the business community in general do about this sad situation.
How can we
get out of this mess? We must continue to speak up. We must work
with
government. We must look for common ground with it - it cannot want
total
ruin of the local economy, for example. We may find we have more
common
ground than things to argue about. Let us avoid contention, and try
to work
together.
There are millions of charitable
people in the world who
would love to save starving children. Let us declare
a state of emergency so
they are aware of our desperate need. And our masses
are truly desperate.
We do not have to change the whole
structure of government
overnight. To quote John Robertson: "We will have to
succeed in recovering
the country's former good standing in the
international arena.
"The leverage of small steps taken
in the right direction
would produce very large responses from international
bodies and donor
countries, and if we followed through with actions that
proved we intended
to honour our commitments, we would soon see better
inflows of investors and
tourists."
The big changes
are going to have to be made by
government. It is responsible for the state
we are in, and it is its duty to
rectify this catastrophe. We must assist it
to do so.
That is what ABUZ is about. That is why we
are here.
Larry Farren
Chairman of the Association for Business in Zimbabwe
Bulawayo
----------------
MDC poised to be
stronger than ever
I WOULD like to disagree to some extent
with issues raised
by Bekithemba Mhlanga in his opinion piece titled "The
Mutambara factor".
In his article, Bekithemba attempts
to make readers
believe that the seriousness with which the Movement for
Democratic Change
is taking business is a direct result of the coming on
board of Professor
Arthur Mutambara onto the political
arena.
Far from it; the MDC has been reorganising
itself since
the fallout of 12 October 2005, when some of the then leaders
in the party
sold out and decided to identify with some of Zanu PF's
aspirations.
It was President Robert Mugabe and Zanu
PF's desire to
re-introduce the Senate, which was abolished upon realisation
that it did
not add value to the well being of Zimbabwe. Mugabe had thought
of
re-introducing it in order to accommodate the growing number of people to
appease, at the tax payer's expense.
It was after
the 12 October 2005 fallout that the MDC
started re-engineering itself.
Mutambara's arrival was announced only a week
or two before the pro-Senate
party's congress which took place at the end of
February 2006. By that time
Nelson Chamisa had been appointed acting
secretary for information and
publicity, and had already been doing the best
he could in that capacity -
planning meetings for mass resistance were well
under
way.
If Mhlanga had checked his diary, he would have
noted that
the planning meeting by part of the MDC liberation team had
already taken
place by the time word started going round that Mutambara was
being
recruited to lead the Pro Senate Party, whose other leaders, except
for Gift
Chimanikire, had no confidence in their ability to lead the
party.
The 12 October 2006 fallout presented an
opportunity for
the MDC to undertake an evaluation of itself. The problem
the party had
faced is that people were not operating at the same wave
length, with some
shooting down initiatives by others. The fallout enabled
the MDC to refocus,
identify closer with the people's aspirations and come
up with new
strategies to confront Mugabe's rogue
regime.
I recall contributing an article to the media
when I wrote
that the MDC was going through its storming phase, and that
institutions
sometimes come out of the phase much stronger, and this is what
seems to be
happening in the party. With a number of top officials realising
their
mistakes and deserting the sinking ship, the MDC is poised to be
stronger
than ever before, strong enough to dislodge Mugabe's regime out of
office.
After the fall-out, and well before Mutambara
came into
the picture, we all heard Mugabe confess the country's number one
enemy was
Morgan Tsvangirai. Even now, Mugabe hasn't said much about
Mutambara, but
has threatened Tsvangirai with
death.
It is difficult to understand what Mhlanga is
trying to
get at when he says Tsvangirai needs to stop speaking in tongues
and tell
people what he expects them to be talking about to each other in
bars,
shops, schools or even soccer matches, after all the preparatory work
that
is being done not only by the MDC, but in conjunction with other
pro-democracy forces, including the NCA, the church, the students movement,
ZCTU and others. This thing needs planning and mobilising, and this is
exactly what is taking place now.
Looking at it
from another angle, Mutambara has failed to
attract credible people to fill
in strategic positions within his own party.
Worse still, some of the senior
officials are already deserting. Mhlanga
must allow time to see if Mutambara
will be able to fill up strategic posts
that his party failed to find
suitable candidates for at their congress, or
whether more senior officials
will desert him to fight Mugabe from a more
appropriate
platform.
Mhlanga's piece, in my opinion, is just part
of hate mail
aimed at tarnishing the image of Tsvangirai, propping up
Mutambara, and
reversing the process of bringing about change for a better
life for all
Zimbabweans.
Benjamin
Chitate
New Zealand
---------------
Independence without freedom is
nothing
ON 18 April every year Zimbabwe celebrates her
independence, a watershed day in the history of the country that saw it
attain self-rule. It is a day that Zimbabwe reflects on the selfless
sacrifices that sons and daughters of this country who were fortunate enough
to be there when the need to liberate this country was
inevitable.
This year Zimbabwe marks 26 years of
independence, but
events unfolding on the ground show that our independence
is an occasion for
mourning, instead of
celebrating.
One prominent writer, George Ayitte, said:
"Post-independent African states did not do much to dismantle the colonial
system they viciously fought; rather they maintained and expanded its scope.
Gradually, a mafia state evolved, a state that has been hijacked by vampire
elites, hustlers and gangsters, all who operate within their own ethic of
self-aggrandisement and perpetuation in power."
This observation by Ayitte accurately captures the state
of our country
today. Twenty-six years after independence, we still have a
government that
denies basic freedoms and rights to its own citizens.
Zimbabwe is host to a
rapacious clique of rulers that presides over an
impoverished, hungry nation
and still denies people food aid because they
choose to differ with
it.
In recent years when Harare fell out with Western
governments, we have witnessed the increased trumpeting by Zanu PF of the
anti-imperialism and its perceived evil machinations against it. Yet the
Zimbabwean system of governance is a result of a degenerated liberation
movement that adopted a neo-liberal and capitalist route after independence,
in violation of its seemingly embraced values of a socialist
state.
The problems besetting Zimbabwe are because
Harare is a
failed capitalist accumulation path, having developed
protectionist attitude
towards imperialism, and in the process compromised
domestic economy.
Zimbabwe's success in the 80's was on the bedrock of
massive exploitation,
low wages, massive and extreme
poverty.
Much as the Zanu PF government may want to
decry the
British, Zimbabweans know that the government still uses a British
document
that masquerades as a constitution to govern Zimbabweans. That
particular
constitution has been amended 17 times, more often than not, not
for the
benefit of Zimbabweans, but to make sure that the elite of our
society
continue to protect the gains that have accrued to them, and not the
gains
of our struggle as often purported.
If ever
Zimbabwe is to claim that it is celebrating
democracy and independence, then
the starting point is to rally people
around the issue of the new
constitution for Zimbabwe. We can only claim
that we are a democracy if
Zimbabweans are afforded the opportunity to write
their own contract with
their rulers, a contract based on consent not
coercion. That contract is a
new constitution that can deliver the "good
life" for Zimbabweans, a
contract that is committed to the eradication of
all of forms of oppression
and injustices. Zimbabweans still await their
freedom!
Masimba
Nyamanhindi
Marlborough
Harare
-------------
Opposition leaders need to
see the light
I DO understand where Benjamin Chitate is
coming from. I
understand some Zimbabwean leaders have no willingness to
sacrifice
themselves in order to end the human suffering in our
country.
The same leaders have pushed people for so
long instead of
inspiring them. There is no more positive belief and desire
to change people's
lives by these opportunistic leaders, who are emerging
like mushroom in our
country. They all want to be little Robert
Mugabes.
There is no definition of reality by the same
powerful,
academic, and wishful leaders. Maybe that is why the suffering
people in the
country have distanced themselves from such opportunistic
leaders.
We have not seen the leaders of the new MDC
communicating
with their so-called supporters. This might be the reason why
the majority
have not seen the light in their leadership and I don't think
they will ever
see it.
Nicholas Nickson
Mada
USA
----------
Morgenster's shame
I DO not condone the goings-on at
Morgenster Teachers'
College. I am fed up with the negative news coming from
the institution.
The problems at the institution are
self-inflicted. This
is because the authorities there have always
entertained gossip from
lecturers, creating a clique around the
administration which shamelessly
provides gossip about other lecturers and
students, with the result that
serious divisions have been created at this
place of higher learning over
the years.
The clique
of spies goes round peeping through windows and
listening through office
keyholes to find out what would be happening in
other offices. What place of
higher learning would forbid discussions
between students and lecturers?
That state of affairs would be acceptable
and tolerable if the
administration was untainted. Why should Morgenster
Teachers' College
pretend to be holier than all the institutions of higher
learning in the
country?
To stop the rot at the institution, I suggest
the Ministry
of Higher and Tertiary Education disperses the whole of the
lecturing and
administration staff - that includes the head of the
institution as well as
the deputy. Unless this is done nothing will
improve.
If unorthodox practices are to be rooted out
all
institutions of higher learning should be investigated and all the
findings
of such investigations made public in the hope that permanent
solutions will
be found.
Sad civil
servant
Masvingo
April 22, 2006,
By
Andnetwork .com
In a dramatic change of heart Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe has
invited the country`s 4,000 white farmers, who were kicked
out 6 years ago.
The Zimbabwe government announced that it has
reversed its land reform
policy to spur food production and stem starvation.
Didymus Mutasa, the
State Security Minister, said some black farmers have
failed to produce
prompting the government to repossess farms.
Over six years, the government had given land over to blacks in what
President Robert Mugabe called a correction of a colonial land tenure system
that unfairly allocated all the best land to whites, reported Africa
Dimension Network.
The farm seizures destabilized the nation`s
agricultural industry and
food production plummeted, leaving the once food
self-sufficient country
dependent on international aid. A quarter of
Zimbabwe`s 12 million citizens
will require food aid this year.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa said some blacks who had been
allocated land failed to produce food. Mutasa said the government has asked
the white-member Commercial Farmers Union to submit names of applicants to
receive land repossessed from blacks.
'In fact, we have just
submitted to the government 200 applications
for land from our members,'
said Trevor Gifford, vice president of the
farmers` union, 'and in the
spirit of the talks we hope the applications
will be treated favorably ....
we could soon have our members farming again
soon.'
Source :
UPI
Sunday News, Zimbabwe
Sunday News
Reporter
Bulawayo South Member of Parliament Mr David Coltart,
who has tried in vain
to facilitate what he calls ''an amicable divorce''
between the two feuding
factions of the opposition MDC, has levelled
stunning allegations against Mr
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Speaking in a call-in
programme on South Africa's SA FM radio station
presented by Xolani Gwala on
Easter Monday, Mr Coltart implicitly attributed
the collapse of the party to
Mr Tsvangirai's failure to clamp down on
violence among party youths.
Mr
Coltart, who was the MDC's secretary for legal affairs before the party's
damaging split, said contrary to popular belief, the opposition party was
not destroyed by the fallout over whether or not to participate in last
November's Senatorial elections. He said the MDC collapsed because of the
party leadership's failure to rein in violent youths who were unleashing
violence on fellow party members and officials.
The split of the MDC was
caused by unresolved long-standing intra-party
violence, he
claimed.
Asked by a caller how he would have handled the situation had he
been in Mr
Tsvangirai's shoes, he replied: ''If I were Mr Tsvangirai, I
would have
averted the split by dealing decisively with the
violence.''
Shedding new light on the violent nature of MDC politics, Mr
Coltart cited
several incidents of brutal attacks orchestrated by party
youths against
fellow party members, presumably at the behest of their
feuding masters
within the MDC before the split.
In an astonishing
revelation, Mr Coltart said that in 2004 rowdy party
youths attacked
officials at the MDC's then-headquarters at Harvest House.
He said the
violent youths tried to throw the officials down the 6th floor
windows of
the Harare building.
In May 2005, there were ''serious'' incidents of
violence among party
youths, he added.
''There've been other incidents of
violence...there's even an unconcluded
commission of inquiry into the
violence,'' said Mr Coltart.
He pointed out that the violent attacks by the
MDC youths against fellow
party members and officials occurred well before
the Senatorial elections
became an issue.
Hard-pressed to maintain his
aura of neutrality, Mr Coltart claimed that
''the split does not necessarily
weaken the fight against the (Zanu-PF)
regime''.
He said the pro-Senate
faction led by Professor Arthur Mutambara believes
that the Government
should be confronted through ''all options'', including
through the courts
and Parliament. On the other hand, the anti-Senate
faction led by Mr
Tsvangirai, he said, has lost faith in the electoral
process and strongly
believes that mass action is now the only way of
getting to power.
Asked
by a caller how he expects the international community to view the two
MDC
factions as serious political organisations, Mr Coltart skirted the
issue,
saying what really matters is the fight against ''the regime''. He
said the
two factions could, in fact, be complementary, but he would not
explain why
he is mediating between the two factions if he really believes
there are
synergies to be reaped from the split.
Mr Coltart said President Thabo Mbeki
of South Africa and United Nations
Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan should
intervene to resolve ''a grave
humanitarian crisis'' in Zimbabwe.
Sunday News, Zimbabwe
By Reason Mpofu
THE National Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority has bought 16 new pumps
to be installed in the Hwange
National Park, three years after an initial
request to replace the ageing
engines was made.
This comes amid astonishing revelations that top officials
in the
organisation were alerted by their subordinates on the ground ahead
of last
year's death of hundreds of animals but did nothing to avert the
catastrophe
which received worldwide publicity and dented efforts to revive
tourism.
Hundreds of animals, including elephants, buffaloes, giraffes and
smaller
species, died of thirst in Zimbabwe's biggest wildlife sanctuary as
the
Parks Authority failed to procure diesel and as well as attend to broken
down water pumps, many of them beyond repair.
Speaking in an interview
with the Sunday News on Friday, a National Parks
and Wildlife Management
Authority spokesman, Retired Major Edward Mbewe,
confirmed the recent
purchase of engines.
"Engines have been procured and as soon as the rains
stop and the pumping
season commences, these will be in place. So far at
least 15 have been
bought," said Rtd Maj Mbewe.
Asked to comment on fresh
allegations that officials at the Parks Authority
head office dragged their
feet in averting the disastrous death of animals,
Rtd Maj Mbewe would not
explain.
"Come back to me later. I still have to check with my files whether
there
was such correspondence as you say," he said.
Sources privy to the
goings-on in the National Parks and Wildlife Management
Authority told the
Sunday News that a chief warden allegedly sat on the
correspondence from the
Western Region for a long time without taking
action.
"Actually it was so
disappointing that in one of the meetings held at
management level, he
showed great ignorance of the situation at the park
despite having received
correspondence from the western region. If it was
not copied to other
managers, the people would not have had a clear picture
of the park. To make
matters worse, the Western Region was being allocated
fuel equivalent to
other regions despite the fact that it is the biggest and
busiest one," said
a source.
According to official memoranda from the Western Region, dating as
far back
as 2004, requests to replace the outdated engines were
longstanding. There
is no official indication that the Parks Authority head
office formally
replied to the memoranda.
A letter dated June 30, 2004,
reference number E3/04/04, written to the
Parks Authority head office by the
principal warden in the Western Region,
Mrs Doris Tom, reads: "This request
has been outstanding for sometime now
since last year. Initially a request
was put forward to purchase 20 engines
at a price of R4 200 each and now the
price stands at R5 000 each.
"Could you please confirm if anything is being
done to acquire these
engines. We were made to understand that we were
waiting for the transfer of
forex to the supplier's bank account in South
Africa, but up to date, we
have waited in vain. We cannot over-emphasize the
need for reliable engines
for pumping water in Hwange for the large
population of different animals.
"There are 37 boreholes where water is
pumped. Out of these, only 20 are
operational and the rest are not due to
shortages of engines. Should we sit
back and slowly count down to the day
when we will be faced with a disaster
of losing the large populations of
different animal species due to shortage
of drinking water? Please could
something be done quickly, we are in June
now and approaching the hottest
season."
Another letter was written on July 12 2004 in which Mrs Tom stated
that the
region's efforts to acquire water engines from South Africa had
been
fruitless.
In her letter she advised that: ". . . unless these
engines are bought, we
are facing a disaster. The engines we have at the
moment are old and have
reached their lifespan thus have become unreliable.
Their diesel and oil
consumption is astronomic, considering that they pump
for 24 hours per day
for six to eight months. The increasing elephant
population has greatly
increased the demand for water. Please could our
request be considered."
All this correspondence was in vain. The letters
continued in 2005, to no
avail.
On April 7 2005, Mrs Tom wrote to the
chief warden (operations) informing
the higher office that as a result of
the drought experienced during that
season, the pumping of game water had
started much earlier .
At that time, out of 37 engines that were supposed to
be operational only 14
were working, nine of which belonged to the authority
while other five were
for Wilderness Safaris.
Two pans were reported to
be full with 12 others being five percent full. A
total of 23 pans were
completely dry and had been left with only 100 litres
of diesel for
deployment, administration and game water supply.
"Follow-ups have been made
to get the cheque for diesel, but have been
fruitless," read the
letter.
On July 12 2005, Mrs Tom wrote again that: "This year is a drought
year and
as such we have already started pumping boreholes water into the
pans. This
year is a difficult one considering that the country does not
have enough
diesel, while at the same time our region requires more diesel
to maintain
the present water level in our pans and try as much as possible
to meet the
demand in the coming hot period especially mid-August to early
November.
"Therefore, through your good office, I am appealing for diesel to
take us
through the hotter part of the year so as to avoid death of animals
due to
thirsty which will not go well from the higher offices if such
catastrophe
occurs. The breakdown is as follows, Main Camp 24 000 litres ,
Sinamatela 6
900 litres and Robins 5 300 litres."
Despite all the pleas,
the situation on the ground remained the same.
By August 2005, the water
situation at the Main Camp of Hwange National Park
had become critical due
to a shortage of diesel.
"Our target is to have 37 boreholes pumping to
ensure adequate water
supplies, but at present the only engines which are
pumping at full capacity
are those donated by concession holders. These are
Ngwesha, Kennedy 1,
Kennedy 11, Ngamo, Makololo, Linkwasha and Somavundla.
Those of our engines
which are pumping, we have resorted to 12 hours pumping
than 24 hours due to
limited fuel," reads one of the
correspondence.
Efforts to procure fuel from the National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe were said
to be fruitless with the condition of animals, especially
elephants,
deteriorating.
By the 24th of August, the number of
functioning pumps had decreased.
"This is a follow-up of my report referenced
B/21 dated 23 August 2005 on
the game water situation at Main Camp. As of
yesterday 23 August 2005, we
had seven of our engines pumping. Today 24
August 2005, the number has been
reduced to three, with 20 hours of pumping
due to lack of fuel. Altogether,
we are left with 10 engines pumping, seven
of which are funded by Concession
holders. The situation is getting
critical," reads part of the
correspondence.
Then came the final straw in
October when 53 buffaloes, 28 elephants and one
giraffe died in the Hwange
National Park due to thirst.