IOL
April 23 2006
at 08:59AM
By Peta Thornycroft
Harare - While looting
and evictions of white farmers surged this
week, the Zimbabwe government has
confirmed that it is going to let them
return to their land.
Didymus Mutasa, the lands minister, said on Friday: "I will go to that
area
where there has been jambanja [violence] and investigate and see what
is
going on."
At least two productive farmers who believed they were
"safe" after
surviving six years of violent evictions were forced off their
farms in
terror this week while another was also attacked.
All
the farms were near the midlands town of Kwekwe.
Mutasa said the
move to allow selected white farmers to go home was
"not a reversal of the
land reform programme.
"We will have thorough interviews of all
people to be allocated AT2
[large-scale] farms, to be sure they know how to
use the land.
"At present, in terms of the 17th constitutional
amendment last year,
all agricultural land is state land and anyone who
wants to use it must do
so legally. Our ministry is processing applications
from several white
farmers.
"When white farmers go back to
their land, I hope they will say they
were allowed to go home by President
[Robert] Mugabe. He let this happen.
"And we hope these white
farmers will refrain from doing agriculture
in a political way, they must
just be farmers and resist from politics on
the farms.
"If they
want to be involved in politics then they must do it openly.
If the hand of
reconciliation was accepted by all, then all our problems
would be
solved."
The government says it will eventually issue 99-year
leases, but the
paperwork still has to be completed.
One
farmer, about 80km north of Harare, who got a letter shortly
before the
Easter holidays confirming that he could continue farming, said:
"It is an
extraordinary feeling after so many years of uncertainty and
violence.
Things have really quietened."
Most of the 300 white farmers who
have applied to be officially
allowed to remain on their land are still
living in their homesteads, but
are allowed to use only a small portion of
their land.
Some have been allowed to remain in their houses but
are not allowed
to farm at all.
Some farmers who were forced
off their land and are living in towns or
even in foreign countries are
applying to be allowed to return. Some are
checking out whether there is any
infrastructure left on their farms.
Destruction on Zimbabwe's
commercial farms since early 2000 is
staggering. Only a fraction of the
irrigation schemes in the main cropping
province, Mashonaland West, are
operating.
Pipes, pumps, sprinklers and other equipment have been
looted, and
mostly melted down and smuggled out as scrap metal to South
Africa.
The top beef herds have largely been eaten, thousands of
hectares of
mature coffee, fruit and nut trees have been burned and most of
the export
flower farms are no more.
Tobacco is now too small
to attract any serious buyers and stands at
less than a quarter of its
production prior to land invasions. It used to
provide nearly 40 percent of
foreign exchange earnings.
The approximately 6 000 title deeds in
commercial farming areas were
owned by about 4 000 white farmers before
Mugabe called on veterans from the
liberation war to spearhead often violent
evictions of white farmers.
Two white farmers were killed in brutal
circumstances within the first
few months of invasions and most then offered
little or no resistance.
Mugabe was furious when he discovered that
many white farmers were
secretly funding the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change.
Farmers employed up to 300 000 workers, who with
their spouses and
adult children were the largest voting block and were
encouraged by their
employers to vote for the MDC.
Mugabe's
fury at white farmers knew no bounds. He rewrote property
laws, changed the
constitution and nationalised 90 percent of white-owned
land.
War veterans began warning the ruling Zanu-PF last year that the land
invasions had gone "too far".
Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank
governor, repeatedly warned there could
be no economic recovery while
evictions of productive white farmers
continued.
Very quietly
some government officials began to plan, along with some
commercial farmers,
ways of reversing plunging agricultural output,
particularly export crops
like tobacco.
John Worsley-Worswick, the spokesperson for Justice
for Agriculture,
pressing for compensation for dispossessed farmers and
their workers said:
"Farmers are still being kicked off. Where will they get
money to get going
again? The banks aren't going to take any
risk."
This article was originally published on
page 2 of Sunday Independent
on April 23, 2006
Zim Online
Mon 24
April 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
leaders say the
government plans to arrest them on trumped up charges to
stop them from
standing for re-election at the union's congress next
month.
The government perceives ZCTU leaders as staunch allies of
the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC), itself sired
by the
labour union six years ago.
ZCTU president Lovemore
Matombo told ZimOnline that the government
planned to use the findings of an
investigator it appointed to probe the
labour movement to "cook up charges"
that would be used to either arrest or
suspend his executive and pave way
for new pro-government officials to take
control of the union at the 19 May
congress.
He said: "We have authoritative information that the
government
doesn't want us to run for office again at the forthcoming
congress. To
achieve this, they will suspend us or even arrest us on fake
charges," said
Matombo.
Matombo said the planned
move to remove them from the ZCTU would be a
pre-emptive strike by the
government meant to prevent the union leaders from
rallying workers to back
mass anti-government protests MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has called for
this winter.
While Labour Minister Nicholas Goche accused Matombo
and his executive
of using the ZCTU to launch political careers the same way
Tsvangirai - who
was union secretary general before forming the MDC in 1999
- he denied the
government was plotting to arrest or suspend the labour
leaders on false
charges.
Goche said state investigator Tendai
Chatsauka was not under
instruction to target anyone, adding that ZCTU
officials need not be jittery
if they have not broken the law.
He said: "We have instituted investigations at the ZCTU. Anyone found
guilty
of any underhand dealings will be subjected to the law. We have no
targets.
It's an open-ended investigation. No one should be jittery if they
have not
done anything wrong."
Although ZCTU leaders are appointed by the
unions' congress, the
Labour Act empowers the Minister of Labour to
institute investigations into
the affairs of the union and to take whatever
action necessary, including
suspending the executive.
The state
in January this year appointed Chatsauka to investigate
alleged financial
irregularities at the ZCTU's Chester House head office in
Harare. But
Chatsauka was unable to unearth evidence of wrong doing by
Matombo's
executive and was three weeks ago ordered to re-investigate the
union.
Matombo said: "After failing to come up with any
irregularities on our
part, the investigator has now been given a mandate to
at least find
something that could be used to nail us."
The
government - which has sponsored the formation of the Zimbabwe
Federation of
Trade Unions in a bid to neutralise ZCTU influence among
workers - accuses
Matombo and his executive of working with the MDC to oust
it from
power.
The ZCTU, some of whose senior leaders also hold positions
in the MDC,
is among other several civic and human rights groups and
non-governmental
organisations as well as churches that have backed
Tsvangirai's calls for
mass action.
Tsvangirai, who has in the
past month toured major cities and towns
mobilising supporters, says the
protests are meant to force Mugabe to pave
way for a transitional government
that will be tasked to lead the writing of
a new constitution and to
organise fresh elections under international
supervision.
Mugabe, who has in the past deployed soldiers to stop opposition
street
protests, has vowed to ruthlessly crush the planned protests, warning
Tsvangirai he was playing "with fire" by attempting to instigate
Ukraine-style mass revolt in Zimbabwe. But political analysts say despite
Mugabe's sabre rattling, Tsvangirai's protest calls resonated with the
majority, who are battling to eke out a living as Zimbabwe's economy sinks
deeper into the mire.
With strong leadership and proper
planning the mass demonstrations,
whose date Tsvangirai has not yet
announced, could be successful, according
to analysts. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 24 April 2006
PLUMTREE - Fifty-four year old
Nomathemba Dube trudges cautiously
towards an undesignated crossing point
along the Zimbabwe-Botswana border.
With a black rucksack strapped
to her back, the elderly woman
constantly checks behind her shoulders in
case Botswana immigration officers
who normally patrol the area to clamp
down on illegal border jumpers pounce.
With the agility of a
teenager, Dube scales the two-metre border fence
and heads towards Dagwi
village in rural Botswana to sell some earthenware
and dried
vegetables.
"I sell each clay pot for ten pula (about US$1.60). I
also have some
dried traditional vegetables in this bag that go for a
similar price. People
here like traditional stuff and they are very
friendly," says Dube with a
grin on her face.
Dube, of Mangubo
village in Zimbabwe's poverty-stricken Matabeleland
South province, is among
thousands of villagers who have been driven by
hunger to make daring trips
across the border into Botswana to sell clay
pots and dried vegetables,
which for some reason appear plentiful in one of
Zimbabwe's most arid
regions.
Faced with failed crops and lack of income, Dube who is a
widow, says
she has had to play cat-and-mouse with Botswana's police
officers who are
notorious for their brutal treatment of Zimbabweans, to
fend for her six
children.
"I no longer have any food
provisions remaining at my homestead. The
situation is so bad I accept
things like maize-meal and tinned fish in
exchange for these clay pots and
dried vegetables.
"I have a tiny field at home but the harvest will
not be enough, so I
really have to be in this business for quiet some time,"
says Dube carefully
checking that her merchandise has not been
damaged.
And the scene not far from where we stood with Dube was
probably all
the confirmation one could need that the widow will not be
alone "in this
business".
There, a group of three young men
could be seen assisting each other
scale the fence on the portion where it
is not electrified.
Unlike Dube, the men said their "illegal
mission" to Botswana was not
to sell merchandise but their labour doing
menial jobs at farms and in
factories.
"What else can we do? We
are starving here," said Mandla, who appeared
the older of the three men.
They all refused to give their full names,
apparently disbelieving our
promises that we would not tell on them to the
border
authorities.
Community leaders in Mangubo say while harvests
appeared to have
improved this year due to the good rains, a lot of
villagers are still
facing hunger after they failed to harvest enough as a
result of lack of
draught power and inputs.
More of their
youths and widows will have to keep jumping the border
into Botswana in
search of survival, headman Ndabeni Maseko said.
He said: "The
situation has definitely improved from what we
experienced last year, but
there are still some people who are going for
days without
food.
"As a result, some of them cross the border to villages like
Nkange
and Dagwi to sell clay pots or look for menial jobs that will give
them
quick money.
"While it is illegal, there is nothing they
can do because they have
to survive. The situation is really bad
here."
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe food and economic crisis
which
critics blame on repression and wrong policies by President Robert
Mugabe
such as his seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to
landless
blacks six years ago.
The farm disturbances slashed
food production by about 60 percent
leaving Zimbabwe, once a regional
breadbasket, dependent on food handouts
from international
donors.
With inflation pegged at 913.6 percent and still rising,
life has
become a real grind for these villagers forcing most of them to
trek into
Botswana for survival.
But a trip into Botswana is no
stroll in the park as the Gaborone
authorities crack down on illegal
Zimbabwean immigrants whom they accuse of
fanning crime in that
country.
The exodus of hungry Zimbabweans into Botswana has
strained relations
between the two neighbours with Harare accusing Gaborone
of targeting its
citizens visiting that country for
ill-treatment.
Zimbabwe often cites an electric fence Botswana has
erected between
the two countries which it says is a Gaza-style barrier that
could see
hundreds of Zimbabweans trying to jump the frontier being
electrocuted.
Harare, which publicly insists relations with
Botswana are cordial,
also says the electric fence mirrors Gaborone's
xenophobic treatment of
Zimbabwean immigrants.
Botswana, almost
alone among Zimbabwe's southern African neighbours to
have voiced concern
over Mugabe's controversial rule, denies ill-treating
immigrants from its
northern neighbour and says the electric fence is meant
to block free
movement of wild animals and livestock across the frontier in
order to curb
the spread of animal diseases.
But whatever the true purpose of the
deadly electric fence, Dube and
hundreds of other villagers along the
frontier here say it will not halt
them from doing what they have to do to
survive and that is, regularly and
illegally skipping the border to trade
their handmade wares or labour in
return for food. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 24 April 2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe's 47th trade fair
opens in the second largest city
of Bulawayo tomorrow with only a dozen
foreign companies exhibiting and none
of them from the major American and
European Union economies.
A total of 369 local companies, a huge
number of them small-scale
businesses operated by indigenous black
entrepreneurs, are expected to
showcase their wares at the Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair (ZITF).
Once one of the premier events on
southern Africa's commercial
calendar, the ZITF has lost its glamour after
six years of an acute economic
crisis that set in after the International
Monetary Fund cut financial
assistance to Harare in 1999 and picked up pace
after President Robert
Mugabe began seizing white farms the following
year.
The farm seizures destabilised the mainstay agriculture
sector,
causing an estimated 60 percent drop in food production to leave
Zimbabwe
dependent on food handouts from international donors.
In an advertent but dramatic illustration of how far the ZITF has
fallen
from the pedestal show, chairman Nhlanhla Masuku said the highlight
of this
year's edition would be the return of livestock for exhibition at
the
fair.
He said: "This year we welcome back the agricultural show
that has not
been featured in the previous editions of the ZITF and we
expect to have
livestock that includes cattle and sheep among other
livestock that would be
on display."
Livestock have not been
exhibited in recent editions because of
disruptions in the farming sector
caused by land invasions by militant
supporters of Mugabe who also
slaughtered most of the animals left on farms
by fleeing
whites.
Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete will be the guest of
honour at the
ZITF and is scheduled to officially open the fair on Friday
afternoon.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of its worst ever economic
crisis, marked by
the highest inflation rate in the world of 913.6 percent
and still edging
higher, unemployment above 80 percent and shortages of
foreign currency and
nearly every basic survival commodity. -
ZimOnline
IOL
April 23
2006 at 04:15PM
Harare - Young Zimbabweans are not "patriots,"
Vice- President Joseph
Msika said Sunday.
In an interview in
the state-run Sunday Mail, Msika said one of the
big challenges that the
Zimbabwean government was facing was that young
people didn't love their
country.
"Our people are not patriots," lamented Msika, who was
recently in
hospital in South Africa for an undisclosed
ailment.
He said that President Robert Mugabe's government had
"tried very
much" to satisfy the aspirations of the young, "but we have not
achieved the
objective to the level we want."
Shaken by recent
threats of mass action from the main opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party, the Zimbabwean authorities are
battling to contain the
country's burgeoning economic crisis that is
contributing to growing
dissatisfaction here.
Inflation has reached a record 913,6
percent, while unemployment
levels are believed to be around 70
percent.
Many young Zimbabweans dream of travelling abroad to join
the
estimated three million or so locals now working and living in the
diaspora.
The 82-year-old Msika, who has denied reports he is keen
to retire,
said youths should "stop being crybabies."
"It's not
for the young generation to cry foul. It's for them to come
together to find
ways and means of doing better," he said.
In a separate front-page
report, the Sunday Mail alleged that the
MDC's threatened mass action might
be postponed to see whether an ambitious
economic turnaround programme
launched earlier this week by the government
would succeed. -
Sapa-dpa
BBC
By Dan
Griffiths
BBC News, Beijing
President Hu
Jintao's visit to Africa comes at a time of growing
Chinese interest in the
continent.
Beijing is desperate for oil and natural
resources to fuel its booming
economy. And some African nations have plenty
of both.
China is also keen to find new markets for its booming
factories which
are churning out everything from shoes and cars to textiles
and TV sets.
During the Cold War, Chairman Mao established links
with many
developing countries in Africa.
But now the old ties
of communism are being replaced by capitalism.
Diplomatic
support
The most recent Chinese foray into Africa came earlier this
month,
when China National Offshore Oil Corporation completed a deal to buy
a 45%
stake in a Nigerian oil block for more than $2bn.
The oil
field will be able to pump 225,000 barrels of oil per day when
it comes
on-stream in 2008.
It is the latest in a series of energy and
minerals deals that China
has signed with African countries, including
Sudan, Chad, Angola, and
Zimbabwe.
China's foreign
minister recently concluded a tour of Africa
Trade between China
and Africa is also increasing rapidly. Official
statistics suggest that
business ties are now worth more than $30bn and
growing
quickly.
But it's not just trade and oil that are driving this
relationship.
China also has construction projects in countries as
far apart as
Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia. Until recently Beijing also had
peacekeepers
in Liberia.
China also wants good relations
with African countries in order to get
their diplomatic backing in Beijing's
ongoing wrangle with Taiwan.
It considers Taiwan part of China and
has threatened to use force if
the island declares formal
independence.
Growing competition
But China's interest
in Africa has also sparked anger in the US and
Europe.
There
are concerns about Beijing's willingness to do business with
countries whose
governments have been the subject of sustained international
criticism like
Sudan and Zimbabwe.
China insists it is merely trading with these
nations and adhering to
its policy of non-interference in other countries'
internal affairs.
But it is not that simple - Beijing has used its
veto at the United
Nations to block pressure on Sudan's leaders to halt the
ongoing violence in
Darfur.
And in the past it has sold arms to
Zimbabwe.
There are also concerns in Washington that China's
growing clout will
undermine American interests.
The US is also
looking for energy on the continent, which could lead
to a growing
competition for influence in Africa.
So China's presence is not
without controversy. But Beijing's need for
energy and minerals, combined
with its desire to increase trade, means that
the country's leaders will be
making far more visits to Africa in the
future.
April 23, 2006
By ANDnetwork
.com
Conmem and shady dealers operating from flea markets and
undesignated
points in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe are selling fake capsules filled
with
mealie-meal to people living with HIV and AIDS after fooling the
patients
that they are anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).
Sunday
News can reveal that AIDS patients who have fallen victim to
the tricksters
are now in danger because the disruption or discontinuation
of ARV therapy
is often life-threatening.
The problem is being aggravated by some
medical doctors, nurses and
pharmacists who work in public health
institutions who are allegedly
stealing incomplete courses of ARV drugs and
selling them to desperate
patients.
The Matabeleland AIDS Council
(MAC) this week urged the public not to
buy ARVs from flea markets and
unlicensed dealers as they risked buying fake
or substandard drugs.
Speaking in an interview with the Sunday News on Friday, the MAC's
voluntary
counselling, testing, support and care manager, Mr Midian Dube,
said many
people living with HIV and AIDS have fallen prey to unscrupulous
traders who
sell fake ARV drugs in the city.
"There are people who are selling
these drugs at flea markets and
around the city. This endangers the lives of
the people who use these drugs
unknowingly. The background to this problem
is that when ARVs were
introduced in Zimbabwe, they arrived in the private
sector and most people
did not have access to them," he said.
Mr
Dube said he first learnt of the scandal when he went to Mpilo
Central
Hospital where he interacted with many people who told him where
they had
been buying their tablets.
"During my stay at Mpilo Central Hospital, I
interacted with a lot of
people who are living with HIV and AIDS who then
informed me that there are
some people selling ARVs and herbs that are said
to cure the disease.
"Many patients said these people get them (ARVs)
from South Africa and
the UK, but unfortunately these traders have become
financially driven to an
extent that they fill the capsules with mealie-meal
and sell them to
unsuspecting victims," he said.
A medical doctor
who spoke to the Sunday News on condition of
anonymity for professional
reasons said a person should start taking ARVs
prescribed by a qualified
doctor only after testing HIV-positive and when
the CD4 count is at 200 or
below.
The ARVs are administered in triple-therapy comprising
Stavudine,
Lamivudine and Nevirapine - commonly abbreviated to Stalanev. The
other
recommended drugs are Triviri and Triomune.
A person should
start taking the drugs at stage four of classification
and when their CD4
count is at 200 and below. It costs between US$20 and
US$25 for a month's
treatment, an amount which translates to between Z$500
000 and Z$625
000.
Mr Dube said some unethical doctors were even selling incomplete
courses to unsuspecting patients. But he advised the public not to buy ARVs
from unauthorised sources as chances were very high that they were
fake.
"These tablets are in three combinations and we have gathered
that
some private doctors sell one set of drugs. We advise the community to
purchase the drugs from Opportunistic Infection Clinics at hospitals and
pharmacies. MAC will be organising a meeting with stakeholders to discuss
the issue and to come up with the best strategy to curb this corruption," he
said.
Mr Dube said the scandal has not yet been reported to the
police
because MAC is still organising a meeting with stakeholders,
including the
police.
"We are still in the process of organising
the way forward. We will
organise a meeting with various stakeholders, who
include the police and
pharmacies, to come up with strategies to stop this
practice. We will also
visit the community offering voluntary testing and
counselling and create
more awareness about this disease and ARVs," he
said.
The Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Edwin Muguti,
said
he was not aware of the fake drugs but acknowledged that bringing the
corrupt dealers to book would be a big struggle.
"We are not aware
of that yet. This is corruption and it's very sad
that people fall victim to
these people. These people are taking advantage
of society and it will be a
big challenge to stop this corruption," he said.
Dr Muguti said the
public should avoid purchasing drugs from
unauthorised sources and urged the
public sector to improve the supply of
ARVs.
"These are
prescription drugs, and its dangerous to just buy them from
anywhere. There
is an issue of resistance and poisoning, these people don't
know how these
drugs work, these drugs are arranged, designed and
prescribed. The public
health sector needs to improve the availability of
ARVs," said Dr
Muguti.
Source : Sunday News
What a wonderful day: bathed in
gentle, warm sunshine, our 4 maple trees
bursting into leaf. And such
thrilling drumming by Bie Tapa and Mike
Bennett with the dancing led with
Spring exuberance by Vigil Co-ordinators
Dumi Tutani and Evelyn
Tafirenyika.
Joining in was the Rev Dr Martine Stemerick whose filmed
reports about what
is happening in Zimbabwe provide such powerful ammunition
for our cause.
(She is to speak at the Zimbabwe Forum on Monday, see
below.) Also with us
was Yvonne Mahlunge, a lawyer and MDC activist who
works tirelessly for
Zimbabwean asylum seekers.
It was very moving to
have such a rich mixture of people joining hands in a
wide circle outside
the trees to sing the national anthem. This always
attracts attention from
passers-by. By then we have already taken down our
banners and all we are
left with is the Zimbabwean flag.
Welcome back to Wiz who had just
returned from a trip to Zimbabwe and
Mozambique to visit her sister, Cathy
Buckle (see:
http://africantears.netfirms.com).
She brought back many interesting
stories about life in Zimbabwe and a thick
wad of Zimbabwean bank notes
which we displayed as only buying half a loaf
of bread in Zimbabwe.
News from Angie and Alex Guinness: a baby sister
for Callum was born this
week. They did such useful work for us updating
our "Mugabe wanted for
murder" poster, listing the victims of the Zanu-PF
regime. We look forward
to meeting Elin soon to join other Vigil babies
including Simba, son of
Lotricia and Japan who came today, and the Vigil
child Tinotenda Muzuwa.
The Vigil was pleased that three young men who
have just graduated from
Peterhouse sought us out and knew that there are
people here who are trying
to help Zimbabwe.
FOR THE RECORD: 51
signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Zimbabwe Forum, Upstairs at the
Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28
John Adam Street, London WC2 (cross the Strand
from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go
down a passageway to John Adam Street, turn
right and you will see the pub).
· Monday, 24th April, 7.30 pm - Rev
Martine Stemerick will give a
video presentation about what is happening to
the poor in Zimbabwe including
interviews with Pius Ncube.
·
Monday, 1st May - bank holiday. No forum.
Vigil co-ordinator
The
Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every
Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human
rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October
2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections
are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
From The Sunday Independent (SA), 16 April
Permit 'loopholes' allows employers to pay foreign
workers a slave wage
By Kristy Siegfried
Picking season is
about to begin in the Tshipise area of Limpopo, 50km south
of the Zimbabwean
border. Most of the cell-like rooms for workers on this
orange farm are
still empty; but over the next couple of weeks they will
fill up. Four early
arrivals braved crocodiles to cross the Limpopo River
two days ago, carrying
nothing but the clothes on their backs and
photocopies of their Zimbabwean
IDs.They claim to be over 18 but have the
wide-eyed look of schoolboys just
embarked on their first great adventure.
The other side of the border offers
no hope of work, but plentiful advice on
how to duck razor wire, avoid
crocodiles (apparently they don't like human
urine) and dodge border guards.
At special workshops, prospective border
jumpers are even instructed on
which farms to head for once they've crossed.
The boys have been told to
expect around R600 a month for picking oranges,
but without legal documents
they are in no position to negotiate. Asked if
they would accept less, they
shrug and nod.
Shirami Shirinda of the Nkuzi Development Association,
an NGO that champions
the rights of farm-dwellers, estimates that 90 percent
of farm workers in
this region are Zimbabwean. There is a long history of
movement back and
forth across the border, Shirinda says, but the major
influx began a few
years ago when Zimbabweans started fleeing their
country's economic decline.
The introduction of a minimum wage for farm
workers three years ago appears
to have increased the demand among some
South African farmers for cheap,
imported labour. The minimum wage, which
now stands at R885 per month or
R4,54 an hour, was supposed to help protect
farm workers from exploitation,
but in some cases the result has been the
loss of jobs by South Africans and
the exploitation of their Zimbabwean
replacements. Corrupt practices within
the departments of home affairs and
labour, such as the issuing of illegal
work permits, have served to
facilitate farmers' mistreatment of their
foreign
employees.
Joseph (not his real name) left his home near Harare last
December to find
work in South Africa. His father had died four years
earlier and his mother
two years ago, leaving the 19-year-old responsible
for his three younger
siblings. Joseph entered the country using an
emergency travel document
issued in Zimbabwe. His new employer met him at
the Beitbridge border
crossing and drove him back to his new home - a
drafty, unfurnished shack
with no electricity or toilets and an outside tap.
The farmer had already
obtained a work permit for Joseph, despite the fact
he does not own a
passport and had never visited a home affairs office. The
permit is valid
for one year and looks genuine but it has not prevented
Joseph's employer
from paying him way below the minimum wage. He and the two
other young
Zimbabweans who share his patch of concrete floor earn R10 a
day. With no
other options, they are forced to buy food from their employer
at inflated
prices. After deductions for food, Joseph is left with about
R200 a month,
less if the farmer accuses him of stealing milk from his
cattle and docks
R100 from his pay, as he did last month.
Joseph
had hoped to return home this month with enough money to pay his
siblings'
school fees and continue his own studies. But in four months he
has been
able to save just R270 and says that in any case, he is unable to
leave
because his employer has confiscated his Zimbabwean ID. Nor is looking
for a
better deal at another farm an option, as the farmer keeps all his
employees' work permits safely in his possession. A man who at first
presents himself as Joseph's foreman, but later admits he is in fact his
employer, says he belongs to an association that leases plots of land from
the government. Dressed in the same dusty work clothes and broken shoes as
his workers and claiming to live in the same shed-like housing, he says he
cannot afford to pay his workers a minimum wage because costs such as
fertiliser and electricity have risen in recent years and he receives no
government subsidies. Other Zimbabwean workers on the farm say they also
have permits, even those who admit they jumped the border. The farmer says
his association simply writes a request to home affairs when they need work
permits. Explaining why he hires only Zimbabweans he says: "South Africans
don't want to work because they get child support grants and disability
grants. Before 1994 they would work for R150 a month. Now they won't even
work for R1 000."
Mark Wegerif, the manager of policy and
research at Nkuzi, has little
sympathy for such arguments. "Farmers say
South Africans aren't willing to
work, but they're just not willing to work
for R300 a month," he counters.
"There are tens of thousands of South
Africans in that area who would be
willing to work for a fair package."
Wegerif says that the government has
made various agreements over the years
with certain groups of farmers in the
area, allowing them to employ illegal
Zimbabwean immigrants. Through what he
describes as "corruption that's
condoned at a high level", workers are
issued work permits but often lack
the same labour rights and minimum wages
that are legally guaranteed to
their South African counterparts. "We
shouldn't be taking advantage of
people's desperation," Wegerif says.
"You've got people who work full-time
and go to bed hungry, and they have no
opportunity for a better future."
Ngosana Sibuyi, a home affairs
spokesperson, denies any knowledge of the
agreements Wegerif refers to and
insists that work permits are not issued
directly to employers and cannot be
issued without a passport. He speculates
that the permits we saw were either
forged or issued by corrupt
officials.
Mokgadi Pela, a spokesperson for the department of labour,
sheds more light
on the possible origins of the work permits. Last March,
the ministries of
labour in South Africa and Zimbabwe signed a memorandum of
understanding
(MOU) aimed at regularising the status of Zimbabwean workers
in South
Africa. Key to the agreement was the building of a recruitment
centre at the
Beitbridge border that is due to open next month. Funded by
the British
government's department for international development, the
Geneva-based
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will run the
centre in
collaboration with the South African and Zimbabwean governments.
One of the
functions of the centre will be to issue corporate work permits
to
Zimbabweans in cases where employers cannot find South Africans to fill
jobs. But, admits Pela, many farmers in the area have already managed to
obtain the corporate work permits. "There are many loopholes that are being
exploited in that MOU," he says. "Those corporate work permits, their status
is questionable to say the least."
Several farmers we spoke to in
the Tshipise area said they obtained work
permits for their Zimbabwean
workers through self-employed "labour
consultants". Pela characterises these
consultants as "menaces" who are
creating chaos while making a roaring
business. "Most of these workers are
hired by these labour consultants,"
Pela says. "The opening of the centre
tells of our intention to bring order
to that situation." But Wegerif
wonders how the centre will ensure that
Zimbabwean workers receive the
minimum salaries the permits should entitle
them to. "My concern would be
that you're just facilitating the provision of
cheap labour to farmers," he
says. With a local unemployment rate of more
than 50 percent, perhaps the
biggest losers in the large-scale employment of
Zimbabweans on Limpopo farms
are jobless South Africans. "They [the
government] are assisting employers
to hire Zimbabweans, but they're not
assisting unemployed South Africans,"
says Shirinda. "It's not what people
were fighting for during the struggle.
I don't see freedom if people are
still exploited or are staying without
jobs."
IOL
Peter
Fabricius
April 23 2006 at 09:11AM
"There's nothing
more ex- than an ex-MP," the liberal Helen Suzman
used to say after she
retired from parliament many years ago. Except perhaps
an ex-African
president, one might add.
Former African presidents were becoming
extinct. But since removing
governments by ballot rather than bullet has
become more fashionable, they
are becoming more and more
extant.
Charles Stith, the former United States ambassador to
Tanzania, who
heads the African Presidential Archives and Research Centre at
Boston
University, has gathered them together in a forum that annually
debates big
issues perplexing Africa.
This week 10 of them met
at the University of the Witwatersrand to
discuss how to improve Africa's
negative image in the United States media
and how to tap the skills and
capital of the African diaspora to help
develop the continent.
Afterwards the 10 ex-presidents held a press conference and then
answered
questions from Wits students.
The students mostly gave them big
cheers when they were introduced in
the Great Hall - especially the feisty
Jerry Rawlings of Ghana and Kenneth
Kaunda, the liberation hero of Zambia,
who waved his trademark snowy-white
handkerchief to acknowledge their
acclaim.
But the applause often turned to bemusement and sometimes
even
astonishment when the ex-presidents answered questions. Nicéphore Soglo
of
Benin, drew gasps when he was asked what Africa should do about the
endemic
problem of corruption. He opined that corruption was not just a
moral issue
but a business decision and explained how the governments of
western powers
budgeted specific percentages for corruption in international
contracts.
"Corruption is the backbone of international trade,"
Soglo said. He
probably intended to sound ironic but English is not his
first language, so
he ended up sounding rather cynical and
blasé.
Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania made explicit Soglo's implicit
point -
that Africans should not be blamed entirely for corruption, as it
was
"two-way traffic" involving both a giver and a receiver.
At
this point an irreverent student doodled a caricature of Mwinyi in
her
notebook and paraphrased him in a bubble to say; "corruption is like gay
sex; there is a giver and a receiver".
The first question about
corruption had been directed, significantly,
to Kenya's Daniel arap Moi.
With a completely straight face, he catalogued
the many measures his country
was allegedly taking to tackle it. Then one
student asked, to loud applause,
whether it was really in Africa's interests
for even democratically elected
presidents to stay in office for a long
time.
Ketumile Masire,
who was Botswana president for 19 years, said leaders
should stay in office
as long as their people thought they were performing
well. "We have somehow
got carried away with new arrivals," he said,
dismissing growing trend
towards two-term limits as a fashion apeing
America.
Even the
Americans had only introduced a two-term limit for presidents
after one of
their presidents (Franklin Roosevelt) "overstayed his
usefulness".
No one complained about Britain's Margaret
Thatcher or France's
Jacques Chirac staying in office for more than two
terms, Masire said. No
one - "except Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe" -
objected to Britain's
Prime Minister Tony Blair serving more than two
terms.
Kaunda boldly declared: "I was 27 years in office, without
any
apologies to anybody." He explained that he had harboured and supported
all
the liberation movements in Southern Africa. If he had not been
president
through all this time, liberation might not have
happened.
The combative Rawlings, who spent a total of 20 years in
state house,
tackled Kaunda, saying he would like to debate with him about
which was
worse, fighting colonial powers - or fighting "neo-colonial
traitors" among
your own people, as he had.
The likes of Kaunda
had not had to use the methods he was compelled
to, when he seized power in
a 1979 coup and executed three generals "to save
the officers' corps and the
country".
The people and the students were calling for blood and
the generals
had to be "sacrificed" to stop the problem spilling out from
the barracks
into the streets, he said. He had reluctantly returned to
office in 1981
"because I had come to epitomise their [the people's]
aspirations", he said.
"If I hadn't, some corporal would have taken
over," said Rawlings, who
still calls himself "flight lieutenant", the rank
he held when he first
seized power. "I mean no disrespect to corporals, but
we would have been
back where we started."
Rawlings said it
didn't matter how long a leader stayed in office -
"so long as he has vision
and discipline".
Mwinyi appeared to differ, noting his country had
had four presidents
since independence. Both he and his successor, Benjamin
Mkapa, served the
regulation two terms each. But most of these remarks
suggested that the aim
of the forum was not so much to tap the collective
wisdom of the
ex-presidents as to keep them out of mischief - such as trying
to get back
into office.
Stroking their considerable egos by
consulting them on important
matters, Stith's aim seems to be to raise the
status of ex-presidents to
elder statesman, thereby encouraging a few more
current presidents to join
their ranks.
Stith concluded the
session by heaping praise on the "extraordinary"
leaders and suggesting that
if one but followed their examples "all of our
hopes and aspirations for the
people of this continent will be realised".
Perhaps he meant that
other African leaders should follow their
example of leaving office at
last.
This article was originally published on page 3 of Sunday
Independent
on April 23, 2006
Memory overload has resulted in a
change to our petition address. It is now
www.gopetition.com/region/222/7681.html
The
Petition will be delivered to the British Minister of State on the 30th
of
June 2006. Almost 2000 signatures will be on it. PLEASE join petition if
you
haven't already.
In May I will be lobbying for support in accordance with
the Action Plan.
I ask all supporters to visit our new BLOG PAGE
www.zim-pensions.blogspot.com to
comment on the distress and suffering being
endured by many Zimbabwe
pensioners and their families. Your comments will
provide material for my
weekly Blog summary and analysis.
The Blog Page will be available to
bloggers worldwide. If you want their
support, make your comments. Keep them
brief, to the point, but significant
and effective to arouse the sympathetic
support we need.
Please encourage all and sundry to visit this page. It
is a forum, which
could become a court of public opinion, anyone can log in,
comment, exchange
viewpoints, or offer support.
We are petitioning
for payment at the historic rate of Z$2 to one pound
Stirling, as recorded
in the British House of Lords debate in 2001.
The Petition Site will
close on the 30th of June. The Blog Page will remain
as a website for
comment, discussion and, hopefully, offers of pro bono
legal help. It will
be our only means of communication and the only way to
continue the fight
for our pensions entitlements. The torch has been lit by
one very old man;
now, all of you must keep it burning.
Thank you,
Raymond
Billington
Dear Family and Friends, I don't know why, but
after a short stay outside
of Zimbabwe, and with things as tense as they are,
you come back into the
country and expect something to have happened. Its
hard to believe that
with inflation at 913% the country can carry on, the
people can survive
and tolerate or that anything can be maintained at all.
Amazingly though,
a fortnight has passed since my last letter and everything
in Zimbabwe
seems to be the same as ever.
Coming back into the country
by road and at night took me back in time 40
years. On the main highway I
travelled, for mile after mile the roadside
vegetation has not been cut and
golden grass, 6 foot high, waves and
sways, dipping into the road as you
pass. On either side of the road and
in the valleys there are no lights from
farms anymore and in the distance
- as far as you can see in any direction -
there is only darkness, not
even an orange glow on the horizon from a big
town or city. The sight of
the bending grass and the intense darkness took me
back to journeys in
remote country areas during my childhood. Journeys
sitting in the back of
the family station wagon, elbowing siblings and
squabbling, looking out
into the darkness watching for eyes. 40 years on
though, and the roadside
darkness is not from a sparsely populated
countryside but from mile after
mile of empty or subsitence level farms.
Farms once overflowing with
production, powered by generators when necessary,
which ensured the lights
stayed on over vast fields of export flowers and
vegetables and kept cold
rooms humming day and night. The farms now are just
silent and dark.
The lack of urban lights in Zimbabwe these nights is
from major and
widespread power cuts. On the night of my journey the
electricity had
apparently been off in an area covering three main towns and
over 100
kilometres for twelve hours. The long roadside grass is from
municipal
negligence - there are no excuses for it - we have abundant
manpower due
to massive unemployment and pay exhorbitant rates every month in
all rural
and urban areas. The lack of road signs and reflective lenses to
give some
light in the night are the result of people desperate for money
removing
anything and everything they come across - even tin road signs and
little
squares of shiny material buried in the tar.
The only thing
about travelling at night that is not reminiscent of 4
decades
ago is
that now there are no eyes in the dark. As a child I remember
watching
the road ahead and being filled with excitement, anticipation
and even a
little
fear as the night time world came into view and raced
passed in fleeting
glimpses. The eyes of wild animals used to be caught, just
for a split
second in
the car headlights - hares, antelope, civet and
genet cats, mongoose and
other
creatures you couldn't identify but whose
eyes glowed orange, even red as
you
passed. Now you see nothing, just
nothing; the animals seem poached almost
out
of existence but still you
watch, ever hopeful, mesmerised by the long grass
bending and swaying along
the roasdsides. Zimbabwe is staggering back in
time
and still there seems
nothing happening to halt the regression. It is,
however,
very good to be
home and, like looking for eyes in the night, I remain ever
hopeful. Until
next week, love cathy. Copyright cathy buckle 22 April
2006.
http://africantears.netfirms.com
My
books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:
orders@africabookcentre.com