By Nasreen Seria and
Godfrey Mutizwa
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe's central bank, hobbled
by the world's
fastest shrinking economy and its highest inflation rate,
devalued the
nation's currency for exporters by 98 percent to ease foreign
exchange
shortages.
Exporters and companies that generate foreign
currency will be paid the
equivalent of 15,000 Zimbabwe dollars, central
bank Governor Gideon Gono
said in a monetary policy statement today,
according to a copy on the
central bank's Web site. The currency is
officially pegged at 250 to the
U.S. dollar, while it trades at about 20,000
on the black market.
Gono has been under increasing pressure to devalue
the Zimbabwe dollar to
boost exports and help revive the economy from an
eight-year recession,
triggered by President Robert Mugabe's seizure of
white-owned commercial
farms.
``The net revenue exporters will
receive is closer to the cost base and will
return viability to the mining
industry,'' Ian Saunders, president of the
Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines said by
telephone from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second-biggest city. ``If you increase
exporters' viability, you increase
economic activity.''
The improved
exchange rate will be applied to miners, farmers, tour
operators,
non-governmental organizations, embassies, Zimbabweans living
abroad that
expatriate earnings, and others who generate foreign exchange,
central bank
spokesman Kumbirai Nhongo said by telephone from Bulawayo
today.
Central Bank Control
Exporters will be required to
exchange money at the central bank to receive
the better rate, said
Saunders.
``There is no widespread devaluation,'' he added. ``Everything
will be done
through the central bank.''
Zimbabwe has suffered
frequent food, fuel and foreign currency shortages
since 2000, when Mugabe
ordered white-owned commercial farms be given to
black subsistence farmers.
The government has also printed money to pay
debts, boosting
inflation.
The inflation rate reached a record 2,200 percent in March,
from 1,730
percent in February, Gono said today. The central bank increased
its
benchmark interest rate to 600 percent from 500 percent, he added. At
the
same time, the International Monetary Fund estimates that the economy
will
contract 5.7 percent this year, after shrinking 4.8 percent last
year.
Stock Rally
The Zimbabwean Stock Exchange Industrials index
has gained more than
eight-fold this year as interest rates were kept at
less than a third of the
inflation rate, prompting investors to look to the
stock market for better
returns than the government-controlled money market.
The index jumped 9.6
percent to 4,714,403 today, according to Bloomberg
data.
Zimbabwe's central bank will pay gold exporters 350,000 Zimbabwe
dollars a
gram for those who elect not to retain foreign exchange earnings,
Gono said.
That is up from 16,000 Zimbabwe dollars previously. Gold
production dropped
19 percent to 2.24 metric tons in the first quarter from
the same period
last year, Gono said.
The central bank will also help
boost the earnings of tobacco growers.
Tobacco farmers will be paid a
``top-up support price'' for every kilogram
they sell, depending on the sale
price, Gono said. He also raised the amount
of foreign earnings that tobacco
growers can retain to 20 percent from 15
percent.
``In order to
encourage and support farmers in rebuilding the glitter of the
golden leaf,
it has become necessary that viability in the tobacco sector be
enhanced
through additional support measures,'' Gono said.
Tobacco Crop
The
country's tobacco crop will probably increase 46 percent to 80 million
kilograms this year, Gono said today. Production has slumped from a 2000
high of 236 million kilograms following the government's failed land reform
program.
The central bank governor also said that 500,000 tons of
corn has been
ordered to alleviate a food shortage and urged the government
to seek
partners to help develop diamond mines. Farmers have delivered
around
170,000 tons of wheat to the national grain buying agency, he
said.
Gono resisted calls to devalue the currency in his previous
monetary policy
statement on Jan. 31. The Zimbabwe dollar was last devalued
by 60 percent
against the U.S. dollar on July 31, 2006, the third time in a
year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Godfrey Mutizwa in
Johannesburg at
gmutizwa@bloomberg.net ; Nasreen Seria
in Johannesburg at
nseria@bloomberg.net .
Last
Updated: April 26, 2007 12:58 EDT
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: April 26,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: State central bank governor Gideon
Gono announced measures
Thursday that effectively devalued the Zimbabwe
dollar 60-fold in most
official transactions - but he insisted the move was
not a true devaluation
in the nation's crumbling economy.
Gono said
the measure aimed to draw hard currency away from the thriving
black market
and back into the official financial system.
Analysts said Gono announced
a split exchange rate in a bid to alleviate
acute hard currency shortages
and it typified the bizarre nature of the
worst economic crisis in Zimbabwe
since independence in 1980.
The governor said hard currency earners
submitting US dollars into the
country's coffers would be paid out at the
official legal exchange rate of
250 Zimbabwean dollars to the US
dollar.
But while US$1 would first be changed for 250 Zimbabwe dollars -
it would
then be multiplied to 15,000 Zimbabwe dollars for exporters,
international
organizations, gold and tobacco producers, Zimbabweans abroad
remitting
money home and other genuine "generators of foreign
currency."
"This will be done without altering the official exchange rate
of 250-1" in
other routine business, he said, without explaining the
details.
Speaking in a national financial policy review delivered at the
annual
Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in the second city of Bulawayo,
Gono
warned reporters he did not want to see headlines that he had devalued
the
currency.
"There's no devaluation. There's not going to be any
exchange rate movement.
We have not devalued the dollar but sought ways to
enhance the viability of
foreign currency generators in a sector specific
way," Gono said.
He brought the policy review forward from July, saying
the economy couldn't
wait until then for new recovery
measures.
President Robert Mugabe has publicly opposed an outright
devaluation and
fired one finance minister who proposed the only way to
balance the nation's
books was to let the Zimbabwe dollar float against
market forces.
Analysts said the black market rate of about 25,000-1 -
about 100 fold above
the official rate - was a true reflection of the market
rate driven by
demand and Zimbabwe's skewed business
conditions.
Independent Harare economist John Robertson said black market
dealing would
continue to thrive. The new and unusual measure lacked enough
incentive to
attract serious hard cash.
"It's juvenile. It's
pathetic, but I'll give him (Gono) 3 out of 10 marks
for trying," he
said.
Gono acknowledged the economy was in deep trouble, but said erratic
rain and
drought slashed food production, forcing the government to spend
scarce hard
currency on importing 500,000 metric tons of mostly corn, the
staple food,
to avert starvation in coming months.
He said the
Reserve Bank also ordered 100,000 ox-drawn plows, 100,000
animal-drawn carts
for transportation and other simple farm tools to be
distributed across the
country.
"We are going back to basics," he said. "Food security is at the
heart of
our inflation."
Mechanized farming largely collapsed during
the often violent campaign to
seize thousands of white-owned commercial
farms that began in 2000,
disrupting the agriculture-based
economy.
Gono confirmed that official inflation rose last month to 2,200
percent, the
highest in the world, and said it was expected to worsen. The
Central
Statistical Office mysteriously canceled its regular inflation
announcement
early this month on a record 500 percentage point rise against
February's
inflation figure of 1,700 percent.
Gono said the Reserve
Bank was fighting profiteering and "the inflation
dragon."
"Three
quarters of our problems are our own shortcomings," Gono said.
Reuters
Thu 26 Apr
2007, 16:38 GMT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE, April 26 (Reuters)
- Zimbabwe's central bank on Thursday introduced
a new foreign currency bond
to raise money to tackle a serious drought
threatening the country, but
turned down demands for a general devaluation
of the local
currency.
In an emergency policy statement unveiled two months ahead of
schedule,
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono also offered new
price
incentives for tobacco and gold producers facing collapse over a
skewed
exchange rate.
Gono said Zimbabwe needed to raise foreign
currency for imports to avert
further drought-induced food
shortages.
"The drought situation in the economy impels that appropriate
measures be
put in place...the Reserve Bank has, with immediate effect,
opened up a
foreign currency drought stabilisation bond," Gono
said.
He said the country's exporters, local individuals with foreign
currency,
Zimbabweans living abroad and foreign investors could take up the
two-year
bonds.
Money raised through the bond would go towards a
drought mitigation and
economic stabilisation fund, which would finance food
imports, Gono said.
But analysts said the new measures would not be
enough to help President
Robert Mugabe's government ride out a severe
economic crisis that many blame
on mismanagement, controversial policies and
confrontation with Western
powers and donors.
The World Bank says the
southern African country has the fastest shrinking
economy outside a war
zone, while the IMF says Zimbabwe's inflation --
already the world's
highest -- might accelerate to 3,000 percent by the end
of this
year.
On Thursday, Gono said annual inflation jumped to a record 2,200
percent
last month from 1,729.9 percent in February, and he raised lending
rates by
100 percentage points to 600 percent in a bid to tame the rising
prices.
Gono, appointed by Mugabe over three years ago to turn around the
economy,
said there would be no merit in accepting clamours by commerce and
industry
to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar, pegged at 250 to the U.S. dollar
but selling
at 100 times that rate on a thriving black market.
But he
indirectly devalued the Zimbabwe dollar to an effective rate of
Z$15,000 to
the U.S. dollar by offering a new rate for foreign currency the
central bank
will be buying for the new drought stabilisation fund that he
said would be
set up.
The country's exporters, mainly miners and tobacco farmers, have
protested
that the skewed exchange rate has devastated their
businesses.
MAIZE DEFICIT
Zimbabwe is facing an estimated 1.5
million tonnes deficit of the staple
maize as a result of low production on
commercial farms seized from whites
for black resettlement, but Gono said
the shortage was mainly due to
drought.
"Thorough crop assessments
undertaken over the last two months have
confirmed the devastating effects
of the drought this current season, which
drought has not only hit Zimbabwe
alone but the sub region as a whole," he
said.
Zimbabwe, once the
breadbasket of southern Africa, is crippled by foreign
currency and fuel
shortages, unemployment of over 80 percent and the highest
rate of inflation
in the world.
Mugabe's government has responded to a series of strikes
and political
protests since the beginning of the year with a violent
crackdown on
political opponents.
The central bank governor said the
overnight secured interest rate would
rise to 600 percent from 500 percent
previously. The unsecured rate would
rise to 700 percent from 600
percent.
In a bid to improve the viability of exporters, Gono raised the
central
bank's gold support price to Z$350,000 per gram from Z$16,000 and
introduced
a new support for tobacco of Z$40,000 a kg.
Leading
private Zimbabwean economic consultant and commentator John
Robertson said
Gono had skirted the main issues, and his measures were
inadequate.
"This patchwork is not going to repair the economy
because the main problems
we have are to do with private property rights,
lack of production and
problems with the international community," he
said.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: April 26,
2007
STRASBOURG, France: The European Parliament urged EU
member nations Thursday
to ensure sanctions against the regime of Zimbabwe's
authoritarian President
Robert Mugabe are rigorously applied and no banned
Zimbabweans attend a
planned EU-Africa summit.
The European Union has
ordered economic and political sanctions against
Mugabe and top officials
believed to be responsible for the violent
crackdown on the country's
political opposition.
The sanctions include a ban on more than 100
government officials, ministers
and members of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
Union-Patriotic Front party from
traveling to the 27-nation bloc. It was
extended on Monday by EU
governments.
Last month, however, Belgium
granted a visa by mistake to a leading member
of the ZANU-PF who is on the
blacklist. Although the visit never happened,
the European Parliament warned
that such negligence severely undermines the
EU's policy on
Zimbabwe.
"Weakness in the application of targeted sanctions ... gravely
disappoints
those in Zimbabwe who seek the support of the international
community," the
parliament said in a resolution.
The assembly
also demanded that member states ensure no Zimbabwean officials
on the
blacklist are invited to the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon planned for
December.
The EU is the most important international donor to Zimbabwe.
It gave ?193
million (US$263 million) to the country last year.
Yahoo News
by Fanuel
Jongwe
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe, already battling to contain the world's
highest
rate of inflation, announced on Thursday that the figure had soared
once
more to 2,200 percent.
After the official announcement of the
rate for March was twice postponed
earlier this month, central bank governor
Gideon Gono confirmed the figure
had crashed through the 2,000 percent
barrier for the first time after
rising by another 470 percentage points
from the 1,730 percent mark for
February.
"Year-on-year inflation which
stood at 1,072.2 percent in October rose to
11,281.1 percent in December and
has risen to to 2,200 percent by March,"
Gono said in a televised
statement.
"Inflation pressures are seen remaining high," Gono said,
calling for a
collective effort to tame the "inflation dragon".
"It's
imperative to note that the inflation dragon is as much determined by
collective mindsets of all of us as it is by monetary aggregates or what is
called money supply growth.
"As Zimbabweans, we must therefore think
and act positively avoiding the
daily enterprise of scheming the downfall of
the economy as a getaway to any
objective."
Gono has compared
inflation in Zimbabwe to the AIDS pandemic and the latest
figure further
undermines a prediction by then finance minister Herbert
Murerwa in December
that it would fall to around 300 percent by the end of
2007.
Best
Doroh, an economist with Harare-based ZB Financial Holdings, said all
the
evidence pointed to the prospect of an even bigger figure by the end of
the
year.
"It is difficult to say what the rate will be by year end but it
certainly
won't be anywhere near what these guys had initially predicted,"
he told
AFP.
John Robertson, a Harare-based independent economist,
predicted that the
rate could almost double by the end of the
year.
"At the rate at which things are moving, inflation will surpass
4,000
percent by year end because the government is printing money and the
central
bank was recently buying foreign currency on the parrallel market,"
he said.
"Things will get worse unless there is a change of policy," he
added
Zimbabwe's economy has been on a downturn over the past seven years
with
four in every five persons out of work and perennial shortages of
commodities like sugar, cooking oil and fuel in the one-time bread basket of
Africa.
Over 80 percent of the population is living below the poverty
threshold
often skipping meals or cycling or walking long distances to work
in order
to stretch their wages.
The government blames the economic
crisis on targetted sanctions imposed on
veteran President Robert Mugabe and
members of his inner circle by the
United States and the European Union
following presidential polls in 2002
which the opposition and western
observers charged were rigged.
Part of the problem is a desperate lack of
foreign currency with the
Zimbabwean dollar only fetching a fraction at
official rates as on the
thriving black market.
In his address, Gono
effectively devalued the currency for exporters and
those holding foreign
exchange by 99 percent in a move seen as an attempt to
increase the inflows
of foreign currency.
Shying away from calling it devaluation, Gono said
the rate at which foreign
currency account holders can sell their foreign
cash would be 60 times
higher.
Before the devaluation, the Zimbabwean
dollar had been trading at around
25,000 to the greenback, against the
official rate of 250 dollars.
Apr 26th 2007
From Economist.com
Our online
news editor learns that few have time for plots
Thursday
I
ADMIT a private interest in going to Harare. Simon Mann, a British
mercenary
and aristocrat, a former officer of the Special Air Services, was
nabbed at
Harare airport a few years ago while trying to buy a plane-load of
grenades
and automatic rifles. He was detained with 60-odd fellow hired guns
and,
eventually, jailed for breaking various petty laws. His real crime was
plotting, rather ambitiously, to overthrow the government of an oil-rich
African dictatorship, Equatorial Guinea, a close ally of Zimbabwe. Now he is
rotting in a maximum security prison here, a place called Chikurubi. Last
year I wrote a book on the failed coup attempt, and I wonder what has since
happened to Mr Mann.
In previous visits I tried to get to the prison
to see the unlucky plotter.
Unsurprisingly, that proved impossible. But I
have seen his various lawyers,
including two in Harare, and one or two
well-connected Zimbabweans who have
their own theories on the mercenary's
scheme. One close ally of Robert
Mugabe suggested to me that the plot's true
goal was to get Zimbabwe's
rulers in trouble. If only.
According to
various reports, Mr Mann is no longer in good shape. Apparently
he suffers
from severe organ failure. He desperately needs medical
attention. He has
had a hernia. Well, maybe.
Without being uncharitable-I have no doubt
that Chikurubi is an unwholesome
place to be-I suspect that Mr Mann's sudden
rash of ill-health may be an
attempt to quash efforts by slippery lawyers to
extradite him to Equatorial
Guinea. If Mr Mann can be shown to be ill,
extradition may prove harder to
achieve. In any case, he should know his
fate within weeks, when he will be
either released or bundled onto a plane
(presumably in exchange for cheap
oil and suitcases stuffed with cash) to
Equatorial Guinea.
The extradition hearings took place last week in his
prison. It seems that
the authorities worry that Mr Mann might stage an
escape or be rescued by
other mercenaries. Earlier in the week Jonathan
Moyo, an independent MP,
said that the CIA was rumoured to be planning to
break Mr Mann from prison.
Now that would make a dramatic
epilogue.
But these days nobody in Harare seems interested in talking
about a plot.
The main preoccupation is the misery of daily living. A
friend, a Zimbabwean
journalist, has long resisted the idea that his country
is falling apart.
But a once reliable electricity grid is breaking down,
forcing residents to
set up noisy generators in their back gardens. Harare
is growing darker at
night. Crime used to be low; now petty crooks, robbers,
shoplifters and the
like are increasingly active. Corruption is more
common.
My friend is changing his view. He gave in last month and bought
a
generator. Needing a cable, he ordered one on a Thursday afternoon and was
charged Z$3m (about $12,000). By Monday, when he collected it, the price was
$4.5m. In Mugabeland, getting through the day is becoming a full-time job.
No one has time to worry about bizarre stories of mercenary plots.
Sokwanele
Sokwanele Article : 26 April 2007
Factionalism has gripped the ruling
party's Bulawayo Province following
revelations that the majority of members
are against the fielding of
President Robert Mugabe in next year's
presidential election proposed to run
simultaneously with local government
and parliamentary polls.
Authoritative sources within the party said this
week the entire leadership
in Bulawayo Province was seriously divided with a
few backing Mugabe while
the majority were in favour of Vice President Joice
Mujuru and former Zanu
PF intelligence chief and current Minister of Rural
Housing and Amenities
Emmerson Mnangagwa.
"There are definitely three
factions one led by John Nkomo who supports
Mugabe as the party candidate
for the presidential election and two others
led by Joshua Malinga and
Dumiso Dabengwa who are backing Mnangagwa and
Mujuru respectively," said one
of the sources, a member of the politburo,
the party's most powerful
decision-making body.
Nkomo - the chairman of the ruling party, Speaker
of Parliament, a relative
of President Mugabe and has presidential ambitions
- is believed to be in
favour of the 83 year-old Zimbabwean leader as Mugabe
appears to have a soft
spot for him.
"The ruling party chairman has
always featured in all Cabinet reshuffles
since independence and had to be
persuaded by his PF Zapu colleagues to
leave his cabinet post when Zapu was
kicked out of the government in the
early 1980s following a 'discovery' of
military weapons cached by the
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA)
in Matabeleland.
ZIPRA was the armed wing of PF Zapu led by former Vice
President Joshua
Nkomo. It was accused by the Mugabe regime of attempting to
topple the
government by military force.
The sources further said a
few members of the ruling party's Women's League
and former members of Zanu
PF's armed wing, the Zimbabwe African National
Liberation Army (ZANLA), were
backing Nkomo in supporting President Robert
Mugabe's unpopular move to
contest in next year's presidential election.
"This is just a group of
few people who want Mugabe to contest the election.
Otherwise they are an
unpopular Bulawayo provincial group even if the Zanu
PF Central Committee
recently endorsed Mugabe as the party's candidate for
next year's
presidential election," said another source, a member of the
party's central
committee.
On the other hand, the sources said former Zapu intelligence
supremo, Dumiso
Dabengwa, appeared to have an upper hand over other factions
as he was
believed to be making underground maneuvres together with ex-army
commander
General Solomon Mujuru to catapult the latter's wife, Joice, to
Zimbabwe's
top most political position.
"Dabengwa has the backing of
members of the party's Youth League in Bulawayo
Province, most members of
the Women's League and the current provincial
executive committees of the
War Veterans Association and the party's main
wing," said a source close to
the veteran politician who is also a top
member of the War Veterans
Association.
He said: "At the same time, the Dabengwa faction is courting
members of the
opposition in an effort to make a surprise move towards the
presidential
election by fielding Vice President Joice Mujuru to fight it
out with
President Mugabe.
"This will be a coalition movement with
members of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and other opposition
parties fed up with Mugabe's
iron-first rule. This faction is on a public
relations exercise trying to
fool Mugabe to appear as if it is on his side
while waiting to make a
surprise political move towards the 2008
presidential election."
The sources said Dabengwa, President Mugabe's
most feared remnant of the
once-lethal revolutionary PF Zapu, had nothing to
lose if he opposed
President Mugabe as the ruling elite had sidelined him
for a long time.
"He has taken a gamble and once this works out, he might
revive his
political career. Dabengwa has never been trusted by Mugabe from
the time he
was the intelligence chief of Zapu," said one of the sources
within the
politburo.
The source said as for the Joshua Malinga
faction, it appeared to be losing
grip of the War Veterans Association and
executive committee members of the
ruling party in the province following a
foiled nationally-crafted palace
coup in 2004 affectionately known as the
Tsholotsho Declaration.
Most members of this faction attempted to elect
Mnangagwa to the post of
Vice President of the party and Zimbabwe at the
last party Congress when
seven out of 10 chairmen of the ruling party's
provincial executives and
other top members of the party met in Tsholotsho
to block the election of
Joice Mujuru.
When the plot was unearthed,
they were subsequently fired by the ruling
party for attempting to stage a
palace coup which could have seen Mnangagwa
taking over from the late Vice
President Simon Muzenda and Patrick Chinamasa
being elected party chairman
instead of John Nkomo.
The meeting was designed to get rid of the old
Zapu guard like Vice
President Joseph Msika, John Nkomo, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu,
Effort Nkomo and
other top party members. This would have led to the gradual
political demise
of President Mugabe.
"This faction therefore appears
to have lost it when they attempted to stage
a palace coup and is now seen
as docile. Although it is still being
supported by former freedom fighters
like Jabulani Sibanda and his few
followers, it is toothless," said another
source, a war veteran.
The source said: "The leader of this faction
(Malinga) is widely seen by
most Zanu PF cadres and former members of PF
Zapu as a total failure. He was
given a chance to run the City of Bulawayo
as mayor but did not command a
lot of respect among his party
colleagues.
"At the same time, he has failed to garner support in any
election and as a
result he can't win the hearts of serious politicians. The
person
(Mnangagwa) that the faction is backing is viewed as having played a
key
role in the deployment of the Five Brigade which killed over 20 000
civilians in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces at the height of the
civil strife of the 1980s pitting Zanu PF and PF Zapu."
The North
Korean-trained brigade, commonly known as Gukurahundi, was
deployed by the
government to hunt down so-called dissidents which were
allegedly backed by
Joshua Nkomo in an attempt to topple the Mugabe
administration.
Despite the faction fighting in the Bulawayo
Province, it remains to be seen
whether the Dabengwa and Malinga factions
will have the nerve to field
candidates against President Mugabe, widely
referred worldwide as Africa's
Hitler.
Their other fear might be the
non-alignment of Vice President Msika to any
of the factions. Msika is
believed to be the king maker in the region after
the death of Vice
President Joshua Nkomo.
"We don't fear Mugabe or any person in the ruling
party. He (Mugabe) is a
human being like all of us . Time will come when he
has to be forced to go
and we will do it . In 2008, he has to pave way for
another president," said
a member of the Malinga faction who is also one of
the leaders of the party's
provincial Youth League.
Efforts to
contact Dabengwa, Malinga and Nkomo were fruitless.
New Zimbabwe
By
Torby Chimhashu in Bulawayo
Last updated: 04/27/2007 05:00:40
ZIMBABWE'S
central bank has unveiled a whistle blowers' fund aimed at
disrupting
leakages and smuggling of precious minerals.
Gideon Gono, the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe governor, announced the fund while
unveiling his monetary
policy statement in Bulawayo where he is attending an
annual trade
fair.
He said the fund, which will come into full force Friday, has been
necessitated by the continued spate of leakages of precious minerals
including gold and diamonds, threatening the performance of the
economy.
"It has become necessary that the Reserve Bank resuscitates the
whistle
blowers programme for gold and diamonds under which the whistle
blowers will
be paid 5% of the value of actual prosecuted recoveries from
their reported
cases.
"To complement the envisaged benefits of the
whistle blowers programme, the
Reserve Bank is deepening its Anti-Money
Laundering and Exchange Control
Inspectorate arms to ensure the illegal
parallel market activities are
sufficiently dealt with," Gono
said.
Gono revealed that gold continued to under perform, registering a
total of
2.24 tonnes during the first quarter of 2007 - representing a
decline of
19%, on the 2.76 tonnes registered over the same period in
2006.
He attributed the fall in output to combined effects of viability
problems
and rampant smuggling which he said has put a dent on "what
traditionally
stood as the country's reserve asset of last
resort."
Several top government officials and civil servants have been
implicated in
the smuggling of diamonds in Chiadzwa area, Marange, where
diamond deposits
where unearthed towards the end of 2006.
High
ranking cabinet ministers and security agents have been named as some
of the
people behind the smuggling of diamonds, although no arrests and
prosecutions have been made.
In a joint operation involving police
and the Central Intelligenc
Organisation (CIO), the RBZ has unearthed gold
rackets and syndicates in
small towns involving Zanu PF legislators and
businessmen.
Since the turn of the year, police have nabbed nearly 32 000
people -- but
none of the implicated government officers -- in a blitz
code-named
Chikorokoza Chapera, casting doubts the government's seriousness
to curb the
plunder of minerals.
Police recovered 3,6kg of gold and 7
868 diamonds since the blitz was
launched in November.
Only one
notable Zanu PF official, William Nhara, was arrested after he
tried to
smuggle diamonds worth US$130 000 out of the country through the
Harare
International Airport.
Nhara, who is the Zanu PF Harare province
spokesman, is out on bail.
Zimbabwe is losing between US$40-US$50 million
every week through the
smuggling of precious minerals, especially gold, said
Gono.
In February, a Harare magistrate was arrested together with seven
others in
Mhangura where they were allegedly panning for gold.
A week
later, police raided a house belonging to Zimbabwe Defence Industries
boss,
retired Colonel Tshinga Dube, and arrested his son who was released on
bail.
Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 25 April
Gugulethu Moyo
Outside the cities, few
people in Zimbabwe read newspapers. The state press
belongs to Robert Mugabe
and he controls television and radio stations.
There is no doubt that the
deck is heavily stacked in the president's
favour. So it was hardly a
surprise when, invited to share his vision of
Zimbabwe's future with readers
of the Mail & Guardian, staffers in the
office of MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai responded with enthusiasm. "This is
wonderful," gushed
communications adviser George Sibotshiwe, "we will take
you up on your
offer." That was on April 3, a month after we first asked the
MDC leader to
contribute to these pages. Tsvangirai's spokesperson William
Bango told the
editors of this supplement that Tsvangirai's article would
arrive within two
weeks. He could not have known what the next fortnight
would
bring.
On March 11, Tsvangirai and Bango were savagely beaten by police
in Harare.
Television pictures showed Bango's bruised body and Tsvangirai
leaving
hospital in a wheelchair. Doctors were said to be concerned that
Tsvangirai
had received fractures to his skull. We feared he might never
write again.
Then, a day after leaving hospital, Tsvangirai issued a
compelling account
of his beating to the Independent, a British newspaper.
"They brutalised my
flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will
soldier on until Zimbabwe
is free," he wrote. This was good news. We allowed
a decent time for the MDC
leader to recover, and called again. Sibotshiwe
promised that Tsvangirai's
contribution to this supplement was on its way.
Then the apologetic emails
began: "I am sorry to let you know that we will
not be able to meet the
deadline today," Sibotshiwe wrote on April 13.
"Tsvangirai has not finished
editing his piece. He, however, promised to
give it to me on Sunday."
Naturally, we moved the deadline. On April
16, Sibotshiwe wrote again: "I am
sorry to let you know we won't be able to
meet the deadline. I have just
been given more definite times, the
indication is Thursday morning . if we
promise you anything else, we will be
lying." Thursday morning passed.
Sibotshiwe assured us that Tsvangirai's
article would be worth the wait. The
MDC leader planned "exclusive
revelations". These would be ready by the
weekend of April 22, just as the
editors of this supplement promised, in
last week's edition, to M&G
readers. And then . nothing. Telephone calls and
emails go unanswered.
Again, we feared the worst. We called Roy Bennett, a
senior MDC member based
in South Africa. He explained that Bango, the
party's chief of
communications, was still away from work after his beating
at the hands of
police officers. Meanwhile, Tsvangirai had been picked up by
the police
again: "He's busy running around, all our people in Zimbabwe are
recovering
from beatings. They are not working."
But police harassment was not
the only problem. Bennett was also concerned
with the finer points of press
freedom. M&G proprietor Trevor Ncube had
"published some very damaging
things about the MDC in the M&G", said
Bennett: "Why should we fit in
with his agenda now that it suits him?" The
editors replied that this
particular objection had not been raised before.
Surely, an article by
Tsvangirai was an ideal opportunity to correct the
"damaging" reports in
Ncube's newspaper. Bennett appeared satisfied: "Fine,
leave it to me," he
said. "You'll get the article tomorrow." As this
newspaper goes to press, we
are still waiting and so we must apologise to
readers who opened these pages
expecting to find the exclusive counsel of
Tsvangirai. Perhaps it will be
some small consolation instead to consider
the words of another MDC
president. One leader is not enough for Zimbabwe's
opposition, after all.
The MDC - unable to agree on whether to contest or to
boycott elections -
has split into two factions.
Each of these two MDCs has its own
president. The other one, Arthur
Mutambara, shares his vision of the future
here. He says that the MDC must
present a united front against Zanu PF.
Mutambara is an expert in robotics
and computer science. Asked to write
about the prospects for Zimbabwe after
Mugabe, he suggests that new wireless
data networks and biotechnology will
revive the country's fortunes. It is
hard to avoid the conclusion that the
MDC contributions (or lack of them) to
these pages is emblematic of the
problems that confront Zimbabwe's
beleaguered opposition. Mugabe has little
trouble from them. While the
83-year-old president dominates Zimbabwean
politics, the two MDCs are
stubbornly unable to agree on a strategy to
challenge his increasingly
dictatorial regime. Disorganised, divided and
unequal to the fight, the MDC
has failed to forge a convincing coalition of
his enemies. When people point
this out to the MDC, party leaders accuse
their critics of harbouring hidden
"agendas". So MDC leaders may be
encouraged to know that their difficulties
have not deterred some
influential foreign friends. Robert Rotberg, the
Harvard University
professor who has developed a new index of governance in
Africa, argues that
the talents of MDC leaders will stand Zimbabwe in good
stead after Mugabe.
Zimbabweans, meanwhile, are likely to be more sceptical.
Tempting though it
might be to wish away the opposition's difficulties, it
is not yet clear how
the two MDCs will be reunited. Nor how a newly
invigorated MDC will confront
Mugabe. If only the undisputed courage of
Zimbabwe's opposition leaders were
enough to oust Mugabe, the ageing despot
would be long gone.
Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 25 April
Martin Rupiya
Recent events in
Zimbabwe have shown how politics has become militarised and
how the military
has become politicised. At policy level, the Joint
Operational Command,
comprising the police, intelligence and military, has
found that the
internal security situation was unstable and imposed a
three-month ban on
all political activity. It is not surprising that the
ruling party has
welcomed this restriction, while the opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC) has challenged it in court. Simultaneously, at
the
implementation level, the state has enforced its provisions, leading to
the
fatal shooting of National Constitutional Assembly youth organiser Gift
Tandare by the police during a political gathering. And, at the
operational/tactical level, the Central Intelligence Organisation, operating
through shadowy "hit squads", was among those involved in the snatching of
Gift's body, which was quickly interred without his wife's knowledge. The
move stopped what was clearly becoming the celebration of a
martyr.
The participation of the security forces in politics is a
deliberate
strategy by Zanu PF in response to dwindling popular support and
its
tendency to cast the crisis in war terminology. The question now arises
of
what role the military will play in the transition that is now
inevitable.
It has become inevitable for several reasons. Firstly, the
impact of
violence against the opposition has fractured the ruling party and
seen the
emergence of elements critical of the hard-line faction. The severe
economic
downturn is also precipitating change, while deteriorating and
demoralising
pay and conditions that affect all sectors, including the civil
service and
security forces, is another factor. There has been little
attention paid to
the role of the security forces in a transitional
government. nnouncements
made by the military, reflecting on what it
understands its role in
politics, need to be noted. Just before the June
2000 elections, army
spokesperson Chancellor Diye announced that the army
was an apolitical
institution and would not be involved in
politics.
Two years later, on January 9 2002, commanders from
intelligence, the air
force, military, police and the prison service
supported the view of the
commander of the defence forces (CDF), General
Vitalis Zvinavashe, that it
would not recognise a president without
liberation credentials. This clearly
referred to the opposition candidate of
the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai. Later,
in December 2006, the then CDF, general
Constantine Chiwenga, called on the
governor of the Reserve Bank and the
government to find a political and
economic solution to the crisis and
warned that the defence force would not
turn its guns on Zimbabweans. There
were also military-backed efforts to
arrange inter-party talks - a process
that was stymied by Mugabe. Thus there
are contradictory statements and
actions by very senior commanders that cast
a different view of what has
been perceived as a partisan security force.
But before the
transitional role of the security forces is considered, the
impact of the
crisis on the military needs to be examined. Select units,
ranging from
intelligence to police units and to the national service, have
constituted
the violent component of the ruling party strategy. This has
degraded the
rest of the conventional and professional forces. The crisis
has had an
impact on the police, leading to more than 3 500 members leaving
by March
this year. There have also been unconfirmed reports of desertions
and
resignations in large numbers from other uniformed services. If a
transition
is to occur, it is likely that the competing factions within the
ruling
party are already canvassing key elements within the ranks. In
addition, the
nature of the structure of the ruling party and the military
is such that
there is a cross-representation of both in each of the
structures.
The scenario most likely to emerge is that a faction
of the ruling party -
one that is able to sideline the now discredited
hard-line element around
the presidency - will assume power within the
constitutional framework. This
faction will then invite the political
opposition into a transitional
arrangement, while continuing to "control"
the military. Based on this
reformed legitimacy framework, the new
transitional arrangement would then
call for support from the region and the
relaxation of international
sanctions. It is very likely that the military
will continue to support such
a process. In a transition, security-sector
reform must be part of the
post-conflict and reconstruction process.
Vengeful and petty politics that
will seek to deconstruct the security
forces and leave the country bare
must, however, be guarded against. In
Iraq, the summary disbandment of
Saddam's forces has come back to haunt that
country. For the way forward,
and once the current political elite has
departed, the military must again
be urged to abandon politics and return to
the barracks.
Dr Martin Rupiya is a military historian and retired
colonel of the Zimbabwe
armed forces. He works for the Institute for
Security Studies in South
Africa
26 April 2007
Zanu PF officials from Harare Province are allocating market
stalls to residents in Dzivarasekwa 1, 2, and 3. One of the officials
responsible for Dzivarasekwa 2 only identified as Mr Mapuranga goes around
shopping centres and demands that those selling their wares must pay a certain
amount of money in order to be allowed to operate as vendors. The figures being
charged vary from $5 000 to $11 000 every month since February this
year.
Mr Mapuranga allegedly acts as the shadow councillor for Ward 40.
He works in cahoots with another senior Zanu PF official in the Provincial
Women’s League Executive only identified by residents as Mrs Muswe and is
believed to be working as a nurse aide at Belvedere Clinic.
According to
Rorani Muchiwa, the CHRA Chairperson for Ward 40 in Dzivarasekwa those who
refuse to pay the demanded money are barred from selling their wares at the
market and face constant harassment from the Zanu PF activists in the
area.
The majority of the vendors in Dzivarasekwa are victims of the
widely-condemned Operation Murambatsvina which was launched by government in May
2005, leaving 700 000 people homeless and in need of food
aid.
Ends
________________________________________________________________________
For
further details please contact us on chrainfo@zol.co.zw, and on mobile 091 924
151, 011 862 012, 011 443 578 and 011 612 860 or visit us at Exploration House,
Third Floor, Corner Robert Mugabe Way and Fifth
Street.
Precious Shumba
Information
Officer
Combined Harare Residents Association
Mobile: 011 612 860
Tel:
04-705114
Website: www.chra.co.zw
26 April 2007
THE Combined Harare Residents’ Association (CHRA) is
saddened by the approach of the City of Harare towards finding a lasting
solution to the crisis of city governance. The Association is concerned with the
continued refusal by those in charge at Town House to accept that they no longer
have mandate to continue running the affairs of the city.
Reports
reaching CHRA indicate that the City of Harare has been sending out letters of
demand from their debt collectors, threatening to seize peoples’ properties if
they do not pay up their outstanding rates within a given time.
CHRA
urges all residents who have received these letters to bring them to our offices
at the address given below or take them to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) for immediate litigation.
The Association rejects the continued
stay of the Commission and all its actions thereof because of the reasons given
below;
· The High Court in Case Number between Nomutsa Chideya
vs. City of Harare, the eight Commissioners including Sekesai Makwavarara, the
Chairperson of the Commission running Harare, and the four-man probe team that
recommended Chideya’s dismissal ruled that the Commission was illegal and has no
mandate to act on behalf of the City of Harare.
· The 2007 City
of Harare Budget was formulated, approved and is being implemented by the
Commission declared illegal by the High Court on 2 March 2007, making its
actions null, void and of no force at law.
· The principles of
democratic governance require that elections must be held regularly. In the case
of Harare and other local authorities after every four years, as enshrined in
the Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter 29:15). The last election in Harare was held
in March 2002 when Engineer Elias Mudzuri was elected the first Executive Mayor.
The elections are now long overdue.
· The term of the Commission
running Harare has been illegally extended by the Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and Urban Development, Ignatius Chiminya Morgan Chombo, in total
violation of Section 80 (5) of the Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter
29:15).
· The Judiciary has ruled on five occasions that the
principle of re-appointing commissions is
illegal.
Ends
________________________________________________________________________
For
further details please contact us on chrainfo@zol.co.zw, and on mobile 091 924
151, 011 862 012, 011 443 578 and 011 612 860 or visit us at Exploration House,
Third Floor, Corner Robert Mugabe Way and Fifth Street.
Precious
Shumba
Information Officer
Combined Harare Residents Association
Mobile: 011 612 860
Tel: 04-705114
Website: www.chra.co.zw
26 April 2007
THE
thuggery of the ruling party youths yesterday reared its ugly head in Highfield
when two CHRA members Lloyd Kumwenda and another resident only identified as
Dangazela were forcibly detained at the party’s offices at Machipisa Shopping
Centre.
Kumwenda is the coordinator for Ward 26 while Dangazela is an
ordinary resident and also resides in Highfield.
They were accused of
wearing T-shirts with messages deemed ‘inappropriate’ by Zanu PF’. Kumwenda wore
a CHRA T-Shirt inscribed ‘No to ZINWA’ at the back while Dangazela put on a
T-Shirt with a ZCTU logo. The ruling Zanu PF has branded CHRA, ZCTU and other
civic and political groups as ‘agents of western imperialists’, and working
towards the so-called ‘regime change agenda’. Both CHRA and ZCTU deny these
allegations.
According to Tungamirai Madzokere, the Chairperson of
CHRA’s Welfare Committee, the two were walking to Machipisa Shopping Centre
towards 2pm on Wednesday when suddenly they found themselves surrounded by
zealous and foul-mouthed Zanu PF youths.
Madzokere said: “They were
taken to the Zanu PF offices at Machipisa and were ordered to roll in dirty
water before being severely bashed underneath their feet and all over their
bodies. The youths forced them to sing and chant Zanu PF songs and slogans. They
passed out several times before they were released around
5pm.”
Suspected State security agents have previously visited Kumwenda
at his house and threatened him with death for his active role in pro-democracy
activities.
About 12 CHRA members have so far been victims of
State-sanctioned brutality since 11 March when armed police suppressed a prayer
meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds, arrested, detained and brutalized opposition and
pro-democracy activists, among them MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai and CHRA
Chairperson Michael Jeffrey Davies.
Kumwenda and Dangazela sustained
bruises all over their bodies and have been referred to a private hospital for
medical
attention.
Ends
________________________________________________________________________
For
further details please contact us on chrainfo@zol.co.zw, and on mobile 091 924
151, 011 862 012, 011 443 578 and 011 612 860 or visit us at Exploration House,
Third Floor, Corner Robert Mugabe Way and Fifth Street.
Precious
Shumba
Information Officer
Combined Harare Residents Association
Mobile: 011 612 860
Tel: 04-705114
Website: www.chra.co.zw
Filter Magazine
by Staff |
04.25.2007
Dispatch: Zimbabwe has been set for July 13-15 at Madison
Square Garden. The
charity event will feature Boston roots-rock band,
Dispatch, who have
reunited in order to raise money and awareness for the
alarming situation in
Zimbabwe. Dispatch will donate 100% of the proceeds
towards fighting
disease, famine, and social injustice in the African
country. Dispatch will
make monetary contributions to local charities like
Books for Kids, Rock For
A Remedy and Musicians on Call who will organize
book, food and CD drives
during the Madison Square Garden run. The three
nights, which sold out in 30
minutes each, makes Dispatch the first
independent band to ever sell out
Madison Square Garden. Dispatch will take
the next 4 months to decide which
specific organizations it will donate the
proceeds to. The band will visit
the African country in May.
The
economic crises in Zimbabwe is worsening at an alarming rate. At the
beginning of 2007, Zimbabwe's inflation rose to 1,281%, the highest in the
world. Unemployment is over 85%, poverty over 90%, and foreign reserves are
almost depleted. Over four million persons are in desperate need of food.
One in four citizens are HIV positive. Coupled with severe malnutrition,
thousands are dying every month. Combined with a consistent lack of potable
water, power, perpetual regional drought, over all environmental degradation
and the recent displacement of hundreds of thousands desperately poor from
urban areas, the country is on the brink of ruin.
Silencing the critics
Martin
Williamson
April 26, 2007
At the end of last week Cricinfo
received an email from Zimbabwe Cricket
advising us that it was no longer
prepared to have any communication with us
and would not be answering any
media queries. "Really?" said a colleague
when I told him. "You mean they
have been for the last two years?"
In essence, ZC is unhappy with the
articles we have run which have been
critical of it and the way it has run
the game. "We have been hard pressed
to see the two sides to every story in
your recent articles on Zimbabwe,"
Lovemore Banda, the media manager, wrote.
"You will agree that it is an
exercise in futility for us to be responding
to enquiries."
In fairness, we have run articles before the board has
replied to queries.
Often that has been because we have been kept waiting -
regularly more than
a week, sometimes two or three - or have been ignored
altogether. We have
also declined on occasion to scrap stories just because
they have been
labelled as rubbish by the board. We have been accused of
hidden agendas and
lies, and yet the passage of time has shown almost
everything we have
written to be accurate ... and when we have found
inaccuracies, they have
been corrected.
The real issue here is that
Zimbabwe Cricket operates in a country where
there is almost no free speech,
and what independent thought exists is
regularly and brutally suppressed.
There are almost no foreign journalists
left operating inside Zimbabwe, and
new laws passed earlier in the month
make reporting from there without
government-approved accreditation, or
harbouring anyone who does, punishable
with two years in prison.
Even operating within the rules is nigh on
impossible. In February, Cricinfo
attempted to send a reporter to cover the
Bangladesh one-day series. The fee
for even applying for accreditation was
US$600. The authorities delayed so
long that by the time we actually heard
back from them, the series was more
than half over. It was an
all-too-familiar policy of obstruction. Back in
2004 Mihir Bose, a
well-respected journalist working for The Daily
Telegraph, was deported and
in the UK parliament Labour MP Kate Hoey noted
that he "was not given the
slightest bit of support by the Zimbabwe board".
Zimbabwe Cricket has
almost no critics at home, mainly because the
government has shut down all
but two privately-owned weekly newspapers and
there is no independent
electronic media. The main newspaper, The Daily
Herald, is a propaganda
sheet that would make the old Soviet Pravda blush
with embarrassment. A
cursory glance at its headlines underlines that. What
is more, we have
learned that its sports reporters are regularly feted by ZC
officials, and
the cash-strapped board has allegedly paid for several
overseas trips for
its writers. It's hardly surprising that ZC is given an
easy ride in the
state media, and, on occasion, board officials are believed
to be allowed to
write and plant stories under pseudonyms.
In 2005, Ozias Bvute, the
board's MD, called Cricinfo and demanded to know
the whereabouts of Steven
Price, the Harare-based journalist who continues
to defy the authorities and
file reports for us. When we refused, Bvute said
that we were operating
outside the law as we were using unapproved
contributors. "Why will you not
tell me his whereabouts," Bvute asked. "What
has he got to be afraid of." If
it wasn't so chilling it would almost be
funny.
The way we were: Simon King, Cricinfo's then CEO, presents a
cheque to
Zimbabwe Cricket Union officials in 2000 © Cricinfo
Last week, a
senior foreign reporter for a major Eropean newspaper told me
that the
government had issued security warnings against the few foreign
journalists
left in the country, and that the remaining handful were either
getting out
or lying low. Photographers and cameramen have been attacked by
police, and
earlier this month a retired journalist who spoke out was
abducted from his
home and his mutilated body was found a few days later 40
km north of
Harare.
Many people who have contributed to Cricinfo in the past have
stopped,
either because they are frightened or, in some instances, because
they have
been directly threatened.
So, Zimbabwe Cricket is able to
carry on, and the allegations by
stakeholders of gross mismanagement of
finances and administration go almost
unreported. The decision to shun
Cricinfo is another attempt to stifle any
criticism.
"There is no
transparency, no observation of the constitution and no
accountability," a
former provincial chairman said this week. "They want to
hide issues and do
not allow any debate and resent anybody raising any
issues or questioning
them."
Last year, Peter Chingoka, the board's chairman, accused Cricinfo
of being
"mired in skulduggery". He added, in a letter which he sent to all
members
of the ICC executive in a clear bid to undermine the credibility of
our
coverage of his board's activities: "The line between hearsay and
credible
information is constantly erased and re-drawn, as the two are
freely
interchanged ... you do not hesitate to cultivate and flaunt your
contacts,
jealously guarding their identities in the process."
The
relationship wasn't always so fractious. In 2000, Cricinfo donated Zim$5
million (then about US$150,000) to the then Zimbabwe Cricket Union to help
with the development of the game in the country. Although Chingoka remains
at the helm, almost everyone who was associated with the board back then has
disappeared, increasingly replaced with often hand-picked and almost
universally compliant appointees.
One day, the truth will all
come out. Meanwhile, it is more important than
ever for people like Steven
Price to continue to file reports and to tell
the world - and the executive
board of the ICC which continues to adopt a
policy of looking the other way
- what is really happening.
Martin Williamson is executive editor of
Cricinfo
© Cricinfo
The Zimbabwean
(26-04-07)
THE
STUDENT
.as Hillside Teachers College student leader
disappears
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
___
Hillside Teachers College Students Union President, Tafadzwa Chengewa,
was
yesterday abducted from his campus` residence in the city of Bulawayo.
Tafadzwa was abducted at around 2000 hours by four unidentified men clad in
black pair of suits, driving an unregistered Mazda 323 vehicle. Tafadzwa's
whereabouts are still not known. The government of Robert Mugabe has
resorted to covert operations of abducting, assaulting and at times
murdering innocent citizens, students
included.
____________ _________
_________
_________ _________ ________
Food crisis at Masvingo State
University continues
Meanwhile, students at Masvingo State University
are still in deep-seated
food crisis. Students are being denied access to
food. Two student
activists, Whitlow Mgwiji and Edwin Hlatswayo, were
indefinitely suspended
for addressing a students gathering over the plight.
Their future is now
bleak.
Ironically, the university authorities
claim that there is normal business
on campus, yet they went on to suspend
the Lecturers Union leadership. The
suspension came after the lecturers
refused to take the meager salary
increases that were awarded vis-à-vis the
sky rocketing increases of basic
services and food. Professionals have been
reduced to destitute life style.
In solidarity with the suspended
leadership, all other lecturers at Masvingo
State University declared an
indefinite strike and lectures have grounded to
a
halt.
____________
_________
_________ _________ ______
Accomodation crisis at Bulawayo
poly
There is a serious accommodation crisis at Bulawayo Polytechnic
College.
Students Halls of residence have been allocated to college staff,
that is,
the security guards, cooks, general hand, academic and non-academic
staff
yet students are told to look for alternative accommodation or else
pay ten
thousand Zimbabwean dollars (Z$10 000-00) per day whilst the workers
are
paying that same amount per month. The prioritizing of the students'
halls
of residence to college staff came after a negotiation of salary
packages,
where the Vice Principal Mr. Gilbert Mabasa offered students
accommodation
to his staff. The halls of residence in Matshobane (Rio Tinto
Foundation
Hostel) have since been occupied.
On Monday 23
April 2007, one student activist, Maxwell Chikara was raided at
around
1800hrs at his room by 2 college security guards, Mr. Banda (deputy
dean of
students), F. Sibanda (matron), and Mr. Muchiya (Human Resources
Officer).
The gang demanded his immediate eviction citing that his room was
long
allocated to one staff member. The student denied them entry
irregardless of
the persistent and exasperating bangs on the door. The gang
later called the
Police as back up. The student was arrested and made to
pay a hefty fine.
His keys were confisticated by the police.
The Information
Desk
Zimbabwe National Students Union
21 Wembly Road, Eastlea, Harare,
Zimbabwe,
+263912301231/ +2634788135
zinasu@gmail. com
www.zinasu.org
The Zimbabwean
(26-04-07)
Barely a
week after two student leaders were abducted by the ruthless
state security
agencies in Bulawayo, another student leader, Tafadzwa
Chengewa, has been
abducted.
His whereabouts is not known!
He was abducted last night
in a city flat in Bulawayo's CBD. He is the
President of United College of
Education (UCE).
Chengewa was forcibly taken from a flat in Bulawayo by
unidentified
henchmen and other student leaders in Bulawayo now fear for
their
lives.
This latest of wave of abductions, which come on the
heels of sweeping
countrywide abductions by a feared vigilante group of
security agencies
has sent the whole student leadership in Bulawayo scurrying
for safety
-
on the run, in fear of their lives.
Trust Nhubu and
Valencia Jachi were last week abducted by state
security
agencies after
being accused of passing critical comments in a public
meeting. They were
severely tortured and both were dumped 200km
outside
Bulawayo.
afrol News, 26 April - The government of
Zimbabwe on Tuesday entered into
agreement with an undisclosed Russian
company to address frequuent power
shortages by developing small hydro
plants in the southern African country.
"These [hydro power plants] will
be located mainly in remote areas not
covered by the grid. They are expected
to bring life to these areas by way
of poverty alleviation," Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
confirmed.
"Where the power
plants are located in areas covered by the grid,
transmission loses will be
reduced drastically. The construction of a 5MW
plant on Mutirikwi Dam to
supply Masvingo town will cause a gain of 7MW on
the system."
ZESA
officials said the move is necessitated by dwindling power output of
the
country's main generator - Hwange Power Station.
Though Hwange station
has a capacity of 920 MW, it however generates only
320MW on a daily basis.
This is mainly due to the destruction of engines at
the station.
The
state-owned utility company officials would not disclose where they
secure
funding for the project. All that Zimbabweans were informed was that
an
unnamed regional power company has agreed to bankroll the project.
In
recent years, most Zimbabweans have been coping to live with frequent
outages caused by shortages of foreign currency. Because of its tattered
human rights credentials, Zimbabwe government has been battling to secure
foreign currency to import spare parts to repair the engines of Hwange
Thermal Power Station.
In January, ZESA said it was suffering with
sweeping and extended power
cuts. With unsustainable debts, ZESA was forced
to lay off much of its staff
immediately.
The utility company's board
Chairman, Professor Christopher Chetsanga,
earlier on said ZESA was in debt
to the tune of over US $420 million, which
was why it would immediately lay
off 600 of its staff.
Zimbabwe's inability to produce sufficient energy
supply has forced the
country to import 35 percent of the national
requirement, or 650MW, from
neighbouring South Africa, Democratic Republic
of Congo and Mozambique.
By staff writer
Mail and Guardian
Percy Zvomuya
26 April 2007 11:14
What
would happen if Portsmouth's Benjani Mwaruwaru was to score
a goal and
dedicate it to the hundreds of opposition activists who are in
detention
now, to the thousands of people who are dying of Aids because they
have no
access to ARVs and the millions who have been forced to flee from
their
homes because of the crisis in Zimbabwe?
One assumes it would
jolt hordes of Pompey's in Southampton. It
would bring to the attention of
the British public the mounting crisis in
Zimbabwe but, most crucially, it
would cause Zimbabwe's leadership to sit up
and, who knows, listen to one of
their country's iconic youths.
For it's not every day that
our societies -- who seem to have an
inherent disdain for youth -- will sit
back to listen to a 28-year-old. But
if the 28-year-old happens to play for
Arsenal, Mamelodi Sundowns or is a
tennis star and can summon a press
conference to air his or her views, then
it's different story
altogether.
Most of these personalities earn a lot of money,
are idolised by
millions of schoolboys and schoolgirls and sports-crazy
people listen to
what they say.
If Mwaruwaru were to
protest in this way, he would not be the
first to do so.
At the last Cricket World Cup, former Zimbabwean cricketers Andy
Flower and
Henry Olonga took a stand.
It could have been in an inspired
moment away from the cricket
pitch that the meaning of the adage, "for evil
to prosper, good men have
only to do nothing", weighed on their consciences.
But it was on the pitch
that they decided to wear black armbands, "mourning
the death of democracy"
in Zimbabwe.
They decided that
they could not play cricket as if everything
was normal in the ghettos, on
the farms and in the rural areas of Zimbabwe.
They had heard people were
being beaten, had probably seen someone being
tortured, maimed and in all
likelihood had seen pictures of those who had
been
killed.
And they resolved to make a stand against the
oppression.
"We cannot, in good conscience, take to the field
and ignore the
fact that millions of our compatriots are starving,
unemployed and
oppressed," they said. Their statement continued: "We are
aware that
hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans may even die in the coming
months
through a combination of starvation, poverty and
Aids."
After wearing the armbands during a match against
Namibia,
Olonga was to play a bit-part role for the rest of the tournament.
His
international career, which had not really been going anywhere, had
gloriously come to an end.
Olonga had arrived in 1995 on
the cricket scene with a flourish.
He was the only black player in the team;
he was the youngest, too. Never
had youth, talent and race gelled so
naturally to produce a hero for the
hundreds of thousands of black boys who
also wanted to take up cricket.
Sadly, he was not to fulfil his potential,
largely because of injuries.
"I've had many pleasant memories
over the years and great
satisfaction from playing this game," Olonga said
when he retired from
cricket.
"I've had some highs and
lows, but I'm really glad I've stood
for what I believed was right. It's sad
that my career may end in this way,
but I've done the right thing and I'll
stand by it. If we fail as a world to
do and recognise what is right, then
we fail ourselves and we fail our
children."
Four years
on, the crisis moves into overdrive with no solution
in sight, a development
that makes the hotel brawl involving former
Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield
United and now Sundowns striker Peter Ndlovu
and Mwaruwaru over a girlfriend
sad.
Ndlovu is one of Zimbabwe's most iconic sports
personalities. He
went to play for Coventry as a teenager and dazzled the
English public with
his pace and tricks with the ball. So enamoured were
they that they called
him the "flying elephant" (ndlovu is Ndebele for
elephant). Likewise
Mwaruwaru, a son of Malawian immigrants, was a hero
wherever he played.
Their relations have been strained,
especially as Ndlovu's
football appeal and prowess is washing out. But no
one thought it would
plummet to such depths.
Windows and
tables at Harare's Crest Lodge Hotel were smashed as
they fought over an
ex-girlfriend. Mwaruwaru denied the incident by saying:
"I don't fight about
girlfriends. I have a lot of them, and I am married."
Of
course, we are not asking our sports heroes to leave
football, cricket and
become anti-war activists, Noam Chomskys, Dennis
Brutuses and newspapers
columnists, but if the situation demands it, why
not?
When Flower and Olonga made their stand in 2003, no one thought
the crisis
would reach the deathly proportions it has reached now. It is
easy to
dismiss the gesture as just that: a gesture. But Olonga can sleep in
peace
and say, "I did what I could in the circumstances."