Zim Online
Tue
4 April 2006
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has directed Zimbabwe
Defence Forces
(ZDF) chief Constantine Chiwenga to supervise revenue
collection following
numerous reports of rampart corruption at the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority
(ZIMRA) in which ZIMRA boss Gershom Pasi was also
implicated, ZimOnline has
learnt.
Authoritative sources said
Chiwenga began overseeing ZIMRA operations
on March 4, a day after Mugabe
summoned Pasi for a meeting at his
Munhumutapa offices at which the 82-year
old President is said to have
accused the country's chief tax collector of
corruption and threatened to
have him jailed if he did not mend his
ways.
"Mugabe accused Pasi of failing to stem out corruption at
ZIMRA
because he too was corrupt and the economy was losing a lot of revenue
because of an inept revenue collection body," said a senior government
official, who spoke on condition he was not named.
The
government official said Pasi was accompanied to his March 3
meeting with
Mugabe by another senior ZIMRA official, Willie
Shumba.
"The President told Pasi that the army was
going to watch over ZIMRA
and supervise anti-smuggling operations. He was
also warned that this was
his last chance and that if he did not refrain
from corrupt activities he
would go to jail," added the
official.
After Mugabe chastised Pasi over corruption, he told the
ZIMRA chief
to phone Chiwenga and Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri to
arrange a
meeting with the two security men, our sources said.
Pasi met Chiwenga and Chihuri the following day after his encounter
with
Mugabe at Munhumutapa.
An army official privy to details of the
meeting said: "Chiwenga told
Pasi that the army was now supervising ZIMRA
operations and warned him to
comply with all directives from ZDF officers.
Pasi was also told that he
would now require approval from Chiwenga on any
major decision or operation.
"Chihuri weighed in, reminding Pasi to
co-operate for his own good
because the police and intelligence officers
were holding enough evidence
which the state could easily use to secure a
conviction of corruption
against the ZIMRA chief."
ZimOnline
was unable to immediately get comment on the matter from
Chiwenga, Chihuri
or Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba, while Pasi refused
to discus the
matter although insisting he was clean.
Pasi would only say: "I am
not going to talk to you. I am clean and
everyone, including the President
knows that."
ZimOnline last November reported that Pasi was being
investigated by
the police over allegations that he used his powerful
position to import
goods from South Africa for his businesses and family
worth over 4.5 million
rands without paying duty.
Pasi, in
charge of customs and excise collection, was also being
probed over
allegations that he and Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa
illegally converted
to personal use tax money collected in hard cash from
foreign motorists
entering Zimbabwe mainly from South Africa through
Beitbridge border
post.
It was after the police unearthed incriminating evidence
against Pasi
that Mugabe reportedly decided to move and place overall
control of revenue
collection and anti-smuggling operations in the hands of
Chiwenga, while
warning the ZIMRA man to desist from corruption or face
arrest.
According to our sources, Mugabe particularly quizzed Pasi
during
their meeting how he was able to afford a lavish lifestyle that even
"Cabinet ministers could only dream off".
The President is said
to have also taken Pasi to task over the way he
was handling ZIMRA funds
especially his decision earlier this year to splash
Z$2 trillion on luxury
vehicles and allowances for himself and his senior
officials.
But Mugabe's decision to place ZIMRA under Chiwenga widens the army's
control of key national institutions.
Among state institutions
now under the control of serving or former
officers of the ZDF is national
food utility, the Grain Marketing Board,
whose chief executive officer
Samuel Muvuti was recruited from the army,
while the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission that runs elections in the country
is headed by former High Court
Judge and army officer George Chiweshe.
Former military
intelligence officer and a lawyer Sobuza Gula-Ndebele
is the Attorney
General, a key post in the administration of justice in the
country. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 4 April
2006
BULAWAYO - Lecturers at Zimbabwe's University of Science and
Technology (NUST) began an indefinite strike over pay at the weekend,
highlighting chaos engulfing state universities many of which have failed to
run lessons in past weeks after a student boycott over a new fee
hike.
The situation at NUST had appeared to be slowly getting back
to normal
after officials in the Ministry of Higher Education last week
urged
authorities at state institutions of higher learning to allow students
to
attend lessons while negotiations over fee increases were taking
place.
But the chairman of NUST Educators Association that
represents
teachers at the state university, Bernard Jekeya, told ZimOnline
that they
would not resume teaching until their salaries were increased in
line with a
High Court ruling two years ago that compelled university
authorities to
hike lecturers' salaries.
"Lecturers are not in
class as we speak and will not go back until the
NUST council has resolved
the issue of salaries," Jekenya said.
NUST authorities had not
increased lecturers' salaries as ordered by
the High Court in 2004 arguing
that the university did not have money to pay
the new salaries. The
authorities also appealed to the Supreme Court against
the ruling which
effectively meant it could not be implemented until after
the appeal was
decided.
Jekenya said his association now wanted the university
council to act
to expedite resolution of the salaries dispute so lessons
could begin.
The lecturers' representative said senior teachers at
NUST were
earning about Z$40 million per month, a figure he said was too low
for such
highly qualified academic staff.
The lecturers' strike
comes barely a week after students at NUST and
other state tertiary schools
rioted over increases in their tuition fees by
more than 100
percent.
Strikes by state university lecturers and their students
for more
salaries and stipends or for better working and learning conditions
are
routine in Zimbabwe, in its sixth year of a bitter economic meltdown
that
has left the government with little money to run public
institutions.
On the other hand, thousands of university lecturers
and school
teachers have fled Zimbabwe over the past six years in many cases
to take up
menial but better paying jobs in London and other major
capitals.
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe says at least
5 000
teachers left Zimbabwe last year alone mostly to go to South Africa,
Botswana and the United Kingdom. - ZimOnline
conservatives.com
Speaking in the European Parliament today, Geoffrey Van
Orden MEP
expressed concern at the apparent readiness of the European
Commission to
release ?1 million in aid to Zimbabwe for so-called
parliamentary reform
activity, even if it is administered through the United
Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), bearing in mind that UNDP has stated
that it will work,
"as an impartial and trusted partner with the Zimbabwean
Government"!
Geoffrey Van Orden commented:
"The only
parliamentary reforms that would be meaningful in Zimbabwe
are free and fair
elections and an end to tyranny and political repression.
"Before
the European Commission releases any money to Zimbabwe, it
should provide
reassurances that this will be of direct benefit to the
suffering people of
that country and not used in any way to give comfort to
the Mugabe
tyranny.
"With half the rural population surviving on international
food aid
and rampant political oppression, it is time the international
community
brought the appalling situation in Zimbabwe to the top of its
agenda".
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AFR 32/003/2006
(Public)
News Service No: 083
3 April 2006
Embargo Date: 3 April
2006 08:00 GMT
African Housing ministers meeting in Kenya: Time to
show commitment to
addressing housing crisis in Africa
Amnesty
International, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, the Kenya
National Commission on Human Rights and Hakijamii Trust are calling on
African housing ministers currently meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, to show
commitment to addressing the housing crisis in Africa.
A coalition
spokesperson said at a media conference in Nairobi today,
"Africa is at a
crossroads on the housing issue. Sub-Saharan Africa has the
fastest rate of
urbanisation in the world and governments cannot solve the
problem with
brutal forced evictions that violate human rights, as we have
seen in
Zimbabwe, Angola and recently in Kenya."
The African Ministerial
Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD)
meets today and
tomorrow in Nairobi to discuss strategies for realising the
Millennium
Development Goals relating to slums. However, civil society and
experts have
been excluded from the meeting, calling into question the
commitment of
African ministers to work with other stakeholders to ensure
everyone can
enjoy their internationally recognized right to adequate
housing.
"The ministerial meeting in Nairobi provides a good
opportunity for African
states to pronounce themselves opposed to forced
evictions, to develop human
rights based strategies such as policies and
laws to prevent forced
evictions, instigate slum upgrading and provide
serviced land for the poor
and access to basic services, and to learn best
practices from each other.
But The ministers need to work with other
stakeholders to achieve this,"
said a coalition spokesperson.
The
coalition pointed to some good examples from Africa. For example, Kenya
is
adopting guidelines to prevent and remedy forced evictions, Botswana has
developed certificates of occupancy to ensure secure tenure for residents of
informal settlements, and South Africa has developed legislation that
provides for a rights-based approach to evictions and has enabled victims to
challenge forced evictions in the courts.
The coalition also said
that across Africa, hundreds of thousands of people
each year are forcibly
evicted -- in many cases being left homeless, losing
their possessions
without compensation and/or being forcibly displaced far
from sources of
employment, livelihood or education -- in violation of
regional and
international human rights standards, including the African
Charter on Human
and Peoples' Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights. All 54 member states of the African
Union are party to the
African Charter while many African governments are
states parties to the
Covenant.
Background
In the last two years, violent forced evictions
have displaced thousands in
Angola and left hundreds of thousands destitute
in Nigeria. In Zimbabwe,
700,000 persons were evicted in 2005 -- plunging
the country deeper into
humanitarian crisis -- and in Sudan, mass forced
evictions, including of
IDPs in and around Khartoum, are of continuing
concern. In Kenya, residents
continue to be violently evicted from forest
areas and informal settlements
without adequate resettlement.
For
interviews with coalition members please contact:
Amnesty International
-- Michelle Kagari, Kenya/Uganda, +256 (0) 77 2722928
Centre on Housing
Rights and Evictions -- Malcolm Langford, Kenya, +254
(0)725 988
717
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights -- Godana Doyo, Kenya, +254
0721
564 274
For further information, please see A Joint Appeal to
African Ministers on
Urban Housing, 3 April 2006, AI Index 32/002/2006
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr320022006
Globe and Mail, Canada
Runaway inflation in Zimbabwe makes AIDS drugs too costly for
many
STEPHANIE NOLEN
From Monday's Globe and Mail
HARARE -
Moleen Mudimu knows three things about anti-retrovirals. She knows
that the
drugs would keep her alive, that they are for sale in the pharmacy
less than
one kilometre from her house, and that, thanks to Zimbabwe's
economic
implosion, she can no longer afford to buy them, just as she has
grown sick
to the point of dying.
All over Africa there are people with AIDS who
cannot get access to the
drugs that would keep them alive, because of cost
or logistics. But there is
a particularly vicious quality to what is
happening in Zimbabwe today, where
well-educated, gainfully employed people
-- people well-versed in the
workings of ARVs thanks to the government's own
awareness campaigns --
cannot afford to start or to stay on the drugs
because rampant inflation
(running at least 700 per cent per month) and a
crucial foreign-exchange
shortage have, over the past few months, pushed
prices entirely out of
reach.
That means some people such as Ms.
Mudimu cannot begin the treatment they
need now, and others who were buying
the locally made drugs cannot afford to
stay on them, which is not only a
death sentence for the individuals, but
raises the spectre of a spread of a
drug-resistant strain of HIV across the
region.
Ms. Mudimu's husband
is a security guard who earns $4-million Zimbabwe
dollars a month (or $25
Canadian on the unofficial exchange rate); she
earned another $1-million as
a trader until she got too sick to work last
fall. But the price of ARVs at
their local pharmacy in a lower-middle-class
neighbourhood of Harare is now
$4-million for a monthly course and rising
daily. Their choice is to buy the
drugs, or to pay the rent and buy food and
clothes and pay for school for
their two sons. "I need the tablets," said
Ms. Mudimu, who has grown so thin
the flesh hollows between the bones in her
arms. "But I can't have
them."
Two blocks from the Mudimus is the home of an HIV-positive
corporal in the
Zimbabwe armed forces and his family. A year ago, he was
enrolled in the
military's AIDS treatment plan, and his wife started the
drugs in May. But
in August, when they went to collect their prescriptions,
the army doctors
told them they had nothing to give them: they said their
drug supplier,
Varichem Pharmaceuticals Ltd., had no foreign currency with
which to buy raw
materials and so had suspended production. (Varichem
acknowledges purchasing
woes, but denies a shutdown.) Either way, the army
was out of drugs. The
corporal and his wife turned to a private pharmacy to
maintain their supply
of life-saving medication, and that got them through
the next four months.
But now they need $7-million a month to buy the pills,
and his salary is
$8-million.
"We don't have any more saved, and we
have nothing to sell," the man said.
(Afraid of repercussions for speaking
with a foreign journalist, he did not
wish to be quoted by name.)
So
what happens? "I guess now we die," his wife said, with a small bitter
laugh.
They have taken in an orphaned 14-year-old niece with AIDS and
the child is
in dire need of treatment -- stunted, and covered in fungal
infections. But
there is no money for drugs for her, or for the CD4 count, a
basic measure
of the immune system, which she would need to get a
prescription. That test
cost $21-million last week, up 80 per cent from the
cost in January. Many
labs say that in any case, they can no longer buy the
imported chemicals
needed to run the tests.
"People are just fighting
to get hold of the drugs," said the head of one
the few international aid
agencies still operating in Zimbabwe. "And there's
not enough. You can't get
figures or stats, but we know first-hand that
people are off their meds
because they can't afford them."
An estimated 21 per cent of Zimbabwe's
12.5 million people are infected with
HIV, that's down from 24 per cent a
few years back, which the government of
President Robert Mugabe is claiming
as a huge achievement, although much of
that decline is likely due to the
death of infected people: 3,000 people a
week die of AIDS here.
The
country's once robust economy has collapsed, after a highly politicized
land-reform campaign begun by Mr. Mugabe in 1998, which decimated the
commercial farming sector. Lacking exports, the government has no foreign
exchange and the value of the Zimbabwe dollar drops so fast that foreign
banks won't accept it. Now there is a national blood shortage, so people
with HIV are routinely denied transfusions, on the grounds that this would
"waste" limited blood supplies. Health-care staff are paid erratically or
not at all -- with wages long since outstripped by inflation -- and in
protest are often on "go-slow" so public clinics don't
operate.
International agencies say large quantities of drugs are skimmed
off the
public supply by hungry staff and sold on the black
market.
Christopher Chitemerere, marketing manager for Varichem, said the
company
was meeting all the demand of both its public sector and private
buyers,
despite the challenges presented by the foreign exchange shortage.
But off
the record, staff at UNAIDS and Unicef say that the two UN agencies
have had
to provide infusions of cash to keep the company stocked in drug
ingredients
since last October in order to maintain supply to the
government's public
treatment program.
Similar cash bail-outs from
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
have reportedly been needed to
keep drugs going to the missionary hospitals.
But the free government
clinics have closed their massive waiting lists and
stopped enrolling
patients.
While some 320,000 Zimbabweans are so sick they need the drugs
today, only
20,000 people are getting them.
An estimated 15,000
people are receiving the drugs for free at present from
the government (the
government says more, but donors say the figures are
inflated) but it is not
clear how long they will continue to be supplied.
"If people stop taking
them en masse, because supplies run out or they can't
afford them, you're
going to have resistant strains of HIV all over the
country," a senior
official with an aid agency here said. "But no one is
talking about
that."
Last May, Mr. Mugabe launched Operation Murambatsvina, or "drive
out the
filth," which demolished low-income housing all over the city, a
thinly
veiled effort to push the urban poor, seen as opposition supporters,
into
destitution in the countryside. That interrupted the treatment of
hundreds
of people, few of whom have found their way back into
care.
The 15,000 people receiving drugs through the public sector program
in
Zimbabwe are only a third as many people as in the country's much poorer
neighbours. Sanctions against the Mugabe regime mean that Zimbabwe receives
only an estimated $8 (U.S.) per person with HIV compared to $184 (U.S.) in
Zambia next door; foreign technical assistance is equally
scarce.
"There are still a lot of good people in this health system, who
are doing
the best they can," the foreign treatment expert said. "But
they're fighting
a disintegrating system. And in Zimbabwe, it could really
be different."
Africa correspondent Stephanie Nolen slipped into Zimbabwe
recently,
travelling through the country for a week to document the
devastating legacy
of President Robert Mugabe's 26-year rule. Forced to
travel as a tourist
because the government is refusing entry to most
journalists, Ms. Nolen's
series of articles paint a picture of a
once-thriving country that has all
but collapsed. Out of fear of
retribution, many people asked that only first
names or pseudonyms be
used.
By Lance Guma
03 April 2006
Based on a random sampling of 26 colleges around Zimbabwe there are
indications that up to 40 percent of students have dropped out because of
the new tuition fees introduced by government. Washington Katema president
of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) made the announcement on
Monday. The student body has been on a tour of 26 out of 36 colleges so far
and Katema says 84 000 out of a total 210 000 students have been forced to
leave college because they can't raise the Z$30 to Z$70 million in tuition
fees that are now required. Although the tour is yet to visit 10 more
colleges ZINASU fear the trend is not likely to change.
Katema
says the government is defying a High Court ruling that set
aside the fee
increases. A High Court judge ruled that the authorities could
not raise
fees above the support rate for students but Washington Mbizo,
permanent
secretary in the Higher Education Ministry, recently told the
state media
the students had to pay up. To demonstrate government resolve
the National
University of Science and Technology (NUST) recently erected a
barbed wire
fence around the campus and introduced new ID cards to keep
track of
students who had not paid up. The National students body says
education in
the country is in the intensive care unit. They never thought
they would see
the day barbed wire fences are erected around colleges to
keep out students.
'This only happened in apartheid South Africa,' Katema
said.
The Bulawayo Polytechnic has similarly barred students from paying any
exam
fees if they have not paid tuition fees. The move will result in
thousands
of students countrywide failing to write their exams for the year.
As
if that was not enough even the students who have paid tuition fees
at NUST
are getting no lectures at all after teaching staff went on strike
over poor
salaries.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
news24
03/04/2006 11:36 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has defended his
party's decision
not to grant hero status to a prominent nationalist fighter
turned
government critic who died last week, a newspaper reported on
Monday.
James Robert Dambaza Chikerema, a nephew of the president who
played a key
role in Zimbabwe's struggle for independence over more than two
decades, was
not given national hero status because he was "not consistent
to the end,"
the Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying.
Many of
those who fought in Zimbabwe's bush war have been buried with full
honours
at the National Heroes Acre, an exclusive burial site in Harare.
Their
funerals are televised live on the state's sole TV channel and
thousands
attend.
However, critics say the graveyard has become a preserve of those
loyal to
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front
(Zanu-PF).
Chikerema, who died last week in the US, was instead buried on
Sunday at his
rural home in Zvimba, central Zimbabwe. Mugabe attended the
funeral.
"Comrade Mugabe said the ruling party's policy was that a person
should have
participated in the struggle and continued to be consistent to
the end even
after independence but Comrade Chikerema did not do so after
independence,"
said the Herald.
Chikerema retired from active
politics at independence in 1980, but
frequently criticised Mugabe and his
policies. - Sapa-dpa
The Herald (Harare)
April 3,
2006
Posted to the web April 3, 2006
Harare
THERE was an
increase in poaching activities between 1996 and 2000 with the
Parks and
Wildlife Management Authority having experienced high incidence of
the
scourge, the House of Assembly heard last week.
This resulted in the loss
of 209 elephants, 138 buffaloes and 108 impalas.
Chairperson of the
portfolio committee on Public Accounts, Ms Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga,
who is also MP for Glen Norah (MDC), told the House
last week that an audit
by the Comptroller and Auditor-General had shown an
increase in poaching.
She was presenting a report of the committee on the
value for money audit on
the protection and conservation of wildlife.
The lawmaker said the audit
conducted between 1996 and 2000 in Masvingo,
Matabeleland North and Midlands
provinces revealed increased poaching
activities. "In evidence before your
committee, the permanent secretary in
the Ministry of Environment and
Tourism (Ms Margaret Sangarwe), confirmed
that the poaching incidents were
indeed very high." Ms Sangarwe was also
said to have informed the committee
that efforts were being made for joint
operations to be conducted with the
army to curb the rampant poaching of
wildlife.
The audit, Ms
Misihairabw i-Mushonga said, attributed the rampant poaching
to low
scout-density ratio which stood at one scout per every 112,23 square
kilometres instead of one scout for every 20 square kilometres. In some
cases, general hands were being employed as scouts and there was suspicion
that some of them were involved in the poaching as organised poaching
syndicates, she said.
The authority also failed to achieve its
intended objectives of reducing
poaching by year 2000 due to other factors
that included lack of training
for scouts coupled with inadequate
communication and other necessary
equipment. Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga said
the audit also revealed that of the
777 animals that were translocated
between a 1998 and 2000, about 255 of
them died due to negligence and poor
communication between the capturing and
the receiving stations.
She
said the Comptroller and Auditor General informed the committee that the
authority's operations in conserving wildlife were fraught with insufficient
rese arch conducted into wildlife dynamics as evidenced by the unsustainable
utilisation of wildlife. "This was glaring in the authority's failure to
carry out research before allocating and utilising quotas. The authority was
allocating quotas to private landowners, rural district councils and other
authorities without conducting the necessary research into wildlife
population dynamics," Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga said.
The committee
recommended that a monitoring system be put in place for
conservancies and
rural district councils on utilisation of quotas during
hunts in order to
ensure sustainable utilisation of wildlife. The parks
authority was urged to
urgently come up with strategies that would ensure
the country gets maximum
benefit from the transfrontier project. Ms
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said there
was need for educational campaigns against
poaching as some of the
activities were due to ignorance. The committee also
recommended that the
authority speed up the appointment of substantive
officers in top management
to improve decision making while the
investigation branch should be
strategically positioned to maximise
intelligence gathering on poaching
activities. Contributing to debate on the
report, Mbare MP Mr Gift
Chimanikire (MDC) said natural resources should be
guarded jealously as
these were a heritage.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Ian Nhuka in Bulawayo
MARTIN Mutengwa, a Zimbabwean farmer, was hopeful of a bountiful
harvest
when the current agricultural season started with heavy rains last
November.
But all the hope for a good harvest have evaporated.
Mutengwa, 46, who
was allocated a 300-hectare farm in the Gutu area of
Masvingo province under
President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution
exercise in 2001, is so
critically short of labour that he now fears, he
might not realise a decent
harvest despite the otherwise plentiful
rains.
"I failed to weed about 10 hectares of my maize field because
there is
no labour around here," he said, showing this reporter part of the
field
where the yellowish maize crop has been choked by weeds, about a metre
tall.
"Other farmers complain when we meet at field days that labour is
short. Our national leaders in ZFU (Zimbabwe Farmers' Union) say it is a
national problem but I do not know why we have this problem when white
farmers did not," he mused.
Mutengwa has already slashed his
projected yield by about 80 metric
tonnes.
His nightmare, he says
is set to continue up to harvest time, which
starts in the next few
weeks.
Many more farmers countrywide who were allocated land which
Mugabe has
been confiscating from white commercial farmers since 2000, are
short of
manpower, prompting agriculture experts to warn of a further
decline in
production this summer season, running from October to
March.
Mugabe launched the land seizure campaign in 2000 saying it was
meant
to correct colonial era ownership imbalances where about 4 500 whites
owned
the bulk of prime land in this southern African country of 13 million
people.
About 100 whites remain on their land while those who were
displaced
have settled in countries such as Zambia and Nigeria.
The
majority of the more than 500 000 former farm labourers who used
to work for
the commercial farmers are reluctant to work for the new land
owners. They
say they lack resources to pay them decent wages.
Natalie Ncube, 35,
formerly of The Grange, 15km west of Bulawayo is
one such reluctant
worker.
A farm worker for about 15 years, she quit after her former
employer
lost his farm in 2002. She now does small jobs at gold mines in
the area
where wages are higher than on the farms.
"I cannot work
for Z$500 000 (US$5) per month. It cannot even buy a
bag of maize (corn)
meal. It is an insult for one to get so little when
prices of goods rise
every day. There is not much production going on on
the farms anyway. I
cannot spend the whole month toiling on the farm for
Z$500 000, when prices
are increasing daily."
Zimbabwe is facing a six-year economic recession
which analysts blame
on President Mugabe's chaotic land reforms, which they
say have reduced food
production by more than 30 percent since
2000.
Inflation is at 782 percent while unemployment is around 70
percent
while fuel, food and foreign currency shortages are common.
Kastigu Juwakinyu, 45, used to work at a farm in Bubi area, just
outside
Bulawayo in western Zimbabwe but has taken to illegal gold mining in
nearby
Inyathi.
"If I work hard in one day I can get a gram of gold and sell
it for
about Z$1,000, 000 (about US$10). So why would I work for a low
wage?"
asked the Mozambican-born father of four.
Consumer watchdog,
the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, says a family of
six needs about Z$28
million (about US$280 at the official exchange rate)
monthly to lead a
decent life.
John Robertson, a Harare-based economic consultant warns
that the
shortage of labour is likely to adversely affect production. He
said the
new landowners, numbering about 200,000 use labour intensive
methods whereas
the displaced white producers used machinery.
"The
new farmers have to rely on manual labour because they do not
have money to
buy equipment or herbicides. Banks will not give them loans
because they do
not have security or any credit rating," said
Robertson.
"The
effect will be felt definitely because in farming, if for
example, you do
not weed your field, weeds would choke your crops. If that
happens your
crop quality and quantity is bound to suffer," he added.
Robertson
warned the manpower crisis is set to worsen during
harvesting time starting
next month.
Davison Mugabe, president of the mainly black Zimbabwe
Commercial
Farmers' Union (ZCFU) agreed that members of his union are
facing a
manpower nightmare.
"People are there but for unknown
reasons they are unwilling to work.
We cannot force them to work but
some of them are living on houses on
the farms, yet they are reluctant to
work on those properties."
Most farm workers in Zimbabwe are of
Mozambican or Malawian decent who
trekked to their neighbour during in the
1960s, so they do not have other
homes apart from their farm
lodgings.
The ZCFU leader agreed with Robertson that despite the wet
spell, the
unavailability of manpower for weeding, planting and harvesting
would knock
down the yield this year.
A recent report by the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
said Zimbabwe is likely to produce
900,000 metric tonnes of maize, or around
two-thirds of its annual national
requirements, of about 1,4 million metric
tonnes.
An agriculture
labour union blames the lack of labour on low wages.
Gertrude Hambira
of the General Agricultural Plantation Workers Union
Of Zimbabwe
(GAPWUZ) said most farmers pay wages as low as US$6 for a
26-working month
instead of US$20.
"Quite a large number of the new farmers are failing
to pay government
sanctioned wages, and this is driving away farm workers.
It has to be
remembered that farm workers buy from the same shops as other
citizens," she
recently told the United Nations Integrated Regional
Information Networks.
Acknowledging the crisis, Agriculture minister,
Joseph Made, said the
best way to go was to mechanise farm operations.
However, the government
and new farmers do not have resources for such a
scheme.
"Emphasis must be put on mechanisation so that we need fewer
workers.
But we know that we need massive resources to do that. Full
mechanisation takes a long time so it is normal that any new farmer would
face such a problem," he said.
Production of tobacco, the biggest
foreign currency earner, has been
hit hard, Made said.
Some of the
tobacco producers delayed picking the key export crop as a
result.
Tobacco, called the golden leaf in Zimbabwe, used to be the largest
foreign
currency earner before the land redistribution programme as it
accounted for
about 20 percent of aggregate inflows per year.
An agricultural
economist, Thomas Nherera, said in the past during
peak production periods,
commercial farmers used to recruit seasonal labour
from rural areas around
their properties but that is now impossible because
of fuel
shortages.
Zimbabwe is facing a severe shortage of fuel because it
lacks foreign
currency to pay foreign suppliers. As a result the formal
market is dry of
the commodity. However enterprising cross border traders
import in from
neighbouring Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa
and sell it on
illegal market where its prices are 10 times more than the
official price.
Nherera, also a prominent farmer, said the new farmers
faced a weeding
nightmare since they cannot afford to buy herbicides for
weed control.
"Because of the limited supply of fuel; farmers cannot
use
diesel-powered cultivators and other implements," he
added.
By
Tichaona Sibanda
03 April 2006
MDC President Morgan
Tsvangirai has began his nationwide tour to
drum-up support for his party's
planned peaceful mass protests aimed at
forcing Robert Mugabe to a
dialogue.
The MDC leader kicked off his nationwide campaign with a
rally in
Mkoba, Gweru on Saturday, followed by one in Masvingo on
Sunday.
Tsvangirai told thousands of party supporters at the two
rallies that
mass anti-government protests will go ahead despite threats
from Mugabe that
he will never allow protests to happen in
Zimbabwe.
Addressing mourners at the burial of his chief bodyguard
at the Heroes
Acre in Harare on Saturday, Mugabe reminded Tsvangirai that
his ruling party
were battle-hardened and would not be removed from power by
threats.
Tsvangirai was unfazed by the chilling threats from Mugabe
telling
supporters in Masvingo Sunday that he was willing to pay the
ultimate price
by leading the mass protests.
Mugabe said that
the MDC should concentrate on using the ballot to
remove his party from
power, a remark that forced Tsvangirai to tell MDC
supporters in Mkoba that
the regime can never be ousted through the ballot
because Zanu PF always rig
elections.
MDC Mayor of Gweru Fedel Zvidzayi said Tsvangirai's
message to the
people in the city was that the writing was now on the wall
for the ruling
regime.
He said apart from fighting growing
dissent from the MDC Zanu (PF) was
also fighting another bitter war with the
country's economy, which it is
losing dismally. Tsvangirai explained the
current state of affairs in the
country where people are dying of hunger,
where all public hospitals are
failing to deliver. He also looked at the
deteriorating case of students and
the general outlook of the economy which
is in the 'intensive care unit.'
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
BERNAMA, Malaysia
April 03, 2006 14:49 PM
From R.
Ravichandran
HARARE, April 3 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian private sector is
encouraged to
invest in Zimbabwe as the country is still a safe destination
for business.
Speaking to a group of Malaysian journalists here,
Malaysia's ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Cheah Choong Kit, said the potential
areas were agriculture,
mining, tourism and infrastructure
development.
Cheah said despite the economic difficulties being faced by
the southern
African nation of about 11.3 million people, the Malaysian
business
community should make efforts to have a presence in Zimbabwe so
that when
things improved, they will be in a positition to capitalise on
trade and
investment opportunities.
"Hope before it is too late...
come here and study for yourself," he said.
According to Cheah, the
Zimbabwe government is taking various steps to
improve the economic
conditions and investment climate.
"Things are improving and will
improve. In fact, I would encourage
Malaysians to come and see the potential
in different areas," he said.
He added that by visiting Zimbabwe, the
private sector and the Malaysian
business community would know about the
situation in Zimbabwe, which is
still a safe destination for tourists and
investments.
Cheah noted that Malaysia was going to embark on the
importation of halal
meat from Zimbabwe as it has quality beef.
He
said Malaysia could also be promoted as a centre of excellence in
education
to Zimbabweans, encouraging them to study in Malaysia.
Currently,
Malaysia's main exports to Zimbabwe are electronic and electrical
products,
while imports are mainly agricultural products and tobacco.
Zimbabwe's
major exports are agriculture (tobacco, sugar, horticulture, beef
and
coffee), minerals (asbestos, nickel, platinum, gold and black granite)
and
manufactured products (ferro-alloys, cotton lint, iron and steel and
textiles).
Major imports are fuel, electricity, chemicals, machinery,
base metals and
products, transportation equipment, plastic, rubber and
electrical products.
Its major export partners are Germany, the United
Kingdom, South Africa,
Japan, China and the United States while major import
partners are South
Africa, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, the UK,
the US, and
Germany.
April 3, 2006
By ANDnetwork
.com
The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) is in talks
with
investors to raise about $2 trillion for the refurbishment of
airports.
CAAZ chief executive officer, Mr David Chawota, said in
an interview
with Business Chronicle that CAAZ was in negotiations with
foreign and local
investors to seal joint ventures to upgrade airports in
line with
international standards.
"There are some investors
willing to conclude joint ventures with CAAZ
though details of the
negotiations are still premature we expect to conclude
them soon," said Mr
Chawota.
He said that the joint venture talks were subject to
considerations
from the Ministry of Transport and Communications which is
responsible for
CAAZ operations.
"The joint venture negotiations
will only become a reality once they
are approved by our parent ministry,"
said Mr Chawota.
He declined to provide the amount of funds required in
the
refurbishment exercise, but sources close to CAAZ operations said that
the
organisation requires about $2 trillion.
The CAAZ has in the
past three years failed to complete the
refurbishment of airports due to
foreign currency shortages.
This has resulted in the refurbishment
exercise running behind
schedule due to inflation which eroded production
costs.
The Minister of Transport and Communications, Cde Chris
Mushohwe,has
mandated the CAAZ management to implement reforms envisaged at
running the
corporation on commercial basis.
In terms of the CAAZ
recapitalisation policy done by the Ministry,the
parastatal was expected to
implement revenue generating systems, reduce
dependency on borrowings from
the treasury and introducing corporate
governance structures.
The
recapitalisation process for CAAZ was being done to improve the
operations
of airports in a order to reattract some international airlines
that were no
longer plying their routes to Zimbabwe citing a volatile
economic climate
and high costs of landing.
"The reforms are also aimed at increasing
foreign tourist arrivals in
Zimbabwe from traditional and new markets," said
Mr Chawota.
Statistics carried out by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority(
ZTA) showed
that the country's tourism sector had suffered a 49 percent drop
in eranings
to US$98 million in 2005 from US$198 million the previous
year.
Mr Chawota said that some investors were evaluating the CAAZ
recapitalisation policy before agreeing to terms of the joint venture
proposals.
"Some of the investors are still assessing our
turnaround strategies
before finalising deals with CAAZ," he said.
Mr Chawota said that the CAAZ was working on measures to complete the
refurbishment of airports before end of the year.
"CAAZ is
expecting to finalise the refurbishment of airports anytime
this year, the
organisation has secured funding from the treasury to
accelerate the
process," he said.
Airports whose refurbishments were not yet completed
by CAAZ include
the Victoria Falls airport, Buffallo Range airport and the
Joshua Mqabuko
Nkomo airport.
The CAAZ has also been courting Asian
investors on joint ventures
through the guidelines of the Government's Look
East Policy.
Source : Zimbabwe Chronicle
IOL
April 03 2006 at
10:16AM
By Jennifer Stern
There's an old saying that
change is the only constant - and a visit
to Vic Falls is certainly proof
thereof. The first time I visited, in 1991,
it was a bustling, thriving
over-traded tourist destination.
The camp site was full of little
backpacker tents and overland trucks,
and the town was a party venue of
note. But if you wanted a bit of peace and
quiet, you could hop across the
border to the sleepy little backwater of
Livingstone.
I've been
back more times than I can remember since then, dividing my
attentions
equally between the two sides of the river. And, yes, the only
constant is
change.
Over the past few years, particularly, the Zambian side of
the river
has grown in leaps and bounds, largely as a result of Zimbabwe's
political
woes.
As news of farm invasions, fuel queues and
Robert Mugabe's "clean-up"
operations dominate the foreign media, most
tourists tend to steer clear of
Zimbabwe, and Livingstone has become a
destination of note.
Well, that's good news and bad news. If you're
the type of person
who'd have chosen Livingstone in the 1990s, you'd
probably prefer Vic Falls
now.
Yes, it's a lot quieter, and
that buzzing vibe of constant activity
has calmed down somewhat, but Vic
Falls is tough and seems to be surviving
the hard times Zim is going
through. I spent a short while there recently,
and was pleased to see that
there is still so much going on.
We'd driven in from Hwange, so we
did our first stop en route.
Shearwater Elephant Company and Shearwater Lion
Adventures are situated on
the Nakavango Game Reserve, about 15km from town
on the airport-Hwange road.
We were a bit pushed for time, so we
just had a short interaction with
the elephants, but I'd done the full
riding experience a few years back, and
I have happy memories of heading out
into the bush.
After petting the elephants for a while, we headed
off to the Lion
Adventure, close by. This is new since I'd last been to Vic
Falls.
We all lined up and waited while three young lions came
bounding up to
us, tails swishing around energetically. We kept well back
from them as they
ambled off through the bush under the beady eyes of their
trainers, who kept
them on track with voice commands and the odd
reward.
We watched them climb trees, bound through the grass and
tumble over
each other, and then - after the trainers had got them quietly
lying down -
had a chance to pet them.
Young they might be, but
these are still lions and they can do some
serious harm, so we treated them
with respect. I was pleased to hear that
these animals are all rescued
orphans that are hand-reared, and then trained
for a career in the tourist
and movie industries, and that they're not
destined for canned hunting
programmes.
We followed these intimate wildlife experiences with a
game drive and
a delicious fireside dinner, and then made a beeline for our
comfy hotel in
town.
Next morning, bright and early, we headed
off to see what else is new
in Vic Falls. I was keen to do the ultralight
float plane, but it was being
serviced, so I couldn't. Bad
timing.
I did get a good view of the falls from a helicopter,
though, which is
always a pleasure - even though we didn't see any angels.
Other new products
include a gorge swing, which I had absolutely no desire
to do, and the
bridge tour.
The gorge swing is really scary.
You do a 77m freefall and then swing
out over the river. Eeeeek! Not for me.
In fact, I was even too scared to do
the bridge tour, which half of our
group went on. It involves walking up,
over and under the bridge, which was
a hundred years old last year. I'm sure
it's perfectly safe, but I and
heights just don't go together.
I love the white-water rafting and
would certainly have chosen that if
we'd had time, but we were flying out
that afternoon, so I opted for the jet
boat - another new product since I'd
last been there.
En route we had a quick look at the gorge swing
launch platform, which
had me practically throwing up at the mere thought,
and dropped off those of
our group who were doing the bridge tour. We then
had a quick safety
briefing, donned lifejackets and helmets, and set off on
a long, steep walk
down to the river.
Seeing I was a tad
nervous, the guide took my hand and gently helped
me past the scary bits.
"It's a good thing you didn't decide to do the
bridge tour," my host, Brett,
said. "You wouldn't have enjoyed it."
I agreed, particularly later,
when we waved at our friends on the
bridge from the boat. They looked very
exposed.
The boat, however, was great fun. (OK - we're all
different. I'm
terrified of heights, but quite happy in water.) It sounds
hectic, but it's
actually quite gentle. With 2x240hp engines, it has
sufficient power to take
even the Zambezi rapids in its stride -
upstream.
That's what it's all about, really. You get to go
upstream right to
the base of the falls for a view that is certainly
unsurpassed - and
possibly unequalled - in the world. And, yes, you do play
in the rapids a
bit, too. And you get very wet.
We were there
in high water, so by the time we were at the edge of the
Boiling Pot - the
huge pool directly below the falls - one of our group
mentioned it would
have been a good idea to bring shampoo.
It was a really rushed
trip, but we managed to fit in some fun
activities, and even an obligatory
stop at the craft market, before we
ducked off to the
airport.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you go ...
a.. Flame of Africa, who are the sole agents for
Flame Lily Holidays,
0861-312-312, info@flamelily.co.za, www.flamelily.co.za, offers a range of
packages starting at R2 400 per person sharing, which includes return
flights from Joburg and two nights accommodation on a B&B
basis.
a.. Shearwater Adventures offers a range of activities,
including
bridge tours, bungy-jumping, elephant riding, walking with lions,
helicopter
flights, ultralight float plane flights, gorge swing, foefie
slide, flying
fox and gentle canoeing game-viewing trips on the flat water
above the
falls. Cost of activities range from US$30 for the sunset cruise
to US$170
for the helicopter and ultralight game- and falls-viewing flights.
The
rafting costs US$110 for full day and US$95 for half-day. The elephant
and
lion adventures are US$100 each. But, for US$205, you can do any three
Shearwater adventures and, for US$290, any five, which offers a real
saving.
.. Jennifer Stern was a guest of Flame of Africa
and Shearwater
Adventures
This article was originally
published on page 20 of The Star on April
03, 2006
From The Globe & Mail (Canada), 3 April
Stephanie Nolen
Glendale - In the end
the miracle baby needed one more miracle, and it
didn't come in time. A year
ago, Globe readers met Tambudsai Chigwida and
her son Ishanesu. Then three
months old, the boy weighed just 3.3 pounds.
Ms. Chigwida has AIDS, and she
delivered her son almost three months early,
a common occurrence for
HIV-positive African women. She gave birth at home
but somehow toted her
tiny son (then just two pounds) to Howard Hospital, a
bare-bones mission
clinic run by the Salvation Army 30 kilometres away.
There, staff defied
even their own determinedly optimistic expectations and
kept the baby alive.
They described him variously as a fighter, a baby
specially blessed by God
and, often, a little miracle. Ms. Chigwida herself
then weighed less than 66
pounds; she was wasted, coughing, dull-eyed and
sallow-skinned. A few days
after she arrived at the hospital, her tests
confirmed she was HIV-positive
and she began anti-retroviral treatment while
she kept close watch on the
incubator that kept Ishanesu warm. A year later,
Ms. Chigwida is almost
unrecognizable: the ARV drugs have worked their
magic. She weighs 88 pounds,
her skin has lustre, and she is quick to laugh.
But there were no
drugs for Ishanesu. It seems almost certain that Ms.
Chigwida passed the
human immunodeficiency virus to her baby at birth,
although the only test
that would have confirmed this in a child less than
18 months of age costs
several hundred dollars and is beyond the reach of
the mission hospital.
Similarly, pediatric formulations of ARVs are not
available in Zimbabwe, as
in most of the rest of Africa. So when Ms.
Chigwida finally took her child
home from hospital, a bit less than a year
ago, it was only to bring him
back again, month after month. He had
tuberculosis, he had oral thrush, he
had diarrhea, he had skin infections,
he had fevers. And on Feb. 19, he died
in the noisy children's ward at
Howard, joining the half of all babies with
HIV who don't make it to the age
of 2. He never passed eight pounds - a
normal Canadian baby's typical birth
weight - in his year of life. It would
have been possible to treat Ishanesu
for HIV based on his symptoms alone,
without testing him - but the AIDS
clinic at Howard had nothing with which
to treat him. "We can't get [ARV]
tablets for children," one Howard Hospital
doctor said, asking not to be
identified by name because any conversation
with the foreign media can be
viewed askance by the Zimbabwe government
these days.
The standard first-line regimen for ARV treatment in
southern Africa costs
about $260 a year for each adult patient and $1,600 in
a pediatric
formulation, according to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS
Foundation. In
Zimbabwe, AIDS causes nearly half of all deaths of children
under 5. About
500,000 children die each year. But because it is easy to
prevent the
transmission of HIV from mother to children, almost no children
in developed
countries are infected at birth or by breastfeeding the way
Ishanesu was
inadvertently infected. Consequently, there is no paying market
for
pediatric drugs, and pharmaceutical companies have had little incentive
to
invest in developing them, or any pressure to lower prices. Only in the
past
two years - more than 20 years into the AIDS pandemic - have the major
players in AIDS prevention and treatment begun to turn their attention to
pediatric drugs. The William Jefferson Clinton Foundation has convinced some
pharmaceutical firms to lower prices for poor countries, while last week the
U.S. government and Unicef announced a new initiative to work with industry
to push down costs and find more drugs and tests specifically for
children.
"He never walked, he never crawled, he never sat," Ms.
Chigwida said of her
son. "He was always in the children's ward." One senses
a certain sad relief
in her, after a year of struggling to care for this
child who couldn't get
well. She has three other children at home - all of
them healthy, she
reports with pleasure - and fields she must farm. She has
no trouble doing
the work now - her CD4 count, a measure of the immune
system, has climbed
from below 100 when she began ARVs to 700, the count of
a healthy person
without HIV. The rains were good this year, she said
happily, so she expects
a good harvest and to gain even more weight. Her
neighbours marvel at the
change in her, she said. Her sister, who began to
get sick at the same time
she did, didn't get to the clinic and never got
tested for HIV or on to the
drugs. "I was worse," Ms. Chigwida said, "but
she died." The latest miracle
in her life is the ARVs. "I'll never miss
one!" she said.