The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
From Mmegi (Botswana), 6 April
Zim criminals give police tough time
Ryder Gabathuse, Staff Writer
Francistown - The Botswana police are concerned about the continued involvement of Zimbabweans in criminal activities. Detective Superintendent Aldrin Ntshitang of Central Police in Francistown told Mmegi yesterday that there was no doubt that criminals emanating from neighbouring Zimbabwe were giving them a tough time. "We have had several cases of break-ins which are still pending before us and we have reason to believe that they involve Zimbabweans," said Ntshitang. He was however, elated that the Zimbabwe Republic Police were assisting the Botswana police. "We have had several cases in which our Zimbabwean counterparts have made recovery of goods in Zimbabwe that were stolen from this country and in turn we have led complainants across the border to identify stolen goods," he explained. Ntshitang told Mmegi that the latest case of office break-in and theft, which involved about four Zimbabweans, is a case in point. He said a local firm had on Monday this week reported a case of office break-in and theft in which goods valued at about P14,000 were stolen. The goods include a personal computer, a fax machine and a folder bag. The thugs are alleged to have gained entry into the building by forcing open the sliding door of the office of Supplies Lubricant in the Light Industrial Site.
As lady luck would have it, police mobile patrol nabbed two Zimbabweans along the Francistown-Matsiloje road and on searching the motor vehicle they were using, the items reported to have been stolen were found in their possession. "We arrested two Zimbabwean men after two of them escaped police arrest," said Ntshitang. The ages of the arrested suspects range between 23 and 24. The suspects have valid Zimbabwean passports and according to the police, they are regular visitors to the country as indicated by the immigration stamps on their passports. "We suspect that these men are regular criminals who have continuously evaded police arrest. We are lucky to have caught up with them, as our patrol team found them still arguing over something." Ntshitang indicated that it is normally hard to arrest Zimbabweans. The police stated that the duo who were arrested claimed they were not responsible for the theft of the stolen goods but that they were only transporting them. "The suspects are still in police custody pending further investigations. We have reasons to link these men to the office break-in case reported on Monday this week." Alternatively, the duo is likely to face a charge of possession of suspected stolen property if we fail to connect them to the case."
Ntshitang stressed that the police are in most cases able to recover goods stolen from properties broken into. "Where goods have immediately found their way across the border into neighbouring Zimbabwe, it isn’t always easy to recover them. For goods stolen and held locally, we always get a lead on their whereabouts." Ntshitang indicated that criminals from Zimbabwe are treated just like other criminals. "There is no special treatment reserved for Zimbabwean criminals and for the local ones. Our responsibility is to investigate and establish the truth about a given crime and we deal with each case based on its merit," Ntshitang declared. The Zimbabwean government owned Chronicle newspaper, recently called on their government and its Parliament to take action against Botswana for ill-treating Zimbabweans.
From Business Day (SA), 6 April
Zimbabwe building society allowed to reopen
Harare Correspondent
Financial institution Intermarket Building Society, shut down during Zimbabwe's anticorruption crackdown over the past month, will reopen today for savings and mortgage business only, the central bank said. The Zimbabwe Reserve Bank, which closed three banks and a number of other financial services companies, said it would allow the building society to reopen in line with recommendations from curator Ngoni Kudenga. The central bank said Intermarket Building Society would have to stick to its core activities after reopening. The institutions that were shut down were accused of, among other things, straying into irregular speculative activities. This was said to have been partly responsible for the problems besetting the banking sector. Banks were accused of taking depositors' funds and investing them in the stock and property markets with disastrous consequences for their liquidity positions. The central bank said although Intermarket Building Society would reopen, money market deposits in the form of instruments such as negotiable certificates of deposits and savings certificates of deposits remained frozen until further notice. The building society was recently closed, together with Intermarket Discount House and Intermarket Banking Corporation, which are part of one of the largest locally owned companies, Intermarket Holdings. The founder and largest shareholder of Intermarket Holdings, Nicholas Vingirai, has reportedly fled Zimbabwe to avoid arrest for exporting foreign currency and unethical business practices.
From The Herald, 7 April
Fugitive Zanu PF directors sell assets
Herald Reporter
The three fugitive directors of Zanu-PF companies who fled to Britain last week have started selling their properties and assets in Zimbabwe, it has been learnt. The two Josh brothers - Jayant and Manharlal Chunibal - and Dipak Pandya left Harare hurriedly after the Zanu PF Politburo set up a committee to probe companies that are linked to or owned by the ruling party. The companies being probed include Zidco Holdings, M&S Syndicate, First Banking Corporation, Treger Holdings, Ottawa, Catercraft and Zidlee Enterprises. Well-placed sources said the three fugitive directors, who all hold British passports, had reportedly started selling their properties and assets in Zimbabwe in what observers say is the first sign that they do not intend to come back and were running away from what they feared to be the consequence of the law arising from the ongoing investigations. Business sources said that the trio had over the years accumulated numerous properties across the country, including mansions and office buildings, and held shares in a number of listed and non-listed companies, including those owned by or with links to Zanu PF. There were also reports that they had made attempts to withdraw large sums of money from various accounts that they controlled. Sources close to the probe said that there was prima facie evidence of misappropriation of funds from companies owned by or with links to Zanu PF by the trio. The investigating committee that was appointed by the Zanu PF Politburo on Wednesday last week is being led by the party’s secretary for finance, Cde David Karimanzira, who is also the Resident Minister and Governor for Mashonaland East, and includes retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru, former Minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr Simba Makoni, Matabeleland North Governor Cde Obert Mpofu and the party’s deputy secretary for transport and welfare, Cde Thoko Mathuthu. The investigations, which started last week, were looking into the companies’ financial operations, directorships and shareholding structures, business performance and benefits to the party and its membership over the last five years.
Zimbabwe in crisis summit | ||||
Zimbabwe Cricket Union chief executive Vince Hogg, who has held talks for two days with Streak, will be present. The meeting's location in Harare is being kept secret. Hogg will be told where it is minutes before it starts. Hogg said: "It is all very tense and volatile. I am very concerned about it. We are in a crisis situation." Around 10 of Zimbabwe's contracted players are expected to attend. It was Streak's demand for changes to the national team selection panel that triggered the crisis, according to reports. He is said to have requested the removal of two blacks who had not played first class cricket, prompting allegations of racism against him.
The ZCU board accepted his resignation after receiving his letter. But Heath's father Dennis insisted his son had not resigned. ZCU chairman Peter Chingoka said: "There are two main issues before the players - the Streak situation and our integration policy." Chingoka denied there was a quota system in place to promote more young black players. He added: "I cannot discuss the board's position over Streak as of today, but I am sure that we can reach a satisfactory conclusion." |
Democracy dividend and Zimbabwean farmers |
By Bolaji Abdullahi
The modest convoy of vehicles snaked through the patchy roads, provoking
whales of dust as mighty as the dreams and the hopes that had inspired the trip
itself. Last week, the Kwara State Government hosted a group of farmers from
Zimbabwe. This was not the first time farmers from the Southern African region
would be visiting Kwara. Last week’s visit was however, a major effort in
pushing forward a bold initiative that has attracted a deserved wide attention
across the country since it was first brokered last year. This time, we moved
from the round table to the field. The previous night, a strategic thinking group, led by the Governor, Dr.
Bukola Saraki, himself had brainstormed late into the night, combing through the
entire fields of ideas and processes surrounding the project like landmine
experts: Possibilities clashed with fears. Dangers wrestled with hopes. Benefits
battled risks. Policies contested with politics. In the end, we came out with
the only one consensus that really matters at this point: this is a project we
have to push through in the interest of the people of Kwara State and Nigeria at
large. Ours is not a resource rich state. But we are aware of our great
potentials. And perhaps, the most important of these potentials is our
geographical location. As the gateway between the north and the south of the country, we are
strategically positioned to provide access to the vast market potentials on both
sides. In addition to this, Kwara state has a vast landmass that has been proven
to be one of the most suitable for all kinds of crop production, especially soya
beans, cashew nut and rice. We also have immense potentials for animals and
livestock production. All of these are very valuable assets that could combine
to provide the basis for the development of major agro-allied industries in the
state. As a government with a core responsibility to tackle the overwhelming
problems of poverty caused largely by unemployment, it was clear to us from the
onset that we have to device innovative strategies that would convert these huge
potentials into real assets for our people. Challenged by declining resources
and allocations at all levels of government, there is no doubt that this is the
way to go if a State like ours must survive the crushing burden of widespread
poverty. As we moved from the expansive sugar plantation of Bacita to the massive
rice fields of Patigi, I could not help but marvel at how beautiful and richly
endowed this country is. However, I could not help but shudder at what was yet
another confirmation that Nigeria is performing lamentably below capacity.
Someone once quipped that the land in Nigeria is so rich and fertile that if you
pushed your fingers into the soil at night, they would have germinated at dawn.
Yet this country spent an average of 1billion USD on importation of rice alone
in a year and another 500million USD to import milk, especially from
Ireland. Only few years ago, Nigeria was planning to import beans from Burkina Faso.
Maybe public outrage made the government to abandon the proposal. The point is
that because we have had our yams so benevolently palm oiled by the gods for so
long, and like spoilt children, we have lost zeal and the will to strive and
struggle. The result of course is that our country, approaching half a century
as a sovereign entity, has remained permanently potential. Perhaps, one of the
boldest and construct economic reforms policy of the Obasanjo administration is
the ban placed on importation of food and other items that can be produced
locally. However, this salutory policy has not been met with commensurate
efforts to subtitute these imports with local production that would not only
meet the country’s need for food security but also launch our country onto the
global market as major exporter of agricultural produce. Farming is still
predonminantly at the peasant and subsistence level. Inspite of the numerous agricultural institutes and centres across the
country, it is obvious that we still lack the requisite technology and technical
expertise for large-scale, export-oriented agriculture. Our best agricultural
yields are hardly more than 1.5 tonne per hectare, whereas in Southern Africa,
the average yield is about 10 tonnes for the same space of farmland. In fact,
talking to the farmers from Zimbabwe, it is clear that we are not in the
competition at all. A single of these farmers does more than 20, 000 tonnes in a
single planting cycle, and because theirs is irrigation backed, he could do up
to 60, 000 tonnes for a farming year. I could recall that even for a
state-backed programme like the Kwara State’’s ‘‘Back-To-Farm’’ launched at the
on-set of this administration, our best efforts only managed an average of 60
for the whole planting year. Before the crisis in Zimbabwe, agricultural export
accounted for 50 per cent of the GDP of that country, making it the ““food
basket”” of Africa with an average production of 1.8 million tonnes of maize
annually. A single diary farmer in Zimbabwe was producing an average of 50
tonnes of milk per day while all we do in this country was to import highly
subsidised milk that no one would consume in the producing countries anyway. Since the crisis in Zimbabwe started, 75 of the farmers have moved across
the border to Zambia, where they have significantly affected the economy of that
country. It is indeed a grand irony that for the first time ever, Zambia will be
exporting food to Zimbabwe, a country that it used to depend on for its food. It
is clear to the government in Kwara State therefore that something very
innovative and revoultionary has to happen if we must deliver development and
reduce poverty through the only real potential that we have, agriculture. And we
are glad that the Federal Government has bought into this vision and is ready to
drive it forward, not only in Kwara but also in other few selected states. Like
President Obasanjo said when we visited, we would encourage the farmers to come,
not because we would like to take away from Zimbabwe what it good for Zimbabwe,
but because we would like to keep in Africa what is good for Africa. I am also
aware of the sentimental arguments about African solidarity. I think however, that this solidarity would be best expressed if we encourage
the farmers to remain wherever else on the continent, rather than allow them to
go and then use scarce resources to import food from the Neitherlands or
Australia. If African sovereignty is what is at stake, I think true
decolonisation would be best pursued if we create conditions that could make us
self-reliant, especially on food security. Mozambique and Zambia were intimately
connected to the struggle for the independence of Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe fought
for his country’’s independence from Mozambique, while Joshua Nkomo was fighting
from Zambia. Yet, these were the first two countries to welcome the farmers
after the crisis in Zimbabwe, not because they wanted to sabotage history, but
because they realised that poverty and hunger are harshly colour blind. One
issue that has dominated almost all the discussions on the coming of Zimabwean
farmers is the land question. With what is going on in Zimbabwe, this is hardly
evitable. Land is a very emotional issue everywhere, but maybe especially so in
Africa. The entire narrative of colonisation and decolonisation of the African space
is in many ways, essentially about land. So, no matter how lucrative this
opportunity promises to be, this is one fundamental issue that cannot be
overlooked. However, I must say that much of what I have heard as arguments
regarding the issue of land and the coming of Zimbabwean farmers have been more
emotionally effusive than rationally grounded. What we have seen is a verbatim
substitution of two very distinctive situations in a way that gives very little
regard to historical specificity, and the contentious questions of citizenship
and identity in that Southern Africa country. Nobody is about to seize any lands
here. Our politics and history is not condusive to such occupation. The laws of process and outcomes do not support it. Quite significantly, it
is clear that land, being an essential factor of production, is only valuable
for what it does. The choice before us in this case is therefore very clear: we
either continue to hoard the lands for their sentimental value or we push them
forward for use by those who have the requisite expertise to make them work for
us. At the moment we seem not to know what to do with the vast lands that abound
across the country. Others do. When we found oil in the Niger Delta, we did not
wait until we have the expertise to drill. We invited foreigners to do that for
us. We neither sold the land nor the oil to them. Many years after, we have our
own people who can do it as competently. Politics of access and distribution
aside, the pact has led to a “win-win” situation between Nigeria and the foreign
oil companies. The same goes for the initiative we are currently pushing with
the Zimbawean farmers. We have the land, they don’’t. They have the expertise we don’’t. Together
we can work out arrangements that would ensure that everyone profits in the end.
Some newspapers have reported that President Olusegun Obasanjo has already
offered the white farmers 99-year leasehold on land. Nothing could be more mischievously false. I was present at that session,
and the President did not say anything of sort. The issue of land, like all
other issues around the initiatives have not been decided, negotiations are
still going on, but we believe that in the end we would arrive at agreements
that would favour all stakeholders. More importantly for us however, is the fact
that right from the very beginning, it is clear to the government in Kwara that
the poverty reduction and empowerment content of this programme is as important
as the concern for economic growth. This is why right from the very beginning
the Government of Kwara State understands the need to bring in the local
communities around the proposed farm locations. This way, commercial farming and
communal farming can grow hand in hand, with the former lifting the latter. If
the international community is really interested in reducing large scale poverty
in Nigeria, here is the chance. Everyone or institution who has any idea or
value to add to this project is welcome. Collectively, we have the chance now to
make history. We must let this go. Bolaji Abdullahi is Special Assistant to the Governor of Kwara State. |
Harare - A group of 15 alleged mercenaries detained in Equatorial Guinea had
planned to wipe out the entire family of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, his
interior minister Manuel Nguema Mba said during a trip to Harare on
Wednesday.
Mba, who is visiting Harare where another group of 70 alleged
mercenaries linked to the supposed plot are being detained, said the South
African accused of leading the group in Malabo, Nick du Toit, had told
Equatorial Guinean investigators "everything".
"He (du Toit) told us
everything that was planned. He said the objective was to kill the entire family
of President Obiang Nguema and bring (opposition leader) Severo Moto from
Spain," ZIANA news agency quoted Mba as saying.
Zimbabwean and Equatorial
Guinean authorities believe that 70 alleged mercenaries detained last month in
Harare were on their way to join the group in Equatorial Guinea in a bid to oust
Obiang Nguema.
Due to appear in a Harare prison court on April 13 |