Zim Online
Sat 8 April
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwean police on Friday arrested 51 supporters of
the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) for demonstrating in Harare
without
approval from the police.
The NCA is a coalition of
human and civic rights groups, labour,
churches and students that is
fighting for a new, democratic constitution
for Zimbabwe.
The
protesters marched in central Harare brandishing placards
demanding a new
constitution for Zimbabwe. They also distributed flyers
written, "No to
elections without a new constitution."
But as they approached
Parliament Building in Harare the police who
appeared to have been taken
off-guard, pounced on the demonstrators leading
to the arrest of the 51. The
protesters were still detained at Harare
central police station last
night.
A lawyer representing the protesters, Alec Muchadehama, said
the
demonstrators were being charges under Section 19 (1) of the Public
Order
and Security Act (POSA) which forbids illegal
demonstrations.
"I am still trying to access my clients to find out
whether there are
any who have been injured or have complaints against the
police," said
Muchadehama last night.
NCA chairman, Lovemore
Madhuku, said his organisation will continue to
stage these street protests
until their demands for a new constitution are
met.
"We will
continue to push for a new people driven constitution
regardless of whatever
means the police use to thwart our demonstrations,"
said
Madhuku.
The NCA has proved to be a pain in the neck for the Harare
authorities
after staging a number of successful demonstrations in the past.
- ZimOnline
[ This report does not necessarily reflect
the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 7 Apr 2006 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights said it was
ready to help people who risked losing
their homes after the City of Harare
warned that it would tear down illegal
structures erected since last year's
evictions and demolitions.
On 26
March the council of the capital city announced that it was issuing 30
days'
notice of its intention to repossess undeveloped stands.
The warning came
on the eve of the first anniversary of Operation
Murambatsvina, in which the
government demolished what it termed 'illegal'
homes and businesses,
depriving more than 700,000 people of shelter and
livelihood.
Tafadzwa Mugabe, a member of Lawyers for Human Rights,
which provides free
legal advice, said it was important for residents to
comply with
regulations, ensure that construction met council standards and
title deeds
were in order.
"We are ready to assist people to meet the
legal demands of local
authorities and the state to avert what happened last
year," he said. "Last
time, residents were told to regularise their houses,
but before they could
do that they were razed to the ground, and that is
what should be avoided."
Officials from residents' associations in the
Harare suburbs of Mbare, Glen
View and Dzivarasekwa said council officials
had already started evicting
residents from their uncompleted
houses.
Police have also intensified efforts to remove illegal street
traders. IRIN
witnessed
several fruit and vegetable vendors, most of them
women with babies on their
backs, being arrested by police and their goods
confiscated.
Last year the government insisted that everybody evicted
from informal
settlements should return to their rural homes. Those without
rural roots -
typically people of non-Zimbabwean origin - were put into in
holding camps.
One such facility is Hopley Transit Camp, just outside
Harare, where around
6,500 victims of Operation Murambatsvina are housed in
temporary shelters,
some no more than plastic sheeting.
On Tuesday
the government banned the international NGO, Christian Care, from
making
general food distributions, reportedly on the grounds that the
settlement
was seen as a stronghold of the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change.
"We have been told to do what is termed 'targeted' feeding," an
NGO employee
said. "This means we can only feed the elderly, the sick and
child-headed
families - we have been told to exclude those able to fend for
themselves.
We have had no option but to go ahead with the demands of the
government,
through its officers from the ministry of social
welfare."
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
07 April
2006 05:15
Zimbabwe's 12-month inflation rate jumped to
a new record
high of 913,6% for March, officials said on Friday, surpassing
a central
bank forecast as the Southern African country's economic woes
continue.
"The year-on-year rate of inflation in March
2006 was
913,6%, gaining 131,6 percentage points on the February rate of
782%," said
Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the Central Statistical
Office.
"This means that on average goods and services
normally
purchased by households for final use in Zimbabwe were about ten
times as
expensive in March 2006 as they had been 12 months before, in March
2005,"
he told a news conference in the capital.
Nyoni said that goods and services priced at Z$100 000a
year ago would now
cost more than Z$1-million.
Central bank governor
Gideon Gono warned in January that
inflation would peak at over 800% in
March before receding to below 500% in
June and declining to double digits
next year.
Items that showed the largest month-on-month
increases
were school examination fees (1 328%), domestic power,
electricity, gas and
other fuels (236%) and sugar, jam, honey and other
confectionary (129%).
Year-on-year, hair salons (3
921%), postal services (3
062%) and rent (3 015%) showed the largest
increases.
Zimbabwe state power utility ZESA,
struggling to import
electricity from neighbouring countries, was last month
barred from slapping
a 570% price increase on consumers after the central
bank said it would fuel
inflation beyond control.
The Southern African nation is in the throes of an
economic crisis,
characterised by rocketing inflation, soaring poverty
levels, an
unemployment rate hovering at over 70% and chronic fuel and basic
goods
shortages.
Over four million Zimbabweans in a
population of
13-million also face food shortages, according to United
Nations agencies.
Workers and ordinary citizens bore
the brunt of the
economic crisis, with prices of basic commodities rising
almost daily, while
wages have become stagnant.
Inflation in Zimbabwe reached its previous peak in January
2004, hitting
624%. -- AFP
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
07 April
2006 01:38
The loss-making state airline Air Zimbabwe
carried just
230 000 passengers last year, compared with more than a million
in 1999, the
official media reported on Friday.
Acting chief executive Captain Oscar Madombwe blamed the
decline on negative
publicity on political and economic turmoil in the
country and a perception
of safety concerns among both local and foreign
travellers, along with
shortages of hard currency, new equipment and
gasoline, the state Herald
newspaper said.
Madombwe was addressing a panel of
lawmakers in Harare on
Thursday.
He said some of
the airline's planes are nearly 30 years
old and passengers mistrust its
newest acquisitions, two small short-haul
Chinese MA60 aircraft used on
domestic routes since last year, preferring
what he called
Western-manufactured planes.
Madombwe said acute
shortages in jet fuel mean some of its
international flights, including
regular services to London, are forced to
take on fuel in neighbouring
countries, leading to delays.
Some Western governments
issue adverse travel advisories
to their nationals on Zimbabwe, the airline
chief told the lawmakers.
"There are travel warnings in
which travellers are told:
'Go to Zimbabwe at your own risk and maybe you
will not come out of there
alive.' We are going to embark on campaigns to
counter the bad publicity,"
the paper quoted him
saying.
In November, the airline ran out of jet fuel
and grounded
all its services for a day as Zimbabwe's worst economic crisis
since
independence in 1980 deepened. It was the first time the airline's
planes
were brought to a complete standstill by fuel shortages. Then-chief
executive Tendai Mahachi and financial director Tendai Mujuru were fired for
their handling of fuel shortages.
Madombwe assured
the lawmakers new arrangements had been
made to keep the airline flying but
did not elaborate.
Zimbabwe is suffering shortages of
all types of fuel. The
agriculture-based economy went into free fall after
President Robert Mugabe
ordered the often violent seizures of thousands of
white-owned commercial
farms in 2000. - Sapa-AP
SABC
April 07,
2006, 11:45
Zimbabwe's government, battling an economic crisis which
critics partly
blame on its seizures of white-owned farms, is now targeting
firms with
multiple or huge land holdings, an official newspaper reported
today.
But analysts say the new drive - which could affect timber and
sugar
plantations - would further damage Zimbabwe's investment climate and
international image. Zimbabwe, once a net exporter of grain to southern
Africa, has suffered food shortages over the last five years as its farming
sector has been hit by drought and disruptions linked to President Robert
Mugabe's controversial land reforms.
The Herald newspaper said
Didymus Mutasa, the national state security
minister, told a government
media briefing that while many farms had been
redistributed to landless
blacks since 2000, "quite a lot" still remained in
the hands of private
firms. "Government is investigating shareholding in the
private companies
that own huge farms, with the view of redistributing the
land to needy
people," it said.
More threats to property rights
The daily quoted
Mutasa, who is also in charge of the government's lands,
land reform and
resettlement department, as saying: "Quite a lot of land is
still being held
in the hands of companies and we would want to look into
that thoroughly."
Mutasa was not immediately available for comment. But John
Robertson, a
leading economic consultant, said the government drive would
further
undermine property rights in a country which has largely been
shunned by
foreign investors since the start of its land seizures.
Analysts say only
about 600 of Zimbabwe's 4 500 white farmers have kept
their land after the
government launched a sometimes violent campaign six
years ago to
redistribute farms. Critics have blamed the land seizures for a
sharp drop
in Zimbabwe's agricultural production, part of a wider economic
crisis that
has led to shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange,
rocketing
unemployment and triple digit inflation.
The government says the
agricultural crisis is due in large part to drought,
and accuses its Western
critics of applying policies aimed at undermining
its rule over the former
British colony. - Reuters
Zim Daily
Friday, April 07 2006 @ 12:25 PM BST
Contributed by: correspondent
By Zimdaily/Business
Online
THE low-income urban earner monthly basket for a
family of six
surged to $34,9 million last month, a 24,7% increase from the
February
figure of $28 million, representing worsening hardships for many
Zimbabweans
reeling under President Mugabe's skewed economic
policies.
In US dollar terms, the total cost of the March
basket is
US$352,77 based on the interbank exchange rate of US$1:$99 201,58.
The
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) said that most products recorded
marginal
increases with notable ones being recorded by vegetables whose
price rose by
87,8%, washing powder 39,1% and 1 kg margarine registering a
26,5% increase.
"The essential food items such as vegetables recorded the
highest percentage
increase owing to the unavailability of some vegetables
for example onions,
which are currently out of season. The onions on the
market are imported and
are more than double the price of locally produced
onions," CCZ said.
The consumer representative body said
availability of some
products had improved in a few towns like Harare though
in some areas supply
of such products could not satisfy demand. "There was a
disproportionate
increase in the cost of living on one hand and a general
stagnation of
incomes of many households on the other," CCZ
said.
"In essence this has subjected many consumers to
poverty as they
now live below the poverty datum line (PDL)." CCZ added that
consumers
continue to be in limbo whilst all stakeholders wait anxiously for
the
Tripartite Negotiating Forum to (TNF) resume and make true the Prices
and
Incomes Stabilisation Protocol
.
"It is
the right of consumers to be updated on the progress made
by the TNF and the
Prices and Incomes Stabilisation Protocol," said CCZ.
Surveys
for the consumer basket are conducted twice a month
while the basket is
calculated by averaging the prices of goods in retail
outlets across the
country.
There is now little doubt that the present regime in Zimbabwe is
becoming
very anxious about the swelling tide of opposition and criticism
that it is
facing. They have put the army on full alert, cancelled leave,
they are
mobilizing their street gangs and thugs in the form of the youth
militia and
are rumored to be printing thousands of T shirts in the MDC
colors in an
effort to discredit the mass action that is now threatened by
the MDC
leadership.
As a taste of things to come the township of
Budiriro in Harare where a bi-
Election is programmed has already become a
battleground. The CIO is in
there in strength (there are some 17 000 people
working for the CIO in
Zimbabwe) and clashes between the restive and angry
community and these Para
military security operatives are becoming more
frequent.
Then there is the tirade of abuse by Zanu PF leaders and
Ministers directed
at the MDC - not the break away faction which strangely
attracts little
attention, but towards the MDC and its recently elected
leadership. We hear
reports that they are finding it difficult to rebuild the
contacts they lost
in the MDC when the breakaway took place last year. This
seems to be
supported by some of the regimes actions, which show a lack of
real inside
knowledge of what is really going on.
We had Mr. Mugabe
threatening the leadership of the MDC with death if they
dared to appose Zanu
PF on the streets. Then came statements from Mutasa and
Chinamasa to the
effect that "what the MDC is planning is illegal, amounts
to an
unconstitutional threat to a democratically elected administration".
They
have even gone so far as to say that the MDC is planning a coup against
the
legitimate government of Zimbabwe.
Now aside from the fact that the
present regime is neither democratically
elected nor legitimate it maintains
its grip on power with the use of
military force and organisation. There is a
lot of evidence that since the
2002 statement by the armed forces that they
would not accept an MDC leader
as State President under any circumstances -
in effect a military coup in
its self, that we are in fact living no longer
in a democratic state but
under a form of a military junta. It astonishes how
little real influence or
authority is exercised by either the Cabinet or
Parliament. The principal
focus of power seems to lie in a shadowy Security
Council that seldom sees
the light of day.
But it must be made clear
to all who have an interest in our affairs, that
what the MDC and civil
society in general want as an outcome from the
present campaign (because that
is what we are now engaged in) is quite
simple. We want: -
1. The
convening, with immediate effect, of an all stakeholders' conference
to
thrash out, on a consensual basis, the way out of the mess we are in the
form
of a new constitution and a negotiated transition to democratic
elections
under international and regional supervision.
2. We are demanding that during
the transition, the government restores the
rule of law, freedom of the press
and freedom of association. We are also
demanding that food be brought into
free supply and be completely
depoliticised. We are demanding that the State
controlled media be brought
under the control of an independent media
commission and be forced to
operate professionally and impartially.
3. We
are demanding that every Zimbabwean citizen and permanent resident be
allowed
to vote on the basis of a satisfactory identity document in a
national
election for both Parliament and the Presidency. That these
elections be
administered by a truly independent authority set up for this
purpose and
that the regional and the international community be invited,
without
restrictions of any kind, to observe the process.
4. Then finally, we are
demanding that the administration that emerges from
this process, be declared
the legitimate government of Zimbabwe and that
that this government then
takes power to administer the country and to
control and direct the
activities of all the security arms of the State.
I am no lawyer, but
that does not look like an illegal operation to me. Nor
does it amount to a
coup in the traditional African sense of the word. It
certainly would be a
coup if the MDC could achieve such a transition back to
real democratic and
legal values, but by no stretch of imagination could it
be termed "an illegal
and unconstitutional attempt to overthrow by violent
means the government of
Zimbabwe".
Therefore why the paranoia? The paranoia about what the MDC is
proposing is
due to the simple fact the regime knows that if such a programme
was to be
followed, Zanu PF would be ousted from power as surely as the sun
rose today
over Zimbabwe. This would mean that the misdemeanors of the
present regime
would be disclosed, the real story of what has gone on behind
closed doors
would become public knowledge and the Courts would be available
to those
whose interests have been damaged during 25 years of bad and
corrupt
government.
The gravy train would be derailed and the massive
transfers of wealth from
the majority to a tiny political elite would be
stopped and even reversed.
This is the real reason why the present regime is
crying foul. It's got
nothing to do with the alleged illegality of the MDC
proposals, nothing to
do with a "planned coup". In any event, all the arms
and armed capacity in
the country is in the hands of the national army and
the police as well as
the Para military forces. The MDC has no such capacity,
has never sought
such capacity and has no intention, under any circumstances,
of following
that route. The only men of violence here are in Zanu PF and its
affiliates.
We have tried the democracy route, it has been blocked off by
this
administration and that leaves us with no other choice but the street
and
the power of ordinary people seeking redress and their universal
rights.
Despite what people might be thinking - MDC has never committed
itself to
such a programme since it was born in 1999. This is the first time
we have
backed direct action to force change. We have no alternative - the
regional
community refuses to take action and we simply cannot go on
accepting the
destruction of our country and the rape of its
assets.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 7th April 2006
From the TelegraphNotebook
By W F Deedes
(Filed: 07/04/2006)
I get more angry letters about Robert Mugabe's
tyranny in Zimbabwe, where
things go from bad to worse, than on any other
topic. Most of them make the
same point. Why do we busy ourselves in Iraq,
Afghanistan and elsewhere, yet
ignore the ruin of a country for which we were
once responsible?
It is a question that can be answered only in terms of Yes,
Minister.
"Humphrey, we must take action against Mugabe's destruction of
Zimbabwe."
"No, minister, it would do a disservice to our best interests
in Africa."
"Why not, for heaven's sake? He's a villain."
"Not in
the eyes of all Africa, minister."
"Humphrey, are you mad?"
"No,
minister, I'm only suggesting that many Africans do not see him as
we
do."
"Why not? He's starving his own people,
Humphrey."
"Yes, minister, but he has managed to hold power in Africa for
longer than
any other leader. That earns him high esteem."
"From other
African leaders, perhaps, but not from most Africans."
"Minister, for
many years most Africans were under European rule. When
Mugabe rants against
'imperialism' he strikes a chord with many of them."
"No imperialist,
Humphrey, behaved as brutally as Mugabe does."
"That is as may be,
minister, but he is 'one of them', which gives him a
certain licence to
behave badly. In Africa, it is recognised that 'the
winner takes
all'."
"Humphrey, you're doing Africa a gross injustice. The vast
majority there
would cheer if we gave Mugabe a hiding."
"No, minister,
the majority would resent the intrusion. African governments
are sensitive
about outside interference. They would rally round Mugabe, and
we would lose
valuable interests there."
"So you are saying that we must stand idly
by?"
"Yes, minister."
You may think I am taking the mickey out of
the Sir Humphreys of this world.
On the contrary, I fear the old booby is
right.
Journal
Week ending 2nd April 06
It's an extraordinary
thing, but dictatorships seem to revel in uncovering
plots designed for the
purpose by their own spooks. The burning of the
Reichstag by the NAZIs come
to mind, no less than the current debacle over
the alleged plot to
assassinate the president on his birthday visit to
Mutare. This one seems to
have gone a bit pear shaped for the perpetrators
and only one person remains
in custody - the hapless Hirchman or what ever
his name is. He is alleged by
the early reports to have been a member of the
Rhodesian Army serving in the
RAR. I cannot recall anyone of that name and
knew most of the officers.
Perhaps someone with a better memory than mine
can recall him. Another story
going the rounds is that he never saw active
service as his parents were
conscientious objectors and spirited him out of
the country so he would not
get called up. Who knows, but this somehow doesn't
march with the fact that
he is a so-called security expert and licensed gun
dealer, and member of the
police reserve. All very intriguing!
We have continued to have rain with
a real downpour of 47 mm in 24 hours
during the week. The weather now seems
to have cleared and glorious April
with its crisp mornings and evenings, and
warm sun filled days apart from -
"whan that April with her shoures" decides
to give us a last sprinkle or
two.
There was great excitement here
yesterday. I was having a meeting with the
village residents' committee that
represents the high-density village on
Feoch at about nine in the morning
when there came a terrible commotion from
the chicken run. Thinking we were
being invaded by another python we all
took off at the high port to see what
was amiss. Baba Jongwe was in full
cry, neck feathers raised. He was
charging about and leaping in the air in
truly ferocious form, joined by the
mama of his four current teenagers. The
object of their ferocity was a
raptor that had penetrated the inner keep of
the chicken run. This is a
fenced area enclosing a chicken house. The yard
is fenced overhead as well,
as a precaution against monkeys getting in to
steal the eggs. Nothing
daunted our thief had flown in to this area and even
into the house, whence
he was driven by Baba Jongwe. It was at this point
that we arrived to offer
assistance. Efforts to get the frightened hawk out
through the gate proved
fruitless as it kept trying to fly straight up where
it hit the wire
netting and fell back. It was after one of these attempts
that one of my
visitors hit it with a young pole of no mean girth (a sort of
teen-aged ZESA
pole!) that instantly dispatched it into the next dimension.
I tried to
identify it without any definite conclusion but think it may have
been an
immature African Goshawk, described by Roberts as being "bold and
dashing,
not shy" which I think is fitting.
In the garden there is not much
actually flowering at the moment but then
ours is a garden mainly comprised
of perennials and re-seeding annuals so it
is not surprising. In the herb
garden the Melissa is in bloom. The pure
white flowers make a pretty show
against the glossy dark leaves of the
bushes. Bees hover around the flowers
for is it not named Melissa, Greek for
the honey bee? We live on a bee line
and only yesterday a swarm went buzzing
past - its more like a low-pitched
hum really when they are in full flight
and on a mission. Also prolific in
their blooms are the nastertiums, one of
my favourite plants, not least
because their leaves and flowers are such a
fresh peppery addition to
salads. And of course their seeds can be dried and
substitute very well for
capers. Did you know that the dry old Swede
Linnaeus called the nasturtium
"tropaeolum" which translates as trophy
pillar, a pole on the battlefield on
which the Roman legions would hang
their shields and the bloody helmets of
their vanquished foes to celebrate
victory. The leaves represent the shields
and the red flowers the bloody
helmets. I think it's rather touching that
the dry as dust old Scandinavian
had such a fetching touch of poetry in his
soul. I am sure my friend Ingvar
would agree!
From the above I am
sure you have deduced that I have been researching the
names of our garden
plants as I find this the only way to remember their
names. By tracing back
to their Greek and or Latin names and cross referring
to Greek mythology and
to the excellent Mr. Brewer, I am making some
progress.
For example,
I have always been puzzled about the geranium-pelargonium
business. So many
people like to trot out pelargonium when we simple folk
would say geranium.
Well here's the interesting thing! Pelargoniums belong
to the larger
GERANIACEAE family as their names suggest. But here's the
irony!
Pelargos means a crane in Greek and refers to the shape of the
pelargonium's
fruit. (I have never consciously seen the fruit, have you?)
GERANUS also
Greek, - would you credit this - also means crane, according to
my
impeccable source. The wily devils had two words for crane and our
earnest
taxonomists used both, thus giving literal and serious gardeners of
a
certain type the pleasure of being able to say, "actually not geranium,
pelargonium". Of course the scientists have the last laugh really because
geraniums and pelargoniums are sub-families of the overall Geraniaceae
family, the former mostly European and the latter mostly from the
Cape.
All this is an indication that I am alone at the moment and missing
the
guiding hand and company of the DL. She gets back in a few weeks time
and
will see to it, I have no doubt, that I occupy my time in more
productive
ways than looking up the origins of botanical names. But it is
one way of
getting them to stick in one's head. Unlike Liam who seems to
absorb
botanical names with effortless ease, I generally forget them no
sooner that
I have discovered them.
Rugare, Peace, Salamu.
[ This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 7
Apr 2006 (IRIN) - Police forces in Southern Africa are
waking up to a new
threat: gangs of disciplined, well-armed former
Zimbabwean soldiers involved
in high-value robberies.
South Africa has borne the brunt of a spree of
organised raids on isolated
casinos and cash-in-transit vans, reportedly
conducted efficiently and with
minimum violence.
"We only woke up to
the fact that we could be facing seasoned soldiers when
we arrested a
cash-in-transit gang in the West Rand in late 2004. Many of
them turned out
to be ex-soldiers, and thereafter similar catches were made
in connection
with casino hits in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal [provinces],"
said a senior
detective in the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit, who asked
not to be
named.
Senior detectives in Polokwane, in Limpopo province on the border
with
Zimbabwe, told IRIN that investigations into a string of robberies were
ongoing, but well-planned attacks on remote casinos in the province late
last year were the work of a gang with 15 to 20 members carrying AK-47
assault rifles - the standard weapon of the Zimbabwean police and
army.
"These people bring all they need ... [provide their own]
transport, always
strike at the right time, and will get away without firing
a single shot if
not challenged. Once they leave the crime scene, they
disappear into thin
air, which is why we think we are dealing with a gang
that comes
occasionally to strike it big, and goes back [home] to spend,"
said the
detective.
Members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) IRIN
spoke to said they were not
surprised that serving and retired soldiers were
involved in armed robbery,
and pointed to an erosion of discipline in the
armed forces as a result of
worsening service conditions.
"It is true
that some of these people are now part of the spiralling crime
wave in South
Africa, but they are not an organised syndicate. These are
small groups who
go in to make a raid and quickly dash back," said one
officer.
"The
low pay, low morale and the fact that juniors have been watching
[senior]
officers feathering their nests illegally since the DRC [Democratic
Republic
of Congo] conflict has contributed in a big way to crime in the
service. So
we now have retired and serving members who form themselves into
groups that
go around robbing," he remarked.
Shadow defence minister of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
Job Sikhala, who sits on the
parliamentary portfolio for defence, said there
was no doubt that elements
of the security forces were involved in armed
robberies in the
region.
"Those allegations are true. Even at home the uniformed forces
are
increasingly turning to violent, often armed crimes that use
state-supplied
firearms. However, we do not have any cases of serving
officers being
arrested or suspected, so we believe this could be the work
of deserters or
retired personnel," Sikhala told IRIN.
The ZNA public
relations department said it could not comment until it had
investigated the
allegations.
An average trooper earns US $100 a month, but household
expenditure for the
average family is US $353, and rising.
Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
April
2, 2006
Posted to the web April 7, 2006
Deborah-Fay
Ndlovu
THE Ministry of Finance is drafting a $50 trillion
supplementary budget
after line ministries ran out of funding,
Standardbusiness has learnt.
Finance Permanent Secretary Willard Manungo
denied the development saying
while government appreciates the impact of
inflation on ministries' budget,
it still expected them to live within their
means.
"We appreciate that that when inflation goes up, ministries are
under
pressure. The challenge now is to get it down but we are saying let us
stick
to the 2006 Budget," Manungo said.
But an official from his
Ministry said on Friday the supplementary Budget
had been pegged for June
and has been under draft since January. The
official said of priority would
be "security" ministries.
"The matter is going through Parliament and the
document has been under
draft since January. When drafting began it had been
decided that it would
mostly be for security ministries like that of Defence
and Security but the
other ministries are broke and have been factored in,"
said the official.
"The thing is the money that was allocated for the
2006 national Budget was
not enough and with inflation shooting to 782 % it
is now another story," he
said.
Standardbusiness understands the
Ministry of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs had its cheque
dishonoured at a local bank last week
causing some embarrassment for the
government.
The Ministry of Finance has been forced to eat its words
after inflation
skyrocketed to unforeseen levels. Last year, the government
boasted that
there would be no supplementary Budget and had drafted the 2006
Budget when
inflation was forecast to hit an average of 200 % by year-end
last year.
It has since hit 782% and continues to rise because of
pressure driven by
food costs. Forecasts are that figures will go down in
the second quarter
but analysts believe the decrease will not be significant
because of the
increase in money supply growth.
The inflation
pressure has hit line ministries hard and government has also
been forced to
increase fees for services, such as passports, as a cost
recovery
measure.
"The supplementary Budget is not desirable really but has forced
by the
situation. Fees for most ministries have been increased and there
will be
periodic reviews to bring them closer to inflation. When inflation
goes up
it would be necessary to adjust fees upwards," the official said.
Most
ministries reviewed their fees in the last month to hedge against
inflation.
The Herald
(Harare)
April 7, 2006
Posted to the web April 7,
2006
Harare
PRIVATE doctors have requested a meeting with Health
and Child Welfare
Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa over the recent freeze of
fees charged by
private hospitals.
Zimbabwe Medical Association
president Dr Billy Rigava said in an interview
his members had requested a
meeting with the minister so they could explain
their position. "Our members
do not just want us to tell them what the
minister said when we met with
him. They want to be able to meet and talk to
him. "Dialogue is very
constructive and that is why our members are
appealing for the opportunity
to tell the minister their side of the story,"
he said. Dr Parirenyatwa last
week invoked the Medical Services Act of 1998,
which gives the Minister of
Health powers to designate fees for private
doctors, clinics and hospitals
and temporarily banned any fee increases that
they might effect. This came
at a time when consultation fees in the private
sector had gone up to as
much as $2 million while admissions at private
hospitals were ranging
between $65 million and $1 billion.
Dr Rigava said the other dilemma
facing Zima was that it had allowed its
members to increase their fees by 50
p ercent well before the minister
announced the freeze. "We had already
circulated the new tariffs and now
some of our members are confused because
they had seen something in writing
saying we would increase our charges by
50 percent. "As such they would like
the minister to address them," he said.
Contacted for comment, Dr
Parirenyatwa said he was willing to meet and talk
with anyone for the
benefit of the health sector, doctors, nurses, and
healthcare fu- nders. "I
also believe in dialogue and have nothing against
meeting them. We will see
how the matter progresses," he said.
The
minister last week set up a committee to look into the operations of
private
doctors, clinics and hospitals with a view to coming up with a way
forward
in a hyper-inflationary environment. Private healthcare providers
have
argued that salaries, drugs and equipment costs justified their fees.
Zim Daily
Friday, April 07 2006 @ 12:30 PM BST
Contributed by:
correspondent
President Robert Mugabe's Development Cabinet
is not happy with
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's overarching powers
amid reports that
ministers have been ratcheting pressure on President
Mugabe demanding that
the technocrat be sacked or have his powers
immediately trimmed. Zimdaily
heard that Gono, the once celebrated but now
controversial governor of the
toothless Reserve Bank has raised the ire of
several ministers by his "undue
interference" in their
portfolios.
Several ministers were said to have intimated
that Gono has
proved beyond any measure of doubt that he is either an
uncreative thinker
whose mental faculties have denied him the ability to
save Zimbabwe's failed
economy. A cabinet minister who spoke to Zimdaily on
condition of anonymity
said the only reason why Gono was still at the RBZ
was because he was
Mugabe's personal banker and "an inept one at that"
especially when it comes
to staving off the country's current crisis until
the old man makes his much
awaited departure.
The past
week alone has seen clashes between Gono and two senior
cabinet ministers
erupt into the public domain, showing clearly that all is
not well in the
corridors of power. Last week Gono clashed with his boss,
Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa over claims by the latter that he was
undermining his
authority by encroaching into fiscal matters. There were
further reports of
a damning report cobbled by Energy Minister Michael
Nyambuya, who also
slammed Gono's interference.
Gono is also reported to have
worked feverishly upon his return
from Washington last month, to get Mines
Minister Amos Midzi to repair the
damage done by his announcement on mine
takeovers by government. He does not
seem to have elicited the support of
the minister or even more importantly,
President Robert Mugabe, in the
issue. Last Wednesday, Gono held a lengthy
meeting with President Mugabe at
his Munhumutapa offices, but cancelled a
scheduled press conference later in
the day, in a move read to mean that
things might not have gone quite as he
expected, despite Mugabe's earlier
assurances, made in a meeting with Impala
Platinum chief executive Keith
Rumble that the mining draft was still work
in progress.
Official sources have told of how Gono has been
left isolated,
especially after the costly debt repayment to the
International Monetary
Fund (IMF) did not unlock the financial support
unrealistically expected by
some government hawks from the Bretton Woods
institution despite strained
relations that are only beginning to show signs
of improvement. In this,
Gono might have become a victim of his own overly
optimistic expectations of
purple hearts from Washington.
Since his appointment in December 2003, Gono has cut the image
of a
messianic, if overbearing, central bank governor. Monetary policy
presentations became hugely publicised media events during which the whole
nation would watch, spellbound, as Gono doled out trillions and hectored all
creatures large and small. His clearly unorthodox approach to monetary
policy only received muted criticism as inflation declined from a previous
high of 623 percent in January 2004 to 124 percent in March
2005.
The defence was that Zimbabwe's extraordinary
circumstances
required extraordinary interventions.
Resurgent
inflation has since touched a new high last month and
is, by Gono's own
admission, still rising. Even the most ardent admirers are
no longer sure.
But his foes are sure what they smell is blood and do look
to be closing
in.
By
Tichaona Sibanda
07 April 2006
MDC Vice-President
Thokozani Khupe believes it's now inevitable that
Zimbabweans will take to
the streets soon to demonstrate against mounting
government
failures.
In a nation ravaged by unemployment, food shortages,
hunger and
corruption Khupe said the mass demonstrations would be a sign of
outpouring
of rage against the country's slide towards chaos.
She said everyone in the country was geared for any action and that
people
have gone through untold suffering at the hands of Mugabe so they are
not
afraid of the regime anymore.
Speaking ahead of a major rally to
introduce the new party leadership
on Sunday at the White City stadium in
Bulawayo Khupe said they were not
worried about reports suggesting the
Zimbabwe Defence Forces have been put
on high alert to counter any
protests.
'Everyone in this country has suffered under this
government,
including soldiers and policemen and because of that each and
everyone of us
is capable of standing up and saying enough is enough without
being pushed
to do so,' said Khupe.
Zimbabwe Defence Forces
chief General Constantine Chiwenga is reported
to have told Mugabe on
Tuesday that soldiers need a salary raise if he
wanted to secure their
support in the event of an opposition-led mass
revolt.
ZimOnline said sources told them Chiwenga was speaking to Mugabe at a
briefing before Mugabe's departure on Wednesday to Singapore, at which
Mugabe had demanded to know the forces' state of preparedness to crush mass
protests the opposition has threatened to call this winter.
MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai will use the White City rally to explain
in detail
about the planned demonstrations as well as introduce the new
leadership of
the party.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Tererai Karimakwenda
07 April
2006
Chiefs and headmen in the Chimanimani area played a
crucial role
during last year's parliamentary elections. Residents say they
campaigned
for the ruling party vigorously and now they understand why. They
believe
these traditional leaders had been offered free electricity by the
government and other gifts in exchange. A ZANU-PF candidate eventually won
the parliamentary seat in Chimanimani last March but there is still no
electricity in the area. In fact our contact Peter reports that on Thursday
3 trucks from the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) loaded up all
the cables and other components that had been delivered to the area and
drove away.
Peter said the chiefs were told that the government
no longer had
enough money to continue with the rural electrification
project in
Chimanimani. He described how he watched as ZESA workers took
away 12 huge
rolls of cables and 6 large transformers. Residents said they
were
dumbfounded by the loss because some preparatory worked had already
been
done in some areas.
Just before elections the popular
incumbent MP for Chimanimani Roy
Bennet was jailed. His wife replaced him
but popular as she was she was no
match for the promises made to the voters
and the intimidation unleashed by
the traditional leaders. The ZANU-PF
candidate Samuel Ndenge won the
elections but none of the promises were
fulfilled. Peter said the residents
are still recovering from Thursday's
events when the ZESA truck killed their
dream of
electricity.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
April 7,
2006
By Tagu Mkwenyani
HUMAN rights doctors in
Zimbabwe say the country's health delivery
system is barely
functioning.
In a statement, the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors
for Human Rights
(ZAHR) said the economic problems prevailing in Zimbabwe
did not justify
government's failure to promote and protect its citizens'
right to health.
"Striving to achieve, at least the very least, minimum
standards for health,
is the basis of ending deprivation and inequality in
access to health.
Inadequate investment in the public health service
continues to cause severe
shortages of staff, supplies and equipment,
resulting in unnecessary deaths
and patient suffering," said the
doctors.
They added that the health delivery sector was presently
in a state of
crisis with hospitals and clinics countrywide barely
functioning due to a
lack of sufficient nurses and doctors. "Operations at
referral hospitals in
Bulawayo and Harare have been severely compromised and
district and mission
hospitals are threatened with closure, with some
district hospitals
operating without medicals officers." As the way forward,
ZADHR urged the
government to prioritise allocation of resources to the
ministry of health
and also to work out a nation public health strategy and
plan of action that
would address current crisis. "Effective measures must
be developed to
prevent, treat and control epidemic and endemic diseases.
With respect to
Harare Central hospital - ostensible commitment by the
Minister of Health
and Child Welfare to addressing the crisis prevailing at
the hospital must
translate into effective action." The ZADHR statement
comes less than a week
after government doctors petitioned the government to
improve the state of
affairs at government referral hospitals.
AND - Zimbabwe
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Sharon Njobo
FOUL-MOUTHED Harare received
a lion's share of the Canadian
International Development Agency
(CIDA)-funded food aid destined for
southern Africa's six nations, despite
initial rude scoffing at western
countries by octogenarian leader Robert
Mugabe.
Ignoring Mugabe's arrogant dismissals of the food crisis in
Zimbabwe,
international humanitarian agencies continued to plead for an
opportunity to
distribute emergency food aid to the millions faced with
starvation.
CIDA responded to a World Food Programme (WFP) appeal
and last
November provided CAD $13 million for southern Africa, of which CAD
$4.5
million was gobbled up by Zimbabwe.
"It was good of Canada
to help the Zimbabwean population facing
starvation. The onus is on Mugabe
to fully acknowledge there is a problem
and stop the political assault on
western countries, blaming them for
economic ills," said France Chinembiri,
an exiled Zimbabwean living in
Alberta, Canada.
More than 3.4
million Zimbabweans have so far received food assistance
under the
CIDA-funded WFP food distribution.
"CIDA did not earmark these
funds to any of the countries, but allowed
WFP to allocate the resources
where the needs were the greatest in the
region. We have been
informed
by WFP that approximately $4.5M of the total amount was
directed to
WFP's operations in Zimbabwe," a CIDA spokesman said
recently.
Mugabe has in the past told international relief groups
not to bring
any food aid to Zimbabwe and denied that the chronic food
shortages in the
once-prosperous nation were partly due to the land
redistribution programme
that saw white commercial farmers being forcibly
moved from the farms to
make way for his cronies in the ruling Zanu PF
government.
Blaming Zimbabweans for the dire food shortages, he
last year refused
to admit the country was in the throes of a critical
drought, saying the
people needed to find alternatives to the staple
corn.
Mugabe suggested that Zimbabweans should eat rice and
potatoes, foods
that are unaffordable for the more than 90 percent of the
population
grappling with run away triple digit inflation rate.
WFP states that the southern African region suffers from a triple
threat -
"A deadly combination of HIV/AIDS, food insecurity and a weakened
capacity
for governments to deliver basic social services."
US$63 million is
needed for emergency food aid to help alleviate the
on-going food crisis in
southern African countries of Lesotho, Malawi,
Mozambique, Swaziland,
Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
CIDA has also provided support to Zimbabwe
through the Canadian
Foodgrains Bank (CFGB).
"Of the $1.374
million that CFGB allocated to food aid for Zimbabwe,
CIDA funding is
responsible for 80% or $1.1million," said CIDA.
As of December 31,
2005 approximately half of the amount of the
cereals, oil and pulses planned
by CFGB for Zimbabwe had been distributed.
"Reports from WFP
which outline that food distributions to more that
3.4 million beneficiaries
in Zimbabwe have been continuing although the
worsening availability of fuel
throughout the country has made it more
difficult for WFP to reach all of
the beneficiaries. Additionally rain, silo
and transport capacity, continue
to hamper deliveries of food from South
Africa to Zimbabwe," CIDA
reported.
The food aid being distributed in the region was bought
from
neighboring South Africa.
From Bloomberg, 7 April
Antony Sguazzin and Nasreen Seriag
Zimbabwe's
central bank slashed its offer of treasury bills open to the
public by 99,7%
to 14112 and still failed to sell them all amid concern that
the government
would not buy back debt that matures this year. "People are
anticipating a
mandatory rollover" of debt, Chipo Chakawa, an analyst at
Harare-based
Interfin Securities, said in an interview. "There is no money
in the
market." The central bank cut its offering of bills to Z$1,4bn on
Wednesday,
from Z$500bn on March 23. It sold Z$780m, or 56% of the offer, at
an average
yield of 515%, from just 0,9% on March 23. Zimbabwe's economy has
shrunk in
each of the past six years and the fiscal deficit spiralled to
about 60% of
gross domestic product (GDP) last year, according to the
International
Monetary Fund (IMF). Concern that the government would roll
over debt, a
quarterly tax deadline and an increase in statutory reserves
have combined
to undermine demand for treasury bills. Statutory reserves for
banks were
raised to 45% of deposits from 30% last month, said Farai
Dyirakumunda, an
analyst at Interfin. The tax deadline was March 24.
Daily treasury
bill sales open only to banks had also been shunned, the
state-controlled
Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. Last week the amount
tendered for the
Z$500bn sales had ranged from Z$4,1bn to $94bn, the
Harare-based newspaper
said, without saying where it got the information.
"If the market had more
liquidity, then we would see more demand," Malcolm
Lowe, director of
treasury at Stanbic Bank's Africa division, said in an
interview from
Johannesburg. Demand had dried up after the central bank
began selling more
treasury bills this year in a bid to slow inflation, Lowe
said. The
inflation rate rose to 782% in February. "The bills are a monetary
policy
instrument," William Manhimanzi, head of treasury at the Harare-based
central bank, said in an interview last month. "They are used to limit the
capacity of institutions to create credit." Manhimanzi declined to say
whether the government would roll over debt maturing this
year.
Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk every year since 2000 when
President Robert
Mugabe began seizing white-owned commercial farms. The
economy probably
contracted 7,2% last year, the fastest-shrinking economy in
the world,
according to the IMF. Zimbabwe's government uses part of the
funds raised
from treasury bills to pay for its spending. The budget deficit
was probably
less than Z$3-trillion, or 2,9% of GDP, last year, Finance
Minister Herbert
Murerwa said in his budget speech on December 1. But the
IMF says the
deficit was probably far larger if the "quasi-fiscal
activities" of the
central bank are included. The Washington-based lender
estimates that the
deficit widened to almost 60% of GDP last year from 27%
in 2004.