The Sunday Times, UK April 09, 2006
Christina
Lamb
THE Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has
placed army and
intelligence officers in control of key state institutions
in an attempt to
retain military support and quell discontent amid
widespread hunger and
opposition threats of mass
mobilisation.
The attorney-general, chief executive of the Grain
Marketing
Board (the national food monopoly), and the head of the country's
electoral
commission are all now serving or retired officers of the Zimbabwe
Defence
Forces (ZDF), as are several members of the newly created
Senate.
Last week Mugabe put Constantine Chiwenga,
the ZDF chief, in
charge of tax collection after reports of corruption at
the Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority. The Financial Gazette, one of the last
independent newspapers,
was taken over by the Central Intelligence
Organisation.
While Mugabe has been appeasing those at the
top by handing out
positions and seizing white farms, there are growing
indications of unrest
in the ranks. So many junior officers have been
leaving because of poor pay
and lack of food that last month the government
issued a ban on quitting
before the completion of 10 years'
service.
The discontent is symptomatic of that of most
Zimbabweans
struggling to find just one meal a day. The country's economy
has shrunk
more than any other in the past five years and inflation is now
1,150%.
World Health Organisation statistics released on Friday showed life
expectancy to be shorter than anywhere else: 34 years for women and 37 for
men.
Last week Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), began a nationwide tour to
drum up support for
his planned "winter of discontent".
The government promptly warned opponents against attempts to
unseat it and
threatened to "eliminate them physically", but Tsvangirai, who
has survived
two assassination attempts, remained defiant. "This is a
typical defence
mechanism from a government that knows they don't have an
answer to the
people's plight but are determined to keep power for power's
sake," he
said.
The Sunday Times, UK April 09, 2006
They seemed a model for the new Zimbabwe, the white farmer
and
his loyal black nanny. Then the family's beloved Aqui led the rebels who
took over the farm. Christina Lamb found out why
It
was winter in Zimbabwe and at the height of the farm
invasions when I first
met Nigel and Claire Hough on their large ostrich
farm about an hour from
Harare. We sat on the terrace outside their
farmhouse, chatting and taking
tea and madeira cake, trying to ignore the
wood smoke rising from the huts
of the war veterans at the end of the lawn.
It was August 2002.
The war vets had been living at the bottom
of the garden for months. Every
night the Hough (pronounced Huff) family
tossed and turned to drumming and
chanting. Every morning Nigel would find
the carcasses of slaughtered
cattle.
Their property, Kendor, was the only white
farm left in the
Wenimbi valley in the tobacco-growing district of
Marondera. The first
murder of a white farmer had happened only a few miles
away in April 2000.
Since then many farmers had been badly beaten; some had
been hacked to
death. Most had been either kicked off or
fled.
The Houghs had thought about leaving. But the
1,400-acre farm
and eight-bedroom house was their dream. They had worked
hard and sunk all
their money into it.
From the highest
point in the area they could see 30 miles in
all directions over a canopy of
msasa trees and stunning granite rocks. They
loved that spot and had
christened their four children there, including the
most recent, little
blonde Megan.
They could not imagine starting all over again.
Other white
farmers who had moved abroad to England or Australia had ended
up driving
minicabs and living in poky council flats. Besides, the Houghs
employed 300
people as well as running an orphanage for children whose
parents had died
in the Aids pandemic.
Nigel and Claire
encouraged me to talk to Aqui (pronounced
Ack-we), their much-loved maid and
nanny. An exceptionally bright woman with
a great big laugh, she was
refreshingly candid as well as stunning in her
red and white polka-dot
uniform and green headscarf.
To the Houghs and their four
young children, Aqui, short for
Aquinata, was almost part of the family.
Nigel had paid for the schooling of
her children, and she had a wonderful
warm way about her that his own
children loved. They talked and joked
together in a manner that gave me hope
for the future of
Zimbabwe.
Their relationship seemed different from any other
I had seen
between white farmers and black servants there - rather uplifting
at a time
when Robert Mugabe's government was promoting racist hate-speak in
the state
media.
I wrote an article describing Nigel as
"a model white farmer",
and I pointed out that to take his farm would expose
the fact that the
Zimbabwean government was clearly not interested in
helping its people.
Within days, to my horror, the farm was
seized. Shortly
afterwards I got a phone call from Nigel. He had come to
London to look at
moving his family here after all, as they were eligible
for British
passports.
We met in a coffee bar opposite
Highbury and Islington Tube
station. It was a miserable day, cold rain
pinging on the windows.
As we warmed our icy hands on the
steaming mugs, he said: "I
have to tell you something bad. It was Aqui, you
know."
I looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Aqui. It was
Aqui who took my farm."
I stared at him,
stunned. They had seemed to have such a good
relationship. "I can't believe
it," I said.
"You know it's almost the worst thing," he
replied, "worse than
losing the farm. She was spitting at me, yelling at me,
'Get out or we'll
kill you! Whites have no place in this country!' I just
keep seeing her face
twisted with all that hatred."
Nigel
shook his head as if trying to remove the memory. All the
old spirit seemed
to have gone out of him. He looked wrong in London, his
loping walk, his
shoulders hunched under the grey sky.
"I can't move here, you
know," he said as he battled to get his
ticket into the slot at the Tube
station barrier. "There's just too many
people and no sun or
space."
Why had Aqui done this to him? Why had she thrown him
out and
traded places with him? It took a long time to track down the
answer. But I
got to know both Aqui and Nigel well over the next couple of
years, and I
started to understand their story.
Intriguingly, Aqui and the Houghs are now back together again.
So what
really happened?
ALTHOUGH they were born only six
months apart in 1962, the
childhoods of Aqui and Nigel could not have been
more different.
Aqui lived among the cactus trees in one of
the native reserves,
communal lands into which blacks had been shunted when
the whites came in
the 1890s. It was a desolate place of round, mud-and-pole
huts with thatched
roofs.
She was the eldest of five
children. There had been eight but
two brothers and a sister died as
infants. A Catholic, Aqui was proud that
her parents were clever and, unlike
most of the villagers, did not believe
in ghosts or tokoloshes that could
possess you, poison your food, or bewitch
your enemies.
One day she came home from school to hear agonised wailing. It
was a
neighbour whose husband, Lovemore, worked as night watchman on a
tobacco
farm. His duty was to keep the fires burning as the tobacco dried,
but he
was always falling asleep at his post.
Usually the farmer
would cuff him awake. But this time, finding
him snoozing yet again, the
angry baas (boss) had thrown Lovemore on the
fire and left him to burn to
death. This gave Aqui something new to think
about.
"Whites didn't often venture into native reserves," she told me.
"The only
white people I had ever seen were Father Walter, the Irish
missionary at the
church, and the white policeman.
"It was very important in
those days for a white person to talk
to you, you would be so happy, but
most of them didn't. When they did, they
spoke loudly, as if we were many
miles away.
"All I knew was that our skins were different and
that being
white somehow gave you a special power and my grandfather didn't
like them.
He was very cheeky and refused to pay tax on his cattle, and when
the black
policemen came on a motorbike to collect it he told them off for
doing the
dirty work of whites and took out his sjambok to chase them
away."
Although Aqui knew that the nuns at school said it was
wrong to
hate, they also said they were all God's creatures. She didn't
understand
why having a white skin should make some people different. She
thought about
Lovemore toasting on the fire and how his skin would have
crackled and burnt
like mealie cobs, and she began to start hating
whites.
Nigel, the son of a prosperous Englishman who had
settled in
Rhodesia after serving as a pilot in the second world war, grew
up by
contrast on a large farm with tennis courts, weekly parties and
twice-yearly
trips to the Indian Ocean.
White boys like
Nigel thought it not at all unreasonable that
blacks should be barred from
white hospitals, schools, bars, swimming pools,
restaurants and shops or
from voting.
Like most farm children he was sent away to
boarding school at
an early age. He told me how they used to throw burning
hot pennies - heated
with a cigarette lighter - to black children from the
school train, laughing
uproariously at the agonised
faces.
To boys like him, blacks were "munts" who "smelt and
stole
things . . . our parents always said the black man couldn't be
trusted. We
knew that blacks were way behind in
civilisation".
Nigel added: "Growing up in Rhodesia it was so
easy to be drawn
into generalisations. When you have all these incidents at
the farm, endless
theft and betrayals by servants, you have one or two ways
of going. You can
either rationalise and say 'Well, that would happen with
any race' or say
'No, they're just an inferior breed and what do you
expect?' "
Aqui would always remember the year that the
Rhodesian bush war
came to her village. Aged 12, she had been raped by the
headmaster at
school, and, hiding in some rocks afterwards, too ashamed to
tell anyone,
she saw clouds of red dust as a column of green-painted
military vehicles
appeared. Guns glinted in the sun. Soldiers went through
the village warning
everyone to beware of terrorists.
At
first, nobody knew what the soldiers meant. They soon found
out. Caught in
what became one of Africa's most brutal civil wars, between
Ian Smith's
white government and the "comrades" of the black liberation
movements, the
villagers had little choice but to aid whichever soldiers
turned
up.
"We girls would go into the bush and carry pots of food
and tea
to the comrades but they became more and more demanding. They didn't
just
want sadza (maize porridge) with vegetables, they wanted meat. My
parents
gave the freedom fighters our goats and roosters and blankets and
clothes.
If there was food in the huts they would take it. Cows and goats
disappeared.
"They would just say 'I want that' and take
anything, even my
two dresses for their girlfriends. When there was no more
meat left in the
village, they made our people go to farms to steal
cattle.
"Then Smith's soldiers would come and harass or whip
you,
accusing us of looking after bush fighters. They came in our huts and
if you
had meat you were in for it, even if it was from your own beasts.
They could
kill you for that. 'Put your head down,' they would say, then
they would put
the head of a cow on top and squash and squash until the
person was dead."
For as long as Aqui could remember, she
had heard the village
elders explain that their blood and sweat - and the
bones of their dead -
were in the land and they must get it
back.
"We thought it was right because of all this racism we
had grown
up with, and we knew that the land should be ours. I felt white
people were
very bad. If one fish is rotten, so is the whole
pond."
At 14 she was sent to live with relatives in
Marondera, where
she tried to join a group leaving for Mozambique to train
to fight. Banned
from going by her uncle, she trained instead as a political
mobiliser for
Zanu, Mugabe's movement.
"This meant I
would go to youth centres, football matches,
anywhere there would be young
people who I could recruit to fight. Some
people here in town didn't know
what it was all about. I was just a young
girl but I could try to influence
my friends and other young people.
"Smith's regime was very
racist and there were many things
pulling us apart and I really wanted to
help so we could get out of it and
have our own very nice government. We
used to sing war songs to encourage
others to join and tell people to be
brave."
For Nigel at 14, life had also become
exciting. "The war was all
we talked about and I desperately envied the
older boys who became
soldiers." He could not wait until he was 18 and
could be out in the bush
like them, head shaved, face smeared with
camouflage cream. "I really wanted
to get involved and I would have pulled
the trigger on a black as quickly as
anyone."
Gradually,
however, while remaining against black rule, Nigel
became disillusioned.
"War seemed to be an excuse for people doing terrible
things and getting
away with it."
He was still too young to fight when
negotiations in London
brought an end to the war. On April 17, 1980, Prince
Charles took the royal
family's last farewell salute on the African
continent and Zimbabwe was
born. To 17-year-old Aqui, it seemed the best day
of her life.
"I thought I would burst with happiness. Finally
we had our own
country . . . We would be in charge now." Mugabe, who became
prime minister,
was her hero.
Switching on the common
room television, expecting to see
Morecambe and Wise, his favourite show,
Nigel and some sixth-formers found
themselves watch Mugabe's first broadcast
to the nation. They sniggered but
fell silent in surprise at his
words.
"I urge you, whether you are black or white, to join
me in a new
pledge to forget our grim past, forgive others and forget, join
hands in a
new amity and together as Zimbabweans trample upon racism,"
Mugabe said.
Nigel was taken aback. "I had been feeling
really bleak about
the future. I remember listening and thinking, 'Jeez,
maybe we've missed
everything, maybe he really is a good
bloke'."
NEITHER Aqui nor Nigel could have
predicted the extraordinary
events that would occur over the next 20
years.
Aqui married, had children, worked as a maid for a
kind and
generous white couple and split from her increasingly violent and
unfaithful
husband. Despite the evidence that Mugabe had become a tyrant and
was
ruining Zimbabwe, she remained faithful to her hero. "The problem was
Mugabe
was always alone with people doing bad things behind his
back."
Nigel - after a picaresque few years that saw him
working as a
bush pilot, playing professional cricket in Scotland, selling
ostriches in
China, making a small fortune as a businessman and going
bankrupt when the
Zimbabwe economy crashed - finally became an active
Christian, fell in love
with Claire, bought Kendor Farm for $350,000 and
settled down to raise a
family.
Their parallel lives at
last became intertwined in 2000 when
Zimbabwe was first gripped by farm
invasions.
Aqui, living in a tiny shack in a black district
of Marondera,
initially welcomed the invasions. She thought about her people
in her
village with their bare shelves and about her children, growing up
with no
signs of the jobs as accountants, nurses or top-flight secretaries
that she
had imagined.
"It was hard to feel sorry for
those white farmers. They had
air-conditioners and cars and refrigerators,
ate food from packets, and went
shopping in South Africa and on holiday in
Mozambique. We had grown up
living on leaves and locusts and walking an hour
each way to fetch water and
firewood. And some of them had treated our
people very bad."
Aqui was in despair when her kind employers
sold up and left for
New Zealand, but she found a new job with the
Houghs.
She soon realised that they, too, were "good people".
Nigel
asked her about her life and what she thought about things, even
discussing
her doubts about the Old Testament. She knew he was involved in
the Movement
for Democratic Change, the new opposition party, and that he
went out at
night putting up political stickers. She knew Claire was scared
about this
and saw the way she hugged her children close each time more news
came that
another farm nearby had been invaded by men with pangas and names
like
Comrade Slit-eyes or Comrade Double-trouble.
On
Sunday, April 16, 2000, the Houghs came home from church in
tears. The vets
had murdered David Stevens, a neighbour and friend.
Television footage
showed the blackened remains of his farm. Other farmers
were fleeing; 50
families left Marondera that day.
As Claire watched the
reports and listened to her children
playing happily outside with Aqui, she
felt a cold dread creep over her. "I
suddenly felt very vulnerable. If it
came to it, how would we know who to
trust? I wanted to
leave."
Aqui's attitude to the farm invasions was
conflicted.
"I agreed with the fact that the land should be
shared,
particularly as there were those whites who were greedy and had vast
farms
or three or four farms they weren't even using. But because I worked
on a
farm I knew that to be an owner you had to be very experienced and have
lots
of capital. I didn't agree with the idea that people with nothing could
come
in and just take over."
She added: "Of course I
wished I had a house like the Houghs
instead of (my) small shack, all
squashed up like a nest . . . (but)
jealousy doesn't work. It makes you
destroy people."
Aqui saw that it was not the poor landless
blacks who were being
given the invaded farms. Sinister men appeared in
leather coats and bush
hats, Zanu party bigwigs. Nobody would complain, for
fear stalked the air.
Torture, beatings and disappearances once again became
part of life, as they
had been during the liberation war.
By May 2002, the Wenimbi valley had turned into a battlefield
with
roadblocks everywhere manned by youths in red bandannas and Mugabe
T-shirts,
all high on mbanje (cannabis).
Every evening Nigel checked
all the doors and windows in the
house, but he knew that if the war vets
wanted to get in with their axes,
pangas and guns, no amount of locks or
burglar bars would stop them. The
house he and Claire loved so much was
starting to feel like a prison.
"The endless stream of
anti-white propaganda whenever you turned
on the radio was really getting to
us. Everyone was snapping at each other
and the children had grown clingy,
biting at their sleeves and reluctant to
go to school or nursery in case
their parents were not there when they came
back."
When depressed, Nigel would go to the lookout point above the
msasa trees.
There he would feel close to God. And then there was Aqui. "She
kept us
sane. Within a few months of employing her she had already become
the heart
of the family and within a couple of years we couldn't imagine
life without
her. I liked the fact she shared my faith and always had a big
smile on her
face. The kids adored her. She seemed to have endless patience.
When the
children had chicken pox, she would sit for hours wiping their
fevered
brows, and when Christian (his son) put his foot through some rotten
wood,
she spent hours picking all the chagga worms out of his feet . . . I
guess
what surprised me most was how bright she was. You never had to
explain
things twice to her."
She told Nigel about her experiences
during the war and of being
spat at by Rhodesian soldiers. "I felt guilty.
It could have been me doing
that."
He remembered stories
told by some of his friends in the army of
the terrible things they had done
to the village girls, such as sticking hot
pokers up their vaginas, and
wondered if more had happened to her than she
was saying.
He liked to talk to her about the differences between blacks and
whites, and
he was fascinated by her answers.
"She insisted to me that
whites don't get jealous in the same
way as blacks. That was one of the
reasons when the black guys seized the
farms they always stripped the
houses, otherwise someone would get jealous
and come and take it from
them."
He was so intrigued by his conversations with Aqui
that he set
up a mixed-race discussion group to try to promote
understanding.
"It was quite funny. All the white guys said
there is no
industry among the blacks, they are lazy. Then all the blacks
said the
whites are not industrious. I was incredulous. I said, 'How can you
say
that? We create all the business in this country, run the mines, grow
the
food.' They said, 'Yes, that's what you do, you create things, but you
don't
actually work, you just sit and watch and we do all the
work'."
NIGEL worried about what would happen to Aqui and
his staff and
their families if the farm were taken over. At the end of July
2002, the day
came at last.
A woman called Netsai arrived
at the farm gate with a group of
eight war vets. "I want to move into my
house today," she demanded, pulling
out a typed piece of paper stating that
Kendor was now hers. "This is my
farm. These are my ostriches. And this is
my house."
Nigel managed to get rid of them, but a week later
he was
visiting Harare when his farm manager telephoned to say that Netsai
had come
back with a much larger group. Aqui had apparently let them in the
gate to
shelter from the rain.
Nigel's first concern was
for his family. The two elder
children, Jess and Emma, were at school, and
Claire was taking Christian to
nursery. Only baby Megan had been at home;
but Aqui had handed her to a
visiting neighbour to take to safety. Thank God
for Aqui, thought Nigel, not
for the first time.
He raced
home with an old friend, Pete Moore, a former member of
the Rhodesian SAS.
By the time they reached Kendor, the mob had started a
fire in the driveway.
"Hondo, hondo," they chanted, Shona for war. Nigel
telephoned the police but
they refused to involve themselves in "domestic
matters". The crowd
surrounded him, nostrils flaring as they scented blood.
"This is not
Rhodesia any more!" shouted one man.
Nigel and Pete managed
to get into the house, and the mob went
quiet. "They went off and got all
these guys, plied them with beer and
mbanje so they were rabid, then came
back and started doing all their song
and dance, banging a large drum,
waving sticks and shouting 'Hondo'. By that
time there were more than 50 of
them."
That's when he saw Aqui. "To my horror I realised that
Aqui had
joined the group and seemed to be its leader. I couldn't believe
it. Not
Aqui. I don't think I had ever felt so betrayed."
As darkness fell, the group swelled to more than 100 and the
drumming became
more persistent. Pete asked to see his guns.
Reluctantly
Nigel unlocked his gun cabinet. He remembered his
school lessons about
Rhodesian heroes killed a century ago as they sang the
national anthem. "I
didn't want to die like a hero. I didn't want to die."
The
war vets were singing and dancing again, rattling the
windows. Nigel could
see Aqui in the thick of it, shouting, "Blacks in!
Whites out!" and "Down
with whites!" "To me it looked like she was leading
the lot. I said, 'I
don't want to ever talk to her again. I've trusted her
as a member of the
family and can't believe she is doing this'."
He thought
about all they had done for her, the medical
insurance for her asthma, the
school fees for her children, the uniforms,
even sending her second
daughter, Valerie, on a secretarial course. They had
just paid for Aqui to
have some cordon bleu cookery lessons.
"It was not just the
money but the utter sense of betrayal. You
have these people as part of your
life, they are exposed to all your private
stuff, you trust your children to
them, then that day you suddenly see her
transformed into this rabid
character leading the pack of war vets shouting
'Get out, whites!' and
'Death to whites!'
"I wanted to kill her."
© Christina Lamb 2006
Extracted from House of Stone by
Christina Lamb to be published
by HarperCollins on April 18 at £18.99.
Copies can be ordered for £17.19
including postage from The Sunday Times
BooksFirst on 0870 165 8585
Yahoo News
2 hours, 1
minute ago
HARARE (AFP) - The possibility of mass strikes loom on the
horizon for
Zimbabwe's embattled economy as workers demand higher wages to
cushion them
against soaring living costs because of hyper-inflation and
shortages of
foreign currencies.
Wage talks opened two weeks ago and
were expected to continue until the end
of the month in Zimbabwe, where
large-scale labour action could become a
reality for the first time in eight
years, according to unionists.
Zimbabwe's inflation reached an all-time high
of 913.6 percent on Friday
with no end in sight for price hikes, analysts
added, bringing more hardship
to the southern African
country.
"Although there have not been many strikes for some time now,
industrial
actions are most likely to happen this year," union spokesman
Collin Gwiyo
told AFP on Thursday.
"The salaries that most workers
get are an embarrassment. By the time we get
to August there will be a
series of wage and salary deadlocks," said Gwiyo,
acting secretary general
of the major Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU).
Independent
economic analyst Best Doroh added: "It's obvious that the
potential for
deadlock between employers and employees is quite high."
"The purchasing
power of wages for the factory worker even those for civil
servants have
been severely eroded," Doroh told AFP.
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate
rose from 613.2 percent in January to the
record high Friday, blamed partly
by central bank governor Gideon Gono on
the printing of money to service
debt to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Gono revealed in
February that the central bank resorted to printing 21
trillion Zimbabwean
dollars (211 million US dollars) to buy foreign currency
to clear the
country's arrears with the IMF.
Zimbabwe last month paid nine million US
dollars to the IMF to avert
expulsion from the global lender over the
long-overdue arrears.
Analysts however said Zimbabwe's galloping
inflation was the sign of a
failed economy, with economist David Mupamhadzi
saying "we are now feeling
those effects of printing the money."
The
National Employment Councils Union said in its latest figures that farm
workers earned a meagre 1.3 million Zimbabwean dollars (13 US dollars, 10
euros) a month, mine workers got 6.5 million Zimbabwean dollars, while
school teachers got 8.5 million Zimbabwean dollars.
The average room
rental price in the high density areas of the capital
Harare topped at
between 1.5 and two million Zimbabwean dollars, while
Zimbabwe's highest
currency denomination, a 50,000 bearer cheque introduced
in February, is not
enough to buy a loaf of bread.
Gwiyo said the average worker needed 25-30
million dollars a month to make
ends meet.
He said the southern
African country's workforce have for years refrained
from taking to the
streets in numbers fearing reprisals under Harare's tough
security laws
which forbid strikes and marches without police clearance.
Unionists also
feared that mass action would be construed as political as
the leader of one
faction of Zimbabwe's divided opposition is Morgan
Tsvangirai, a former ZCTU
secretary general who led mass strikes in 1998.
But employees said their
hands were tied should strikes go ahead.
"Employers are in the same
predicament as their workers," said Employers
Confederation of Zimbabwe
president Mike Bimba.
"We have not had many strikes over the years
because of our cordial
relationship with workers... and I hope it will
continue," he told AFP.
"Everybody knows that the economic situation is
to blame for these problems
both employers and employees are
facing."
Economist Erich Block said although wage talks would see a
number of
deadlocks, he believed that strikes were unlikely.
"Both
employers and employees are facing the same difficulty but I doubt
that we
will have widespread strikes. Everyone wants to protect the little
that they
have," he said.
Sunday Herald, Scotland
From Fred Bridgland in
Johannesburg
A startling fact is emerging from the battlefields
of Iraq. According to
South African anti-war activists, one in five
coalition soldiers are
mercenaries.
With estimates of more than 30,000
private "security experts" operating
along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,
mercenary battalions now comprise the
second largest force in Iraq. There
are 8000 British soldiers in Iraq and
15,000 other coalition troops besides
the American force of more than
130,000.
Iraq's huge oil reserves and
the as yet uncontained resistance have made it
a mecca for mercenaries. Big
American corporations such as Halliburton and
Bechtel hire private armies to
protect their assets, paying "dogs of war"
more than $1000 a day to put
their lives on the line.
Some 5000 to 10,000 of the hired guns in Iraq
are South Africans. Most have
been recruited as bodyguards and drivers, but
several hundred are alleged to
have fought alongside Americans, British and
other coalition troops in
various hotspots.
So alarmed is the South
African government at the number of personnel
quitting special units - such
as the South African police service's elite
task force, which protects
President Thabo Mbeki and top government
ministers, and the South African
army - to join security companies in Iraq
that an anti-mercenary law has
been introduced.
Under the sweeping new legislation, which has been
before parliament for six
months but which has yet to be enacted, the
thousands doing security work in
Iraq - as well as 700 South Africans
serving in Britain's armed forces -
could be arrested for mercenary
activities.
The law - The Prohibition of Mercenary Activity and
Prohibition and
Regulation of Certain Activities in an Area of Armed
Conflict - is so broad
that even a non-South African security company
executive who does not employ
South Africans could be arrested if he or she
sets foot in South Africa,
according to Johannesburg lawyer Peter
Leon.
Leon, representing the British Association of Private Security
Companies,
and other critics have pointed to a bizarre anomaly in the draft
legislation
that would make it perfectly legal for a South African to join
al-Qaeda-backed insurgents in Iraq while making it a criminal offence to
provide protection for charities giving humanitarian assistance to Iraqi
civilians.
Leon, who also represents Erinys International, a British
security firm
employing several hundred South Africans in Iraq, said the law
specifically
excludes from prosecution any South African supporting "a
struggle waged by
peoples for their right to national liberation,
self-determination,
independence against colonialism, or resistance against
occupation".
This throws up all manner of anomalies. For example, a
former African
National Congress (ANC) guerrilla could not join the army of
the ANC
government's close ally, Angola, in the fight against the insurgency
by
rebels of the Front for the Liberation of the [Angolan] Cabinda Enclave
(FLEC). But the former guerrilla could join FLEC and be within South African
law.
The new legislation, which hugely strengthens the previous 1999
law, the
Foreign Military Assistance Act, is driven as much by politics as
by
security. The ANC government, which came to power in 1994 after decades
of
apartheid rule, fought alongside Angola's former Marxist Army, in Angola,
against such crack apartheid-era forces as the Buffalo Battalion, the
Reconnaissance Commandos and the Parachute Brigade.
It is from such
units that many current fighters serving abroad are
recruited. Ironically,
however, many were subsequently recruited by the
Angolan government to hunt
down and kill, in co-operation with Israeli
special forces, the rebel leader
Jonas Savimbi. And Britain's armed forces
welcomed South Africans from the
mercenary company Executive Outcomes, who
with just a few hundred men and a
few helicopters, decisively defeated the
repugnant Revolutionary United
Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone.
The ANC began drafting the new
legislation following the failure of the 2004
coup attempt, launched from
South Africa by former Scots Guards and SAS
officer Simon Mann, against
Equatorial Guinea's president Teodoro Obiang
Nguema Mbasogo, a classically
stereotypical African dictator. Mann recruited
70 mercenaries in South
Africa. But South Africa's intelligence minister
Ronnie Kasrils tipped off
the Zimbabwe government that the mercenary flight
intended stopping off in
Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, to pick up arms. All
the mercenaries were
jailed, and Mann continues to serve a sentence in
Harare's notorious
Chikurubi prison. Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former
British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, lived alongside Mann in Cape Town
and was fined £265,000
and given a four-year suspended jail sentence for his
part in planning the
coup.
The ANC government set out to make an example of Mann, Thatcher and
their
men. "We don't like the idea of South Africa becoming a cesspool of
mercenaries," said foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Peter
Leon warned, however, that: "The legislation is unworkable."
South
Africa's history as a mercenary seedbed dates back to the 1960s when
its men
fought in the Belgian Congo under Colonel "Mad" Mike Hoare. And on a
continent still plagued by wars and chaos, and where laws are observed more
in the breach than observance, it is doubtful whether even the most
draconian or high-minded legislation will muffle the call "Cry havoc and let
slip the dogs of war".
09 April 2006
Sunday News, Zimbabwe
Harare Bureau
HARARE - In an about-turn, the
Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) has thrown
its weight behind the land reform
programme and is amending its constitution
to rid the organisation of
members who are antagonising Government policies
on agriculture.
CFU
president Mr Doug Taylor-Freeme and his deputy, Mr Trevor Gifford, met
the
Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and
Resettlement, Cde Didymus Mutasa and the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Joseph
Made, last Thursday and spelt out the organisation's new position on the
land reform programme.
During the meeting, Mr Taylor-Freeme reportedly
said his leadership felt
that it was high time the CFU worked with the
Government in reviving the
economy through the agricultural sector.
He
said gone were the days when the CFU was viewed as an opponent of the
land
reform programme, adding that the perception had been created by the
previous leadership.
This policy shift by the white farmers' body comes
after years of fierce
opposition to land reforms spearheaded by the union's
previous leadership
with the more radical elements of the group breaking
away to form a rabidly
anti-Government organisation known as Justice for
Agriculture.
So heavily opposed was the CFU to land reforms that Dr Made at
one point
described the organisation as an irrelevant body.
But this
position is set to change.
"We are saying we are prepared to work with the
Government in anything that
has got to do with reviving our economy through
agriculture. We are a young
generation of white farmers who want to see our
economy back on track
through agriculture.
"We have the expertise and
skills and we are prepared to assist new farmers,''
said Mr Taylor-Freeme in
an interview after the meeting.
He said CFU was a business entity whose
objectives were mainly centred on
business and not politics.
The
organisation was prepared to assist in re-opening international markets
for
agricultural products that had been closed soon after the Government
embarked on the land reform programme.
Mr Taylor-Freeme said although the
CFU has previously been associated with
the opposition MDC, that perception
is wrong.
"We are not in politics at all. We want to see our economy being a
vibrant
one through agriculture. We are capable of doing that,'' he
said.
He said that once the two parties worked together, the building of
confidence and trust would be achieved, thereby attracting foreign
investment.
Mr Taylor-Freeme said the CFU realises that there is need for
farmers and
Government to complement each other to develop a united approach
and have a
common vision on national economic recovery and growth.
"We
can do skills transfer in trying to bring the industry together. We also
have linkages in marketing and production which we can use to fully revive
our economy,'' he said.
He said the union's leadership would take stern
measures against those
members of the organisation that were antagonising
the efforts being made by
both parties in reviving the economy.
"We
encourage our members to be helpful to new farmers and accept that the
land
reform programme is a necessary exercise. The redistribution of land
was
necessary and we must live as Zimbabweans,'' he said.
The organisation had
already submitted more than 200 application forms for
land allocation and
were hoping to get a favourable response from the
Government.
Welcoming
CFU's move, Cde Mutasa said Government was prepared to work with
anyone
interested in the development of the agricultural sector as long as
it was
within the context of ensuring success for the exercise.
Cde Mutasa said it
was pleasing to note that the CFU's young leadership had
realised that the
way forward was to work with the Government instead of
being
antagonistic.
The "diehard Rhodesians" who were in the previous leadership
had created
that perception which the young leadership of the union now
wants to
correct.
"We welcome that move as the new leadership wants to
work with us. The
environment is now showing that a lot of people had wrong
perceptions about
Zimbabwe's land reform programme.
"Zimbabwe is going to
be a huge success story and everybody now wants to be
associated with that
success story. That is why we are seeing people coming
forward,'' said Cde
Mutasa.
He said the CFU's current leadership was a group of young people who
had a
bigger role to play in agriculture.
His ministry would examine the
application forms received for land
allocation without favour or
bias.
"We are treating every person in need of land in the same manner.
Whether
white, black or Asian, we examine the applications in the same
manner," said
Cde Mutasa.
Turning to the issuance of the 99-year-leases
to new farmers, Cde Mutasa
said those who collected forms had already
returned them adding that his
ministry was in the process of examining those
forms.
"When we issue out these leases, there will be an event where about
300
leases will be issued out. We are looking at issuing these in
Mashonaland
Central where farming activities on individual farms are very
impressive,''
said Cde Mutasa.
Zim Standard
By Foster Dongozi and Godfrey Mutimba
MDC anti-Senate faction president, Morgan Tsvangirai, yesterday
declared
that he was prepared to die in order to bring about
democracy.
Speaking at Huruyadzo business centre in
Chitungwiza where more
than 20 000 people turned up, Tsvangirai said
Zimbabweans had suffered for
too long under President Robert Mugabe's
rule.
The venue is a stone's throw away from the house of
pro-Senate
MDC member, Job Sikhala.
Three weeks ago,
pro-Senate faction president, Arthur Mutambara,
addressed a rally attended
by around 1 500 people.The faction however said 5
000 people attended
Mutambara's rally.
Responding to Mugabe's threats that any
attempts to lead
peaceful demonstrations against his government could result
in his death, a
fired up Tsvangirai said:
"I am prepared
to die in order to liberate the people of
Zimbabwe from Zanu PF's
misrule.
Who are you Mugabe to talk about the death or life
of an
individual, are you God?
Even if I am killed, one
thing is certain, all dictators, just
like other people, will die. If I die
first, I will be waiting for you in
heaven and I will ask you if you managed
to improve the lives of
Zimbabweans."
He said the success
of his faction's congress had shaken Zanu PF
resulting in mass panic among
the party's leadership.
"Every time you see Zanu PF officials
addressing people, none of
them is ever calm.
They are
always shouting and abusive because they have no
solutions for the crisis
facing the country and have no idea on how to solve
the chaos they
created."
Tsvangirai blasted Mugabe's last ditch efforts to
engage in what
he terms "building bridges" with British Premier, Tony
Blair.
"What kind of a person are you? The solution to the
crisis in
Zimbabwe is right here in Zimbabwe not in Britain. You should
build bridges
with Tsvangirai not Tony Blair."
Midway
through his address, several youths who allegedly belong
to the pro-Senate
camp started ordering Tsvangirai's followers to leave the
rally.
Tsvangirai's followers beat them
up.
A police officer who tried to shield them from further
beatings
was also beaten up and saved by the arrival of reinforcements from
the
anti-riot squad.
Tsvangirai has embarked on
nationwide rallies to mobilise people
ahead of anticipated street protests
against the government's misrule and
failure to manage the economy. He has
already toured the Midlands and
Masvingo, and attracted bumper
crowds.
Tsvangirai will address a rally at White City Stadium
in
Bulawayo today with further rallies lined up for Bindura, Mutare, Gwanda,
Chinhoyi and Hwange.
The final star rally will be held in
Harare.
Zim Standard
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
RELATIONS between Zanu PF secretary for
administration Didymus
Mutasa on the one hand, and party spokesperson Nathan
Shamuyarira on the
other are seriously strained after Mutasa blamed the
latter for the collapse
of Jongwe Printers and The Voice, The Standard can
reveal.
Jongwe Printers is the publishing arm of Zanu PF,
while The
Voice is its official publication.
Mutasa, who
is also National Security, Land Reform and Land
Resettlement Minister,
reportedly told President Robert Mugabe that
Shamuyarira was the architect
of Zanu PF's crumbling empire, an accusation
that torched off the ire of
party's spokesperson.
Impeccable sources at Zanu PF
headquarters said the two now do
not see "eye to eye" or even greet each
other when they meet in the
corridors.
They said Mutasa's
report to Mugabe followed Shamuyarira's
failure to avail audited accounts
for both Jongwe Printers and The Voice,
which were a pre-condition for a
rescue package from the Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to the
collapsing newspaper.
Shamuyarira presides over both Jongwe
Printers and The Voice,
which have failed to publish for the past two weeks
after Sovereign Printers
refused to print the newspaper because of a $2b
debt.
The sources said Mutasa recommended to Mugabe that the
party
replace the ageing Shamuyarira from the post of chairman of Zanu PF's
fast
crumbling empire.
Mugabe reportedly summoned
Shamuyarira to his Munhumutapa
offices for an
explanation.
"The dispute between the two has been long
standing but hell
broke loose because Shamuyarira felt the audit demand and
the report to the
President was Mutasa's way of pulling him down," said one
of the sources.
Last month, Jongwe attempted to dispose of
one of its buildings
in Harare in a bid to raise working capital but the
sale was reportedly
blocked by Mugabe.
The ailing company
owes several firms billions of dollars. Art
Corporation is owned over $1b
while its printing machines were put up for
auction last month for a debt of
$300m owed to Print Originators.
Shamuyarira, the sources
said, felt the CIO boss was intruding
too much into companies that he
oversees and as a way of hitting back he
suspended Voice editor, Lovemore
Mataire -widely seen as Mutasa's blue-eyed
boy - on allegations of
"insubordination" and abuse of funds.
The Zanu PF
spokesperson suspected that Mataire was passing
confidential information
about the operations of the company to Mutasa.
The CIO, which
has taken over The Daily Mirror and The Sunday
Mirror, was making moves to
avail a rescue package for the struggling Zanu
PF
newspaper.
Mataire, who led investment talks and held several
meetings with
CIO representatives early this year, was cleared of fraud
after Mutasa
withdrew the charges without the consent of Shamuyarira, who
was the
complainant in the case.
Mataire was accused of
diverting $6m from the newspaper sales
for personal use.
Mutasa last week vehemently denied reporting Shamuyarira to
Mugabe but
confirmed he wrote to the courts asking them to withdraw fraud
charges
against Mataire.
"That's not true; I never went to the
President. What I can
confirm is that I withdrew the case because I felt
that it is the party that
should take disciplinary action against Mataire,"
Mutasa said.
He added,
"Mumusangano wega
wega pane mukuru ndiye anozopa final decision.
Semukuru ndakaita zvinodiwa
nemusangano, (In any party there is a senior
person who gives the final
decision when people fail to agree. I acted in
the interests of the
party)."
Shamuyarira could not be reached for comment despite
repeated
efforts to get his version of the fallout. His mobile went
unanswered on
Friday and Saturday.
Mataire declined to
comment, referring all questions to his
lawyer, Chris Mhike of Atherstone
and Cook legal practitioners, who said his
client was yet to receive the
letter of suspension.
"We have heard about the purported
suspension but we are not
clear what the allegations are because my client
is yet to receive the
letter," Mhike said.
Mhike denied
that Mataire was ratting on Shamuyarira.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI
SIXTEEN years after he
lodged a £1 million (about $172 billion)
lawsuit against ruling party
officials, maimed Gweru businessperson Patrick
Kombayi's case goes for a
pre-trial conference this week.
The Standard can reveal that
the wheels of justice might now be
starting to move slowly for Kombayi who
was maimed for life after he was
shot by Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) operatives on 24 March 1990.
It was just three days
away from a showdown with the late Vice
President Simon Muzenda for the
Gweru Urban seat when two operatives shot
and seriously injured Kombayi who
was the national organising secretary of
the Zimbabwe Unity Movement
(ZUM).
In 1990 ZUM mounted the first notable challenge to the
ruling
Zanu PF party.
Kombayi's attackers were convicted
of attempted murder but were
pardoned by President Robert
Mugabe.
Kombayi, who underwent surgery in the UK, then went
to court to
sue Muzenda, the ruling Zanu PF party, the Minister of State
Security who at
that time was Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the
operatives.
The case never got off the ground until now -
almost two years
after Muzenda's death.
"The 16-year-old
case is now only scheduled to sit for a
pre-trial conference on 10th of
April at 15.00hrs in Harare.
To say justice delayed is
justice denied is really an
understatement in this case," said Kombayi, who
insists he will sue Muzenda's
estate.
The matter has not
until now been heard as some of the files
went missing at the courts. They
were only found in the archives, after a
tip-off.
But
that is not the only case Kombayi wants finalised.
In August
last year Justice Maphios Cheda ordered Mnangagwa, the
Minister of Rural
Housing and Social Amenities and former Speaker of
Parliament, to pay
Kombayi US$20m or Z$112b with interest and cost of the
suit for
defamation.
A writ of execution against Mnangagwa's property
was
subsequently issued by the High Court in November last
year.
However, Mnangagwa has won a reprieve after he
successfully
applied for the rescission of Justice Maphios Cheda's default
judgement.
In his judgement, Justice Nicholas Ndou ordered
"that the
judgement taken by default against applicant on 2 August 2005 be
and is
hereby rescinded and that the costs of this application be borne by
the
respondent (Kombayi)".
Kombayi however believes this
is yet another move meant to delay
the case.
"As a lawyer
and former minister of justice, he is well aware
that he was required to
file his appearance to defend and that he was to do
it timeously. As far as
I am concerned. the reprieve is just meant as an
abuse of the court process
and intended to frustrate me and delay the court
order from being properly
executed."
Zim Standard
BY
OUR STAFF
COMMISSIONERS running Harare city are now courting
the business
community to repair roads and street lights in the city, The
Standard has
learnt.
Officials at Town House are busy
working out incentives for
companies prepared to take up duties
traditionally reserved for the local
authority.
A full
council meeting on Thursday tasked the City's Department
of Works to come up
with the policy on the Prevention of Inner City Decay
that would give
incentives to the business community prepared to bail out
the local
authority.
According to the minutes, officials suggested that
rates could
be reduced for organisations prepared to maintain certain roads
and
streetlights within the vicinity.
"The committee felt
there was need to make the Central Business
District a more attractive
environment for those who work in and enter it to
buy services and goods and
implored council and all stakeholders to
rehabilitate the centre into a
safe, clean, comfortable and beautiful
place," reads part of the
minutes.
An internal city health department report warned
that Harare was
fast degenerating into a "fly and rodent city" as a result
of garbage that
goes uncollected for months .
Zim Standard
By
OUR STAFF
A HIGH School student languished in police cells
for several
days after he was arrested for allegedly knocking at the door of
a High
Court judge.
The 16-year-old boy, who cannot be
named since he is a minor,
was only released yesterday after his lawyers
lodged an urgent court
application for his release.
An
affidavit by Virginia Mawere, the boy's mother, shows that
the boy was
arrested on Thursday after Justice Joseph Musakwa made a
complaint to the
police.
Musakwa, who resides at Tokwe Flats in Mabelreign,
told police
that someone had knocked at his door and "they suspect that the
person
intended to break into the house and steal", the affidavit
notes.
Police then picked up the boy and another one who was
quickly
released following the intervention of his father who is a diplomat
at the
Zimbabwe Embassy in Namibia.
"My son is only 16
years old. He is still at school ... is too
young to be incarcerated for
such a trivial allegation. I have pleaded with
the police to place him in my
custody and they have refused," said the
mother.
She
added:
"This is a clear case where the police should have
thoroughly
investigated to ensure that they do not necessarily cause
disharmony among
neighbours.
It is also a case where the
complainant (Judge) could have
approached myself as the guardian of the
minor child and ascertain my child's
involvement before approaching the
police.It is an assault on my child's
civil rights."
Musakwa said:
"As far as I know there is no question of the
mother saying we
did not talk to her.
When we followed up
on an earlier incident we went to her
residence and talked to the
mother.
"There are a lot of goings on in the
area.
There was damage to my residence.
The police did their investigations."
Aleck Muchadehama of
Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni yesterday
confirmed that the boy had been
released following their urgent application.
He, however, said police
altered the charge, and accused the minor of
malicious injury to
property.
A relieved close relative of the boy who paid a
$250 000 fine in
order for him to avoid a weekend in cells told The
Standard: "Police didn't
talk about the knock at the judge's door this
time."
They changed their story saying the hedge behind the
flats had
been cut and blamed him for that. I didn't want to pay the fine
but the
mother said we had to do that just to secure the release of the
minor."
Zim Standard
BY
VALENTINE MAPONGA
AFTER nearly a year of total black out,
Parliament has engaged a
new company to print the Hansard after Jongwe
Printers' failure deprived the
public of a vital source of information on
legislative deliberations.
The Zanu PF-owned Jongwe Printers,
facing a serious cash crisis,
has also for the past two weeks failed to
print its own newspaper, The
Voice, which is the official mouthpiece of the
ruling party.
Hansard is a record of the debates of the House
of Assembly.
The last Hansard was published on 26 July last
year.
Parliament has now engaged a company called High-Gloss
Printing,
which will now print the Hansard.
Clerk of
Parliament, Austin Zvoma, confirmed last week that they
had dumped Jongwe
Printers, the company contracted to print the
parliamentary record after its
failure to produce the publication.
"We have now engaged
another printing company for the printing
of the Hansard. You will be able
to get a copy of the Hansard this week.
We called them in on
a short notice because we have realised
that they have the potential," Zvoma
said.
He said Parliament had always had an agreement with
Jongwe
Printers in which the company would print the Hansard and receive
payment
later.
However, he would not reveal the amount
involved in the new
deal.
"Jongwe Printers have a backlog
of about 17 editions but they
have promised to print the editions as soon as
they acquire the newsprint.
I think they will still be very
useful in the printing of
Hansards since we now have two houses of
Parliament," he said.
Jongwe Printers had been printing the
Hansard since the
mid-1980s.
Commenting on the failure by
Jongwe Printers to print the
Hansard since last year MDC Chief Whip,
Innocent Gonese, said:
"It's a very sad development because
the public has been
deprived of the opportunity to get to know what is
happening in parliament.
Newspapers just give brief accounts
of what would have happened
in Parliament and the Hansard is the
alternative."
More than 8 000 copies of the Hansard are
supposed to be printed
a day after each Parliamentary sitting and these are
meant for MPs,
constituency information centres and the members of the
public.
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE MAPONGA
WHILE the
commission running the city of Harare fails to deliver
basic services to
ratepayers, the chairperson of the commission, Sekesai
Makwavarara, just
can't resist the urge to splash out council funds on
luxuries.
Makwavarara had a satellite dish and decoder
installed at the
mayoral mansion without the approval of the commission, it
has been
established.
Minutes of a commission meeting
held on 8 March confirm that
when Makwavarara moved from the guesthouse into
the main house, which had no
satellite dish, she decided to have the news
and entertainment facility
installed without seeking council
approval.
The satellite dish and decoder were acquired and
installed at a
cost of $103, 4m without going to tender.
A market survey revealed that the acquisition and installation
of a DSTV
satellite dish ranges between $40m and $60m depending on the
packages
involved.
The issue only came to the commission's attention
when
Makwavarara requested payment for the decoder and satellite to be
authorised.
It was also established that only one
company, Croft Trading
(Pvt) Ltd was approached against laid down
procurement procedures, for the
sourcing of the satellite
dish.
"The Acting Chamber Secretary reported that the
quotation from
Croft Trading (Pvt) Ltd was the only quotation which had been
sourced," read
the minutes.
The Commission, however,
resolved to pay $94 million instead of
the $103 million, $4 million unless
the company produced a VAT Clearance
Certificate.
They
also emphasised the need for strict adherence to laid down
procurement
procedures whenever purchases were made in future.
This case
comes barely two months after Makwavarara was involved
in controversy
surrounding the proposed purchase of curtains for the Mayoral
mansion
totalling $35b.
While the commission has totally failed to
provide services to
residents of the city citing either shortages of
resources or fuel, it is
never short of funds whenever it feels the urge to
splash out.
Last week the commission was reported to have
bought its
officials new vehicles, living up to its image of being big
spenders.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Matabeleland
North provincial magistrate, John
Masimba, will tomorrow (Monday) deliver
judgement in a criminal defamation
case between a top Cabinet minister and
suspended chairman of the ruling
party, Zanu PF.
The
Minister of Home Affairs who is also MP for Beitbridge,
Kembo Mohadi, filed
criminal defamation charges against suspended
Matabeleland South provincial
chairman, Lloyd Siyoka, over utterances he
allegedly made to President
Robert Mugabe at a meeting at Elangeni Training
Centre in Bulawayo in
November 2004.
Allegations against Siyoka are that he told
the President that
Mohadi drew a pistol and threatened him at a meeting held
in Gwanda when he
was suspended.
The meeting preceded the
Tsholotsho debacle and was attended by
the Zanu PF presidium, central
committee members, Bulawayo and Matabeleland
North and South chairpersons
and other top officials.
The case opened on 13 February with
John Nkomo, the Speaker of
Parliament and Deputy Senate president, Naison
Ndlovu, and Senator Eunice
Sandi testifying against
Siyoka.
Nkomo is the first witness as he chaired the meeting,
while
Ndlovu and Sandi are cited as the second and third witnesses
respectively,
since they attended the meeting.
Siyoka,
represented by Samp Mlaudzi, told the court that the
charges by Mohadi and
the State witnesses were trumped up because of his
frosty relations with
them, which soured when he assumed the post of
provincial party chairman in
2001.
He also claimed that the government officials turned
against him
after he exposed their corrupt activities such as multiple farm
ownership,
which was in clear defiance of President Mugabe's
one-man-one-farm policy.
Siyoka alleged that differences with
Mohadi started in 2003
after he refused to evict war veterans allocated land
at a farm in the
province to pave way for the minister.
He also told the court that political relations between him and
the minister
further worsened when he refused to issue a public statement
stating that
Mohadi did not own a number of farms.
Relations with Nkomo,
according to Siyoka, soured after he had
pointed out that there was chaos in
the resettled farms when Nkomo was still
the Minister responsible for Lands,
Land Reform and Resettlement.
Siyoka accused Ndlovu of
usurping his powers by calling
unsanctioned meetings without Siyoka's
knowledge.
However, in his submissions, State prosecutor,
Blessing
Kundhlande said Siyoka was a liar who had created imaginary
political
disputes between him and the top ruling party leadership in
Matabeleland
South
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
RESIDENTS of
Raffingora, which falls under Zvimba Rural District
Council, are bitter over
the astronomical increase in water charges by the
rural centre saying the
majority cannot afford them.
The residents said the council
unilaterally increased water
charges by more than 833% with effect from 1
April.
Irate residents who called The Standard last week said
the
district council was "insensitive to the plight of the people at the
rural
centre", which is surrounded by farms.
They said
even after taking into account the cost of buying
chemicals and pumping
water to their homes, the charges were still too high
and unaffordable for
most of the people.
"I used to pay an average of $300 000 a
month but I am now
required to by about $2,8m a month as if I am staying in
an urban area,"
complained a government employee, who requested anonymity
for fear of
victimisation.
The Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and Urban
Development Ignatious Chombo, is the MP
for Zvimba
North, which includes Raffingora. He was not
immediately
available for comment.
When contacted for
comment the local councillor, Oliver
Chapanduka was
abusive.
"I don't give comments to sell-outs. You people at
The Standard
are sell-outs," he said before hanging up.
Zim Standard
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
MASHONALAND West
Governor, Nelson Samkange, is renting out
farmhouses to eight primary school
teachers at Rukoba farm, The Standard can
reveal.
One of
the teachers who refused to be identified for fear of
victimisation told The
Standard that starting March they were told to pay
rent of $1 million a
month.
This came as a surprise to them as they had been using
the
houses for free before the Governor took over the farm sometime in
2004.
What irked them most is that no proper maintenance has
taken
place since Samkange took over.
They also believe
that the Governor is trying to cash in on the
property that he did not pay
for when he acquired it.
Previously, teachers at the school
were provided with houses for
free as an incentive for them to remain at the
farm school.
Asked for comment, Samkange admitted charging
the teachers $1
million rentals but said the money would go towards paying
for electricity.
He added that, in any case, government paid
them those
allowances so they should pay rent like urban teachers who were
lodging in
towns.
Responding to allegations from farm
workers that he was failing
to pay them a paltry $350 000 a month on time,
he insisted that he was
paying the stipulated $1, 3m.
But
pressed further, he said there might be other workers who
could be getting
as little $340 000 due to deductions.
He said he created a
facility for his workers to get groceries
from his farm store on
credit.
The money would then be deducted at the end of the
month, But
Samkange blamed neighbouring white commercial farmers for
inciting his
workers by paying their workers twice as much as the gazetted
wages.
Sometimes, he said, the workers were paid for doing
nothing.
He said his workers should be appreciative as he was
trying to
provide secondary education for their children.
He also attributed the discontentment among his workers to "the
few
misguided and mischievous who still harbour the idea that a white man
might
one day come back to the farm".
Zim Standard
By Foster
Dongozi
WHILE state security agents went on a wild goose
chase on an
alleged arms cache in Mutare, the national broadcaster, Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings, was being sabotaged, The Standard can
reveal.
The ZBH headquarters, Pockets Hill in Highlands,
which is
heavily protected by armed soldiers, had its Internet and
surveillance
cameras disabled.
When film footage from
surveillance cameras was viewed by
security personnel, it showed two men who
sneaked into the studios in the
middle of the night.
The
two men could not be identified, but it has been confirmed
they are
certainly not members of ZBH staff.
Reliable sources at ZBH
told The Standard that the sabotage was
committed on the fifth floor, above
the office of Rino Zhuwarara, the
company's executive
chairman.
Although the incident happened in February, a veil
of secrecy
has been thrown over the issue.
Senior
officials at ZBH and the Ministry of Information are
reportedly fighting to
have the sabotage swept under the carpet.
Insiders said the
sabotage could have been the work of one of
the factions battling for the
control of ZBH ahead of President Robert
Mugabe's anticipated
retirement.
As a result of the sabotage, security at ZBH has
been beefed up.
"Even in the newsrooms and offices, we are
seeing a lot of
security people on the prowl in the corridors," said a ZBH
staffer.
Strangely, while senior officials at ZBH professed
ignorance
about the breach, sources at ZBH were adamant that the intrusion
took place.
Jennifer Tanyanyiwa, the ZBH corporate secretary
said:
"Please be advised that there was absolutely no
interference
with ZBH operations and that can be confirmed by the
non-interruption of our
services."
The Internet and
surveillance cameras usually do not affect
broadcasting in any overt
manner.
Tanyanyiwa continued:
"Further, it
is the first time that we are hearing that there
were people captured by
surveillance cameras interfering with operations and
we would actually
appreciate if you could provide us with further details so
that we can
institute investigations because as far as we are concerned, no
such thing
ever occurred."
Zhuwarara also professed ignorance of the
sabotage.
"I am not aware of that. It is something that I
would take
seriously as it concerns the security of ZBH.
When workers are negotiating for salaries, they will tell you
anything."
The workers said management was trying to keep
the issue secret
in order to preserve their jobs.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
BIKITA East MP, Kenneth Matimba, recently begged
the Canadian
Embassy to electrify his constituency.
Matimba said the government's Expanded Rural Electrification
Programme,
introduced during the run-up to the 2002 presidential election,
had not
benefited his constituency due to lack of funds. This left the
community
with no hope of getting power supplies, he said.
Speaking at
the commissioning of a $6, 2 billion project at
Chikuku Vocational Centre in
Bikita East, Matimba implored the Canadians to
rescue the
community.
"I want to appeal to you Ambassador (Roxanne Dube)
that my
constituency lacks electricity.
If you can fund
us to get power, the college (vocational centre)
would also
benefit.
We have problems electrifying this place and hence
we seek your
assistance so that we overcome our long time challenge,''
Matimba said.
Although some parts of the country benefited
from the rural
electrification programme, the Bikita East constituency
remains in the dark;
a situation Matimba said was hampering
development.
Speaking at the same ceremony, Dube said her
country would
continue to support Zimbabwe in developmental
projects.
The Canadian Embassy funded the vocational training
centre with
a $6,2 billion cash injection to facilitate the purchasing of
training
equipment for various departments.
The centre
offers training courses in carpentry, knitting,
building, agriculture,
business management, among others.
Dube said her country was
willing to complement the government's
efforts in encouraging
entrepreneurial training in tertiary education.
The Chikuku
training centre was established in 1986 by the late
Alois Mutambanesango to
empower youths from his district. After
Mutambanesango's death the Roman
Catholic Church took over.
The centre serves communities from
Gutu, Bikita, Chimanimani,
Chipinge and Buhera.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
VILLAGERS in
Chimanimani district have vowed not to pay
development levy, which has been
increased from $20 000 a household to $100
000 a month, saying they cannot
afford such a huge amount.
Beginning January the levy, which
is paid by every village
household to the district council through the
village heads, was increased
to $100 000 a month.
The
villagers, who call the levy Mari Yemusoro, said the amount
was beyond their
reach especially this year when most of them failed to
harvest any crops due
to poor rainfall in the region.
"I don't know where I will
get the money.
They will have to sell my chickens to raise
the money," said one
elderly villager in Gudyanga
Village.
The villagers said they had already approached their
local
councillor for Ward 20, Zekias Nhachi, with their
problem.
Nhachi said he would take up the issue with
Chimanimani District
Administrator, Smart Chidawande.
"People here are not happy because, first they cannot afford the
new amount
and secondly, they feel that they were not consulted.
It was
going to be better if it was pegged at $60 000 a
household because the areas
fall under regions four and five, which are very
dry," Nhachi
said.
Areas such as Gudyanga, Nyanyadzi, Hotsprings, Wengezi,
Tonhorai
and Changazi fall under regions 4 and 5, which are not suitable for
agricultural activities.
Villagers in the areas rely
mainly on irrigation schemes for
their food production.
As a result of the drought that hit the area this year, most
families in the
area are dependent on food donations from donor
organisations such as
Christian Care International as well as buying food
from the Grain Marketing
Board (GMB).
"The problem with the grain from GMB is that it
last came in
November last year and when it comes, it is distributed
according to
political affiliation," said Nhachi, who showed The Standard a
copy of the
letter he wrote to Chidawande complaining about politicisation
of food.
Chidawande, who denied knowledge of politicisation
of food aid
in the district, referred all questions to Chimanimani District
chief
executive officer, Joseph Harahwa.
When contacted
for comment Harahwa said the council consulted
the villagers before coming
up with the new figures.
"Where there are a lot of people
some are bound to complain. It's
normal. In any case, what will you buy with
$100 000 these days?
Some people were actually saying the
amount is too little,"
Harahwa said.
He said the council
was ploughing back into the communities.
"We are building
roads which were affected by rains in the
eastern part of the district. We
maintain dip-tanks and boreholes and other
infrastructure for the
communities," he said.
Harahwa said those finding it
difficult to pay should seek
exemption.
"Even those
people above the age of 60 should notify their
councillors for
exemption."
Association of Rural District Councils president,
Jerry Gotora,
said it was necessary to promote rural
development.
Gotora said the funds would be used in servicing
roads, building
clinics, bridges and boreholes for the welfare of the rural
population.
"If people in rural areas want development they
will have to pay
for it.
The age of donor-dependence is
long gone. They (the villagers)
should become their own donors," Gotora
said.
Zim Standard
By Bertha Shoko
THE continued loss of
skilled health care workers to the
developed world is a serious threat to
health care systems in Zimbabwe and
Africa and remains a challenge for the
continent, health experts have said.
This was said on Friday
as Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world
in commemorating World Health Day.
The World Health Organisation (WHO)
dedicated the day to solving what it
calls the "health workforce crisis".
And WHO must have had
Zimbabwe in mind when it chose to focus on
this problem.
In Zimbabwe, the brain drain problem has become such a huge
crisis that the
health delivery system is threatened with collapse.
The
country's health sector has deteriorated over the past few
years due to
inadequate funding, shortages of foreign currency and the
departure of
skilled health personnel to other countries offering better
conditions of
service.
The Minister of Health and Child Welfare, David
Parirenyatwa,
told The Standard that his ministry was taking the issue of
brain drain
seriously and his ministry had taken part in a regional meeting
on World
Health Day hosted by WHO on Friday in Zambia.
Parirenyatwa said: "The issue of brain drain is quite serious
not only for
Zimbabwe but for the rest of Africa. We will let you know soon
the measures
we have put in place to address this problem following this
regional
meeting."
WHO says health workers, defined as people who
provide health
care to those who need it, are the "heart of health
systems".
However, the organisation says these health
systems, especially
in sub-Saharan Africa, are threatened by chronic
shortages of health workers
as a result of decades of "underinvestment in
their education, training,
salaries and working
environment".
WHO says: "The health workforce is in crisis -
a crisis to which
no country is entirely immune.
This has
led to a severe lack of key skills, rising levels of
career switching and
early retirement, as well as national and international
migration.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, where all the issues
mentioned above are
combined with the HIV/Aids pandemic, there are an
estimated 750 000 health
workers in a region that is home to 682 million
people.
By comparison, the ratio is 10 to 15 times higher in
OECD
countries, whose ageing population is putting a growing strain on an
over-stretched workforce.
The WHO says solutions to this
crisis need to be worked out at
local, national and international levels and
must involve governments, the
United Nations, health professionals,
non-governmental organizations and
community leaders.
"There is no single solution to such a complex problem, but ways
forward do
exist and must now be implemented.
For example, some
developed countries have put policies in place
to stop active recruitment of
health workers from severely understaffed
countries.
"Some developing countries have revised their pay scales and
introduced
non-monetary incentives to retain their workforce and deploy them
in rural
areas," the WHO says.
Zim Standard
By Deborah-Fay
Ndhlovu
ZIMBABWEAN authorities are reportedly frustrating
efforts by an
Australian company, in partnership with some Zimbabweans, to
mine uranium in
Kanyemba amid reports that government was now lobbying
Russia to take up the
project.
Lowenbrau is a partnership
between Omega Corporation Limited and
an Australian company with a 70 %
shareholding and locals who include Robert
Zhuwao, Roderick Mlauzi, Nkonzo
Chikosi and Charles Matezu.
The consortium was given a
Special Grant to mine uranium by the
Mining Affairs Board last November and
indicated to the Ministry of Mines
and Mining Development that it was ready
to invest about US$5 million for
the initial exploration.
But its application could just bite the dust on signs that Mines
Minister
Amos Midzi was sitting on the document and the contract could be
awarded to
a Russian company.
Russia and China last year voted against a
decision to have
Zimbabwe censored by the Security Council for the widely
condemned
"Operation Murambatsina".
"The Permanent
Secretary is in Russia and he took along with him
the details of the uranium
project. The Lowenbrau offer has been sitting
with the Minister for a long
time and we do not actually know what is
happening but suspect that they
want to give the SG to Russia," said a
source close to the
proceedings.
"The Mining Affairs Board gave them a Special
Grant (No 10/05
HM) for the uranium project but the hold up is with the
Minister."
Standardbusiness was shown a letter to Lowenbrau,
which said the
Mining Affairs Board, had approved their
application.
The letter, dated 20 December 2005 and signed by
L.Chimsasa (as
secretary for the Mining Affairs' Board) reads: "I am pleased
to advise that
the Mining Affairs Board at its 524th meeting found the above
application
satisfactory and accordingly recommended it for approval by the
Minister."
Interuran discovered the uranium in 1981 and the
government says
it intends to explore it for electricity production.
President Robert Mugabe
declared last year "a year of investment" but
officials say his
pronouncements are being scuttled by some of his officials
who are
clandestinely giving away projects to undeserving
applicants.
Last year a war erupted between ZESA Holdings and
Hwange
Colliery Company after government rescinded a decision to award the
Sinamatella grant for coal mining to HCC.
"That is the
thing with the government . last year the Mining
Affairs Board approved that
Hwange be given the SG for Sinamatella but
people were instructed from the
top that the decision be changed. The same
could just happen with Lowenbrau
and they get taken over by Russia. Projects
like these are sensitive," said
the source.
Potential investors have also been lost because
of the
controversial Mines and Minerals Amendment Act. The Ministry of Mines
failed
to award Exclusive Prospecting Orders last year resulting in
Zimbabwean
companies losing potential investors.
Zim Standard
marketwatch with Deborah-Fay Ndlovu
THE $14 trillion Treasury
Bill maturities expected into the
money market this month should provide
relief to the stock market but could
spell doomfor short-term interest
rates, analysts said last week.
A dip in short-term rates was
already expected last week on
signs of ease on the deficit on the money
market. It opened Monday $9
trillion down but was forecast to close $6,8
trillion short on Wednesday
after $2,7 trillion came in by way of TB
maturities. The deficit was
expected further to ease to $4 trillion by end
of last week pushing
short-term deposit rates down to an average of 350 %
for 7 to 14 days.
Banks were quoting a rate of 375 % for 30
days and 400 % for 60
days. The 91-day TB rate remained unchanged at 525 %
while the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe issued two tenders on Monday each
totaling $500 billion and
$95,5 billion and $414 billion was allotted for
the two tenders
respectively.
The injection of liquidity
on the market helped spark interest
into the 91-day TB, which had been
failing to attract investors because of
the cash
deficits.
Analysts said the challenge for the central bank
would be to mop
up excess liquidity on the money market.
"Short-term rates will ease off in line with the increase in
liquidity. What
remains to be seen is how the central bank will mop up the
liquidity on the
market because it would be ideal to keep the market short,"
said Terence
Mazango of Highveld.
He however conceded that maintaining the
deficits would increase
government debt.
"Government debt
should increase. As of now it was doubling
every 91 days at 525%,' he
said.
The drop in interest rates however spelt good news for
the stock
market, which analysts said, was likely to make
gains.
"We should see a change in fortunes for the equities
market
because of the TB maturities that are coming in this month," said a
stockbroker with a Harare-based firm.
The industrial
index opened on a good note last week but lost
ground on Wednesday after
dipping 2.13% to close at 30 230 829.12 points.
Counters to
lose last Wednesday included Econet which shed a $30
000 to close at $190
000. Meikles lost $5 000 to $165 000 while Hippo and
Delta shed $2 000 each
to trade at $30 000 and $33 000 respectively, while
Astra dropped $1100 to
$7000. Gains were in Colcom which upped $5 000 to $25
000. The mining index
was not spared the losses as it slipped 1.53% to close
at 9 598 171.76
points pulled down by Bindura and Rio Zim.
The two counters
shed $2 500 and $100 000 each to close
Wednesday at $10 000 and $700 000
respectively.
Zim Standard
From Gibbs Dube in Bulawayo
MORE
than 5 000 prominent business executives, lawyers and
doctors have allegedly
lost billions of dollars following the closure of
offices of the Holiday
Club Zimbabwe (HCZ) Private Limited, a leisure
enterprise designed to
facilitate cheap holidays in South African resorts
through a timeshare
scheme.
The HCZ, linked to Holiday Club South Africa (HCSA),
has closed
its offices in Zimbabwe and is now being run from South Africa by
an
administrator although the directors - Amanda and Steven Deller - still
reside in Kariba. Investigations by Standardbusiness have revealed that
local investors in the HCZ have been left in the cold as they can no longer
access South African resorts.
The Leisure Property Trust
Management Association (LPTMA) is
supposed to safeguard levies and
membership fees collected through a
timeshare scheme yet members have never
been given a copy of the
constitution.
They have not even
attended a single annual general meeting of
the holiday club as per
provisions of the LPTMA constitution. The financial
records of the Holiday
Club Zimbabwe have not been made public since 1995,
leaving members worried
about the financial status of the company.
Members, who have
not accessed holiday resorts for more than two
years, were recently shocked
when they received bills averaging $45 million
per person indicating that
they needed to update their HCZ levies,
subscriptions and
timeshares.
Although Steven and Amanda Deller refused to
comment on the
issue saying in a statement that "we can not respond to any
of your
questions", Sammy Yeo - based in South Africa and currently the
Administration Services Manager of the Holiday Club headquarters in
Johannesburg - acknowledged that the HCZ was facing serious
problems.
Yeo said the HCZ stopped marketing in the country
in 2003 due to
crippling effects of hyperinflation which has resulted in the
acute
shortages of fuel for tourism activities in
Zimbabwe.
She said the HCZ has been facing difficulties
stemming from lack
of petrol for tourists to travel from South Africa to
tourism destinations
in Zimbabwe while at the same time, "there is no fuel
to run our houseboats
in the country".
Yeo, without
elaborating, said members of the HCZ should not
feel cheated as their levies
and related subscriptions were used for
maintaining resorts in Zimbabwe,
which include Hakuna Matata, and some
houseboats in
Kariba.
"We have further costs such as staff salaries, this
includes
cleaning staff, gardeners, receptionists ... There is also certain
maintenance involved in order to keep the resorts in a decent state. These
fees are only covering operational expenses."
However,
responding to recent queries by members about the
running of the HCZ, she
noted that there were financial irregularities in
the HCZ that led to the
closure of the company's offices in Zimbabwe and
lack of access by members
to international holiday resorts.
Members have questioned the
levying of membership and
reservation fees every year which are not backed
up by audited financial
statements despite such requirements under the
Companies Act. Kudenga and
Company, a Zimbabwean firm of chartered
accountants, is believed to be
looking into the finances of the
HCZ.
A spokesman for the company said that "we are working on
the
finances of the Holiday Club Zimbabwe but I cannot tell you anything
more
than this." According to the chairman of an association of concerned
HCZ
members, Feny Mlambo, the operations of the club have been shrouded in
mystery since 1995.
In 2000, there were over 5 000
members but the number has since
dropped to 1 312 in 2006 owing to lack of
accountability by the Holiday Club
Zimbabwe.
A prominent
Bulawayo lawyer, Joseph James, who is one of the
members of the HCZ, said:
"We are exploring all the avenues to ensure that
we get to the bottom of the
whole thing. Members are depressed as they may
have most billions of dollars
to the Holiday Club."
The members paid varying amounts to the
HCZ between 1995 and
2005 but have been irked by lack of financial
accountability and access to
South African holiday resorts due to the recent
closure of the offices of
the HCZ and lack of information on their invested
funds.
Zim Standard
BY NDAMU SANDU
MOST companies have painted a gloomy
outlook this year as the
country's macro-economic environment continues to
deteriorate, with no
solution in sight from government.
In the just ended reporting season, most businesses across all
sectors said
they were tightening their belts in anticipation of another
tough
year.
In statements accompanying year-end results, quoted
companies
said they were bracing for another tough year characterised by a
harsh
operating environment.
Mining concern, Bindura
Nickel Corporation (BNC) has said 2006
looks to be another difficult year
and the macro-economic fundamentals
continued to pose a serious threat to
the viability of the business, with
continuing high levels of inflation
accompanied by high interest rates.
Medical group, Medtech
Holdings said urgent measures were
required to arrest the decline in the
economy.
"The economic environment continues to deteriorate
and we can
only hope that urgent measures are taken to correct this without
any
dramatic policy changes and policy contradictions. We do, however,
anticipate another difficult year ahead and management is ready to deal with
challenges as they arise," said Medtech.
Building
society, Beverley said the economic challenges were
expected to continue
well into 2006.
It however said that it expected the
authorities to remain
resolute in their turn around of the
economy.
Finhold, a significant player in the financial
sector, said the
operating environment in the banking sector is expected to
remain
challenging on the back of a tight monetary policy being pursued by
the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as it seeks to rein in on inflation in
2006.
Tobacco merchants, British American Tobacco (BAT) says
the
macro-economic priority will be stabilising the economy by managing
inflation downwards and boosting foreign currency supply.
". Consumer purchasing power is likely to remain depressed which
will put
pressure on company sales volumes," BAT warned.
Stanbic Bank
said with the high rate of inflation, tight
liquidity will persist and
interest rates will remain high in the first half
of the year. Zimbabwe
dollar's free-fall is also expected to maintain its
momentum and this will
cause immense pressure on the operating expenditure
and there will be little
borrowing because of the high lending rates and the
perennial foreign
currency shortages.
Zimbabwe's macro-economic environment has
made it difficult to
thrive with most companies operating below full
capacity.
Capacity utilisation in most manufacturing firms is
standing at
less than 50% due to the shortage of raw materials compounded by
the
shortage of foreign currency.
The inflation rate is
on upward trend and was in February
standing at 782% and is expected to peak
further in the next few months.
Most exports have become
unviable, as the interbank has remained
static at $99 258 to US$1 since
January while inflation has gained momentum
over the corresponding
period.
The government, a significant player in the player,
seems
clueless of the solutions required to arrest the haemorrhaging in the
economy that has resulted in most investors shunning the country and most
companies in the country operate on survival mode.
Zim Standard
Comment
IN exactly nine days, Zimbabweans
throughout and outside the
country will gather to mark 26 years of
independence, but for the majority
the occasion will provide sobering
moments to reflect on how they could
claim so much but yet have so little to
show for it.
Independence brought freedom for the
dispossessed and oppressed
black majority, but many question if the freedom
to be unemployed, freedom
not to afford basic commodities, health care,
education, and housing as well
as denial of freedom to differ with those who
rule us today, can be the sum
total of being independent.
While a select few - aligned to the ruling party - feed from the
high table
of independence, the majority cannot escape the reality that
increasing
impoverishment blights their understanding of independence.
Regrettably, an increasing number see independence as trading
one oppressive
system for another and many of the gallant sons and daughters
who paid the
supreme sacrifice will wonder, too, whether the nightmare they
see unfolding
today is the dream they fought and perished for at home and in
foreign
lands.
Independence has brought sharp disparities between
those who
have monopolised the natural resources and wealth that this
country is so
endowed with, and those whose aspirations for a Promised Land
are being
aborted.
At Independence, President Robert
Mugabe, then Prime Minister,
made a pledge that his government was
determined to bring about meaningful
change to the lives of the majority of
the people in this country.
He also said: "If ever we look to
the past, let us do so for the
lesson the past has taught us, namely that
oppression and racism are
inequities that must never again find scope in our
political and social
system.
It could never be a correct
justification that because the
whites oppressed us yesterday when they had
power, the blacks must oppress
them today because they have
power.
An evil remains an evil whether practised by white
against black
or by black against white.
"Our majority
rule could easily turn into inhuman if we
oppressed, persecuted or harassed
those who do not look or think like the
majority of us.
"Democracy is never mob-rule.
It is and should remain
disciplined rule requiring compliance
with the law and social
rules.
Our Independence must thus not be construed as an
instrument
vesting individuals or groups of individuals with the right to
harass and
intimidate others into acting against their
will.
"It is not the right to negate the freedom of others to
think
and act as they desire. I, therefore, wish to appeal to all of you to
respect each other and act in promotion of national unity rather than in
negation of that unity."
We approach 18 April this year
reflecting on these
pronouncements and asking ourselves, how it could be
possible that our
everyday reality could stand in total contrasts to the
promise and pledge
President Mugabe made to the people of this country in
the presence of Heads
of State and Government of nearly 100 nations, as well
as representatives of
several international, political and voluntary
organisations.
Despite claims of the success of the so-called
land reform
programme, there are still people without land who need
land.
There are more people without jobs who desperately need
jobs.
There are children dropping out of schools, threatening
a
society of ignorant people and there are patients who need healthcare but
have found the health delivery system unaffordable.
Let's
get back to the drawing board and draw from instructive
lessons of the past
two and a half decades.
MDC factions lack gender
sensitivity
THE much talked about MDC congresses have come and
gone but the
two events have left one thing clear in the people's minds: the
factions are
gender insensitive.
Elections at the two
congresses saw women virtually failing to
get any substantive posts in the
national executives - an indication that
the party is full of male
chauvinists and megalomaniacs not concerned with
empowering the womenfolk
within their midst.
The executives that were elected at the
congresses leave those
who claim to champion women's rights and equality of
men and women wondering
whether our brothers in the MDC in any way believe
in that.
It is surprising that at a time the debate on giving
women more
meaningful roles in society is hotting up, those in the MDC chose
to
conveniently ignore it.
Political organisations such
as Zanu PF have actually reserved a
third of all positions for women and it
is unbelievable that women's groups
have not come out in full support of
this development, in as much as they
have not cried foul over their being
belittled by the MDC.
One wonders why local non-governmental
organisations and civic
groups find it difficult to criticise the MDC in
areas it is wrong, but are
quick to criticise government using all sorts of
words.
Women who decided to contest for posts at the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led faction found the going tough, resulting in the likes of
Grace Kwinjeh withdrawing their candidature.
So
disappointed was Kwinjeh that she described the outcome of
the election as a
sign that patriarchy had once again firmly entrenched
itself in the top
leadership of the party.
To her, the whole thing was a
non-event. Out of five women who
stood for election, only one prevailed -
that is Thoko Khupe who was elected
to the party's vice
presidency.
It should be noted that Khupe only made it
because she contested
against one of her own gender - Getrude
Mthombeni.
Commenting on the same outcome, Lucia Matibenga,
the chairperson
of the National Women's Assembly, said the MDC remained
gender blind as
there was no policy pronouncement within the party to ensure
the meaningful
participation of women.
It is surprising
how the MDC is failing to move with time. At
SADC level, the leadership has
moved from a quota system for women to 50%.
In compliance
with that requirement the newly elected Tanzanian
President, Jakaya Kikwete
appointed women to almost 50% of his Cabinet
posts.
Kikwete went further to give women key portfolios such as
Finance and
Foreign Affairs. Africa is currently celebrating the election of
Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf as the first women to be elected Head of State on the
continent.
In Southern Africa, Zimbabwe and South Africa
set the ball
rolling when they elected women vice presidents in Joice Mujuru
and Phumzile
Mlambo Ngcuka respectively.
It is therefore
mind-boggling how those in the MDC saw it fit to
go against the
tide.
One wonders then whether a party that dreams of being
in power
one day will then be able to advance the cause of women once in
power.
The MDC's preparedness to accommodate women in
decision-making
positions will once again be put to the test in the Budiriro
by-election in
May, and local government elections scheduled for September
2006.
Zanu PF, on the other hand, is already making
preparations for
the elections with the chairperson of the Women's League,
Oppah Muchinguri,
revealing that they are going to ensure that as women they
will field a
third of the candidates.
Another area the
Tsvangirai faction failed to address was the
ethnic balance within the
national executive - a critical factor in African
politics.
It has been observed that Tsvangirai's
executive, apart from
Khupe and Lovemore Moyo - who were only elected as
deputies to Tsvangirai
and Isaac Matongo (national chairperson) respectively
- has no significant
representation from the Ndebele ethnic
grouping.
This apparent failure by the Tsvangirai faction
could prove to
be its undoing in its efforts to garner support from all
regions including
Matabeleland. It is obvious that Khupe is just a figure
head.
I would subscribe to the view that "for the first time
in
Zimbabwe, we have a party that does not have an Ndebele in a substantive
leadership position".
Food for
thought.
Albert Mlambo
Avondale
Harare
-------
End is nigh for Zanu PF mob
I HAVE always wondered whether
government supporters have
any grey matter in their heads. Are they
controlled by a mob spirit
mentality for all their
actions?
Events that took place during the Zanu PF
congress in
Matabeleland reinforce my conclusion that the party's supporters
are
brainless.
They vocally pushed their party to
persecute
Non-Governmental Organisations that are perceived as working
against the
Zanu PF government.
For advocating for
a new and democratic constitution,
independent newspapers are wrongfully
thought to be supporting those against
the
government.
Only brain dead people can bite the hand
that feeds them.
Non-Governmental Organisations have been helping
Zimbabweans with food and
medicines.
These
organisations have not been discriminating in their
distribution of food and
medical drugs as the ruling party has been doing
over the
years.
Advocates of a new, democratic constitution are
not doing
so for one party, one ethnic grouping or one section of the
country but they
are fighting for all political parties, all ethnic groups
in this country
and for Zimbabwe as a whole.
Without independent newspapers three quarters of
Zimbabweans would have gone
crazy reading only the government praise-singing
newspapers, and watching
and listening to our mediocre television and radio.
Lack of balanced reporting has destroyed the reasoning of
Zanu PF
supporters.
What these praise singers fail to realise
is that what is
being done today to persecute the opposition will one day be
used against
them.
A glaring example is the case of
Jonathan Moyo, whose
tongue seems to have been gagged by the very
legislations he pushed through
Parliament. Many of the country's law
breakers are Zanu PF supporters.
I would like to warn
these law breakers that the day of
reckoning is just around the
corner.
Let us not hear them howling and screaming for
the
non-governmental organisations, independent newspapers, independent
radios,
and others to publicise their pending just desserts. Be
warned.
Non-Parrot
Masvingo
----------
Chihwayi must back his claims with concrete
proof
THIS is an open letter directed to
Kurauone
Chihwayi, whose letter that was headlined (Arthur) Mutambara is
just what
the doctor ordered cannot go
unchallenged.
While I do not deny that
President Robert
Mugabe's time is up, I found your claims that "Mutambara is
a tried and
tested revolutionary" difficult to
accept.
I think you need to support your
claims with
evidence for the benefit of people like me who didn't know
Mutambara until
February this year.
I
am 21 and a university student and I didn't
know Mutambara until recently,
so I was a little bit surprised to hear that
he was taking over the
leadership of the MDC.
What has Mutambara
done for him to be called a
"revolutionary"?
What was he successful
in? Almost every
Zimbabwean knows what Morgan Tsvangirai has achieved from
the late 1980's
and it will be a waste of time to go into detail about that.
Mutambara is
yet to gain reasonable support for him to stand the ground in
Zimbabwean
politics.
Can we truly say
Tsvangirai is taking the
people of Zimbabwe for a ride when he is not the
leader of a country, unlike
Mugabe?
Tafadzwa Njovana
Harare
-----------
Defining the true
leader
REAL leaders are not defined by their
good
oratory skills and charisma
Real
leaders are not defined by their
impressive academic track
records
Real leaders are defined by
drawing strong
crowds at venues like the Zimbabwe grounds and the city
sports centre
Real leaders are not
defined by the number
of press conferences they
address
Real leaders are defined by
sympathising
with the people at Whitecliff after catastrophes like Operation
Murambatsvina
Real leaders are not
defined by their
liberation war
credentials
Real leaders are defined by
sticking to
matters of principle even if it means "violating" the party's
constitution
for the benefit of the
masses
Real leaders are not defined by
holding
lavish birthday parties when millions are
starving
Real leaders are defined by
walking to work
thus showing solidarity with the millions that cannot access
fuel on the
black market
You all know who
the real leader is!
Tatenda B
Kunaka
University of
Zimbabwe
--------------------
Farmers a let
down
THE once thriving areas of farming in
the
countryside now lie idle.
Trees and
grasses of all kinds now grow taller
than expected where crops once
flourished.
In the case of the Middle Save,
the land that
used to accommodate workers in their thousands remains
unproductive.
The State gave land to the
new settlers to
feed the nation,but the result is starvation. We should
blame those who were
given the land but have betrayed the expectation that
they would put it to
productive use.
Livestock and wild animals live on natural
plants and other animals but
human beings have to work for their living.
Tennyson Marwa
Mutema High
School
Chipinge
-----------
MDC owes late
MP
THE MDC participated in the 2005
Parliamentary
elections.
Now that their
MP for Budiriro has died, the
party should honour him for his fight against
Zanu PF injustice by
participating in future by-elections in this
constituency.
This seat must be retained by
the MDC in order
to appease the fighting spirit of the late
MP.
Nothing could be a greater honour for
this
fallen hero than the MDC retaining the
seat
On the issue of withdrawing sitting
MDC MPs
from Parliament, I believe they should be allowed to complete their
terms
because they had the blessing of the party and the electorate when
they were
elected during the 2005 Parliamentary
elections.
May God bless Morgan
Tsvangirai's wise
leadership.
D R
Mutungagore
Mutare
-------------
Atrocious
commentary
THE standard of soccer
commentary on both
Radio Zimbabwe and Spot FM is
poor.
I was listening to Spot FM's
commentary during
the match between Highlanders and Dynamos at Barbourfields
Stadium the other
day, and was shocked by Skumbuzo
Moyo.
He was almost
crying.
It was also clear that he is a
Bosso fan.
Philemon Mhlanga as well as Lee
Nkala and
others should not provide the
commentary.
Charles Mabika and Stanley
Katsande are not
doing a thorough job of
it.
A
Mahko
Bindura
----------
Mutambara is already messing up big
time
I AM disturbed by the antics of Arthur
Mutambara. In the few weeks he has been in mainstream politics, Mutambara
has already messed up big time.
This
is surprising coming from someone who
is very educated. Maybe this is proof
that true leadership is not based on
intellectual prowess but on good
character. A good leader must be
consistent, honest, humble and respectful.
Indeed it is these traits that
have made people like Mother Theresa and
Nelson Mandela icons.
Unfortunately,
Mutambara has patently
exhibited lack of these qualities since he was
appointed leader of the MDC
pro-Senate faction. He has positioned himself as
a unifier of the two MDC
factions. I expect this role to be carried out by
neutrals such as church
organizations, Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe and the
National Constitutional
Assembly.
Mutambara is far from being an honest
broker, for he harbours an intention
to become President of a united MDC.
Therefore, to him the pro-Senate
faction is a mere stepping-stone to the
fulfilment of his dream. Viewed this
way, his association with Welshman
Ncube and others is not sincere. It is
actually opportunistic.
The clean man
here is David Coltart, who has
chosen to remain non-aligned so that both
camps can hear him. In his
acceptance speech, Mutambara publicly distanced
himself from his
benefactors. It is on record that the faction he now leads
has been
lampooning and vilifying Morgan Tsvangirai since the 12 October
fallout.
Now, for him to describe
Tsvangirai as his
hero and, furthermore, to declare his anti-Senate stance
on a pro-Senate
stage is as good as biting the hand that feeds him. I would
have expected
Mutambara to privately convince his colleagues of his position
so that they
speak with one voice.
At
the Bulawayo congress there was no such
unison taking into consideration
Gibson Sibanda's vitriol against
Tsvangirai. If Mutambara had consulted his
colleagues first, he would have
demonstrated the sincerity of his claim that
had he been a member of the
then MDC National Council, he would have tried
hard to convince fellow
members of the weight of his position and, on
failing to do so, he would
have stuck with the majority decision at the
expense of his own opinion.
It therefore
appears that Mutambara
conveniently uttered that statement in order to
project himself as more
democratic than
Tsvangirai.
Mutambara calls himself
"untainted" and
hence suitable to take over the reins of opposition power.
This is a
"holier-than-thou" attitude. It smacks of total disrespect for
those who
went ahead of him in fighting against the oppressive system in
Zimbabwe.
I find Mutambara's
anti-imperialism rhetoric
nauseating, especially coming from someone with
such international exposure.
His stance is anachronistic at a time of
globalisation and international
partnerships such as Nepad. I quote Dr Simba
Makoni: "The world does not
need Zimbabwe. It is Zimbabwe who needs the
world."
Once again, it is obvious that
Mutambara's
obsession with imperialism is personal and hence not
representative of his
constituency. So much for his democratic credentials!
The pro-Senate faction
should rein in its President now to avoid further
embarrassment.
I have also read that
Mutambara was recently
on the rampage, vowing to "destroy" Tsvangirai. This
is the height of
inconsistency further entrenching the view that the man is
arrogant and
power-hungry. Why spew venom against your own
"hero"?
We have had enough of people like
President
Robert Mugabe and Professor Jonathan Moyo who use their
intelligence for
self-aggrandisement. History must not keep on repeating
itself. Taneta!
Max
Makoni
Harare