CAPE TOWN Zim poll irregularity 'highly organised' -
study
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 The irregularities that secured Zimbabwe's
ruling Zanu-PF victory in the March 2005 parliamentary elections appear to
have been "highly organised", Idasa researchers say in a new study of the
polls.
The researchers, Tony Reeler and Kuda Chitsike, said this was
clearly a very sinister interpretation of the evidence, but that it could be
corroborated.
Evidence suggested that constituencies were "controlled" by
state agencies that determined movement in and out of the area and the
frequency of meetings and campaigning, and that provided support for the
perpetrators of political violence and the political use of food.
One
objection to the theory might be to point to the conclusion of observer
groups that these were "not violent elections", the researchers
said.
However, they believed it had been Zanu-PF's intention to avoid
overt violence and to take advantage of the effects of previous elections
campaigns, where there was violence.
"By way of analogy, the
frequently battered wife learns very quickly to adopt the right posture when
her drunk husband comes home and starts shouting and waving his arms
around," they said.
In the polls, Zanu-PF, which had been in power during
five years of massive economic and social decline in Zimbabwe, was
re-elected with a huge majority.
"That this was unusual in the world
of politics is an understatement," they said.
They also said it
seemed possible that Zanu-PF found a way to forestall opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) objections to the legitimacy of the election as
a whole, which would have had regional political consequences.
This
involved the leaking of results that indicated obvious vote-rigging, and
which "hooked the MDC, line and sinker".
It would appear from the MDC's
confused response in the immediate aftermath of the polls that there was
much agonising over whether to reject the result in toto or to test
individual results in the courts.
"In the final analysis the MDC went to
parliament and entered 31 petitions [of objection] and the election received
sufficient validation for regional counties to accept it with whatever
private reservations they might have had," the researchers said.
"The
political crisis that would have inevitably followed rejection of the poll
by the MDC was averted."
The data used by the Idasa researchers in
compiling their report came from a number of sources, including the MDC
itself, but mostly from the Zimbabwean civil society grouping the National
Constitutional Assembly.
Tonnes of food aid piling up at Zimbabwe border By Tererai
Karimakwenda 15 August 2005
It has been revealed
that the food aid from South Africa that is being held up is not the only
consignment waiting for clearance from Zimbabwe officials. Thousands of
tonnes of other emergency aid are reported to be held up by Zimbabwean red
tape. Tony Hall, the United States food ambassador who visited Zimbabwe,
told reporters at the weekend that 10 000 tons of food were waiting for an
import licence in Durban, while 15 000 tonnes, already inside Zimbabwe,
needed permission before it could be distributed. Hall also complained
at a news conference in Harare that he had been banned from inspecting
conditions at Hopley farm outside Harare, where old people were reported to
be dying. As we reported last week, soldiers there said they were under
orders not to allow visitors without proper paper work. But no-one seems to
have been granted permission to enter the camp, not even Zimbabwean church
groups attempting to bring food. Hall is widely respected as one of
the world's most experienced and senior diplomats dealing with humanitarian
relief. Having experience in 115 countries, he said Zimbabwe was "one of the
most difficult" countries in the world to work in and distribute aid. He
also added "There is no place for politics when it comes to feeding hungry
people." Hall later pledged nearly US$52 million for food aid in southern
Africa. About 40% of that amount is expected to go to Zimbabwean
relief.
As for the food organised by the South African Council of
Churches, deputy secretary-general Eddie Makue said two of the three trucks
had not been issued a duty-free certificate. The truck with blankets is
reported to have left for Zimbabwe Saturday morning. It has yet to
arrive. As for the trucks sent by the South Africa Council of churches,
the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, Densen Mafinyane,
repeated the excuse that the Zimbabwe government is using, saying that
regulations against genetically modified food had held up progress. Like
other officials involved, Mafinyane did not seem to have much other
information about the shipment.
Black market forex dealers at illegal
hotspots in Harare are doing great business as a result of the government's
fuel for forex plan. Motorists, desperate to get the scarce commodity are
now forced to source hard currency on the black market so that they can buy
the much-needed fuel from the few selected outlets.To get the fuel motorists
have to first buy coupons from a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe foreign currency
collection centre established at designated service stations! The coupons
are then exchanged for fuel.While people were already selling fuel on the
black market some dealers, including big companies in Harare, have started
selling the coupons on the black market at inflated prices.Some of them have
reappeared at their usual selling points such as the Road Port along 4th
Street and Eastgate market. These markets were raided and closed down during
the forex raids earlier in the year. Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa says
even the police are buying the coupons from the black market because it's a
better way of accessing fuel.He said fuel is bought with coupons at the rate
of US$1 a litre at selected stations. The official rate for US$1 is $ 17
500. But the fuel coupons are then sold on the black market for as much as
$60 000 to $80 000 per litre!Analysts say the authorities are achieving
nothing as the latest plan is fueling the black market. This means less
foreign currency is going directly to the established RBZ centers at filling
stations.The worsening fuel shortage has resulted in a high demand for
bicycles as many people cannot afford to buy the scarce commodity. There has
been very little public transport, leaving commuters with little choice but
to resort to using bikes. Muchemwa tells us that suppliers are also making a
killing as the demand for bicycles increases. He said two months ago, a
mountain bike cost just less that a million dollars. Now, it's
$4.5million!
Challenges facing AU mediator Joachim Chissano By Tichaona
Sibanda 15 August 2005
The recently appointed
African Union mediator on Zimbabwe, former Mozambican President Joachim
Chissano might be a skilled and credible negotiator but questions will be
asked about his neutrality and impartiality. This is the belief of Lovemore
Madhuku, a political analyst and constitutional lawyer who says Chissano is
a very close friend of Robert Mugabe. AU chairman Nigerian President
Olusagen Obasanjo, recently appointed Chissano to mediate between Mugabe's
Zanu (PF) and the opposition MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Another obstacle to successful negotiations is the common refusal of Robert
Mugabe to come to a negotiating table with Tsvangirai. In some cases said
Madhuku, this refusal to negotiate results from Mugabe's fear that he will
be forced to accept compromises that would lead him to step down as
President.The greatest challenge facing Chissano would be to get Mugabe to
sit down with Tsvangirai under the same roof. 'This is where Chissano is
likely to fail. He does not have the capacity or the determination to tell
Robert Mugabe to come to a negotiating table,' said Madhuku.
Madhuku said Chissano is 'very close' to Mugabe and it would be impossible
for him to try and corner him to a negotiating table. He added; 'the
mediator is usually expected to be both neutral and impartial. That means he
(Chissano) should have no connections to any of the parties, but everyone
knows he was Mugabe's best man at his wedding.
Chombo's Operation Garikai means plastic replaces bricks
By
Tererai Karimakwenda 15 August 2005
'Zimbabwe' is
'dzimba dze mabwe' - houses of stone. But that was before operation
Murambatsvina and its cousin Operation Garikai. One tore down brick houses
that had stood for years, and the other is now replacing them with plastic
shacks. A reporter for the Sunday Times in South Africa says he went
back to Harare to see what had become of the displaced families. Dingilizwe
Ntuli visited Joshua Nkomo Heights, a settlement in Harare's western
Kambuzuma township which had become home to hundreds of war veterans. He
found the 400 houses that stood there just weeks ago were now plastic shacks
in the midst of the ruins. One of the war veterans who has vowed
that he would not leave, said the government had been blocking food aid in
an effort to force them to move to a holding camp or relocate to their rural
village. These government operations turned a man who was a self-employed
motor mechanic into an unemployed homeless man dependant on the government
for food. This story clearly shows the real motive for the demolitions.
By causing dependency, the government aims to control the population that
voted for the opposition in the last election. And as war veterans who used
to support the Mugabe regime were not spared either, it is quite possible
that they too voted against the ruling party in the last election.
At Whitecliff Farm, about 20km west of Harare, where the government said
they were starting a massive reconstruction programme for the displaced
people, Ntuli found construction was at a standstill the day he visited.
Prison inmates were clearing more land, along with graduates of the National
Youth Service. One of the youths said trucks delivering building materials
had been grounded by fuel shortages. Local Government Deputy
Minister Morris Sakabuya admitted "there have been problems of fuel and
concrete". Meanwhile, people are making their own temporary shacks from
plastic to shield themselves from the cold. This is not "kugarika" as we
know it.
The US Senate Committee recently confirmed
Ambassador Jendayi Fraser as the assistant secretary of state for Africa.
Ambassador Fraser's appointment has a potential of pushing a more aggressive
US policy on Zimbabwe. While US ambassador to South Africa, Ms.
Fraser advocated more pressure to be brought on Mugabe in the aftermath of
what she saw as an ineffective policy of quiet diplomacy practiced by South
African president Thabo Mbeki. Ambassador Fraser did not mince her
words when she called upon a coalition of the willing to put together an
agenda that would effectively force Mugabe to a conference table with
opposition leaders. In her position as undersecretary of state for
African affairs Ambassador Fraser, who is very knowledgeable about Zimbabwe,
will most likely put US policy on Zimbabwe in high gear. While US policy
decisions on Africa are made in the overall context of broader US interests
in Africa, there is every reason to believe that Ambassador Fraser will be
relatively successful in promoting within the US policy on Zimbabwe the idea
of an effective coalition of the willing as well as any other strategies the
US can adopt independently. Already President Bush has signed an
executive order freezing the US assets of 26 Zimbabwean companies that are
said to be controlled by some of Mugabe's cronies. The big question
is whether any new tougher policies on Mugabe will be effective. Mugabe has
so far resisted all kinds of pressures on him. There is fear in the US state
department that any increase in pressures on Mugabe will tend to portray him
as standing in for a small country like Zimbabwe against the giant United
States. However, the US can increase pressure on SADC. This may well be
happening now with AU appointing Chissano as a special envoy on
Zimbabwe. If anyone needed evidence that ZANUPF leader Robert Mugabe
has not only abandoned Zimbabweans to their fate but has also no interest in
efforts to democratize Zimbabwe one needs to look at the latest events in
the past few weeks. Fresh out of demolishing people's homes and
property Mugabe is on to his new outrage, namely, blocking humanitarian food
shipments to the very same people he has so callously starved to near
death. Mugabe is directly responsible for the food crisis as well as
the social and political consequences of the crisis of governance which he
has precipitated. This is not the first time Mugabe has played
politics with food distribution. A few years ago he effectively blocked the
MDC from ordering food from South Africa. Tonnes of food shipment purchased
by the MDC lay at the Beit Bridge border while not far away Zimbabweans were
starving. Then Mugabe ordered that all humanitarian food shipments must
be handed over to ZANUPF for distribution to needy Zimbabweans. Everyone
knows that food distribution by ZANUPF is specifically destined to Mugabe's
supporters. Known opposition supporters who need food aid have been
systematically denied the food which has been donated from abroad.
Thus when ZANUPF took over the distribution of food it used it for their
political expediency. The cold, heartless and ruthless attitude by
Mugabe towards Zimbabweans led one American diplomat to say to Mugabe: Why
Mr. President do I, an American, have to convince you to feed your own
starving people? This was a revealing statement that was made directly to
Mugabe. It was a culmination of frustration with Mugabe by the international
community . It sounds very ironic that, in the face of such obvious and
overwhelming starvation among vast majorities of Zimbabweans, Mugabe has not
only frustrated efforts to bring in humanitarian food shipments but has
refused to make an appeal for international aid on behalf of
Zimbabweans. And now Mugabe is being dragged kicking and screaming to
meet with the opposition leadership in the MDC. Mugabe, in one of
his heroes' days acts of defiance has declared that he will under no
circumstances talk to MDC leader Tsvangirai. Mugabe got carried away with
his exuberance when he said he would rather talk to Tony Blair, the British
prime minister. The reason he gave was that MDC is controlled by the
British. Alternatively, Mugabe said if he were to talk to Tsvangirai MDC
must break links with the British. On another occasion Mugabe said he can
only talk to MDC in Parliament. All of these are evidently desperate
measures by Mugabe to try to escape the spotlight, now that he has been
exposed as the stumbling block not only in short -term effort to help
starving Zimbabweans but also efforts to resolve the problems of bad
governance in Zimbabwe. There appears to have been a flurry of
diplomatic activities to try to get Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai to
begin talks. It seems the initiative came from a meeting between Thabo Mbeki
and the G-8 in July. At the international level the G-8 leaders
discussed Zimbabwe. Both Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and Mbeki
attended the summit which was overshadowed by the bombings in
London. It seems that at this meeting both Obasanjo and Mbeki were
tasked with trying to bring Mugabe and Tsvangirai to talks. But knowing that
Mugabe would refuse the G-8 leaders must have offered a financial incentive
through South Africa to try to persuade Mugabe to talk to opposition leader
Tsvangirai. This probably explains a sudden interest by South Africa to
grant Zimbabwe a loan of $500 million or more. The initiatives for
the dialogue are not only coming from the G-8 but from the African Union
which recently appointed former Mozambican leader Joacquim Chissano as its
special representative on Zimbabwe. At the regional level leaders of
the southern African development community (SADC) were scheduled to meet
this week. It was not immediately clear whether Zimbabwe would be on the
agenda. In summary, the flurry of diplomatic initiatives would
supposedly include at the motivation of the G-8 countries three levels
ranging from the G-8, the African Union and SADC. We can almost
rule out SADC and to some extent the African Union playing an effective role
on Zimbabwe. These two organizations have supported Mugabe fully. The
African Union at one time would not intervene in the destruction of property
and homes by Mugabe because, according to a spokesman for the organization
the AU was too busy attending to some other business. The
bottom-line is that whatever role the international community plays it is
likely to persuade or encourage, rather than pressure, Mugabe and ZANUPF to
change. Zimbabweans cannot afford to sit by and wait and hope that the
international community will effectively bring about the desired changes in
Zimbabwe. Civic society leadership in Zimbabwe must at all times be
strategizing how to engage the masses into an onslaught against Mugabe.
However any talk about what role the masses can play is almost always
defensively met with the fear that any plan involving mass action is likely
to be doomed. On the face of it, or initially, Mugabe may succeed in
quashing such actions as has happened so far. But if these actions are
persistent they will eventually tire or wear out Mugabe. Apartheid South
Africa is a good example of where mass action ultimately won the day in the
campaign against apartheid. MDC leadership has also conceded that,
so far, all other strategies to force Mugabe to talk with MDC have not been
successful. It is therefore time to review strategies for mass action. Such
actions can come in various forms. As they say, there are many ways of
skinning a cat. What MDC and civic society should be looking at right now
are different strategies for confronting Mugabe. New actions need not start
with mobilizing thousands of Zimbabweans in a street protest. What MDC and
civic society need is to put together a small group of dedicated individuals
who will instigate non violent acts of civil disobedience. Acts of
civil disobedience can range from distributing pro democracy flyers,
documenting and widely publicizing criminal acts by Mugabe against the
Zimbabweans; and in some cases disobeying orders under either POSA or AIPPA
on the grounds that such orders are unconstitutional. Civic society leaders
can also encourage Zimbabweans to come up with acts of civil disobedience
that can be implemented by individuals or groups. It is absolutely
essential that Zimbabweans contribute towards their own liberation. I have
always stated that the international community, especially South Africa,
will always come up with its own agenda about how to reform ZANUPF. If there
is no involvement by masses in the democratization process chances are the
terms for the resolution of the crisis in Zimbabwe may not be to the liking
of the masses.
Zimbabwe's Secretary for Information, George Charamba, says heads will roll
at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings' news arm, Newsnet, because of chaos there
and because of the "tired and weak" way the national broadcaster handled a
recent speech by President Robert Mugabe, Gugulethu Ziyaphapha
reports.
Charamba, who is also the Presidential spokesperson,
was also irked by the fact that the newsroom hotline went unanswered when he
tried phoning it for more than an hour. Charamba was not amused by Newsnet's
headline story of the day, which was: "President Mugabe has called on
Zimbabweans to defend their independence and sovereignty." He argues that
there was nothing newsworthy about that because that has been President
Mugabe's call since 1980. Charamba says what was more relevant to today's
situation in the President's speech was about the controversial operation
cleanup and his opposition to talks with the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change. Charamba wanted the headline changed and stormed the
newsroom after failing to get the editors on their mobile phones and after
also failing to get anyone on the widely advertised news hotline, which went
unanswered for more than an hour. "I phoned ZBH on their hotline between
6:30 and 7:20 p.m. and all my calls went unanswered. I got so furious and
had to leave my wife who is bed-ridden and go to ZBH. "When I got there,
there was chaos in the newsroom. It is appalling for a 24-hour newsroom to
leave its hotline unattended when news breaks every minute," fumed Charamba.
When he got to the newsroom, the Information Secretary was also angered when
he found out that staffers were attending to private duties during working
hours. "There was confusion in the newsroom and what I saw showed there was
no one in charge and no one working." He also attacked Newsnet for not
giving radio news the prominence it deserves. He said the editors
concentrated on television news when the majority of the population relies
on radio for news. Newsnet came under fire for only extracting the first two
paragraphs of the presidential speech and passing it as the headline. "There
is a serious problem in that newsroom and it's an area I am going to tackle
head on. I am not going to stand by, there will be changes in the newsroom,"
said Charamba. Newsnet's Editor In Chief, Chris Chivinge confirmed the
unprofessionalism at the newsroom and said he had earlier on told the
newsroom staff to correct the anomaly and they did not act until the
information secretary arrived. "While one can defend the omission of
essential facts on 'perspective', the slow response of the team is
unacceptable" said Chivinge. He also hinted that there would be changes at
the newsroom. Newsnet whose motto is "We will be there when it happens" has
been rocked by scandals of sexual favors, incompetent staff and forging of
journalism qualifications by some staffers. Charamba called on the Media and
Information Commission to investigate those who are working as journalists
without proper qualifications. Some journalists dismissed Charamba's call
for a revamp at the newsroom saying he was also instrumental and responsible
for the decaying of standards, which started five years ago when he was
serving in his same capacity under the disgraced former Information
Minister, Prof Jonathan Moyo. "Some of the policies Charamba formulated and
implemented are the root cause of what's taking place at ZBH, so he must not
act as if he is seeing it for the first time. "If he wants to fire people,
he should just fire without blaming us for a rotten system he helped put in
place, that's how the President's speech has been covered all this years"
argued one Newsnet journalist. Fear, anxiety, uncertainty and low morale can
best describe the situation at the newsroom since Charamba and ZBH's
Executive Chairman, Dr Rino Zhuwarara confirmed that the axe is set to fall
at the state broadcaster's news arm.
OPINION August 15, 2005 Posted to the web August 15,
2005
Zimbabwean Embassy
The Embassy of the Republic of
Zimbabwe would like to respond to a news item that appeared in Mmegi on 05
August 2005, where a Ditshwanelo board member, Ms Joyce Anderson requested
Ambassador Mphoko to apologise for his remarks to the panelists from
Zimbabwe, Jenni Williams, Magodonga Mah1angu and Attorney Beatrice Mtetwa,
for distorting the facts on the situation in Zimbabwe at a Ditshwanelo focus
seminar on Zimbabwe.
Ditshwanelo board member, Joyce Anderson also wanted
to know how Ambassador Mphoko wou1d feel if he was a woman living in
Zimbabwe under the conditions painted by the said panelists.
First
and foremost, Ambassador Mphoko does not owe anyone an apology for the
remarks he made at the Ditshwanelo seminar on Zimbabwe.
On the second
question on women Ambassador Mphoko has very high regard and respect for
women of integrity.
His mother was a woman and his best friend is his
wife who is also a woman but he despises a liar and abuser of opportunities
regardless of gender.
Anyone who claims that there is no rule of law and
democracy in Zimbabwe is a liar.
A country where there is no rule of
law has its streets littered with dead bodies. There are no dead bodies in
Zimbabwe. A country with no democracy has its prisons full of political
prisoners, there are no political prisoners in Zimbabwe.
On
journalists, it is an international requirement for them to register and
Zimbabwe is no exception. On Justice Paradza's case, he was arrested on
corruption charges emanating from his attempts to free a business partner
who was sentenced to jail for murder. There were no other considerations for
his arrest.
The Senior ZANU PF officials referred to were involved in
espionage. Those involved in espionage threaten national security and States
take the necessary action to protect and safeguard national security.
Gukurahundi, as referred to by Mahlangu was a conspiracy by the West in
order to protect the apartheid regime in South Africa. The total strategy
was to destroy the perceived lines of communication of the ANC in Zimbabwe.
However ZAPU and ZANU discussed the matter and sighed an agreement in
December, 1987. Murambatsvina / Restore Order, is a Government programme to
improve the living standards of the people of Zimbabwe or an anti-slums
programme.
The Government of Zimbabwe which is the official custodian of
the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe, will do everything in its power to
avoid a situation where some journalists make pleasure in taking photos of
an African child looking miserable with flies all over its face, or where a
weak dying child will be made to stand and try to walk in front of a camera
with vultures hoping behind and start to eat the child while still alive.
That is the highest degree of human rights abuse. That is what will never
happen in Zimbabwe. President Mugabe is being punished for his views on
homosexuals and lesbians. the land reform programme and "Look East
Policy".
These three (3) points supported by cheque book journalism and
sponsored conspiracies are the real issues against Zimbabwe and President
Mugabe.
GOVERNMENT'S commitment to wind up the controversial land
reform suffered a major setback last week with revelations that the granting
of "99-year leases" on re-allocated land will take longer than
expected.
National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement
Minister, Didymus Mutasa, announced that government would have to survey the
land before issuing out title deeds to new farmers.
Mutasa said:
"Land will have to be properly surveyed. So it will take some time before
you can get the leases."
Mutasa made the revelations during the BAT
Tobacco Grower of the Year award ceremony held recently in Harare. This
delay will mean that new farmers cannot access loans from financial
institutions, as they do not have the collateral.
The Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) has also been at the forefront urging government to speed up
the process and issue out leases, as they are "an indispensable
pre-requisite for financial sector to play a meaningful supportive role in
agriculture".
In his Mid-Term Monetary Policy review recently, RBZ
Governor, Dr Gideon Gono, said: "As part of creating a lasting foundation
for a sound take off in agricultural production, it is imperative that the
issue of land tenure be brought to finality, with due implementation of
government's policy of 99- year leases on all re-allocated
land."
Meanwhile, there are reports that Zimbabwean hopes of a better
2005/2006 agricultural season may be fail because of a combined shortage of
seeds and agro-chemicals.
The crippling shortage of foreign currency
has impacted heavily on Agricura Zimbabwe, which imports most of the raw
materials used in manufacturing agricultural chemicals.
Agricura
Product Manager, Dennis Anderson, told StandardBusiness that the company was
facing several challenges, which will have serious ripple effects on
agricultural production.
"Everything we use in producing agro-chemicals
is imported and we do not have the foreign currency", he said. Anderson said
although the Reserve Bank was providing foreign currency, it was "very
little and inadequate".
An official from Seed Co said that there had been
a fall in the demand for seed from 80 000 tonnes in the past two years to 50
000 tonnes this year. Thirty-three thousands tonnes of the required seeds
will be produced locally while the remainder will have to be
imported.
"We will have to import again this year but we do not have
foreign currency. It's unfortunate that agriculture used to produce its own
foreign currency but now we are begging", said the official. Zimbabwe has
experienced successive droughts during the past six years and most farmers
who were interviewed by StandardBusiness expressed pessimism over the coming
season.
"Today there many problems confronting seed production. The
infrastructure is bad and the major problem is that of grass control due to
labour shortages," said the official.
Elephants storm Zimbabwe resort A herd of stray
elephants has gone on the rampage in the northern Zimbabwean resort town of
Kariba. The elephants destroyed homes and caused residents to flee from
a township near a national park.
A team from Zimbabwe's
National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is trying to find out why
the animals seem to be moving closer to people's houses.
Zimbabwe has some 100,000 elephants, while its parks have a capacity for
just 45,000.
National Parks spokesman retired Major Edward Mbewe
told the state-owned Herald newspaper that he did not believe reports that
elephants were moving closer to settlements in search of food and water
after this year's poor rains.
Last updated: 08/15/2005
22:52:50 THE bad conditions in Zimbabwe have assumed a kind of
stability in recent weeks and months. No one any longer expects anything
positive to immediately happen, and the government no longer pretends it has
any plan to deal with the multitudes of crises bedeviling the
nation.
Since the central bank's devaluation of the of the Zim
dollar a few weeks ago prices of everything have predictably skyrocketed yet
again. Central banker Gideon Gono's recent prediction that the latest
increase in inflation is short term and that the rate will fall to about 80%
by year-end now seems astonishingly out of touch with reality. The official
rate of 164% also seems plainly fictitious. While the post-devaluation
Zim-US dollar exchange rate now stands at about 18,000:1, the street rate
hovers between 40,000 and 50,000 to one.
We no longer hear any
pronouncements about the now normal situation of fuel shortages. Most
service stations are without fuel for far longer than they have it. It is
now the norm for most to go without a delivery for weeks. Some have put
their employees on half pay because they spend the majority of their work
time just sitting around. Yet as long as the service stations are still in
business, they must keep their staff employed because they could just be
lucky to get a delivery with little or warning, keeping them limping along
for a little while longer. Efforts have been made by the authorities to
control the situation where service stations getting the heavily subsidized
government fuel would sell some at the mandated Z$10,000 a litre, and then
flog the rest on the black market at prices many times that. But despite
these efforts many service station owners find ways around
them.
The recent move to allow a few select service stations to
sell fuel for hard currency is the inevitable beginning of the opening up of
fuel procurement, which should have been done years ago. There is simply
nothing the government can do short of completely opening up the importation
and pricing of fuel to get rid of the problem. As usual, the dull Mugabe
regime will be dragged to this reality kicking and screaming after huge
damage has been done to the economy.
First moves towards this
have been allowing anyone who has their own forex "outside the country" to
bring in fuel. But they are officially not allowed to sell it for more than
the official prices, which are below the cost of free-market forex. In other
words you are allowed to bring in your own fuel with your own forex, but you
must sell it at a loss! Of course the importers who are doing this refuse to
commit suicide and find ways around this, keeping the fuel black market
going.
The officially designated forex service stations sell the
fuel for US$1 per litre, which at the official rate translates to about
Zim$18,000 a litre. If one were getting their US dollars at the official
rate (Zim18,000:US$1) this would not be an unreasonable price. Although
close to twice the Zim$10,000 per litre of other service stations, most
Zimbabweans would be happy to pay this to get fuel regularly. But of course
there are very few Zimbabweans with access to forex of any kind, certainly
not reliably and constantly enough to make any difference. This means that
these are service stations for the elite-NGOs, foreign embassies, a few
corporations, etc. It is a type of fuel apartheid in which the ordinary
Zimbabwean motorist is discriminated against for not having foreign
currency!
But apart from this, it makes little sense for a
holder of forex to buy his fuel at US$1 per litre, which translates to
Zim$50,000 at the black market rate that counts for virtually all
transactions regardless of what the government says. So much better to
change his US dollars on the black market, get his Zim$50,000 for every US
dollar and then try and buy the fuel at the majority "local currency"
garages at the heavily, unrealistically subsidized price of Zim$10,000 per
litre. Even if he surreptitiously offered the service station attendant
Zim$20,000 per litre he would still be better off than going to the forex
service station and paying effectively Zim$50,000 per litre with his
forex.
Of course the subsidized fuel isn't available very often but
one could still save a lot of money by hiring a driver to drive to do
nothing but investigate which few service stations have the subsidized fuel.
I give all this detail to show how in setting its policies the Mugabe
government is not terribly gifted in the brain department, at just taking
into account what is happening around them. What they are good at is beating
up citizens, repression, destruction and figuring out ways to reduce ever
more of their freedoms.
Speaking of which, the latest outrages
against those remaining freedoms are plans for the government to muscle in
on the running of private schools and to be able to withdraw passports on
suspiciously flimsy grounds. Of course both moves have aroused howls of
protest but given a supine parliament, they could soon become law, creating
far more problems for the country and the government that it can deal with
now, exactly like happened with the disastrous "Operation destroy homes and
livelihoods." That in the latest of ill-advised moves showed any of the
world that still doubted it what a vicious monster of a regime Mugabe
presides over. Worse shacks are going up now in the many areas that homes
and lives were destroyed in the madness of official violence.
One result of messing around with the freedom of movement would be to draw
attention to the many children and relatives of leading regime members
roaming around the world unfettered. The colleges and universities of the
Western world have many of the offspring of regime members and that would be
a rich source of putting the screws on their repressive
parents.
Mugabe's pleading for British prime minister Tony Blairs's
attention has become more shrill and desperate as Blair continues to
stoically ignore him. After all the deeply personal insults Mugabe has
hurled at Blair over the years, why he should find Blair unreceptive to his
pleas is surprising. Mugabe now shrilly almost begs for Blair to notice him
in a manner that is most demeaning. Mugabe's loud rantings as his country
lies in ruins makes him a real spectacle to behold, an object of
international fascination for being such an entertaining though vicious
comic of a ruler.
Some people would wish to see Zimbabweans throng
the streets in protest against Mugabe's ruin of Zimbabwe and be
enthusiastically mowed down by his troops. That would give them the
satisfaction that Zimbabweans "are doing something about their oppression."
For reasons of lack of the right leadership and the fact that Mugabe's
government is beyond the reach of moral suasion, this is not the best way to
take him on. I agree with the many Zimbabweans who ignore the MDC's calls
for unexplained job stayaways and street protests. People are right to
demand to know what a particular action is designed to achieve before
letting themselves be led into the line of fire. But what is often
ignored, perhaps because it is a new type of struggle in post-independent
Africa, is how Mugabe is losing the battle on many fronts that are not
immediately apparent. Fighting and rendering despots effectively useless has
evolved beyond taking up arms.
Mugabe may for now be firmly
ensconced at the presidential palace but he wears his crown uneasily if not
miserably. He is at least as much a prisoner of events as he is a director
of them. He must cling on to a position he no longer can make work no enjoys
because for him the alternative, leaving office alive, is too frightening
given all the misery that can be laid at his door. His authority has been so
whittled away at home and abroad that he has no room or wherewithal to do
anything except oil his military machine. If power in an enlightened sense
rather than just a physical one means the ability to facilitate, to build,
to motivate, to move one's country forward, then Mugabe has certainly been
reduced to a paper tiger.
Of course even in that weakened
position he is capable of doing a lot more damage than he has done and a
meaningful victory can only be declared when a new dispensation reigns. But
in terms of stripping him of the legitimacy and respectability that he has
always been so desperate for, that important part of the battle has all but
been won. If we accept that the battle to return Zimbabwe to normality will
be a long hard won given the ruthlessness of its ruler, then this latest
progression in showing beyond doubt the nature of the regime must be put in
its proper context.
More of the world, even those portions of it
that would have liked to support Mugabe for one symbolic reason or another,
find it increasingly untenable to do so. That is why more economic,
diplomatic and other doors are being closed off to him. This same
progression of events and pressures have led to the fall of many mightier
empires than the regime of Mugabe. We may be just at too much of an
uncomfortable stage of the progression to notice how weakened Mugabe is in
real terms. CONTACT CHIDO: chidomakunike@yahoo.com
Makunike is a regular columnist for New Zimbabwe.com and a social and
political commentator based in Harare
Ibbo Mandaza, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Mirror
Newspapers, has described reports that the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) has secretly taken control of three independent newspapers in the
country as inaccurate.
This comes after a report in the Zimbabwe
Independent newspaper on Friday stated that the country's CIO the had
secretly taken control of three independent newspapers including the Daily
Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the Financial Gazette, using billions of dollars of
taxpayers' money.
Mandaza denied any shareholding by the CIO, but did not
deny however that there were some operations by the CIO within the paper. He
said an enquiry will be launched. The issue will be referred to authorities
for clarification of the matter and a statement will be issued if
necessary.
Mandaza added that from a financial point of view, the paper
was doing well.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the
views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 15 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Ratidzai
Haparingi trots along the veranda of a classroom block at the Zengeza 3 High
School in Chitungwiza, a satellite town 30km east of Zimbabwe's capital,
Harare, occasionally stopping to check whether a classroom is
vacant.
This has been her daily routine since last year, when the school
introduced 'roving classes' in an attempt to alleviate classroom shortages.
A 'roving class' has no permanent classroom.
When Ratidzai finds one,
she scoots back to fetch her classmates waiting in the schoolyard and
shepherds them to the classroom before another 'roving class' takes
it.
Then she has to perform one more chore: as a prefect she has to find
a teacher to take the class through its lesson, otherwise she has to lead
her 40 classmates in discussing the subject. "We try to teach ourselves but
at times it is the proverbial blind leading the blind," Ratidzai told
IRIN.
The introduction of 'roving classes' is one more sign that the
education system - once lauded for its high standards - is
unraveling.
Pass rates at both primary and secondary schools have fallen
dramatically, while teacher morale has been dented by the lack of adequate
infrastructure and teaching aids.
The Zimbabwe Schools Examination
Council (Zimsec) has elicited public criticism for its record of
incompetence in executing its mandate after it issued results for subjects
students had not sat for, or certificates reflecting an incomplete number of
subjects.
A government-run boarding primary school at Macheke, about 100
km east of Harare, was closed recently to pacify parents and guardians
outraged over allegations of sexual abuse.
Raymond Majongwe,
secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), has
accused the education ministry of negligence.
Commenting on proposed
amendments to the Education Act that would allow more government control
over schools, Majongwe said: "We are not arguing that the ministry should
not have some control, but too much of it is uncalled for."
He suggested
that the government should instead look into introducing measures to improve
working conditions in the education sector.
During the past five years an
average of 2.5 million children have been enrolled at primary schools
throughout the country, but of the 1.7 million who completed seven years of
primary school, a mere 800,000 have had access to secondary school
education.
According to Education, Sport and Culture Minister Aeneas
Chigwedere, at least 320,000 students sat for Ordinary Level examinations in
2003, of whom 250,000 failed.
Research has shown that Zimbabwe needs
an additional 1,800 new primary schools and 1,500 new secondary schools to
cope with increased enrolment.
In response the education ministry
introduced double sessions in schools, but this has not solved the problems
of overcrowding.
Chigwedere and Higher and Tertiary Education Minister
Stan Mudenge have noted the increasing demand for Zimbabwean professionals
in the United Kingdom, the United States and neighbouring African countries
as evidence of the country's high quality of education.
But education
expert Fidelis Mhashu disagreed, saying, "The government mistakes the flight
of Zimbabwean professionals ... as a barometer for the quality of its
education, yet these people are running away from the current economic and
political crisis that has created serious unemployment."
An estimated
three million Zimbabweans - out of a population of 11.6 million - have left
the country in search of better employment
opportunities.
[ This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 15
Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations country team in Zimbabwe will meet with
government representatives to finalise an appeal to help those made homeless
by the controversial Operation Murambatsvina ('Drive out Filth') campaign in
urban areas.
UN Resident Coordinator Dr Agostinho Zacarias told IRIN on
Monday that the team had made concrete progress in formulating the
appeal.
"The government of Zimbabwe has received our proposal - the draft
appeal - and they are looking at it. They said they would be coming back to
us with suggested amendments or adjustments they want made," Zacarias
said.
Although he hoped the final appeal would be launched this week,
Zacarias noted that this could only happen "after our discussions with the
government, and we have to coordinate with our colleagues in New York [at UN
headquarters]".
Operation Murambatsvina affected over 700,000 people
after the government demolished informal homes and businesses in the
country's urban centres.
The campaign was heavily criticised by UN
Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who said it "breached both national and
international human rights law provisions guiding evictions" and had
resulted in a humanitarian crisis.
News reports last week quoted Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) as saying the government was preventing aid
from reaching displaced families.
About 2,260 people have been living at
Hopley Farm on the southern outskirts of the capital, Harare, where they had
gone for a week or more "without a decent meal, clean water or sanitary
facilities or temporary shelter", ZLHR said in a statement.
Zacarias
told IRIN that "WFP [World Food Programme], IOM [International Organisation
for Migration], UNICEF [the UN Children's Fund] and MSF [Medecins Sans
Frontieres] have all been able to access the people at Hopley Farm since
late last week" after negotiations with authorities.
"Of course, the
situation regarding access [to people in need] is on the agenda for our
discussions with the government. We are not quite sure how many other
'Hopley Farms' there might be around the country but ... we had difficulty
in accessing the people there. We have to negotiate access while we discuss
strategies on how to address the situation in its entirety," he
noted.
Government participation in drafting the appeal was crucial to
this.
"This appeal is the result of wanting to organise things with the
government ... the really important point is bringing the government along
with us, so that it opens up the humanitarian space [in the country],"
Zacarias stressed.
Newspapers struggle to survive political and financial pressures
[ This
report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 15 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - An inflationary
environment and political pressure is making Zimbabwean newspapers
financially vulnerable, according to media sources.
"There are
exorbitant costs involved. All of us [newspaper publishers] have enormous
debts - we owe money to the banks," said publisher and editor Ibbo
Mandaza.
"Newsprint accounts for 70 percent of our costs - it costs
about Zim $20 million (about US $1,100) a tonne and we require three tonnes
a day," noted Mandaza, head of the Southern Africa Publishing House (SAPHO),
which owns and prints the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror.
Escalating
fuel costs and increasing salaries to keep up with the high inflation rate
have also impacted on the company's resources.
Besides the financial
costs, Mandaza said he had to contend with the psychological pressure of
"safeguarding his journalists every day" - he and two journalists from his
publishing house were detained in 1999.
This week Mandaza was busy
fielding queries related to a controversial news report claiming that the
Mirror group, the Financial Gazette and the suspended weekly, the Tribune,
had either been bought or approached with a takeover bid by the Central
Intelligence Operation (CIO), Zimbabwe's state security agency.
The
report's claims have been shot down by all the publications involved, but it
highlighted yet again the vulnerability of the media in a politically
charged environment.
"I have a 100 percent stake in SAPHO - I own the
publishing house. We have in the past - i.e. before 2003 - received offers
from several people we found unsuitable; we have not received any offers
since then," Mandaza confirmed. "We might have CIO agents in my newspaper
and I will be unable to confirm that - I mean state security agencies across
the world have agents in the media - they are all over the
place."
Kindness Paradza, publisher of Africa Tribune Newspapers (ATN),
which used to print the Tribune newspaper, said in the past he had also been
approached with offers, "but I will not be able to confirm whether they were
CIO operatives - I wouldn't know".
Paradza has other pressing
problems: he is fighting to keep his business afloat after the
government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) suspended ATN
for a year in June 2004.
Last month the MIC turned down ATN's application
to resume publication, saying the company had failed to show that it had
enough capital, and because it intended operating from a
residence.
"How was I expected to rent business premises if I had not yet
been given a licence? Anyway, I have gone ahead and rented premises and met
with all the requirements asked, and resubmitted my application last week,"
said Paradza.
ATN shut down when the MIC ruled that it had failed to
inform the commission that The Tribune - initially published on Thursdays as
The Business Tribune, and on Saturdays as The Weekend Tribune - had merged
into The Tribune, which had gone on sale on Fridays.
The one-year
suspension was based on allegations of breaching the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which stipulates that the commission
must be informed of any changes in the titles, frequency and ownership of a
licensed media house.
"We realise the costs of running the operation -
both financially and psychologically - but we are journalists: we cannot
earn a living doing anything else," commented Paradza, who has been in the
profession for 22 years. ATN is owned by journalists, with Paradza owning a
90 percent stake.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa, a media
watchdog, said controversial legislation such as AIPPA had placed an
additional burden on journalists in Zimbabwe.
"They have to operate
in constant fear of possibly breaching the legislation," commented MISA's
Nyasha Nyakunu.
The MIC was set up under Zimbabwe's controversial AIPPA
law to license newspapers and journalists. In a high-profile decision in
2004 it denied a licence to Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), which
owned two antigovernment papers: the Daily News, once the country's largest
selling newspaper, and the Daily News on Sunday.
Despite these
pressures, Mandaza said his company had taken out yet another loan to
purchase a printing plant recently. "We hope to divert some of the resources
that we will now be able to save towards increasing our
circulation."
The public's "thirst for information" was what kept
publishing houses running, Paradza maintained. "Almost 80 percent of
Zimbabwe's population is literate. We already had our niche market because
of our middle-of-the-road stance" regarding the government. "With our belief
in accurate reporting we hope to maintain our readership - we believe you
can do business in Zimbabwe."
Besides the official daily, The Herald,
and pro-government The Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe's press stable includes the
privately owned weeklies The Financial Gazette, The Independent and The
Standard.
SCHINDLER Lifts Zimbabwe is no longer able to repair lifts and
escalators due to shortage of fuel and foreign currency, StandardBusiness
has established.
An official at Schindler said lifts, which stop
functioning without anyone trapped inside, were no longer a priority in
repairs.
"We are not getting any allocation at the auction floors to
import spare parts," said the official. The spare parts, which include
controllers, and print, which is software for the elevators, are imported
from neighbouring South Africa and Europe.
"In October we applied for
27 000 Euros to buy modernisation kit which was going to be used for
repairing elevators. In March we applied for R17 500 to buy spare parts for
a client's elevator and recently we applied for US$ 210 for our technician's
incidental expenses, at the workshop he is attending in South Africa, which
was never approved," the official said.
The official also said wherever
necessary they buy local parts but some components are not found locally.
When they cannot acquire the parts they just switch off the elevators to
protect the lives of passengers. The impact is mostly felt by those running
their business on 16th floor or other floors. They will lose clients who
find it taxing to use stairs.
UP TO 1 600 workers at TelOne are to lose their jobs due to the
restructuring and restrategising programme, which the company has embarked
on.
TelOne Public Relations Manager Phil Chingwaru told Standard
Business that the retrenchment would affect a number of parastatals that
have all been challenged to boost their performance. He, however, said that
for TelOne the turnaround strategy should help them improve their operations
and keep up with latest technology.
"TelOne is retrenching workers
because we want to come up with a compact programme. We are restructuring
and restrategising so that we focus on new ways of doing things. Currently
the company has 3 900 employees." Chingwaru added that the retrenchment is
set to affect all workers and they are looking at how each and every worker
performs.
THE Tourism Act is up for an amendment to give more powers to
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) to rein in 'errant' tourism operators,
it has emerged.
Tourism authorities told StandardBusiness last week
that operators were taking advantage of the laxity in the legislation and
were reneging in supplying ZTA with statistics on a monthly basis. Operators
have to supply the tourism promotion body with statistics on the 15th of
each month.
At a Tourism Statistics workshop last week ZTA said that a
paltry 20% of operators were releasing information required by the authority
to compile statistical information on time. ZTA said that some operators
were supplying the authority with inaccurate and inconsistent
information.
ZTA said the delay in releasing information by the 15th of
every month handicapped the tourism promotion body to release statistical
data on time. ZTA collects information from operators through the Levy and
Statistical Remittance form issued in terms of the Tourism Act Chapter
14:20.
Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema said although there
was adequate legislation to deal with concerns in the tourism sector, there
was a proposal to centralise authority in the Tourism Act.
Nhema
said: "We have enough legislation to deal with health and security concerns
but there is a proposal that would it not be possible to have the Tourism
Act with powers to deal with issues of health, security and
environment."
Meanwhile, despite government's proclaimed "Look East"
policy, figures released by ZTA show that tourist arrivals from China have
declined in the first half of 2005 as compared to last year.
Arrivals
from China/ Hong Kong plummeted to just under 5 000 this year from 10 000 in
the year comparable. Arrivals from the UK recorded a percentage change of
26% while those from Canada recorded an increase of 14%. Overally, tourist
arrivals decreased by 8% with the greatest slump (36%) being recorded in the
overseas market. The African market had a slight decrease (1%).
The formation of a government of national unity in
Zimbabwe is not necessarily the solution to that country's political
problems, a South African government official said on
Monday.
Neither the ruling Zanu-PF nor the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) regards a unity government as an
imperative, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters in
Pretoria.
"It would be useless, us insisting on something
both sides say is not fundamental," he said, referring to reports that this
was a precondition for South Africa granting its neighbour a
loan.
A more pertinent consideration, Pahad said, is that
money loaned have an impact on the Zimbabwean economy.
"We are negotiating in the ... broad context that we need fundamental
economic changes, and how do we minimise the political tensions of Zimbabwe
without necessarily talking about governments of national
unity."
Pahad said there is a need for a "real re-look"
at Zimbabwe's economic affairs. Issues that need to be examined include the
independence of the central bank, exchange-rate interventions and getting
agricultural productivity back on track.
A decision on a
loan will take into account "certain basic realities", including that
Zimbabwe's expulsion from the International Monetary Fund over debt will
lead to a further deterioration of the country's political and economic
situation.
"All our interventions on the Zimbabwean issue
have been to prevent a failed state on our doorstep," Pahad
said.
Talks on the loan are ongoing between South African
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito
Mboweni and their Zimbabwean counterparts.
"They have not
indicated anything," Pahad said.
He did not know about claims
that Zimbabwe has decided to turn down the financial help over reported
strict preconditions.
There should be a report on the loan
discussions "in a short time", the deputy minister said, since the
negotiators have to inform the South African Parliament of the
detail.
Pahad said the Zimbabwean issue has not been tabled
as a separate agenda item for this week's Southern African Development
Community council of ministers and heads of state meetings in
Botswana.
"But clearly these matters are always discussed, if
not formally, then informally."
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe, re-elected in a disputed poll in 2002, has recently ruled out
talks with the MDC.
The country's economic woes were partly
caused by Mugabe's land-reform programme, which saw thousands of commercial
farms seized since 2000.
Recently, the government came
under criticism for an urban slum clean-up campaign estimated to have left
hundreds of thousands homeless. -- Sapa
Challenge to South Africa's President: Are You
Imposing Zimbabwe's Policies? Dr. Izak Labuschagne -
8/15/2005 The hard facts regarding land reform in South Africa totally
contradicts the political rhetoric. It is so bad that in one instance an
open challenge to the President of South Africa had to be posted on the web.
The cat simply slipped out of the bag regarding the statement by the Deputy
President of South Africa reported on by most newspapers over the last few
days. She said:
"Land reform in South Africa has been too slow
and too structured. There needs to be a bit of 'oomph'. That's why we may
need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us," she said at an education
conference. "On agrarian and land reform, South Africa should learn some
lessons from Zimbabwe - how to do it fast."
Like so many before
them, white South Africans are just being duped with political rhetoric
until the South African Communist Party influences the ruling ANC government
to strike in the classic savage style - a style that has become the
historically established political modus operandi and the accepted norm of
southern African states. A formula underwritten by hefty offers of finance
to Zimbabwe from South Africa.
We who are here in Africa have to
suffer all forms of attack when we try to get the truth out. Some of us
could leave, but we stay on so as to try and provide some form of support
and protection for the many innocent folk who will be part of the next
outbreak of African racial hatred, destruction, rape and
genocide.
The wave of bloody attacks and murders against South
African farmers has already been declared a precursor to genocide by
prominent United Nations researchers. Another Zimbabwe looms ahead for South
Africans. Is the world again going to react when it is too late? There are
no racial boundaries in these attacks. As was the case in Zimbabwe, white
and black opponents of the government were targeted. In this case the
Coloured (people of mixed White and Black descent) communities of the
Northern Cape are targeted. In other parts of the country, Zulus, Shangaans
and anyone not daring to support the ANC / SACP/ COSATU alliance are on the
hit list.
South Africans have to endure the tangible signs of yet
another ethnic cleansing gathering momentum by the day. The First World
cannot turn a blind eye to your fellow man's impending suffering and pretend
your collective conscience away. Not this time. You are receiving ample and
repeated warning and by now the signs should be well neigh impossible to
ignore.
The following is an open challenge to the President of
South Africa Thabo Mbeki:
Mr. President,
RE
GOODHOUSE Northern cape
When all the attempts at concerned, tactful
approach, when pleading, when all attempts at coming up with workable
solutions, when warnings, when admonishment have been ignored, have all come
to naught, then there comes a time when rebuke is appropriate.
Hence:
1. This letter is directed to y our office since your
Minister of Land Affairs and her deputy are unable or unwilling to answer
correspondence in this matter.
2. This situation is so serious
that it is fully set out on the Internet. This letter too will be posted on
the Internet. Moreover, the letter will be sent to your offices via speed
services and the tracking number will also be placed on the Internet. As you
no doubt know, the site in question is www.izak.co.za and the relevant tab on that
site is the one marked LAND REFORM.
3. The MEC for Land Affairs
in the Northern Cape has visited Goodhouse and unilaterally announced that
she has procured R 5 mil for a state run project at Goodhouse.
4. The local ANC council went so far as to say that it will be a purely ANC
project.
5. Needless to say there has been no prior consultation
with the farmers in the area and for that alone the 19 top farmers in the
area reject the proposal outright.
6. Your MEC should be
instructed t o use that money to transfer the land to the community so that
they can implement their own plan, independent from the interference and
consistent sabotage of the government.
7. Instead of transferring
state held land to the coloured community at Goodhouse as is required by
various statutes, your government persists with its strategy of installing
projects that can impossibly succeed and that your officials in any event
deliberately and repeatedly destroy. All they are interested in is to raise
money from tax payers for yet another government run and destroyed project
so that they can distribute the managements fees, planning fees,
consultation fees, commissions and other gross margins to their political
friends.
8. In the last project that little formula enriched ANC
members by no less than 18 mil Rands. The scorpions are not yet finished
with their investigations and yet another is being cooked up.
9. Five million Rand is a ridiculous figure with which to st art a project
there. Just to repair the pipeline will cost more. In fact the pipeline
(that was designed by your government to fail in the first place) needs to
be scrapped and each farmer should get their own irrigation infrastructure
to suite his particular purposes. Irrigation infrastructure that in fact
pre-existed the last project, but that your government induced them into
discarding in favour of the rigged-to-fail system you deployed
last.
10. Please get it though your head sir. The real farmers
at Goodhouse (and not the layabouts and crooks that your local council have
rounded up from the ANC cadres in other towns) want nothing to do with your
government. They have tolerated your government's partisanship, racism,
abuse, hostility and rigged-to-fail projects for neigh on 20 years and are
sick of it.
11. The land should have been transferred in the early
90's and still is not. Why not?
12. All you need to do Mr.
President in order to admit the following is not to answer this letter, to
acquiesce by your silence to the following allegations. Allegations which
your government has already supply ample proof of. Allegations which it has
not defended because they are true: -
12.1. Your government will do
all it can to prevent non ANC members from being beneficiaries in the land
reform program
12.2. Your government will hold on to the millions
of hectares of state land in the name of your minister of land affairs as
long as possible so that you can continue to hold the occupants of that land
to ransom with government run projects (provided they vote for
you).
12.3. Your government will instead of giving these landowners
their freedom continue using taxpayer's money to create project after
project that benefits your government officials and their
friends.
12.4. For your government, failed projects are a
moneymaking business.
12.5. For your government failed projects (at
the instance of the government) s erve as justification for perpetuating
your draconian control over the rural voter population.
12.6.
For your government, undermining the policies and legislation guiding the
land reform process justifies its claim that the process is failing and its
intention to follow in the footsteps of Zimbabwe, which you are so careful
to so clandestinely support.
12.6.1. You have a 100% success rate
in destroying projects in the land reform program.
12.6.2. You
have refused to take up offers in the willing buyer willing seller scenario
and now you claim it has failed.
12.6.3. You refuse to transfer
state held land to their rightful beneficiaries in terms of the laws your
government put in place.
12.6.4. You justified the delay by saying
that they are not yet ready to take transfer because they have not succeeded
yet. Yet you make sure they do not.
12.7. Your government is by
using these machiavellian crisis management tactics in fact stabling your
own people in the back as you are playing into the hands of the first world
that wants to keep Southern African Agriculture stifled for as long as
possible in order to protect their own markets.
12.8. You are
perfectly in concert with the various organisations that have made their
aims in this regard clear. You Sir, are known to attend their meetings, you
are part of their fraternal's and member of their secret
societies.
12.9. You appear to be unable to answer these
allegations because they are true.
12.10. Your government is
too afraid to face the farmers of Goodhouse when they are assisted by their
advisor. That has been proved repeatedly.
12.11. I challenge you to
stop your government from being so cowardice Sir and to deal with the
Goodhouse issue.
12.12. Give them their freedom. Transfer the land
to them so that they can make a success on their own. And stop sabotaging
their chances to do so.
As you already know, this letter is sent
under mandate from the leader of the Goodhouse Community and the Links
Cloetes. I state this for the benefit of the media that will receive this
letter. Mr. Cloete can be contacted on +27 76 1140745
As I
said, Sir, if you have the guts to deal with this, then answer me. I would
like nothing more than for you to prove me wrong. Right now all the hard
facts prove me right. If you are guilty, just remain silent. The world is
watching you.
Dr. Izak Labuschagne is a well-known political and
legal activist in South Africa.
AIR Zimbabwe has leased from Thailand a Boeing 767-300
plane for two months while it carries out maintenance work on its Boeing
767-200 plane.
This has compelled the airline to reschedule, with
immediate effect, the Beijing-Bangkok-Dubai-Harare and
Harare-Dubai-Bangkok-Beijing flights.
The airline chief executive
officer, Dr Tendai Mahachi, yesterday said the 'C' class-check would be
conducted for two months at the airline grounds to check the fitness of the
plane.
"This is meant to improve high safety standards as we gear to
enhance our initiative of high quality customer care," Dr Mahachi
said.
Although he could not disclose the amount paid in the lease
agreement with the Thailand Airline, Dr Mahachi said the airline would
operate the Harare-Singapore-Beijing and Harare-Dubai routes via
Bangkok.
Other technical officials from the airline said the overhaul
check was more detailed as it encompassed partly stripping the plane to
check the integrity of structures of the plane to determine whether they
were sound.
They indicated this involved checking the effects of
corrosion on some parts and whether they could continue running the
plane.
"The maintenance was prescribed by the Boeing Company and should
be conducted after every 18 months. The fact that we have to hire another
plane to continue operating shows that we still need more aeroplanes to
continue with business in emergency cases and when others go for
maintenance," the official said.
The national airline, which hiked
its fares by 75 percent this month has two 767-200 ER (extended ranges
planes), which can endure 14-hour flights depending on the load.
It
also owns three small 737-200, two MA60 bought from China and another BA 146
they got from the Airforce of Zimbabwe.
From Pamenus
Tuso in Bulawayo issue date :2005-Aug-16
THE four-member committee set
up by President Robert Mugabe early this year to restructure the fractious
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) is
understood to have recommended that the association's structures be
incorporated into the national army. President Mugabe, patron of the war
veteran club, appointed former Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (Zipra)
intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa, retired Air Marshall Josiah Tungamirai
and retired Generals Solomon Mujuru and Vitalis Zvinavashe to the committee
"to bring sanity" back in the war veterans' body. Dabengwa, the ex-Home
Affairs minister, last week confirmed his committee had since submitted its
report to President Mugabe and the Zanu PF supreme decision-making body
outside congress, the Politburo. "The report is now with the Politburo for
approval. As soon as they (Politburo members) are through, it will be made
public," said Dabengwa, also a Politburo member. He declined to give
details of their recommendations. But impeccable sources said the committee
recommended that the ZNLWVA must be under the supervision of the army, with
the association's national offices housed at the army headquarters in
Harare, while provincial offices will be housed in army brigades in their
respective provinces. Under the proposed arrangement, the sources added, an
ordinary war veteran will now be equivalent to an army warrant officer class
one and his or her monthly allowances and benefits would be the same. A
warrant officer class one earns between $3 million and $5 million per
month. The source added that the new arrangement also sought to do away
with elections of ZNLWVA national leadership and instead recommends the
appointment of leaders. "In the past, elections have caused divisions in
the association. War veterans, as former soldiers, are used to orders and
not elections," said one of the sources. The sources added that
commanders and brigadiers would be incorporated in the new ZNLWVA
leadership. The leadership is expected to be announced soon. Andrew
Ndlovu, the interim chairman of the ZNLWVA, said as soon as the new leaders
are announced, his leadership would automatically cease to exist. "It is
important to mention that my committee will cease to exist as soon as a
substantive committee is announced. We have also completed our jobs and we
have already submitted our report to the presidium," added Ndlovu.
THE shortage of foreign currency to import special building
material from China is hampering the refurbishment of the Joshua Mqabuko
Nkomo (JMN) Airport in Bulawayo being upgraded to match international
standards. This has put the strategic project on halt with frantic efforts
being made to secure the much-needed forex to complete it. Zimbabwe's
foreign currency reserves have been below capacity due to a shrinking
economy. In June, the airport - formerly Bulawayo Airport before being
renamed JMN in honour of late Vice President Joshua Nkomo - was scheduled
for completion before yearend courtesy of a bilateral agreement to import
building materials from China in line with government's enhanced 'Look East'
policy. Started in 2002, the upgrading of the airport, an important link with
the key South African air routes, was scheduled to take 18 months but has
been delayed due to inadequate stuff to renovate the terminal building and
the airfield. An official at the airport said part of the materials had
already been shipped but yet to arrive in the country. The consignment
was not enough though, he explained, as government had prioritised immediate
pressing needs of the nation and diverted foreign currency to procure basic
necessities such as fuel and food. "Some of the materials have already
been shipped but some are yet to come. "But I understand that as soon as
government acquires foreign currency, we will put up the final touches."
ANALYSTS have
said they expect the government to tighten import duty tariffs on goods as a
means of containing the outflow of the country's low foreign currency
reserves when Herbert Murerwa, the Minister of Finance, presents the 2005
mid-term fiscal policy review and supplementary budget today. In addition,
the minister is also widely expected to make further income tax adjustments
that will broaden ebbing disposable incomes that have been eroded by the
negative increases in the rate of inflation since April this year. At
present, the monthly cost of living has ballooned to at least $5,4 million
per month from less than $2 million last year when the 2005 fiscal policy
and national budget statement was announced in November. The mid-term fiscal
policy was initially supposed to have been presented before Parliament late
last month, but was however postponed on two occasions: first when the
minister flew to China and second when Parliament was adjourned early this
month. However David Chapfika, Deputy Minister of Finance, yesterday
confirmed that the presentation would be made today. "The minister will
present the 2005 mid-term fiscal policy review and supplementary budget
before Parliament tomorrow(today)," Chapfika said. The 2005 fiscal policy
forecast total national revenue of $23 trillion and a budget deficit of $4,5
trillion bringing the total budget to $27,5 trillion. However the onset of a
drought this year, the expansion of the Cabinet, the need to fund power and
food importation, all of which account for unbudgeted expenditure, have
prompted the government to come up with a supplementary budget. Analysts
said the key points of the fiscal policy would be the tightening of tariff
structures with regards to imported goods to curtail speculative consumer
spending. "We see government tightening import duties and that will cut down
on consumer spending. This will lead to the country keeping the little
foreign currency it has and badly requires," an economic analyst
said. Further the economic analyst said another key factor of the fiscal
policy would be the likely upward adjustment in income tax bands to cushion
workers from the slew of inflationary price increases that have drastically
eroded disposable incomes. "On the supplementary budget the government is
not likely to make major ramifications since it is currently negotiating for
a loan from South Africa that will not only cover the repayment of
international debts but will also fund the importation of fuel, electricity
and grain imports since we are facing a drought," the analyst said.
GOVERNMENT has channelled $10 billion to the department of
immigration to computerise entry points and improve efficiency in data
collection and enumeration, principal immigration officer Dominick Ndlovu
has said. A critical institution for primary statistical gathering in such
organisations as the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and the Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority (ZTA) for corporate and strategic planning purposes,
immigration is under fire from stakeholders for inefficiency. The ZTA,
for instance, blamed the institution for failing to timeously feed it with
statistics for tourist inflows. But during a ZTA stakeholders workshop last
Thursday, Ndlovu pointed out that their challenges emanated from poor
resources with officers manually collecting statistics resulting in massive
distortions and frequent errors. ZTA researchers argued that they have often
made futile attempts to have statistics from the department on time and when
the information came, it usually was incomplete or inaccurate. The
deadline for submission of statistics to the ZTA is the 15th of every
month. The immigration chief however, said government had moved in with
capital injections to see through the computerisation of the Harare
International Airport by the end of this year. "Regrettably, we have to
manually collect statistics, it is purely a problem of resources but by the
end of the year we expect to be able to computerise the Harare International
Airport before moving out to other border posts. Tenders have already been
published. We were given $10 billion for the programme," Ndlovu told the
Harare seminar workshop designed to understand tourism
statistics. Realising the effects of the distorted data, the Zimbabwe Council
for Tourism (ZCT) invested eight computers for all major ports of entry but
it emerged last week that the computers were still lying idle. Ndlovu
said the computers did not have appropriate software, an assertion that
provoked the ire of the ZCT. "The private sector made a gesture. Why are
those computers lying idle if statistics can be collected using the basic
excel software that come with every machine? Why do you want to wait for
expensive software?" fired one enraged operator. He added that there was
rampant confusion at border posts. Some travellers, he noted, were entered
while others were told that there were no forms, a situation that made the
whole data collection programme a joke. Tourism companies are under
substantial pressure from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to account for
the foreign currency they receive, hence the call for accurate collection of
statistics. Recently-appointed ZTA chief executive Karikoga Kaseke, said he
would revamp the organisation's statistical collection department in line
with RBZ requirements
BUSINESSMAN William Zvinavashe is
back in court, this time for allegedly disappearing with $125 million he
collected from an unsuspecting Harare man in return for 500 litres of
diesel. Zvinavashe - who has had a brush with the law for the better part of
this year - was arrested last Friday and appeared in court yesterday facing
a charge of theft by false pretences. Zvinavashe (39) and his co-accused,
Shebah Tekede (37), were remanded in custody to August 29. Prosecutor
David Manavele told the court that on July 1 this year, Zvinavashe acting in
connivance with Hillary Chimombe - who is on the run - and Tekede allegedly
lied to the complainant that they had plenty of diesel in stock, which they
were selling at $25 000 a litre. The complainant, whose name was not supplied
in court, had allegedly been informed that Zvinavashe was in the business of
selling diesel and he phoned him to find out. Zvinavashe allegedly
confirmed and they arranged to meet at Fife Avenue Shopping Centre. When
they met, Zvinavashe allegedly introduced Tekede as one of his customers
awaiting delivery and Chimombe as his clerk. He allegedly told the
complainant that the diesel was stored somewhere along Manchester Road in
Workington and his offices were at corner Fourth Street and Baines
Avenue. Zvinavashe and his accomplices allegedly led the complainant to their
purported offices where he paid $125 million for 500 litres of
diesel. The complainant was allegedly told to go and wait along Manchester
Road where the fuel was reportedly stored, but the trio never turned
up. Zvinavashe and Tekede were not asked to plead to the charge. In March
this year, Zvinavashe and Royal Medical Aid Society (RMAS) owner Innocent
Gumbura were fined $350 000 for offering a bribe. Zvinavashe also allegedly
defrauded Meikles Hotel of nearly $20 million in August last year after he
checked out of the hotel without settling his bills. In April, he
appeared before senior provincial magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe on a charge
of flouting the Exchange Control Act in his foiled bid to acquire Turnpike
Properties, just outside Harare. Zvinavashe is on $7 million bail on both
fraud and exchange control regulations cases.
THREE Chinese nationals were
arrested at the Harare International Airport last week while allegedly
trying to smuggle ivory worth $4,6 million to their home country. Yin
Feng (40), Li Yong (42) and a 16-year-old, all of Borrowdale, Harare, were
arrested as they prepared to fly out to China, reportedly with 41 pieces of
ivory. The trio, which appeared before Harare magistrate Paradzai Garufu last
Friday, was not asked to plead to a charge of contravening the Customs and
Exercise Act (attempted smuggling). The teenager was remanded on $2 million
bail but Feng and Yong were locked up on grounds they could abscond and
interfere with State witnesses. Allegations are that on 5 August at
Harare airport, the trio, en-route to China, allegedly declared one laptop
computer and a DVD player at the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra)
checkpoint, but not the 41 pieces of ivory products in their
possession. The products comprised of three bangles, 20 chopsticks, two rhino
carvings, two elephant carvings, 11 plain stamps and three decorated stamps.
An X-ray machine detected the items. The three were ordered back to court on
28 August.
THE Murombedzi sewage
reticulation scheme in Zvimba might suffer a still birth, as the government
is struggling to finance the project, which has taken about 10 years to take
off . The Public Service Commission (PSC) revealed that the estimated cost of
the project has since ballooned from $10 million in 1995 to about $32
billion in 2005 due to inadequate funding and undercosting at planning
stage. The project, originally planned to commence in 1995, only started this
year and its completion is now mired in limbo due to escalating costs of
material, blamed on inflation. In its contribution to the midterm fiscal
policy statement, the PSC blamed flawed planning and inadequate funding as
the main impediment to the implementation of government
projects. "Inadequate funding, owing to undercosting at planning stage or
overwhelmed State budgets at allocation stage, resulted in
programmes/projects taking too long to complete," PSC said in a
statement. "By the time such projects are revisited, the cost would have
snowballed due to inflation and this further constrains the national
coffers. "For example, the Murombedzi sewerage reticulation scheme took 10
years to get off the ground and the estimated cost of the project in 1995
was $10 million but in 2005 the estimated cost is now at $32 billion," the
statement added. Webster Shamu, the Minister of Policy Implementation in
the Office of the President, is currently touring the country's 10 provinces
to assess progress regarding implementation of public projects. According
to the PSC, the government should resist the temptation of implementing too
many projects at once.