• Officials forced to implement "one man, one farm"
• A health system on the edge
• POSA dealt body blow
• ZANU PF power struggle could scuttle talks
• Stationery shortage rocks Harare Magistrates Courts
• MDC executive calls for top activist’s expulsion
• NBTS staff call off strike to resume bargaining
• MDC to order removal of Makwavarara
• ZANU PF, MDC relations improving: SA
• Zimbabwe is ripe for dialogue
• Time to bite the bullet
• Tobacco deliveries to auction floors fall
• Cash crisis rocks Financial Expo 2003
• Cash shortage removes all doubt about ZANU PF failure
• Price control dam to burst
• JAG PR Communique
• JAG Job Opportunities
• JAG Thought for the Day
• Britain's Amos backs return to talks in Zimbabwe
• MDC might drop election case
• Church mediators 'not honest'
• Zimbabwe Government Rejects Talks with Opposition
• Zimoza Transfrontier Park to Be Opened Soon

      In a judgment delivered last Friday, Chipinge magistrate Feyi Tito
indicated that he could not convict an opposition Movement for Democratic
Change party activist charged with making obscene statements against Mugabe
and his late mother.

      The activist, Trymore Sithole, was charged under Section 16 (2) (b) of
POSA, which states that: “Any person who publicly and intentionally makes
any abusive, indecent, obscene or false statements about the president or an
acting president whether in respect of his person or office shall be guilty
of an offence.”

      Tito said the Act was not clear on which president it referred to.

      The magistrate said there was no evidence linking Sithole to the
alleged obscene statements and even if he had uttered them, the law was
silent on which president he would have insulted.

      He said the court could, therefore, not deduce whether it was the
state President the law sought to protect because the term “president” was
not defined in the Act.

      “To infer that it is the President of Zimbabwe that the Act seeks to
protect would be to make law, whereas the function of this court is to
interpret the law,” said Tito when he acquitted Sithole.

      “The Act is unclear on which president it is referring to. It,
therefore, cannot be enforced. It is up to the lawmakers to change it.”

      Sithole was alleged to have made obscene remarks about Mugabe and his
mother in June last year, but his lawyer, Trust Maanda, argued that even if
the words attributed to his client were true, they did not constitute an
offence because POSA was not clear on the person it sought to protect.

      “It is sheer naivety and gross ignorance for anybody to be quick to
conclude that once the word president is mentioned, then it refers to His
Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” he argued.

      “It could mean any president.

      “It is also mischief to suggest that every time the name Mugabe is
mentioned, it refers to His Excellency.”

      Maanda further argued that the court could not stretch the law to mean
the state President when it was silent on whom it referred to.

      He said: “An Act of Parliament does not have elasticity. It cannot be
stretched to mean something, especially where it is taking away certain
rights. In such cases, it should be interpreted narrowly. The court must
interpret an ambiguous provision of an Act in favour of the liberties of the
accused.”

      Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa would yesterday not comment on Tito
’s judgment, saying: “My job is just to make sure that the courts are well
equipped to do their job. I don’t sit in the courts every day to listen to
cases and how they are handled.

      “It is unfair to ask me to comment on a judgment that was passed when
I was not there.”

      There were mixed reactions from lawyers to the ruling, with some
saying the magistrate had misinterpreted the Act.

      Harare lawyer Innocent Chagonda said: “If the term president is not
defined in the Act, then it can be interpreted to mean any president. It was
a clever argument by the lawyer and the judgment is correct in that case.

      “If you do not define what the term means in the Act, then it can be
applied to anyone who holds the title president and that can include
President Mugabe, the President of Malawi or that of Botswana and other
people who share the title, such as the president of the Law Society.”

      But a law professor at the University of Zimbabwe, who spoke on
condition he was not named, said the magistrate had misinterpreted the Act.

      The professor told the Daily News: “What was intended was the state
President. I cannot see what other president they could be referring to,
especially with matters referring to the state and state security.

      “It is obvious who the law was meant to protect. There was no
ambiguity. It could even be a short victory because they will amend it
immediately because they would now have seen the shortcomings.” Several
opposition party officials and supporters, as well as journalists, civil
society leaders and members of the public, have been charged under POSA,
which human rights groups say is hampering free speech, assembly and
association. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has
petitioned the government to repeal or amendment the Act. The petition,
signed by more than 10 000 people, was delivered to Chinamasa’s office on
Friday last week. Part of the petition reads: “POSA is undoubtedly a
repressive piece of legislation and undermines democratic and constitutional
rights and values. We believe that this piece of legislation takes the
nation backwards and not forward in terms of upholding human rights and
democracy.” Chinamasa, who in the past has said the government does not
intend to repeal POSA in the foreseeable future, yesterday said he had not
seen the petition, but added that he would not bother to respond to it. He
said: “ZimRights has been in this business for a long time, writing
petitions and statements. “They have been playing politics, tarnishing the
image of the government. That’s what they are paid to do. Even if I see
their petition, I am not going to give it any serious consideration.” By
Farai Mutsaka Chief Reporter

      A smooth transfer of power within ZANU PF from the ageing party and
state President Robert Mugabe to a new leader could boost efforts by
Zimbabwe’s church and

      regional leaders to break the political impasse between the ruling
party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the analysts
said.

      But University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political science lecturer John
Makumbe warned that a bloody battle to succeed Mugabe in ZANU PF – which he
said was a likely possibility given the various factions ranged against each
in that party – could “destabilise” the proposed talks.

      Makumbe said: “The use of violence against supporters of different
factions could destabilise the proposed talks . . . that could undermine the
talks.’’

      Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) president Sebastian Bakare,
Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe leader Trevor Manhanga and the Catholic
Bishops Conference’s Patrick Mutume this week announced that there were
waiting for written commitment to dialogue from Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.

      The clergymen, who met Mugabe last Friday and Tsvangirai on Monday
this week, said the two leaders had promised to resume dialogue between
their rival political parties which broke down last August.

      To help create a conducive atmosphere for dialogue Tsvangirai and his
MDC party abandoned their boycott of Mugabe by attending his address to
Parliament to mark the official opening of the House last week.

      Mugabe and ZANU PF welcomed the opposition gesture describing it as
“hopefully a sign of greater things to come.”

      On the other hand, regional economic giant South Africa’s President
Thabo Mbeki has reportedly piled pressure on both ZANU PF and MDC to return
to the negotiating table, since telling American President George W Bush
earlier this month that the two parties were in talks to break the country’s
political impasse.

      And more importantly, a meeting of minds has in the last few months
been slowly emerging with, for example, both ZANU PF and the MDC tentatively
agreed that the 79-year old Mugabe must be allowed a “dignified exit” from
power.

      But analysts said success for the renewed search for a political
settlement to Zimbabwe’s problems hinged on how an internal transition
within ZANU PF from Mugabe to his as yet unknown successor is managed.

      Head of the UZ’s political and administrative studies Eldred
Masunungure said, “The leadership transition in ZANU PF will have an impact
on how the national (dialogue) process would progress.

      “If ZANU PF puts its house in order it would instill confidence in the
party that ZANU PF has life after President Robert Mugabe. This will assist
in giving confidence to the

      national process.”

      Debate on Mugabe’s successor, a taboo until the ageing leader earlier
this year publicly called on his ZANU PF followers to discuss the issue, has
been shrouded in secrecy.

      ZANU PF insiders say various and bitterly opposed camps are emerging
within the party with two strongest factions allegedly led by retired army
general, Solomon Mujuru, and Parliament Speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is
allegedly Mugabe’s preferred choice of successor. Mngangagwa has in the past
denied ambition to succeed Mugabe in ZANU PF or the government.

      None of the other top ZANU PF politicians seen as possible candidates
to replace Mugabe have openly admitted aspirations to become president of
ZANU PF or Zimbabwe.

      Makumbe said ZANU PF, a former militant guerrilla movement that waged
bitter war against white colonial rule, could split along tribal and
regional lines because of what he said was the party’s history of using
force to settle scores.

      He said: “There are many people in ZANU PF who want to take over from
Mugabe. There is a likelihood of a split along ethnic and tribal grounds.

      “In ZANU PF they believe in the use of force to make their opponents
support them.”

      Human rights lawyer and activist Brian Kagoro said besides infighting
between power hungry ZANU PF politicians private business tycoons who have
benefited from the party’s 23-year rule, could also be a stumbling block to
dialogue if they felt their interests could be undermined by any new
political dispensation the talks might produce. Kagoro said, “It is not only
ZANU PF’s internal succession debate that could complicate the transition to
democratic governance in Zimbabwe but other influential people in the
corporate world who have benefited from that party’s rule.” By Pedzisai
Ruhanya Deputy News Editor

      Transcription of court judgments, that must be sent to the High Court
for review within seven days of being handed down, has not been taking place
for the past two weeks because the typing pool ran out of bond paper and
typewriter ribbons more than a month ago.

      A Daily News crew yesterday heard court officials in court number six
asking relatives of suspects and prisoners to bring bond paper for the court
to print the 242 form, which is used to apply for bail at the High Court.

      Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs permanent secretary David
Mangota could not be reached for comment on the matter by the time of going
to print last night.

      The shortage of stationery is the latest crisis to hit the Harare
Magistrates’ court, which also faces a shortage of presiding officers after
about five magistrates resigned in protest against working conditions and
poor salaries.

      Five magisterial assistants were last week upgraded to magistrates to
fill up the void created by the departure of their more experienced
colleagues.

      A typist at the court yesterday recounted how for two weeks she had
done little or no typing at all because there was no paper or ribbons for
the typewriters.

      “We are supposed to transcribe sentences or judgments which have to be
sent to the High Court for review within seven days, but this has not
happened because we do not even have ribbons for the typewriters,” she said.

      The typist, who spoke on condition she was not named, added: “We do
not know the reasons for these shortages, we have not been told when the
stationery will be

      supplied.”

      Relatives of individuals appearing for trial yesterday castigated the
government for what they said was its lack of seriousness, which they said
could see the administration of justice at the country’s busiest magistrates
’ court totally collapse.

      Tendai Makarichi, whose husband is facing armed robbery charges,

      expressed shock that court officials had asked her to supply them with
bond paper if she needed a 242 form prepared for her husband.

      Makarichi said: “I do not believe what the magistrate was saying. This
is just too bad and pathetic, something is very wrong in this country. It is
not the prisoners’ responsibility to supply the court with stationery.”

      By Angela Makamure

      Court Reporter

      “Our constitution is very clear on people who rebel against the party
and as a provincial executive we have said that we have no mandate to
circumvent the constitution just for Matsanga’s sake.

      “So as a result of his decision to rebel against the party, we have
decided to expel him. It is a constitutional matter and we cannot exercise
any discretion.”

      Article 12 (4) (2) of the MDC constitution reads: “A person ceases to
be a member of the Party if he or she stands as an independent.”

      Matsanga yesterday said he was busy campaigning for the mayor’s job
and dismissed

      recommendations by Mubhawu that he be fired from the party as
“nonsense.”

      He said: “At this time I am concentrating on my campaign and I really
do not have time for all this nonsense that Mubhawu is talking to about.

      “I will just concentrate on fulfiling the wishes of the people who
pressurised me to stand as their representative,” he said.

      Staff Reporter

      Masvikeni said the 180 workers of the country’s biggest collector of
blood for use in hospitals had agreed to resume work to allow negotiations
between their representatives and management to resolve the pay dispute to
take place.

      “The workers have been told that NBTS has no money and they would have
to continue working while salary negotiations continued. But we are still
assessing the impact of the strike and I think we are bound to catch a dent
on our blood bank statement,” Masvikeni told the Daily News yesterday.

      The NBTS workers want management to award them a 125 percent salary
increment to cushion them from the skyrocketing cost of living.

      The two-day job action by workers at the blood collection company had
hit hard major hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo that handle larger numbers
of patients.

      A doctor at one of the country’s biggest referral hospitals,
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, yesterday said processing of requests for
blood from NBTS were being delayed and by yesterday afternoon the hospital
was still limiting blood transfusions to only emergency cases.

      The doctor, who spoke on condition he was not named, said: “The NBTS
is at the moment taking up to five hours to process blood when in actual
fact we need that blood to be processed within 25 minutes upon request and
as a result the hospital is failing to cope with the demand for blood.”

      Authorities at Parirenyatwa and Harare Central hospital yesterday
refused to disclose whether the strike by the NBTS had affected supplies of
blood to their hospitals.

      Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said: “The NBTS is a vital organ
and if we compromise blood we will be compromising the health of the
population.”

      The privately-owned NBTS has faced difficulties meeting the country’s
blood requirements because of low blood stocks and also because it has no
hard cash to pay for materials used to test for diseases and other
infections in donated blood.

      Before the strike by workers this week, the NBTS was already
struggling to maintain stocks at 3 500 units of blood it must hold at any
given time with stocks said to have run to as low as 70 units at times.

      Masvikeni, however, said the problems affecting the NBTS would not
affect the quality of blood as the company was maintaining high processing
standards.

      The NBTS official said his company, which is the sole supplier of
blood to all major public and private hospitals in the country, had
requested for a grant from the government to assist it through the
difficulties.

      The government has not yet responded to the appeal for help, he said.

      Staff Reporter

      The MDC controls the Harare City Council after sweeping clean all the
wards except one in council elections last year.

      The sources said the opposition party’s shadow minister for local
government, Gabriel Chaibva, had been tasked with ensuring that Makwavara
and her committee were voted out of their posts when council elects a new
deputy mayor and executive committee next month.

      Makwavarara is Harare’s deputy mayor but is acting for Elias Mudzuri,
who was suspended by Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo allegedly for
refusing to take orders from the government and mismanaging the capital.

      Chaibva yesterday refused to comment on reports that MDC wanted
Makwavarara and her committee fired from their posts. The opposition
politician would only say: “In my view, there is lack of capacity to
understand issues on the part of the leadership at Town House.

      “However, its a matter we are dealing with and I will ensure that the
council is capacitated so that they have a better understanding of issues
and how council operates.’’

      Makwavara yesterday also refused to speak on the matter. She said:
“Who gave you that information? It is important to get all the details from
the person who gave those details. Thank you.”

      Under the Urban Councils Act, executive committees of town councils
must be elected after every year. The sources said the MDC leadership
resolved to use the opportunity of the election of a new executive committee
for Harare in August to remove Makwavarara and her team because it was felt
at the opposition party’s Harvest House head office that they had defied
party leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s instruction to challenge Chombo’s
directives to council in court.

      Tsvangirai and his secretary general Welshman Ncube are said to have
directed

      Makwavarara and her councillors to file an urgent application to the
High Court asking the court to stop Chombo from issuing instructions to the
council to evict Mudzuri from the mayoral mansion and that his aides be
suspended without pay.

      Chombo says he wants the measures taken against Mudzuri because the
Harare mayor defied instructions not to report for duty until a committee
set up by the minister

      finished probing him.

      Although the MDC-dominated Harare council is said to have resolved to
defy Chombo’s directive and file the court application as ordered by
Tsvangirai, the sources alleged that Makwavarara and her committee had not
acted on the resolution by council allegedly because they had not signed
affidavits to be send to the High Court.

      A Harare lawyer, Silas Chekera, who had been tasked with handling the
application, confirmed that the application had not been filed yet. Chekera
refused to give the reasons for delays in applying to court. He said: “I
have instructions to institute legal proceedings pursuant to that
resolution. I can confirm that I have not yet filed the papers.’’

      By Pedzisayi Ruhanya

      Deputy News Editor

      “The greatest achievement – something we are very happy about – is the
fact that there is major improvement in relations between the two parties.”

      The current atmosphere should have been there a year ago, Lekota said.

      “If it could have been there a year ago . . . I am sure we would have
been far ahead by now.”

      South Africa remained anxious that talks between the two parties
should proceed as soon as possible to resolve the political and economic
crisis in Zimbabwe.

      “It should be resolved in time to present the Zimbabweans with the
best possible conditions to work themselves out of the difficult situation
now with them.”

      Lekota added: “The parties in Zimbabwe are confronting their issues,
and there is an observable improvement of interaction between the ruling
party and the opposition.”

      – SAPA

Zimbabwe is ripe for dialogue

        WITH good news joining other basic commodities that are in short
supply, 22 July delivered good viewing, good reading and good listening.

      The unthinkable happened – the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) leaders attending the opening of the fourth session of the
fifth Parliament of Zimbabwe with Joseph Chinotimba as a neighbour and all
“pensively” listening to President Robert Mugabe, whom the MDC considers as
fraudulent and, therefore, illegitimate.

      It was a good Tuesday. To me it represented part of a process of elite
accommodation that hopefully will lead to elite-mass accommodation and
ultimately intra-mass accommodation. Without being naive, a new wind of
change seems to be blowing in Zimbabwe.

      Since the February 2000 constitutional referendum, Zimbabwe has been
in a cold war of sorts with the MDC and ZANU PF being the combatants. The
cold war got colder with the June 2000 parliamentary elections and has been
at its coldest since the March 2002 controversial presidential elections.

      22 July signalled the thawing of the cold war relations. How do we
explain this? I hazard an explanation.

      I see a number of factors converging to account for the latest turn of
events. Among them are the abortive mass action that turned into a
“successful” stayaway, the government’s reaction to it, especially the
incarceration of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, American President George W
Bush’s visit and his embrace of South African President Thabo Mbeki’s “quiet
diplomacy”.

      First the mass action.

      I don’t think any rational MDC leader who knows anything about the
orientations of Zimbabweans to things political seriously believed that
Zimbabweans would “mass act” against the government.

      I posit that Zimbabweans are not mass activists (in the manner
suggested by the MDC). Not by nature, but through a concatenation of
historical and political traditions and practices, and by upbringing. The
cultural, social, religious traditions, political experiences, colonial and
liberation war experiences have all conspired to produce an overwhelmingly
subject orientation to political objects among the generality of
Zimbabweans.

      I submit that the average Zimbabwean, irrespective of education, has a
submissive and passive attitude to political stimuli. The irony of
Zimbabwean political culture is that there is a very high level of political
cognition but a subject orientation to political action.

      Therefore, the only possible explanation for the mass action is that
its organisers wanted to test the government’s willingness and capacity to
govern coercively, that is, through the use of force.

      As it turned out, the government demonstrated both the capacity and
the willingness to use force to fortify its rule.

      However, having demonstrated its political will and coercive capacity,
the government surely also realised that the MDC commands substantial
political clout, at least enough to make

      urban Zimbabwe ungovernable.

      Pretending otherwise does not transform a reality into an illusion or
vice versa. The MDC demonstrated that it is a salient factor in Zimbabwean
political life, even outside and beyond electoral politics.

      The MDC is more than political fiction; even if it were true that it
is foreign-funded and

      foreign-driven, many Zimbabweans believe in the MDC and disbelieve the
government.

      Then came Tsvangirai’s

      arrest. To me – just as the MDC was testing the government’s capacity
to govern and perhaps simultaneously teaching it a lesson – by arresting
Tsvangirai, the government was testing the MDC’s capacity to mobilise its
supporters in defence of its leader and the willingness of the supporters to
“do and die” in protest at its leader’s arrest.

      The government also wanted to teach the MDC leader a counter-lesson.
Thus, the government arrested and incarcerated Tsvangirai for two weeks and
gloated about it; the MDC only feebly tried to mobilise its supporters but
the supporters did not even try to rise up to demand its leader’s freedom.

      The MDC treated its own leader like any other person.

      I have little doubt that this was a humbling experience for Tsvangirai
personally; it transformed him by mellowing him. If Tsvangirai was at all
immature prior to his “State House” sojourn, he certainly emerged from
Harare Central Prison a politically mature person.

      Cynical though it may sound, he underwent some kind of political
circumcision from a political teenager to political adulthood. This
metamorphosis is very important in trying to make sense of the sequence of
events leading to 22 July.

      The third factor is the Bush visit. Before his visit, Bush was an
angry and combative man, ready to do battle with Mbeki on Zimbabwe. He
appeared keen to teach Mugabe a lesson.

      His Secretary of State Colin Powell had prepared the groundwork for
the battle. It later turned out to be a battle that never was. Few are privy
to what exactly transpired to explain Bush’s climbdown, especially when,
barely a few days later, he placed Zimbabwe among America’s pariah states.

      I don’t believe Mbeki outmanoeuvred Bush, rather, that Mbeki exploited
Mugabe’s palpable trepidation at the prospect of a militarisation of United
States policy towards Zimbabwe. Mbeki then struck a quid pro quo with
Mugabe. He extracted a commitment from Mugabe to dialogue with the MDC and
he (Mbeki) would convince Bush of the reality or at least the prospect of
this. Before his visit, Bush had unsheathed his sword,

      only to re-sheath it after his talks with Mbeki.

      After this, for Mbeki, the ball was in Mugabe’s court; there was a
moral obligation for Mugabe to reciprocate for being saved from the lion’s
jaws.

      The political chemistry was thus in place for a rapprochement between
ZANU PF and the MDC. Mugabe had in a way entrapped himself somehow; the MDC
had exhausted its options, and Zimbabweans were in a state of fatigue and a
sense of fatalism was setting in.

      The ground was fertile for a meeting of minds between the two bitter
rivals. Mugabe and ZANU PF had to mellow their posture because they had to
in deference to Mbeki’s diplomatic rescue efforts.

      Eldred Masunungure is a lecturer at the UZ.

Time to bite the bullet

        THE government has finally decided to take action on Zimbabwe’s
severe cash shortages, but like most of its solutions, the measures
announced on Tuesday will merely treat the symptoms and not the real
problems that are facing the country.

      According to Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa, the government will ban
the export of local currency from 8 August and the central bank will also
introduce local traveller’s cheques to make some financial transactions
easier.

      More importantly, the current $500 note will be phased out in 60 days
in an attempt to press people holding on to cash to release it into the
banking system.

      The long-awaited and very necessary $1 000 note will be introduced at
the same time as the new-look $500, according to the minister.

      Why, if Zimbabwe has enough foreign currency to import paper and ink
to print new bank notes, do we not then just print more money to improve the
cash supply situation?

      Indeed, if we do not have enough hard cash to import the special paper
and ink needed to print bank notes, will we not in fact be worse off once
the current $500 note – the denomination most in demand because of soaring
inflation – ceases to be legal tender?

      Given the government’s high propensity for bungling, it is possible
that the 60-day grace period given to people hoarding cash to surrender
their bank notes might come and go without any new notes being introduced.

      Simply because these decisions were taken without any proper planning
or clue as to how they would be implemented.

      But given the seriousness of the cash crisis and the adverse impact it
has had on already embattled Zimbabweans, we would want to give the
government the benefit of the doubt and hope that this once, it has done all
that is necessary to ensure that this problem is addressed.

      We would also hope that the authorities realise that the measures
announced this week are fire-fighting, stop-gap measures at best and cannot
be relied upon as the final solution to the cash shortages.

      It must be obvious to most observers that neither changing the colour
of the $500 note nor introducing a higher denomination of the local currency
will adequately deal with the crisis.

      Nor will making it illegal for people to hoard cash or compelling them
to release the millions of dollars they have been holding on to for
speculative purposes as well as to protect themselves from the cash
shortages.

      With annualised inflation now at 364.5 percent and expected to top 500
percent in the next few months, Zimbabweans will need more and more cash to
make the simplest transactions.

      Banks will continue to face massive pressure for cash, even if they
extend banking hours as has been suggested by the Finance Ministry.

      If the new $500 and $1 000 notes are introduced, the cycle is likely
to start all over again, with people hoarding money because they are afraid
that if they deposit it with financial institutions, they will be unable to
withdraw it when it is needed.

      We, therefore, hope that the Finance Ministry will attempt to apply
itself to the primary cause of all its headaches: inflation, which is rising
unchecked every month, mostly because of ruinous government policies.

      The government is due to announce the appointment of a new Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe governor soon, and it has the opportunity to show its
commitment to getting to grips with the economic crisis by allowing the new
central bank head to introduce measures aimed at tackling inflation.

      Monetary and fiscal policy measures to curb inflation should have been
pursued vigorously as far back as three years ago and, when finally
implemented, will have painful consequences for most Zimbabweans because of
the rot that has been allowed to set in.

      But for the good of us all, it is important that these steps are taken
even at this late hour, while the nation can still salvage the little that
it can.

      According to the report, in the week ending on 23 July, the weekly

      average price closed US4 cents a kilogramme weaker at US228c/kg.

      “The greater proportion of the cross-section of offerings traded at
average prices below the previous week’s levels despite the consistency in
the quality. The wastage rate increased by two percent to 10 percent, mainly
due to speculative cancellations for price consideration,” the report said.

      It added: “Up to the 23rd of July 2003, 37 million kgs were sold at an
average price of US209 c/kg. During a comparative period in 2002, 64 million
kgs were sold at an average price of US208 c/kg. The seasonal wastage rate
was 10 percent, just a percentage point below that recorded last year.”

      The report added that the weekly average price softened to US228 c/kg

      But according to Carole Benza, the managing director of Events-A-Rama,
some of the banks had pulled out at the last minute because of the
persistent cash shortages being experienced by the banks.

      Bank customers are spending long periods in queues trying to withdraw
their pay and savings, some with limited success.

      Some banks have been severely limiting withdrawals to as little as $2
000 a day to try and spread what funds they have among the thousands of
desperate customers.

      So far the desperation of bank customers has manifested itself in near
riots as people tried to force their way into banking halls.

      But with Zimbabwe’s galloping inflation, the $5 000 does not go far.
And there is no sign that the problem will end any time soon.

      At Finex 2003 service providers outnumbered the banks.

      Among those banks present were Trust Bank, Genesis Investment Bank,
First Bank and Kingdom Bank.

      Also represented were Finsreal Asset Management, Kingdom Unit Trusts
and the Barbican Group, among others.

      Takura Chipindura, the Finsreal branch manager for Murehwa, and Tongai
Chirokote, the Finsreal branch manager for Gutu, told The Daily News that
the company was targeting rural communities to get them to participate
actively in the money market.

      Chipindura said: “The response in Murehwa has been tremendous. The
overall objective is to bring the small player into the money market.”

      The company is also present in Harare and Gweru.

      During the initial stage of the most unusual development, the
government-controlled media published or broadcast news that the shortage
was caused by a shortage of foreign currency with which to import a special
type of paper from Germany to print additional bank notes.

      That shortage was reported to have affected the $500 bank notes most
of all.

      Later the same media said some economic saboteurs were deliberately
hoarding the notes, causing the national shortage being experienced by the
country’s financial institutions.

      It was also officially announced, however, that more bank notes would
be printed, and, indeed they were, billions of them, but the shortage got
worse.

      A couple of reasons have been given by some members of the public, and
they range from

      rumours to quasi-official ones.

      Some people, especially those in the banking sector, say that the
shortage was created by the

      Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to reduce the frightening rate of inflation,
now standing at a whopping 364 percent.

      These people say the central bank is deliberately doing so to deny the
public money, a move which, it is hoped, will force down prices of goods and
services.

      A second explanation is that the shortage occurred after the
government entered into an agreement with Libya for the purchase of fuel
from that country. Zimbabwe, it is rumoured, offered to use its national
currency in payment because it does not have adequate foreign exchange.

      Having paid Libya in Zimbabwe dollars, Libya would keep the money and
use it next year to buy maize and wheat from Zimbabwe. That arrangement, it
is reported, was based on the assumption that Zimbabwe would have a good
agricultural season.

      After reluctantly accepting the plan, Libya accordingly priced
Zimbabwe’s fuel imports in Zim dollars, was duly paid and packed the stacks
of $500 notes and flew them to Tripoli or Benghazi, leaving the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ) with hardly enough cash for our domestic needs.

      But some observers say the shortage is caused by cross-border traders,
particularly black market fuel importers, who carry large sums of cash to
neighbouring countries where they exchange it for local currency to enable
them to buy the fuel.

      Yet some people who also profess to know why the banks have become
financially embarrassed point accusing fingers at black market foreign
currency dealers, particularly women of the Apostolic Faith sects, who have
stalls at Bulawayo’s Fifth Avenue flea market and their colleagues on the
city’s Fort Street pavements. They ask every decent-looking man the now
famous question: “Usiphatheleni, bhuthi?” (What have you brought us,
brother?)

      Another group that says it certainly knows the cause of the shortage
are some private security company guards.They say the shortage is caused by
some companies, including supermarkets, that no longer bank their daily
takings.

      To the above we should add the voice of those who say the shortage was
caused or worsened by some senior government officials who allegedly somehow
got their avaricious hands on millions of brand new bank notes shortly after
they had been minted and stacked them in metal trunks and suitcases in their
houses in Harare.

      It is difficult to put a finger on the authentic cause of the shortage
but the untold suffering it is causing to the nation is too obvious. What is
surprising is that no official explanation has yet been made by a senior
government official. Nothing has been done by the relevant government
ministry to correct the truly tragic situation.

      The government still has to explain to the nation exactly has gone
wrong. Or is it that nobody cares any more about the ordinary people? The
banks too have not collectively come out demanding normalisation of the
economically devastating situation. Instead, they appeal to the anti-riot
police to monitor the long queues.

      What about the clients? They are as peaceful as a cemetery, a typical
Zimbabwean characteristic. A visitor from Mars would conclude that the long
queues are for social welfare beneficiaries or common beggars who do notwant
to upset their benefactors lest they withdraw their handouts.

      Whatever caused the tragedy, it is most important to rectify the
situation. One way of doing it is introduce a new currency, and to do so
within the shortest period for the sake of the people.

      People are starving because they cannot access their own money in the
banks and building societies but the government is spending large sums of
public money on such absurd things such as advertisements telling the people
to persevere (Rambai makashinga). Imagine a leader as fat as a kilogramme of
butter telling a miserable widow and mother of five who struggles tooth and
nail to buy a kilogramme of maize meal kuti arambe akashinga, even when she
cannot get her late husband’s meagre pension at the bank! Hey, something has
gone drastically wrong with the government of Zimbabwe. Sekutheni bantu
beZimbabwe nxa sekunje? Zvaita sei vanhu veZimbabwe kuti zvinhu zvishate
kudai? Kwatatjini banhu beZimbabwe kuti bupenyu guyipe zwingapa? (What has
happened for things to go so wrong, people of Zimbabwe?) I propose that
clients of banks and building societies in Zimbabwe form an organisation and
take their banks to court for breaching agreements they made with each one
of them when they (the clients) opened accounts with the banks and the
building societies. The treatment they get at the banks is not just
demeaning but downright inhuman. If the banks agree with this observation,
they should have sued the RBZ by now. It is disheartening to see the nation
going down the drain the way Zimbabwe is doing. Whoever was doubtful about
the failure of ZANU PF as a government, must have had that doubt removed by
this latest national tragedy – the shortage of money in the country’s banks.

Price control dam to burst

Tony Hawkins

Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government is both unwilling and
incapable of doing anything about Zimbabwe's economic crisis. Last month,
inflation surged 65 percentage points to a temporary high of 365%. There has
been no official comment, let alone policy response. Because it is
calculated using official prices for products such as bread, maize meal and
fuel - prices at which goods are no longer traded - the official inflation
number understates the real rate by a wide margin. Economists believe the
real number is close to 400%. By August, the official inflation rate will
have breached that level, as the price control dam holding back price hikes
for basic necessities, including petrol and diesel, finally gives way.
Economists cannot agree whether inflation will end the year at around 700%
or over 1 000%. Either way, it won't be finance minister Herbert Murerwa's
budget prediction of 96,1%. Increasingly, the state of denial is confined to
a shrinking circle of Mugabe sycophants, including the state media, though
occasionally even the daily press publishes damning reports of official
chaos and incompetence. One such report was that bakers had been fined Z$20m
(US$2 400) for increasing the price of bread to absorb the hike in the price
of flour originally imposed by the state-owned Grain Marketing Board.

A senior official in the state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
(Zesa) admits that it is selling electricity at an average of
US0,4c/kilowatt hour, though it costs US2,8c/kWh to generate and import.
Fuel tariffs are being increased, but Zesa will continue to lose money.
Small wonder that Murerwa is unable to disclose the extent of public-sector
debt and his government's exposure to parastatal borrowings in the form of
contingent liabilities. Murerwa will come under pressure to devalue the
Zimbabwe dollar - for the second time in five months - at a meeting this
week. Tobacco farmers, the country's main exporters, say they need an
exchange rate of at least Z$1 600/US$ (the ruling rate is Z$824). They are
unlikely to get it at this stage, though it is a matter of time before the
devaluation dam crumbles too.

The parallel market is trading at Z$2 650/US$ (three times the official
rate) and business is convinced Murerwa will devalue at least twice before
the year ends. "If he doesn't," says a leading tobacco grower, "we will be
lucky to have a crop of more than 40m kg next season." The 2003 crop is
estimated to be 90m kg, down 62% on peak levels. The most alarming example
of official paralysis is the delay in submitting an appeal to the World Food
Programme (WFP) for continued food aid in 2003/2004. The WFP says it will
run out of cash at the end of August. By then it will be feeding 1,8m
Zimbabweans and it expects demand to reach 5,5m or 47% of the population by
January. But some ministers insist that food aid is unnecessary because the
2003 crop is large enough. In fact, the maize and wheat crops are 1 Mt -1,3
Mt short, but to admit this would be to admit that fast-track land reform
had failed.

Comment from ZWNEWS, 31 July

It has happened before...

Hyperinflation is not unique to Zimbabwe. Countries in South and Latin
America, and Eastern and Central Europe, have all experienced hyperinflation
in modern times. The German experience in the 1920's is the classic example.
The stories from that time have become folk-lore. People bought two beers at
a time, because beer went flat more slowly than prices were rising. Taxis
were preferred to trams, because taxi-drivers were paid at the end, not the
beginning, of the trip. Companies paid wages by furniture van, and
wheelbarrows replaced wallets. The Zimbabwean catastrophe may not yet be as
extreme as Germany's, but the symptoms are beginning to sound familiar.

The root causes of the German hyperinflation were very different to that of
Zimbabwe's. Political instability played an important part, as did excessive
government spending backed up by the printing of money by the central bank.
But the dominant factor was the reparation payment imposed by the victorious
powers after the First World War. This placed a burden on the war-depleted
German economy far larger than it could bear, with the result that the
exchange rate fell, and prices rose, in an accelerating vicious circle.
Zimbabwe's hyperinflation is different. The problem is a huge shortage of
goods and services, not only excessive money creation. There is a balance of
payments crisis, but it was internally created. The problem is a sharp fall
in all forms of production, caused by a calamitous land reform programme,
the discarding of the rule of law, and endemic political violence. It is not
due to an external burden suddenly being thrust upon the Zimbabwean economy
by the government's enemies - however much the government would like us to
believe it.

When hyperinflation takes hold, it is standard for there to be a run on
foreign currency. Zimbabwe has been no different. What is decidedly less
common is a cash crisis for the domestic currency, like that currently
devastating Zimbabwe. However, Zimbabwe is not unique even in this aspect of
the financial collapse we are now less than privileged to witness. In the
latter stages of 1923, Germany also experienced a cash crisis. Queues grew
longer at the commercial banks and the Reichsbank, as the demand for paper
money grew faster than the ability of the printers to supply it. Towards the
end of that year, the payments mechanism had all but collapsed. The demand
for notes was so immense that at one stage there were over 130 companies
using almost 1800 presses to produce cash for the government. The Germans
eventually conquered their hyperinflation, (at enormous cost in terms of
unemployment, which is the start of another tale). They implemented
stabilisation measures, many of which are not applicable to Zimbabwean
circumstances. But one factor does stand out as a lesson from the 1920's.
Whatever measures are taken - whether addressing the symptoms or the
causes - they must be backed by credibility. The world outside the finance
ministry has to believe that the government means it.

You certainly can't address hyperinflation by announcing a withdrawal of the
Z$500 note in 60 days time, to be then replaced by another,
different-looking, Z$500 note. You won't even solve the cash crisis, which
is a symptom and not a cause, unless you also introduce other policies to
address the shortage of goods and services. Without those other policies,
all that will happen will be a period during which people will play an
increasingly frantic game of pass-the-parcel, trying to get rid of Z$500
notes before they become totally worthless when the music stops in 60 days
time. And what will happen after that date? Is the government planning to
put a time limit on the new notes as well? At the current rate of inflation,
prices will be almost 70% higher in 60 days time. Unless there is widespread
belief that in two months time there will be sufficient cash to be had, or
that inflation will stop, the frustrated queues will continue to grow
outside the banks and building societies.

There are many measures which need to be taken. A sharp rise in interest
rates. A credible plan to restore food supplies in the short term, and food
production in the longer term - however that is done, and whatever the time
frame. A credible and unequivocal demonstration that the rule of law will be
restored. The abolition of the ridiculous exchange rate regulations. The
independence of the Reserve Bank. An admission that the policies of the last
three years were wrong, so that external balance of payments support can be
restarted. But this government cannot announce, let alone implement these
measures. Nobody would believe they were serious. Tackling hyperinflation
has costs, and the measures needed would directly hurt the government's
dwindling band of supporters. A sharp rise in interest rates, and the
abolition of exchange rate regulations, would substantially reduce the
one-way currency bet which is yielding massive incomes to those with foreign
currency. A return to the rule of law would put the state-sponsored thugs at
immediate risk. The chances of independence for the Reserve Bank are smaller
then a snowball's in hell. So the government will try to buy time, at
increasingly shorter intervals. With his new plans, including - irony of
ironies - contracting a German firm to produce banknotes, finance minister
Murerwa is now trying to buy as few as 60 days. And then will come more
emergency measures, more pompous pronouncements, more risible laws and
regulations, as the existing ones fail. The route out of the economic crisis
remains political, and the same as it has been for years. The current
incompetents must go.

      Baroness Valerie Amos told a news conference in Nairobi that
Zimbabwe's "disastrous" economic policies were threatening its food supply
and that dialogue was crucial.

      She said she had talked to South Africa and encouraged other regional
players to put pressure on Britain's former colony.

      "Our view has always been that it is very important for Zimbabwe's
neighbours to bring to the attention of the government of Zimbabwe the
impact that the disastrous economic policies are having on the country,"
Amos said during a two-day visit to Kenya.

      Zimbabwe was once the region's bread basket, but nearly half its 14
million people face food shortages which have been blamed on drought and
Mugabe's drive to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to landless
blacks.

      Mugabe denies mismanaging the economy which he says has been sabotaged
by domestic and Western critics of his land programme.

      Church leaders said on Tuesday they were close to drawing Mugabe's
government and its opponents back into talks which broke down last year.

      Amos welcomed the news, saying: "The future of Zimbabwe rests in the
hands of Zimbabweans themselves."

      Amos, who is also due to visit Uganda and Rwanda, said she was keen to
continue talks between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda's Paul
Kagame, started by her predecessor Clare Short.

      Rwanda and Uganda fell out over the war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, where both now support rival rebel groups. Their relationship is seen
as one of the keys to bringing stability to the Great Lakes region.

      She said Britain was keen to forge a partnership with Kenya as it
tries to nurture economic recovery after years of mismanagement. She did not
make any new aid pledges.

Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Thursday offered to suspend its
challenge to President Robert Mugabe's 2001 election victory if the ruling
party commits itself to resolving the political crisis in the southern
African country.

If Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF)
"demonstrates good faith and a commitment to resolving the crisis Zimbabwe
is facing, the MDC will consider suspending or holding in abeyance the
electoral challenge," the Movement for Democratic Change said in a
statement.

The MDC's legal petition against Mugabe's presidency, which is due to be
heard in court in November, is one of the main sticking points in stalled
inter-party dialogue.

The opposition rejected Mugabe's victory in the March 2001 election,
claiming the polls were marred by fraud as well as widespread intimidation
and violence.

Mugabe, who insists he was elected in a free and fair poll, has said he will
talk to the MDC only if they recognise his legitimacy as president.

The new pledge by the MDC comes at a time of renewed efforts to get the two
political rivals talking.

Last week top church officials met with Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in a bid to kick-start the talks, which hit a deadlock last year
when the opposition filed its petition challenging the election result.

No favours

But Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who is also Zanu-PF's secretary for
legal affairs, said in comments carried by the state-run Herald newspaper on
Thursday that the MDC would be doing Mugabe "no favours" by withdrawing its
petition.

"He (Mugabe) needs to be vindicated in a court of law because we knew for a
fact that the presidential election was freely and fairly conducted and
there was nothing to hide," he was quoted as saying.

The MDC says it wants to talk to the ruling party in order to resolve severe
economic problems in the country, as well as to defuse tensions in the
politically divided country.

They also want the inter-party dialogue to pave the way for the 79-year-old
Mugabe's exit from power after 23 years as president.

Harare - A bid by Zimbabwe's churches to start negotiations between
President Robert Mugabe and the opposition was in jeopardy on Thursday after
a top government minister denounced some of the religious leaders as
opposition "activists" under the control of "foreign masters".

Less than a week after Mugabe met three Christian leaders, Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa was quoted as saying Anglican Bishop Sebastian Bakare, the
head of the Protestant Zimbabwe Council of Churches, and Bishop Trevor
Manhanga, the president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, a church
umbrella body, were "not honest brokers".

"Their interest is out of self-interest," Chinamasa told the daily Herald.
"They are MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) activists wearing religious
collars."

Manhanga, the spokesperson for the mediation group, could not be reached for
comment.

The third member of the group was Bishop Patrick Mutume, of the Zimbabwe
Catholic Bishops' Conference.

The mediation effort comes against the backdrop of growing international
pressure for the two sides to begin talks to end the country's crisis.

The move followed a meeting earlier in July between South African president
Thabo Mbeki and United States president George W Bush at which both urged
for "urgent action" on Zimbabwe.

The religious leaders met Mugabe last Friday for two hours, and on Monday
held talks with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Both sides were asked to
submit written outlines of their positions on the proposed talks in the next
few days.

The trio said this week they would travel to South Africa and Nigeria to
brief Mbeki and Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo on their initiative.

Both presidents have spearheaded efforts to get the two sides to the
negotiating table.

Chinamasa told the Herald that the fact that the bishops were "going to
engage other outside players proved they were carrying (the) mediation on
behalf of their foreign masters".

He said Bakare and Manhanga could not be expected to be impartial because
they were "MDC members who had in the past used different platforms to
denounce the government and the ruling party".

It was unclear why Chinamasa did not include Mutume in his denunciation. In
April, the Catholic bishops' conference warned that the government's
"frightening abuses" would "surely destroy our society".

Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF has dashed hopes of early talks with the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change to ease the deepening political
and economic crisis. The government denounced church mediators trying to
start the talks as opposition activists.

Justice Minister and Zanu PF legal secretary Patrick Chinamasa ruled out
talks with the MDC late Wednesday, saying that two of the three church
leaders with whom President Robert Mugabe talked last week, were not honest
brokers.

Mr. Chinamasa spoke to the state-controlled media following a meeting
Wednesday of Zanu PF's politburo, its policy-making body. He said leaders of
the Anglican and Methodist churches were what he called MDC activists
wearing religious clothing. The third church mediator involved is of the
same faith as President Mugabe.

Mr. Chinamasa said the MDC should continue with its legal challenge to last
year's presidential election, which many outside observers consider was
rigged. He said the re-election of President Mugabe was free and fair.

Mr. Chinamasa told reporters the only reason the opposition had challenged
the outcome was to satisfy the British government.

Opposition legal spokesman David Coltart said Thursday he was pleased that
there would be no further Zanu PF objection to the MDC's legal challenge to
the election. He said the opposition will continue its legal challenge to
President Mugabe's re-election even if talks with the government took place.

Zanu PF had said earlier it would not talk to the opposition unless it
dropped the court case and recognized Mr. Mugabe was duly elected.

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

July 31, 2003
Posted to the web July 31, 2003

Maputo

A transfrontier tourism project, involving Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia,
is in an advanced stage of preparation before its effective implementation,
said Luis Namanhe, Tourism director in the western Mozambican province of
Tete.

The project, known by the achronim ZIMOMA, is to cover some areas of Tete,
of northern Zimbabwe, and of eastern Zambia, and is aiming at establishing a
common management, between the three countries, of the forest and wildlife
resources, and promote tourism in those areas.

Speaking during a National Seminar on Tourism Inspection, Namanhe said that
members of the Implementation Technical Council, representing the
governments of the three countries, have been consulting with the people
dwelling in the covered areas to work out a management plan that caters for
the needs of the people.

Admitting the possiblity of having to ressetle those people, he said that
"we are working with them so that, when the time comes, for the
implementation of the project, all be sorted out with the local
communities".

Namanhe added that a joint managament office has been set up in Luanga, in
Zambia, with the task, among others things, of supplying equipments such as
firearms and boats for the inspection work.

In Mozambique, the project covers the districts of Magoe and Zumbo, in Tete,
where a community-managed programme, Tchuma Tchato, is already being
developed. But Namanhe said that ZIMOZA may later be extended to other
districts.

Under Tchuma Tchato, 33 per cent of the gains with local resources are to
benefit the local communities, while another 30 per cent go into the
provincial government's coffers, 30 per cent are for the central government,
and seven per cent for the programme's management technical committee.

Namanhe called for a closer economic partnership between the government, the
private sector, local communities, and NGOs, as a means to ensure a
sustaineble development in the conservation areas.

Expalining the advantages to implement ZIMOZA, Namanhe said that it will
help control and bring order to the circulation of people from one country
to another because, "as you know, there is no border demarcation fence in
that region".

The Great Limpopo Park is another transfrontier tourism initiative, which is
now under consolidation, covering the parks of Kruger, in South Africa,
Gonarhezou, in Zimbabwe, and Limpopo, in Mozambique. AIM vc/bm