http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own Corespondent Saturday 31 July
2010
HARARE -- Trade on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has
contracted 19
percent since December last year, while market capitalisation
shrunk to
US$3.19 billion in June from nearly $4 billion at the beginning of
the year,
the central bank said.
Monetary policy statistics released
by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
this week show that foreign investors
- whose money Zimbabwe desperately
needs to fund economic reconstruction --
have taken flight from the local
bourse.
"Since February 2010, the
stock market has exhibited a downward trend
reflecting low investor
confidence. Most foreign investors moved out of the
stock market largely due
to the perceived country risk," the RBZ said.
It added: "Stock market
activity has remained subdued in 2010, largely
reflecting liquidity
constraints, particularly in the absence of balance of
payments and budget
support, coupled with subdued export performance.
"Reflecting these,
market capitalisation declined from US$3.97 billion in
January 2010 to
US$3.19 billion in June 2010.
"The industrial index registered a 19.2
percent decline since December 2009
to June 2010, which largely reflects
liquidity challenges facing
industries."
The ZSE has also not been
spared by the government's controversial drive to
compel foreign-owned
businesses to sell stake to local blacks.
Under the economic empowerment
law all foreign- owned firms valued at
US$500, 000 or more will be required
to transfer stake to locals.
President Robert and his ZANU PF party who
enacted the law in 2008 before
forming a power-sharing government with Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
MDC had initially wanted foreigners to cede 51
percent shareholding to
blacks.
They backed own after stiff
opposition from Tsvangirai and agreed to set
varying percentages of
shareholding foreign-owned companies in various
sectors of the economy must
transfer to local blacks.
But analysts say the law remains a disincentive
to potential investors. -
ZimOnline.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own Corespondent Saturday 31 July
2010
HARARE - Fresh elections to choose a new government to replace
Zimbabwe's
ruling coalition should take place only after all measures to
ensure free
and fair polls including compilation of a new and accurate
voters' roll are
complete, a deputy prime minister has said.
Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said rushing to polls without
ensuring
necessary reforms are completed will produce a contested outcome as
the last
vote two years ago that failed to produce a winner to leave
Zimbabwe stuck
in a stalemate amid political violence across the country.
"Key, is the
quality of elections and not when they will be held," Mutambara
said
after meeting members of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on
Thursday.
The ZEC is in charge of running polls in the country and
the under-funded
commission has said it needs up to a year to prepare new
voters' registers
to replace the present ones that contain massive errors
and distortions,
including hundreds of names of people who died even before
Zimbabwe's 1980
independence from Britain.
Mutambara, who heads the
smaller MDC formation that is in a power-sharing
government with larger MDC
of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President
Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF,
dismissed as "destructive" calls by some political
leaders for early
polls.
"There is no point in rushing into elections that will be
challenged,"
Mutambara said.
"There are various electoral reforms
that must take place and improvements
needed with regards to the election
management system to make it credible."
Mutambara's plea for patience on
elections comes against the backdrop of
calls by Zanu (PF) two weeks ago for
elections to be held next year.
Mugabe's party has said that there is "no
reason" for Zimbabwe not to hold
elections in 2011, citing sharp political
differences the partners in the
country's coalition
government.
Mugabe, 86, was forced into a power-sharing pact with his
former opposition
rivals after a crisis over a 2008 national election that
local and foreign
observers say was marred by violence and
vote-rigging.
Ongoing efforts to draft a new constitution and other
electoral reforms
underway are part of measures meant o ensure the next poll
will be free and
fair.
In public, both ZANU PF and Tsvangirai's MDC
have been telling their party
structures to stay ready for elections, but
privately their officials say
the polls are at least two years away when the
new constitution is expected
to be completed. - ZimOnline.
http://www1.voanews.com
The top executives of Zimbabwe's state-controlled
enterprises, mostly former
military commanders, are said to believe State
Enterprises Minister Gorden
Moyo of the Movement for Democratic Change has a
hidden agenda
Gibbs Dube | Washington 30 July 2010
Executives
of Zimbabwean state-controlled enterprises ordered last week to
report to
the government how much they are being paid were said Friday to be
resisting
disclosure, demanding a presidential directive to do so.
Government
sources said not a single parastatal executive has given salary
information
to the relevant ministers as the Cabinet directed in a move
toward curbing
executive pay that ranges up to US$15 000 a month.
The executives, mostly
former military commanders, believe State Enterprises
Minister Gorden Moyo
of the Movement for Democratic Change, has a hidden
agenda. But Moyo said
most heads of state enterprises have failed to submit
financial reports for
six years, warning that they could face prosecution if
they refuse to
comply.
"Our ministry was taken aback when we learned that these
executives have not
been able to conduct proper business procedures during
the past six years
resulting in the firms running without any approved
budget and audited
financial statements," Moyo said. He added that "time has
come to do the
right things," he said.
Moyo told VOA Studio 7
reporter Gibbs Dube that he expects the executives
appointed by President
Robert Mugabe to comply with the Cabinet decision.
"If the executives do not
want to implement the Cabinet directive then we
have to use the necessary
state laws to ensure that they disclose their
salaries to line ministries,"
he said.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
31 July, 2010 01:35:00
By
The trial of businessman Temba Mliswa continued yesterday with
four more
witnesses disowning reports made to police and medical
examinations
attributed to them in their testimonies.
Two witnesses who
testified before Karoi magistrate Mr Elisha Singano on
Thursday confirmed
making reports of assault at Karoi Police Station.
However, all the five
witnesses yesterday disowned the charges of assault
against
Mliswa.
In their testimonies in court, which were identical, the
witnesses confirmed
being involved in an altercation with Mliswa, but denied
ever making reports
to the police and undergoing medical
examination.
Prosecutor Mr Simon Tapiwa had presented the reports in
court to bolster the
assault charge.
They claimed the reports were
made by politicians, which they declined to
name in court.
"Yes I had
an altercation with him (Mliswa) but the matter was resolved
amicably. I
never reported the matter to the police. I did not go for a
medical
examination and so I don't know anything about the medical report
being
presented here," said one of the witnesses.
The State is likely to call
doctors to confirm the medical reports.
So far, seven witnesses have
testified and two more are expected to give
evidence when the trial
continues on August 16.
Mr Tapiwa alleges that sometime in March 2007
Mliswa beat up his farm
workers over missing property.
He allegedly
pointed a gun at a witness who threatened to report the matter.
Tawanda
Kamuna, a former security guard at Mliswa's farm, told the court
that the
businessman beat him and his colleagues on the buttocks and he
sustained
serious injuries requiring an operation.
However, the witnesses disowned
the reports during cross-examination by
defence counsel Mr Charles
Chinyama.
They said they had come to an agreement with Mliswa.
"I
later agreed with the accused that he was going to pay for my hospital
bills
and I withdrew the charges," he said.
Mliswa is also facing charges of
extortion at the same court after he
allegedly approached the owner of
Magororo Mine claiming that he was an
aspiring legislator for that
area.
He allegedly demanded US$3 000 and the use of a truck to "protect"
the mine.
Mliswa is facing eight counts of assault and one of pointing a
firearm at
someone at the Karoi Magistrates' Courts.
http://www1.voanews.com
The Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime MInister
Morgan Tsvangirai
charges that ZANU-PF and elements of the state security
apparatus are trying
to foist ZANU-PF's constitutional preferences on the
Zimbabwean people
Blessing Zulu & Patience Rusere | Washington DC 30
July 2010
The Movement for Democratic Change formation of Zimbabwean
Prime Minister
Tsvangirai has accused its governing partner ZANU-PF of
launching an
operation intended to stifle public comment on the revision of
the
constitution in a bid to ensure that the eventual new basic document
will
reflect ZANU-PF political preferences.
MDC sources said ZANU-PF
has launched "Operation Vhara Muromo," Shona for
"Operation Close Your
Mouth." The former opposition party said state
security agents, soldiers and
ZANU-PF militia members are attending outreach
meetings and systematically
intimidating members of public to ensure only
approved views are
expressed.
A statement released by the Tsvangirai MDC ahead of a series
of rallies by
the prime minister starting Saturday in Hwange, Matabeleland
North province,
charges that ZANU-PF and elements of the state security
apparatus are trying
to foist ZANU-PF's constitutional positions on the
Zimbabwean people.
The MDC said the prominent war veteran Jabulani
Sibanda with the help of
ZANU-PF militia has been terrorizing villagers in
Bikita West, Masvingo
province, forcing them to back the so-called Kariba
draft constitution in
outreach sessions. Among other features the Kariba
draft provides for strong
presidential powers.
Mr. Tsvangirai,
meanwhile, has encountered obstacles to his planned schedule
of rallies.
Police have said that they do not have enough manpower to
provide security,
obliging Mr. Tsvangirai to seek relief in court.
Tsvangirai MDC
Organizing Secretary Morgan Komichi was arrested Tuesday when
he went to
Matebeleleland with an advance party to set up rallies in the
region. A
source in the independent civil society monitoring group which has
been
observing the process said ZANU-PF is organizing meetings in rural
areas and
coercing people to back its positions.
Tsvangirai MDC spokesman Nelson
Chamisa says the party is concerned by
escalating violence.
But
Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, co-chairman of the parliamentary select
committee
in charge of the constitutional revision, countered that the MDC
is
misleading the nation on the issue of violence.
Elsewhere, select
committee co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora of the Tsvangirai
MDC formation
dismissed a report published by the state-controlled Herald
newspaper this
week saying five legislators had abandoned the outreach
process because they
were unhappy about their allowances.
Mwonzora said some legislators
resigned as outreach team leaders because
they had been named to ministerial
posts while others departed to pursue
academic studies. He said all were
replaced by their parties.
http://www1.voanews.com
Many of the new cholera cases have occurred in and around the
Marange
alluvial diamond field and independent health care organizations
have found
it difficult to access the zone which is tightly controlled by
the military
Sandra Nyaira | Washington 30 July 2010
A cholera
outbreak in Marange district of Zimbabwe's eastern Manicaland
province has
left 80 people hospitalized and led authorities to set up
emergency
treatment centers aiming to keep a tight lid on the disease which
claimed
more than 4,000 lives in late 2008 and early 2009 as the country's
health
care system collapsed.
Sources said many of the cases have occurred in
villages in and around the
Marange alluvial diamond field, and that health
care organizations have
found it difficult to enter military controlled zone
to provide emergency
assistance.
Sources said the outbreak is so
serious that the Ministry of Health and its
partners are going all out to
stop it.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
said in recent
report that experts fear another cholera outbreak as the
rainy season
approaches, as the causes of the last epidemic have not been
fully
addressed - in particular deteriorating water and sanitation systems
which
allow cross-contamination of water supplies.
Water system
breakdowns also lead households to resort to unsafe water
sources like
shallow wells.
Health Minister Henry Madzorera confirmed the outbreak,
saying every effort
is being made to control it. The United Nations
Development Program has
estimated that 6 million Zimbabweans lack access to
safe water.
http://news.radiovop.com
30/07/2010 08:43:00
HARARE, July 30,
2010-At least seven banks have failed to meet the
prescribed minimum capital
requirements set by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) and have been
directed to raise cash from shareholders or bring new
partners, governor
Gideon Gono said Thursday.
Addressing bankers in a low key mid-term
monetary policy review statement
where the media was barred, Gono said there
would be no further extension of
the deadline beyond December 31
2010.
Under the new capital requirements announced last year, by March
31, 2010,
commercial banks were supposed to have had US$12,5m as minimum
capital;
merchant banks US$10m, building societies and discount houses
US$7,5m and
asset managers US$500 000.
"As at 30 June 2010, 17
out of 24 banking institutions, excluding POSB and
the micro finance bank,
were in compliance with the prescribed minimum
paid-up capital
requirements," Gono said.
"The unqualifying seven institutions have
been directed to either raise
fresh capital from existing shareholders or
bringing in new partners without
any further delays. There will be no
further extension beyond 31 December
2010," Gono added.
Gono told
bankers that the central bank is "on record advising the banking
sector that
Monetary Authorities no longer have appetite for curatorships".
He added
that as of June 30, 2010, 15 of the 16 asset management companies,
had met
the minimum paid-up equity capital of $500,000 effective 31 March
2010.
"Those with unrealistic initiatives were directed to merge
their operations
with stronger banking institutions, surrender their
licences voluntarily or
face involuntary liquidation," the central bank
chief said.
The first half of the year has witnessed the disposal of
business units and
rationalization of operations by some banks as they
endeavour to realign
their capital positions and business and
activities.
NDH Bank sold its securities firm, NDH Equities, to a
consortium led by
banker Exodus Makumbe while MBCA disposed of its asset
management arm to the
same consortium.
NDH surrendered its banking
licence when it became clear that the
shareholders will not be able to raise
the US$10m as minimum capital
requirements.
For the second time this
year, journalists were not invited for the
presentation. In his policy
review statement in January, Gono did not invite
the media.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
30 July, 2010 07:27:00
Reuters
Harare - Zimbabwe still relies heavily on imported goods as
local industry
battles to recover from years of economic decline, central
bank governor
Gideon Gono said on Friday.
"Generally, there was an
increase in the level of foreign imports across all
sectors of the economy,"
Gono said in his mid-year monetary policy
statement.
From January to
the end of June this year, banks processed payments of
US$950m for imports,
up 46% from the same period last year.
Most of the increase was due to
imports of consumer goods, he added.
"This indicates that the country is
still reliant on imported goods as
capacity utilisation has not reached
levels that will result in import
substitution."
Zimbabwe's economy
has shown signs of recovery since the formation of a
power-sharing
government last year by long-time rivals Robert Mugabe and
Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The compromise government was aimed at mending the economy
ravaged by high
inflation and easing political tensions in the wake of a
bloody presidential
run-off election.
But most factories which pulled
down their shutters at the height of the
economic crisis remain either shut
or operate way below their capacity.
The bank urged government to
"promote production by the local industry and
avoid de-industrialisation
through overreliance on imports of finished
goods," Gono
said.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti said in a budget review two weeks ago
that
industry was operating at 37% of capacity, compared to 10% in January
2009.
The potential of local industry has been hamstrung by lack of
capital, old
equipment, erratic power supplies and high import duties on raw
materials. -
Reuters
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
31/07/2010 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
A GOVERNMENT plan to erect a statue of Joshua Nkomo at the
Karigamombe
Centre in central Harare - even against his family's wishes -
has hit an
embarrassing legal hurdle.
The Mining Industry Pension
Fund (MIPF), owners of the Karigamombe Centre,
on Wednesday obtained a court
order halting all work on the statue site.
The MIPF says it was never
consulted on the decision to put a statue of the
late Vice President on its
property.
And now, the Harare City Council also says it was never
consulted.
Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said: "As the designated town
planning
authority, there are no structures such as buildings or statues
that are
supposed to be constructed without our authority but that was not
the case
on this issue.
"We were not consulted and the matter came to
council after Councillor
Tungamirai Madzokere had raised concern over the
issue. My attitude was that
there was nothing to discuss because the matter
was up to the Ministry of
Home Affairs. But the ministry did not consult us
for town planning
approval."
Nkomo's family objects to the statue
being erected at Karigamombe - a Shona
word for "he who fells the bull by
its horns" - charging that the decision
is a "mockery and an insult" to
Nkomo's ZAPU party which used a bull as its
symbol.
Now the MIPF
could turn out to be the family's knight in shining armour
after its legal
intervention which has put the statue erection on ice, at
least
temporarily.
The statue, made in North Korea, was the brain-child of the
Zanu PF
government before President Robert Mugabe agreed to share power with
rivals
Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara a year ago.
Zanu PF
spokesman Rugare Gumbo said his party, which Nkomo was a member of
at the
time of his death in 1999 after uniting the two parties in 1987,
would study
Justice Hlatshwayo's judgment in favour of the MIPF.
http://zimbabweonlinepress.com/index.php?news=2765
30 July, 2010 12:49:00
African Aristocrat.com
In a shocking exclusive, The African Aristocrat
can reveal that Bona Mugabe
has filed sexual assault charges against two
Tanzanian students studying in
Singapore.
Tracy Guvamombe, who is
actually Bona Mugabe using an assumed name, alleges
that she was the victim
of drink spiking and rape at a student party held in
the upmarket Faber Park
neighbourhood. The accused argue they had
consensual sex.
One of the
accused has been identified as Patrick Azziz, the 27 year old
son of
Tanzanian business tycoon Rostam Aziz. Patrick, together with an
unidentified co-accused, allegedly invited Bona Mugabe (known to them as
Tracy Guvamombe) to the lavish party and plied her with spiked wines. They
went on to have sex with her in one of the bedrooms.
The pairs luck
ran out when Bona suddenly woke up only to find one the
suspects grovelling
on top of her. She is said to have screamed alerting
other guests who rushed
in to her aide. The suspects fled but were later
apprehended by the local
police.
Bona Mugabe unwittingly reported the matter under her assumed
name but her
attempt to avoid being recognised is exactly what led to the
story breaking.
Rupali Karekar, who writes for Straits Times, received a tip
off from a
fellow student who has since identified 'Tracy' as being the
daughter of
Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe.
[rostam]
Business
tycoon, Rostam Azziz
Rupali Karekar approached the police seeking details
about the case. The
police not knowing that Tracy Guvamombe was an assumed
identify released the
details of the case. Only during investigations did
Bona's true identity
come to light. Singapore police immediately applied for
an injunction
barring the Straits Times from publishing the story but this
was not before
the journalist leaked the story to the Zimbababwean
opposition, MDC.
The leak was directed by email via the Prime Ministers
website,
zimbabweprimeminister.org. James Maridadi, the PM's spokesman, was
first to
read the potentially damaging email. After reading the email he is
said to
have contacted Nelson Chamisa, a move that angered Tsvangirai who
expected
to be briefed first. When Tsvangirai heard the news from Chamisa he
directed
that email be immediately destroyed for fear that it could further
strain
the troubled GNU.
During routine email maintence officials in
the PM office discovered that
Maridadi did not delete immediately delete the
email but first forwarded it
to close friends. Logs on Maridadi's emails
showed evidence that he had
forwarded the emails. A livid Tsvangirai,
already upset that Chamisa had
been briefed before him immediately fired
Maridadi.
Recent reports in the press that Maridadi was being fired over
a series of
gaffes was just spin on the part of the MDC to get the media of
the scent.
MDC insiders are said to have pressed the PM to reconsider his
decision on
Maridadi since any such move would only give credence to the
leak if the
news ended up being published.
The Aristocrats source
inside the Presidents office expressed ignorance of
the Bona rape claim but
admitted that this, given the sensitive nature,
might have been deliberately
kept from their view. He however confirmed that
one of the presidential
secretaries had been tasked with finding a suitable
university in Malaysia
and negotiating a course credit transfer. Grace
Mugabe later reversed the
decision arguing that there was no need for Bona
to transfer since she was
nearing the end of her course. The Mugabe's are
said to have simply said the
consideration to move her was based on concerns
that her assumed identity
had been broken.
The Aristocrat hopes that the MDC stands by it's
commitment to transparency
and tells the Zimbabwean generality exactly what
happened with James
Maridadi.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Staff Reporter
Friday, 30 July
2010 15:04
HARARE - A malaria outbreak has claimed nearly 200 lives since
the beginning
of the year, prompting Zimbabwe's Health Ministry to institute
a probe to
determine the cause of the "unusual trend".
The UN said
183 succumbed to the deadly malarial bug between January and
June, raising
fears of another health crisis reminiscent to a 2008 deadly
cholera epidemic
that killed more than 4 000 people. "By 30 June 2010 a
cumulative 117 038
cases of malaria and 183 deaths had been reported through
the National
Health Information System in an outbreak that started in
January 2010 with a
CFR (case fatality rate) of 0.16," the world body said.
Some of the
hardest hit areas are Mashonaland West's Karoi, Kadoma, Makonde,
Zvimba,
Chegutu and Kariba districts where health officials have declared
malaria
outbreaks because rising numbers of patients visiting clinics and
hospitals
for treatment. Malaria is a serious health threat in Zimbabwe,
often
competing with HIV/AIDS for attention from the meagre government
resources
allocated to the sector.
After HIV/AIDS, it is the biggest killer of
children under five in Zimbabwe.
The estimated one million cases of malaria
each year in Zimbabwe are also a
serious threat to pregnant women and
newborns, the leading cause of
work-absence due to illness and a severe
brake on economic growth.
Because there is no single way of preventing
malaria, mosquitoes are
increasingly becoming resistant to existing drugs.
An effective vaccine is
considered years away and the most effective way to
reduce malaria is
prevention through use of insecticide-treated nets.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Never Chanda
Friday, 30 July
2010 19:41
HARARE - The European Union has ruled out supporting newly
resettled farmers
until the Zimbabwe government carries out a long-delayed
audit to eliminate
multiple farm owners.
A senior EU official told
The Zimbabwean On Sunday that the land audit would
clarify a "number of
issues that are necessary to commit to all farmers in
Zimbabwe". "Until the
land audit is completed, we cannot support," said
Joost Bakkeren, EU Food
Attaché in Zimbabwe.
He said the EU and the United Nations Development
Programme were ready to
assist Zimbabwe implement the land audit. Zimbabwe's
coalition government
promised fresh land reforms that are more orderly when
it was formed in
February 2009 but to date has failed to carry out a land
audit that is
critical to any programme to rectify the damage caused by
President Robert
Mugabe's chaotic and often violent farm redistribution
programme.
The administration has also failed to stop Mugabe's supporters
in the
army and from his Zanu (PF) party from seizing more land from
the
country's few remaining white commercial farmers.
Land remains a
divisive issue in Zimbabwe after Mugabe over the past
decade drove most of
the country's about 4 500 large-scale white
landowners off their farms which
he went on to parcel out to blacks in
a chaotic and often violent land reform
programme that destroyed
commercial agriculture to leave the country facing
food shortages.
In addition critics say Mugabe's cronies - and not
ordinary black
peasants - benefited the most from the land reforms with many
ending
up with up to six farms each against the government's publicly
stated
one-man-one-farm policy.
Mugabe has admitted mistakes in his
land reforms but has often
rejected calls especially by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's MDC-T
for a review of the land redistribution programme, saying
those behind
the calls want to return expropriated farms to their white
former
owners.
The 2008 political agreement between the two MDC
formations and Zanu
(PF) that led to formation of the Harare power-sharing
government
calls for a land audit to establish who owns which land in
Zimbabwe in
order to eliminate multiple land owners.
But the audit has
failed to take off because of a shortage of funds
and resistance from senior
Zanu (PF) officials who are multiple farm
owners.
Zanu (PF) hardliners
and members of the pro-Mugabe security forces
have also continued seizing
more land from the few remaining white
farmers in breach of the inter-party
political agreement as well as a
ruling by the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Tribunal
that called for an end to farm
seizures.
Mugabe, who wields the most power in the unity government
with
Tsvangirai, has said Zimbabwe will not abide by the Tribunal
ruling
despite Harare being required to do so under the SADC
Treaty.
In an apparent attempt to depoliticise the land question, the
MDC-T
has called for the establishment of an independent commission
that
would be given powers to administer legislation pertaining to
land.
The commission would also be tasked to ensure transparency, equity
and
fairness in land acquisition and resettlement procedures as well
as
examine legislation and make recommendations to the government
and
Parliament for a national policy on the tenure, acquisition, use
and
distribution of land.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The Zimbabwean
Friday, 30 July 2010
09:53
HARARE - Gospel musician, Amos Mahendere, has allegedly been given
a job and
two luxury vehicles by Zanu (PF) for his hand in the production of
pro-Zanu
propaganda jingles.
Mahendere is the producer of a 10-track
album titled Nyatsoteerera, which
was done by an all-female outfit, Mbare
Chimurenga Choir, and was released
and recorded at Gramma Records.
The
album has jingles which reiterate that President Robert Mugabe and his
two
deputies, John Nkomo and Joyce Mujuru are the ones running the
country.
Highly placed sources at Zanu (PF) headquarters and the state
controlled
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, said Mahendere was given an
Isuzu KB twin
cab and a Toyota Mark 11 as part of his reward for the
production of the
propaganda jingles.
"Amos Mahendere is now also seen
here (Zanu (PF) headquarters) on a daily
basis and has been promised a top
job in the information department by
Webster Shamu," said the
sources.
The group got some of the footage they used to produce a video
Nyatsoterera
unzwe kutonga (Listen carefully who is running this country)
from the ZBC
library, among other videos which are yet to be produced from
the same
album.
The band leader, Elizabeth Madzimure Bwanya, was quoted
by the Zimbabwe
Government online saying, "Comrade Webster Shamu heard us a
couple of times
at congresses and conferences and we were introduced to Amos
Mahendere who
patiently worked with us until the release of the album last
week".
When contacted for comment Amos Mahendere said he was not employed by
the
revolutionary party, neither did he receive anything from Zanu (PF) for
the
production of the propaganda jingles.
"I am a music producer, and I
did the job as a professional. I charged the
group normal business charges
of US$15 per hour. In fact I got nothing from
that project. I did not
receive the said Isuzu, you can even come to my
house and see for yourself.
That Toyota Mark 11 you are talking about is my
car I bought some years
back, and I am not employed by Zanu (PF)," he said
in a telephone interview
on Monday.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Never Chanda
Friday, 30 July 2010
19:43
HARARE - South African mediators must press for the
de-militarisation of the
Zimbabwean state institutions before the country
goes to next elections, a
leading think-tank said last week. (Pictured:
South African President Jacob
Zuma)
The South African-based Institute
for Global Dialogue (IGD) said Pretoria's
mediation role in the long-running
Harare political crisis
should move a step forward by ensuring that
democratic institutions are put
in place before Zimbabwe holds the next
polls, possibly in 2011.
"South Africa should support the implementation
of the GPA and aim to put
institutions into place, support the
de-securisation of the government and
improve capacity building in
Zimbabwe," said Siphamandla Zondi, executive
director of the IGD.
The
15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) is said to have
stepped up efforts to resolve the problem of Zimbabwe's intransigent army
generals opposed to the country's power-sharing government.
Hardline
Zimbabwean army generals have refused to publicly recognise the
inclusive
government's authority, especially former opposition leader - now
Prime
Minister - Morgan Tsvangirai's role. The hardline generals - who
include
Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantine Chiwenga, police
commission
general Augustine Chihuri and Central Intelligence Organisation
deputy
director general Maynard Muzariri - are believed to hold a de facto
veto
over the transition process by taking advantage of their positions and
symbiotic relationship with President Robert Mugabe.
A cabal of
powerful generals, with the support of elements in Zanu (PF),
still believes
that Tsvangirai should not be permitted to lead the country,
even if he wins
an election. There have been calls for SADC and regional
powerbroker South
Africa
to neutralise Zimbabwe's military sector by persuading the hardline
senior
security leadership to retire.
Observers say the South African
mediation team led by President Jacob Zuma
should use the carrot and stick
method to get the army generals to retire,
with offers of immunity from
prosecution for past political crimes in return
for retirement.
The
senior Zimbabwean security officials fear prosecution for gross human
rights
abuses committed in recent repression campaigns, especially those
associated
with the violent 2008 presidential and parliamentary election
campaign as
well as the 1980s anti-insurgents campaign in Matabeleland and
Midland
provinces.
The so-called Gukurahundi massacre in the two provinces left
over 20,000
mainly Ndebele-speaking people in Matabeleland dead in the
1980s.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Staff Reporter
Friday, 30 July 2010
15:35
HARARE -Industry Minister Welshman Ncube has branded the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) a "dangerous" entity stifling the
country's ability to inject life into its comatose productive sector.
(Pictured: Welshman Ncube)
The secretary-general of the smaller wing
of the former opposition MDC said
constant and erratic power cuts by ZESA
were suffocating efforts to revive
industry by the damaging new and
expensive industrial equipment "sometimes
beyond repair".
"Some of
the challenges we face are with utilities, in particular ZESA,
which is
twofold - unreliable, inconsistent and sometimes
dangerous supplier of
electricity," Ncube said in last week's edition of a
newsletter published by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Zimbabwe's power stations have been
dogged by ageing equipment and lack of
funding to buy spares to revamp its
units. The country currently produces 1
100 megawatts against a peak demand
of 2 000MW and imports between 300 and
500MW, mostly from Mozambique and
Zambia.
The shortfall has led to daily power cuts, most of which do not
follow the
published schedule. Ncube also blamed the country's industrial
woes on
inefficiency by the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
"Our rail
system is malfunctioning. If you want to move something from
Durban to
Harare, it takes two months instead of 48 hours," he said, adding
that the
government was considering investing in infrastructure,
locomotives, wagons
and signal systems to improve the NRZ's performance.
Ncube said
Zimbabwe's industry was operating at around 10 percent capacity,
a statement
that contradicted Finance Minister Tendai Biti who last month
announced that
production had significantly picked up. "We are currently
around 10 or so
percent and our challenge is to raise it up to the 1996/97
levels and
thereafter think of increasing the manufacturing sector
contribution," Ncube
said.
According to Biti, capacity utilisation now ranges between 30 and
50
percent.
http://www1.voanews.com
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and deputies
Arthur Mutambara
and Thokozane Khupe joined Cabinet members and senior
members of the
judiciary Thursday evening in offering condolences to the
Mugabe family
Blessing Zulu | Washington 30 July 2010
The
designation of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's late sister Sabrina
as a
national hero in record time after her death on Thursday has renewed
debate
as to what makes a hero and who should make that decision.
Zimbabwean
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Ministers
Arthur Mutambara
and Thokozane Khupe joined Cabinet members and Supreme
Court and High Court
judges Thursday evening in offering their condolences
to President Mugabe's
family following the death early that day of Sabina
Mugabe at the age of
80.
The former member of parliament died at the Avenues Clinic. No cause
of
death was stated. Mr. Mugabe told mourners she had suffered a stroke in
1995
which obliged her to retire from active politics.
The ZANU-PF
politburo declared Sabina Mugabe a national hero less than 24
hours after
her death without consulting the other governing parties, yet
again stirring
controversy over the hero designation process.
Though that decision was
unanimous, sources said some former members of
PF-ZAPU who were absorbed
into the combined ZANU-PF in 1987 were unhappy to
see hero status for the
president's sister was declared so quickly.
Some noted it took weeks for
the ZANU-PF politburo to confer hero status on
the late Masala Sibanda, a
retired army colonel and former freedom fighter,
leading his family to bury
him in Bulawayo in protest at the slight.
Timely designation as a
national hero is usually followed by interment at
Heroes Acre on the
outskirts of Harare, where Sabine Mugabe is to be buried
on Sunday with full
honors.
The immediate conferral of hero status on Sabina Mugabe has also
drawn
complaints from political opponents of Mr. Mugabe who say that the
process
of designating national heroes must be nonpartisan.
ZANU-PF
spokesman Rugare Gumbo told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's studio 7
for
Zimbabwe that Sabina Mugabe deserved the honor. But National
Constitutional
Assembly Chairman Lovemore Madhuku said her main
qualification was being Mr.
Mugabe's sister, and that Zimbabweans have let
ZANU-PF abuse the selection
process.
http://www.timeslive.co.za
Aug 1, 2010 12:00 AM | By Sunday Times
Correspondent
Zimbabwe's legislators are quitting the constitution
outreach exercise in
droves owing to poor pay and working conditions in the
chaotic process to
write a new constitution.
Current Font
Size:
Four Zanu-PF legislators left the constitution-making process last
week,
while several others in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) are
said
to be contemplating dropping out.
The legislators are paid $25 a
day. The outreach programme lasts for 88
days. The legislators are agitating
for $75 a day, money the government -
which has admitted it is technically
broke - does not have.
Officials in charge of the process, fearful that
the outreach could
collapse, are understood to be engaging major donors,
such as the United
Nations' Development Fund, to increase the
allowances.
Paul Munyaradzi Mangwana, a Zanu-PF legislator and
co-chairman of the
Constitution Select Committee (Copac), said on Friday the
legislators needed
to be paid well, as they were tasked with coming up with
a new constitution
for the country.
"This is a huge job. They deserve
better pay and working conditions," said
Mangwana.
Douglas Mwonzora,
the MDC-T legislator who co-chairs Copac, said those that
had left the
process had been replaced.
"We are not losing any sleep, because they
have been replaced. In fact, more
have stayed than left," said
Mwonzora.
Meanwhile, reports of Zanu-PF agent provocateurs and state
security agents
abound amid speculation that President Mugabe's party is not
interested in a
new constitution.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Zaya Yeebo
Thursday, 29 July 2010
17:42
With a focus on the role of 'free and fair elections' in promoting
democracy, Zaya Yeebo takes a look at how electoral politics are shaping up
across Africa. (Pictured: George Chiweshe - Former head of the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission who simply sat on results as soon as it emerged that
President Robert Mugabe was losing the vote in 2008) "The important
consideration for the state, the media, civil society and political
parties," says Yeebo, "is to work within an African framework, and for
international supporters and interlopers to recognise the local reality, and
not impose conditions based on geopolitical and economic
interest."
In modern democratic systems of representative governance,
elections are
periodic contests which determine the next set of rulers in a
nation state.
In many ways, the notion of a free and fair election is
subject to numerous
interpretations and like most political concepts is
always contentious.
In essence, elections should be held in an atmosphere
which is 'free from
the clouds of traditional claims to political legitimacy
based on perceived
roles played in the independence struggle' and by
extension free from
colonial underpinnings or used as a cover for the
protection of colonial and
neocolonial interest.??
High stake
events
Why are some countries able to organise 'free and fair elections'
while
others are not? What constitutes a 'free and fair' election? Is a
'free and
fair elections' simply the absence of obvious and overt rigging or
a
reflection of the maturity of the political institutions; or a process
which
is judged by the citizens to be fair, honest, and reflects the will of
the
people? ??
The importance of elections lies in their traditional
importance and to some
extent in the way they promote or truncate democracy.
As a tool of
democracy, elections should be the only basis for choosing a
government or
representatives of the people. It appears that discussions
about having free
and fair elections always assume certain certainties
enumerated as 'global
norms'. ??
But within these global norms,
certain facts begin to emerge which I believe
are African specific. The
widely held assumption that conducting a 'free and
fair elections' is
tantamount to having a democratic system of government is
sometime
overstated. Indeed, recent events have shown that this may not
always be the
case.
Secondly, such discussions always tend to ignore economic and
social factors
such as economic mismanagement, levels of poverty;
unemployment, ethnicity
(tribalism) and why elections tend to widen, not
bridge the ethnic divide in
some African countries (e.g. Kenya in 2007;
Ghana in 2008).??
However, the importance of conducting free and fair
elections can never be
overstated.
The post election violence
witnessed by Zimbabwe, threats of violence in
South Africa, Ethiopia in
2005, and Kenya in 2007, are constant reminders of
the need for 'free and
fair elections' whose results are incontestable, and
are respected by all
citizens and institutions of democracy (e.g. including
political parties,
civil society groups, and the security forces). ??
The notion of a free
and fair elections have become even more prominent as
countries have through
the years, failed to conduct elections in a manner
that could stand the test
of a free and fair election.
This problem is not African specific, and
should not be treated it as such.
In Asia, Latin America, and Europe and
even in the United States of America,
the conduct of elections has been
subject to various contestations. ??
The politics of
elections
Elections are the basis of 'representative democracy' and one of
the many,
but acceptable means of choosing and deselecting leaders in a
democratic
society. In past and recent African history, elections have
become the
mechanism for the transition from colonial rule to
independence.
In the military dictatorships of West Africa, elections
became the basis for
transition from military to civilian rule. Even when
regimes have come to
power through armed struggle (as was the case in
Rwanda, Angola, Mozambique
and Uganda to mention a few), elections are often
used for legitimising the
role of the victorious guerilla army.
It
has always been perceived that an election with observers who give their
seal of approval is always a 'successful one'.
But organising free
and fair elections requires more than a mass of election
observers, whose
presence, though reassuring, could also be used to mask
undemocratic and
unfair results - as in the case of West African transitions
from military
dictatorships to civilian regimes.
Popular democracy must create the
basis for frequent democratic ways of
changing the political leadership of a
country; the promotion of a
democratic culture, based on tolerance and
respect for diverse views and
opinions. ??
The popular will of the
people, expressed through popular democracy must be
the foundation of any
political system built on the rule of law and respect
for human rights. This
requires the active and responsible role of civil
society and other mass
movements.
Elections form a core component of such a democratic society,
recognising
that elections on their own do not lead to fundamental change,
but are part
of a process that will lead to the strengthening of national
institutions
and democratic processes. Elections are therefore important
democratic
processes.??
Vulnerabilities
The political economy of
African states, particularly, their colonial
origins can provide a window to
understanding why Africa is prone and
vulnerable to elections malpractice
and disputes. There is sometimes a
conscious attempt to deny the impact of
colonialism and now neocolonialism
in certain events in Africa. Elections
cannot be one of them. ??
Electoral politics in post-colonial African
states is very much linked to
the character of the post-colonial state as
the basis for the primitive
accumulation of capital and for amassing
economic power and wealth.
In other words, the character of the
post-colonial African state encouraged
a winner takes all mentality to
competitive electoral politics and by
extension, the violation of the rules
of democratic engagement, particularly
political succession. The
ethnicisation of politics in Africa has also
contributed largely to the
above.??
In the anti-colonial struggle, ethnicity became an important
factor as the
colonial elite from different ethnic groups jostled for power
and influence
through anti-colonial independence movements.
As
colonial edifices collapsed, some politicians and activists found comfort
as
tribal warlords, with no discernable ideas about nation building, except
to
protect the land, economic resources and power they either grabbed or
inherited from the departing colonial power.
Reflecting this view,
the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
(UNECA) notes that 'ethnic
followers vote along ethnic lines, believing that
their "sons and daughters"
can best act as gate keepers to protect their
ethnic interests, if voted
into power.' ??
Ethnicity has been a key driver in elections with
political leaders whipping
up ethnic emotions among the electorate thus
being the precursor to
violence. This situation is not endemic to Kenya.
Indeed, it is an African
problem.
Ethnic conflicts have played
themselves in various forms in countries such
as Nigeria, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Rwanda, Sierra
Leone, Uganda and
Sudan.
What most conflicts in Africa illustrate is the character of
neocolonial
state as one dominated by the largest ethnic groups, allowing
these groups
to use resources and sometimes state power to disadvantage
their opponents
opposition political parties.?
Poverty and
electioneering
Democracy, it is said, is expensive business, and nowhere is
this reflected
more than at election time. Elections are expensive; both at
the level of
maintaining democratic electoral management institutions and
supporting
political parties.
In situations of severe poverty and
deprivation as witnessed in Africa,
individuals also become susceptible to
manipulation and fall prey to
financial inducements from
politicians.
Undoubtedly, poverty makes the electorate susceptible to
monetary influences
and therefore remains a severe impediment to organising
free and fair
elections in Africa.
This is also related to the high
cost of electioneering on the continent and
elsewhere. Both the cost of
maintaining the electoral administration and the
high cost of electioneering
are impediments to free and fair elections.??
Related to this factor is
illiteracy, which poses its own problems, e.g. how
are electoral regulations
or the use of ballot papers to be explained to
illiterate voters.
In
short, the limitations, indeed the imperfections of electoral
administration
must be realistically set against the problem of
underdevelopment and the
economic crisis of the state. In general however,
geopolitical
considerations can also influence the perceptions of an
election as being
free and fair.
For instance the 2008 elections in Ghana were organised
within the shadows
of monumental flaws in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Kenya, and
political upheavals
in Guinea and Mauritania. The need for an African
success story meant that
similar flaws in Ghana could have been
overlooked.??
Institutional mechanisms
For a nation or government to
organise free and fair elections, certain
institutional mechanisms should be
in place.
Political architecture and institutional support ensures that
citizens are
free to elect and be elected under rules and regulations that
are clear to
all contesting parties, that political parties are not only
aware of these
rules, but willing to abide by them in the spirit of
democratic elections
and fair play. Some of the institutional and political
mechanisms are
discussed below.??
Electoral management bodies
The
role of Independent Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) or Electoral
Commissions is crucial to the outcome of an election. The electoral body
should derive its powers and mandate from the constitution.
This will
include administering and implementing laws regarding the
registration of
voters; overseeing the actual conduct of elections,
supervising the ballot
and the count; promoting transparency at all levels
and being accountable to
the public and parliament where one exists.
The EMB should also actively
advocate the open participation by all
political parties and the public; and
provide voter information and civic
education to raise awareness of
electoral laws and governance issues to help
the populace make an informed
choice.
But most important of all, its role is to ensure that elections
are
conducted in conformity with the laws of the country.??
In
Africa, overwhelming evidence points to the fact that elections run by
independent electoral bodies are more successful, and the results respected.
In countries where election results have been respected the state has ceded
greater responsibility to the electoral administration such as the the
Electoral Commission in Ghana.
In the same way, in the absence of
administrative clarity and the political
will on the part of the Electoral
Commission (EC) to enforce the rules,
elections results will always be
viewed with suspicion by the populace. In
such an atmosphere, groups who
feel swindled and abandoned by the electoral
process will resort to
non-democratic forms of protests. ??
Civil Society
In addition to the
institutional mechanisms for managing elections, civil
society organisations
- here defined to include non-governmental and faith
based organisations,
trade unions - play a very significant role in
promoting free and fair
elections.??
For example, in the period leading to an election, they
provide civic
education, creating awareness of the democratic and electoral
processes and
sometimes in reassuring a restive public. In recent elections
in Kenya,
civil society has led the advocacy for electoral reform, arguing
for more
effective mechanisms to ensure free and fair
elections.
Kenya civil society continues to engage with democratic
institutions to
advocate for mechanisms for a free and fair
elections.??
During an election, civil society continues to play this
role as elections
observers and/or monitors, ensuring that rules laid down
by the electoral
body are followed, and that the election meets local and
international
standards of objectivity and fairness.
In most
countries, civil society organisations are active in pre-election
periods,
when they undertake civic education, promote awareness of the
electoral
process and promote public debates between candidates - government
and
opposition.??
Election observation
To what extent are election
observers key to a 'free and fair election'? In
most cases, it is
acknowledged that the sole purpose of election observation
is firstly, to
help reduce irregularities, and also offer impartial advice
to election
officials where necessary. Some election observers have stayed
within these
professional boundaries.
As the Kenya Domestic Observation Forum (KEDOF)
report noted: 'Election
observers are not supposed to interfere in the
electoral process and have no
authority to change, improve or correct any
shortcomings, or to request
changes during the election
process'.
Thus, 'observer missions are, strictly speaking, mandated to
collect verify
information concerning the election process, to analyse the
observations and
then, after the elections, to publish their findings'.
??
Allowing observers to monitor an election has become part of the
accessory
of any election. An election where these observers are barred is
considered
fraudulent from the beginning.
The activities of these
supposedly 'neutral' election monitors have become
an important part, first
as a way of validating an election, and secondly,
as a legitimising
exercise. In Africa, no election is thought to be free and
fair without a
horde of foreign election observers.
There are two types of election
monitors: international and domestic.
International election observers or
monitors usually comprise international
organisations, regional
organisations (e.g. Africa Union), and international
organisations (e.g. the
Commonwealth) groups outside the host nation.??
The role of international
election observers or monitors was given a
significant boost by the United
Nations when in October 2005, the UN 20
international democracy
organisations signed on to the Declaration of
Principles for International
Election Observation.
This declaration encourages countries to allow for
both international and
domestic election observation. In most African
elections, the presence of
international observers reassures the weak
opposition and politicians that
the process will be free and fair.
A
review of the Ghana elections of 2008, noted: 'The large and visible
presence of foreign media, and diverse groups of international observers
including the EU, the Carter Centre, the Africa Union, the Pan African
Parliament the Commonwealth and the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) contributed to increased public confidence in the process as
well'.
The role of foreign observers are usually complemented by
domestic elections
observers. Domestic observers also play a similar role.
In the 2008 general
elections in Ghana, and the 2007 elections in Kenya,
local election
observers contributed immensely to managing peaceful
elections.
But more than that, those observers can help to reduce or
deter fraudulent
election practices. Domestic election observers usually
involve
non-governmental organisations. Domestic election observers have a
longer
history of election observation in Africa than international
observers.
In South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Senegal, domestic
observers have
been essential to successful elections. Experience in Africa
and Asia has
demonstrated that domestic election monitors have certain
advantages over
their international counterparts.??
In both Kenya and
Ghana, domestic organisations are rooted in the society,
have a longer
history of engagement and have cultural advantages (e.g.
language) over
their international counterparts, most of whom to tend to be
election
junkies or tourists. Domestic election observers also have the
advantage of
lessons learned over a long period of time.??
Civic education
The role
of civic education in promoting a free and fair election cannot be
downplayed. Democracy requires informed participation of the electorate, but
before this can happen, and to lessen conflict and confusion about the
democratic process, citizens must remain informed and engaged.
The
electorate in any given situation needs knowledge, information and
understanding of the competing political forces to make informed decisions
about policy choices and avenues to voice their concerns.
Civic
education is the process by which the public is made aware of social
and
political rights and responsibilities, as well as the principles and
practices of action.
Civic education is used to create awareness of
the various issues posed by
politicians and candidates during an election,
but more than that it,
empowers voters and community actors with the tools,
information,
mobilisation skills and understanding of the political dynamics
necessary to
influence change during the electoral process.??
In some
countries, this role is reserved for government-approved
institutions with
the mandate to provide impartial civic education and
awareness to the
general public (e.g. Ghana), in others, this role is
reserved for the
Electoral Commission (e.g. Kenya).
Civil society organisations also
provide civic education to large segments
of the population using various
creative methodologies. Civic education
enables various interest groups -
both state and non-state actors - to
engage in a non-partisan education of
voters using various methodologies,
ranging from seminars and discussions to
plays, poetry and drama.
Civic education creates awareness of the
electoral process, allowing
political parties and competing candidates to
set out their policies,
thereby helping the electorate to make an informed
choice.??Elections remain
the key avenues for changes of the
guard.
But this requires an institutional framework within the context of
the
country in question. Sometimes, 'global norms' are not enough and can
overlook local realities.
The important consideration for the state,
the media, civil society and
political parties is to work within an African
framework, and for
international supporters and interlopers to recognise the
local reality, and
not impose conditions based on geopolitical and economic
interest. -
Pamabuzuka News.
NOTE: Zaya Yeebo is programme manager
for the UNDP Civil Society Democratic
Governance Facility. He writes in his
own capacity.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk
MISSION: Jess Cosby is working in Zimbabwe
for a year
THE patient is a young woman. She's emaciated, exhausted. I'm
relieved to
see her make eye contact with me when I greet her. Less relieved
when I
instinctively reach for her wrist, and find no radial pulse.
I
watch her carefully. She's taking a short, shallow breath every second.
Every second. Too much and not enough.
The three of us work together.
We can't get a drip in. We can't get a drip
in, and then we do. Fluids. A
double dose of co-trimoxazole. Whatever
intravenous antibiotics we can
find.
A flurry of activity and then, much, much too quickly, there's
nothing else
to be done. We look at each other. Idle hands are a nurse's
biggest fear.
We need to transfer her to the provincial hospital, which
is nearly 90
kilometres (56 miles) away on terrible, bone-shaking
roads.
We carry her to the Land Cruiser, lay her on a sheet in the back
and rig a
drip pole. Something soft for her head.
It's a long,
uncomfortable journey for me, watching my patient's chest rise
and fall much
too rapidly. Longer for her grandmother. Longer still for her.
We take her
to the female ward and transfer her on to a stained mattress.
There's no
oxygen. A hospital without oxygen. And she's exhausted. We hand
over to the
nurses, and I leave hoping we've offered more to her family than
false hope,
and the burden of paying to have her body returned 90
bone-shaking
kilometres back the way we came.
At my next opportunity, I go to visit
her. A couple of days have passed and
I'm expecting to hear the worst,
hoping to hear better.
I go to the nurses' station and inquire after her
by name. The nursing
sister looks at me. "She just stopped breathing," she
says.
Just stopped breathing? Just stopped breathing? Then grab some
oxygen, a
bag-valve-mask. She's 26 years old. Put out a crash call. Do
something. But
there's nothing to be done, and the nurse in front of me has
seen this too
many times.
"Does this happen in your country?' she
asks. I'm shaking my head. No. The
short answer is no. I could elaborate on
this.
Of course people die young. Of course people suffer. I could talk
about
statistics, demographics or philosophy or religion. But I'm talking to
a
woman who is nursing in a country with one of the lowest life expectancies
in the world. The whole world.
So, essentially, the answer is no. No,
it doesn't happen in my country.
I'm still shaking my head slightly when
she turns away. "Does MSF have
gloves?" she asks. "Please. Bring some
gloves." How about piped oxygen? A
defibrillator? An anaesthetist? How about
some justice? Gloves. Right. No
problem.
After completion of my nurse
training at King's College, London, I
specialised in caring for those with
HIV/Aids, working at the infectious
disease unit in St Bartholomew's
Hospital, London.
In 2002, I was awarded the Diploma in Tropical Nursing
from the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
I then went
on to work as a surgical nurse in The Gambia and Sierra Leone.
On
completion of an MSc in public health, I travelled to Botswana, working
for
12 months among the local HIV/Aids population providing support for
local
healthcare workers.
I am in Zimbabwe for a year on my first MSF
mission.
In Exeter, I divide my time between medical repatriation work,
emergency
care and travel health nursing.
I started working in the
emergency department at the Royal Devon & Exeter
Hospital.
I
worked there for four years while studying public health part-time at the
University of the West of England.
In 2007, I took a one-year career
break and went to Botswana to work as a
nurse with an HIV/Aids organisation.
I returned to the emergency department
in May 2008.
In October, I
also began working as a travel health adviser at the Travel
Health
Consultancy in Southernhay, covering for my friend and colleague
James
Moore, while he swanned off down the Nile with Joanna Lumley and a
film
crew!
I swapped Exeter for Gweru in March of this year and plan to return
next
spring. When I'm home, I live in the St Thomas area of Exeter and
belong to
Belmont Chapel. I'm very happy in Zimbabwe, but, aside from family
and
friends, I miss Branscombe beach, walking at Fingle Bridge, Otter ale,
cream
teas and the Double Locks pub!
Médecins Sans Frontières is an
independent humanitarian medical aid
organisation committed to providing
medical aid where it is most needed,
regardless of race, religion, politics
or gender and also to raising
awareness of the plight of the people we
help.
Dear Family and Friends,
After my
letter last week in which I mentioned the enormous disparity
between the
daily amount being given to constitution outreach
technicians (70 US dollars)
compared to the daily wage of a civil
servant (5 US dollars), I got a very
angry email from a company
owner.
"I don't know why you keep on about
the workers, the employers have
it much worse, " the lady wrote.
"You
must tell us the answer," she said, referring to her situation
as an employer
and then describing the dire position her business is
in.
Struggling
to turn over 3,000 US dollars a month, her company employs
7 people who, in
her words, "come to work late and go home early." The
monthly wage bill alone
is 2,400 US dollars. The company owner does
not draw a salary herself because
there is no money left after paying
the seven wages, electricity, water,
rates, rent, fuel.
The anger and despair of this company owner is being
repeated all
over the country as most businesses remain barely functional
while
Zimbabwe remains in a perilous economic state. Property
rentals,
utilities, wages and costs go up but there is not a
corresponding
increase in income because people just aren't spending money
on
anything except essentials. Many companies describe never having had
so
little work and so few customers since they started operating
twenty or even
thirty years ago. As absurd as it may sound, employers
can't afford to
retrench a portion of their workforce either as the
exit packages are so high
that it will bankrupt the whole company to
lay off a few.
Wages are
the tip of the iceberg when it comes to employing people in
Zimbabwe. Aside
from the pay envelope there is the uniform and shoes,
the transport, housing
and light allowances, the appeals for a meal
at work, for school fees,
medical assistance and so it goes on and on
- desperate workers looking to
even more desperate employers whose
companies are on the verge of
collapse.
Enter into all of this the pending compulsory 51%
indigenous
shareholding of companies and the waves start flooding in over
the
edge of the floundering boat. Last weekend the Indigenisation
and
Empowerment Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, threatened to close
down
9,000 companies because they hadn't yet submitted
indigenisation
plans to his ministry. Apparently only 480 out of 9 557
companies had
put in the paperwork that effectively gives control of their
companies
to complete strangers.
I haven't got an answer for the angry
company owner, or for the
desperate employees whose wage doesn't get them to
the end of the
month. There's no answer either for the university graduate
who has
unsuccessfully applied for 50 jobs in the last five months or for
the
neighbour who recently lost his job.
Companies, families and
individuals are all in the same position as
we start August 2010. We are
living from hand to mouth, hoping and
praying that we don't have an accident
or get sick, that nothing gets
broken or stolen and that we can just make it
to the end of the month.
For all of us there is really only one answer and
that is a return to
good governance, law and order, property rights and real
democracy.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy � Copyright
cathy
buckle 31st July 2010
www.cathybuckle.com
http://www.zimtelegraph.com/?p=8190
Interview
broadcast 29 July 2010
Lance Guma
Hello Zimbabwe and welcome to
Part Two of this interview on Behind the
Headlines with cricketer Henry
Olonga. Now you will remember from last week
Henry has a special place in
Zimbabwean history - he was the first black
player and the youngest ever
cricketer to play for Zimbabwe internationally.
In 2003, he along with
team-mate Andy Flower wore a black armband in a
cricket World Cup match to
protest the death of democracy under Mugabe's
ZANU PF regime and Henry has
now released a new book on his life - Blood,
Sweat and Treason and last week
we were talking about that book.
Now this week we continue - Henry -
general cynicism in some quarters that
sports and politics should not be
mixed up - I'm sure you've had, you've
taken a lot of flak from some
quarters - I mean how do you react to those
who will say to you, you should
have stayed out of politics?
Henry Olonga: Well the first thing I will
say is that every country has a
Minister of Sports and Culture so sport and
politics kind of do mix in one
sense. There's some countries where it spills
over into more of the mix -
let me say this - there's some countries like
Sri Lanka where the government
actually vets the selection of the team, I
mean Zimbabwe is not that bad but
sport and politics has always indelibly
been mixed for years.
We don't often have protests however happening on
the sports field, I think
that's what people have a problem with and you can
go back to Carlos and
Smith in the Olympics a while back when they did the
black power salute. I
think generally sporting bodies do not like politics
to interfere in their
running.
However, we were sportsmen who had a
conscience who had a platform. Our
platform happened to be the sports field.
You know, had I been a scientist,
had I been a teacher, had I been something
else in life, I would have found
a different platform on which to make my
feelings about Zimbabwe felt, but
it just so happened that our vehicle, if
you will, was to stand up for
people who didn't have a voice if you will, in
the arena of sport.
And I think that's a human reaction. I think when
you've got an issue as big
as a dictator terrorizing his own people, I don't
think that's the time for
just empty words, I think that's the time for
action and so we felt that
instead of having the rule book thrown at us we
were just going to use
whichever means we could get and use to get our
message out and so we used
the World Cup of 2003.
Some people think
it may have tarnished the World Cup - but you know what?
The overwhelming
sense that I've received is that there were so many people
who wished that
someone had spoken exactly what we said, either earlier or
at a higher
level. So what we did seemed to have a resonance around the
world, we got
support from a lot of people around the world, especially from
the UK and
the West; people felt that what we did was right.
With regards to the
ethics of the timing of our choosing to do it - yah sure
people can
criticise us and they have the right to do that but ultimately we
saw the
bigger picture. We weren't looking at a World Cup cricket match
where at the
end of the day you get a prize which is a trophy - we were
looking at trying
to get people's lives that had been brutally brought to an
end or people who
had been brutalized in the rural areas during elections or
those people that
lost their lives in the Gukurahundi or whatever, the
corruption in
government, we were trying to highlight those issues which we
felt were
bigger that any sporting occasion.
Guma: Do you feel that not enough
people in Zimbabwe do that? I mean it was
interesting hearing you talk about
your Christian values and I just thought
to myself, not enough people in the
church speak out about what is happening
back home. So do you think this is
a general disease among Zimbabweans who
are prominent not to use their
status in life to speak out for the
voiceless?
Olonga: Hey listen -
it's dangerous to stand up in Zimbabwe, I'm sure most
people appreciate that
and therefore it's a deeply personal decision and you
have to have the
personal conviction deep in your heart that what you are
doing is the right
thing. Now with regards to the Christian perspective, I
think Christians
definitely need to be on the cutting edge of speaking out
against atrocities
and evil in the world.
Now it doesn't necessarily mean that every single
Christian is called to do
that because not every Christian is called to be a
voice in the wilderness
like John the Baptist was, and there are some people
who are clearly they
have that gifting on their lives, they have the
charisma, they can stand up
in front of a crowd, they can speak with
confidence and boldness without
feeling intimidated when it comes to facing
the Goliaths of this world if
you will - but I think on a general level,
every person who calls themselves
a Christian must understand the
issues.
And the issues are - that weak people who don't have a voice are
being
trampled underfoot by a strong leader and given a chance, people must
campaign for righteousness and holiness whichever way they can do that. This
is why I've got a tremendous amount of respect for all the people that
campaign in Zimbabwe, including Women of Zimbabwe Arise and all the people
that are always putting their necks out and being imprisoned for
it.
I'm not suggesting you go out to get imprisoned just to prove a point
- no.
But I suppose the thing is when we shy away from confrontation, when
evil is
so prevalent in a country then we deserve what we get. In fact,
there was a
man who put it this way, I think his name was Edmund Burke, he
said evil,
all that is necessary for evil to prosper is for good men to do
nothing. And
I think that is a well quoted and often quoted phrase that I
think just sums
up what I'm trying to say - is when we see evil in the world
and especially
if we're Christians - we do nothing or choose to instead shy
away and just
hide in a hide in a corner then the suffering that is enforced
upon us is
deserved.
Guma: Bold move that considering how the regime
reacts to criticism. If I
may move on, in your estimation has anything
changed since the swearing in
of the coalition government in February 2009?
I mean, what's your
assessment?
Olonga: Well Lance, you guys have a
much closer feel for what's happening on
the ground but from my perspective
I've only really got the news media and
that's not always reliable and every
story has to be vetted and I have my
family. I have my dad living there and
my brother there and generally the
story is things are tough. Things have
improved definitely on the front of
how the economy has slightly improved
after they went from the Zimbabwe
dollar which was almost worthless to the
US dollar.
I've heard that has allowed produce and services to be made
available
although expensive but at least people can have access to these
things. When
you had hyperinflation, people didn't stock things, it just
didn't make
sense. You stock mealie meal or whatever, meat, in your shop at
a certain
price in the morning by the time you get to the evening, you've
made a loss,
you've lost half the value of your product so shop owners were
just not
stocking and now that the economy has sort of stabilized I think
that is a
good thing that the coalition government has brought
in.
However if we ask the question, has the power, the seat of power
moved or
shifted in any way - I don't really think so, I think the power
behind the
throne, Robert Mugabe, still in charge, he still calls the shots.
Morgan
Tsvangirai painfully compromised - I think those were his own words,
it was
a very painful compromise for the MDC but I think that he felt it was
his
only option.
But he also, I think, felt that he was going to
attain some kind of measure
of power that would enable him to push through
the reforms that he wanted in
Zimbabwe and I gather, and look - I'm not
speaking as an authority - but I
gather that the power that he thought he
had isn't quite the power that he's
got. I think Mugabe probably invests
more power in his vice presidents than
he does in the prime minister, if
that's my correct reading of the
situation.
But we've got some good
guys - there's Morgan of course, there's Dave
Coltart, there's a few other
good guys who are trying to force through some
positive reforms in Zimbabwe
and hopefully those will come through in time.
Guma: You played 30 test
matches for Zimbabwe, taking 68 wickets with a
bowling average of 30.52, and
51 one-day internationals taking 58 wickets -
I could go on the whole
day.
Olonga: That's nothing to write home about Lance.
Guma: .do
you feel let down though Henry that a country you have given so
much to has
treated you this way in a manner of speaking?
Olonga: You know Lance, I
don't have a problem with the way they reacted
when I did my black armband
stunt. Any government would react that way - it's
a big showcase, it's the
World Cup, billions of people that was the
viewership - billions of people
watching it all over the world, in India,
Pakistan, all over the world where
these huge populations love the game and
worship it as a religion just
about, so I understand the reaction I got.
I don't condone it but I
understand it. What I don't understand is,
actually - just recently I went
to renew my passport. I don't know if you
know about the problems that are
surrounding people who are trying to renew
their passport and they were born
outside the country or they have a stake
to claim to another citizenship,
well either way, now the thing that hurts
me the most is I actually
represented Zimbabwe at the highest level in my
chosen sport which was
cricket and in trying to renew my passport, they
basically told me, in a
manner of speaking - I'm simplifying this - that I'm
not a citizen - which
is just diabolical and that's the thing that hurts the
most.
You know
I wrote a song about Zimbabwe - Our Zimbabwe which is a song that
tried to
bring people together, I bled as the book title goes - I bled, I
sweated and
I cried for my country, literally and it's just really sad that
the people
who very often have given the most to Zimbabwe under the present
regime are
vilified and made to be the enemy and yet people like yourselves
in SW Radio
Africa, people who have made tremendous sacrifices to get the
truth of
what's happening there out to people, people who are doing good
things - in
the court of law of life, the real heroes are not the people who
have got
the power and use it for ill-gotten gain, it's the people who are
weak and
yet use that little bit of influence they have for good.
And that's why I
salute you guys and the work that you guys do and I know
that you guys have
trouble as well - you can't go back to Zimbabwe and that
sort of thing and
that to me is what hurts the most, is actually that the
most prominent
people in Zimbabwe who are making a difference, who are doing
what they feel
is in the best interests of the country, those are the ones
that are being
vilified by this government.
And you remember, a while back, maybe just
to cap this off, a while back,
there was that guy called Chenjerai Hunzvi -
remember him? War veteran guy?
And he died and he was made a hero, he was
buried at the Heroes Acre if I'm
not mistaken and there was almost going to
be an outcry by the war veterans
if he wasn't buried there and he was a
thug. I mean that man was just an
evil man.
I don't think that man
deserved to go to the Heroes Acre. And then there was
a guy called James
Chikerema who in many people's eyes was a genuine hero
but he'd fallen out
with the regime many years earlier and they refused for
him to be buried
there. And this is the nature of the regime - they make
heroes out of thugs
and then real people who deserve some kind of accolade
are made to be
vilified as the enemy and that's the saddest thing about what's
happened in
Zimbabwe.
Guma: Some of the cricket players who left Zimbabwe because of
the political
situation, some of them are going back home. Can we say you
have similar
intentions or that ship has sailed?
Olonga: Hey, they
phoned me out of the blue these guys, Chingoka, no it was
Bvute, Ozias Bvute
called me out of the blue, I didn't even know how he got
my number but he
obviously asked someone who knew what my number was and he
called me and he
was very charming. You know - hey Henry don't worry about
2003 you know
everyone's getting along now and it's forgive and forget - and
they
attempted to try and get me back to come and do some commentary but
hey, yah
in your words, I think that ship has sailed for me.
I have a desire to
see Zimbabwe back in international cricket, I have a
desire to see them
playing well at the highest level, we've got a good team,
I want to support
them but my life has gone in a different direction. I'm
now married to a
foreigner, I'm married to an Australian, we live in
England, we have, I'm
trying to rebuild my life.
You know people might think I'm doing alright
in life but really I'm still
just trying to figure out what I want to do
with the rest of my life. I'm a
former cricketer, I thought that my future
was going to be in cricket for a
while, it didn't end up being that way. I
thought I'd be playing cricket
until I was 34, 35, which is what I am
now.
So for the last few years I've been trying to rebuild my life and
choose a
new direction and I've gone into music, I've gone into film making,
photography, a lot of the arts and those things are not easy to get a
foothold in, especially here in the UK. So I'm still working out how to earn
a living consistently and how to do things that I enjoy and yet, be able to
raise a family for example so if I went back to Zimbabwe it would be
starting from scratch really.
So for me in the immediate future, and
I don't think I'm unique in this,
there's a lot of expats who have left the
country, set up roots in other
countries, in England, many millions of
people in the Diaspora and obviously
we've had these people coming over and
appealing to them to come back to
Zimbabwe and it's not easy you know.
They've got kids in schools now, they've
got steady jobs, they live in a
country that's more or less stable.
You know the government isn't going
to pass legislation next week to steal
your farm or to take your company, so
why would people trade that for
instability? I think that's the big thing
that the government of Zimbabwe,
coalition or not, has to try and convince
all these expats who are abroad
that coming back is going to be OK for them.
So I'm in the same boat. Look,
I love the country, I love the people,
they're friendly, Zimbabwe I believe
has a great future but there are a few
stumbling blocks to that.
Guma: In 2006 I watched you on Channel Five's
The All Star Talent Show which
you actually won.
Olonga: Did you vote
for me?
Guma: .and I was shocked at what a good voice you had and I was
like - wait
a minute - this guy, is this guy not meant to a be a cricketer?
Now the
singing part of your career - can you tell us about that? It's quite
an
intriguing addition to the cricketing.
Olonga: Well you're very
kind if you think I can, you know, I'm a good
singer. I personally just have
been singing since high school. I was never
any good in junior school I
don't think, I never got picked for any lead
roles as a singer or anything
like that, but when I got to high school I got
inspired by a few
people.
There were a few seniors in the school, at Plumtree there was a
guy called
Mark Green who had just the most amazing tenor voice that you've
ever heard
and it was also not long, two, three years after me attending
Plumtree when
I was about, was it 1990 I think, the Italian World Cup - I
heard those
Three Tenors singing in that concert and when I heard them I
just thought -
My Lord, this is just amazing how they sing so I wanted to
sing a bit like
them and I bought all their music, you know when music was
on still on
tapes - do you remember those days?
Guma:
Yes
Olonga: So I got their music on tapes and I used to listen to it and
I used
to try and copy them and it didn't bother me that it was music that
black
people didn't normally sing, you know it was all this classical stuff.
Mind
you I was also at the same time listening to rap and R & B and all
that sort
of stuff, it's not like I only listened to classical music, I had
a wide
taste in music, even jazz I enjoyed.
And then when I left
school I carried on with my singing after having
performed in lead roles and
once I had performed in lead roles at school,
people used to ask me to sing
at weddings and birthdays etcetera and when I
left school then of course I
went into cricket but I didn't want to neglect
my music and I ended up
moving into a flat with three musicians - can you
believe it? - with whom we
wrote the song Our Zimbabwe and then I just
rediscovered my hunger for music
again and ever since then I got back into
it.
And then when I came to
the UK I got the opportunity to get onto that show,
it was called The All
Stars Talent Show. My agent came to me and said - hey
listen, there's this
show on TV, they're showcasing celebrities - and I
wouldn't call myself a
celebrity but they're showcasing celebrities - who
have a hidden talent that
no-one knows about. So they said what would you
like to do, so I said I'd be
happy to sing so of course I went and I sung
and initially they wanted me to
dress up like a Chinese peasant singing
Nessun Dorma because the opera is
actually based in China.
Now I can't think of anything more ridiculous
than a black man trying to
look like a Chinaman - do you know what mean? I
thought to myself forget
this, so they got me actually dressed up by a guy
called Botang, I forget
his first name, whew I can't remember his first name
but he's a very well
known designer here in the UK and they got me to wear
one of his suits and I
got my pianist friend Bruce Izzit to accompany me and
I sang Nessun Dorma
and I don't know whether it was that I was good Lance,
or that the others
were so rubbish that a lot of people felt that they had
no choice but to
vote for me.
I also asked all my friends to get on,
you know and text in and support me
so I don't know how many friends I have,
I couldn't have asked that many but
that all helped. So thankfully at least
the British public on the whole
believed that I had a nice talent and so now
I'm trying to do more with it.
Guma: Which brings me to my final question
and we're going back to the book
Blood, Sweat and Treason and you're running
a competition on Face Book that
will allow people the chance to win a copy
of your coming book.
Olonga: Oh I've forgotten about that!
Guma:
You know - that's the media's job - keeping you on your toes! Just
tell us
about that and also how people can buy this - the basic stuff.
Olonga:
Well thanks, you're very kind. First of all, let me tell you about
the
competition. The competition was supposed to close last night but I
think it
was so poorly attended, I might have to extend it. It was
basically, I
provided a backtrack to the song Our Zimbabwe and people were
then going to
get the backtrack and put it into their digital audio
workstation or
whatever they use and then they were going to put their vocal
on top and the
best version of the Our Zimbabwe song would basically win the
contest.
But I don't think I've had a single entry so I might have to
change that but
I had a previous competition in which the best joke of the
day that made me
laugh would win the book and I'm going to be doing some
more so all you have
to do is join me as a friend on Face Book or join up on
my, I've got a fan
page as well because Face Book you can only have a
certain number of
friends, I think it's 5000 and I'm on almost 4600 so I'm
almost out of
friends.
Guma: You are twittering as well of
course?
Olonga: I'm twittering as well. Now the book itself is available,
or in fact
I'm tweeting - that's what you say - you don't say twittering do
you - you
say tweeting. (both laugh).The book is available off my website,
now
obviously I understand not everyone has a credit card so you can buy
using
PayPal but you have to send that to my email address and then I'll
send off
the book, it's as simple as that.
Guma: It makes it easier
you've got a website?
Olonga: Henryolonga.net that's my website, if you
don't, if you forget, as
some people do, they might say ah that Henry Olonga
guy, what's his email,
his website again, just type my name in Google and
the first hit in Google,
the top of Google or your web search engine
whichever one you use, that will
be my website. Then go to the website, you
can buy it off my, on the first
page actually, click through to the main
website, on the first page is all
the details you need with a link that goes
through to the bookstore.
I've actually got a nice little special offer
on at the moment that if you,
oh in fact I've forgotten what the special
offer is - no, no - that ended
with the pre-orders, I beg your pardon -
ignore that - but either way, it's
very simple, it's a secure site, it's
£18.99, obviously if I do gigs around
the country then I bring the book with
me, it's 15 quid, so go onto my
events calendar on Face Book, find out where
I am, come to the gig and you
can get it for four pounds cheaper just
about.
Guma: Henry it's been a pleasure having you on the programme, of
course
helped by the fact that I've just discovered you're an old Plumtree
boy
which made it all the more easier for me.
Olonga: Are you an old
Plumtree boy?
Guma: No, nearby at Cyrene.
Olonga: Oh Cyrene of
course. You know us Plumtree boys used to have all the
sportsmen, you guys
used to have all the brain boxes.
Guma: Exactly! Well that was Henry
Olonga, thank you for joining us on
Behind the Headlines and we hope the
book does well Henry.
Olonga: Thank you so much Lance and good luck to
you guys as well, thank
you.
To listen to the audio of this programme
click link below:
http://swradioafrica.streamuk.com/swradioafrica_archive/bth290710.wma