Reuters
Mon 20 Aug 2007,
15:47 GMT
By Charles Mangwiro and Gordon Bell
MAPUTO Aug 20
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe was not heeding International Monetary
Fund advice to
implement measures that would help ease its deteriorating
economic crisis,
IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato said on Monday.
Rato told a news
conference in Maputo the IMF had stressed the need for a
stabilisation
programme, enhanced transparency and for authorities to
increase the
capacity of the market economy.
"We have been emphasising with the
Zimbabwe authorities the need to address
(the) very extreme and
deteriorating macroeconomic environment," he said.
"We are not encouraged
by the responses of the authorities... Our advice to
the Zimbabwe
authorities is not the one they are applying."
An economic meltdown
marked by the world's highest inflation rate and severe
food and fuel
shortages, which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's
controversial
policies, has ravaged the southern African country.
Mugabe accuses
Western powers of sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy and working
with opposition
groups to oust him.
In February, the IMF maintained its suspension of
financial and technical
assistance to Zimbabwe, saying Mugabe's government
had failed to clear its
arrears and face its worsening economic and social
crisis.
Zimbabwe has averted expulsion from the Washington-based IMF by
making small
payments towards closing its arrears, which stood at $131
million including
interest in late July.
Rato said there was no
consensus on the board of the IMF to restore
Zimbabwe's voting rights, which
were suspended four years ago.
"The staff and management have proposed
different approaches but up to now
we have to recognise that there is not
enough consensus," he said, adding
the option to expel Zimbabawe had not
been raised by the fund.
Mugabe, who has ruled for 27 years, has accused
the IMF of treating his
country unfairly and said Zimbabwe was unlikely to
clear the arrears without
guarantees that aid and its voting rights would be
restored.
The IMF and other key Western donors, including the World Bank,
suspended
aid to Zimbabwe more than six years ago over Mugabe's economic
policies.
Western donors withdrew aid and other assistance to the
country, accusing
Mugabe of widespread human rights violations and for
seizing white-owned
farms, which critics say has turned the country from a
regional bread basket
to a nation barely able to feed itself.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: August 20,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Cases of diarrhea and dysentery have
soared to 900 a day
in the Zimbabwean capital with health authorities
blaming water shortages,
according to a report Monday in the official
newspaper.
City health director Dr. Prosper Chonzi said each of Harare's
60 public
clinics were treating an average of 15 water-related complaints a
day, with
private doctors dealing with many more, the Herald newspaper said.
No deaths
were reported.
State radio said taps ran dry in
impoverished townships around Harare for up
to three days at a time, forcing
householders to search for water in drains
and wells contaminated by
collapsing sewerage facilities.
The northern Hatcliffe district, where
basic houses were built after a
widely criticized slum clearance operation
in 2005, rarely had running
water, according to city health
authorities.
Chonzi said two years ago that diarrhea cases were uncommon
in the city of
1.5 million people.
Such cases have also increased
in the second city of Bulawayo and other
centers, officials say, but no
comparative tallies have been made available.
Environment and Tourism
Minister Francis Nhema said Harare residents were
storing water for long
periods, risking the build up of bacteria, and
underground water had become
unsafe to drink, the Herald reported.
"People now realize that we messed
up our environment ... we have killed the
water table flows with our
actions," Nhema told the newspaper.
The newspaper itself is increasingly
difficult to find because of the
economic crisis gripping the
country.
Daily water and power outages have affected industrial
districts, further
curbing production of already scarce goods after the
government June 26
ordered the prices on all goods and services to be cut by
about half to try
to tame rampant inflation. Acute shortages of gasoline
have crippled
transportation and delivery services.
Official
inflation is given as 4,500 percent, the highest in the world, but
independent estimates put it closer to 20,000 percent.
The
International Monetary Fund has forecast inflation reaching about
100,000
percent by the end of the year.
Stores across the nation remain empty of
cornmeal, bread, meat and other
staples as producers say they cannot afford
to sell their products below the
cost of production and
distribution.
The shortages of basic goods have spawned the emergence of
"professional
queuers" - generally the unemployed who stand in line to await
deliveries,
buy goods at the reduced prices enforced by police and price
inspectors and
then sell them at a profit.
On the street in the
well-to-do Harare suburb of Newlands on Monday,
children were offering bread
for nearly double the fixed price of 30,000
Zimbabwe dollars (15 U.S. cents,
11 euro cents at the dominant illegal black
market currency exchange rate,
or US$2 (?1.45) at the official rate.)
The main Newlands "TM" supermarket
had little food or essential goods to
sell Monday. Fruit and vegetable racks
were almost bare. Soap, washing
powder, cigarettes, newspapers and
magazines, and beer disappeared last
week.
Staff at a small cafe said
they received ten copies of The Herald on Monday
out of a long-standing
daily order of 60. The newspaper, suffering shortages
of newsprint and
materials, was again not delivered to its subscribers in
the residential
neighborhood.
The independent press is banned in Zimbabwe so most people
rely on radio or
the Herald for news. But the paper has been forced to slash
both its print
run and the number of pages it publishes.
The "TM"
supermarket, named after the initials of Thomas Meikle, founder of
a main
nationwide 60-store supermarket brand, has been dubbed by locals as
"MT" -
for empty.
Afrique en ligne
Harare (Zimbabwe) A Zimbabwean court Monday threw out a bail
application by seven men accused of plotting to topple President Robert
Mugabe, APA learnt here.
Magistrate Archie Wochiunga rejected
the application by the accused
men, citing the gravity of the charges they
are facing.
The alleged coup plotters are now expected to apply to
the Harare High
Court for permission to attend court from home, citing the
prosecution's
failure to lay charges against them.
Zimbabwe law
states that the police can only detain accused persons
for up to 48 hours
without bringing them to court, after which they must be
released if no
formal charges are laid against them.
The men were arrested in June
on allegations they wanted to stage a
coup d'etat against Mugabe and replace
him with one of his ministers,
Emmerson Mnangagwa, who heads the rural
housing ministry.
Defence lawyers last week filed an application
for refusal of further
remand but the matter was postponed to
Monday.
Observers say the coup trial is part of the ongoing
internal fighting
within Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party over who would
succeed the aging leader
when he retires.
JN/nm/APA
2007-08-20
African Press Agency
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
20 August 2007
The excitement and hope that preceded the
meeting of leaders from the
Southern African Development Community (SADC)
has died. It had been hoped by
many that the regional grouping would finally
take some decisive action on
the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe
as its impact on neighbouring
countries is now weighing on them heavily. And
the pressure on South Africa's
president Thabo Mbeki as the SADC appointed
mediator had also raised the
stakes and instilled hope in Zimbabweans that
something would finally
happen. But SADC leaders once again failed to censor
Robert Mugabe or adopt
a plan to pressure him for change.
Mbeki's
anxiously awaited report and statements by the incoming SADC
chairman both
dashed any hopes for a resolution of the deteriorating
situation on the
ground, and any hopes of African pressure on the Mugabe
regime to abide by
regional standards. The report simply said the ruling
party and the
opposition in Zimbabwe had agreed on 60% of the agenda items
for mediated
talks, but not much else about it was revealed to the press.
The leaders who
were privileged to hear it were obviously gagged by Mbeki's
controversial
"quiet diplomacy" approach.
Zambian authorities also cooperated with
their Zimbabwean counterparts by
deporting activists headed for the summit
in Lusaka. As if to add insult to
injury the economic report on Zimbabwe
prepared by SADC executive secretary
Tomaz Augusto Salomao, was not adopted.
Some journalists say his report
included an economic rescue package that had
tough conditions for the Mugabe
regime, including constitutional and
electoral reforms and a return to the
rule of law. Leaders were divided over
the report, with Mugabe and others
blaming 'sanctions' for Zimbabwe's woes.
Other journalists said that the
economic rescue package had no conditions at
all attached to it. The virtual
press blackout has created all this
confusion.
So where does this leave Zimbabweans? Political analyst Dr.
John Makumbe
said it was "unwise" of anyone to expect results from SADC,
just as it is
unwise to expect the African Union to act on Zimbabwe. He
explained that
since the last summit in March this year, the situation in
Zimbabwe had
deteriorated further, yet SADC leaders were not mindful of this
and they
acted as though progress had been made.
Makumbe said SADC's
failure to act this time should bring home the fact that
Zimbabweans must
accept that 'we are our own liberators.' Asked what options
Zimbabweans have
he said: "There is always the non-violent civic approach to
organised
resistance." The outspoken commentator believes what is needed is
street
action by large numbers of people on a daily basis to pressure the
Mugabe
regime. He said this will require leaders who are not afraid and can
sacrifice by leading from the front. People will be beaten and arrested but
they should regroup and continue. This would make it costly for the Mugabe
regime. Asked if there is such leadership in Zimbabwe, Makumbe said: "The
people are ready but the leaders are 'luke warm'."
Makumbe said the
talks mediated by Mbeki had actually made things worse
because all street
action stopped as Zimbabwe awaits results. He added: "It
has put a damper on
the courage of the leadership and left them all saying
'Give Mbeki a
chance'."
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Violet Gonda
20 August
2007
Observers say Zimbabwe is "doomed" if statements made by the new
chair of
the Southern African Development Community are a reflection of the
general
attitude of the regional leaders. Despite the situation getting
worse in
Zimbabwe where thousands of people are fleeing daily to neighboring
countries, mass starvation looms and people are going for days without water
and electricity, Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa began his chairmanship of
the SADC by stating: "We ... feel that the problems in Zimbabwe have been
exaggerated. We feel they will solve their economic problems."
But it
was only in March that he described Zimbabwe as the "sinking Titanic"
of the
region. People had pinned their hopes on Mwanawasa who had been one
of the
few African leaders to make strong comments on the deteriorating
situation
in Zimbabwe. So what has changed his mind?
Businessman Mutumwa Mawere says
there is a tendency in Africa to look at
problems as exaggerated and
solutions that come from within tend to be
marginalized. "So according to
SADC the problem in Zimbabwe is that
colonialism has a lot to explain about
what happens in Zimbabwe and nobody
focuses on what Mugabe has done to
create the current situation in Zimbabwe.
So he is saying you are
exaggerating because if you look at the core of the
Zimbabwean problem you
will find the British failing to pay for land reform.
So the issue is,
Zimbabwe is a victim."
Mawere said colonialism was a fact but after 27
years of power the
government needs to take responsibility for what it has
done and feed the
nation.
Sydney Masamvu, a senior analyst with
International Crisis Group, described
Mwanawasa's statement as diplomacy
being overplayed. He said if SADC is
certain that the problems in Zimbabwe
are exaggerated, why are they talking
of an economic rescue
package.
However the failure by the Heads of State to take strong action
against the
Mugabe regime at the just ended SADC summit in Lusaka has led
some to
question why the opposition is failing to put the message across to
the
African leaders.
Masamvu said: "There has not been a coordinated
political approach which
drives the point home, which brings the situation
on the doorsteps of the
SADC leaders. And I believe too much energy has been
wasted by the
opposition in terms of trying to resolve their internal
differences rather
than crafting and repackaging their message to really
drive their point home
especially on the African continent, where they are
viewed with a lot of
skepticism, that there really is a crisis in
Zimbabwe."
The analyst said the MDC has really done a good job of "preaching
to the
converted - the West - but he said the African continent is proving
to be a
different ball game. "It requires a different approach. A more
nuanced
approach to take into consideration the sensitivities surrounding
the
political parties within the Southern African Community, " Masamvu
said.
However other observers say no matter how much the opposition may
change its
"packaging of the struggle" it will still be an uphill battle to
change the
thinking and the mindset of the "African brotherhood
mentality."
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Afrique en ligne
Harare (Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe will continue to hog the limelight after it
escaped censure from fellow southern African leaders whose economies are in
danger of paying the price for their silence on alleged human rights abuses
by Harare, observers have said here.
The observers said that
the 14-member states of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC)
would be the ultimate losers for failing to
speak out against the unbridled
abuse of power by Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe's
government.
SADC leaders, to the surprise of many outside and
within the SADC
region, last week stood by Mugabe by endorsing his
policies.
"It was a mistake for fellow southern African leaders to
let Mugabe
come out of the summit without them asking him to account for his
actions
because they have given him more ammunition to act as he wishes,"
University
of Zimbabwe political science lecturer John Makumbe
said.
"They have failed to grasp that the Zimbabwe mess will also
mess them
up, because their economies are better and will therefore attract
multitudes
of our people there. I am not sure they will be able to cope with
that,"
Makumbe said.
The effects of Zimbabwe's crises on the
other economies are already
beginning to show.
Botswana\'s
inflation jumped to 7.5 per cent year on year in July from
6.4 per cent in
June, while gains in food prices saw South Africa's
inflation jumping to 6.4
per cent in June.
In Malawi the cost of building cement, which gets
some of its
ingredients from Zimbabwe but is now unable to make the
supplies, has
doubled in prices from US$15 to US$30 a 50-kg bag - that is if
the product
can be found on the market.
Even bread prices,
whose wheat is imported from Zimbabwe, have gone up
slightly in
Malawi.
On the social scene, thousands of Zimbabweans are crossing
into
neighbouring Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and
Zambia
daily to buy food.
While most of them return, a good
number remain behind to seek
employment in order to remit funds for
relatives back home.
Now the influx of the Zimbabweans is being
blamed for the rising
prices in the neighbouring countries.
With no end in sight to the current crises, Mugabe is expected to
intensify
his crackdown on the opposition as the country approaches
presidential and
parliamentary elections set for next March - the first the
two polls are
being held together since independence.
The Zimbabwe leader
attracted international outrage in March after
police and the army brutally
assaulted opposition leaders attending a prayer
meeting in the capital,
Harare.
Another effect on SADC's failure to address the worsening
situation in
Zimbabwe would be an expected increase in the number of
economic refugees
and political asylum seekers from Zimbabwe.
Already, South Africa, which is the strongest economy in the region,
is
feeling overwhelmed by the number of Zimbabwe's productive best, escaping
political persecution at home.
At a church run relief home in
Johannesburg, one priest admitted that
his clients were no simple off the
street Zimbabweans seeking shelter, but
there were lots of skilled workers -
the kind that South Africa was failing
to train to satisfy the local job
market.
If this is what Zimbabwe is daily losing to other
countries, the long
term effects of such an exodus are not hard to
contemplate, according to the
observers.
South Africa's Home
Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nquakula last
week rejected requests by
some humanitarian organisations to set up refugee
camps for Zimbabweans
seeking asylum in the country.
It is estimated that at least 5,000
Zimbabweans cross into South
Africa daily in search of economic solace and
to escape persecution by
Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe factor could also
have a telling effect as SADC
approaches the launch of a regional free trade
area in 2008.
One of the targets is to have macroeconomic
convergence, with all
member states expected to have single-digit inflation
next year.
This might not be possible, with Zimbabwe's current
possession of the
world's highest inflation rate, estimated at more than
4,500 percent in May.
In fact, it is said that Mugabe has now
stopped releasing the
inflation numbers since June - to avoid further
embarrassment.
While condemning Mugabe is not a song that would get
airplay in
southern Africa, SADC leaders and their "quiet diplomacy" need to
work hard
on some magic to get Comrade Mugabe and Zimbabwe out of this
current
quagmire - before the mud hits the fan.
JN/nm/APA
2007-08-20
African Press Agency
Afrique en ligne
Lusaka (Zambia) The Southern African
Development Community (SADC)'s
economic plan for Zimbabwe should not be used
to bale out the ZANU-PF
government, the Zimbabwe opposition appealed here
Monday.
Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC), said the economic plan for Zimbabwe should instead
benefit citizens,
and not dictators.
Speaking in an interview
in Lusaka, venue of last week's SADC summit,
MDC Press Assistant Joseph
Mungwari said that the SADC leaders should be in
solidarity with the people
of Zimbabwe and not its government led by
President Robert
Mugabe.
The MDC was not against economic reforms to help Zimbabwe,
he said,
adding that the MDC's mission to Zambia to lobby the just-ended
SADC
gathering was a success.
He said the party was confident
that the SADC mediation on the
Zimbabwe crisis would yield
results.
"We feel encouraged and motivated that SADC leaders agreed
with our
calls for talks between the Zimbabwean government and the
opposition to be
expedited," he said.
Mungwari, however, said
MDC felt that there was need for SADC to
broaden the mediation by
incorporating more leaders in the region, to anchor
the
initiative.
SADC in March entrusted South African President Thabo
Mbeki to mediate
the political crisis in Zimbabwe.
He said MDC
was happy that for the first time, SADC accepted that
there was a crisis in
Zimbabwe and was concerned about finding a lasting
solution to the
problems.
AC/nm/APA
2007-08-20
African
Press Agency
Zim Online
Tuesday 21 August
2007
By Hendricks Chizhanje
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's neighbours have reduce electricity supplies to
Harare over a
ballooning debt, raising fears of a fresh round of power cuts
in a country
already weighed down by growing economic problems.
Authoritative
sources within the state-run Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA)
power company said on Monday that the cash-strapped power
utility has
accumulated arrears of almost US$40 million, owed to SNEL of the
Democratic
Republic of Congo, South Africa's Eskom, and Hydro Cahora Bassa
(HCB) of
Mozambique.
The sources said the three regional power utilities,
from whom ZESA
imports more than 40 percent of Zimbabwe's electricity
requirements, have
reduced electricity exports to the troubled southern
African country to
protest the outstanding power import bills.
Of the three, HCB is owed the largest amount at US$32 million while
the debt
to SNEL stands at US$5.5 million. Eskom is owed US$1.9 million,
according to
the sources.
"We have been reduced from an average of 450MW to
200MW," said a
senior ZESA official who spoke on condition he was not named
fearing a
backlash from his bosses.
ZimOnline could not verify
the reports with the ZESA management or any
of the three regional power
utilities by last night.
But, according to the official, Eskom
stopped electricity exports to
Zimbabwe while HCB reduced supplies from 350
megawatts to 150 MW and SNEL
reduced its supplies by half to only 50
MW.
Before the latest development, Eskom exported between 50 and
150 MW of
power to bail out ZESA, which has since 2000 failed to meet
domestic demand
for electricity due to a crippling shortage of foreign
currency to import
spare parts.
Local generation capacity has
also been affected by inadequate coal
supplies to power the country's sole
coal power station at Hwange as well as
obsolete equipment.
Economists yesterday said the power outages would impact negatively on
the
country's troubled manufacturing sector, which is already suffering from
a
fuel and a hard currency squeeze that has severely affected capacity
utilisation.
The local industry, said to be operating at a
third of its capacity,
might sink deeper into crisis because of the
resurgence of electricity
cuts. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 21 August 2007
This
is the first in a two-part series by former Daily News news editor Luke
Tamborinyoka on his experiences while in remand prison in Harare.
Tamborinyoka was arrested together with 41 other party activists during a
government crackdown on the opposition last March.
Tamborinyoka, who
is also a former secretary general of the Zimbabwe Union
of Journalists, now
works in the MDC's information department as the
technical head of the
department.
By Luke Tamborinyoka
HARARE - Inscribed on the door of
cell C6 at Harare Remand Prison is a
simple message in the local vernacular
Shona language: "Zvichapera boyz
dzangu", a telling reminder that this
suffering will eventually come to an
end.
I walked out of the prison
gates at exactly 1933hrs on Thursday, 7 June
2007, after a three
months-stint as a guest of the State.
But even the euphoria for new-found
freedom did not erase my memory of the
simple inscription obviously
scribbled by an optimistic home-sick inmate.
After what I had gone
through, it remained a pleasant surprise that I was
finally out of the belly
of the beast. The ordeal had indeed come to an end.
In the glaring
moonlight, I turned my back to the dilapidated two-storey
building that
constitutes the D-class section of this cursed and
unimaginative piece of
architecture.
I painstakingly walked the final 10 metres to the prison
fence and
immediately jumped into the crushing embrace of my loving wife,
Susan.
I ordered that we quickly drive away, never again to look back to
the dingy
prison buildings where I had seen over 10 people succumb to
various diseases
related to malnutrition.
The D-class section,
reserved for "dangerous" suspects, was my home for 71
dark days.
It
was a place where one had to adjust to tough conditions such as leg
irons,
dirty khakhi shirts and shorts, sub-standard food, tight security,
the
company of hardened criminals and scowling prison officers.
For me,
Harare Remand prison represented the dark rictus of death. It was an
odd
place for hardened criminals and innocent prisoners like me whose
persecution arose simply because of our relationship with Zimbabwe's main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Harare Remand
Prison was a potpourri of the genuinely guilty and those whom
the tyrant
wanted to torment and intimidate. Harare Remand will forever
remain etched
in my mind as one of tyranny's prized institutions plucked
straight from the
heart of Hades.
It was a waiting room of extreme fortunes where two
cellmates could part to
go to contrasting destinations: one for home and the
other for the
guillotine.
My ordeal started on a sunny Wednesday
afternoon on 28 March 2007. On that
day, over 500 armed policemen descended
on Harvest House, the national
headquarters of the MDC.
From 1215hrs
to 1530hrs, an assortment of visibly drunk policemen wrenched
open doors and
seized party equipment, from documents to computers and
laptops.
They
stole people's mobile phones, prised open cabinet drawers and stuffed
money,
passports and other valuables into their pockets. Everyone was
ordered to
lie down while the sadists among them indiscriminately battered
our backs
with batons.
My friend, Kudakwashe Matibiri, and I lay down for close to
three hours
while adventure-seeking young policemen hit us with booted feet
and
gun-butts.
The sorry sight resembled a scary scene from an Alfred
Hitchcock whodunit.
Mugabe's merchants of death had come to Harvest House
ostensibly to recover
"weapons of war" which they said were hidden at the
MDC headquarters.
They combed cabinet drawers, ceilings and any other
crevices within reach.
They poked every nook and cranny. Like determined
bloodhounds, they sniffed
all sorts of odd places such as toilet cisterns
and air vents in search of
the elusive MDC "weapons".
Their
desperation was understandable in the circumstances. The following day
on
Thursday, 29 June 2007, Mugabe was due to leave for Dar es Salaam in
Tanzania to explain the crackdown on the opposition: his police officers had
shot dead an MDC activist, Gift Tandare. May his soul rest in
peace.
Mugabe's clearly partisan police force had beaten to pulp MDC
president
Morgan Tsvangirai and other senior opposition party officials.
Several MDC
executives and party members had been abducted, severely beaten
up and
dumped in far-away places.
Mugabe had to have a plausible
explanation for the SADC leaders in Dar es
Salaam and the prospect of an
arms cache at Harvest House would give him a
credible story to justify the
violent crackdown on a legitimate opposition.
They were obviously
disappointed when they failed to find even a box of
matches at Harvest
House. The regime's grand plot had fallen apart at the
seams.
Harvest
House is a six-storey building in which the MDC occupies the two
upper
floors with the rest occupied by an assortment of tenants.
The police
ordered everyone in the building, including tenants and their
clients, to
get into the police vehicles.
About 100 people were taken to the infamous
Room 93 of the Law and Order
section at Harare Central police station where
the series of the nights of
terror immediately commenced.
That night,
we were severely assaulted. One by one we were called into
another office
where all sorts of wild allegations were made against us. We
were part of
the MDC thugs that had "petrol-bombed" police stations, the
police
alleged.
We worked for a puppet opposition party. We wanted to hand the
country back
to the white colonialists and any such drivel associated with a
regime that
is fast accelerating the nation towards an inevitable
implosion.
The following day, the number of suspects was trimmed down to
23 and
eventually to seven. No charge had yet been preferred against
us.
For three nights, we were tortured and brutally assaulted with a
baseball
bat, clenched fists and batons. Ian Makone and Paul Madzore came
out the
worse for wear in the sordid ordeal.
For three days, the
beatings and assaults continued.
For three days we were denied access to
food, legal and medical assistance.
For three days, the sadists continued
to call us one by one, asking all
sorts of questions.
For three days
our condition deteriorated due to the incessant torture. They
wanted to know
more about the MDC's 'democratic resistance campaign'.
They alleged that
the MDC was beating up the police.
On Saturday, 31 March, we were finally
told that a court order had been
obtained that we should go home because the
police had detained us for more
than 48 hours without preferring any charge
against us.
It was then that an official whom I suspect to be a member of
the dreaded
state security Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) called me
to a
private room.
He said I worked in the MDC's information and
publicity department and I was
responsible for the "Roll of Shame", a column
in a local weekly where the
department named and shamed all government and
ZANU PF personalities who
were committing human rights abuses.
He
referred to what he called "anti-government speeches" that I made five
years
ago when I was secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists.
He
accused me of writing for "anti-government" on-line publications.
He said
I had retained my news editor's position at the banned Daily News
and I was
responsible for co-ordinating the pool of former Daily News
reporters to
write for anti-government on-line publications.
For my alleged "crimes",
the officer said I was going to be imprisoned.
* Do not miss Part 2 of
Tamborinyoka's experiences at Harare Remand Prison
on Thursday
Zim Online
Tuesday 21 August
2007
By Thabani Mlilo
HARARE - Riot police on Monday
dispersed more than 300 foreign currency
dealers gathered to pay their last
respects to a well-known foreign currency
baroness who died in a car
accident in Harare last Saturday.
The dealer, fondly called 'Sister
Martha' by scores of foreign currency
street dealers operating along the
busy Fifth Street in Harare, had
reportedly made a fortune through illegal
trading in scarce foreign
currency.
Probably for the first time in
years, the dealers voluntarily deserted the
busy street to make a rare show
of solidarity with their deceased colleague.
Baton-wielding police moving
in a Madza B1800 truck descended on the
mourners along Union Avenue saying
they were under orders to stop the
gathering.
"We have just come to
mourn our colleague. We are neither dealing in foreign
currency nor having
any political meeting. Police should stop the business
of assuming that
every gathering is meant to demonstrate against the
government," one dealer
was overheard saying.
It is illegal under Zimbabwe's tough security laws
to gather in groups of
more than three without first seeking permission from
the police.
But due to the increasingly restive political atmosphere
caused by Zimbabwe's
fast deteriorating economic atmosphere, police have
taken it upon themselves
to bar funeral gatherings that they feel can torch
full blown
demonstrations.
Police spokesperson Chief Superintendent
Oliver Mandipaka said he was not
aware of the funeral but was quick to
defend the police action, saying
police have the mandate to stop illegal
gathering for security reasons.
"While I have not been informed of the
funeral, what I can confirm is that
police have the mandate to stop any form
of gathering for as long as we have
reasonable cause to believe there are
security threats involved," he said.
In March this year, operatives from
the dreaded spy Central Intelligence
Organisation barred scores of
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
party supporters from attending
the funeral for a slain colleague, Gift
Tandare, who was shot by police
during a prayer meeting in Harare. -
ZimOnline
The Guardian
African leaders meeting in Zambia
proved all too adept at ignoring the
continent's biggest problem: the
ongoing disaster of Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
John M Morrison
August 20,
2007 8:00 PM
African summits? Apart from the drummers and tribal dancers at
the airport,
they're much like summits anywhere else. Run up the flags, line
up the
Mercedes, switch on the TV cameras and keep the masses at a safe
distance.
But whatever the burning issue at the top of Africa's agenda, you
can
guarantee that the elderly men around the table will ignore it or fudge
it
before returning home.
That's a pretty cynical view, but it's the
verdict I came to after three
years reporting these bunfights in southern
Africa in the 1980s. I even
shared the occasional pot of hotel tea with
Thabo Mbeki, then the exiled
ANC's foreign minister. Since then, South
Africa has joined the party, but
judging by last week's Southern African
Development Society (SADC) summit in
Lusaka, Zambia, the habit of brushing
difficult issues under the carpet
hasn't gone away.
By failing for
the umpteenth time to get to grips with the issue of
Zimbabwe, the SADC
leaders are seriously undermining Africa's credibility on
the world stage.
Once again, President Robert Mugabe has emerged unscathed
and uncriticised
by his peers. "We feel that the problems in Zimbabwe have
been exaggerated,"
says Zambia's president Levy Mwanawasa. Well, tell that
to the millions of
Zimbabweans who have fled abroad and the millions left
behind who are
struggling with political dictatorship and economic collapse.
The
continent's leaders seem to be in denial, but I think they may get a
rude
awakening the next time they lobby for a better global deal for their
countries on the world stage. Gordon Brown and other leaders in the
developed world, who have expended serious political capital trying to force
through debt relief and more aid for Africa, can hardly be expected to do
more on these issues if African leaders pretend that the continent's most
spectacular example of bad government doesn't exist.
At the moment
African countries are insisting that Mugabe, although banned
from the EU,
must have the right to attend an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon
next September.
If he does, then Brown will stay away - and he'll be right
to do
so.
A few years ago, Thabo Mbeki floated the idea of an African
renaissance,
where the continent would begin to solve its own problems. The
age of
clrruption, stagnation and dictatorship in Africa was over, we were
encouraged to believe. Instead of monsters such as Mobutu and
Bokassahttp://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/c-d/dictators2.html,
a new generation of leaders would begin to lead Africa forwards. Good
government, democracy, human rights and economic reform would create a
virtuous circle that would enable the continent to break free of the spiral
of decline. Well, dream on.
The details of Zimbabwe's collapse are
too well known to need repeating; to
suggest, as many African leaders do,
that hyperinflation, food shortages,
mass emigration and plummeting life
expectancy are somehow all the fault of
Britain is an insult to anyone's
intelligence. Mugabe himself may believe
this, but that is no reason to
humour his delusions.
The coalition of protesters that lobbied the
Gleneagles summit two years ago
on behalf of Africa and wore 'Make Poverty
History' armbands has already
dissolved, and many of them are choosing to
demonstrate about climate change
instead. Who can blame them? Africa needs
to keep its friends around the
world, but unless its leaders, Mbeki first
and foremost, awake from
dreamland and tell Mugabe his time is up, those
friends will walk away.
In 1990, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of
Zimbabwe's independence,
when the country's outlook was still quite rosy, I
drove through Harare's
leafy northern suburbs to interview Ian Smith, the
leader of the white
minority rebels who declared unilateral independence in
the 1960s rather
than accept black majority rule.
After a few minutes
listening to a self-justifying diatribe about the evils
of black government
by "communist terrorists" I switched off my tape
recorder and politely made
my excuses, shaking my white liberal head in
amazement at his antedeluvian
views.
Today I find it extremely painful to read the daily news from
Zimbabwe and
realise that perhaps "good old Smithy" had a point. Mugabe has
managed in
those 17 years since my interview to make the case for something
utterly
inconceivable - that Ian Smith was right all along in saying that
black rule
would lead to chaos.
So if African rulers want to banish
the media stereotype of their continent
as a place of famine and disaster,
the first thing they have to do is put
aside the cosy rules of the leaders'
club and isolate Mugabe, just as
European countries isolated the governments
of Spain, Greece and Portugal
when they were under dictatorship. If they
can't deal with this issue in
their own backyard, then turning up in Lisbon
and asking the EU for help
with their problems is going to be a complete
waste of time.
John M Morrison is a former foreign correspondent who was
based in Zimbabwe
from 1987 to 1990.
SignOnSanDiego
By Macdonald Dzirutwe
REUTERS
12:49 a.m. August 20, 2007
HARARE - Zimbabwe's
parliament meets for a new session on Tuesday that
will consider two major
pieces of legislation, one to give the president
considerable sway in
appointing a successor and another to nationalise
foreign firms.
Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony since
independence in
1980, is seeking to consolidate power in the face of growing
discontent at
home and abroad over policies that critics say have plunged
the economy into
crisis.
AdvertisementPolitical analysts said the veteran
leader, re-energised
by the support from regional leaders at a summit last
week, wants to quickly
ram through legislation enabling parliament to pick a
successor if a vacancy
arose mid-term and an economic empowerment bill to
nationalise foreign-owned
firms.
Critics, including the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), say the plans would hurt an
economy already enduring the world's
highest inflation rate, above 4,500
percent, and increase political tension.
'Mugabe will feel
re-invigorated by events at the SADC (Southern
African Development
Community) meeting and I have no doubt he will move with
speed to make sure
that legislation is passed by parliament,' Eldred
Masunungure, a political
science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe
said.
'The cost
of nationalisation to the economy is great but that is not a
matter that
would worry the government. Its goal is to maintain power at all
cost.'
The Constitutional Amendment Bill seeks to merge
presidential,
parliamentary and council elections but analysts say a clause
allowing
parliament to choose a new president if a vacancy arose in between
elections
would give Mugabe room to manoeuvre a dignified exit.
Mugabe, 83, plans to stand for another five-year term next year but
political analysts say he may seek to retire mid-term and would be able to
anoint a successor if the legislation were passed because parliament is
dominated by his ZANU-PF party.
BAD FAITH
The
MDC says the Constitutional Amendment Bill is being presented in
bad faith
by Mugabe because it is already a sticking point at talks between
the
opposition and the ZANU-PF being mediated by South African President
Thabo
Mbeki, who was appointed by SADC.
The opposition wants a new
constitution.
'We have said this is against the spirit of the SADC
initiative and we
will oppose such legislation,' Nelson Chamisa, spokesman
for the larger of
the MDC's wings, said.
Despite criticism over
his policy of seizing white-owned farms for
blacks, Mugabe is pushing ahead
with plans to transfer ownership of all
foreign-owned businesses, including
mines, into local hands.
Zimbabwe's economy has hit even more
turbulent times after the
government ordered a price freeze in June to stem
inflation, leaving shop
shelves empty of basic goods such as milk,
maize-meal, flour and meat.
Analysts say Mugabe could use the
economic empowerment law to reward
supporters as he seeks re-election in
2008.
Mugabe portrays himself as a victim of Western sabotage and
has
suggested Britain failed in a bid to lure Zimbabwe's military to help
topple
him as punishment for the land seizures.
Los Angeles Times
Manufacturing
and retail, one of the last productive sectors, falls victim
to Mugabe's
policies. Financial losses and arrests are mounting.
By Robyn Dixon
August
20, 2007
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe -- He has lost his export customers,
struggled with power
cuts and shortages of foreign currency and raw
materials. He has raised
prices several times a month to keep up with
hyperinflation. He has shrugged
off government inspectors angling for
bribes.
Through it all, clothing manufacturer Anthony Robinson has always
managed to
turn a profit.
Until now.
The new enemies of
President Robert Mugabe's regime inhabit one of the
country's last
productive sectors -- manufacturing and retail. In an
Orwellian twist to
Zimbabwe's downward spiral, more than 7,000 of them have
been arrested and
jailed in recent weeks, accused of breaching draconian new
price
controls.
Among them are many senior black managers of national retail
chains.
Robinson, a 60-year-old white Zimbabwean, fears he could be
next.
"Everyone is terrified," he said. "To be honest, you don't have to
contravene anything. If they want to put you in jail, they'll put you in
jail."
Even if he doesn't end up behind bars, Robinson says, he'll
probably be out
of business in a couple of months.
"You've got to be
bloody hopeful or stupid to remain here," he says. Yet
that's what he
intends to do.
Eventually, economic analysts say, Mugabe's system has to
collapse. But no
one knows when that will be.
A drive across Zimbabwe
today reveals a desolate portrait of decline:
Aimless mobs of people wait
along the rural roads, each with a silent
pleading gesture for a lift at
every passing vehicle. With fuel almost dried
up, unemployment at 80% and
transport too expensive for most, movement is
almost frozen.
Along
the highways, brown grass stands high between the thorny acacias in a
stunning vista of what Africa must have looked like before mechanized
agriculture made farming Zimbabwe's main export business. Now, most farms
lie dormant.
Meat disappeared after the government shut down private
abattoirs,
transferring all slaughtering to a quasi-governmental
organization that
cannot meet demand. Fuel supplies dried up after the
National Oil Co. of
Zimbabwe was made the sole authorized
distributor.
In towns, straggling queues form at any rumor of sugar,
maize or bread. Most
supermarket shelves are empty of basic staples: no
meat, no sugar, no maize,
no bread, no pasta, no rice, no
milk.
Authorities have focused on one sector after another, accusing them
of
collaborating with the opposition, supporting regime change or engaging
in
economic sabotage.
Beginning in 1999, most white-owned and some
black-owned commercial farms
were seized, leading to a collapse in
production, food shortages and hunger.
More than 3 million people now need
food aid.
In 2005 at least 700,000 people were left homeless by Operation
Murambatsvina, or "clean out the filth," which destroyed the shacks and
livelihoods of informal traders.
According to the government's
figures, inflation has rocketed to 4,500%.
Independent economists estimate
it is closer to 7,000%.
The country's leaders are now focusing on what's
left of the business
community, accusing it of stoking hyperinflation to
undermine the ruling
ZANU-PF party.
The government last month forced
businesses to cut their prices in half,
leaving them to face catastrophic
losses. Businesses risk a government
takeover if they
close.
Manufacturing and retail account for about 27% of what is left of
the formal
workforce.
"We are operating at a complete loss," said
Robinson, a shrewd-eyed, wiry
man with the rugged tan of a white man born in
Africa. He is one of the few
businessmen willing to risk government ire and
speak out publicly.
"Basically we haven't got long to be in business. I'd
say we won't see
October if this madness doesn't stop."
Factories
struggle along, running a few days a week, as owners try to slow
production
to a minimum without attracting the government's wrath. Some are
just
treading water; others lose money every day they open.
Robinson has been
in business for 36 years. When he was exporting to Europe
in the 1990s, he
employed 172 people full time. Now 143 people work for him
three days a
week. He produces only about 110 blazers and pairs of trousers
a day,
compared with 300 only a few months ago.
His price structure illustrates
the effects of both hyperinflation and the
government's plan to control
it.
For every blazer he makes, Robinson's company, United Clothing and
Shirt
Manufacturers, loses 1.3 million Zimbabwe dollars, or $5,300,
according to
the highly distorted official exchange rate. Each pair of
trousers loses him
600,000 Zimbabwe dollars, or $2,450.
At the more
realistic black market rate, he still loses $7.20 and $3.33,
respectively.
Two weeks after the price controls were imposed July 2,
the government also
required him to give his employees a 162%
raise.
Robinson isn't the only one losing money. The maximum price that
retailers
may charge is slightly less than the wholesale cost.
The
prices are enforced by roving squads of army and police. Last month the
squads hit stores and slashed prices. Large groups of people followed,
stripping the shops of stock at the new price and leaving owners unable to
restock.
"When these guys come in, they're followed by, I dare say,
'friends.' To me,
they've tried to legalize looting," Robinson
said.
Despite the criticisms and opposition within the ruling party,
Mugabe, 83,
said early this month that price controls would
stay.
Several black businessmen who were arrested, jailed and released
pending
trial, declined to speak to The Times, saying they were afraid of
repercussions.
But a black senior manager at one national retail
chain, who spent the night
in a cell after being accused of breaching the
price controls, spoke on
condition of anonymity, even though he is terrified
of being jailed again.
"Please be careful. I could get into real
trouble," he pleaded.
"I don't know where we are going. I don't think . .
. any business will
survive under this," he said, speaking rapidly during an
interview in his
office.
He said that after his arrest last month, he
was taken to a squalid,
freezing jail cell -- it is the dead of winter in
the Southern Hemisphere --
in one of the poor suburbs of the capital,
Harare.
"It was so cold all I could do was pray to brave the cold, and
thank God I
did that," he said. Employees of his are being arrested almost
every day, he
added.
"You are working in an evil system," he said.
"And unfortunately, the people
who are involved in it will never see that,
because for them it works and
they enjoy it. Once you join them, you become
as evil.
"I don't think they care about human life, at the end of the
day."
Another black retail manager speaking on condition he not be named
said that
even after his company complied with price controls, the police
and army
weren't satisfied.
"You have five or six large people, and
all of them are asking different
questions at the same time. They would talk
about how 'we locked so-and-so
up and we can lock you up,' " he
said.
The South African economic analysis group Econometrix predicted in
a report
last month that Mugabe would find it difficult to survive.
Hyperinflation is
likely to squeeze his supporters in the security forces
and fuel discontent,
it said.
Independent Harare-based economist John
Robertson warned of protests and
food riots as the supply of essential goods
dries up and businesses try to
stay afloat.
"Inevitably we will face
many more shortages," he said. "Some companies will
go out of business
before too long.
"It won't be sustainable for very long. I think there's
a very serious
danger there will be an upwelling of severe anger that could
lead to social
unrest and demonstrations in the street."
He said that
blaming business for hyperinflation and profiteering seemed
designed to
deflect popular anger from the government and onto shops and
businesses.
But ultimately, he said, Mugabe's belief that the
government could legislate
economic behavior was doomed.
"The laws of
economics are very powerful in the end, and they will take
over," Robertson
said. "It's actually quite a dangerous business trying to
force bad policies
into a system where there's a great reluctance to accept
these
policies."
He said the retail shortages would slash tax revenue, further
complicating
the problems.
But Mugabe is pushing ahead. Despite
reports of strong opposition from
pro-business ministers, his government
recently introduced a bill in the
parliament that would allow it to hand 51%
of foreign- or white-owned
businesses to black Zimbabweans.
Some fear
that such a law would allow the transfer of businesses to ZANU-PF
heavyweights and allies, as happened after the farm invasions.
"I
believe it's another one of these grab-the-farm strategies, but now it's
grab-the-business, and there will be the same dire consequences that there
were before," Robinson said.
He said he no longer bothers to exhort
his staff to work hard.
"Now I let them work at their own slow pace and
encourage them to take
longer tea times."
After clinging to his dream
for all those years, he sees it ebbing away like
water through his
fingers.
"Maybe it's a softening-up process. You won't feel too bad
losing 51% of
your business, because you don't have a business
anymore."
--
robyn.dixon@latimes.com
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre - Norwegian Refugee council
In May 2005, the Zimbabwean government initiated an
extraordinary campaign of forced evictions and demolitions resulting in the
internal displacement of an estimated 570,000 people, many of whom remain in
transit camps and have limited access to assistance. Operation Murambatsvina
(“Restore Order”) targeted informal and legal settlements and businesses across
the country, as homes were first destroyed in high-density shanty towns and
subsequently in settlements on farms in peri-urban and rural areas. Since 2005,
ongoing displacements have been noted by international observers, and the
government’s eviction programmes have recently reportedly expanded to include
students and illegal gold miners. The breakdown of the formal economy has led
ever more people to search for livelihood opportunities in urban areas, causing
an increased risk of new evictions. (...)
Full Overview (html/pdf)
Full Internal
Displacement Profile
Please contact the IDMC
in case you would like to receive an electronic copy by e-mail.
The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring
Centre (IDMC), established by the Norwegian Refugee Council, is the leading
non-governmental body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement
worldwide.
To subscribe,
please visit the subscription
page on the IDMC’s website.
To unsubscribe, please click here.
By Tichaona Sibanda
20 August
2007
The MDC has warned its officials and supporters to be vigilant
following a
new wave of violence by Zanu (PF) youths.
Zanu PF youths
recently unleashed an orgy of violence in Muzarabani in
Mashonaland central.
A number of MDC officials were severely assaulted and
left hospitalised. MDC
national youth chairman, Thamsanqa Mahlangu said a
number of their activists
are still hospitalised in Bindura and Harare after
Zanu (PF) youths stormed
a district meeting of their party in the area.
Mahlangu urged all youth
members of the party 'to act defensively under
attack and to refrain from
becoming offensive' as this would be construed as
an attempt to topple a
sitting government by force.
'They have intensified their violence
against the MDC and their machinery is
now at work. Now that they have
realised they have lost so much support
following their disastrous pricing
policy, they want to intimidate potential
voters from exercising their
democratic right in next year's elections. This
time it will not work as we
have plan B and plan C in place for such
eventualities,' Mahlangu
said.
The youth chairman explained that part of the strategy by Zanu (PF)
was to
target grassroots members of the MDC from branch to district level,
as
happened in Muzarabani. Since Vice-President Joyce Mujuru addressed a
rally
there three weeks ago, Muzarabani has been a no-go area for the
MDC.
Ging Dhlamini, the organising secretary for Muzarabani, told the
Zimbabwe
Standard newspaper that scores of MDC members were now in hiding
because
Zanu (PF) militia and traditional leaders are targeting them.
Dhlamini said
other MDC activists assaulted during the raid on their meeting
included
Farai Pambayi (Dambakurima ward chairman), Constance Dzingirai
(ward
councillor) and Stanford Maramba.
Dhlamini said Zanu youths
accused him of being a puppet of the West because
he was senior member of
the opposition party in the area.
After the attacks the perpetrators told
the MDC leaders that they must not
leave their homes or report the matter to
the police. But Dhlamini managed
to escape and reported the assault case at
Chadereka Police post. He was
told to go and make a complaint in Harare
because the officers were afraid
of handling the
matter.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
VOA
By Derek
Moyo
Bromley, Zimbabwe
20 August 2007
In
Zimbabwe, health experts are asking consumers to beware of purchasing
poisoned mushrooms. This year, several people in the town of Epworth died
after eating them. The deaths made headlines, but haven't deterred the
public from buying wild mushrooms. Given the harsh economic climate, wild
mushrooms are viewed by many as an affordable source of fiber and vitamins.
But consuming this fungus may be fatal, as Voice of America, Zimbabwe
Service's Derek Moyo reports from the town of Bromley,
Zimbabwe.
After traveling about 47 kilometers from the capital, along the
Harare/Marondera highway, you come to the area called Bromley. As cars speed
by, groups of vendors dot the roadside, selling mushrooms.
One of the
traders, who introduced himself has Thompson Thompson, says he's
been in the
mushroom business "for a long time". He said he picks the
mushrooms, from
underneath nearby shrubs. Thompson is confident his
merchandise is safe. He
says he knows they're not poisonous because they
grow near Muzhanje and
Msasa trees, and near the mountains.
With the confidence of an
experienced salesman, Thompson points out
different types of mushrooms. He
says he sells various kinds, including the
nhedzi, the chihombiriri,
tsuketsuke and the ndzeve. When asked how he
convinces people his mushrooms
are safe, he says he tastes one: "When we are
now selling the mushrooms and
want to convince people that the mushrooms are
safe, we begin first by
eating and swallowing the mushrooms while they are
looking at us. This is
meant to show then that the mushrooms are not
poisonous and are safe to eat.
And when we do this, people buy [them.]"
Joshua Nyundo, a commercial
white button mushroom grower in Bromley, warns
there's no way of telling if
the mushrooms are poisonous or not. He says
consumers risk their lives by
buying mushrooms at the side of the road, "Its
not very safe to just buy
mushrooms by the road side because other mushrooms
out there in the bushes
are so poisonous that if say one picks a poisonous
mushroom, and puts it in
a basket where there are some non-poisonous
mushrooms and then later on they
discover that this is a poisonous mushroom,
picks it from the basket and
throws it away you will have contaminated those
mushrooms which are edible.
So, it's also possible that you can have
problems from edible mushrooms
because they would have been mixed with
poisonous mushrooms."
Nyundo
adds that while some traders might be selling mushrooms that are not
poisonous, the public should be aware that some types of toxic mushrooms are
identical in appearance to safe mushrooms. For example, he says the local
popular edible mushroom, Nhedzi, is in the Amanita category of mushrooms,
and poisonous mushrooms are members of the same group.
But warnings
may not deter the desperate or hungry. One of the reasons wild
mushrooms
remain popular is their affordability. At one time, a plate of
mushrooms,
sold along the Harare-Marondera route, for about 2,000 Zimbabwe
dollars per
kilogram -- much cheaper than the white button mushrooms, which
can be over
15 times more expensive.
When the mushroom traders were asked if police
had been warning them about
eating the mushrooms, they said no, that the
police often were the ones to
buy them.
Yahoo News
Mon Aug 20, 8:30 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's Deputy
President Joseph Msika has urged people to
turn to traditional food for
survival and denied there was starvation in the
impoverished country, a
state newspaper reported.
"We have an array of traditional foods in
Zimbabwe and I do not see how
someone can say we are starving," Msika was
quoted as saying by the
state-run Herald during an official opening of the
provincial Mazowe Valley
Agricultural show.
"Do not despise
traditional foods such as mutakura (a mixture of boiled cow
peas and
groundnuts), mufushwa (dried vegetables), and rupiza (mixed beans
and peanut
butter) which have a nourishing effect.
"My problem is that some of us
are now despising the traditional foods
preferring food like eggs and butter
yet the traditional foods are the ones
that boost the immune system," he
said.
Msika said he watched in shock on one of the international
television
channels, a Zimbabwean woman who had escaped hunger into
neighbouring South
Africa purporting there was mass starvation and critical
unemployment in the
country.
The southern African nation is in the
midst of an economic crisis with hyper
inflation, and shortages of basic
commodities, such as corn meal, sugar,
flour and cooking oil. These things,
with a recent crackdown on prices,
forced thousands to flee to neighbouring
countries.
Adding to the woes of a tottering economy are drought and the
impact of land
reform programmes launched in 2000 in which some 4,000
white-owned
commercial farms were seized and redistributed to
blacks.
The latter has punched a gaping hole in agricultural production,
which once
accounted for 40 percent of the economy, with most of the new
beneficiaries
lacking both farming equipment and expertise.
Msika
said western countries may attack Zimbabwe in any manner they wish,
but
Zimbabweans would remain resolute.
Comment from The Cape Argus (SA), 19 August
Hans Pienaar
So you think Zimbabwe can't get
much worse? Well, think again because there
might be some surprises in store
for the imploding country next year. There
was something deeply alarming
about a little vignette after the launch of
the Southern African Development
Community's Peace Brigade outside Lusaka on
Friday. As the presidents'
limousines arrived to cart them away to the SADC
summit a Nissan Hardbody
arrived from nowhere. It was brand new, and
colour-coded in blood red. On it
was mounted, in the style of Somali
warlords in Mogadishu, a machine gun,
manned by the meanest looking gunner
in camouflage. Three more toughies
emerged from the crowd of military
dignitaries and jumped into the bakkie.
It was their way of showing the top
generals and defence officials from the
rest of the region just how tough
these guys were. No surprise then to hear
they were the bodyguards of
Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe, who had just
been cheered warmly at the
start of the SADC summit the day before. Maybe he
was also sending the
message - "I'm here to stay" - to his fellow presidents
who were about to
deliberate on his future.
Exactly 963 soldiers
from 11 of the 14 SADC countries took part in the
low-key, well-disciplined
parade of the new SADC Brigade that contrasted
sharply with Mugabe's macho
gesture. But the force will be an odd creature
from the outset. It has no
troops, no headquarters, not even a depot for its
equipment. Only five
officers man a "planning element" in temporary offices
in Gaborone,
Botswana. Its strength is based on "pledges" - of troops, not
money. This
"pool of capabilities", as the chief of staff Brigadier General
Malakia
Nakanduugileh from Namibia calls it, will theoretically be available
at
short notice to be deployed by SADC's leaders of the day. But the SADC
Brigade is also supposed to be part of the continent-wide African Standby
Force, along with five other regional brigades.
Because the ASF
is also somewhat of a virtual animal, the real marching
orders will be given
by SADC, and specifically its organ on politics,
security and defence
cooperation. Here is where it is getting interesting.
The next chair will be
Angola. It is ruled by a government that is just as
close to a dictatorship
as any on the continent. It has been stalling for
months to announce the
date of its next elections. Its human rights record
is hugely unsavoury. It
is also a close friend, along with Namibia, another
organ member, of
Zimbabwe. So, talking of scenarios, here's one: Zimbabwe
goes to the polls
in March after Mbeki's mediation has failed, which it
shows all the signs of
doing. Zimbabwe's population, hungry and tired of
misrule, rise up when they
discover that many are not even allowed to vote,
since registration closed
on Friday and most of them were unable to get to
registration
points.
How will the organ react? Among the groups of scenarios
practised from the
start of peacekeeping war games in the region in 1998, is
how to deal with
"splinter groups" instigating violence against the
government of the day.
Much emphasis is laid on humane treatment of
belligerents, and how to
involve civil society monitors was a key part of
training during Operation
Blue Crane, the first regional exercises at the
SANDF's Lohatla battle
school in the Northern Cape. All will depend on
definitions, of
"belligerents", political "splinter groups", and
"insurgents", and the like.
Whoever is the chair of the three-country organ,
could have a major say in
the decision whether to deploy the SADC Brigade.
Mugabe's strategy has
created a precedent that SADC comes to the defence of
its imperilled
fellow-leaders. However, the loose wording of the protection
treaty might
just save SA and some other reluctant SADC member states from
rushing in to
save Mugabe from his own people if Zimbabwe continues to
spiral down.
Political will is weak in the region; but Mugabe has shown it
in his
well-demonstrated desire to cling to power at all cost. That he is
ready for
another adventure in his long reign is shown by his pizzazz in
taking along
his Nissan toys when he goes to summits.
Comment from The Cape Times (SA), 20 August
Peter
Fabricius
To the perennial question "can't the South African
government and the
southern African region do more about Zimbabwe?", perhaps
the most
irritating official reply is: "What do you want us to do? Invade
the
country?" Well, perhaps it's just a short step away from the military
option, but, as one alternative to invasion, how about withholding
tumultuous applause from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe? I refer, of
course, to the loud applause Mugabe got at last week's Southern African
Development Community (SADC) summit in Lusaka. Perhaps once the region has
got over the post-traumatic stress of withholding adulation, it could
consider the next bold move. One suggestion - stop blaming the stupendous
economic meltdown in Zimbabwe on the fact that Mugabe's young wife Grace
can't go shopping at Harrod's any more.
I refer, of course, to
the fact that the only international sanctions
against Zimbabwe are travel
and financial bans on Mugabe, a few of his
cronies and some of their
families by the European Union, the United States,
Australia and perhaps one
or two other countries. These draconian measures
have forced Bob and Grace
to do their Christmas shopping in Kuala Lumpur
instead of London or Paris.
But at the Lusaka summit, SADC executive
secretary Tomaz Salamao
nevertheless blamed sanctions for Zimbabwe's
economic calamity, and
therefore proposed a regional economic rescue plan,
fully endorsed by the
summit. There was, understandably, some speculation
that SADC might use this
bail-out as leverage to extract some quid pro quo
from Mugabe - like ending
his crazy campaign to halve prices by decree or
restoring property rights,
or agreeing to reforms to ensure free and fair
elections next
year.
But that was too much to expect. President Thabo Mbeki, who is
facilitating
political negotiations between Mugabe's Zanu PF party and the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to try to ensure fair
elections, told
journalists after the summit that the economic package was
unconditional.
Which means it will probably have the effect of helping
Mugabe win the
elections by alleviating some hardships which are driving his
supporters
away from Zanu PF. So the chances of Mbeki's mediation dislodging
Mugabe
seem even more remote. Most foreign governments were not including it
among
their scenarios for change anyway. "Mugabe is not going to negotiate
himself
out of power," one well-placed observer explained. "He has no Plan
B. Having
seen (former Liberian president) Charles Taylor stand down on the
basis of
an offer of exile and amnesty from his fellow African presidents
which they
later reneged on, he's determined to stay in power to the bitter
end. To go
from State House to Heroes Acre, as it were."
Only a
palace coup - probably backed by military muscle - has any chance of
removing Mugabe, foreign governments increasingly believe, and the rumblings
have already begun. They see evidence of it in the handful of officers
arrested recently for plotting against Mugabe and don't believe they were
victims of his paranoia, as others believe. They are also inclined to
believe army General Armstrong Gunda, officially killed by a train recently,
was actually murdered. Their eyes are now fixed firmly on Solomon Mujuru,
ex-military husband of Vice-President Joyce Mujuru, to see if he will
venture a move within Zanu PF over the next few months to have Mugabe
replaced as the party's presidential candidate for the elections. "If he
fails at the party congress, he will need military back-up," one observer
said ominously, indicating just how high and perilous the stakes have
become. If it comes to that, then perhaps SADC will at last act decisively -
but only by sending in its brand new SADC brigade, launched at the Lusaka
summit, to save Mugabe's skin, as it might be obliged to do under SADC's
mutual defence pact. And so, after all, perhaps the answer to that
irritating question is, yes we do, sort-of, expect SADC to invade
Zimbabwe.
Nyasa Times, Malawi
Josh Ashaz on 20 August, 2007 09:25:00
Malawi Congress Party
(MCP) Lilongwe Msozi North parliamentarian, Stanely
Chimphonda, today told
parliament that Malawi government was exporting
undisclosed tonnes of newly
harvested maize from Malangalanga Admarc in the
capital, Lilongwe to
Zimbabwe.
The parliamentarian made the allegation during his contribution
to the
budget debate. He expressed displeasure with the government for
exporting
Malawi maize to Zimbabwe amid reports that the broke Zimbabwe
government was
struggling to pay for 400 000 tonnes of maize it imported
from Malawi.
He said government should be cautious in exporting maize
expressing fears
that Malawians would suffer if the entire maize stockpile
was sold.
According to the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System
Network (FEWS
NET), out of the 400,000 metric tonnes of maize of which
Zimbabwe required
from Malawi, about 114,085 metric tonnes had been
delivered by the end of
July.
But President Bingu wa Mutharika says
the country has enough maize.
"Neither the donation to Swaziland and
Lesotho nor the sale of maize to
Zimbabwe will affect us at all; we have
enough maize to feed ourselves till
the next season," Mutharika said amid
donating 10,000 metric tonnes of maize
to drought-hit Lesotho and
Swaziland.
Malawi recorded a bumper harvest with a surplus of about 1.5
million metric
tonnes from the required two million metric
tonnes."
The question is what would we do with the surplus? It is only
human and
proper then to assist our friends who are in dire need of maize in
Lesotho
and Swaziland," President Mutharika said in justifying the
donation.
Maize exports to Zimbabwe has been dogged by revelations that
government has
failed to put monitoring mechanisms in place raising fears
that private
sector traders who started buying the grain cheaply well ahead
of Admarc,
might end up leaving the country with little of the
surplus.
Further fears are being raised on how the government documented
the 400 000
metric tonnes realised last year since as of now Admarc has
wholly sold its
25 000 metric and has an export contract of 50 000 tonnes.
The National Food
Reserve Agency had only 90 000 in stock for emergency
only.
Malawi News in July quoted their source who bemoaned the maize
export: "One
wonders: where is the 400,000 metric tonnes surplus we had last
year. If
anything, the country has got only 90,000 metric tonnes and this
maize is
strictly for emergency use."
The paper reported that no one
knows who is keeping the 400 000 metric
tonnes from last year's harvest much
talked by President Bingu wa Mutharika.
Dzoole Mwale - Chairperson of
Agriculture Parliamentary Committee - is on
record to have warned a disaster
following failure by government to adopt
his committee's
recommendation.
"We asked government to declare maize a protected crop so
that it can easily
regulate the purchase and selling of the commodity but
nothing has happened.
We have seen private traders dictating the selling of
the crop and
unfortunately poor farmers are not benefiting from the sales,"
Mwale is
quoted as saying.
The 2000/01 growing season had a surplus
of over 200,000 metric tonnes that
was sold to Kenya in anticipation of a
replenishment from the 2001/02
harvests. Malawi was left with over one
million people without food was
forced to import maize due to unfavourable
weather conditions.
New Zimbabwe
By
Mutumwa D. Mawere
Last updated: 08/20/2007 21:24:25
THE Southern African
Development Community (Sadc) Chairman, Zambian
President Levy Mwanawasa,
summed up the position of the regional grouping's
political leadership on
Zimbabwe at last week's summit by saying: "We also
feel that the problems in
Zimbabwe have been exaggerated. We feel they will
solve their economic
problems."
The summit provided a unique forum for leaders of SADC and
their social
partners to explore some of the most pressing issues of the day
and Zimbabwe
was one such issue.
The position taken at the summit on
Zimbabwe is reflection of a widely held
view that the root cause of the
political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe is
the unresolved colonially
generated asset ownership structure.
It is evident that there is
consensus among many African leaders that issues
related to economic
democracy in the continent necessarily attracts a
negative response from the
former colonial masters and their alleged
puppets. To this end, if one
accepts that the root cause of the Zimbabwean
crisis is the position taken
by Mugabe to democratise land ownership, then
the Zimbabwean crisis with
attendant targeted sanctions is seen as a
necessary price to pay for the
complete emancipation of the country.
Mugabe's views are shared by many
in Africa and the developing world for
different reasons. They argue that
anyone who takes a fight against Anglo
American hegemony can never be wrong
and, if anything, he deserves support.
People, who believe in
pan-Africanism, see in Mugabe the fighting spirit
that is missing in many
post-colonial states that still face the challenge
of eradicating the
enduring economic legacies of colonialism.
The standing ovation Mugabe
received in Lusaka is no different from the
treatment he has enjoyed at many
conferences. In fact, the only thing that
seems to unite Mwanawasa and his
political nemesis, Michael Sata, is their
common and shared position on the
origins of the Zimbabwean crisis.
The success of the Lusaka summit in the
eyes of Harare demonstrates that the
message from Zimbabwe's opposition has
failed to resonate with Africa's
critical players. This raises the following
questions: Is the Zimbabwean
opposition misinformed or misdirected? To the
extent that the opposition
believes that Mugabe is the problem, why is it
that they seem to fail to
communicate this? If Zimbabwe faces a leadership
crisis, does SADC have any
locus to intervene, let alone pronounce an
opinion?
If there is a common theme that characterises the Zimbabwean
crisis, it is
leadership: what constitutes good leadership, how (and,
indeed, whether) the
lack of it is responsible for the Zimbabwean crisis,
what criteria should be
applied when assessing it in the context of a
post-colonial state? What
should be the role of the opposition and how
should citizens weigh the
various indicators - from maximising national
wealth (poverty eradication)
to brand-building and longer term
considerations such as nation building?
And given the emergence of China,
India, UAE and other nations as global
players and the pace of
globalisation, can one expect to apply one set of
criteria to what makes for
good leadership in very different cultural
contexts? Anglo-Saxon models have
dominated the theory and practice of
leadership for so long that it may be
difficult to accept that other models
may be relevant and
appropriate.
When there remains immense differences of perceived
leadership qualities
between Africans and Anglo Americans, how much do we as
Africans have to
start investing in understanding this important variable in
nation building?
Does Africa need democracy to progress? If so, what kind of
leadership
should it have? What interests ought to inform it?
It is
more than 27 years since Zimbabwe became an independent and sovereign
state.
It is salutary, looking back, to remember the illusions which were
commonplace at the time. Some Zimbabweans believed that independence
accompanied by eloquent speeches about how Europe underdeveloped Africa
would quickly solve the country's problems.
In the West, the grant of
an Anglo Saxon type of constitution was considered
as a necessary and
sufficient condition by itself to institutionalise a
functioning
constitutional democracy underpinned by a scrupulous respect of
the Rule of
Law, human rights, accountability and transparency.
The euphoria that
characterised the independence atmosphere in Zimbabwe was
well founded in
Robert Mugabe's reconciliatory speeches and approach to
nation
building.
Many were convinced that a new dawn had visited Zimbabwe and
the country had
the leadership it deserved to rid itself of the negative
vestiges of
colonialism. That was then and now the illusions have largely
evaporated.
Zimbabwe under Mugabe has lived through some challenges from
the
construction of a post-colonial dispensation in which all citizens were
allowed to assert their sovereign right to makes laws and regulate their
lives as they wish to the well acknowledged investment in the social and
physical infrastructure of the country using a small tax base inherited from
the colonial state. Regrettably the post colonial state did not address
issues related to the democratisation of the economy resulting in the
current state of affairs where the population has grown accompanied by a
decaying national economy.
The financing of the post-colonial state
investments was largely done from
borrowed sources and not from taxes. Any
rational leader would have known
that the relationship between the state,
the protector of collective
interests and the market, and the protectors of
individual interests, is
critical for economic growth. In assessing whether
Mugabe has been a good
leader for Zimbabwe, one has to look at how his
administration has balanced
the interests of the market with that of the
state.
The failure of the post-colonial economic model was already
evident in the
late 1980s to the extent that the IMF, ordinarily a fire
brigade, was
invited by none other than Mugabe to intervene with balance of
payments
support.
The Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP)
or euphemistically
referred to as The Extended Suffering of African People
was adopted and
implemented not by the opposition but by a Zanu PF
government. The program
was abandoned by the government of Zimbabwe because
the hard policy choices
that needed to be made could not find leaders with
the courage to make them.
While the SADC leaders have accepted that
targeted economic sanctions have a
causal link with the Zimbabwean crisis,
they surely must be aware that the
economic objectives of growth for any
nation must be harmonised with the
objectives associated with the political
order. The designing of growth
strategies must necessarily include the
promotion of factors that support
the democratisation of society, the
defence of sovereignty and the self
determination of citizens.
What
is evident is that no growth strategy will succeed if it is underpinned
by
an ideology that is premised on the state as the referee and player. Yes,
SADC may have endorsed the Zimbabwean rescue plan like the multilateral
institutions have done in the past but the success of such plans have to
deal with the leadership question without any equivocation.
Anyone
who thinks seriously about Africa and indeed Zimbabwe's future will
value a
conversation on the leadership question. Can Mugabe reinvent himself
and
make the choices that he has failed to make over the last 27 years? Is
Mugabe's world view on issues of governance, rule of law, and leadership
consistent with a view that is required for a progressive
nation?
Some have argued that when the Emperor is naked it is difficult
for friends
and foes to inform him. Could any rational person have expected
SADC leaders
to tell Mugabe where the root cause of the Zimbabwean crisis
is? Does SADC
have such a mandate anyway?
What is evident to many and
I am sure to Africa's leaders is that the course
of nation building in
Zimbabwe has encountered serious set backs.
Zimbabweans' hope for a free
democratic existence as the background for
stable national development has
been dashed.
Huge treasuries of material resources and opportunities for
development have
been dissipated. And more worrying is that the current
leadership does not
seem to have what it takes to motivate citizens to
recover sufficient
strength to resume the fight to build a future for
themselves (rather than
worrying about daily existence) and their
families.
Morale is at its lowest in Zimbabwe for justifiable reasons. A
rescue
package from SADC will not rescue the injury to the psyche of
citizens who
legitimately had a right to expect better from their leaders.
Will Mugabe's
re-election next year change the climate of hopelessness that
is evident in
Zimbabwe? Even if sanctions were lifted today, how would that
address the
leadership credibility issue?
The 2008 elections have
been dubbed the economic emancipation elections.
President Mugabe is
convinced that a fresh mandate will allow him to use the
state to empower
the majority economically. While this may be exciting news
to the naïve, how
is this going to be done against a background of a
bankrupt state and
economically vulnerable citizens? Even if all the
economic assets were
transferred to the state/selected individuals, would
that promote growth and
prosperity?
Someone said a long time ago you cannot strengthen the weak
by weakening the
strong. No government in the world has managed to come up
with an instrument
where the fear of being arrested induced favourable
supply response. While
the government of Zimbabwe may believe that arresting
businesspersons will
arrest inflation and restore economic order, I am not
sure whether SADC
leaders (who incidentally are not pursuing such policies
in their own
countries) seriously believe that Zimbabwe is a candidate for
economic
surgery.
When Margaret Thatcher became big headed and a
stumbling block to progress,
the Conservative Party managed to remove her.
Equally, Tony Blair got the
same medicine. In Zimbabwe it appears that some
people believe that only one
man can solve the colonial injury however
defined and that person has no
obligation to explain how he will be able to
implement the new ideas of
empowerment when he has failed to do the same for
agriculture.
I believe that Mwanawasa may be cynically encouraging Mugabe
to hang in
there so that he can benefit from the contribution of Zimbabwean
settler
farmers. If Mugabe goes, I have no doubt what is in Mwanawasa's mind
about
the sustainability of the agrarian revolution that is underpinned by
Zimbabwean skills in his country. Would the farmers elect to remain in
Zambia or return to Zimbabwe?
Leadership plays a central role in
managing perceptions. Today Zimbabwe is
less confident that it was 27 years
ago. It is now a confident member of the
class of nations that can be
classified as failed states. The frightening
economic indicators have
escaped the attention of the SADC leaders. Apart
from the expected
anti-imperialist rhetoric, the current political and
economic crisis in
Zimbabwe is testament to wrong, irresponsible and
backward looking policies
and weak core values of democracy, freedom and the
Rule of Law. Many
democratic nations would find it difficult to trust a
leader that has been
at the helm of a crumbling state to continue
experimenting with the nation
building project.
While the world waits for signals that Zimbabweans will
take ownership of
their problems, the tragedy is that Zimbabweans expect
change to come from
without. The message from the SADC summit is that only
Zimbabwean leaders
can lead and shape Zimbabwe. A committed and accountable
leadership that is
forward looking can find the world and indeed SADC a
reliable partner in
delivering a better future for Zimbabwe and its
people.
The world is anxiously waiting for Zimbabweans in general to have
an
opportunity to genuinely express their choice about who should govern
them
notwithstanding the privatisation of the state and implications thereof
on
freedom of choice. The illusions of independence have been sufficiently
exposed to allow Zimbabwean citizens to use the ballot as the instrument for
change.
In the final analysis the responsibility must lie with those
who have
dedicated their lives to the change agenda to demonstrate that bad
leadership has a lot to do with the Zimbabwean crisis. Zimbabwe needs a
smart system and not necessarily a smart leader.
Mutumwa Mawere's
weekly column appears on New Zimbabwe.com every Monday. You
can contact him
at: mmawere@global.co.za
IOL
August 20 2007 at
04:07PM
Business leaders in the Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
region are upbeat about the situation in
Zimbabwe.
"We are feeling very encouraged... that there is now
dialogue with the
government and the opposition in Zimbabwe which is being
championed by South
Africa," said the president of the association of SADC
Chamber of Commerce
and Industry, Harrison Kalua.
He was
speaking at a media briefing about business development in the
SADC
region.
The deputy president of the Zimbabwean National Chamber of
Commerce,
Sibanda Obert, said a social contract between government, labour
and
business had been signed.
The contract deals with economic
stabilisation, the mobilisation of
foreign currency and
productivity.
"We are working on coming up with the
implementation framework," he
said.
Earlier Kalua said:
"Political stability is key to doing good
business." - Sapa
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington
20
August 2007
An official of the United Nations' refugee agency
says a contingency plan it
has put in place for a possible flood of
Zimbabwean refugees is just a
routine precaution.
U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres disclosed the existence
of the
plan on the weekend to reporters, but said most of the Zimbabweans
pouring
into neighboring countries are not seeking political
asylum.
Consequently, said Guterres, currently in the Southern African
region to
assess the situation in Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa, said
his agency
has no mandate to intervene on behalf of the millions of
Zimbabweans who
have left their homeland.
An estimated 2 million to 3
million Zimbabweans have crossed into South
Africa, most illegally, some to
flee political persecution but most to seek
economic survival. Many
thousands more have migrated to neighboring Botswana
and Zambia.
"It
is our wish that the problems in Zimbabwe will be solved," Guterres told
reporters. "We have no mandate to intervene but we are discussing with the
humanitarian community to see how we can help."
Agency spokesman
Andre Mahecic told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of VOA's
Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the UNHCR has not declared a crisis because most
of the
Zimbabwean emigrés by their own admission are fleeing economic
hardship.
Project lawyer Anna Yvonne Moyo of the Zimbabwe Exiles
Forum in Johannesburg
said the UNHCR's position can be justified - but that
the agency should
overhaul its police to be able to relieve those who do not
strictly qualify
as refugees.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
20
August 2007
The Zimbabwean government has denied that a sharp
increase in cases of
diarrhea is related to chronic water shortages in
Harare and other cities,
although the state-run Herald newspaper has quoted
Harare's top health
official, Prosper Chonzi, as saying city health centers
are treating around
900 cases of diarrheal disease a day.
Chonzi told
the Herald that public health officials fear "the situation
might get out of
hand" if there the regular flow of water to Zimbabwean
cities is not
restored. Most of the country's major cities have had severe
water shortages
in recent months due to electrical power shortages,
breakdowns, or a lack of
water purification chemicals.
But Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti
told reporter Carole Gombakomba of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that there
is no evidence the "watery diarrhea
and dysentery" are linked to water
shortages, adding that the latest
outbreaks are not "serious."
But
opposition lawmaker Blessing Chebundo, chairman of the parliamentary
committee on health, said that in cities where the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority has taken over municipal water systems, residents have been going
without water for days or weeks, increasing their risk of infection by
drinking water from other sources.
Chebundo cited the recent firings
of two senior engineers in connection with
the crisis at Harare's Morton
Jaffray water plant as an indication that all
is not well in the state water
authority's operations in the Zimbabwean
capital.
Dr. Douglas
Gwatidzo, chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for
Human Rights,
said any disease outbreak in a city should be taken seriously.
VOA
20 August 2007
The Voice of America (VOA) has
expanded its Studio 7 broadcasts to Zimbabwe
with the addition of one-hour
programs Saturday and Sunday in response to
the country's deepening crisis,
upcoming elections and state jamming of VOA
signals.
The expansion,
implemented on the weekend of Aug. 18-19, bolstered Studio
7's previous
schedule of 90-minute evening broadcasts Monday through Friday
Studio 7
programs now air seven days a week at 7 p.m. Zimbabwe time (1700
UTC) on 909
medium wave and on 4930, 13755 and 15775 kiloHertz shortwave.
The weekend
programs comprise 20-minute segments in the indigenous Shona and
Ndebele
languages as well as English, which is widely spoken in Zimbabwe.
VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe has been on the air since January 2003 and
posted
strong audience growth through 2005 and 2006 to establish an audience
of
more than 1 million listeners in the Southern African country. Jamming of
Studio 7's medium-wave signal began in mid-2006 and the government has
acknowledged it is responsible.
The Saturday-Sunday programs will
pursue breaking or developing stories
while presenting discussions on
critical topics including the continuing
political and economic crisis,
efforts to mediate a solution to the crisis,
intensifying shortages of food
and other essential goods, and efforts to
stem a major HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
Studio 7 will add audience participation to the mix with
callbacks to
listeners who would like to express their views on news topics,
especially
in the run-up to the general and presidential elections to be
held in March
2008.
Since its inception, Studio 7 has established
itself in Zimbabwe as a
reliable source of objective and balanced news and
analysis of the evolving
crisis that has pitted the government and ruling
ZANU-PF party of President
Robert Mugabe against the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change and
civil society groups.
Studio 7 is produced by
the Zimbabwe Project, which is funded by the U.S.
Agency for International
Development and is managed and operated by the
Voice of
America.
Studio 7 is edited by a staff of Zimbabwean emigré journalists
and
contributors on the ground in Zimbabwe. On the Web
(http://www.studio7news.com) Studio offers
reports in English, Shona and
Ndebele, and e-mail newsletters in all three
languages. Web visitors can
also listen to Studio 7 daily programs through
streaming audio.
Opposition leaders and civil society activists cite
Studio 7 broadcasts as a
major factor in the democratic reform process given
the virtual exclusion of
dissenting voices in the state media. Studio 7
provided extensive and
balanced coverage of the 2005 general election and
delivered intense,
high-impact reporting on the government's May-July 2005
campaign of forced
evictions and home demolitions.
Reporter Carole
Gombakomba's telephone interviews with victims of the
exercise received a
2006 commendation from the Association of International
Broadcasting.
The Voice of America, which first went on the air in
1942, is a multimedia
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government through the
Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more
than 1,000 hours of
news, information, educational, and cultural programming
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estimated worldwide audience of more than 115 million
people in 45
languages.