The Telegraph
By Sebastien Berger in Bulawayo
Last Updated: 3:58am BST
21/08/2007
Zimbabweans are starving to death on a scale
equivalent to genocide, a
top opposition MP claimed yesterday.
Four million people will need food aid by the end of the year, the
World
Food Programme said earlier this month, as President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF
government oversees the fastest-shrinking economy in the world.
David Coltart, a senior member of the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change, said there was "no doubt" Zimbabweans were already
starving to
death.
"Arguably this is the world's greatest humanitarian crisis,"
he told
The Daily Telegraph. "Zimbabwe has the lowest life expectancy in the
world:
34 for women and 37 for men.
Mr Mugabe's mismanagement,
which has also seen basic supplies
disappear from shop shelves after it
imposed price controls, made him
culpable, he said.
"To use a
legal term, I would say this amounts to genocide with
constructive intent.
In terms of a complete disregard for the plight of
people, not caring
whether there is wholesale loss of life, it amounts to
genocide."
Some observers believe that an internal coup in Mr
Mugabe's divided
Zanu-PF party is the best, if not only, hope for change.
But Mr Coltart, a
lawyer and the MP for Bulawayo South, said: "I don't
believe you can predict
he will be gone in six months. It has been a mistake
many have predicted in
the past.
"If Zanu-PF are happy with the
notion of a vastly reduced economy with
a powerful ruling elite living in a
sea of poverty, then it is sustainable.
There are several reasons
Mr Mugabe has survived for so long. Few
African leaders are prepared to
openly condemn him despite the fact that, as
Mr Coltart pointed out, "the
overwhelming majority of the people who are
dying as a result of the
regime's policies are black Africans".
Such sentiments were echoed
by Kofi Annan, the former UN
secretary-general, last month. "Africans must
guard against a pernicious,
self-destructive form of racism that unites
citizens to rise up and expel
tyrannical rulers who are white, but to excuse
tyrannical rulers who are
black," he said.
Zanu-PF officials
never miss an opportunity to denounce what they call
the West's "illegal
sanctions", blaming them for the country's turmoil -
even though they only
amount to a visa ban and asset freezes on named
individuals.
"They have convinced Africa that Zimbabwe's battle is Africa's
battle - that
this is about race and land and imperialism," said Mr Coltart,
49.
The situation was exemplified by last week's Southern
African
Development Community summit in Zambia, where Mr Mugabe was welcomed
with
thunderous applause. The meeting discussed a rescue package for the
country,
and could not agree on conditions to attach to it. It made no
criticism of
his rule.
Internally, too, Mr Mugabe's position is
reinforced by historical and
geographical factors. "This country has been
through two civil wars in
living memory and most people will do almost
anything to avoid another,"
said Mr Coltart.
Zimbabwe has
"safety valves" in South Africa and Botswana, he added.
"Young
people can vent their anger by going south. So you don't have
the people who
would be the vanguard of any uprising."
But probably the main
factor in Mr Mugabe's survival is, ironically,
the very people who have fled
his rule. With unemployment around 80 per
cent, by some estimates
three-quarters of Zimbabweans earning a living are
doing so abroad, and
their families survive on the money they send home.
The funds also
support the remains of the economy. Opposition figures
say the remittances
help the government survive, but do not condemn those
sending
money.
"They have no choice," said Mr Coltart. "Only a dreadful
choice
between wanting the regime gone and keeping their families
alive."
The Telegraph
By Kate
Hoey, MP
Last Updated: 3:58am BST 21/08/2007
Commentary
The assembled presidents of southern Africa have engaged
in another
sickening display of support for Robert Mugabe.
At a
summit in Zambia, Southern African Development Community (SADC)
leaders
betrayed the trust placed in them by the international community and
pathetically echoed the lies and misrepresentations churned out by Mugabe's
Zanu-PF.
Another hollow triumph for a brutal dictator who knows
the only reason
he still holds power in Zimbabwe is because the British and
American
governments who he blames for his country's dire situation are
generously
providing the aid to feed its population.
SADC
leaders refuse to address the real reasons that millions of
Zimbabweans are
fleeing across the border into neighbouring countries,
dishonestly
pretending that they are dealing with an economic crisis.
Certainly
there is an economic crisis in Zimbabwe, but that is the
product of the much
more serious crisis of governance.
African leaders re-iterate that
the people of Zimbabwe must be allowed
to decide their own future. The truth
is the electoral process is rigged yet
SADC utters not even the mildest
reproof.
Their view is that because Mugabe led a liberation army 30
years ago
he should still be treated as a hero.
Robert Mugabe
will not be persuaded to retire from office voluntarily.
He has spent a
lifetime entrenching his personal power through the machinery
of ZanuPF and
he is not going to start engaging seriously with any process
that will
jeopardize his grip on power.
The Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) under Morgan Tsvangirai's
leadership deserves great credit for having
so far steered the struggle for
freedom and human rights away from violence
and bloodshed.
SADC leaders have turned their backs on the
suffering of millions in
Zimbabwe and slapped the backs of the corrupt
leaders who have reduced a
prosperous and self-sufficient country to ruins
and starvation. They cannot
or do not want to understand the nature of the
crisis in Zimbabwe. It is
time to re-internationalise the search for a
solution.
The UN remitted the crisis to the African Union. The
African Union
remitted it to SADC. SADC has now shown it supports Mugabe in
his oppression
of the people of Zimbabwe and Thabo Mbeki's mediation is
going nowhere.
The greatest irony of the 'African crisis that needs
an African
solution' myth is that the endlessly demonised UK and US
administrations are
picking up the bill.
We are expected to
provide unlimited food aid to a country that
effectively bans agriculture
and manipulates food imports. On top of that we
provide a safe haven for
thousands of desperate political refugees who flee
to our
shores.
It is not just an African issue. It is just as much an
international
crisis as was the struggle against apartheid in South Africa .
It is madness
to commit ever-larger amounts of our aid budget to dealing
with the symptoms
without at the same time funding a cure.
If a
fraction of our humanitarian aid budget went towards supporting
those who
offer an alternative to the current regime we could start
investing in the
recovery of Zimbabwe rather than providing sticking
plasters for its
bleeding wounds.
We need to get tough on the SADC leaders. We ought
to be reassigning
aid budgets from their nations to bring home to them the
massive costs
arising from their inaction and complicity in propping up
Mugabe.
We cannot simply go on footing the bill. Thabo Mbeki and
his friends
have given Mugabe the green light to continue his
tyranny.
My constituents are paying for his madness with their
taxes;
Zimbabweans are paying with their lives
Kate Hoey MP is
Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on
Zimbabwe
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Date: 21 Aug 2007
Southern African Leaders Miss Chance to Take
Action
(London, August 21, 2007) - SADC Heads of State and Government
have once
again failed to establish concrete measures for addressing the
human rights
problems in Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch said today. The SADC
leaders'
meeting in Lusaka on August 18 made a commendable commitment to a
free and
peaceful election in Zimbabwe in 2008, but took no clear measures
to realize
their vision of "allowing the people of Zimbabwe to elect the
leaders of
their choice in an atmosphere of peace and
tranquility."
"The summit has regrettably squandered a critical
opportunity to re-examine
the negotiation mandate it gave to South African
President Mbeki and to
include specific measures to address continued human
rights violations in
Zimbabwe," said Tiseke Kasambala, Zimbabwe researcher
at Human Rights Watch.
"SADC's inability to act on this urgent situation is
deeply disappointing."
SADC's final communiqué from the summit
(http://www.sadc.int/news/news_details.php?news_id=1038)
commended President
Thabo Mbeki's efforts to mediate talks between
Zimbabwe's ruling party and
the opposition, which it said was "progressing
smoothly." The communiqué
also welcomed the progress of the mediation talks
and called on both
political parties to expedite the process of negotiations
so that Zimbabwe's
elections could be held in an atmosphere of
peace.
However, the SADC leaders did not press for an end to the
pervasive human
rights violations currently taking place in Zimbabwe, set a
specific
timeline for progress in the mediation talks, or create a framework
for
addressing the human rights situation in the country. The new
chairperson of
SADC, President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia, reportedly told
journalists at the
summit's closing press conference that SADC leaders felt
that the problems
in Zimbabwe were "exaggerated."
Human Rights Watch
has long argued that the human rights abuses taking place
in Zimbabwe and
the Zimbabwean government's intransigence demand a
meaningful response from
SADC leaders, including a focused scrutiny of the
human rights situation in
Zimbabwe
(http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/08/zimbab16615.htm).
"It
is particularly disturbing that SADC leaders continue to categorically
fail
in acknowledging the central role of Zimbabwe's grave human rights
crisis in
the country's political and economic collapse," said Kasambala.
The human
rights situation in Zimbabwe has significantly deteriorated in the
past
year: police have arbitrarily arrested and beaten hundreds of civil
society
activists in custody; police use of excessive and unnecessary force
has
disrupted peaceful demonstrations; the authorities continue to use
repressive laws to prevent criticism of the government; and credible
allegations continue of torture of detainees in police custody. The
government has not investigated any of the serious abuses, much less brought
to account the perpetrators.
"SADC must establish clear benchmarks
and a timeline for its initiative on
Zimbabwe. It is clear that the
negotiations alone will not address the
atmosphere of violence and impunity
that has developed in the country," said
Kasambala. "The people of Zimbabwe
deserve much better from this regional
body."
To read the new Human
Rights Watch briefing paper, "A Call to Action: The
Crisis in Zimbabwe -
SADC's Human Rights Credibility on the Line," please
visit:
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/zimbabwe0807/
To
read the May 2007 Human Rights Watch report, "Bashing Dissent: Escalating
Violence and State Repression in Zimbabwe," please visit:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/04/30/zimbab15805.htm
For
more information, please contact:
In London, Tiseke Kasambala (English):
+44-79-3965-5384 (mobile)
In London, Lance Lattig (English, French,
Portuguese, Spanish):
+44-20-7713-2784
© Copyright, Human
Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY
10118-3299 USA
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Date: 21 Aug 2007
I.
Introduction
On August 16-18 2007, the Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
Heads of State and Government will meet at their annual
summit in Lusaka,
Zambia. The summit will provide SADC member states with an
opportunity to
take action on one of the most critical situations in the
region: the
political and human rights crisis in Zimbabwe. Their response
will be
scrutinized carefully in the region and beyond. The credibility of
SADC's
commitment to the promotion of human rights and the rule of law is on
the
line.
In response to the brutal police beating of over 50
opposition members and
civil society activists on March 11, 2007 in
Zimbabwe, SADC leaders convened
an extraordinary summit on March 28 in Dar
es Salaam, Tanzania to address
the political crisis in Zimbabwe. In the
communiqué following the summit,
SADC mandated South African President Thabo
Mbeki to mediate talks between
the opposition and the ruling party, and
report back to the SADC troika on
progress.(1) The summit also mandated SADC
Executive Secretary Tomaz Salamao
to undertake a study of the economic
situation in Zimbabwe and to propose
measures on how SADC could assist
Zimbabwe recover economically.(2) The
summit also called for enhanced
diplomatic contacts with Zimbabwe to assist
with the resolution of the
situation in Zimbabwe; appealed to Britain to
honor its compensation
obligations with regards to land reform; and called
for the lifting of all
forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe. Regrettably, the
communiqué made no
mention of the arrests and beatings of opposition and
civil society leaders
or the broader human rights situation in
Zimbabwe.
Notes:
(1)Communiqué from the 2007 Extraordinary Summit
of Heads of State and
Government Held in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of
Tanzania, 28-29 March
2007.
(2) Ibid.
© Copyright, Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth
Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY
10118-3299 USA
African Path
Izzy Mutanhaurwa
August 20, 2007 07:18 PM
When Cain
was asked by god where his brother was Abel, he replied with
a question "Am
I my brother's keeper?". He was trying to deny the fact that
he had a
responsibility for caring for his brother just as many of us today
show
little concern for our brothers. That fact is highlighted by
Zimbabweans
embittered by the policies led by the tyrannical regime of
Robert Mugabe who
get little or no help from the international community.
You
might have read about the deaths of two people during a stampede
for sugar
in Bulawayo. They add to the list of victims of direct state-led
violence
and others who continue die everyday in Zimbabwe in undocumented
cases as a
direct result of Mugabe's policies. I do not know how many
victims of either
direct state-led violence or indirect victims of the
policies pursued by
Mugabe will it take for the international community to
wake up from its
slumber. We thought, the deaths of Talent Mabika & Tichaona
Chiminya
might make the international community act, but they sat fiddling
their
thumbs.Then Murambatsvina came and the damning UN report some of us
prayed
that this is it, there is no way the international community is going
to
ignore even a an official UN report but our hopes were dashed. Then
Zimbabwe's 3/11 came more than 60 opposition leaders were brutally assaulted
by the murderous Zimbabwean police, 3 people died,2 in police custody and
one was shot by police still again despite the noise of condemnation that
followed it wasn't enough for the international community to
act.
Now in case reminiscent of Hotel Rwanda , the British
government have
drawn up a contingency plan to pull out 22000 of its own
citizens from
Zimbabwe amidst worsening economic and political climate
.
Just like in the movie, where a convoy from a
French-led intervention
force arrives at a 4 star hotel that was protecting
foreigners from the
genocide that engulfed Rwanda in 1994, only to evacuate
foreign nationals,
mostly whites and journalists who were guests there.
Oliver the UN soldier
played by Nick Nolte leaves the hotel with only four
U.N. guards and
shamefully tells Paul Rusesabagina played by Don Cheadle
that no foreign
help is coming to stop the slaughter because no one cares
enough to
intervene, as troops from both the intervention force and from
some of the
UNAMIR nations withdrew from Rwanda. That's the line the British
government
has taken for Zimbabwe, they will take care of their own and the
poor and
disenfranchised of Zimbabwe have to cater for
themselves.
As for our African brothers forget because the SADC
meeting in Lusaka
has come to a close and nothing has come of it. I never
expected anything
from the ineffective regional body like I explained on
this blog sometime in
March that SADC is a club of aging African dictators
who hold their
countries at ransom over dubious war credentials and protect
their own. It
was surprising to hear that they danced and sang in
jubilation
I hear it was a show of unity, it just goes to
show that they do not
fully grasp the problems being faced by ordinary
Zimbabweans today. Instead
of observing a minute of silence to all the
victims Mugabe's tyranny
including the 15 year old boy killed by the
government while stampeding for
sugar they sang in jubilation. Tutu summed
it all up nicely that we Africans
should hang our heads in shame because I
mean seriously no sane person can
greet a known demonic despot dancing
singing in jubilation. You will hear of
an economic rescue package which has
been said to have strings of reform
attached to it, though it remains to be
seen if Mugabe will do anything
about it. Mugabe has spurned the efforts of
Mbeki to broker talks between
him and MDC saying his country does not need
talks with MDC while they are
involved in violent acts. Which is the second
time that Mugabe has lied to
the SADC, you all know that Mugabe's case
against Paul Madzore the MDC MP
accused of petrol-bombing police stations
collapsed last month when it was
pointed out that, it was a fictitious
crime. Our own fellow brothers cannot
help us, who then will come to the
rescue of Zimbabweans?
In other news Australia will revoke 8
student visas held by children
of Mugabe's senior government. We fully
welcome that move, you cannot have a
situation whereby they have destroyed
education in Zimbabwe and they want to
send their kids overseas looting
foreign currency to fund their kids studies
while the rest of the population
have to make do with sub-standard education
so thank you to the Australian
government. More is needed by the
international community, while the
revoking of student visas for their kids
will embarrass them its too little
because by tomorrow these kids will have
been enrolled at either Wits
University in South Africa or in Malaysia for
that matter. Which leaves the
proverbial question Who Is My Brother's
Keeper?
Business Day
21 August 2007
Norman
Reynolds
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OVER
the next 10 years, the international community will have to pour vast
sums
of money into Zimbabwe. Immediately, Zimbabwe requires at least R900m
just
for food. To also cover fuel, electricity, medicines, other essential
imports, and to fund rand civil service payments, the figure would be about
R8bn - until December. The Zimbabwe "bill" for humanitarian and recovery
costs will come to at least R300bn from next year to 2012. If Zimbabwean
refugees were welcomed and used in SA for the next three years to build our
faltering economy and services, and if there was a proper currency, transfer
and payment system to Zimbabwe, they would provide about a quarter of that
R300bn bill direct to their families inside Zimbabwe.
If SA plays a
leading role, it can restore the New Partnership for Africa's
Development
vision and the promise of the African Union. It can demonstrate
a "failed
state" programme able to be used elsewhere in Africa, including in
SA's
marginalised townships and rural areas, and provinces such as Eastern
Cape,
which still hold the majority of citizens as economic prisoners.
A
"recovery" programme has to be built upon the quick realisation of
economic
and social rights. People must become "competent" immediately -
that is, be
able to look after themselves, their families and to contribute
to their
communities.
Below, I outline a humanitarian and recovery plan
prepared by a colleague
and me for the Zimbabwe United Nations (UN) Country
Team in 2003. It uses
all foreign aid and transfers strategically to rebuild
the modern economy,
with the local rand equivalent supporting a
community-based economic and
social rights programme of the kind recently
approved for SA by the
government under a new Local Economic Development
programme. The programme
is called the Sustainable Community Development
Programme.
Citizens are invited to mobilise and to register in
community trusts formed
at village, neighbourhood and street level. They are
then given resources
enabling them to act as partners of the government and
business in
development and service delivery, and in the realisation of high
local
income multipliers (local cash circulation).
Child rights
are set at R400 a child under 18 each month. Of the payments,
30% goes to
pay school fees, 10% to the community trust and the balance to
the
parent/local supplier for food. In this way, the money circulates
locally
three to four times, activating and rewarding local economic
production in a
market differentiated from the national market.
Investment rights,
worth R2000 per adult a year for four years, are paid to
each community
trust for each registered resident adult. The money is used
jointly to build
local productive capacity, such as gardens, irrigation,
improved grazing and
woodland, rental housing and other infrastructure, and
to finance individual
crop production and food processing. Member labour
contributions will double
the cash value of the investment rights.
The total
annual cash infusion into a community of 1000 adults and 1000
children under
18 would be R4,4m. To this, the adults would add about R3m
worth of labour.
The local income multiplier would rise from around a
pathetic 1,4 or so at
present to between three and four. The total annual
local economic activity
generated a year would be about R16m, or R32000 for
a family of four. Total
investment would be R5m a year or R10000 a family.
This surge in
"unlocked" local energy and investment would drive the
national gross
domestic product at least 3% higher each year. As important,
in contrast to
the International Monetary Fund balance of payments route,
which sells the
country at a discount to foreigners, it would first build
local demand to
reward the revival of neighbourhoods and then of companies,
ensuring that
all Zimbabweans are active participants and owners locally and
nationally.
Strategic use of the considerable foreign exchange
(forex) provided by the
international community and the Zimbabwe diaspora
would be managed through a
series of forex "windows". The first window would
aim to back exporters, so
that the forex provided is first multiplied. For
instance, tobacco used to
earn $12 for every $1 it took to grow the crop.
Mining, tourism, some
industrial production and all of agriculture earn
forex. The funds in this
"window" would not be auctioned - they would be
"sold" at a price agreed on
by the donors and the reserve
bank.
Any forex surplus to the first window would be passed to a
second "window"
through which national essentials such as fuel and medicines
would be
bought. This would act to keep the cost structure of the economy,
and
inflation, down. Any further forex surplus would go to a third window,
which
would auction it for use by domestic producers. A fourth window would
auction small surpluses for private use .
The use of economic and
social rights programming, within a strong
"localisation" model to balance
"globalisation", would allow Zimbabwe to
come under a form of United
Nations/African Union economic and social
trusteeship. It would guarantee
that all citizens were economically active
and secure
.
Dr Reynolds is a development economist.
Business Day
21 August 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HARARE
- Zimbabwe's ruling party is moving people from rural areas to
register as
urban voters for next year's planned joint presidential and
parliamentary
polls to strengthen its chances of wrest ing urban
constituencies from the
opposition.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a coalition of
nongovernmental
organisations whose mandate is to promote free and fair
elections, accused
the ruling Zanu (PF) party of busing its supporters from
its rural
strongholds to beef up its thin urban voter base.
In an
update released last week on Zimbabwe's voter registration exercise,
which
ended on Saturday, ZESN said Zanu (PF) was using housing co-operatives
made
up mostly of its supporters to provide letters to rural voters so they
could
pose as Harare residents.
According to the elections advocacy
body, some of the Zanu (PF) supporters
are coming from as far as Gokwe to
register as Harare voters. Gokwe is a
ruling party stronghold about 170km
northwest of Harare.
ZESN said its teams assessing the voter registration
exercise had come
across the scam in Harare North constituency, where
hundreds of Zanu (PF)
supporters were using letters from the Ernest
Kadungure Housing Co-operative
as proof of residence.
Construction of
houses is yet to start at the housing co-operative and is
expected to take
place well after the March 2008 elections. "F or every
stand, a minimum of
six people get registered in a constituency in which
they do not reside,"
ZESN director Rindai Chipfunde said.
The registrar-general's
office, which is responsible for voter registration,
requires letters from
landlords or water and electricity bills as proof that
those seeking to
register reside in the constituencies where they want to
vote.
"
People are being registered in a constituency where they do not belong
simply because they have been allocated stands in the constituency," said
Chipfunde.
Since 2005, Zanu (PF) has been parcelling out housing
stands at various
urban farms to its supporters under the banner of housing
co-operatives .
Most of the stands remain undeveloped and unoccupied, yet in
some cases more
than six people are registered on a single
stand.
Zimbabwe's parliament meets today to consider two
major pieces of
legislation, one to give the president considerable sway in
appointing a
successor; another to "indigenise" foreign
firms.
Political analysts said Mugabe, 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 indigenise foreign-owned firms
by legislating a
majority black ownership of all companies operating in the
country.
Zimonline, Reuters
Sunday Times, SA
Aug 21 2007 9:38AM
By Evan Pickworth, I-Net
Bridge Published:Aug 21,
2007
--------------------------------------------------------------
South Africa's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz
Pahad, said on
Monday at the Association of SADC Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (Ascci)
AGM that more investment needs to come from the SA private
sector in
southern Africa as current FDI flows were not sufficient to
achieve the aims
sustainable growth and halving poverty.
He also
noted that SA needs to intervene decisively to
ensure there is a development
agenda in SADC or else in 2008 - after trade
restrictions in the region are
opened up - it will be SA companies that will
benefit the most and this is
not in the interests of the other countries and
the
region.
He added that greater attention needed to
be given to
issues like the simplification and harmonisation of trade
agreements,
improving productive capacity, prohibiting unfair business
practices and
promotion of competition.
"There
is pressure on the SA private sector, parastatals
and government as a strong
economic partner. It is in our interests to
ensure we take the
lead,"
said Pahad.
He
explained that African countries had not attracted
sufficient FDI to meet
the Millennium Development Goals - "all stats show
that rather than
increasing, the developed countries have been reducing
investment" he
said.
"It is incumbent on the SA private sector to
ensure we
invest more decisively in FDI in SADC and other southern African
countries,"
he added.
"We need a development
approach to trade, investment and
other economic activities to achieve
integration and the objectives of
Nepad.
"Infrastructure development is lacking in all countries
and SADC must give
more attention to this," concluded Pahad.
Business Report
August 21, 2007
By AUDREY D'ANGELO
Cape Town - Meikles
Africa Hotels has announced a multimillion-rand
expansion and development
plan in preparation for 2010.
The Zimbabwe-based firm owns the Cape Grace
hotel at Cape Town's Victoria
and Alfred Waterfront.
In addition to
spending more than $3 million (R22.39 million) on the
121-room Cape Grace,
it plans to spend more than $50 million on the Victoria
Falls Hotel in
Zimbabwe.
It also plans to spend more than $2 million on the historic
Meikles Hotel in
Harare, and a still undecided multimillion-dollar sum on "a
unique new
hospitality venue" at the planned Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier
conservation
area.
Roy Meiring, chief executive of Meikles Africa
Hotels, said yesterday that
parent company Meikles Africa, which is listed
on the London and Harare
stock exchanges, was "involved in a number of
strategic initiatives" to
raise equity funding for the development
programme.
"A restructuring exercise is at present taking place and the
investment in
this exercise will follow the inclusion of new partners in the
company and
various related developments."
Meiring said the group's
Vision 2010 plan reflected confidence in the
long-term future of the tourism
sector in the region, including Zimbabwe.
Meikles Africa Hotels is a key
player in the tourism sector in southern
Africa. It has earned a reputation
for excellence and standards in hotel
operations dating back more than 100
years.
''We plan to consolidate this success not only with continued
operational
strategies, but also with plans for expansion and improvement
based on the
belief that the long-term future of tourism in this region is
bright,"
Meiring said.
Partners in the Victoria Falls development
include the Zimsun leisure group
and the railway authorities of Zimbabwe and
Zambia.
They plan to construct a "spectacular" new wing for the famous
colonial
Victoria Falls Hotel, a viewing platform overlooking the gorges
below the
falls and "general refashioning programmes".
Meiring said
the creation of a new wildlife-based operation was in the
initial planning
stages.
The operation would see the establishment of an innovative
hospitality venue
that would enhance and benefit from the transfrontier park
- a facility that
would include more than 35 national parks, game reserves,
sanctuaries and
game management areas in Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia
and Zambia.
"We envisage a safari project which would incorporate a
safari hotel with
satellite lodges catering for specific markets and
groups."
The Cape Grace Hotel in Cape Town has been judged one of the
leading hotels
in the world.
Its public areas have been refashioned
and work on its rooms and suites is
scheduled to be completed next
year.
Airlines and tour operators say the Victoria Falls area appears to
be a
separate enclave, untouched by the troubles in Zimbabwe. It is still
attracting international tourists.
SAA and British Airways/Comair
said recently that their flights to Harare
were well supported by business
travellers, although Airlink had postponed
plans to fly there.
Afrique en ligne
Harare, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's main gold miner, RioZim has
obtained a
US$$3.3 million loan from the regional PTA Bank to fund a
greenfield project
near the central city of Kwe Kwe, officials said
Monday.
The company, partly owned by international mining giant Rio
Tinto,
announced early this year it had discovered gold reserves near Kwe
Kwe, and
planned to raise offshore funding to develop the mine.
Officials said the funding from PTA Bank, one of Africa's leading
multilateral financial institutions, would be used by RioZim to procure
imported capital goods and raw materials for the project.
The
company is Zimbabwe's biggest gold miners, producing 368
kilogrammes of the
commodity in the first half of this year alone.
It is also into
diamond and coal mining, although both are secondary
to its gold
operations.
The terms of the loan were not given, but this is the
second inside a
week PTA Bank has advanced to a Zimbabwean
entity.
Earlier, the bank loaned a state-owned agricultural lender
USD10
million to fund exporting farmers.
Harare -
20/08/2007
Panapress
Business Report
August
21, 2007
Given the monumental suffering and plight of Zimbabweans as a
result of the
country's economic meltdown, a statement from Jimmy Manyi, the
chairman of
the employment equity commission, beggars belief.
He
irresponsibly stated that if black advancement in the workplace did not
become equitable, black militancy in South Africa could make Zimbabwe look
like a Sunday picnic ("Pressure builds for BEE enforcement", Business
Report, August 19).
At a time when millions of Zimbabweans have been
reduced to refugee status
because of the lunatic lengths to which President
Robert Mugabe has gone to
entrench his grip on power, the likes of Manyi
should be acutely conscious
of the role that minorities play in the
economies of southern Africa.
The consequences of Mugabe's illegal
removal of 4 000 white farmers from
their farms has in effect destroyed
Zimbabwe's economy.
Those hardest hit have been black people.
Who,
then, does Manyi think he is fooling with his threatening rhetoric?
If
whites are marginalised, it will be to the detriment of South Africa's
economy and the biggest losers will be black people. Zimbabwe's experience
proves that.
Unless Manyi retracts his shocking threat and is
severely reprimanded, the
scenario he has sketched constitutes the Sword of
Damocles that can herald
only economic decline.
Duncan du
Bois
DA councillor
Durban
The world famous Zimbabwean charity fest showcases
culture, sport and good
times!
Every year at Zimfest time, thousands
of Zimbabweans and all those who love
Zimbabwe, gather in a field, play
sport and sink the odd bevy or two for
charity. However, every year the
festival expands and becomes more
sophisticated. This year there’s a
kaleidoscopic program of Zimbabwean music
and culture which energises the
traditional beerfest format.
“Zimbabwean musicians are renowned worldwide
for their talent,” said Adrian
Lunga, one of the organisers. “We ran a
similar program last year, and the
crowd went nuts. The program this year
has even more depth and originality,
so it is going to be good.”
•
Date: 1ST September 2007. All day from 12 noon – 10 pm.
• Venue: Prince
George’s Playing Fields, Bushey Rd, Raynes Pk, London SW20.
• Tickets: £16
Advance only: www.wezimbabwe.org
•
Acts: Chiwoniso (Chi), Paul Lunga, Watership Down, Bush Guru, SpiritTalk,
Mbira, Anna Mudeka, Thabani, & a few surprises.
• Other: Braai,
football tourney, beer (cold and fast), social sports,
sadza, gochi gochi,
stands, kiddies tent, dance workshops, other cool
cultural
happenings.
WEZIMBABWE is a registered charity formed by Zimbabweans in
the UK in 2001.
Our main focus is getting Zimbabweans to participate in the
projects that
benefit all Zimbabweans and Zimbabwe as a nation. Website:
www.wezimbabwe.org
Media Contact:
Philip Hadley T: 07793718560 E:
zimfest.marketing@wezimbabwe.org
Office: 020 7549 0355/7
The just ended Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) summit in Lusaka, Zambia, discards and renders ineffective the "African renaissance" concept of peer review. The collective reluctance and inability by SADC heads of states to reign in an intransigent, wayward neighbour, ushers in a window of opportunity for an international troika of eminent persons to intervene.
May I humbly prevail upon all progressive, rational Zimbabweans to join me in persuading a troika of distinguished international statesmen to travel to Harare and honourably offer Robert Mugabe a dignified exit.
David Owen - British Foreign Secretary (1977 to 1979), one of the architectures of the Anglo/American plan for what was then Rhodesia which formed the basis for the Lancaster House Agreement. In September 1977, Dr Owen presented the Command Paper: 6919 Rhodesia: Proposals for a Settlement – "end of Ian Smith's government and six- month transition period leading to general election on a basis of one man one vote. Independent Zimbabwe by 1978, and establishment of interim government to be supervised by Britain with UN presence, including a UN Force; an independence constitution providing for a democratically elected government, the abolition of discrimination, protection of individual human rights and the independence of the judiciary. A development fund to revive the economy is also to be established."
Kofi Annan - United Nations Secretary General ( 1997 to 2007), opening the 1999 General Assembly, he spoke in favor of "humanitarian intervention," stating explicitly that national sovereignty could no longer shield governments that massively violate human rights of their citizens. In his farewell speech he outlined three major problems of "an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law", which he believes "have not resolved, but sharpened" during his time as Secretary-General.
Colin Powell - National Security Advisor (1987–1989) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993) and United States Secretary of State (2001-05), "a better future is within reach if African governments and societies leverage the rewards of political and economic freedom by putting a priority on good governance; if African militaries understand their subordinate role under civilians in a democratic society; if governments do not oppose peaceful opposition with force but rather choose engagement with ideas; if journalists who exercise the right to free expression are not sent on express journeys to jail; if big men do not define foreign investment as depositing stolen billions in foreign banks; if the model for democratic participation is one person one vote, and frequent elections to allow people to change their minds every few years as to the manner in which they wish to be governed".
Zimbabwe is tinkering on the periphery of the league of failed states .In order to save our country from total collapse and avert irretrievable civil strife, let us petition the above mentioned statesman for their urgent commitment and auspicious intervention.
Phil Matibe – pmatibe@gmail.com