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By
Macdonald Dzirutwe and Nelson Banya Wed Aug 22, 12:41 PM ET
HARARE
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's inflation rate has leapt to a record high,
official
data showed on Wednesday, raising pressure on President Robert
Mugabe to
ease an economic crisis that foes hope will weaken the veteran
leader.
Zimbabwe's inflation -- already the highest in the world --
hit 7,634.8
percent in July, reminding Zimbabweans there is no relief in
sight from
daily hardships including chronic food, fuel and foreign currency
shortages.
Mugabe has accused some businesses of raising prices without
justification
as part of a Western plot to oust him.
He launched a
blitz on inflation by ordering businesses to freeze prices in
late June. But
the move exacerbated shortages, leaving shop shelves empty.
The government
eased some restrictions on Wednesday.
Mugabe, who remains defiant despite
sanctions imposed by Western powers and
criticism that his policies are to
blame for the crisis, is taking new steps
aimed at tightening his grip
before seeking another five-year term in next
year's elections.
The
former hero of African liberation who has ruled Zimbabwe since
independence
from Britain in 1980 is embarking on what critics say is his
classic
strategy of condemning his Western foes to focus attention away from
his
economic failures.
He is pushing for a bill in parliament, which is
dominated by his ruling
ZANU-PF, that will give him room to choose a
successor if he were to retire
or parliament the power to pick a president
if the current president died in
office.
Mugabe, who accuses Britain
and the United States of sabotaging Zimbabwe's
economy, is also pressing to
localize foreign-owned companies through a
separate bill.
The
government said on Wednesday a clerical mistake had forced it to
postpone to
Thursday the introduction in parliament of the bill seeking to
give majority
control of foreign-owned firms to Zimbabweans.
Critics say the bill is
reminiscent of Mugabe's controversial policy of
seizing white-owned farms to
give to landless blacks, which may say
triggered the current
crisis.
DISCONTENT
Frustrations, meanwhile, are growing on the
streets but a tough crackdown on
the opposition has made it clear that
dissent will not be tolerated.
Although Mugabe faces growing criticism
from Western powers, neighboring
African nations have failed to press him to
enact political reforms,
diplomats say.
Regional states hope
mediation by South Africa between Mugabe and the
opposition will ease
political and economic troubles. But they have so far
not produced any
breakthroughs.
Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), too weak
and divided to challenge Mugabe, on Wednesday accused the
government of
taking measures to prevent its supporters from registering to
vote in next
year's elections.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) announced this week that more than
80,000 new voters were registered
between June 18 and August 17, when voter
registration closed.
But
Ian Makone, director of elections in the Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction
of
the MDC, told reporters the number of new voters was "a far cry from the
hundreds of thousands of prospective voters."
"The MDC is aware of
the overt machinations by the regime to steal the
people's vote through a
biased and opaque mobile voter registration," Makone
said.
Neither
the ZEC nor government officials were immediately available to
comment.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished:
August 22, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: This year is on course to
be the worst for human rights
violations by police and government agents in
seven years of political
turmoil in Zimbabwe, an alliance of human rights
groups said Wednesday.
Incidents documented by legal and medical experts
showed cases of
state-orchestrated torture rose to about four a day in early
2007, the
17-member Human Rights Forum said.
Cases of gross
violations - including abductions, arrests, unlawful
detentions and abuses
of political rights and basic freedoms - doubled in
the first six months
compared to the same period in 2006.
"The general trend shows increasing
violations since 2005, and if the
current trend continues, 2007 will be the
worst year yet by a considerable
margin," the forum said in a report
released Wednesday.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena rejected the
report, saying it was
inaccurate and the organization had distorted the
truth.
The report, giving tallies of abuses compiled since 2001, said
this year
marked the first propaganda offensive by Zimbabwe police on the
government's
official web site, which blamed the government's opponents for
mounting
political violence.
Yet two entries on the web site -
"Opposition Forces in Zimbabwe: A Trail of
Violence" and "Opposition Forces
in Zimbabwe: The Naked Truth Volume 2" -
contained factual errors and
obvious lies, according to the forum report.
The report cited police
photographs on the government web site allegedly
showing four bus attacks by
opposition militants in March. In fact, all four
photos show the same bus -
pictured from different angles but still showing
the same license
plate.
Aside from "manifestly false factual claims," the police responses
also
displayed their politicization and what the human rights groups call
"an
astounding ignorance" of the law, the human rights group
claimed.
Police branded opposition gatherings and meetings "criminal
activities" and
80 percent of politically related arrests followed
campaigning allowed under
the law and considered normal in democratic
societies anywhere, the forum
said.
On the Zimbabwe government web
site, campaigning for "regime change" was
portrayed by police as an
offense.
"It is of course, the role of opposition parties in any
democracy to seek
regime change," the forum said in its report.
But
Bvudzijena rejected the report's charges.
"Why should it be called
propaganda when it is what is happening on ground?"
he asked. "Why should
only the other side be able to use the internet to
tell their side of the
story?"
He also rejected claims that Zimbabwean police were guilty of any
human
rights violations, saying there were no "political crimes" in the
country
and that all "common crimes" were investigated.
"The law is
very clear about what should happen to someone who should commit
an
offense," he said.
Bvudzijena accused non-governmental organizations of
"exaggerating and not
telling the truth about Zimbabwe" so they could
continue getting foreign
donor funds.
"The reports aren't accurate.
There is nothing new about the distortions of
the NGOs," he said.
The
report of the human rights groups said the "trail of violence" referred
to
by police on their web site included a series of alleged petrol bombings
earlier this year.
Nearly 100 suspected bombers were arrested, 15 of
whom spent five months in
jail. Two were accused of recruiting opposition
militants for terror
training on a farm outside Harare.
All the
suspects from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change were
freed after
the courts ruled police fabricated evidence against them, failed
to produce
key witnesses and were unable to find on a map the location of
the farm said
to have been used for terror training.
Police also denied on the web site
that they assaulted opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai after a prayer
meeting declared an illegal political rally
was broken up in Harare on March
11. Tsvangirai and several top opposition
figures were
hospitalized.
But President Robert Mugabe has told regional leaders
Tsvangirai was
thoroughly beaten up by police and "deserved it." Mugabe said
police had
right to "bash" government opponents causing unrest.
The
forum said police had had no powers under security laws to ban the
prayer
meeting, ignored a court order permitting the meeting and were acting
on
political orders.
Of scores of people arrested along with Tsvangirai,
none have been charged
in connection with the events of March 11. Nor was an
inquest held or any
action taken against police who shot dead one opposition
activist and
injured others in a hail of bullet in violation of U.N. norms
on the use of
force and firearms by enforcement officials.
New Zimbabwe
Last updated: 08/22/2007 10:31:37
ELECTION officials in
Zimbabwe said Tuesday over 800,000 new voters had
registered for next year's
general elections, bringing people eligible to
vote to over five
million.
Voter registration for the elections, a combination of
municipal,
presidential and parliamentary polls, ended last week after being
open for
two months.
The polls will be held early next year, and are
the first to be conducted
jointly.
"It (voter registration) was
successful, and the response from the public
was quite encouraging," an
election official said.
The election, in the presidential category, will
pit 83-year old President
Robert Mugabe against an array of youthful
opposition candidates, some less
than half his age.
In spite of
opposition even within his ruling party Zanu PF, the veteran
Zimbabwean
leader has said he would seek a new five-year term.
If he wins, Mugabe
will be in power uninterrupted for 32 years, making him
one of Africa's
longest serving leaders.
In the registration exercise, mobile teams went
to all corners of the
country to register voters for the poll, but
opposition officials complained
of the process.
Nelson Chamisa and
Gabriel Chaibva, respective spokesmen for the two
factions so the opposition
MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara
were united in their
condemnation of the exercise.
Chamisa said: "The whole thing was done to
give Zanu PF an edge over us
before the elections are held. Rigging is
already going on. The whole
exercise was done clandestinely. In the rural
areas our supporters were
being denied the chance to register.
"We
have reports from rural areas that youths were told that their chance to
register would come later. Only old people were being allowed into
registration centres. There has not been much advertising of the whole
process."
Chaibva added: "We have cases where chiefs refused to give
people letters to
prove that they reside in their areas. The whole exercise
was a shambles.
There were also a lot of logistical problems where you found
that there was
no stationery or officers reported for duty late due to fuel
problems."
Business Report
August
22, 2007
Harare - Concerned at widespread shortages following a
controversial
price-control campaign, the Zimbabwean government has ordered
the price of
some basic commodities up, an official newspaper reported
Wednesday.
Prices raised include those of sugar, tea and chicken, said
the
state-controlled Herald in its online edition. The prices of shoes,
tyres
and washing soap have also been raised.
Adjustments for train
and air fares, telecommunications and freight tariffs
have been approved and
the new fares and tariffs will be communicated
through the relevant
authorities, the Herald online added.
Hard copies of the paper are
extremely difficult to obtain since its print
run was reduced amid the
economic crisis. Industry Minister Obert Mpofu, who
is spearheading the
price blitz, announced the price adjustments in a
statement released
Tuesday.
The price of bath soap has gone up, as has the price of blankets
and floor
polish, all of which were in short supply, said the
Herald.
Zimbabwe has been gripped by acute shortages of basic goods after
the
government slashed prices by at least 50 per cent on June 26, leading to
buying sprees by gleeful customers weary of constant price hikes amid the
world's highest rate of inflation. But the buyers honeymoon was soon over,
and now there is hardly any bread, meat, milk, cooking oil or fuel available
on the formal market.
So serious are the shortages that even the
official press this weekend
called for new realistic prices to be set.
President Robert Mugabe had
argued that shop owners were trying to foment
popular discontent -- a charge
rejected by business people, who say they
were only trying to keep up with
the record inflation rates running anywhere
between 4 500 and 13 000
percent.
Minister Mpofu said farmers
slaughtering cattle would need to obtain police
clearance. The government
this week partially lifted a ban on private
slaughterhouses in a bid to
boost the supply of meat. But the official price
of beef is still way below
what it was before the price slash.
Price inspectors and police will
still monitor the prices of goods in shops,
and retailers are not allowed a
profit mark-up of more than 20 per cent,
plus VAT of 15 percent, according
to the Herald. - Sapa-dpa
BBC
Wednesday, 22 August 2007, 12:23 GMT 13:23
UK
By Martin Plaut
BBC Africa
analyst
The key role played by the United States ahead of
Zimbabwe's
independence in resolving the sticky point of land redistribution
has just
come to light.
The land issue has always been emotive in
Zimbabwe - as can be seen
with the current crisis sparked off by the
government seizure of mainly
white-owned farms in 2000.
And it
was important to all parties in 1980 that signed the Lancaster
House
Agreement that led to the transformation of Rhodesia into
Zimbabwe.
The road to the agreement was not straight forward,
and as an
investigation by the BBC's The Westminster Hour programme has
revealed, it
was much bumpier than at first suspected.
When former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979
the
situation of Rhodesia had been a central concern of the British
government
for years.
A war had raged since the 1960s between the white
government led by
Ian Smith and liberation fighters led by Robert Mugabe and
Joshua Nkomo.
Mrs Thatcher was persuaded - somewhat reluctantly -
by her Foreign
Secretary, Peter Carrington, to make one last push to try to
resolve the
issue.
"I didn't really think there was much
prospect of success at Lancaster
House because the sides were so far apart
and in particular Smith had talked
about it all for a thousand years and it
was going to be a very difficult
negotiation," Lord Carrington told the
BBC.
"I didn't think it was going to work to be frank. I mean I
thought it
was going to end in tears."
Splendour
But with the help of the then Commonwealth Secretary-General, Sir
Shridath
Ramphal, he managed to persuade all sides to attend.
Lengthy talks got under way in the splendour of Lancaster House, just
opposite Buckingham Palace.
Gradually progress was made. Until
the question of who would own the
land.
It was the toughest of
issues. Whites - 5% of the population - owned
80% of the arable
land.
Millions of black people scratched a living on the
rest.
For Mr Mugabe and Mr Nkomo this was critical.
Yet when Lord Carrington finally presented the draft constitution it
contained no reference to the land.
Sir Shridath says the
conference came close to collapse.
"From the British government's
point of view the constitution was
preserving the status quo for a minimum
of 10 years," he says.
"When Nkomo and Mugabe saw it and understood
the implications they
blew up. They asked Carrington what he meant. The
struggle was about land.
"Was he saying to them they must sign a
constitution which says that
they could not redistribute land because if
that was the case they should go
back to the bush and the conference broke
up."
Sir Shridath believed the conference was doomed to failure and
that Mr
Mugabe and Mr Nkomo would walk out and the civil war would
resume.
"I took an initiative of my own as secretary-general which
isn't much
known and talked about but can be now."
Secret
promise
He secretly contacted the US ambassador in London, Kingman
Brewster,
and asked him to get the then US President, Jimmy Carter, to
promise money
to pay white farmers for their land.
"Brewster was totally supportive. We were at a stage where Mugabe and
Nkomo
were packing their bags," he explains.
"He came back to me within
24 hours. They had got hold of Jimmy Carter
and Carter authorised Brewster
to say to me that the United States would
contribute a substantial amount
for a process of land redistribution and
they would undertake to encourage
the British government to give similar
assurances.
"That of
course saved the conference."
Nearly 30 years after the Lancaster
Conference, Lord Carrington was
surprised to learn of Shridath Ramphal's
secret intervention.
"Maybe that is so. Why should he pretend if it
isn't true? But I
didn't know anything about it at the time," he
said.
For eight years the unwritten deal worked.
White
farmers were paid around $35m by the UK for their land, which
was then
redistributed.
But the UK government found that some of the farms
were being given to
President Mugabe's close associates, and refused to
continue the payments.
Mr Mugabe was furious, claiming bad
faith.
The path to the seizure of white farms was opened and thus
began the
long slide to today's economic chaos.
Reuters
Wed 22 Aug
2007, 16:20 GMT
(Adds Mwanawasa quotes, background)
LUSAKA, Aug 22
(Reuters) - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa sacked his
foreign minister and
close ally Mundia Sikatana on Wednesday, saying his
health appears to be
failing but without giving a concrete reason for the
move.
Mwanawasa
said in a statement released to state media that Sikatana -- an
outspoken
critic of President Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe -- had
been
sacked with immediate effect.
"I very much regret that I am terminating
your services as minister of
foreign affairs with immediate effect,"
Mwanawasa said in excerpts of his
letter to Sikatana contained in the
statement.
Mwanawasa said Sikatana, a nominated member of parliament,
would retain his
parliamentary seat until it is revoked.
"I wish to
thank you very profusely for all that you have done for the
nation. At the
ministry of foreign affairs you have been able to discharge
you duties with
distinction until recently when your health appeared to be
failing,"
Mwanawasa added.
Mwanawasa replaced Sikatana with Tourism Minister
Kabinga Pande and promoted
his deputy, Michael Kaingu, as tourism
minister.
Sikatana was an outspoken critic of Mugabe, who is accused by
Western powers
of plunging his country into political and economic
crisis.
He also accused the government of Sudan in July of complicating
the crisis
in the Darfur region.
Reuters
Wed 22 Aug
2007, 14:51 GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government said on
Wednesday a clerical
mistake had forced it to postpone to Thursday the
introduction in parliament
of a bill seeking to give majority control of
foreign-owned firms to
Zimbabweans.
Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa had told Reuters that the Indigenisation
and Economic Empowerment
Bill would be presented on Wednesday, but the
minister responsible said it
was delayed.
"I am told that there was a clerical omission and the notice
of motion was
not put on the (parliament) order paper but I am reliably
informed it will
be done tomorrow," Paul Mangwana, minister of
indigenisation and economic
empowerment, told Reuters.
A new
parliamentary session opened on Tuesday to consider the proposed
legislation
and also to debate an electoral bill giving President Robert
Mugabe room to
pick a successor if he retired between elections.
If passed, the bills
could tighten Mugabe's grip on power as frustrations
grow over an economic
crisis and Western powers increase pressure on the
83-year-old leader to
enact political reforms.
Mugabe's ruling party has a technical two-thirds
majority in parliament,
which gives it room to pass bills without support
from the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
This Day, Nigeria
08.21.2007
In the
heat of the crackdown on the opposition in Zimbabwe in March this
year and
the worldwide condemnation that followed, President Robert Gabriel
Mugabe
declared to his traumatised compatriots and a bewildered global
audience:
"Nothing frightens me. I make a stand and I stand on principle
here where I
was born, here where I grew up, here where I fought and here
where I shall
die."
That statement of finality encapsulates the place of President Mugabe
in
both the making and undoing of his own country, his desperation in
clinging
to power against superior judgment and the fixation that could
further
jeopardise the chances of the southern African country for
redemption from
its present despicable state.
The reversal of Mugabe's
role in the life of Zimbabwe is indeed unfortunate.
Before ex-South African
president, Nelson Mandela, was released in 1990, the
83-year old Mugabe was
the continent's undisputed freedom icon of the
anti-apartheid crusade. For
fighting vehemently to end white rule in the
then Rhodesia, the government
of his predecessor, Ian Smith, imprisoned the
former schoolteacher and he
won the world's sympathy when he was refused
permission to attend his first
son's funeral who had died at the age of four
years. And on assuming the
presidency in 1980, the charismatic,
well-educated Mugabe ( he holds seven
academic degrees) mobilised his
sterling leadership qualities towards taking
his country out of its racially
segregated past and guiding it along the
path of self-rediscovery,
socio-economic emancipation and true nationhood.
The state-sponsored
massacre of mainly 20,000 civillians in Matabeleland in
the 1980s
notwithstanding, his image as an independence hero continued to
soar. Even
when he embarked on his most controversial policy to date -
reclaiming land
from white commercial farmers and redistributing it to
native Zimbabweans-
despite the concerted propaganda from the west in
particular, he still
garnered support from the rest of Africa and
beyond.
Sadly, however, by applying savage methods to perpetuate himself in
office
and inevitably preside over a country that has descended into ruin,
the
"madala", Shona word for old man, has since lost the legitimacy and
goodwill
that had once made him the toast of freedom lovers and fighters
around the
world. This ugly situation is responsible for Zimbabwe's current
ignoble
record on two major fronts, namely human rights and economic
progress.
A report released the other day by the Harare-based Human Rights
Forum, an
umbrella body for 16 non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
authenticates
the apprehension over the magnitude of Zimbabwe's predicament.
With 5,307
rights violations from January to June, 2007 alone, compared with
2,868
cases within the corresponding period last year, there is no doubt
that the
country is firmly under a despotic spell. Assault, torture, illegal
arrest
and detention and sometimes death - courtesy the dreaded secret
police, the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)- have become daily
realities in
Mugabe's Zimbabwe. The battering of Morgan Tsvangirai, leader
of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and some other comrades not
long ago
announced to the civilised world yet again that that country's
salvation
would not be achieved with mere diplomatic engagements. Neither
would the
reluctance of Afrcan leaders to take on their Zimbabwean colleague
frontally
help matters. To compound this troubling scenario, the scope of
violent
suppression of opponents and activists has been widened to include
journalists. Zimbabwe is in the grip of fascism.
Add that profile to the
unprecedented collapse of the nation's economy and a
failed state emerges.
Statistics validate this. Unemployment rate stands at
80 per cent. Loans,
foreign investment and aid have virtually ceased. Three
out of the 13
million Zimbabweans have fled their fatherland to neighbouring
countries,
particularly South Africa, in search of livelihood. The saddest
aspect of
this social and economic meltdown is the inflation figure which
officially
stands at 4,500 per cent- readily the world's highest. The
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) has even forecast its rise to 100,000 per
cent by the
end of the year.
This shameful picture has clearly rubbished Mugabe's earlier
credentials as
a frontline national liberator and pan-Africanist. So,
African heads of
government should not continue to compensate him for his
past feats. At
stake at the moment are the survival and destiny of a nation
that had once
been the most prosperous on the continent.
The
international community should, therefore, provide the democratic forces
in
Zimbabwe the necessary support to enhance their capacity to effect the
political change that the country desperately needs. For, without that,
other transformations would be hard. The world should not watch on
hopelessly and allow what has been described in informed circles as the
megalomania of one man to irreversibly crush the spirit and potential of the
entire nation.
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington
21
August 2007
Zimbabwe's electric power brownouts could get
even worse following reports
that the the country's three main foreign
providers have cut back on
transmissions.
Web news agency ZimOnline
reported Tuesday that Zimbabwe has arrears of
almost US$40 million to South
Africa, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic
of Congo, leading them to cut
back supplies from some 450 megawatts to 200
megawatts.
The cuts come
as Southern African finance ministers are considering
financial aid to
Zimbabwe based on the provisional commitment of a Southern
African
Development Community summit last week that aid would be forthcoming
if
Harare reformed.
But some Southern African officials sounded less
generous on Tuesday. South
African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told
parliament that said Pretoria
would not be freely dispensing taxpayers money
to bail out Harare. "They
must get the prices to work, they must drive the
changes," he said. "We
can't commit financial resources."
Former Chief
Executive Simbarashe Mangwengwende of the Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply
Authority told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe,
that the reductions in power supply from Zimbabwe's neighbors were
nothing
new.
Zim Online
Wednesday 22 August 2007
By Never
Chanda
HARARE - The chickens are coming home to roost for Zimbabwe's
beleaguered
government amid growing signs it is fast running out of ideas to
arrest a
seven-year economic crisis seen posing the greatest threat to its
survival.
Analysts yesterday said recent policy U-turns by the
83-year-old President
Robert Mugabe were indicative of a government running
out of options and
desperately resorting to crisis management.
"What
we are now witnessing is a situation where policies are being made on
the
basis of whether the sun has come out today and from where it has come
out
instead of coming up with policies that are good for the country
regardless
of one's political persuasion," said University of Zimbabwe
political
scientist John Makumbe.
Mugabe, the only leader the country has known
since independence from
Britain in 1980, has in the past two months
introduced tough measures to
contain runaway prices, only to reverse the
same measures after realising
the potential danger to his political survival
posed by the policies.
The Harare authorities last June ordered prices of
basic goods and services
slashed by half and deployed a crack enforcement
unit, which has arrested
more than 12 000 business people for breaching the
price controls.
The move, which sparked panic buying from consumers who
rapidly emptied shop
shelves, was taken after prices of many goods tripled
within a week.
The measures also included a ban on imports of foodstuff
worth more than
US$250 by individuals without a permit, the cancellation of
licences for all
private abattoirs as well as the restoration of the
monopoly of the
state-owned but bankrupt National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
(NOCZIM).
NOCZIM was made the sole importer of petrol and diesel while a
moratorium
was placed on the use of fuel coupons bought from private oil
companies.
The Cold Storage Company, a broke state-owned meat processor
that had
previously lost out on lucrative European deals due to its failure
to meet
demand, also had its monopoly restored as the sole buyer and seller
of beef
after the cancellation of private abattoir licences.
The
government on Monday reinstated the licences of 42 private abattoirs
after
the CSC failed to supply beef for the past four weeks.
This followed
earlier policy reversals on fuel coupons and imports of
foodstuffs.
University of Zimbabwe business lecturer Anthony Hawkins
said the policy
reversals were indicative of measures made on the spur of
the moment, which
the government now realised would backfire on
it.
"They must have realised that if they don't do something there will
be
nothing on shop shelves," said Hawkins.
The analysts warned that
further policy blunders by Mugabe's ZANU PF would
spell doom for a party so
keen to retain power and survive a possible
backlash from an agitated
opposition that has suffered persecution at the
hands of
Mugabe.
Zimbabwe holds crucial presidential and parliamentary polls next
March.
"They will have to take real charge of the economy and avoid
running the
nation on the basis of panic or crisis management," Makumbe
said.
Inflation, the highest in the world, has rocketed above 7 250
percent while
four in five adult Zimbabweans are jobless.
The
analysts warned that the only options available to Mugabe included
manipulation of the voters' roll as well as the use of physical violence to
win crucial rural votes and intimidate political opponents. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 22 August 2007
By Brendon
Tulani
HARARE - A newly elected Zimbabwean Member of Parliament
says
President Robert Mugabe was God-sent and should not be challenged in
next
year's watershed polls.
Kudakwashe Killion Gwanetsa,
ruling ZANU PF MP for Chiredzi South,
deified Mugabe as the leader chosen by
God who should not be contested.
Quoting Romans 13 in the Bible
that encourages people to subject
themselves to the governing authorities,
the retired army brigadier general
said only those involved in illegal
activities were opposed to Mugabe's
rule.
"For there is no
authority except from God. Therefore he who resists
the authorities resists
what God has appointed and those who resist will
incur judgment. For rulers
are not a terror to good conduct but to bad,"
Gwanetsa said in his maiden
speech in parliament yesterday.
Gwanetsa, who was controversially
nominated the ruling ZANU PF
candidate amid resistance from the
predominantly Shangaani people in
Chiredzi South, provoked howls of
disapproval from opposition MPs when he
praised Mugabe's defiance of the
West.
The long-serving Zimbabwean leader is a vocal critic of
Britain and
her allies whom he accuses of leading a campaign to remove him
from power.
The West in turn blames Mugabe for ruining the once
prosperous economy
and of repression of opposition.
The third
session of the fifth Parliament of Zimbabwe, which commenced
sitting on
Tuesday, is expected to debate radical plans to nationalise
foreign firms
and a law empowering the house to name Mugabe's successor
without a national
vote.
Leader of the House of Assembly and Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa
could not confirm when the constitutional Bill will be
debated.
"I cannot discuss a date. Just keep coming to Parliament,"
Chinamasa
said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 22 August 2007
By
Nqobizitha Khumalo
BULAWAYO - The Zimbabwe government is desperately
scrounging around for more
than US$20 million to complete the refurbishment
of the Joshua Mqabuko
International Airport ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
due in South Africa.
The cash-strapped Harare authorities are anxious to
finalise the long
overdue refurbishment of the country's second largest
airport as they look
to snatching a larger share of tourists expected to
throng southern Africa
for the world football extravaganza.
Acting
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) chief executive David
Chawota
said refurbishment of the Bulawayo airport had been stopped due to
foreign
currency shortages to import building materials.
"We are facing foreign
currency problems and as a result the completion of
the refurbishment of the
airport is behind schedule already," Chawota told
ZimOnline.
The CAAZ
boss said US$20 million was required to import building materials
from South
Africa, China and Canada.
The imported raw materials include bitumen and
cement, which have to be
brought in from South Africa.
"Everything is
at a standstill and until government provides the funding it
will be
difficult to complete the project although our target is that the
refurbishment should be complete by year-end," Chawota said.
The
rehabilitation of the airport began in January 2003 and was initially
penciled for completion by October 2004.
The delay is causing
friction between Matabeleland politicians and other
senior government
officials over the slow pace of the project.
A livid information minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu in July quizzed Leo Mugabe,
chairman of the Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee on Transport and
Communications, over the
delays.
The failure to complete the airport will be a big blow to
Zimbabwe's efforts
to share in the lucrative tourism industry since Bulawayo
is within the FIFA
stipulated 90 minutes flight time for a team to be based
in away from the
major venues.
Currently, airport authorities are
using a hangar as a departure and arrival
terminal.
The government in
2004 embarked on a programme to rehabilitate the country's
airports to
international standards at a cost then estimated at Z$1
trillion.
But
due to a deepening economic crisis, marked by critical shortages of
foreign
currency and runaway inflation, the funds allocated were not
enough.
Upgrading of the Bulawayo airport was to be done in two phases,
with the
first phase involving construction of a pavilion and roads as well
as
extension of the car park.
The second phase would have seen
construction of a modern hotel and other
amenities. - ZimOnline
New Zimbabwe
By
Crisford Chogugudza
Last updated: 08/22/2007 05:43:35
ZIMBABWE, once a
promising 'democracy' and beacon of hope in sub-Saharan
Africa, has
pathetically slipped irretrievably into the troubled waters of
an
increasingly fierce brutal dictatorship reminiscent of the Mobutu, Amin
and
Ceausescu era.
The country is on the brink of an unprecedented economic
collapse and its
revival under the current administration is almost
impossible to imagine. It
would appear there are elements in the Mugabe
establishment who are
determined to bring the country further down to its
knees at all costs and
in defiance of the brave and incessant calls for a
democratic transition in
Zimbabwe.
The construction of personalism,
manipulation of nationalism and abuse of
pan-Africanism has become a key
part of Zanu PF politics in recent times.
Some have called it ruthless
survival politics in the face of perceived
adversity from the concerned
West.
Zimbabweans continue to risk death and are being embarrassed daily
at the
country's frontiers as they attempt to flee the country in search of
survival in neighbouring countries. Unofficial statistics put the figure of
Zimbabwean political and economic refugees at more than 3 million in the
entire Diaspora with the majority being in South Africa.
The reality
of life in Zimbabwe today is that of gloom and despair. The
truth is that
democratic transition through universal suffrage is
increasingly becoming a
distant reality and this painful reality would have
been inconceivable if
bonafide liberation heroes such as the late Joshua
Nkomo, and Dr Edison
Zvobgo were alive.
What we see in Zimbabwe today is a regime that is
virtually on a war path
with its own people. Unofficial rumours say that the
number of people
disappearing in the country under mysterious circumstances
has increased
sharply as the regime struggles to deal with rising political
dissent.
Of significant concern is the status of civil liberties in
Zimbabwe. Freedom
of expression, the most crucial of all human rights,
continues to be
criminalised as President Mugabe recently signed another
controversial piece
of legislation aimed at further curtailing freedom of
expression in
Zimbabwe. Emails and telephone communication to and from
Zimbabwe are now
subject to gagging courtesy of technology received from
China.
Threats, discrimination, detention, and violence continue to
affect freedom
of expression in the country. Freedom after speech, a concept
originally
coined by Norway-based Zimbabwean laureate Chengerai Hove, is
becoming a
luxury for many in Zimbabwe.
The most prominent members of
the opposition and their sympathisers have
become subjects of wanton arrest
and harassment. Critics allege that the
once revered judicial system in the
country has either been infiltrated or
staffed with Zanu PF 'apologists'
whose judgements are either selective or
questionable in most
instances.
The Mugabe regime has by its brutal acts imposed a siege
mentality amongst
common people by creating a culture of fear resulting in
people becoming
afraid to speak, even though they may be no expressed laws
against free
expression. Criticising Mugabe and Zanu PF today is akin to
criticising God
and can be a dangerous act subject to lengthy detention or
mysterious
disappearance in some cases.
Since Mugabe's loss of the
constitutional referendum in 2000, there has been
a systematic strangulation
of all the means available for Zimbabweans to
express themselves. Any
newspaper or journalist who dares publish the
slightest criticism of any
hostile government policy is branded an enemy of
the state and ends up in
detention and his paper without a licence. The
story of Daily News is a
classic example.
The plain truth is that a democratic transition can
never take place where
there is severe curtailment of civil liberties.
Tyranny and despotism have
become very rampant and profoundly entrenched in
Zimbabwe, allowing the
establishment to easily deal with the few remaining
brave intellectual
critics.
Today, there is a lot being said about
the possibility of free and fair
elections in Zimbabwe. It is inconceivable
how this can be achieved in a
state where there is no press freedom or
simple freedom of expression or
association. The opposition and anti
establishment civil organisations are
only given national press coverage
when they stage peaceful demonstrations
and get beaten up for expressing
their democratic rights. The idea here is
being to portray them as law
breakers.
The question to ask now is what options exist for a successful
transition in
Zimbabwe, democratic or otherwise?
A number of
suggestions have been put forward but there is virtually nobody
who has
committed themselves to helping the people of Zimbabwe in the same
manner as
Sudan's Darfour region and other troubles spots in Africa. China
and Russia
are not doing Africa and Zimbabwe in particular any favour by
supporting and
sustaining repressive autocratic regimes. Zimbabwe, like
Dafour, meets all
the criteria for a full UN Security Council discussion.
The number of
people dying of hunger, HIV/Aids and political violence in
Zimbabwe put
together has reached catastrophic proportions, and if this does
not
constitute a disaster, l wonder what in this world should be described
as
such.
Bill Clinton, former US President has publicly admitted that the
world let
down the people of Rwanda during the genocide years believing that
it was an
African problem. If the current trend in the way things are
deteriorating in
Zimbabwe continues, Zimbabwe could be another Rwanda. It
appears nobody is
paying attention to Zimbabwe now. It's discouraging to
note that sections of
civil society in the UK think that stripping Mugabe of
his honorary
doctorates is more important than pressuring the Brown
government to
initiate meaningful multilateral dialogue on the Zimbabwe
crisis.
Some have invested immense hopes in South African President Thabo
Mbeki, but
all what Mbeki has managed to do is to raise Mugabe's political
ego and buy
time for him. Critics have said that South Africa is actually
benefiting
more from the Zimbabwean crisis than otherwise. It is true that
most of the
foreign investment that would have been shared with Zimbabwe is
going their
way. Some have questioned whether South Africa's Thabo Mbeki is
unable or
unwilling to help solve the Zimbabwe political mess. His failure
to rein in
Zanu PF in the failed inter-party talks raises more eyebrows
about his
integrity and suitability as a peace broker.
Given the
economic leverage South Africa enjoys over Zimbabwe, people fail
to
understand why South Africa has allowed things to deteriorate to such
desperate levels unprecedented in Africa outside war zones. Some question
the wisdom of keeping quiet when a neighbour's house in on fire. Such
rhetoric as 'quiet diplomacy' will soon be consigned to the annals of
history as the crisis in Zimbabwe continues unabated. The true nature of
Thabo Mbeki's actions is subject to further scrutiny and analysis by
political pundits and historians.
The overly fancied SADC initiative
spearheaded by Thabo Mbeki is doomed to
fail as long as Mbeki shies away
from the carrot and stick approach to
Zimbabwe's problem. Mugabe has very
little respect for his fellow African
leaders and these leaders have blindly
supported his dangerous and expensive
war of words against the West. SADC
has neither the institutional capacity
nor the political will to resolve
Zimbabwe's problems.
Mugabe sees SADC as a mirror image of the defunct
Frontline States
(Dictators Club) or a permanent ally that does not have the
moral right to
oppose him for what ever reason. SADC once again failed to
stamp any
authority on Mugabe and let alone acknowledge that the Zimbabwean
crisis
exists. It is high time the more powerful members of the
International
Community take the Zimbabwe crisis more seriously to avoid a
humanitarian
catastrophe.
It is too late to dwell on the origins of
the crisis because there will
never be agreement as to who is significantly
to blame. Time has come to act
on the political and humanitarian crisis in
Zimbabwe. It is now time to draw
up a UN Security Council plan for Zimbabwe
similar to Darfour, East Timor
and Kosovo and the earlier this is done, the
better.
If it is impossible to have consensus at the UN about how to
resolve the
Zimbabwe crisis, options for individual countries such as the US
and UK to
act do exist as long as their actions are proportionate to the
scale of the
problem. However, most Zimbabweans prefer a peaceful transition
of power in
Zimbabwe if that can be achieved.
The idea of democratic
transition in Zimbabwe through elections is a mere
academic expression.
Elections do not work, have never worked and will not
work in Zimbabwe for
as long as they are run by the same individuals and
institutions that have
run previous ones. A new constitution for next year's
elections may not be
conceivable now but major concessions can still be made
in terms of
repealing major aspects of electoral law i.e. Access to
Information and
Personal Privacy Act (AIPPA), Public Order and Security Act
(POSA),
constituency boundaries, voter registration and election observation
by
credible international observers including those from the UK, EU and US.
Without the above considerations, elections will come and go as usual;
Mugabe will still be there with a 'disputed mandate' and no
'legitimacy'.
The state of the opposition in Zimbabwe is one of sadness,
the opposition is
unwittingly slowing the process of change instead of
speeding it up. They
lack powerful, strategic and charismatic leadership.
This adds to the
existing woes of despair as hopes for a new democratic
dispensation fade
everyday. A leadership renewal or re-branding in the
opposition hierarchy is
manifestly becoming a reality.
The era of
'professional leadership' is long gone, it's either the current
leaders
radically change tactics or hand over to a new fresh pair of hands.
In the
West, UK in particular, opposition leaders are not sacred cows they
come and
go as the political pendulum changes. In Zimbabwe unfortunately the
opposition continues to receive a media honeymoon from the independent
papers even when it is clear they are blundering.
On a related issue
Zimbabweans need to be reminded that heroes are not
necessarily leaders and
where there is a convergence of the two the better.
The issue of leadership
change in the opposition should be desensitised and
looked at with a broad
mind. Some will recall that heroes such as Joshua
Nkomo, Herbert Chitepo,
Edison Zvobgo, Ndabaningi Sithole and Parirenyatwa
who pioneered the
liberation struggle did not become presidents, but their
respective roles
were instrumental and central to the struggle for
liberation.
The
increasingly belligerent twin MDC opposition leadership should be
complementing not decimating each other's political integrity. Going to
elections as divided will not earn them victory. If Morgan Tsvangirai lost
2002 elections by 400 000 votes short from the 2002 presidential ballot,
simple arithmetic tells me that allowing Morgan Tsvangirai to go it alone
will be a dangerous gamble which could erode his chances of winning
elections. The man is inspired by huge attendances at political rallies
which are essentially made up of potential supporters most of whom are not
registered voters. It is unfortunate he is rapidly loosing the
plot.
As things stand now, Morgan Tsvangirai may loose substantial
Matabeleland
and Midlands votes to the rival smaller MDC Mutambara faction
thereby
assuring Mugabe another controversial election victory. It appears
Zimbabweans will be bracing for another painful defeat and long, unwinnable
legal battles against Zanu PF. Some have predicted that mass demonstrations
such as the ones which brought down dictators such as Nicholai Ceausescu,
Suharto and the orange revolution in Ukraine will never happen in Zimbabwe
because of the brutality of the uniformed forces among other
factors.
Respected political analysts such as former Zanu PF and
government chief
propagandist Prof Jonathan Moyo, have predicted possibility
of a coup detat
in Zimbabwe as the political situation continues to
deteriorate. This
prediction is based on the assumption that the soldiers
themselves are
increasingly becoming despondent hence the mass defections
recently
witnessed. If Mugabe does not act fast enough to resolve the
succession
issue, then a coup detat may be inevitable as conditions for this
eventuality are firming each day. On another issue, Mugabe would be making a
grotesque mistake by paying attention to the lunacy of the life presidency
mantra as demanded by his party worshipers and zealots. The era of
personality cult and life presidency is long gone.
The question to
ask is, will the people of Zimbabwe accept a coup detat, the
answer is NO.
Coups detats have the tendency to distort the process of
democratisation.
Above all, a coup detat would be a dangerous precedent for
future
democratically elected governments. The process of transition from
militarisation to civilianisation of power could be a long and painful one
as has happened in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana and other ruthless African regimes
where coup detats were fashionable until recently.
Lastly, cognisant
of the failures of previous initiatives, and the likely
failure of current
initiatives to bring about change in Zimbabwe, the only
option left is to
bring in the UN to make a decision on the future of
Zimbabwe before it's too
late. Elections have failed to change anything and
Zanu PF has equally
failed to use the contested mandate and legitimacy they
have to save the
country from collapsing.
A UN intervention strategy can start with
forcing Zanu PF and the opposition
to share power under supervision from a
neutral figure pending the holding
of elections. Alternatively, the UN and
SADC in conjunction with local civil
bodies could be allowed to organise and
supervise the 2008 elections and
hand over power to who ever wins. Zimbabwe
is increasingly becoming a time
bomb waiting to explode unless the
international community shows real
leadership to save the
country.
There may not be any diamonds, oil and uranium in Zimbabwe to
warrant the
urgent intervention of the US, UK and EU but the reality is that
the rot and
collapse continues in front of their eyes. A resurgent Zimbabwe
will
undoubtedly be an asset to the West and beacon of stability and
prosperity
in Southern Africa.
The West cannot afford another Rwanda
and Zimbabwe could as well be another
Rwanda unfolding if they fail to act
decisively.
Crisford Chogugudza is a Zimbabwean academic writing from
London, UK. He can
be contacted on crisford02@yahoo.co.uk
SABC
August 22, 2007,
18:15
Hospitals in Harare are handling hundreds of diarrhoea cases every
week as
water shortages persist in Zimbabwe's capital.
Intermittent
water supplies to high density suburbs in the city are being
blamed for the
rise in the disease and fears are high that a cholera
outbreak could be
imminent. The government has, however, denied that the
situation has reached
crisis proportion.
Media reports in Zimbabwe say an average of 900 people
in Harare are seeking
treatment for diarrhoea every day. Health minister,
David Parirenyatwa, says
the claims are far fetched. He puts the figure at
200 and says the situation
has been worsened by the winter
season.
Parirenyatwa says: "Usually in winter the figures go high because
there is
the infection of the rota virus, which is common in this cold
climate."
By Violet
Gonda
22 August 2007
The outspoken founder of the Girl Child Network,
Betty Makoni, and two
America women were arrested in Harare on Tuesday. The
Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition said Makoni is being accused of allegedly
"smuggling in foreigners
to cover the country's crisis without
accreditation." When SW Radio Africa
contacted the human rights campaigner
late Wednesday she said she was not
allowed to speak as she was at the
police station. It was not clear why she
was still being held.
It's
reported that the two Americans were filming a documentary on the Girl
Child
Network. Betty Makoni is an internationally acclaimed Zimbabwean child
rights activist who has won awards for her innovative child abuse prevention
activities.
We could not get through to the American Embassy in
Harare for a comment on
the arrest of the two US nationals.
There
were other arrests earlier this week as the government continued its
campaign against perceived enemies. Several pastors were arrested while they
were praying in Chitungwiza this past weekend. Their lawyer James Tabora
said heavily armed police officers with teargas descended on the venue where
more than 45 Pastors from various denominations had gathered. Several
individuals were arrested and the rest of the congregation was ordered to
disperse. The arrested were accused of convening a political meeting but the
lawyer said the meeting was strictly religious. Under Zimbabwe's notorious
security laws police are supposed to be notified of a political
gathering.
The Pastors who were arrested on Saturday were released the
same day after
paying fines of Z$40 000 each. But there were more arrests on
Monday night
when police hunted down some of the pastors from their homes.
The lawyer
said they were finally released on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the
Crisis Coalition said Braeside police tortured in custody a
popular
businesswoman Ms. Majangi aka Mai Fafi and her manager for "failing
to
adhere to the state stipulated prices on alcohol." Mai Fafi, who owns a
bar
in the Avondale area of Harare, was arrested and released on Sunday but
re-arrested on Monday. It's reported a police officer dealing with the case
was also arrested on bribery charges because it was alleged the two's
earlier release was un-procedural.
Thousands of business owners have
been arrested in recent weeks since the
government embarked on the price cut
wars last month.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Aug-22-2007
By Bronwen Dachs
Catholic News Service
CAPE TOWN, South
Africa (CNS) -- Southern African leaders' support for
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe is "sickening," said a South African
bishop, while a priest in
Zimbabwe said the region's governments are more
interested in clinging to
power than working for the common good.
Mugabe, who has been in power
since the country's independence from Britain
in 1980, was given a standing
ovation at an Aug. 16-17 Southern African
Development Community meeting in
Lusaka, Zambia, where regional leaders
failed to pressure him into enacting
political and economic reforms.
Applauding "a man who has destroyed a
country" shows "utter lack of concern
for the plight of Zimbabweans," Bishop
Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg told
Catholic News Service Aug. 20 in a
telephone interview. He noted that the
southern African leaders' refusal to
sanction Mugabe shows a "dereliction of
duty to their African sisters and
brothers."
Bishop Dowling was in Johannesburg after meeting with fellow
members of the
Solidarity Peace Trust, an ecumenical group of church
organizations from
Zimbabwe and South Africa.
"You can't buy any
basic foods in Zimbabwe now. The shelves (in stores) are
empty," he
said.
"Yet Mugabe pretends there is no food crisis," he added.
The
U.N. World Food Program said in early August that 3.3 million people
face
severe food shortages in Zimbabwe, where a government ban on price
increases
has forced manufacturers to close or cut back their operations.
"It is a
tragedy of enormous proportions," Bishop Dowling said.
Zimbabwe is
crippled by the highest rate of inflation in the world,
unemployment of more
than 80 percent, and shortages of foreign currency and
fuel. With elections
scheduled for March, political violence has
intensified.
"Our
neighbors are still reluctant to take effective action against the
collapse
of Zimbabwe, even though Zimbabweans invading them are a threat to
their
stability," said Jesuit Father Oscar Wermter in the Zimbabwean
Jesuits'
newsletter.
An estimated 3 million Zimbabweans are displaced, most of
them in South
Africa, according to Reuters, the British news
agency.
While "governments are more interested in their own sectional
interest," the
church will insist on the "common good becoming Africa's
first priority,"
Father Wermter said.
Mugabe is "spreading the
propaganda lie that there are sanctions imposed
against Zimbabwe on which he
can blame the total failure of his economic
policies," he said, noting that
the 83-year-old president blames Zimbabwe's
bishops for "not mentioning the
effects of sanctions" in their Easter
pastoral letter that said the country
is in deep crisis.
"There are no trade sanctions against Zimbabwe, only
travel restrictions
against the ruling elite which bar them from entering
Western countries," he
said.
Zimbabwe's "economic disaster" is the
result of the government's "consistent
overspending, exceeding the budget
and living beyond its means," Father
Wermter said.
END
Reuters
Wed 22 Aug
2007, 12:23 GMT
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, Aug 22 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) on Wednesday
accused the government of taking measures to
prevent its supporters from
registering to vote in next year's elections.
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) announced this week that more than
80,000 new voters were
registered between June 18 and Aug. 17, when voter
registration
closed.
But Ian Makone, director of elections in the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led faction
of the MDC, told reporters the number of new voters
was "a far cry from the
hundreds of thousands of prospective
voters".
"The MDC is aware of the overt machinations by the regime to
steal the
people's vote through a biased and opaque mobile voter
registration," Makone
said, charging that among other things the
registration period was not
adequately publicised and that registration
efforts were concentrated in
ruling party areas.
Neither the ZEC nor
government officials were immediately available to
comment on the
accusations.
President Robert Mugabe, 83 and in power since British
independence in 1980,
has said he will stand in next year's presidential
election, in which his
ruling ZANU-PF is likely to face a divided
opposition.
Critics say Mugabe is accelerating efforts to consolidate his
power as the
economy crumbles and Western powers pressure him to enact
political reforms.
The former African liberation hero faces growing
discontent over an economic
crisis marked by the world's highest inflation
rate of 4,500 percent and
severe food, fuel and foreign currency
shortages.
Mugabe has denied allegations of human rights abuses and
accused Zimbabwe's
weak opposition of teaming up with Western powers to oust
him.
Makone said the ZEC had deliberately set up more voter registration
centres
in the rural provinces -- where the ruling ZANU-PF enjoys support --
than in
urban areas, where the opposition has performed strongly in past
elections.
"This was a well-calculated ploy not only to disenfranchise
millions of
potential MDC voters, but also to have more people registering
in rural
Mashonaland provinces so as to pave the way for the creation of new
constituencies in areas ZANU-PF considers politically safe," he
said.
Mugabe's government has proposed increasing parliamentary
constituencies
from the current 120 to 210, among a raft of constitutional
changes expected
to be brought to parliament in the current
session.
The two factions of the MDC, which split in 2005 over
participation in
senate elections, have so far failed to agree to a
coalition pact for the
general election set to be held in March 2008 and has
faced a growing
crackdown.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
A campaign to register voters for next year's election ended almost
unmarked, with many people saying they were unaware of the three-month long
process.
From Joseph Sithole in Harare (AR No. 127,
22-Aug-07)
Zimbabwe's joint presidential and parliamentary elections
scheduled for next
year have generated much controversy. While the ballot
has been flagged up
as a watershed event for both the ruling party and the
opposition, some
analysts are warning that it could turn out to be a damp
squib.
They argue that the elections, which will pit the ZANU-PF party of
President
Robert Mugabe against the fractured opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change, MDC, may not be as exciting as the interest they have
generated
locally and internationally.
Among the reasons cited for
these gloomy predictions are voter apathy, lack
of publicity, and the
inability of millions of Zimbabweans outside the
country to register for the
ballot.
The nationwide voter registration process ended almost unnoticed
on August
17. Many people who should have put their names down said they
were wholly
ignorant of the three-month long campaign launched in May. As
well as the
general lack of information, critics complained that the
registration
process was manipulated to exclude opposition
supporters.
The joint elections have been tentatively set for March 2008,
but fears of a
low turnout have already prompted talk of a postponement to
next June.
John Mlilo, from Mataga, 450 kilometres south of the capital
Harare, was
typical of rural residents who were caught unawares by the voter
registration effort.
"It is unusual for people to be registered for
elections this early. Perhaps
there was something wrong," he said. "Normally
they register people at the
local primary school but this time there was
nothing. I doubt if anybody
registered to vote in this ward because we would
have heard about it."
The mobile voter registration teams have two
components - members of the
government appointed Electoral Supervisory
Commission, and staff from the
Registrar General's Office who issue birth
certificates and national
identification documents to those who do not have
them, as this is a
prerequisite for voting.
Mlilo said he had heard
that "Mugabe people" were issuing IDs and birth
certificates, but not that
voters were being registered.
A political scientist at the University of
Zimbabwe said many people in
urban as well as rural areas may have missed
the deadline because the
registration campaign was poorly advertised and was
overshadowed by more
immediate political developments.
"The timing of
the registration exercise was very poor," said the political
scientist, who
did not want to be named. "Every day, people are being told
about talks
taking place in South Africa, while back home people are being
quietly
registered to vote. It's just too packed and confusing," he said.
One
such headline news story is the ongoing mediation process between
ZANU-PF
and the MDC. In March, South African president Thabo Mbeki was
mandated by
the Southern African Development Community to try to bring the
two sides to
the negotiating table to seek a political settlement to
Zimbabwe's
eight-year crisis, which has seen inflation soaring to over 4,500
percent,
unemployment above 80 per cent and a mass exodus of economic
refugees to
neighbouring countries and beyond.
Then there is the price-cutting blitz
launched by the government last month,
which has led to widespread shortages
and crippled public transport. Queues
for scarce commodities such as the
staple maize meal, sugar, salt, cooking
oil and paraffin have become the
order of the day in all urban centres.
Finally, prospective voters may
have been distracted by the long holidays
around Heroes' Day, August
11.
The analyst said the ZANU-PF's low-key approach to registering voters
was
cause for concern. This was true even in those rural areas where ZANU-PF
can
normally expect a clear majority.
"There is definitely something
afoot," he said. "The elections may be no
more than symbolic. ZANU-PF is
already manufacturing figures and names
before the election dates are known
to the rest of the nation," he said.
He noted that only about 80,000
names had been added to the electoral roll,
a tiny amount set against the
estimated three million who are believed to
have left Zimbabwe in search of
work abroad. The figure of 80,000 was only
twice the national average for a
single constituency, he said.
A low turnout, especially among its
supporters, would not be in the
government's interests, given a plan to
elect more members to parliament
than before. A controversial constitutional
amendment being pushed by
ZANU-PF would increase the number of seats in the
lower house from 150 to
210 and from 66 to 84 in the upper
chamber.
"What I don't understand is why they are keen to increase the
number of
Senate [upper house] and constituency seats when all the evidence
points to
fewer voters next year," he said.
There have been
allegations that the voter registration campaign is being
used to stop
opposition supporters getting onto the electoral roll. The
Zimbabwe Election
Support Network, a non-government organisation that does
voter education,
has reported that traditional leaders in rural areas are
excluding known
supporters of opposition parties, for example denying them
ID
papers.
Fidelis Mhashu, an MDC member of parliament for Chitungwiza, 30
km southeast
of Harare, claimed that some 65 residential properties in his
constituency
had been omitted from the document used as proof of residence.
He warned
that if this practice proved to be more widespread, it would
prejudice the
MDC in the polls.
The political scientist in Harare
noted that the bitter acrimony between the
MDC's two rival factions had not
helped focus the minds of potential
opposition voters.
"Because of
their own internal problems, the two factions were unable to
educate their
constituents on the need to register," he said. "Many are
further still not
sure whether their party is going to participate in next
year's elections or
not."
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of one of the MDC factions, recently
warned
that his party might not take part in the polls if the Mbeki-mediated
talks
in South Africa fail to extract sufficient concessions from the ruling
party
to ensure free and fair elections.
The schism has lost the MDC
goodwill and credibility among its potential
electorate since the 2000
general election, when it lost to the ZANU-PF only
narrowly.
"We can
argue about rigging and this and that but the fact remains that the
MDC is
never, and will never be, the same party we voted for in 2000," said
Abel
Tsuro, a civil servant in Harare. "The party has squandered a lot of
goodwill because of internal squabbles. Many people have lost hope that it
can ever beat ZANU-PF. Most of them have been frustrated out of the polling
booth.
"Add to this the estimated three million Zimbabweans
reportedly living in
the diaspora and it gives you a bleak picture of the
MDC."
Martin Chiriga, from the poor suburb of Kuwadzana, sells mobile
phone
airtime cards near a voter registration centre but had not bothered to
put
his own name down. He said he had voted for the opposition in the past,
but
was no longer interested in doing so.
"They [MDC] should first
sort out their problems before they can count on my
vote," said Chiriga.
"Why should I vote for them when they are already
fighting for power they
haven't got? Is that going to feed my children?"
At the talks in South
Africa, the MDC is holding out for reforms to election
legislation, a new
constitution, and extending the right to vote to
Zimbabweans in the
diaspora. Yet even if the opposition wins on all these
points, it still
might not be enough.
According to the political scientist at the
University of Zimbabwe, allowing
expatriates to vote would at best lead to
the MDC winning the presidential
election but losing the parliamentary poll.
This, he said, would create "a
constitutional crisis".
"Because of
our constituency-based voting system, even if registered, voters
outside
Zimbabwe would need to return home to vote in their constituencies
for their
MPs," he said. "I don't know whether the MDC is able to bring back
the over
three million people who have left the country since 2000 - that
is, if it
is true that all these people still support the opposition.
"On the other
hand, if they were allowed to vote from their present
locations wherever
they are, they can only vote for the president, which is
not
constituency-based. If Tsvangirai wins, that would create a serious
constitutional crisis if his party loses the parliamentary election. Because
of our first-past-the-post system, it is the party with the highest number
of constituency seats which forms the government, not the individual. It
would really be a messy affair."
He stressed that this scenario was
"very unlikely, given that few
Zimbabweans would be ready to come back home
before they are certain that
the crisis is being tackled more holistically.
Many have already adjusted to
their new environments and are trying to carve
out new careers for
themselves and their families."
He concluded,
"Despite the hype, next year's election is going to be a
lacklustre affair,
with perhaps the lowest voter turnout we have seen in
many
years."
Joseph Sithole is the pseudonym of a reporter in Zimbabwe.
IOL
August 22 2007 at
10:30AM
Harare/Johannesburg - At least 15 Christian pastors were
arrested in
Zimbabwe this week for attending a prayer meeting near the
capital Harare
without permission from the police, an opposition party
statement said on
Wednesday.
The 15 were part of a group that
attended a prayer meeting in
Chitungwiza town south of Harare on Saturday, a
faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) said in a
statement.
MDC members of parliament Job Sikhala and Goodwich
Chimbaira also
attended the meeting but were not arrested, according to the
statement.
The pastors were fined and released on Saturday. But
they were picked
up again on Monday evening and detained, said the
statement.
Police have not confirmed the arrests. It was not
immediately possible
to speak to lawyers for the men to find out whether
they were still behind
bars.
The arrest of the
pastors is indicative of the continued assault on
people's liberties by the
Zanu-PF regime, said the MDC statement: "The
citizens of Zimbabwe have the
God-given right to exercise their religious
beliefs, including the political
citizenry."
Under Zimbabwe's strict security laws all public
meetings require
police clearance. Religious gatherings are usually exempted
from the
requirement, although police clamped down on a highly-publicised
prayer
rally in March, arresting and beating dozens of opposition supporters
and
rights activists in a move that sparked international condemnation. -
Sapa-DPA
zimbabwejournalists.com
22nd Aug 2007 08:24 GMT
By a Correspondent
ZIMBABWEAN lawyers who attended the
just ended Southern African Development
Committee (SADC) Civil Society Forum
found themselves busy as they came to
the rescue of Tapera Kapuya the
co-ordinator of the National Constitutional
Assembly's South African office
who had been detained by Zambia authorities.
Kapuya was arrested on 16
August 2007 as he tried to enter the Taj Pamodzi
Hotel with two banners that
carried the message: "A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR
ZIMBABWE" and "MUGABE STOP THE
VIOLENCE AGAINST YOUR OWN PEOPLE, RESIGN AND
GO NOW. STOP SHAMING
AFRICA."
Kapuya planned to parade the two banners during a meeting which
had been
scheduled to be addressed by Presidents Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia,
Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa , Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania , Bingu wa
Mutharika of
Malawi, Festus Mogae of Botswana and Lesotho Prime Minister
Pakalitha
Mosisili on Regional Integration in the SADC Region.
He was
detained for five hours as lawyers Arnold Tsunga and Aleck
Muchadehama
battled with the Zambian Police to secure his release.
Initially, the police
wanted to charge him with carrying subversive
material. He was later
released without any charges.
Tsunga who is also the director of the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) criticised the conduct of the
Zambian police as overzealous and
unwarranted as it violated Kapuya's right
to freedom of expression.
"With Zambia having assumed chairpersonship of
the SADC, we had hoped for
better treatment for all those who were in Zambia
for the historic event,"
said Tsunga.
"However, Kapuya's detention
together with the deportation of 40 other
Zimbabwean activists by the
Zambian authorities places the justice delivery
system into serious
disrepute and confirms our fears that the collapse in
the rule of law in
Zimbabwe has a contagion effect in the SADC region."
He, however,
commended the Zambian authorities for immediately allowing
Kapuya access to
legal counsel unlike in Zimbabwe where lawyers are often
denied access to
their clients and become targets of persecution themselves
for merely
performing their lawful duties.
The detention of Kapuya followed the
deportation of 40 other civil society
activists on 14 August 2007 by the
Zambian immigration officials at Chirundu
Border Post for alleged possession
of subversive material in the form of the
Save Zimbabwe Campaign T-shirts
they were wearing.
Meanwhile, SADC Council of Non-Governmental
Organisations (CNGO) immediately
issued a statement urging SADC Heads of
State to investigate the events and
make a public statement concerning the
outcome of their investigations in
the interest of transparency and
commitment to good governance in the SADC
region.
The 40 activists who
spent a night in detention at Chirundu border post were
driven to Harare
under heavy police escort where they were released upon
their arrival in the
Zimbabwean capital.
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
22 August 2007
Posted to the web 22 August
2007
Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg
A FEW days after President
Thabo Mbeki told regional leaders he was making
progress to find a
settlement to the Zimbabwean crisis, President Robert
Mugabe's government
has resumed its bid to amend the constitution to
entrench him in
power.
The move sabotages the talks between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu (PF)
and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), facilitated by
Mbeki.
It also leaves Mbeki's diplomacy on Zimbabwe in disarray.
Whatever progress
Mbeki was talking about could be torpedoed by Mugabe, who
is clearly racing
to pre-empt talks and outmanoeuvre
Mbeki.
Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, the central figure
in the
constitutional amendments, said last week in Zambia that the Zanu
(PF) talks
with the MDC were not useful.
This was in line with Zanu
(PF)'s position that it is merely going through
the motions because it
believes it is talking to alleged MDC sponsors in the
west, rather than the
opposition, which it describes as a "front".
When he returned from last
week's Southern African Development Community
(SADC) summit in Zambia,
Mugabe said he would proceed with his political and
economic programmes,
regardless of SADC's actions.
Sources in Harare say Mugabe has decided to
ignore Mbeki's mediation and the
promised economic rescue package with its
tough conditions of reforms.
Evidence of this mounted yesterday after
Zimbabwe's parliament met for a new
session to consider two major pieces of
legislation: one to ensconce Mugabe
in power and manage his controversial
succession debate and the other to
consider nationalisation of foreign
companies.
The bills were distributed to MPs yesterday in preparation for
debate. Zanu
(PF) sources said Mugabe expects parliament to have passed the
proposed laws
by the end of October, since the ruling party dominates
parliament.
Despite Chinamasa's remarks at the SADC summit last week that
Zimbabwe did
not need political reforms, Mugabe's regime is pushing for
negative changes
to consolidate its power.
The proposed
constitutional amendments are effectively designed to prop up
Mugabe and
manage his divided party's intensifying power struggle.
The legislation
is also aimed at facilitating the holding of joint
parliamentary and
presidential elections in March next year. It would also
reduce the term of
the president from six to five years.
Zanu (PF) chief whip Joram Gumbo
said his party would press ahead with its
agenda regardless of talks as it
had no idea when dialogue would end and did
not want to create a "legal
vacuum".
The amendments would also ensure that parliament elects a
successor to
Mugabe if he cannot continue for whatever reason.
This
is seen as an attempt by Mugabe to prevent his deputy, Joyce Mujuru,
from
taking over.
zimbabwejournalists.com
22nd Aug 2007 08:54 GMT
By Trust Matsilele
REGIONAL business experts
say President Robert Mugabe's immediate retirement
from the helm could see
business improving in Zimbabwe and the region at
large.
Experts say
poor reforms and policies by Mugabe such as sending troops to
the Democratic
Republic of Congo in the late 1990s to prop up the Laurent
Kabila
government, the controversial land grabs, the recent price blitz and
operation Murambatsvina, had worsened the economy's
perfomance.
Economists in the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) region are
saying they now see a green light following the
negotiations being mediated
by South African President Thabo
Mbeki.
"If Mbeki mediation brings any results that will be positive
development to
the all Zimbabweans and regional business participants," said
Trevor Zuma,
an economist with a leading bank in South
Africa.
Meanwhile Zimbabwe's runaway inflation has reached a 13 000 per
cent mark
with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) even predicting that by
December
the inflation will be hitting above 100 000 per cent, a record that
might
stand for eternity.
The just-ended SADC summit in Zambia has
however reported a need to bail the
Mugabe regime's embattled economy out of
the mess which critics say will not
help much as long as democracy and
sanity have not returned to the country.
"The poor performance of the
economy has been a direct result of Zimbabwe 's
departure from democratic
principles and a clear restoration of what we have
lost will see the economy
being revived.
"It is a dangerous assumption that giving Mugabe economic
bail would see the
country being revived because the same aid will be
diverted from development
to the sustenance of his autocratic rule,"
remarked Tapera Kapuya, a leading
human rights defender and constitutional
advocate.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says it is time
for
Zimbabweans to confront head on the crisis facing them becuase of Zanu
PF
misrule as delays are causing the unprecedented suffering of innocent
civilians and further worsening brain drain.
"SADC should intensify
its efforts in making sure that Zimbabwe's present
crisis is addressed as
rapid influx would eventually lead to the crumbling
of the state due to lack
of manpower and that can not be postponed if the
situation is to be resolved
now, "commented Nqobizitha Mlilo from the MDC
political office.
Have they done enough?
The SADC summit
has come and gone. Mugabe did his thing - a dramatic
entrance, full of
bravado and an entourage that included Mogadishu type pick
up trucks with
mounted machine guns and security thugs with dark glasses.
The despair of the
international community and others around the world was
palpable.
The
reality on the ground however was very different. This time there was a
united position on Zimbabwe, friend and foe, Mugabe faced his toughest SADC
summit ever. Behind closed doors his fellow regional Presidents told him in
no uncertain terms that the crisis in Zimbabwe had gone on long enough, was
damaging the prospects of the region and impacting on their own economic and
social situations.
In addition they looked at a serious proposal from
the region to step up to
the plate with an emergency stabilisation package
worth several hundred
million US dollars (paid for by the region itself) - a
first and very
encouraging. This was attached to tough conditions - complete
the
negotiations taking place under the South African facilitation process
and
then abide by the agreement and carry it out before any assistance is
made
available and even then not to the Zimbabwe government directly. Mugabe
has
few who trust him any longer in the region.
Behind closed doors
and with tight security in place, the talks between the
MDC and Zanu PF
continue. On its own this is a remarkable achievement as
there is no way
that Zanu PF would be talking to the hated opposition if
they had any
alternative options.
So the stage is set for some fairly dramatic
developments - what and when is
not clear or even available. Even the
aggressive SA media machine has not
been able to crack the SA blanket of
secrecy about the situation - just
those periodic remarks by Mbeki that the
situation is under control and the
process making progress, not as fast as
they would have liked, but progress.
I am the eternal optimist and suffer
for this when it comes to trying to set
out a possible future scenario. But
there are a few things we can set our
compass to. The first is that in the
end we (the democrats and those who
want the best for Zimbabwe and her
people) will win this struggle. That has
been true throughout history, even
though it might take longer than
anticipated. Eventually the good guys win.
It took England several centuries
to overthrow the Feudal system that kept
its people in chains and servitude.
It took the Russian people over 70 years
to throw off the savage yoke of
Communism. It took South Africa over 40
years to dismantle the Apartheid
machine. If we can do it in 10, we will
have done well historically.
Secondly, we know this situation is not
sustainable and the regime here
simply does not have the resources or the
environment to sustain itself. For
Zanu PF this is a terminal situation,
they have no where to go from here on;
they are facing a blank wall with no
alternative escape routes. Africa is
moving on and with West Africa having
dismantled the regime of Charles
Taylor and then seen him delivered to the
Hague, they know that this is a
very real prospect here. The region of the
SADC has also moved on - SADC is
a fast growing block of democratic States
who are proud of their new status
in the global community. They know they
have to deal with the bad apples in
this basket or be tainted as a
whole.
Thirdly, the international environment is much more hostile to
rogue regimes
than in the past. Look at the pressure piling up over the
behavior of the
Sudan, Somalia, North Korea and Burma. New governments in
France, Canada and
the UK are all going to be principled and uncompromising
towards the Mugabe
regime. That also goes for even places like Portugal. The
new members of the
EU are almost universally hostile to political tyrannies
- they know all
about what they do to the people they control (I avoid using
the word
govern).
No one gives a damn for a small country like
Zimbabwe, but they do have
concern for the region as a whole. We have
struggled to get where we are -
South Africa after a century of struggle
against racial oppression, Angola
and Mozambique after decades of struggle
against a colonial past and then
civil and regional wars. Zambia after
decades of failure under UNIP, Malawi
after Banda, the Congo just emerging
from the nightmare of the post colonial
era. All these gains are threatened
by the collapse of the Zimbabwean
economy and the very real threat of
instability and violence.
I saw an article in a major South African
newspaper this week saying
Zimbabwe could collapse by Christmas. Define
collapse please? Does it mean
that the country no longer can feed, clothe
and house its people? Does it
mean that energy and water systems are
collapsing and are unable to meet
even basic needs? Does it mean that 70 per
cent of all jobs are lost, the
people affected forced to flee in order to
survive? Does it mean that
telephone systems are now so run down that you
cannot dial out to another
country in the region or make a local call
without great effort and
considerable time?
If it does, then we have
collapsed. Our modern economy is no longer
functioning. Many, if not most
firms are now living on their reserves and
face imminent collapse. If they
do, putting Zimbabwe back together again is
going to be tough and expensive.
In my own small group I have had 8
employees quietly pack up and leave for
South Africa. They see no future. We
lost nearly Z$3 billion in the past two
months and an executive in the
largest food company in the country told me
today they were losing Z$2
billion a day. We are fighting back and striving
to hold things together,
others are just quitting. In company after company
staff are just sitting
around - idle and concerned. Will we have jobs next
month? The feeling of
despair is everywhere.
No - this situation
simply cannot go on. Has SADC done enough this past week
to rescue us from
ourselves? My own judgment is maybe just enough, but they
cannot do it
alone. We need everyone to make that final effort that will get
us through
this nightmare. Battles are won in the final stages of conflict,
before that
it's just a fight. We are on the winning side, we will win, we
are nearly
there, make the effort.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 23rd August 2007
From The Times of Zambia, 21 August
By Times reporter
Government has accepted to
export 100,000 tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe at a
reduced price for fear of
the grain going to waste. Agriculture and
Cooperatives Minister, Ben Kapita
said in an interview yesterday that the
100,000 tonnes was from the last
farming season and Government with its
counterparts in Zimbabwe had been
negotiating on the prices for sometime
now. Mr Kapita said the maize would
be exported at about US$195 to US$200
per tonne, the amount he said
authorities in Zimbabwe were comfortable with.
"We have reduced the prices
because we want to be competitive and we want
everything to go. If we
continue keeping it, the maize will get rotten," Mr
Kapita said. Zambia had
recorded a surplus of 250,000 tonnes but in
additional to last season's
crop, there was currently 300,000 tonnes of
maize for export. Mr Kapita said
he also took advantage of the just ended
27th Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Heads of State and
Government summit to discuss with his
counterparts in member countries the
best ways of helping nations with food
deficits.
From the summit, Mr Kapita said, it was gratifying that member
countries had
recognised that Zambia and Malawi were able to export 10,000
tonnes each to
hunger stricken neighbours. Zambia exported the 10,000 tonnes
of maize
through the World Food Programme (WFP). Mr Kapita said the summit
noted that
Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi had recorded maize surplus and
therefore prodded
them to export to countries that had deficits. Meanwhile,
the Food Reserve
Agency (FRA) will continue purchasing maize and other
designated crops until
the end of September even in areas where targets have
been met. FRA public
relations officer, Mwamba Siame said in a statement
released in Lusaka
yesterday that targets had been met in Mazabuka, Chadiza,
Chipata, Sinda,
Chisamba, Mwense, Kazungula and Gwembe districts. The agency
has so far
purchased 251,750 tonnes of maize out of the targeted 400,000
tonnes, 440
tonnes of rice out of the targeted 1,200 tonnes and 10 tonnes of
cassava out
of the targeted 2,400 tonnes.
Dear
Friends
Today, 22.08.07 the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum released a
report
commenting on and responding to two recent Zimbabwe Republic Police
(ZRP)
reports entitled "Opposition Forces in Zimbabwe: A Trail of Violence"
and
"Opposition Forces in Zimbabwe: The Naked Truth, Volume 2".
At a
press conference in Harare today, 22.08.07, the Zimbabwe Human Rights
NGO
Forum launched a report entitled "At Best a Falsehood, at Worst a Lie":
Comments on the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Reports "Opposition Forces in
Zimbabwe: a Trail of Violence." The Forum report illustrates how ZRP claims
that opposition parties and civic organizations are grouped together for the
purposes of violently overthrowing the government of President Robert Mugabe
are 'not only internally contradictory, inherently implausible and
manifestly false in many instances, but they are easily overwhelmed by
evidence to the contrary contained in numerous press statements,
photographs, newspaper reports and other reports that followed the events of
March the 11th ,' when MDC and civic leaders were brutally assaulted in
police custody.
The Forum notes that reports by ZRP naively reveal
the politicisation of the
police, the use of state resources for party
political purposes and
astounding jurisprudential ignorance of members of
the ZRP. Further, the
Forum notes that ZRP is responsible for perpetrating
gross human rights
violations during arrest and detention. The Forum's
report concludes that
its analysis of the ZRP reports shows, virtually all
of the "subversive"
activities alleged by ZRP would be treated as normal
democratic activities
in most countries of the world, and as a sign of a
healthy and functioning
democracy. The Forum submits that ZRP's
politicisation, intolerance of
democratic opposition and violent suppression
of opposition parties remains
available.
Find the Forum's report
attached here or access it on our website at
http://www.hrforumzim.com/frames/inside_frame_special.htm
. The two ZRP
reports can be accessed via the following links on the
Zimbabwe Home Affairs
web site, the first report: under the Police section
can be found at
http://www.moha.gov.za.
The second report can be accessed at:
http://www.moha.gov.zw/violencereport2.pdf
African Path
August 22, 2007 01:53 PMBy Sheila Pasi
BULAWAYO -
The Zimbabwean government has been accused of
denying some villagers in
the country's rural areas access to the staple
maize grain being sold by the
state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB) on the
basis that they support the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
political
party.
The Southern African country, currently in the midst of an
escalating
economic and political crisis that is largely being blamed on
corruption,
mismanagement of the country's resources and intolerance for
opposing views
by President Robert Mugabe, did not produce enough grain to
feed its
population, estimated to be slightly above 11 million people, hence
villagers rely on GMB-provided maize for survival.
Mugabe
(83), who has ruled the country since it gained independence from
Britain in
1980, has been accused of taking advantage of prevailing hunger
to try and
force villagers to support his ruling ZANU (PF) party ahead of
joint
parliamentary and presidential elections slated for January next
year.
Although this discrimination has been reported countrywide,
it is said to be
more pronounced in the drought-prone Matabeleland region,
which is
considered to be an MDC stronghold.
Mugabe is
unpopular in Matabeleland, where his South Korean-trained Fifth
Brigade
killed an estimated 20 000 civilians in the 1980s.
Villagers who spoke to our
correspondent in Matabeleland South province's
Matobo district accused the
government of using traditional leaders and
veterans of the country's war of
liberation to discriminate against
perceived opposition supporters whenever
maize grain is being sold.
"Village heads keep updated books
bearing names of their subjects, which
they hand over to the chiefs at sale
points. War veterans supervise the sale
and check your name against those
books when you want to buy. If you are
blacklisted, you are not allowed to
buy. At times people are forced to
produce ZANU (PF) membership cards. Most
of us only access the maize from
the GMB staff, who secretly sell it to us
at Z$1 million for a 50kg bag
instead of the official price of Z$200 000,"
said Matibhini Maphenduka, a
fomer MDC councilor who also claimed to be a
victim of the discrimination.
The villagers said that they were
also being overlooked for projects known
as "food for work", whereby they
perform tasks to develop their residential
areas and get maize grain in
return.
A local chief who spoke on condition that he is not named
for fear of
victimisation by the government, confirmed the claims this week,
saying the
traditional leaders were given such orders early this year by the
Matabeleland South provincial Governor, Angeline Masuku.
"We
are doing as we were told. If we not do that, we would be accused of
supporting the MDC ourselves and lose all benefits from the government,"
said the chief.
Both factions of the splintered MDC confirmed
having received such reports
from their supporters and accused Mugabe of
using old-fashioned ways of
campaigning for the
elections.
"That practice is prevailing countrywide and has
always been used by the
ruling party each time we prepare for elections. If
you are not vetted and
certified to be ZANU (PF) by your traditional leader
you cannot access maize
and other essential commodities provided by the
government. I myself cannot
directly buy anything from the GMB without using
proxy.
"In Binga the government kicked out all Nongovernmental
Organisations and
the Matabeleland North governor (Thokozile Mathuthu)
openly told people
there that they will not get any assistance from the
government because they
support the MDC," said Eddie Cross, the policy
co-ordinator in the bigger
MDC faction led by Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The GMB's acting Chief Executive Officer, Retired
Colonel Samuel Muvuti,
this week rubbished the accusations, saying that the
company serves its
customers fairly.
"There is nothing like
that. The GMB does not serve any political divide.
Those that raise such
claims are just dreaming. Do not waste your time
listening to them," said
Muvuti.
Matabeleland South governor, Angeline Masuku also denied
claims attributed
to her.
"ZANU (PF) does not force people to
support it. We are a people-driven party
and they support us at their own
will. I never said that I would
discriminate against anybody in my province.
I also do not know that there
is such discrimination in my province. If it
is there, then people should
bring it to my attention and I will take it
from there," she said.
The last few months have been a test of endurance for our small team. With our personal lives being affected through the shortages of basic food stuffs, we have pulled together as a unit and shopped around to ensure that our families (including our pets) have sufficient food in order for us not to worry about our loved ones whilst we focus on our jobs.
The Inspectorate team have travelled extensively despite three major breakdowns within our vehicle fleet. Our National fleet has covered 9,118 kms in the month of July. Every month we try to reach new areas, but the current situation in the country has shifted our operations once again from proactive to primarily reactive. A significant amount of time has been spent working with our Member Societies around the country. ZNSPCA has directed all its Member Societies to suspend any rehoming activities due to the unstable situation in Zimbabwe. Our National Rehoming Policy is very strict in order to ensure the stability and comfort of new homes and the provision of lifelong care for any animal adopted. We cannot perform this task at present as the current shortages of food (human, as well as animal), water and the unstable climate will result in animals being starved or abandoned. Unfortunately, this means that all surrended animals and animals past their pound time will have to be euthanised. ZNSPCA have seven Branches that we look after in the country. These Societies have fallen under our care due to lack of committees and staff and no available resources. The Inspectorate team has spent time at all of these Branches ensuring that the National directive is carried out and creating public awareness of the plight of all animals in the present crisis. Time has also been spent liaising with the six other Societies ensuring that the staff have sufficient drug stocks and resources to enable them to deal with the inevitable increase in surrended and abandoned animals.
All animals in the country share the peril faced by domestic pets in Zimbabwe. ZNSPCA is concerned for the future of livestock animals and wildlife in captivity. The vast shortages of stockfeed for livestock has serious repercussions and huge losses have already been incurred by various industries, poultry being the first to be affected due to the daily demand for proprietary food by the birds. With the temporary revocation of all licences from private abattoirs and the controlled price of meat, it is no longer a viable option to slaughter farming stock, leaving the farmer with scant compensation for destocking his herd in order to cope with the shortage of food. The lack of rain last season has only compounded the problem as available grazing around the country is very limited, so all animals should be receiving supplementary feed. ZNSPCA is monitoring farming activities in order to intervene where necessary to prevent cruelty.
At the majority of captive wildlife facilities around the country, the preponderance of animals being kept are carnivores, most of which are lions. With the scarcity of fresh meat, ZNSPCA is uncertain as to how the daily requirements of the carnivores are going to be met. We are currently working closely with Parks and Wildlife Management in order to map out a way forward that is both viable and humane. Our concerns are that owners are going to look towards hunting the already depleting natural wildlife in order to feed the animals in their care, and elephants are not being excluded from the list of animals being targeted to convert into a food source for, in our opinion, an already unmanageable number of carnivores in captivity.
With the population getting hungrier and no food on the shelves to alleviate the situation, the inevitable result has been the first incident of a companion animal being eaten. ZNSPCA has initiated an awareness campaign in order to educate the relative authorities as well as the public on the ethical and moral issues regarding the killing and consumption of our trusted companion animals. In terms of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act we may press charges for killing any animal inhumanely but in the face of starvation and the burgeoning number of stray and abandoned animals the moral issues become far more complex and we should not be too hasty in our condemnations when animals and people are suffering equally.
Draught animals have also joined the list of meat sources for humans, with the theft and slaughter of donkeys, which some unscrupulous individuals are selling as ‘beef’ to desperate consumers. This also deprives the owners of what is usually their only means of generating an income. And once again, the natural wildlife is now being hunted and poached all the more, to satisfy the hunger of our people.
Besides dealing with the abovementioned issues, we still manage to check animals wherever we travel. In the month of July, with the assistance of the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, we confiscated and released 754 crocodiles. The owner is facing prosecution under the Cruelty Act. We also confiscated a number of security dogs, which are now under veterinary care and the companies are facing charges of cruelty.
To illustrate to you all, the number of animals whose lives have been improved by a visit from a National Inspector, hereunder is a list of animals attended to in the month of July:
Donkeys: 1,379
Dogs: 322
Cats: 102
Horses: 25
Cattle: 465 Sheep: 24
Goats: 104
Chickens: 1,004 Ducks: 30
Geese: 8
Turkeys: 4
Snakes: 78
Crocodiles: 754
Exotic Fish: 15
Guinea Pigs: 13
Parrots: 14
Rabbits: 12
Other reptiles: 39
Pigs: 5
Lions: 79
Other wildlife: 48
These numbers do not include inspections where we find no conditions that need improvement. We are proud to have been able to help these animals when the majority of our time in July was diverted to issues detailed earlier in this report.
July did bring great news in general for the donkeys of Zimbabwe with Lotto granting us the finances to purchase 500 harnesses to launch a new Donkey Harness project. The project is aimed at enhancing our existing Outreach program which promotes the welfare of donkeys throughout Zimbabwe by ensuring that all draught donkeys have comfortable, properly fitted harnesses whilst they work. The National Inspectors will issue the 500 harnesses as they travel the country, replacing old and badly designed ones (or yokes) that are causing pain and suffering to the donkeys. We will now be appealing to members of the public to sponsor a harness in order to achieve our ultimate aim. Each month we will publicise the number of donkeys that have benefiting from having correct harnessing fitted. The National team are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the 500 Lotto harnesses, expected in the next week, as the cruelty we see due to bad harnessing has always affected us because although we treat the wounds and try to pad the harnesses, we are aware that our work only offers short-term relief for the animals. We will now be able to drive away knowing that we have made a long-term difference in each donkey’s life! If anyone is interested in “adopting” a donkey through the provision of a new harness, please contact our HQ for details.
Good news like the Donkey Harness project, motivates and inspires us to keep going and achieve our objective of preventing cruelty. We recently held an Inspectors’ training course that will see the National Team being increased by two Inspectors that, once they have completed the field assignments tasked to them, will be proposed for certification by the Minister of Environment and Tourism. We look forward to the training of further relevant personnel in order to strengthen our team and improve animal welfare throughout the country.
The National Inspectors are constantly appreciative of the support that we receive from the National Board, with special acknowledgment to our hard working Chairperson, which enables us to perform our duties regardless of the situation in the country.
We also respectfully acknowledge NSPCA South Africa and its member Societies for their continuous unwavering support as well as other stakeholders and members of the public. Take away this framework of people that care and the animals of our country would face a bleak future without the protection that ZNSPCA provides for them at present.
Glynis Vaughan
Chief Inspector
ZNSPCA
By
Tererai Karimakwenda
22 August, 2007
The continued failure by Harare
city officials to repair the collapsed
sewerage systems has created serious
health hazards on the streets and
residents in the high-density suburbs are
beginning to organize local
district protests. Precious Shumba from the
Combined Harare Residents
Association reported that on Tuesday about 30
angry women in Glen Norah
descended on the district offices after a disabled
child fell into raw
sewage and suffered serious injuries. The child was
rushed to a local clinic
that turned out to be closed. There was no staff
because city health
personnel are still on strike.
Shumba said the
women challenged officials to take action to repair the
sewage, shouting
that they will no longer sit and watch. In a similar action
residents of
Dzivarasekwa gathered at their district offices on Wednesday to
protest the
raw sewage flowing at their railway station and through the
streets. Shumba
said they gave the officials a 14-day ultimatum to take care
of the problem
or be prepared to deal with buckets of raw sewage that would
be dumped at
their offices. 13 residents in the area reported illnesses
related to
exposure to dirty water and other unhygienic conditions in
Dzivarasekwa.
Shumba explained that residents are beginning to take
direct action in line
with resolutions made at several CHRA sponsored public
forums. He added:
"This is commendable when you are living in a police state
such as we are,
where people are being beaten." Residents have complained
that the officials
do not respond to any queries and refuse to meet with
them to discuss
crucial issues. He described them as part of "an insensitive
regime".
Service delivery in the capital has deteriorated tremendously
since the
minister of local government removed the elected mayor and council
years ago
and installed an illegal commission. Corruption, mismanagement and
the lack
of resources have destroyed many government run
institutions.
A statement from CHRA said an unmitigated health disaster
is threatening the
capital unless the authorities move fast to intervene. It
said every
high-density suburb the group visited in the last two weeks has
"sewerage
flowing in almost every two streets, creating fertile environments
for the
spread of water borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and
dysentery,
which have now become part of every day talk among residents."
According to
Shumba, there is already a health disaster in the capital. Many
people are
complaining of stomach pains and diarrhea.
CHRA said the
alarming situation that now exists is due to serious water
shortages and a
sewerage reticulation system that has all but collapsed.
The group has
alerted the City of Harare, the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority (ZINWA),
the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, the Ministry of
Local Government
and the Ministry of Water Resources and Infrastructural
Development. But
nothing has been done.
CHRA conducted interviews with residents who said
their children are falling
sick due to unhygienic living conditions. Raw
sewage continues to flow
through the streets where children play and
families go for days without
being able to wash their plates. Drinking water
is also at risk because it
is being stored in containers for long periods of
time. CHRA is also deeply
concerned because the clinics have no drugs and
staff are on strike.
Residents in parts of Budiriro have gone for three
weeks without water. CHRA
said "ZINWA has done absolutely nothing except to
send in exorbitant water
bills."
The CHRA statement said: "Other
suburbs seriously affected include Glen
View, Glen Norah, Highfield, Mbare
Flats, Mabvuku, Tafara, Warren Park,
Kuwadzana Phase 3 just opposite
Dzivarasekwa High One and the rest of
Kuwadzana.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
Welcome to CHRA News Service,
provided by the Combined Harare Residents
Association;
COMMENT:
The responsibility now lies with you22 August 2007
VOTER
registration and inspection of the voters' roll ended on August 17
after
weeks of anxiety to the majority of potential voters. Those who
managed to
vote should make use of that vote, which counts at the end of the
vital
election scheduled for March 2008.
Justice must prevail over injustice.
What is most worrying to the ordinary
resident is that Zanu PF militants in
Mbare, Hatcliffe and Glen View were
accused of being enforcing dubious
directives from the Zanu PF Harare
Province to direct citizens to register
as Mbare, Hatcliffe and Glen View
residents.
The logic behind these
manoeuvres is that it is hoped that the Delimitation
Commission will
increase the urban constituencies and neutralise the urban
population,
considered anti-Zanu PF during elections. Targeted suburbs are
Glen Norah,
Mbare, Glen View and Hatcliffe.
Reports that came from residents indicate
that Zanu PF officials were
apparently issuing some proof of residence of an
undeveloped piece of land
in Hatcliffe. Those allocated residential stands
under the Operation Garikai
at Hopley Estate and other people of no fixed
abode were also reportedly
coerced to register as Mbare residents in
anticipation of an added Mbare
constituency.
The majority of these
people do not stay in those concerned areas. The
upcoming local government
elections will provide the Zanu PF rigging
machinery a taste of what the
people can do under extreme circumstances.
Citizens must exercise their
right to vote without fear. You vote is your
right, exercise
it.
Below are some key articles that appeared in the
media:
Landlords warned, Herald 14 August
2007
-----------------------------------------------------------------Page 1
Town
goes without water for over two months, Herald 15 August
2007
-------------------------------Page 2
Harare's water problems worsen, Herald
16 August
2007 ----------------------------------------------- Page
3
Infills leave urban centres gasping for fresh breath, Financial Gazette, 17
August--------------------Page 4
Bulawayo Council owed $48 billion,
Financial Gazette 16 August
2007 ------------------------------Page
5
Poll rigging ploy exposed in Chitungwiza, the Zimbabwe Independent 17
August
2007-------------Page 6
ZINWA creates new pandemic, Sunday Mail 19
August
2007------------------------------------------ Page 7
Chegutu
Hospital hit by power, water shortages, The Standard 19 August
2007
---------------------Page 8
Landlords warned, Herald 14 August
2007
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday warned estate agents and landlords
against
charging rents in foreign currency as this is against the laws of
Zimbabwe.
"I would like to remind estate agents and landlords that they
should respect
the laws of the land," the President said in his address on
the occasion of
National Heroes Day in Harare.
"It is illegal to
charge rentals in foreign currency and to evict a tenant
without the
stipulated three months' notice. Landlords take note," he said
to applause
from the crowd.
A number of estate agents, mainly in Harare, had resorted
to either charging
rents in foreign currency or demanding the Zimbabwe
dollar equivalent at the
US dollar parallel market rate prevailing on the
date of payment.
Others were reported to be including fuel as a component
or whole of rent
charges.
The President also warned schools against
increasing fees without the
approval of the Ministry of Education, Sport and
Culture.
"In the education sector, it has become necessary to amend the
Education Act
and remove the previous use of the Consumer (Price) Index
(CPI) when
calculating school fees increases.
"All schools are now
expected to apply to the Ministry of Education, Sport
and Culture for fee or
levy increases. The applications will be considered
on their merit and no
school should charge, demand or otherwise effect any
fee or levy increases
without Government approval," Cde Mugabe said to
ululation by the
crowd.
A number of schools, mainly private trust schools, recently
advised parents
that they will have to fork out much higher fees next term,
saying salaries
which were not frozen were consuming more than half the
schools' budgets.
Some, but not all, of the trust schools have set
interim fees based on
estimated rises in the cost of living next term, with
some asking for
upwards of $200 million. - Herald Reporter.
Town goes
without water for over two months, Herald 15 August 2007
DOROWA town in
Buhera District has been without water for the past
two-and-a-half months,
posing a serious health risk to residents in the
mining town and surrounding
areas.
The unavailability of water has been attributed to vandalism,
which saw the
breakdown of a ZESA transformer halting pumping of water to
residents for
domestic consumption and plunging the area into
darkness.
Residents who spoke to The Herald last week said the
transformer had its oil
drained by some unscrupulous people.
The
Zimbabwe National Water Authority had no diesel for a generator, which
could
be used as an alternative for power to pump water.
The affected areas are
Dorowa homeownership location, Holy Family primary
and secondary schools,
the police station, post office and business centre.
This has seen
residents fetching water from unprotected sources. There is
only one
borehole at Holy Family Secondary School which cannot service the
whole
population of more than 20 000 people.
"The situation has been like this
since June this year. Our toilets use
flushing systems and you can imagine
what happens when there is no water for
such a long period," said Mrs Sarah
Mahwite, a resident in the town.
Residents also faced problems getting
their maize milled into maize meal
because the grinding mill in the area
uses electricity.
They have to travel to Murambinda, which is about 30
kilometres away to get
to the nearest grinding mill.
"Even at
Murambinda, the grinding mill works during the evening because
there won't
be electricity during the day, so we have to get there at
night," said
another resident, Mr Jairos Kamhunga.
The prolonged unavailability of
electricity in the area has also seen wanton
cutting down of trees for
firewood.
Indiscriminate cutting down of trees has seen thick forests
being cleared by
those selling firewood.
A scotch cart full of
firewood is sold for $800 000 and desperate residents
have no option but to
buy.
ZESA has been urging consumers to also guard against the vandalism
of
electricity infrastructure, which has become rampant with thefts of
cables
and transformer oil. A ZESA official in the area said the power
utility was
working flat out to restore electricity supplies in
Dorowa.
Harare's water problems worsen, Herald 16 August
2007
Harare's water problems continue to worsen by the day as the
Zimbabwe
National Water Authority dithers on the capital's water supply
solutions and
repair of damaged water points.
ZINWA has been able to
repair a major leak along Seke Road, opposite the old
SPCA
offices.
Residents of St Martin's, Sunningdale and Hatfield are now
fetching water
from the vandalised water point, which has been losing
millions of litres of
treated water daily since January.
Similar
leaks are all over the capital but reports by either the media or
residents
seem not to be listened to.
Three weeks ago, The Herald published a
picture of the leak, prompting ZINWA
engineers to attend to the problem but
it seems they only managed to divert
the leakage and left the water to
continue going to waste.
Yesterday, The Herald observed several women and
young children doing their
laundry using dirty containers to fetch water
from the source exposing other
users to contamination.
A tour of
Chitungwiza showed that the whole town was generally dry with
residents
fetching water from unprotected water sources, most of them in
vleis, which
are used by residents to relieve themselves when there is no
water.
The more desperate cases were fetching water from storm
drains, bringing to
the fore imminent health hazards like the deadly
cholera.
Residents of Mabvuku, Tafara, Budiriro, Zimre Park, Ruwa,
Mandara and some
western suburbs have not received reliable water supplies
for some time now,
often going for three to four consecutive days without
supplies.
While ZINWA publishes a daily water status report in which it
normally
attributes problems to pump failures and electricity problems at
the Morton
Jaffray Water Treatment Plant, the ongoing water problems are not
clearly
explained.
The water authority has not been able to explain
why it fails to keep enough
water in its reservoirs.
This water
should be used when there are problems to do with power and pump
failures.
The water authority has also not fully explained why it has
failed to
adequately repair vandalised water points.
The material
needed could be fabricated locally within the ZINWA workshops.
According
to the status report, residents of Hatcliffe and Philadelphia were
supposed
to get water late yesterday while problems in Mt Pleasant Heights
were a
result of mechanical problems at the Lomagundi pump station.
The Deputy
Minister of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development, Cde
Walter
Mzembi, yesterday inspected the major leak along Seke Road and was
shocked
with the huge water loss.
He also expressed disgust at the poor
workmanship of the ZINWA engineers,
who attended to the problem.
He
said a thorough investigation into the last team of engineers that worked
on
the leak would be carried out to establish why they left the job
incomplete
and why the matter has not been attended to since January.
"This is
equivalent to a doctor who leaves a pair of scissors in someone's
stomach
after an operation," he said.
A visibly irritated Cde Mzembi said the
residents who were fetching water
from the point could not be entirely
blamed because anyone would want to get
the water for free.
"We are
just losing too much water.
"We need solutions that identify with
residents and that makes them integral
partners in problem solving," he
said.
It, however, remains to be seen whether any action would be taken
to avert
imminent disaster.
Infills leave urban centres gasping for
fresh breath, Financial Gazette, By
Clemence Manyukwe
TICHAONA
Machingauta has lived in Kuwadzana since 1984 and recalls with
nostalgia his
childhood in the high density suburb situated on the western
part of the
capital.
Much of his youth was spent playing with a plastic ball on an
open space
near his home. The "ground" has long been lost to urban farming,
but the
final onslaught is now coming: houses taking shape on all available
open
spaces.
Since 2000, Tichaona has seen a rapid decline setting
in, uncollected
garbage, blocked sewerage, potholes and the disappearance of
trees, the
direct result of punishing electricity cuts.
This decay does
not worry him much.
He sees it as temporary, reversible with time. What
worries him is the
permanence of the new housing developments.
"That
open space was the only playground for the kids. They are now building
houses all over the place. Soon the suburb will be overcrowded," he
said.
A town planning expert said this week that the closure of open
spaces in
high-density suburbs had adverse effects on residents.
Open
spaces are left during initial planning, firstly, because the soils
could be
poor, but also because of the need for future developments of
facilities
such as crèches and schools.
Space with poor soils is usually left for
recreational facilities such as
parks.
The expert said the main reason
why homes are sprouting up on open spaces is
that it is cheaper to build
over existing infrastructure, as opposed to
opening new areas to service for
development.
Already, government is struggling to provide basic
infrastructure at White
Cliff and Hopley, two farms outside Harare where
some of the victims of 2005's
Operation Murambatsvina are
settled.
Experts also say council no longer owns large swathes of land around
Harare,
with much of it now in the hands of housing co-operatives backed by
ZANU PF.
One effect of closing the open spaces, the expert said, is that
it creates
"overloading of institutional facilities" such as schools and
clinics, as
the initial planning would not have catered for more
houses.
"Building houses in open spaces as is currently happening upsets the
ratios
in terms of the support services," the expert said.
In
Kuwadzana, this "overloading" has started to manifest itself in the form
of
overflowing sewerage.
Tichaona says Kuwadzana residents were not consulted
over the infill,
although council by-laws require that if an open space is
to be closed,
there must be an application for change in land use that must
be approved
after consultation with residents.
"Change in land use
affects the value of properties in a particular area.
Imagine the noise
after a beer hall or industrial site takes over an open
space," the planning
expert said.
The Harare Commission has previously conceded that some
houses have been
built on sites without proper analysis of the consequences
of actions taken.
Every rainy season, houses in Kuwadzana Extension are
flooded, as they are
located on low-lying and hollow areas where water
collects easily.
In December 2006, then Harare Commission spokesperson
Percy Toriro said the
developers had not taken note of flood lines before
building the Kuwadzana
Extension suburb.
Constituency information for
Kuwadzana on the Parliament of Zimbabwe website
points to an area where
facilities are already failing to cater for the
current
residents.
One of the recommendations says there is need "for various
service delivery
systems to be improved, in fact an overhaul of the whole
service delivery
system with regards to water supply, sewer system, refuses
collection and
electricity supply is imperative."
Chairman of the
Combined Harare Residents Association, Mike Davies, said
they had objected
to the land infill programme when it started in the late
1990s.
"The
land infill started with the (Solomon) Tawengwa (council). We objected
to it
because green belts are important in cities," he said. "(Infills)
increase
density. They have negative social and environmental impact."
Davies
alleged favouritism in the allocation of the stands.
Bulawayo Council
owed $48 billion, Financial Gazette 16 August 2007
BULAWAYO - Council is
now owed $48 billion by residents and government
departments despite
offering a 15 percent discount to those who settle their
debts in full and
pay their bills three months in advance.
But it said receipts from water
had almost doubled between April and May
this year after intensified water
cuts.
Residents owed the council $41.6 billion at the end of April and
this dipped
to $39.4 billion at the end of the following
month.
Receipts from water, however, increased from $6.7 billion in April
to $12.2
billion in May due to intensive water cuts.
Outstanding
bills for water constituted the bulk of the money owed by
residents and
stood at $27.3 billion in April and $26.1 billion at the end
of
May.
Government departments, whose figures are one month behind, owed the
council
$5.3 billion at the end of March and $8.8 billion at the end of
April.
The council now offers a 15 percent discount to those who pay
their
outstanding bills in full and pay for services three months in
advance.
City treasurer Middleton Nyoni said between May 25 and June 18
some 22
residents had taken up the offer and had paid $9.7 billion. They had
been
given discounts totalling $706 738.29.
In May alone 7 316
consumers had their water cut off and 6 476 were
reconnected. They owed the
council $940.6 million and $787.2 million was
repaid.
There was a
major blitz in June, which saw a total of 5 695 consumers being
disconnected. They owed the council $1.7 billion but $6.1 billion was
recovered.
The council said the amount recovered was higher than that
owed because
consumers were asked to pay a reconnection fee of $17 450 for
those in the
high-density suburbs and $61 065 for those in the low-density
suburbs. They
were also required to pay a deposit of $87 000.
Nearly
12 000 consumers in the low-density suburbs have at one time been
disconnected since December but 9 416 were reconnected.
Some 24 015
consumers were disconnected in the high-density suburbs and 20
553 were
reconnected.
Final demands were issued to 269 residents who owed the council
$97.8
million in May while 209 were handed over to council lawyers. They
owed the
council $54.7 million.
The council said consumers who lived
close to council boreholes were slower
to clear their accounts because they
had an alternative source of water even
after the water cuts.
Poll
rigging ploy exposed in Chitungwiza, the Zimbabwe Independent 17 August
2007, Augustine Mukaro
THE government could disenfranchise hundreds
of people by excluding their
addresses from the blockers manual that is used
to compile the voters' role,
a Movement for Democratic Change MP said this
week.
A blockers manual is a list of residential properties' addresses in
an urban
constituency. The manual is used to by the registrar of elections
to confirm
a voter's address during voter registration.
Chitungwiza
MP Fidelis Mhashu said he suspected a deliberate ploy to
disenfranchise
known opposition supporters after discovering that his house
and 66 others
from his neighbourhood have been excluded from the blockers
manual.
"When my nephew went to register to vote and gave my address
as his
residence, he was informed that it doesn't exist in the blockers
manual
compiled in 2006," Mhashu said in an interview yesterday.
"On
receiving such information, I rushed to cross-check with the
registration
centre. Officers checked and said the computer could have
skipped the
number. I approached the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officials
based at
Seke 2 High. At perusing the manual, I discovered that house
numbers 2310 to
2377 were all missing, implying that all the tenants of
these houses could
be disenfranchised."
Mhashu said the omission was very suspicious since
he had been voting in the
past elections. "This is very suspicious," Mhashu
said. "My house is not new
or an infill which needed to be added to the
manual. It has been there since
1982 and should be automatically included in
the manual."
He said his main worry was that the omissions might be
prevalent throughout
the country and have gone unnoticed.
"How do we
know that this is not rampant throughout the country," Mhashu
said. "This
constitutes one of the fundamentals of rigging and might not be
corrected
during the voters' roll inspection."
He said although the ZEC officials
made an undertaking to correct the
situation there could be a number of
people deliberately excluded from
registration.
ZINWA creates new
pandemic, your pulse with Dr Paul Chimedza, Sunday Mail 19
August
2007
I hope I find you in good health. This week I was prompted to write
about
typhoid because of the grave water situation that we are in especially
in
the urban areas thanks to the people at ZINWA.
The fact that
people now move around with buckets looking for water to drink
from burst
pipes in a cosmopolitan city like Harare is a complete shame and
a recipe
for disaster. Where our health care systems are already
overstretched
because of the Aids pandemic ZINWA is working hard to create
an epidemic of
its own. In most areas of Harare we are now getting our water
from the black
market at exorbitant prices just like fuel. ZINWA is sure
working hard to
get its name in the Guinness Book of Records as the most
useless and
inefficient organization.
Typhoid fever is only one of the many diseases
that can come as a result of
poor water and sanitation. It is an infectious
disease with severe symptoms
in the digestive system in the second phase of
the illness. It is caused by
bacteria called Salmonella typhi (S. typhi)
that is found in the stools of
infected persons.
If you have typhoid
fever you carry the bacteria in your bloodstream and
intestinal tract and
can spread the infection directly to other people by
contaminating food or
water. S. typhi is spread by eating or drinking
contaminated food or water.
Food or water can be contaminated by a food
handler with S. typhi, or may be
contaminated if sewage accidentally gets
into the food or
water.
Following ingestion the bacteria passes down to the bowel, where
it
penetrates through the intestinal mucosa (lining) to the underlying
tissue.
If the immune system is unable to stop the infection here, the
bacterium
will multiply and then spread to the bloodstream, after which the
first
signs of disease are observed in the form of fever. The bacteria then
penetrate further to the bone marrow, liver and bile ducts, from which
bacteria are excreted into the bowel contents. In the second phase of the
disease the bacteria penetrates the immune tissue of the small intestine,
and the often violent small-bowel symptoms begin.
Early symptoms are
generalised and include high fever, headache, sore
throat, vomiting,
constipation, bloody stools, anorexia, epistaxis,
bruising, abdominal pain
and a large spleen may occur.
As the disease progresses, the fever
becomes higher, the constipation is
replaced by severe pea-soup-like
diarrhoea.
Weakness, profound fatigue, delirium, confusion, agitation,
fluctuating
mood, difficulty paying attention (attention deficit),
hallucinations and an
acutely ill appearance develop a rash, characteristic
only of typhoid and
called "rose spots," which are small red spots appear on
the trunk in about
40 percent of patients. A few people can become carriers
of S. typhi and
continue to shed the bacteria in their faces for years,
spreading the
disease.
Salmonella typhi can only attack human beings,
so the infection always comes
from another human being, either an ill person
or a healthy carrier of the
bacterium
As it is necessary for someone
to be exposed to a certain quantity of
bacteria before symptoms occur, the
storage of foods is also of great
significance.
They must be kept
refrigerated and prepared correctly, so that any bacteria
present is not
able to multiply significantly. Only your doctor can tell if
you have
typhoid fever. A blood or stool sample is needed for this diagnosis
to be
made. The bacteria can be identified from the stool and sometimes from
blood
or urine.
Typhoid fever is treated with appropriate antibiotics. You will
usually
recover in 2-3 days with prompt antibiotic treatment. People that do
not get
prompt medical treatment may continue to have a fever for weeks or
months,
and as many as 20 percent may die from complications of the
infection.
Intravenous fluids and electrolytes may be given also.
To
prevent typhoid fever you must wash your hands well with soap and water
after going to the bathroom and before preparing food items. Always make
sure the water you are drinking water is safe. Maintain cleanliness and
proper sanitation at all times. (Now with ZINWA working so hard to make sure
there is no water how we are going to achieve the above is a mystery.) Get
vaccinated against typhoid fever.
Both injectable and oral vaccines
are available. But even if you are
vaccinated, you should carefully select
your food and drink, especially when
visiting areas where typhoid fever is
common. Ask for drinks without ice
unless the ice is made from bottled or
boiled water. Only eat foods that
have been thoroughly cooked. Some
complications of typhoid fever include
Intestinal haemorrhage (severe
gastrointestinal bleeding), intestinal
perforation, kidney failure and
peritonitis.
Till next week take care of yourself and each other. And
remember, '. . . in
all your getting, get understanding.' (Proverbs 4 verse
7)
l Dr P. Chimedza is a medical practitioner. Information for this
article was
researched from different medical textbooks, medical journals
and other
medical information sources for which this author hereby
acknowledges. This
column is kindly sponsored by Generation Health. For
further information and
feedback on this topic and suggestions on future
topics contact him on
pchimedza@hotmail.com
Chegutu
Hospital hit by power, water shortages, The Standard 19 August
2007
Chegutu District Hospital has stopped performing surgery and is
minimising
admissions because of constant water and power cuts,
Standardhealth has
learnt.
Amid claims by Zimbabwe National Water
Authority (ZINWA), that it does not
interrupt water supplies to hospitals,
Chegutu hospital has been hard-hit by
erratic water supplies. The crisis
started three weeks ago.
Dr Munyaradzi Mazonde, the acting District
Medical Officer, told
Standardhealth the problem of water and electricity
had been prevalent for a
long time and has worsened, as both the hospital
borehole and generator were
not functioning.
"This problem has been
going on for a very long time," Mazonde said, "and
has since worsened
because our borehole including the generator which we
used to pump water has
not been functioning for years now. It is now
impossible for the hospital to
spend a full day with electricity and water."
As part of their efforts to
cope with the water and power shortages, Mazonde
said the hospital had
stopped performing surgery and was restricting
admissions.
"What we
do is to try to minimise admissions as much as possible and we have
had to
stop performing surgery, particularly procedures that require
electricity-driven machines," Mazonde said. "As for water, we send our
vehicles to a nearby hotel to borrow some as they have a
borehole."
He, however, said problems always arise as at times they are
forced to admit
more patients, citing a recent incident where the hospital
received many
patients from Kadoma after an outbreak of diarrhoea in the
town.
Mazonde said they had written to the Mayor of Chegutu and also
approached
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority in an effort to negotiate
so that they
are spared the water and power cuts.
"I have written a
letter to the mayor for assistance but he is still to
respond. ZESA,
however, said the lines that support the hospital also
support a significant
number of households so they cannot spare us," Mazonde
said.
Ends
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IOL
August 22 2007
at 11:00AM
By Thando Ncube
Zimbabwean cricket
authorities, in an attempt to mask the food
shortages in Zimbabwe, have
instructed the Proteas, to eat at the team hotel
and not look for food
outside.
A Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) official said they have made sure
that there
is enough good food at the team hotel for the Proteas and any
player who
went looking for food outside would be taking his own
chances.
"We have made sure that whatever the South Africans
need in terms of
food is there at the team hotel,"said the
official.
"Those who then want to go out to look for food at fast
food outlets
would be doing that at their own will. In any case pizza and
fast food is
not food, the proper food is at the
hotel."
When South Africa arrived in Bulawayo on
Monday afternoon, they were
whisked away directly to the hotel for their
lunch.
At a reception to welcome Graeme Smith and his team on
Monday evening,
there was so much meat that the guests could not finish
it.
This measure by the Zimbabwean cricket authorities is a bid to
avoid a
repetition of the embarrassing scenario of last week when the South
Africa A
cricket team players were turned away at fast food outlets in
Bulawayo which
had run out of food.
So infuriated by the
reports were ZC that on Monday their
controversial managing director Ozias
Bvute nearly assaulted a Bulawayo
based journalist whom he accused of having
been responsible for leaking the
story to the South African and UK
media.
The Proteas are in Zimbabwe for three one-day international
matches,
the first match is in Bulawayo today, while the last two are in
Harare on
Saturday and Sunday.
South Africa is using the
matches to prepare for the Twenty20 World
Championship, which they will host
next month. - Independent Foreign Service
This article was
originally published on page 3 of Daily News on
August 22, 2007
Sunday Times, SA
Aug 22 2007 12:15AM
Alex Parker: Off the Seam Published:Aug 22,
2007
--------------------------------------------------------------
Playing Bob Mugabe's game.
Cricket South Africa
must be feeling terribly proud of
themselves.
The
South African A side has just pounded a Zimbabwean XI
into the Mashonaland
dust.
A South African team containing Morne van
Wyk, Charl
Langeveldt, Andre Nel, Andrew Hall and Boeta Dippenaar,
nogal.
How pleased they must be at their side's victory
- by the
margin of an innings and 219 runs.
What
a magnificent performance by some of our country's
best
cricketers.
How marvellous to have such fine relations
with our goodly
neighbour.
It was the Zimbabwean
dictator Robert Mugabe who, many
years ago, said that cricket was a great
sport because it civilised people.
Evidently Mugabe
hasn't played much cricket.
His people starve, they
are beaten and cowed and in
desperation they are flooding into this country,
hundreds by the day;
anything to escape the hunger and the humiliation and
the despair.
The great anti-apartheid war cry was
that there should be
no normal sport in an abnormal
society.
Clearly anti-apartheid struggle veterans
didn't quite mean
what they said at the time.
Perhaps, if they'd been honest, they would have said that
there can be "no
normal sport in abnormal colonial society but there can be
normal sport in
brutally abnormal post-colonial society".
Ag ja,
but it doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it?
Perhaps that's why they simplified it. So the white
cricketing nations would
get the point.
Well, they
did.
Australia and England and New Zealand got the
point. They
supported the South African isolation
fully.
They understood when they saw the protests at
Trafalgar
Square outside South Africa House. They got
it.
And they still do. It's just that they seem to
be on their
own these days.
The ICC's shameful
silence about a painfully abnormal
society is evidently not driven by logic,
but at least in part by some
playground- level post-colonial chippiness on
the part of the South
Africans.
Following the
inviolable logic of the "no normal sport in
abnormal society" maxim, South
Africa A should not have been wasting their
time playing the second-rate
cricketing representative of a nation being
starved to death by the self-
importance of a few megalo- maniacs.
But logic goes
out the window when matters of race crop
up.
The ICC
and CSA are making it very clear how they feel
about all
this.
They, in Times New Roman bold print, are saying
that black
dictators starving black people is
okay.
Black people don't mind being disenfranchised
and robbed
by other black people.
A black man
ruining a black nation is fine by us.
How appallingly
shaming it is that it's only old England
and her cronies that continue,
quietly, to apply the very mantra that helped
free us here in South
Africa.
Oh, how quickly we
forget.
How duplicitous of our cricketing leaders to
sell our
friends and neighbours in Zimbabwe down the Limpopo because of
something as
ephemeral as a chip on our post- colonial shoulders and as banal
as TV
contracts.
Such expedience was unacceptable in
the fight against
apartheid, and it's unacceptable
today.
Those with vested interests will accuse
people of racism
and they will accuse people of double standards and they
will muddy the
water with inane chuntering about contractual
obligations.
But those of us capable of independent
thought know one
thing to be absolutely true: next time Zimbabwe A must come
to us.
We are free - in part because when we said "no
normal
sport in abnormal society", we meant it.