The Zimbabwe Situation

IOL

August 29 2006 at 08:41PM

Harare - A court in Zimbabwe has dismissed charges against 63 women protestors arrested six months ago for staging a demonstration against biting economic hardships, a statement said on Tuesday.

Rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) said it had won a significant victory after a magistrate ruled the 63 not guilty of charges of breaching the peace or making a public nuisance when they held a Valentines Day march in the capital.

The 63 women were among around 200 Woza members who staged a peaceful bread and roses demonstration in central Harare on February 14, calling for the right to be able to afford basic necessities like food as well as the good things in life like flowers.

Fifa has to call Zimbabwe’s bluff

Business Day

George A. Pieler and Jens F. Laurson

CAN SA match Germany’s success in hosting the World Cup? After an exemplary event displaying positive German stereotypes (punctuality, organisation skills ...) with a surprising sunny side, the football world looks toward 2010 with trepidation. SA is behind schedule on preparations for the games. Fifa, soccer’s governing body, might yet consider the US or Australia as backup. Further blurring the picture, Zimbabwe, perhaps the worst-governed nation on a continent plagued by corrupt regimes, wants to be an official games venue, an attractive camp location for competing teams, and a strong spillover tourist lure.
Zimbabwe’s tourist authority wants “to ensure Zimbabwe benefits from the hosting of the World Cup by SA”, and notes Fifa already pledges assistance for upgrading sports stadiums to that end.
Visitors and participants in the 2010 festivities are free to go anywhere, and if an inflation rate that recently declined to 1100%-plus is attractive, Harare is the place for you.
But Fifa likes to send political signals. That is why it chose Africa. They should not send Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe any public relations victories by underwriting any official or semiofficial role for it in 2010.
Fifa punished Greece for “undue government interference” in football, and it is hard to believe it would encourage Harare to host any component of the next World Cup. The Mugabe litany is astounding for its vile mix of raving incompetence, theft, murder and — it nearly sounds quaint — immorality. By destroying land rights, handing favours only to “family” (some by blood, some by acquisition), starving his people to death, stamping out opposition and destroying a once-buoyant economy with quadruple-digit inflation, Mugabe makes it impossible to separate sport from politics in this case.
If ever an exception proved a rule, this is it. Fifa owes the world more than this, and so does SA. Of course Zimbabwe should play and qualify if they can (it would be a first for “The Warriors”), but be denied any chance of putting on a “Potemkin Village” show for Cup fans. Governments have been pusillanimous enough about laying down the law to Mugabe. The symbolic importance of what Fifa does with his regime should not be underestimated.
SA understands the symbolism. As the Wall Street Journal says: “Promoters hope the tournament will provide a boost of national confidence and cohesion. South Africans are hoping for an economic bonanza.”
With the Cup spotlight on southern Africa, this is a rare chance to shame Mugabe into meeting minimal standards of modern civilised governance in treating his people. Ending “land reform” (confiscation for the benefit of Mugabe cronies), respecting political opposition, regularising elections, and freeing up an independent judiciary are the least the world should expect from Zimbabwe. For that matter, so long as the South African venue remains in question at all, why not pressure President Thabo Mbeki to stop giving economic support and tactical aid and comfort to the Mugabe regime?
It may be naïve to think the world’s favourite sport could do for the people of Zimbabwe what years of aimless talks, “targeted” sanctions, tied aid, untied aid and moral posturing could not do. But how will we ever know, unless Fifa makes the effort? Zimbabwe tourism chief Karikoga Kaseke complains some Cup organisers wanted Zimbabwe excluded for all the above reasons, but “after explaining to them” they understood Zimbabwe was “just like any other in the region”.
That bluff must be called. Rewarding Mugabe with an international stage makes Zimbabwe the “norm” for Africa (what a bleak thought!) If handled intelligently (dum spiramus speramus; while we breathe we hope) by Fifa member governments, in alliance with concerned businesses and philanthropies, astonishing things might happen.
Sport, so long as it sticks with clear rules and objective judgments, provides a kind of crisp moral clarity lacking from too many human endeavours. No compromises were allowed in Germany’s hosting of the Cup; none for Zimbabwe either.
‖Pieler is senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Innovation, Laurson is editor-in-chief of the International Affairs Forum, both in Virginia, US.

African regional blocs to hold meeting to harmonize positions with EU

Peoples Daily

A conference will be held in Zimbabwe next week to harmonize Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) positions on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU).
Zimbabwe's Trade and Development Studies Center information officer Jacqueline Mambara said Monday the conference seeks to share experiences between SADC and ESA in EPAs negotiations with the EU.
The conference is expected to find out areas of convergence and divergence for the two regional blocs in economic partnership negotiations and re-strategize on the way forward for effective negotiations, Mambara said.
"It will also be platform for informal exchange of views between SADC and ESA negotiators on economic partnership deals and improving participation of non-state actors," she said.
The conference is targeted at senior government officials involved in EPA negotiations, private sector, farmer organizations, labor unions and other civil society groups.
The welfare impact of EPAs on SADC and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) would also come under the spotlight, she said.
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are negotiating for EPAs which are aimed at defining the future trade and economic relations between the EU and regional blocs such as ESA, when the Cotonou Agreement expires in 2007.
The Cotonou Agreement was signed in June 2000, replacing the various Lome Conventions, through which the ACP countries accessed EU markets for almost three decades.
EPAs negotiations started in September 2002 and are supposed to be concluded by end of 2007.
The negotiations came in the wake of complaints from non-ACP countries in 1994 that the preferential and non-reciprocal trade that existed between ACP and EU countries was not in accordance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
Thereafter the WTO ruled the Lome Convention was in contravention of WTO rules citing the unfair advantage given to ACP countries.
Source: Xinhua

Chideya’s lawyers challenge legality of Harare Commission

Herald - Municipal Reporter 29.08.06

LAWYERS representing suspended Harare town clerk Mr Nomutsa Chideya yesterday challenged the legality of the Commission running the affairs of the City of Harare and that of the inquiry committee set up by the commission.

The hearing, which was supposed to resume yesterday, was subsequently deferred to August 31 to allow council lawyer Mr Takunda Tivaone of Tivaone and Associates to get instructions from the Commission following the challenge.

Chairperson of the inquiry committee Mr Mishrod Guvamombe announced the postponement with the concurrence of Mr Chideya and council lawyers.

Mr Guvamombe is expected to give a definite ruling that day after reviewing written submissions from both parties.

Mr Tivaone promised to furnish the committee with the council position tomorrow while Mr Stanford Moyo of Scanlen and Holderness, who is representing Mr Chideya, made his submissions yesterday.

"It is necessary to give Mr Tivaone time to get instructions from his superiors.

"The matter is deferred to August 31 at 0900hrs," said Mr Guvamombe after listening to submissions by both parties.

Mr Chideya’s counsel comprises Mr Moyo, Advocate Linos Mazonde and Mr Jabulani Ncube.

"We want to object to the proceeding of this hearing. It is pointless to proceed with an illegal inquiry. The Commission is illegal and this means you (inquiry committee) are unlawfully constituted.

"You are agents of an illegal organ with no authority to run the city," said Mr Moyo.

He argued that the proceedings were very expensive with the cost to be borne by Harare ratepayers.

He also said it was in the interest of ratepayers that the proceedings should be stopped before more money was expended.

In his written submissions to Mr Guvamombe dated August 28, 2006, Mr Moyo said the Harare Commission, led by Ms Sekesayi Makwavarara, was illegal because it had overstayed in office.

"The Commission, which purported to mandate you to carry out this inquiry and on whose behalf you accepted the mandate to carry out the inquiry, has had its six months lifespan extended on four separate occasions," he said.

Mr Moyo cited previous court cases in the legality of Harare city commissions were successfully challenged.

He cited the Lottie Stevenson versus the Minister of Local Government and others of 2002 that was heard at the Supreme Court.

The import of that ruling was that the Minister of Local Government erred in re-appointing the commission after the expiry of the first six months.

"Consequently, the minister could not avoid having a general election of councillors by continually re-appointing the commissioners.

"In my view, section 80 (5) of the Urban Councils Act was not enacted for that purpose.

"The power given to the minister by that section was intended for use, as a temporary measure, during a period preceding the holding of elections as required by the Electoral Act.

"The re-appointments of commissioners were, therefore, illegal," reads part of the judgment.

Justices Sandura and Hungwe handled the matter.

In another case heard before Justice Rita Makarau in 2005 between Engineer Christopher Zvobgo and Harare City Council and Mr Dominic Muzawazi, one of the hearing officers in the Chideya matter, Justice Makarau said the reappointment of the commission after the initial six months was illegal.

She also dismissed the appointment of a committee of inquiry by the commission whose term had expired.

Mr Moyo urged Mr Guvamombe to advise Harare City Council over the development as a way of serving ratepayers’ money.

Mr Tivaone said he needed time to consult his principals on the matter and to see whether council wants the proceedings to go ahead.

Mr Tivaone also wanted time to study written submissions made by Mr Moyo.

"I think by Wednesday I would have got proper instructions. I need two days to look at the submissions," he said.

ZIMBABWE: New currency winners and losers

Zimbabwe World Cup tickets scandal takes new twist

xinhua

www.chinaview.cn 2006-08-29 17:22:41

    HARARE, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Harare businessman Ayoub Kara, who was named as the man who bought the extra World Cup tickets allocated to ZIFA, has distanced himself from the transaction and claimed that he received no co-operation from the association in his battle to watch the showcase.
    The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, who is serving an indefinite suspension for his part in the World Cup ticket scandal, told both the media and his board that all the extra tickets, the main source of the scam, were bought by Kara.
    Initial estimates suggest that a minimum of a further 40 tickets for the semi-finals and a maximum of 210 tickets were requested by the association for the World Cup finals in addition to the 290 tickets they got in the original allocation.
    How those tickets were disbursed has become one of the talking points and Mashingaidze insisted last week that he requested for them on behalf of Kara.
    But on Monday Kara told his story and it was in sharp contrast to the picture that Mashingaidze painted.
    In fact, Kara said his family had tried without success to secure the World Cup tickets through the association until his son, who is based in England, secured a chance to buy the tickets through the Internet.
    He claimed that the only help his son had received from ZIFA was confirmation from the association to FIFA that they were indeed Zimbabweans who were interested in watching the World Cup matches.
    "FIFA do not sell tickets to individuals without the green light from an association and that green light is what my son onlygot from ZIFA. Once ZIFA gave the go-ahead to FIFA to sell the tickets to my son and his friends, they bought them at face value directly from FIFA and there were no agents or third parties involved," he said.
    Kara said his family had, on reflection, been left a relieved lot for their decision not to use third parties to secure the World Cup tickets.
    With Kara having distanced himself from the direct purchase of tickets from ZIFA, the question still remains on who received the 80 extra tickets which the association, through Mashingaidze, sourced in Germany.
    Curiously, FIFA are also very clear in their sale of tickets and restrict the sale of tickets, classified as individual tickets,to four per single family name, which raises questions on ZIFA's decision to sell more than 80 tickets to one individual.
    It also brings to question how the association was also able tosell 290 tickets, from their original allocation, to one individual Nardia Cerri, an Italian national.
    There has also been no reconciliation to show the number of tickets sold, their actual selling price and what really accrued by ZIFA from that sale.
    The ZIFA board, who in suspending Mashingaidze last Friday, instituted an in-house probe into the sale of the tickets, insisted they were not aware that FIFA had allocated them an extra batch of tickets after the 290 that the world body had initially given to the association.
    Mashingaidze maintained that he acted above board on the transactions of the tickets, insisting he would clear his name through the ZIFA investigating team led by board member for finance, Gladmore Muzambi.
    But Muzambi's team, who would also have to establish whether the US$35,000 that ZIFA received as their commission from the saleof the tickets was the amount that was due to the association, were not given any time frame to complete their probe.
    The Sport and Recreation Commission, the country's supreme sports body, on Monday also indicated they would not intervene in the ZIFA saga after deciding to take a "wait and see attitude".
    Sports Commission chief executive Charles Nhemachena said they were happy that ZIFA had set up a committee to investigate the World Cup ticket scam and would only act based on the outcome of Muzambi's findings. Enditem

Mogae and Mugabe 'skirt the Zimbabwe issue'

By Cris Chinaka

Harare - The president of Botswana offered Zimbabwe's embattled President Robert Mugabe rare diplomatic solidarity on Monday by praising a leader largely shunned by the West over his policies.

Festus Mogae, who has at times broken ranks with African leaders by publicly criticising Mugabe over Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis, endorsed Mugabe's controversial seizures of white-owned farms for blacks as politically "necessary" and said the country's key agriculture sector would soon rebound.

Opening Harare's annual agricultural show, Mogae said Zimbabwe's agriculture - whose output has fallen by over 60 percent in the last six years - had great potential but the government must honour its pledge to ensure productive land use.

"Agriculture in Zimbabwe has unfortunately been disrupted by the necessary redistributive adjustments that have had to be made in favour of the majority of citizens," he said, adding that droughts and Western sanctions against Harare had also hurt the Zimbabwe economy.

Mogae said he had recently told a meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation that Zimbabwe would soon become one of the top farming nations in the world.

"My prediction must be taken seriously," he said.

Independent experts predict Zimbabwe's farm sector will take many years to recover in the absence of crucial donor support, including training of new farmers.

Mogae called for strong economic relations with Zimbabwe, Botswana's second largest trading partner in Africa, saying the two neighbours must explore ways of boosting trade and joint investments and development in southern Africa in general.

At a dinner he hosted for Mogae on Sunday, Mugabe - who values African solidarity in the face of Western isolation over his policies - said Harare would work hard to strengthen relations built on old political ties.

Mugabe praised Botswana for helping during Zimbabwe's national liberation war in the 1970s, adding that the potential for trade remained great even though volumes have fallen in the last two years.

On Monday Mugabe, Mogae and Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa agreed to jointly construct a bridge link on their common border, an example of regional co-operation the Zimbabwe leader said had become rare in post-independence southern Africa.

"That is what we used to do anyway as a coordinating conference, but once we became a community I do not know what disease attacked us," Mugabe said, referring to the Sothern African Development Co-ordinating Conference which evolved into what is now the Southern African Development Community.

Critics say Mugabe's policies, including his redistribution of white-owned farms to inexperienced black farmers, have ruined one of Africa's most promising economies.

Zimbabwe's economy is in its eighth year of recession, and is currently struggling with the world's highest inflation rate of nearly 1 000 percent.

Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-08-28 23:23:15

Zimbabwe: Radiotherapy Machines Still Down

The Herald (Harare)
August 28, 2006
Posted to the web August 29, 2006
Tsitsi Matope
Harare
THE country's only two radiotherapy machines at Parirenyatwa Hospital that broke down five months ago are yet to be repaired after the South African-based agents who used to service them failed to do the job.
Radiotherapy machines are used to destroy growth in cancer cells.
In an interview on Friday last week, the chief executive officer for Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Mr Thomas Zigora, confirmed that the agents had failed to repair the machines.
He also said the hospital had since asked Engineer Helmut Reichenvater who used to service the machines to help.
"Eng Reichenvater, who is now working for the International Atomic Agency, has since assessed the machines and said various new parts were needed," he said, adding that they would get the list of the required parts and the quotation.
Mr Zigora said the machines had reached their 10-year lifespan.
"One of the machine was bought in 1987 and the other one in 1992," he said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr Edwin Muguti said the country was not offering any radiotherapy services, which attracted patients from Central Africa.
"Patients who need radiotherapy treatment now either go to South Africa or any other place where the facility is available," he said urging all stakeholders to prioritise funding to the health sector for the acquisition of more equipment.
The deputy minister denied that the problem of radiotherapy machines was a result of illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.
"We are making efforts to have the radiotherapy machines repaired by experts from the International Atomic Agency, a global organisation which promotes peaceful application of nuclear technology, including for health purposes," Dr Muguti said.
He said his ministry had a shortage of hospital equipment that needed to either be replaced or refurbished.
"It is a nine-year plan and we expect that by 2015 we would have equipped all our hospitals with the essential equipment," he said.
Cancer specialists at the Parirenyatwa Hospital said the situation was demoralising and that they were praying that something had to be done soon.
"We suffer from compassion fatigue because we watch patients in pain knowing we could have helped them only if we had the machines," said an oncologist who did not want his name to be mentioned.
The non-functioning of the machines has put the lives of people who suffer from cancer in danger especially now with HIV and Aids wreaking havoc in the country.

Copyright © 2006 The Herald.

Arrests in Zimbabwe's Ruling Party Worrying Political Elite

VOA

By Peta Thornycroft
Harare
29 August 2006

An unprecedented number of senior leaders in the hierarchy of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party have been arrested in recent weeks. Accusations are flying in the highest echelons of the party over who will be next, and of who is the most corrupt.
The latest among top Zanu-PF officials to be arrested was retired Zimbabwe National Army colonel Samuel Muvuti, the acting chief executive of Zimbabwe's only legal grain trader, the Grain Marketing Board. Muvuti has been arrested on charges that he stole a small amount of U.S. dollars to pay his farm workers.
Until now senior members of the army, who largely run Zimbabwe, have been left untouched by the law.
Government loyalist Charles Nherera, the chairman of the government bus company and the top executive of a national university, was jailed for for two years for soliciting a bribe of $85,000. In connection with this case, Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga has been arrested and is awaiting trial.
The two major contenders in the struggle over who will succeed Mr. Mugabe when he retires are having a robust dispute against each other in the media. Vice President Joice Mujuru and Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa took their accusations of corruption against one another to the privately owned press.
Two other senior ministers have been named in the state-controlled press as being in danger of being charged for a variety of political and corruption offenses.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa will know on September 4 whether he will be found guilty of subverting justice after a trial last week in connection with political violence. There are several other top Zanu-PF leaders under investigation.
Jonathan Moyo, now an independent legislator who was Mr. Mugabe's information minister from 2000 until last year said Zanu-PF is in trouble.
He said the arrests and reports in the media about top political personalities were the clearest evidence yet that the center of the party is no longer holding. He said "Its wheels have fallen off."
Moyo said within Zanu-PF it is no longer the survival of those closest to the top, but survival of the fittest. He said this is a result of the struggle to succeed the 82-year-old Mugabe, who has been in power for 26 years and is expected to retire within the next four years.
Moyo said the present political turmoil in Zanu-PF did not imply that any of those under scrutiny are innocent of the charges against them. VOA

South Africa assembly OKs mercenary bill

By CLARE NULLIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

The News & Observor

A group of alleged mercenaries are led to a hall at Chikurubi maximum prison, in Harare in this March 2004, file photo for their first court hearing on allegations of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea. In neighbouring South Africa, Tuesday Aug. 29, 2006, a parliamentary session in Cape Town, moved to muzzle it's "dogs of war" with sweeping anti-mercenary legislation, which critis said would also undermine legitimate security work in countries like Iraq and threaten humanitarian activities.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - South Africa moved closer Tuesday to a sweeping anti-mercenary law that critics said would also undermine legitimate security work in countries like Iraq and threaten humanitarian activities.
"Mercenaries are the scourge of poor areas of the world, especially Africa," Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told a parliamentary session before the new law was approved. "Anybody that has money can hire these human beings and turn them into killing machines or cannon fodder."
By a 211-28 vote, the National Assembly approved the Prohibition of Mercenary Activity and Regulation of Certain Activities in Areas of Armed Conflict Bill, thanks to the large majority of the ruling National African Congress.
The legislation now must go to the second parliamentary chamber, the National Council of Provinces, but that is expected to be a formality because of the ANC majority.
Opposition lawmakers and independent analysts said the legislation would have a direct impact on thousands of South African security workers abroad.
There are an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 South Africans in Iraq alone, helping guard oil installations, hotels and foreign residents. Thousands more are in other countries such as Nigeria and Afghanistan. Many of them are white veterans of the apartheid-era armed forces.
All South Africans wanting to work in security and military sectors abroad will now have to register with an arms control committee. Len Le Roux, an analyst with the Institute for Security Studies, said this would likely lead to long bureaucratic delays and dissuade foreign companies from hiring South Africans.
He called the bill "laudable," but too wide-ranging.
Humanitarian organizations will be allowed to operate abroad, but they will be in a legal gray area if they need armed protection for their convoys, Le Roux said.
South Africans may ask for permission for serve in a foreign army, but only if they are not involved in armed conflict - a clause that dismayed Britain, which has some 800 South Africans in its armed forces.
The government introduced the legislation last year after South Africans were heavily implicated in an alleged plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in 2004. Seventy suspects, nearly all of them South African, were arrested in March 2004 when their aging charter plane made a stopover in the Zimbabwe capital, Harare. They insisted they were on their way to provide security at a diamond mine in Congo.
An additional 23 other suspected mercenaries were jailed in Equatorial Guinea.
Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, pleaded guilty in a South African court to unwittingly helping to bankroll the coup attempt. He was fined and received a suspended sentence.
Lekota told parliament that South African mercenary activities dated back to 1960 in the newly independent Congo.
"No sooner than Congo achieved independence, the dogs of war were unleashed on the country," Lekota said.
There were numerous other examples, including during the struggle for independence in Namibia, of mercenaries subverting democracy across Africa, he said.
Roy Jankielson, defense spokesman for the opposition Democratic Alliance, said the bill was "fundamentally and perhaps constitutionally flawed." He said it targeted white former members of the armed forces who would now find it virtually impossible to find work.
"It's poorly written and downright sloppy," he said, criticizing the hearings in a parliamentary committee as a "sham."

Zimbabwe Opposition Factions Clash in Matabelele North Province

VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
29 August 2006
Tension was said to be running high Tuesday among rival factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change just days after the two groupings reportedly agreed a non-aggression pact during preliminary talks in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Police intervened Monday in Hwange, Matabeleland North province, after the factions clashed over control of the local MDC office. Police issued a peace order to the faction led by the MDC's founding president Morgan Tsvangirai, and barred members of the faction led by former expatriate businessman Arthur Mutambara from the office.
Tsvangirai faction administrator Michael Phiri said he received death threats from the Mutambara faction, singling out deputy information secretary Abednico Bhebhe, the member of parliament for Nkayi, another town in Matabeleland North.
Bhebhe rejected the accusation and and told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that his faction intended to legally challenge the peace order.
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the Tsvangirai faction said the clashes would not stop his faction from confronting the administration of President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe: Political Transition Needed to End Economic Crisis, MDC Leader Says

Morgan Tsvangirai, founder and leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), ran for president in 2002 after decades of experience in Zimbabwe's labor movement. His party contests elections declared flawed by international observers, and he has been arrested and charged with treason twice.
The MDC broke into two factions last October, splitting over Tsvangirai's decision to boycott senate elections in November. The pro-senate group, headed by former student leader Arthur Mutambara, did contest over objections from the rest of the party, and tensions have remained high. Tsvangirai and Mutambara have met just once since the split, at a late July convention organized by church leaders. Informal talks continued in August and officials met in South Africa over the weekend. Tsvangirai told AllAfrica in an interview that opposition negotiations would continue, even if the eventual form of the party was undecided.

They can't talk to you.

No. They would be concerned as to what would be the repercussions to be seen openly discussing with the leader of the opposition. But these are the expressions that we pick up with our contacts in Parliament, in our contacts everywhere with various ZANU-PF structures.
What do you think is likely to happen with ZANU-PF in terms of succession and the potential that may have for an opening of the political space?
The debate around succession has paralyzed ZANU-PF and hence the inability of the government to deal with the socioeconomic problems we are confronted with. It is an open secret that there are serious divisions within ZANU-PF. We wish the transition from the old generation would be one that would be exploited by the current nationalists, but unfortunately, the longer they stay, the more it is going to be fractious, especially within the ZANU-PF. And, of course, consequently, it will have an impact. Whatever ZANU-PF does with its succession program has a direct impact on the future stability of the country. We are hoping that President Mugabe and some of his ZANU-PF old guard realize that they have a role to play to have a smooth transition.

Oh yes, of course. There are people everywhere. Every cloud has a silver lining. I'm sure that there are bad people in ZANU-PF, there are good people in ZANU-PF, as well as there are good people in MDC and bad people in MDC, but to a large extent, ZANU-PF has been captive to Mugabe's control, has been captive to the old, centralized political culture, which is the basis of why the MDC believes it's not really helpful for the country.
How do you see NGOs and churches being involved with discussions of the constitution and transition?
NGOs, as the broad civic society, have been champions for a new constitutional dispensation because the NCF had been at the forefront ever since the inception to fight for a new constitution. Remember that the new constitution is the demand of all Zimbabweans, because the Lancaster constitution was merely a political transfer document, but not a democratic document. Therefore, I think, across the political divide, it's one issue that there's national convergence on.

Firstly, the brain drain has been catastrophic to the Zimbabwean economy. Any immigration of skilled manpower is detrimental to any progress in any particular society. But what it has also demonstrated is that four million Zimbabweans leaving the country is a serious indictment on the regime. Whether it is in the short-term possible to bring all these skills [back] is depending on how you resolve the national crisis in the first place.
How optimistic are you about prospects for resolution?
It's unavoidable. The crisis has to be resolved, not in the long-term, not in the medium-term, but as quickly as possible. I think the demand for resolution has become now the rallying cry of every Zimbabwean, and that's why I think the international community must also be in solidarity with this crisis, which has been on the international radar for a long time.
When you say short-term, do you mean the next year, or two years?

I don't think that substantially we've lost support. I think the opposite has been the effect. These displaced people have carried their discontent into rural areas. They've mobilized in the rural areas. Some of the villagers who were not conscious of the impact of Murambatsvina all of a sudden become conscious because hordes and hordes of their own children were coming back in the villages. So we have not lost support. It has actually managed to enlighten the rural communities to the extent of the crisis and the brutality of this regime. No matter how they try to justify it, it has not resonated with anybody. We believe that Operation Murambatsvina has had a very serious effect on the ability of this regime in dealing with some of the socioeconomic consequences that we face.

How also has the economic crisis affected the government's ability to provide some of the services it used to provide to supporters?

For a very long time, this regime has depended more on impunity and patronage, but patronage has its limited effect. It depends whether it is continued, sustained patronage, but for the moment, there is nothing to sustain that patronage. The regime has had to use some of its strong-arm tactics by using traditional leaders in the rural areas to force people to meetings, force people to support some of its programs.
Zimbabwean journalists have written about land assigned to party members laying idle. Do you think there is a serious commitment among some members of ZANU-PF to look at how corruption in the land reform program is affecting the economy?
As you can imagine, the issue of land has now affected those who were proponents of land reform in a haphazard way, because the corruption has literally affected ZANU-PF more than anybody else, because of the manner in which that land reform was implemented. Now the chickens are coming home to roost [with] intra-party accusations of corruption in the allocation of land and in the manner in which agriculture has been affected by the haphazard manner of these policies.
So you mean people who thought they would be allocated land and weren't are now angry?
The effect is they were talking about one person, one farm, but now some of the chiefs have almost three, four five farms to one [person] – so the corruption is quite evident. For us in the opposition, we didn't have a piece of it -- nothing to do with it -- because the methodology was totally inadequate.
The Financial Gazette alluded that you might be pushing for the United States to impose stronger sanctions. Do you support that idea?
We have always said that we don't support an international sanction regime against our country, but we support targeted sanctions, travel bans and things of that nature. This is what the international community has imposed. I'm surprised to the extent that people talk about sanctions indicate that Zimbabwe is not able to relate to any country because of economic sanctions. This is just a farce. There are no economic sanctions against the regime, against the country. What has happened is that people have been given travel bans in order to give them incentives to behave properly in the international community.

Yes, the way it is is a reminder that Zimbabwe's leaders in the current regime are in a pariah status and that they need to work themselves out of that pariah status and be acceptable and legitimate leaders of the country.
Do you think leaders care? Does it help put blame for the economic crisis on the U.S. and Britain?
But you know that the truth of the matter is that the economic crisis has nothing to do with the U.S. and Britain and all these accusations. This is a state of denial and scapegoating. The truth is that this is misgovernance. This is corruption. This is patronage, which has affected the economic performance of the country. It is the haphazard nature in which the land reform has been implemented, and its consequences are coming home to roost.
What must happen in the coming months for there to be a peaceful, democratic transition?
What must happen is that we clearly see a road map to the resolution of this crisis based on three fundamental benchmarks. Firstly, I think the regime has to accept that it has to open up bridges with Zimbabweans so we can all craft out a destiny for the country together. It must accept responsibility for the mess it has created for the country. Two, part of that process would have to involve the crafting of a people-driven constitution, which is acceptable to all Zimbabweans. And, lastly, to accept that a legitimate government, supported by Zimbabweans, can only come out through a free and fair election. To me and to us in the MDC, we have put this through a road map, we have given [it] to ZANU-PF. We have given [it] to the diplomatic community. We believe it is the only way the crisis can be resolved.

Will you continue boycotting elections until that happens?

We will continue to use the elections. Of course, we know they are not free and fair, but it is a process that adds value to our political organization and our people want to participate in elections.
So the MDC will participate in elections in the future? Last year's boycott was an aberration?
Yes, we will participate in elections, but let me say that elections are not an exclusive option to us. We are going to compliment by putting pressure on the regime to accept the road map solution that we have proposed through the collective action of the party and the broad civic society. That is why the convention was called.

Mugabe loyalists at state firms fail to present audit reports

Wed 30 August 2006

HARARE - In flagrant disregard of the law and good corporate governance, a host of state-owned firms have for the past six years not submitted financial reports to Parliament as required under the Audit and Exchequer Act, according to the House committee on public accounts.

The state-owned firms - all of them run by government loyalists, former military personnel or relatives of President Robert Mugabe - are a perennial drain on the fiscus with the government forced to borrow money each year to bail out the loss-making companies.

The parastatals are required under Section 44 of the Audit and Exchequer Act to account to Parliament for all the money earned from operations or received in the form of loans or subsidies from the state. Most of the state firms have not met this legal requirement.

In a report that gives a shocking glimpse into the chaos and anarchy at state-owned firms, the public accounts committee described the attitude of top managers at government firms as "carefree" and a cause for "grave concern".

HERBERT Murerwa . . . conceeded state-owned firms running at a loss

It said some of the parastatals had attempted to have their accounts audited but this was two years ago. Even then in such cases no final accounts were ever produced because of a variety of reasons many of them bordering on sheer incompetence and dereliction of duty, the public accounts committee said.

"Your committee is seriously concerned with the carefree attitude displayed by parastatals and their parent ministries and, therefore, strongly recommend that all errant heads of parastatals be penalised for their failure to submit final accounts," read part of the report, tabled in the House last July but only made available to the public this week.

Among the most notable state-owned firms that have not submitted accounts to Parliament are troubled national airline Air Zimbabwe, the Forestry Commission, Grain Marketing Board and the National Railways of Zimbabwe.

Finance Minister Hebert Murerwa earlier this month told business leaders in the city of Bulawayo that parastatals had made a combined loss of $76 trillion (now $76 billion after Zimbabwe re-valued its currency) in the first quarter of 2006 alone.

Murerwa conceded that the high indebtedness of parastatals - which in 2004 contributed 60 percent of the government's total domestic debt of $1.2 trillion - was a challenge for the fiscus and public service delivery.

The International Monetary Fund has in the past also urged the government to privatise the state firms and cut on losses, advice Mugabe has rejected allegedly for fear this would mean his cronies and relatives losing their jobs. - ZimOnline

Eight weeks before rains, white farmers still wait for land

Wed 30 August 2006

HARARE – With only eight weeks before the start of the rain season, President Robert Mugabe’s government is still to allocate land to former white commercial farmers under a new scheme to boost agricultural output in the troubled southern African country.

In an implicit admission that its controversial land reforms had not worked, the Zimbabwe government last June invited former white farmers who lost their land to reapply to be allocated new farms.

Speaking to ZimOnline on Tuesday, Doug Taylor-Freeme, the President of the mainly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said although his members had applied for land, no one had so far benefited under the government’s new land scheme.

“There are some farmers who were contacted around the country for details such as identification numbers (ID)’s and we don’t know whether this means offer letters.

“But nothing meaningful is happening at this time. There appears to be a cumbersome process (going on behind the scenes),” said Taylor Freeme.

The agricultural sector, which was one of Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign currency earners before the farm disruptions in 2000, is in the doldrums following years of chaos on the former white farms.

Veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s liberation war, with the tacit backing of Mugabe, six years ago began driving off white farmers from their properties in a controversial campaign the veteran Zimbabwean leader said was necessary to correct a historical injustice in land allocation that favoured whites.

About 600 out of the 4 000 strong white farmers are still on their properties with the rest having been forced to migrate to Mozambique, Zambia and as far as Nigeria.

Zimbabwe has faced severe food shortages following the land seizures because the government failed to give inputs support and skills training to thousands of new black farmers who took over the white farms. - ZimOnline

Bruised Zimbabweans use bags of maize to buy health care

FEATURE:
Wed 30 August 2006

HARARE - Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, maize is the staple food. But in this particular area, about 150 kilometres south of Harare, maize has become legal tender and is now being used to pay hospital bills!

Welcome to Chivhu town, the archetypical colonial rural town along the Harare-Beitbridge road.

Outside the main government hospital nestled under the shade of aged eucalyptus trees, villagers from surrounding rural districts gather to seek medical attention.

As at any other government institution the queue here is long but the patients seem not much bothered by the time they will have to wait for service as they continue trudging slowly towards the tired-looking clerk at the consultations desk.

Then three old women, balancing large sacks of maize on their heads, emerge from around the dilapidated old hospital and demand to see the hospital authorities. They are shown the clerk who wearily asks them whether they have finally brought payment for their bills.

Pointing at her bag of maize, one of the women, Marita Chikozho, tells the clerk that that is all she has been able to raise as payment of the $4 000 in outstanding medical fees for her daughter-in-law who was still detained at the hospital.

No further questions asked as the clerk writes out a receipt of payment, at the same time directing his assistant to carry the "payment" to the storeroom, not far away and where stakes of bags of maize could be seen. Deal done!

"Life has become difficult and we cannot afford the medical fees," says Chikozho, speaking to our news crew by the gate of the hospital, just moments after collecting her daughter-in-law.

She adds: "It is not that we have enough maize at home but I had no money to pay the medical fees and since the hospital said it accepted maize, I had no choice but to give them the maize so they could release my daughter-in-law. They had kept her here since last week demanding payment for all bills first before she could be released."

But a steady stream through the hospital gates of mostly peasant women balancing sacks or buckets of maize on their heads appears to suggest that the use of scarce maize as means of payment is fast becoming a norm rather than an exception here at Chivhu hospital.

Authorities at the hospital refused to speak to ZimOnline, referring all questions to the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare in Harare.

But a nurse orderly, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she is not allowed to talk to the press, spiritedly defended what she called the "innovative thinking" on the part of the hospital in making villagers pay with maize.

"These are mostly poor people with no cash, so what must we do when they turn up wanting treatment, turn them away?" she asks.

Without waiting for a reply, she provides the answer herself: "It is wrong to turn away patients and the government does not allow us to do that, therefore it was really a wise decision to collect this maize from villagers as payment and in turn we use the maize to feed patients admitted in the hospital."

Indeed a clever way by the hospital administrators to kill two birds with one stone - they will not have to turn away patients and at the same time they are able to raise food for those in their care.

"These youngsters (hospital staff) are really clever," says Joseph Mubako, who says he is a teacher at a government high school in Manyene communal lands, about 17 km north-east of Chivhu.

"They started this whole idea of accepting maize as payment for medical bills and now hospitals in places such as Mvuma (80 km south of Chivhu) have followed suit because the whole thing works fine - that is what I call thinking outside the box."

However, senior officials at the Ministry of Health's head office in Harare appeared taken aback at how far outside the box their subordinates in Chivhu were thinking.

A clearly surprised Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti said the ministry would have to first investigate and establish whether it was true patients were using maize to pay medical bills at Chivhu or any other hospital.

He said: "I am not aware that there are hospitals that are demanding maize as a way of settling medical bills. I am not aware of any provision that allows such an arrangement but at the same time I am also not aware of a legal provision that disallows the same."

But the maize-for-health barter trade in Chivhu is really just another illustration of how far backward once prosperous Zimbabwe has fallen after seven years of political crisis and an economic recession described by the World Bank as the worst in the world outside a war zone.

The crisis has seen the country recording the world's highest inflation of nearly 1 000 percent, shortages of fuel, electricity, essential medicines, hard cash and just about every basic survival commodity.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and Western governments blame the crisis on repression and wrong policies by Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980 independence from Britain.

Mugabe, who has hinted he might step down at the end of his term in 2008, denies mismanaging Zimbabwe and says its problems are because of economic sabotage by Western governments opposed to his seizure of white land for redistribution to landless blacks.

Try talking politics with these rural folks offloading their "payment" at Chivhu hospital and you are going to find it very difficult to make many friends.

Most people here seem just too grateful that for a bag of maize they are still able to access health. It is too tempting to dismiss this as collective capitulation by a people who should be demanding better service from their government.

But Mubako, the teacher, is of a different opinion. He says: "If you knew the kind of terror and violence that these folks have been subjected to by (pro-government) war veterans and youth militias at every election since 2000, then you would probably have no difficulty understanding that this apparent submissiveness is actually a way of coping with a very difficult situation." - ZimOnline

Football clubs raise storm over Dynamos' fixtures

Wed 30 August 2006

HARARE - Zimbabwean football clubs have expressed concern at the controversial handling of fixtures involving Harare giants Dynamos as the fight to avoid relegation hots up.

Dynamos are scheduled to play all their remaining nine games in Harare, a development which other clubs have questioned given that it gives an unfair advantage to the popular club.

Dynamos played their first five matches in Harare with the clubs complaining that the team was getting preferential treatment so as not to incur expenses travelling outside Harare.

Premier Soccer League (PSL) fixtures secretary, Godfrey Japajapa, who ironically is a former official at the club, defended the fixtures saying Dynamos travelled away from home on several occasions and no club complained.

Japajapa, a staunch supporter at the club before he joined them as treasurer, has pencilled Dynamos to play Lancashire Steel, Masvingo United, Buymore, Zimbabwe Saints, Motor Action, Monomotapa, CAPS United, Black Rhinos and Shooting Stars in Harare.

Japajapa explained to ZimOnline that there was no need for clubs to cry foul because Dynamos had already made a number of travels away from home.

He denied that the fixtures were in favour of the club he passionately followed as a fan and an official.

But an official at Motor Action yesterday castigated the fixtures saying they were meant to benefit Dynamos while at the same time disadvantaging other teams.

"There is no professionalism at the way fixtures are being handled. That is why we want to have PSL officials who do not have teams they support. I think it's high time we employ someone neutral to deal with fixtures.

"The scheme is simple. When the season started, Dynamos played five games in Harare and this was designed to make sure that they don't use a lot of money in travelling.

"Now it's the same thing but with an added advantage for Dynamos that they will be assured of good crowds at all their matches," said the official.

Sources told ZimOnline that clubs were planning to petition the PSL management committee to raise concern on the fixtures. - ZimOnline

Zimbabwe tennis players gunning for gold at US Open

xihuanet

www.chinaview.cn 2006-08-29 17:21:42

    HARARE, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean flag might once again be flying at Flushing Meadows in New York with two of the country's top players Kevin Ullyett and Cara Black taking part at this year's US Open.
    Reports reached here from New York on Tuesday said Ullyett and Cara are back at the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year where they will be playing in the men's and women's doubles.
    Ullyett, a winner of the men's doubles title at Flushing Meadows with now retired fellow Zimbabwean Wayne Black in 2001, is partnering Australia's Paul Hanley at this year's tournament.
    And the two are seeded fourth and open their campaign with a first-round tie against the unseeded pair of Australia's Jordan Kerr and David Skoch of the Czech Republic later this week.
    A win over Kerr and Skoch will set up Ullyett and Hanley a second round tie against the winners of the other first-round match featuring the American duo of Amer Delic and Jeff Morrison and the team of Harel Levy of Israel and Thailand's Paradorn Scrichaphan.
    Ullyett is making his 12th appearance at the US Open where his best performance came in 2001 where he clinched the men's doubles title with Wayne.
    The 34-year-old Zimbabwean is looking for a repeat performance with Hanley who he has played with in the first three Grand Slams of the year at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
    Ullyett, who has won 28 doubles titles since he turned professional in January 1990, has so far collected US$280,340 in prize money in the doubles on the road this year.
    Cara Black, on the other hand, is back at the US Open with her Australian partner Rennae Stubbs and the two are seeded third in the women's doubles where they have a tricky first-round tie against the unseeded pair of American Jamea Jackson and Aiko Nakamura of Japan.
    A victory will see them facing the winners of the other first-round match between Catalina Castano of Columbia and American Jill Craybas and the team of Russian Vasilisa Bardinas and Liga Dekmeijere of Latvia.
    Cara and Stubbs flew to New York from New Haven where they lostin the semi-finals of the Pilot Pen tournament to the world numberone team of American Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur of Australia who beat them 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-2 last Friday. Cara and Stubbs shared US$8,620 for reaching the last four at Pilot Pen.
    Cara will be making her ninth appearance at the US Open where her best performance in the women's doubles came in 2000 where shewas a losing finalist.
    Cara, who has only one doubles title under her belt this year, has made 174,281 US dollars in the doubles this term and is hopingto add more money into her account by going far at Flushing Meadows in the next two weeks. Enditem

Two Zimbabweans on Survivor Africa

africa WITH less than two weeks to go before the September 3 debut of the Survivor Africa series, reporters can reveal that two Zimbabweans will represent the country on the reality show.

The Zimbabwean duo of 35-year old hotelier, Chipo Nzonzo, and Lusaka-based student, Leonard Mapuranga (24), will join fellow contestants Ario (Nigeria), Tebby (Botswana), Derrick (Kenya), Frieda (Namibia), Meti (Ethiopia), Nana (Ghana), Nike (Nigeria), Jeremiah (Zambia), Lloyd (Zambia) and Yaga (Nigeria) on an island adventure in Panama that tests mental, physical and emotional stamina in a notoriously difficult environment.

Since the launch of the continental reality show, speculation has been swirling about who the 12 selected contestants would be.

Each of the 12 contestants stands a chance to win US$100 000 in prize money but only if they outplay each other over 21 days in the exhausting reality show.

M-Net’s head of operations for Africa, Joseph Hundah, said in a statement: “There’s really no other way to say it, you just have to watch the show to understand the magnitude of what these 12 people undertook to do. They can be proud of their selection for the show — it’s not easy to make the final list and thousands tried.”

In order to be selected, the 12 contestants had to pass rigorous examinations to test their suitability for the series — from fitness and emotional well-being to decision-making skills and the ability to work under pressure.

Survivor Africa is a reality show with contestants making up two teams who participate in a series of reward and immunity challenges each week. The winning team gets a reward or immunity while the losing team must vote one team member off the island. As the contestants diminish, the two “tribes” merge and battle it out in a series of individual tasks. At the end just two contestants remain and the eliminated contestants then return with the final say on who should win the money.

So the game is tough. Contestants have to consider keeping friends on the island and voting off the people they dislike. The dilemma is what if the person disliked is the person needed to keep winning the challenges.

Contestants also have to be wary that if you vote against one person, his/her friends could vote against you.

Produced by Endemol SA and hosted by Nigerian Anthony Oseyemi, Survivor Africa follows in the footsteps of M-Net’s continental success Big Brother Africa. The final will be on November 19

Leornard and Chipo (front) will represent Zimbabwe

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Zimbabwe: Political Transition Needed to End Economic Crisis, MDC Leader Says

Mugabe loyalists at state firms fail to present audit reports

Eight weeks before rains, white farmers still wait for land

Bruised Zimbabweans use bags of maize to buy health care

Football clubs raise storm over Dynamos' fixtures

Zimbabwe tennis players gunning for gold at US Open

Two Zimbabweans on Survivor Africa