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Mugabe Takes Land Issue Too Far
ohmynews international
[Opinion] Zimbabwe leader needs to stop blaming Blair and look in the
mirror
Nelson G. Katsande (NELKA)
Published 2006-08-30 18:37
(KST)
It is now habitual for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe
to either vilify or crack a joke about the British Prime Minister Tony Blair
whenever he gives a public speech. But while his party oligarchs ululate and
applaud him, the majority of the people suffering under his draconian rule do
not see the humor in it.
Mugabe was addressing Roman Catholic
parishioners at Mkoba stadium in Gweru on Saturday when he said, "The government
stood steadfast on the land issue. We told Blair we want our land, it's our
land." He went on to say, "Blair cannot solve our problems. A problem in
Zimbabwe should be solved by Zimbabweans."
Many people were stunned by
his blurting as he continued, "As politicians, we are here to grow food for you.
If we don't, you feel the effects. We all starve."
Thousands of people
filled the stadium to witness the ordination of Dr. Martin Munyanyi as Episcopal
Bishop of the Gweru Diocese.
Some residents of a Mkoba suburb spoke of
their anger and frustration at the ruling Zanu (PF) Party. Party youth were said
to have gone from house to house drumming up support for Mugabe and coercing
residents to attend the gathering. Mugabe admitted that the country was
experiencing a shortage of nurses, doctors, and drugs, but he failed to assure
the people on the action plan his government was taking.
In the past,
Mugabe has been quoted by the media as saying, "Tony Blair, keep your England
and I will keep my Zimbabwe."
Analysts have accused Mugabe of taking his
land reform campaign too far, and say it was inappropriate for him to address
the land issue at such a spiritual event.
The government's land reform
program was condemned internationally following Mugabe's brutal seizure of
white-owned farms. The controversial exercise displaced more than 4,000 farmers
and left the majority of farm workers jobless.
His reforms have been
criticized as a great error of judgment and a pathetic delusion of achievement.
His ideas of reform have not been matched by action, as the country suffers from
a severe economic downturn.
Mugabe has literally turned the country into
a one-party state where freedom of choice is non-existent. The opposition
operates under a rigid framework with no access to the government-controlled
media. The national television broadcaster has shunned all events organized by
the opposition. Surprisingly, Mugabe has failed to learn from Mikhail Gorbachev,
who once said, "Freedom is a universal principle to whom there should be no
exception."
Many women have been forced to flee Zimbabwe and escape to
neighboring Zambia where they are engaging in prostitution. The women are often
involved in fistfights over clients with Zambian commercial sex workers. Zambian
men are reported to be going after Zimbabwean sex workers, as their prices are
extremely low compared to their Zambian counterparts.
The opposition has
in the past threatened to organize mass protests as a way of forcing Mugabe out
of power.
In April 2005, the Zimbabwean newspaper reported that Pope John
Paul II chastised Mugabe by saying, "It is an error to think that any real
benefit or success will come simply by expropriating large landholdings,
dividing them into smaller production units, and distributing them to others."
©2006 OhmyNews
No help for Zimbabwe's homeless
By Peter Biles
BBC southern Africa
correspondent |
Church
leaders say that almost nothing has been done to house 700,000 people in
Zimbabwe who lost their homes and livelihoods in demolitions last year.
Operation Murambatsvina, which the government said was a campaign to clean up
cities, was condemned by the UN.
The Solidarity Peace Trust, a church- based group, says the whole exercise
has further impoverished many Zimbabweans.
A report says the situation remains dire 15 months later.
|
In some houses, people now co-exist in around one
square metre per person of floor space
Solidarity
Peace Trust
|
Out of more than 100,000 displaced people in the west of the
country, not one person has been officially housed by the government, according
to the Solidarity Peace Trust, which is co-chaired by the Catholic Archbishop of
Bulawayo, Pius Ncube.
International donor organisations have fared little better in providing
shelter, the report says. Only 800 temporary dwellings have been built
nationwide, and all of these are around the capital, Harare.
One victim quoted by the report accuses the authorities of leaving
people to live like animals in the open air: "If government had done this and
then said 'go stay over there', it would have been better, instead of destroying
everything and leaving us like animals."
"It's like when you pull down a cattle kraal (pen), first you build another
one. You put the cattle in the new kraal and then you destroy the old one."
Archbishop Ncube told the BBC that the government had failed to live up to
its promises:
"They themselves said that they would construct 300,000 houses. They've
constructed a few hundred houses and none of them have been occupied."
Traders hit
Operation Murambatsvina began with an assault on informal traders.
A year later, the informal sector - which accounts for 80% of the economy -
is said to be in disarray.
Vendors and their families are sliding into even greater poverty, and legal
trading sites need to be rebuilt urgently.
Although people in Zimbabwe's cities were forcibly moved and often dumped by
the police in the countryside last year, 75% of those families are now reported
to be back in the urban areas.
"In some houses, people now co-exist in around one square metre per person of
floor space," the report says.
"Married couples are forced to sleep apart, unmarried adults are forced to
share space, and single people live continually on the move, from one tiny house
to another. "Children are exposed to sex-for-money activities, and face
schooling difficulties from overcrowding and poverty."
HIV+ Zimbabweans can live in NZ
iAfrica
NEW ZEALAND
Wed, 30 Aug
2006
New Zealand will offer permanent residence to Zimbabweans in the
country who are HIV-positive, making an exception to its policy of barring
infected applicants, Health Minister Pete Hodgson said on Wednesday.
About
1300 Zimbabweans have entered New Zealand as a result of the political and
economic crisis in Zimbabwe under a special immigration category.
Under New
Zealand's immigration policy, all applicants for permanent residence must have
an HIV test and those found to be infected are denied permanent residency.
But 800 of the 1300 Zimbabweans have not come forward to apply for permanent
residence.
"The government has become aware ... that some of these 800
people may not be presenting themselves (to) immigration because of a fear that
if they fail their HIV tests they will be returned to Zimbabwe," Hodgson said.
Character and police checks
HIV-positive Zimbabweans allowed in under
the special category would still be granted residency as long as they met other
standard criteria, such as character and police checks.
Hodgson said it was
more important that any HIV-infected people come forward for treatment.
The
government believed as many as 160 of the 800 people who had not come forward
could be HIV-positive.
NZ First political party leader Winston Peters — who
is also foreign minister — said the decision highlighted the government's
failure to carry out basic health checks when Zimbabweans first entered the
country.
"These people ... will now be treated for free for the rest of
their lives while the taxpayer picks up the cost — money that should be spent on
sick New Zealanders," Peters said.
AFP
Health Minister defends Zimbabwe stance
NewstalkZB - New Zealand
30/08/2006 17:28:02
The Health Minister is defending the Government's policy over Zimbabwe
immigrants.
It has been announced that around 800 Zimbabweans who fled the
Mugabe regime will get residence regardless of their HIV status - as long as
they meet other character and security checks.
New Zealand First says the
policy has the potential to increase the prevalence of AIDS in New Zealanders by
10 percent.
Pete Hodgson denies that, saying rather than increasing the
prevalence of HIV here, it will decrease it.
He says the virus always
flourishes wherever there is denial and cover-up.
Zimbabwe decision a positive humanitarian move
Scoop.co.nz
Wednesday,
30 August 2006, 1:58 pm
Press Release: AIDS Foundation
PRESS RELEASE:
August 30, 2006
Zimbabwe decision a positive humanitarian move
The
government’s decision to grant residency to Zimbabweans in New Zealand who fled
the brutal Mugabe regime is a positive humanitarian move, as well as working in
the best interests of public health, says the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.
“The HIV epidemic worldwide is fuelled by silence, stigma and
discrimination,” says NZAF Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier. “Granting
residency to the minority of Zimbabweans now in New Zealand who may be
HIV-positive is the best way to ensure those affected receive the treatment,
care and support they need – something they sadly would not have received under
the oppressive Mugabe regime.”
The African community in New Zealand has been
leading HIV prevention efforts amongst new migrants from high-prevalence
countries for several years, and since 2005 has been working directly in
partnership with the New Zealand AIDS Foundation to consolidate these efforts.
“Building strong communities is essential to stopping the spread of HIV, as
well as supporting those living with the virus,” Le Mesurier says. “Our twenty
years of experience with the HIV epidemic amongst gay men in New Zealand has
shown us that community-led initiatives work best in resolving this.”
These
community partnerships supported by successive governments since 1985 have
helped keep New Zealand a low-prevalence country for HIV amongst the general
population, Le Mesurier says.
“We believe New Zealanders will act with
compassion and humanity to ensure the discrimination and stigma occurring in
other parts of the world toward minority groups do not take hold here. This is
all we’re asking of the wider community, in order to ensure that our country’s
most at-risk groups for HIV can continue prevention efforts in a supportive,
humanitarian environment.”
It's A Sad Solution But We Did Warn You
scoop.co.nz
Wednesday, 30 August
2006, 1:21 pm
Press Release: New Zealand First Party
30 August 2006
It's A Sad Solution But We Did Warn You - Peters
"The government's
policy about-face on its Special Zimbabwe Residence Policy is an admission that
it has no idea how many HIV-positive people it has let into the country, nor
where they are hiding, New Zealand First Leader, Winston Peters, said today.
"The government has been forced to coax these people out of the woodwork
with the bait of residency with no questions asked, because they lack the
foggiest notion of where they are, or whether they are behaving like Zimbabwean
refugee Shingirayi Nyarirangwe, who committed violent crimes against women and
deliberately infected them with HIV," Mr Peters said.
"For years I have been
labelled as racist and anti-immigration for opposing the policies of both Labour
and National-led governments that have allowed thousands of migrants into this
country without first testing them for HIV and other easily identifiable
communicable diseases.
"Now we find that New Zealanders are being expected
to pay the price for such a cavalier approach, with the government deciding to
allow hundreds of HIV-positive migrants and refugees to come forward and claim
the residency they were promised, without fear of being declined on health
grounds.
"The government claims its new policy is essential in order to
treat HIV-positive migrants who have been in hiding since they arrived here. In
fact it just shows the folly of the original decision to allow these people into
the country without first carrying out basic health checks.
"The result of
years of soft immigration policies is that these people, and hundreds of other
migrants, will now be treated for free for the rest of their lives while the
taxpayer picks up the cost of millions per patient – money that should be spent
on treating sick New Zealanders who already find it hard enough to get adequate
treatment from our public health system.
"We already have an
overburdened health system that needs ever dollar it gets, and placing more
strain on it by allowing in migrants who need costly treatment, often for their
entire lives, is plain stupid and cannot be allowed to continue," Mr Peters
said.
"The government is taking the only option now available to it because
successive governments have failed to take the obvious solution available to
them back then – defending the welfare of New Zealanders first," concluded Mr
Peters.
ENDS
"Welcome to a new sunrise in Zimbabwe": or Murambatsvina Part 2
reliefweb
"Welcome to a new sunrise in Zimbabwe": or Murambatsvina Part 2
Sokwanele Report: 29 August 2006
From 1 August 2006, Zimbabwe has a new currency. The last three digits
of the old currency have been lopped off to create the revalued dollar. The
regime has dubbed this "Operation Sunrise", and we are serenaded with the
slogans "Zero to Hero" and "Restore value".
This change has been
necessitated by the effect of inflation on the Zimbabwe economy, where shopping
was done in millions, if not billions, and large bundles of cash were needed for
the simplest transactions.
Roadblocks manned by the Youth Militia (or
so-called Green Bombers) have been set up to catch "unpatriotic" Zimbabweans who
were carrying in excess of the legal limit of $100 million (old dollars). Banks
have been instructed to seize sums deposited by individuals in excess of this
amount, pending Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) investigation into the source of
the funds.
But there is a more sinister side to this: some, indeed, have
dubbed this "Murambatsvina Part 2". This refers back to Operation Murambatsvina
(or "clean out trash") instituted by the regime in May last year, where
thousands of urban dwellers and vendors were deprived of their homes and
livelihoods by the illegal demolition of homes and trading stands. Families,
including young babies and the elderly, were left outside in the cold of winter,
with no shelter, no food, and no means of making a living. It is widely believed
that the real object of this callous act was to punish the urban electorate whom
Zanu PF had conspicuously failed to persuade to vote for the party in the last
three major elections with, no doubt, a sub-plot of de-populating urban areas
and forcing people back to their "rural homes" where ZANU PF thought it could
the more easily manipulate and control them.
A comparison between the
original Murambatsvina, and this latest currency fiasco reveals many
similarities.
Firstly, it is all-pervasive: it affects Shona and Ndebele and
others alike. The "moment of madness" (Mugabe's description of the atrocities)
of the 1980's Gukurahundi massacres was targeted at one ethnic group, but
Operation Murambatsvina started in Harare and spread rapidly to provincial towns
and cities; it was said that there was barely a family who was not affected,
either directly or indirectly. Likewise, the new currency affects every citizen
of Zimbabwe.
Secondly, it targets the poor and most vulnerable. It was the
houses of poor urban dwellers that were demolished in Murambatsvina - many of
these were little more than shacks, but were nonetheless the only homes some of
these people had. The street-vendors whose stalls were demolished and goods
stolen were those who could not afford the rental of a proper shop.
But, you
may say, this currency reform affects everyone - rich and poor - alike. The
answer is yes, and no.
Everyone is affected but, for example, it is the poor
who are most harassed at road blocks. VIP's are ushered through without being
checked while those travelling on Commuter Omnibuses are required to dismount,
unpack their entire luggage, and are subjected to the general harassment of
searches (some searches more polite than others).
Far more seriously, those
living in the rural areas have been especially penalised; many were just not
aware of the August 21 deadline for exchanging old bank notes for new, or had to
incur the expense of taking a bus into town for the purpose of visiting banks,
standing in endless queues, to change their money. All this despite the RBZ's
promise to set up mobile cash swap teams to visit the rural areas to assist the
inhabitants in the changing of money. Their expensive, glossy, 4 page insert
into national papers reads:
"Do not fear. There is no-one, let us repeat not
one citizen, who will be left unable to convert their old cash or Bearer Cheques
to the new ones in the stipulated 21 day period. Our mobile cash swap teams are
in all districts ensuring that you are served".
Dr Gideon Gono, the Governor
of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), is the architect of the currency reforms.
He and his advisory board are complicit in this "Murambatsvina Part 2" just as
they were in the original Operation Murambatsvina. In Sokwanele's Special Report
of 8 June 2005: Gideon Gono "…in sheep's clothing": The Role of the RBZ Governor
in Murambatsvina, we showed that Dr Gono had prior knowledge of the social and
economic upheaval that was about to happen, referring, just days before the
onslaught began, to "where the rot needs thorough cleansing".
Gono and his
Advisory Board designed these latest currency reforms, introducing them to a
flabbergasted nation overnight, giving them a mere 21 days to change their
money, computer systems, accounting and pricing, with no prior warning
whatsoever. They are therefore thoroughly complicit in the devastation being
wreaked on the poor of this country. Gono is thoroughly in the pocket of Zanu
PF, and his Advisory Board is filled with well known individuals selected to
lend respectability to Gono's (and Zanu PF's) policies while the regime is busy
perpetrating all manner of evil on the poor and vulnerable of the population.
Just as galling is the disingenuous manner in which the new currency has
been ushered in. The slogans proclaim:
"The inflation has caused our
currency to have denominations requiring huge sums of cash for basic everyday
commodities. Everybody deserves a fair return for a fair day's labour"
"Public enemy #1, 2 & 3 inflation … $1 000 000"
It is as if these
new bank notes will do away with inflation, and will guarantee, as they put it,
"a new era of ease and greater security".
Are Zimbabweans going to be taken
in by their advertisement showing a picture of a loaf of bread and the caption:
"Was $85 000. Now only $85"? These measures will not address the underlying
inflation; in fact, it is more likely that they will fuel inflation, as the
printing of money always does.
Do we know how much money has been taken out
of circulation, and how that compares to the amount of money being injected into
the market in the form of these new notes? We do not. Inflation is here to stay,
until the regime gets serious about addressing the underlying economic
fundamentals.
Of course, there are benefits to this new monetary system:
greatest of these is the fact that we no longer have to carry around bundles or
even suitcases of cash, which posed a security risk as well as a physical
burden. Also, importantly, businesses which were struggling to run their
computer systems with so many digits for each transaction, are now able to
manage again.
However, this is merely tinkering, joining the 2 broken wires
together with a bit of tape. The fundamental problems have not been, and are not
being addressed: political instability; tyranny; economic turmoil; profligate
government spending. Until the regime, or its successors, tackles the social,
economic and political problems of Zimbabwe, no progress will be made.
Zimbabweans will continue to suffer at the hands of their greedy and ruthless
leaders.
How long, O Lord, how long?
130 expatriates at works ministry
Daily news Botswana
30 August,
2006
PARLIAMENT - The Ministry of Works and Transport has a total of 130
expatriate officers from 22 countries, the Assistant Minister of Works and
Transport, Frank Ramsden, said.
Ramsden told Parliament that 30 expatriates
were from India, 24 from Kenya, 13 from Zambia, eight from Bangladesh and
Zimbabwe, seven each from Ghana and Yugoslavia, five each from Malawi and
Tanzania, four from Britain, three each from Canada and Sri Lanka, two each from
Burma, Jamaica and one each from Belgium, Bosnia, Nigeria, Phillipines, South
Africa, Serbia and Sudan.
He said the total contract value of expatriates
was P91 million, and made up of P70.8 million, which was the total money earned
by these officers so far and P20.3 million representing terminal benefits to be
earned.
He said the longest serving expatriates were superintendent of works
at the Department of Building and Engineering Services (DBES) with 11 contracts
in 29 years and principal air traffic control officer at the Department of Civil
Aviation with eight contracts in 25 years.
In line with the ministrys
localisation plan, a Motswana had been identified to understudy the expatriate
superintendent of works to localise it by the end of next year.
The post of
principal air traffic controller would be difficult to localise in the next
three years, but Batswana officers had been identified to understudy the
incumbent expatriate at the civil aviation department.
Ramsden was answering
a question from Tswapong South MP Oreeditse Molebatsi who had asked the minister
how many expatriates were in the Ministry of Works and Transport and their
countries of origin as at March 2006. Molebatsi also wanted to know the contract
value of the expatriates and the longest serving expatriate as well as plans in
place to localise the post. BOPA
Women's Issues: Zimbabwe and Indonesia sign "betterment of women" agreement
longlobaltrends.blogspot
Zimbabwe and Indonesia have signed an agreement to strengthen
co-operation and address socio-economic problems for the betterment of women in
the two countries.
The letter of intent on women's affairs was signed by
Indonesian Minister for Women Empowerment Professor Meuria Farida Hatta Swasono,
and the Zimbabwean Minister of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development
Oppah Muchinguri.
The accord addresses such issues as the trafficking of
women and children, violence against women, sharing of ideas on how to address
the HIV and Aids pandemic as well as other challenges faced by women and
youths.
Victoria Falls to host first major international road race
people's daily
History will be made in the resort town of Victoria Falls this Sunday when
it hosts its first major international road race, the Victoria Falls Marathon.
The marathon, which also encompasses a half-marathon, is being organized by
the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe in conjunction with Wild
Frontiers South Africa, the organizers of the annual Kilimanjaro marathon in
Tanzania.
The event is expected to attract top international middle and
long-distance runners from countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland,
Zambia and the hosts Zimbabwe.
The Victoria Falls marathon will start on the
Zimbabwean side of the falls and the participants will cross over the bridge
towards Zambia before returning to Zimbabwe to complete the full distance.
The race offers a multitude of opportunities for rediscovering Zimbabwe's
tourism highlights.
Source: Xinhua
Zimbabwe defends housing strategy
BBC
|
By Peter Biles
Southern Africa correspondent, BBC News
| 
Thousands of dwellings were destroyed last
year | A
Zimbabwe government minister says there is no truth in a report by Church
leaders that heavily criticised the state's housing demolitions last year.
Church leaders said in a report that almost nothing had been done to house
700,000 people who lost their homes and livelihoods in the demolitions.
Operation Murambatsvina, which the government said was a drive to clean up
cities, was also condemned by the UN.
Minister Didymus Mutasa said the church report was "absolutely not true".
Asked how many new houses had been built, Mr Mutasa replied: "I can't tell
you the number immediately, I will have to check. But everyone in the country
whether affected by Murambatsvina or not is being considered for decent
housing."
He also denied claims made in the report by the church-based Solidarity Peace
Trust that most of those people expelled from the cities had since returned.
 |
 They've constructed a few hundred houses and none of them have been
occupied 
| "People cannot have
been living in thin air. They must be living somewhere," he said.
The report claimed that people in the cities had been crowded into those
houses that had not been demolished.
"In some houses, people now co-exist in around one square metre per person of
floor space," the report states.
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, chairman of the Solidarity Peace Trust, told
the BBC that the government had failed to live up to its promises.
"They themselves said that they would construct 300,000 houses," he said.
"They've constructed a few hundred houses and none of them have been
occupied."
The report said that out of more than 100,000 displaced people in the west of
the country, not one person has been officially housed by the government.
The informal economy, which was targetted by Operation Murambatsvina, is
still in disarray a year after the operation, according to the report.
|
Homeless Zimbabweans are helpless
iAfrica
JOHANNESBURG
Wed, 30 Aug
2006
One year on, and almost nothing has been done to help Zimbabweans
forcibly removed from their homes, the Solidarity Peace Trust said in
Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Trust chairperson, Bulawayo's Roman Catholic
Archbishop Pius Ncube, said the situation on the ground remained dire.
"The
people who lost their homes and livelihoods during Operation Murambatsvina
(Drive out trash) are sliding into an even greater abyss of poverty.
"A
handful of houses that have been built have been allocated to ruling party
members," he said.
Of the more than 100 000 people displaced in the western
provinces, not a single person had been housed, Ncube said.
Professor Brian
Raftopolous, from the Cape Town-based Institute for Justice and Reconciliation,
agreed that the operation had produced nothing constructive.
"The lack of
alternatives for the operation is resulting in continuing deterioration."
Raftopolous said this had led to loss of hope among the people of Zimbabwe.
"The South African government and (Southern African Development Community)
are sitting back and doing nothing."
SADC had not even made any public
attempt to pressurise the Zimbabwean government, he said.
Sapa
Border region struggles with influx
bbc
|
Peter Biles,
BBC News,
South Africa | The deserted road that runs parallel to the
Limpopo offers a fine view of the river once described by Rudyard Kipling as
"great, grey-green and greasy".
The fortified fence fails to deter those desperate to
flee | The crocodile-infested
Limpopo forms a natural barrier between South Africa and Zimbabwe, but the
illegal migrants who try to cross the border on a daily basis, also face a
man-made barrier.
A triple line of fencing and barbed wire is meant to prevent the influx of
Zimbabweans into South Africa.
Heading eastwards, close to the Beitbridge border post, I see two young men
scurrying across the road.
When they hear my car approaching, they disappear into the bush. But a third
man, trailing behind his friends, is still trying to find a way through the
fortified fence.
As I drive past, he quickly turns back down the slope towards the river bank
to avoid being seen.
Thousands of Zimbabweans, including women and children, are now risking the
perilous border crossing in a desperate bid to flee a country that has descended
into political and economic chaos over the past six years.
"The border fence is no deterrent", says Annette Kennealy who speaks for the
farmers' union in Limpopo Province.
"These Zimbabweans are hungry, destitute and driven to crime. We find a lot
of them staying on local farms temporarily, but others move southwards, trying
to reach the big cities; Johannesburg and Pretoria".
'Rights abuses'
Every Thursday, a train pulls into the station at Musina, South Africa's most
northerly town. Several hundred illegal Zimbabwean migrants who have been
arrested, and held at a detention centre near Johannesburg, are being deported
from South Africa.
Under police escort in Musina, they wait in groups on the station platform,
before being crammed into police trucks and driven to the border.
|
In Zimbabwe, we're dying of hunger. I used to drive taxis, but now
there are no jobs and no money there
|
A recent report by Human Rights Watch claimed that migrants from Zimbabwe
were vulnerable to human rights abuses in South Africa. It further alleged that
police and immigration officials had violated the lawful procedures for arrest,
detention and deportation.
However, Inspector Jacques du Buisson of the South African Police Service
(SAPS) denies that police have maltreated Zimbabwean migrants:
"If they're arrested around here, they're brought to the police station in
Musina, where they receive food and medical treatment if that's required.
"Then, on the same day, they'll be deported. We've never mishandled any
illegal foreigner"
Support centre
According to new figures released by the International Organization for
Migration (IOM), the South African authorities have deported nearly 31,000
Zimbabweans since the beginning of June.
This would seem to represent a sharp increase in the number of deportations.
Annette Kennealy says the problem is
escalating |
In response, the IOM, in collaboration with the Zimbabwean government, has
opened a reception and support centre at Beitbridge, on the Zimbabwean side of
the border.
This provides humanitarian assistance for the deportees on their return to
Zimbabwe.
"We're counting 100,000 people a year in need of immediate help, on their
arrival back in Zimbabwe", says Hans-Petter Boe, the IOM's Regional
Representative.
The problem is that while some of the illegal migrants may go back to their
homes in Zimbabwe, many make repeated efforts to re-enter South Africa in the
hope of finding work.
Zimbabwe's economic collapse, with inflation in excess of 1,100% per annum,
has led to increasing hardship.
Political will
Musina is a South African frontier town, but Zimbabwean rhythms fill the air
at the main taxi rank and traders can be seen carrying bundles of near worthless
Zimbabwean bank notes.
Musina's taxi rank is full of
Zimbabweans |
Enoch Mafuso, 21, who entered South Africa legally last month, describes his
predicament:
"In Zimbabwe, we're dying of hunger. I used to drive taxis, but now there are
no jobs and no money there. I want to stay here in South Africa, but it is very
difficult to get a job".
No-one is sure how many Zimbabweans are in South Africa, but the estimates
range between two and three million.
With no end in sight to Zimbabwe's woes, Ms Kennealy of the local farmers'
union warns of an impending crisis in South Africa:
"We're on the frontline here in Limpopo Province. People living further south
don't realise what we're facing.
"If our government had the political will, they would patrol the borders,
introduce more regulations and stop these people from coming in. This problem is
escalating and the long term effects for the rest of South Africa are going to
be enormous." |
ZIMBABWE: Bill proposes state access to electronic
communications
ZIMBABWE: Bill proposes state access to electronic
communications
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations]
HARARE, 30 August (IRIN) - Zimbabwe is proposing to
add another repressive law to its raft of existing media legislation, further
narrowing the space for freedom of expression.
Civic society presented a
united front at a parliamentary portfolio hearing but the proposed legislation
appears to be a foregone conclusion, with electronic censorship apparatus
already undergoing tests.
The parliamentary communications portfolio
committee began hearing oral submissions on the Interception of Communications
Bill on Wednesday. If passed, it will allow the military, intelligence services,
police and the office of the president to monitor e-mail correspondence,
eavesdrop on telephone conversations and censor internet access.
The
Media Alliance, a media umbrella body, told portfolio committee chairperson Leo
Mugabe, a nephew of President Robert Mugabe, that in its present form the bill
infringed constitutional guarantees of the freedom of expression. The alliance
represents the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, the Zimbabwe National Editors'
Forum, the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe and the Media Institute of
Southern Africa-Zimbabwe.
According to media lawyer Wilbert Mandinde,
the proposed law comes on top of existing legislation that has led to the
closure of six newspapers. "The prevailing legislative environment has severely
hindered and undermined the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression and
information in Zimbabwe. It is the hope of the organisations that the committee
shall note our concern and, by so doing, assist in protecting the rights of
Zimbabweans as enshrined in the constitution."
President Mugabe, after
being isolated from Western countries on grounds of human rights abuses, has
adopted a 'look east' policy in a bid to secure foreign investment, resulting in
the acquisition of electronic censorship and surveillance systems from China,
among other imports, according to local media reports.
A report by Human
Rights Watch this month commented: "China's system of internet censorship and
surveillance, popularly known as the 'Great Firewall', is the most advanced in
the world."
The proposed legislation also forces internet service
providers to buy surveillance equipment at a cost of US$1 million per provider,
a stipulation that could force many service providers to shut down, as the
shortage of foreign currency is symptomatic of the country's economic meltdown.
Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world - around 1,000 percent
annually - and unemployment of more than 70 percent.
A spokesman for the
Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association, Jim Holland, said the proposed
law would allow interception of private and confidential information.
"This could include communications between lawyers and clients, doctors and
patients, priests and their flock, journalists and their sources, for example.
These could all involve completely legal activities, but disclosure of
information in such communications could cause serious harm to the individuals
concerned."
Holland recommended to the committee that the bill be
withdrawn. Veritas, an organisation encouraging the promulgation of good laws,
and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights also called for withdrawal of the
bill.
Brigadier Sango, a serving army officer, told the committee in his
submission that "in these days of the scourge of 'mercenaryism', terrorism and
organised crime, it is our feeling that if the bill is signed into law, it will
help us fight the scourges."
fd/go/he
[ENDS]
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Zimbabwe and Indonesia have signed an agreement to strengthen
co-operation and address socio-economic problems for the betterment of women in
the two countries.