International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: August 6,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Nearly 7,500 executives, business leaders and
traders have
been arrested for failing to cut prices as ordered to do six
weeks ago,
state media reported Monday.
Police spokesman Oliver
Mandipaka said 7,495 were arrested, the state-owned
Herald, a government
mouthpiece, reported Monday. Most were jailed briefly
and fined, and some
were sentenced to community service cleaning government
buildings after
magistrate Olivia Mariga declared fines alone were not
proving sufficient
deterrent to profiteers.
The official media quoted President Robert
Mugabe, away on a trip to
Malaysia, telling Zimbabwean students in Kuala
Lumpur there was no going
back on the June 26 order to slash all prices by
around half in a measure to
curb runaway inflation. Industry Minister Obert
Mpofu said Sunday new
regulations to "fine tune" the price order and control
foodstuffs bought in
neighboring countries by Zimbabweans were being
prepared.
Official inflation is given at 4,500 percent, the highest in
the world,
though independent estimates put it closer to 9,000
percent.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts inflation could rise
to 100,000
percent by the end of the year in the economic meltdown that has
left
shelves bare of corn meal, meat, bread, eggs, milk and other basics
that
sell for at least five times the government price on the thriving black
market. Local beer on Monday was the latest item to have disappeared. Acute
shortages of gasoline have crippled commuter transportation and prevented
manufacturers delivering diminishing stocks to retailers.
Mugabe
said he would not back down in the campaign against what he called
"price
madness" that had seen prices on the formal market increasing even by
the
hour.
Mugabe said the government would take action against businesses
resisting
the cuts.
"Some are ... saying they will not supply goods
and services but we say you
will," Mugabe said, state television
reported.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said executives of two of the
nation's
biggest dealers in building materials and hardware, Astra Building
Supplies
and PG Paint and Glass, were charged Friday with defying the price
freeze on
taps, pick handles and putty.
Two Harare store managers
were arrested over the weekend for alleged
hoarding of goods that have
disappeared from shops, including matches, soap,
washing powder, toothpaste
and body lotions.
"The arrest of the two seems to suggest that some
managers are removing
commodities from the shelves and hiding them to beat
the system," Mandipaka
told The Herald.
Mugabe has threatened to
seize businesses that either shut down or scale
back their
production.
In Malaysia, on his way to an economic summit at the resort
of Langkawi,
Mugabe said ordinary Zimbabweans were happy with the price cuts
and the
focus now was to ensure goods were made available.
"We just
had to take action against businesses that escalate prices, that
were
bending the rules," he said, according to the state media.
Mugabe's
opponents have criticized the price cuts as a political ploy to
shore up
ruling party support.
Businesses argue they are being asked to sell their
products at a loss.
By Lance Guma
06
August 2007
Last week Friday Robert Mugabe signed into law the
Interception of
Communications Bill, which in principle allows his
government to spy on the
private communications of ordinary citizens. As
Zimbabweans debate the
implications of the new law, it has emerged that many
Internet Service
Providers face possible collapse because of the huge
financial costs of
buying and installing monitoring equipment on their
platforms. Under the law
ISP's have to meet the costs themselves.
In
an interview with Newsreel Monday Shadreck Nkala, the Chairman of the
Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association (ZIPSA), said they had no
option but to conform to the new law. He said they would be meeting
government soon to discuss the cost implications. Any installations will
require huge sums of foreign currency. Nkala said even if they disagreed
with the law, 'we work within a regulated environment and are not in a
position to take a stand.'
Mugabe on Friday signed a total of three
bills - The Suppression of Foreign
and International Terrorism Act and the
Masvingo State University Amendment
Bill - all joined the Interception of
Communications Bill into law. The
Masvingo state university act ratifies the
change of name from Masvingo
University to Great Zimbabwe University while
the terrorism act has been
dismissed as another smoke screen to justify
targeting government opponents.
Although several countries worldwide have
similar laws it is the motives and
potential for abuse that differ from
country to country. Zimbabwe is going
through a massive political and
economic crisis, giving credence to the view
that any legislation of this
nature is meant to help the regime deal with
people perceived as
problematic.
Despite the new law, experts say there continue to be ways
for people to
communicate via secure e-mail platforms that are often free,
like Hushmail,
S-Mail.com and KeptPrivate.com among others. It's not yet
clear if the
popular Yahoo and Hotmail platforms which connect directly to
servers in the
United States and United Kingdom can be tapped into using
monitoring
equipment.
According to the Reporters Without Borders 2005
Handbook for Bloggers and
Cyber-Dissidents, people who own their own
computers can install
'annonymising' software that shields their identity
from any snooping. Those
accessing their email via internet café's might not
be able to enjoy this
technology but can still use secure e-mail
services.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Zim Online
Tuesday 07 August
2007
By Farisai Gonye
HARARE -
President Robert Mugabe's government has deployed over 1 000
feared state
security agents into rural Matabeleland to counter a planned
two-month
campaign blitz by Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
party.
The move follows fears that Tsvangirai planned to send high
level
campaign teams in Matabeleland to garner support in an intensive
campaign
blitz ahead of next year's parliamentary and presidential
elections.
Matabeleland is a hotbed of opposition support with
Mugabe's ruling
ZANU PF party struggling to penetrate the region that has
consistently
rejected the ruling party at every major election since
independence in
1980.
The western Matabeleland region bore the
brunt of a government
crackdown in the early 1980s that left at least 20 000
ethnic Ndebeles dead.
The opposition is however seriously weakened
after a damaging split in
2005 over strategy to confront Mugabe. A smaller
faction of the MDC led by
Arthur Mutambara enjoys most of its support in the
Matabeleland region.
Sources within the intelligence said Mugabe
still realizes that
Tsvangirai, who still draws massive crowds at his
countrywide rallies, will
pose the biggest electoral threat next year
despite the split in the
opposition ranks.
The former trade
unionist lost by a paltry 400 000 votes in the last
presidential election in
2002 that was condemned by major Western
governments as not free and
fair.
A source in the feared Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) said
the government had set aside close to Z$65 billion (US$1 million
at the
official exchange rate) to fight the MDC's Matabeleland
campaign.
The said they believed Tsvangirai and his team wanted to
descend on
Matabeleland in October following the launch of the party's
parliamentary
and presidential election campaign a month
earlier.
"Mugabe wants to penetrate Matabeleland taking advantage
of the split
since Tsvangirai's group is weaker in those regions," said the
source.
"Some of our guys have already been deployed and they are
telling of
ZANU PF party structures that are in shambles. But by the time
Tsvangirai
arrives here, no villager would be willing to host
him.
"Traditional leaders are core in this operation," added the
source.
He said the central focus of the strategy was to intimidate
traditional leaders in the region and coerce them to back Mugabe in return
for massive inducements of food and cash.
"It would be a
typical case of the stick and carrot. No force or
violence will be used on
the village headmen and chiefs. But they will feel
that we mean business. We
will leave them with no choice but to co-operate,"
he said.
Nelson Chamisa, the MDC spokesperson said the party was aware of the
CIO's
dirty tactics ahead of the landmark elections that some analysts say
Mugabe
could lose on the back of an unprecedented economic crisis that has
impoverished Zimbabweans.
"We have those plans (rural
campaign). We are not sure of the CIO
element because we don't give them our
plans and strategies. But it's a fact
that Mugabe has always used state
security apparatus to thwart the
opposition."
State Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa who is in charge of the CIO,
refused to shed light
on the matter.
"Security agents by their nature are there to
prevent the disturbance
of peace whether this is in Harare or Bulawayo. But
of course I am not aware
of that operation you are referring to," he said. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 07 August
2007
By Regerai Marwezu
MASVINGO - A storm is brewing in the southern province of Masvingo
following
reports that senior party officials and traditional leaders who
benefited
from a controversial allocation of tractors from the Reserve Bank
of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) last June had converted the tractors into pirate
taxis.
Disgruntled ruling ZANU PF party supporters in Masvingo say
that the
tractors were allocated to undeserving recipients, mostly senior
party
officials and traditional leaders, leaving most newly resettled black
farmers in the lurch.
The party supporters accused some
traditional leaders of using the
tractors as pirate taxis in rural areas
taking advantage of the transport
crisis due to the current fuel shortages.
Zimbabwe has grappled a severe
fuel crisis over the past eight
years.
In a letter addressed to the ZANU PF provincial leadership
in Masvingo
that was seen by ZimOnline, the party supporters demanded to
know the
criteria that was used to disburse the farming
equipment.
"We note with concern that some beneficiaries (of the
agricultural
mechanisation programme) do not have land which warrants them
to have
tractors while others are now using them as pirate taxi
vehicles.
"While we support the mechanisation of agriculture in the
country, it
makes no sense to deprive genuine farmers of the facility giving
it to
undeserving people," said part of the letter.
Several
senior opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
and ZANU PF
officials received the cheaper priced farm machinery last June
under the
government's controversial land reforms with political analysts
saying the
scheme was an extension of Mugabe's politics of patronage.
But some
traditional leaders in Masvingo, who have in the past
benefited from
Mugabe's patronage through hefty perks and monthly
allowances, have put the
tractors to new use - ferrying desperate villagers.
Among those
reported to have converted their tractors into pirate
taxis are Chief
Mazungunye whose tractor now plies the Nyika-Matsvange road
in Bikita
district.
Chief Tshovani in Chiredzi is also reported to be using
his tractor as
a taxi plying the Chibwedziva-Chikombedzi road in
Chiredzi.
ZANU PF spokesperson in Masvingo, Retired Major Kudzai
Mbudzi
confirmed that the tractors had caused "some friction" among party
ranks in
the province, a ruling party stronghold.
"We are
trying our level best to investigate the allegations and I
hope by the end
of this week we will be through," said Mbudzi.
Zimbabwe has
grappled severe food shortages over the past seven years
after Mugabe seized
land from white farmers and parceled the plots to his
ruling ZANU PF party
supporters.
But the new farmers have failed to maintain production
resulting in
the southern African country importing food from neighbouring
countries as
well as relying on food handouts from international food aid
agencies. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 07
August 2007
Own Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG - President Robert Mugabe on Monday attacked the media
accusing
it of tarnishing the image of developing countries.
Mugabe is in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to attend the Langkawi
International Dialogue that
seeks to develop strategies to growing poverty
in the world.
The Zimbabwean leader who has had frosty relationship with the media,
said
journalists had a tendency to write things that are "quite often
deliberately intended to tarnish and mislead".
"Should our
journalists really indulge in what they know to be
deliberately misleading
stories, and therefore stories that go against
objectivity and the truth?"
said Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean government has some of the toughest
media laws in the
world that have seen at least a hundred journalists
arrested for violating
the country's media laws.
For example,
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) requires all
journalists to register with the state's Media and
Information Commission
before practising their profession.
Journalists face a two-year
jail sentence for violating the tough
media law.
The Harare
authorities have banned four newspapers over the past four
years including
the country's biggest selling daily, The Daily News.
Mugabe has in
the past accused journalists of writing falsehoods about
Zimbabwe which is
in the grip of a severe eight-year economic crisis
described by the World
Bank as unprecedented for a country not at war.
The veteran
Zimbabwean leader last week signed the Interception of
Communications Bill
that allows the government to monitor and intercept mail
and electronic
communication.
Human rights groups and political analysts say
Mugabe is tightening
repression in the troubled southern African country in
the face of a severe
economic crisis that threatens to sweep him out of
power. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 07 August 2007
By Ntando
Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe has lost over 90 percent of its wildlife
since the
government began its controversial land reforms seven years ago,
according
to a report released by the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force
(ZCTF).
Johnny Rodrigues, the chairperson of the ZCTF, said hordes of
villagers
resettled by the government on former white farms had decimated
the country's
wildlife on former private game ranches.
"Some 90
percent of animals have been lost since 2000, while the country has
seen an
estimated 60 percent of its total wildlife killed off to help ease
massive
economic woes indiscriminately.
"There's a lot of commercial poaching,
there are people on the ground
snaring these animals. This is where most of
the destruction is coming
from," said the report.
Poaching has been
on the rise in Zimbabwe since landless villagers, with
tacit approval from
President Robert Mugabe's government, invaded
white-owned farms seven years
ago.
There have also been widespread reports of illegal and uncontrolled
trophy
hunting on former white-owned conservancies that are controlled by
powerful
government and ruling ZANU PF party officials.
The Harare
authorities deny that politicians and ruling party officials are
behind the
rampant poaching activities insisting that it still has poaching
under
control.
According to the report, out of the 62 game ranches around the
country, 59
made massive losses last year after villagers killed 9 500
impalas, nearly 5
000 kudus and 2 000 wildebeests.
The report says 75
rare black rhinoceroses and 39 leopards were also killed
over the past year
adding that the statistics were estimates as they had to
rely on hazy
reports from people still near the ranches.
"The country's economic
meltdown has had a wide-ranging and devastating
impact on what is one of
Africa's premier tourist draws.
"The numbers help give a rough estimate
of the environmental impact of
Zimbabwe's recent descent into economic and
political chaos," says the
report. - ZimOnline
SW Radio
Africa (London)
6 August 2007
Posted to the web 6 August
2007
Tererai Karimakwenda
We received unconfirmed reports from
our sources that the chairperson of the
Commission running the capital,
Sekesai Makwavarara has been dismissed by
the man who installed her and has
supported her for years, the minister of
local government Ignatius Chombo.
It is not clear why she has been fired or
exactly when this took
place.
Makwavarara first hit the headlines when she defected from the
opposition
where she was a mere councilor, and joined ZANU-PF. Soon after
that Chombo
removed the elected the mayor of Harare, Engineer Mudzuri, and
the elected
councilors illegally, claiming incompetence and corruption. He
replaced them
with a Commission that has run the capital for five years
now.
As chairperson of that Commission, Makwavarara quickly made news
over her
extravagant spending habits. She was accused of spending council
funds for
her personal use and purchased a huge house which belonged to the
council at
a ridiculously low price.
Meanwhile service delivery in
the capital deteriorated while Makwavarara and
her Commission raised the
rates for residents. Chombo refused to organize
elections despite clear
guidelines in the Urban Councils Act that call for
elections after the first
term of any Commission expires. The local
government minister also defied
several court rulings that said the
Commission was illegal.
Became
extremely unpopular in Harare over the years, and the Combined Harare
Residents Association has organised several demonstrations calling the
removal of Makwavarara and the Commission. It is safe to say many Harare
residents eagerly await confirmation of Makwavarara's dismissal.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
06 August
2007
The faction of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change faction
led by Morgan Tsvangirai said Monday it would lodge a
complaint against
police for obliging its organizers and members to end a
Harare political
rally after just two hours.
Tsvangirai faction
officials said Chief Superintendent Thomsen Jangara, the
officer in command
of the Harare South police district, was present at the
rally in Kambuzuma
and ordered its termination before scheduled speakers
could take the
podium.
The ruling ZANU-PF party and opposition MDC have stepped up
campaigning in
the approach to local, general and presidential elections set
for early
2008.
The MDC last week filed suit against Jangara and two
other two officers,
along with Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and
Home Affairs Minister
Kembo Mohadi, for allegedly disrupting its rally at
Zimbabwe Grounds in
Highfield in February.
Tsvangirai faction Harare
Province spokesman and member of parliament for
Kambuzuma Willas Madzimure
told Studio 7 reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
a complaint would be lodged with higher
authorities.
Spokesman Andrew
Phiri of the Zimbabwe Republic Police said he had no
information on the
alleged termination of the rally. He declined to provide
a number for
Jangara.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
06 August
2007
Street vendors doing business in the bustling Mbare
Musika market on the
outskirts of Harare say they have been forced to
register as voters in the
opposition stronghold by youth militia, war
veterans and troops though they
reside in other areas.
Vendors from
other suburbs such as Sunningdale, Kuwadzana and Mufakose said
the alleged
forced voter registration drive started early last week.
Mbare Member of
Parliament Gift Chimanikire, a member of the Movement for
Democratic change
faction of Morgan Tsvangirai, said the faction's elections
director, Ian
Makone, has complained to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
One vendor
at Mbare Musika who is a resident of Sunningdale, speaking on
condition that
she not be named, told reporter Patience Rusere that ZANU-PF
officials have
been providing such vendors with documents indicating
residency in
Mbare.
By Tererai Karimakwenda
06 August,
2007
About 300 members of the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA) and
Men of Zimbabwe Arise (MOZA) were joined by at least 300 Mutare
residents in
a demonstration to protest the food shortages that have
resulted from the
government's ongoing price control exercise. The peaceful
demo included many
school children and adults who joined in as the group
passed through the
poor high-density suburb of Sakubva. Holding placards and
singing songs like
"Akuna upfu" (There is no mealie-meal), "Chingwa
chiripi?" (Where is the
bread) and "Tofa nenzara!" (Shall we die of hunger),
the group danced and
interacted with local residents about the price
cuts.
Magodonga Malhangu, a WOZA coordinator, said they were airing their
views
about the government exercise that forced businesses to operate at a
loss
and left shelves empty. She added that there were no arrests this time
and
police did not interfere. "We only saw one police officer and people
started
singing "Mupurisa urikuona zvirikuitika? (Do you see what is
happening) and
he just walked the other way." said Mahlangu.
The
Mutare demo was the continuation of a campaign they started in Bulawayo
a
week ago when they delivered an open letter to business owners,
manufacturers and the ministers of Industry and Commerce and Home Affairs.
Mahlangu said they are demanding meaningful economic reforms, instead of the
ill-planned price cuts that produced bad results. She said from the
beginning people on the ground have been very cautious about the price cuts.
Although they were happy to buy basic items at reduced prices, they were
always aware it was a government gimmick to increase support ahead of the
elections next year.
The protest began at TM supermarket, and
proceeded through Sakubva township
where the numbers almost doubled as local
residents joined in.
Responding to accusations that WOZA and MOZA were
targeting the wrong people
by demonstrating at TM and other shops, she said
they were not blaming all
the shops, but the few corrupt ones who were
selling to police officers and
the uniformed forces who beat up people in
the queues and buy the reduced
products themselves. She explained that they
wanted the business owners to
bring the people's message to government since
they have access to the
authorities.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
By Tichaona Sibanda
6 August
2007
The chief of Foreign Affairs in the Tsvangirai led MDC on Monday
said events
in the country in the last month should act as wake up call for
Southern
African Development Community leaders, to work on a speedy
resolution to the
crisis.
Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro said the
slow pace of the mediation talks was
a drawback for all progressive forces
in the country and highlighted that
there is a tendency by African heads of
state to take note of a crisis only
when there is blood flowing on the
ground.
He conceded the SADC mediation talks led by South African
President Thabo
Mkebi were progressing very slowly and thereby presenting
Mugabe with a huge
advantage over his opponents.
'What is most
disappointing up to now is there has not been much progress in
terms of the
substantive issues concerning Zimbabwe. When SADC leaders
mandated Mbeki to
look at the Zimbabwe issue, there was a real sense of
urgency to contain the
total breakdown of the country, but all we see is the
situation getting
worse,' Mukonoweshuro added.
He warned SADC leaders if they choose to
remain silent on Zimbabwe 'a Rwanda
situation' was waiting to erupt amid
rising tensions related to the ever
deteriorating political
climate.
Mukonoweshuro added that they would make their presence felt in
Lusaka,
Zambia during the 27th SADC ordinary summit of Heads of State at
which
President Levy Mwanawasa will assume the chair of the
grouping.
Zambia would for the first time host the SADC summit since its
inception in
1980. To be held under the theme 'Infrastructure Development In
Support Of
Regional Integration' the summit will run from August 10
-18.
'We will try to be highly mobile in Lusaka because we tend to engage
all
leaders before the meeting starts so that they will have a correct
picture
of events of what is happening in Zimbabwe, apart from what they
will hear
from Mugabe,' Mukonoweshuro said.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
BBC WORLD HARDTALK SCHEDULE for Tuesday 7th August 2007
Date
Tuesday 7th
August 2007
Programme HARDtalk
Guest(s)
Arthur Mutambara,
Movement for Democratic Change
Interviewed by Allan
Little
Synopsis Zimbabwe is in melt-down. The shops have run out of
food
because the government has forced retailers to sell at prices lower
than
wholesale cost. The UN World Food Programme is currently making plans
to
feed over three million people in Zimbabwwe this autumn. With
President
Robert Mugabe up for re-election next March the opposition should
be poised
to sweep him from office. But the opposition is in crisis spending
most of
their energies attacking each other? Arthur Mutambara is leader of
one
faction of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change. He talks
to
Allan Little.
Originates03:30h GMT on Tuesday 7th August 2007
(not Asia)
Repeats 08:30h GMT on Tuesday 7th August 2007
14:30h GMT on
Tuesday 7th August 2007
20:30h GMT on Tuesday 7th August 2007
23:30h GMT
on Tuesday 7th August 2007 (not Asia)
Record details: Monday 6th August
2007
iafrica.com
Mon, 06 Aug 2007
A
Zimbabwean man cashing in on the country's food shortages sold donkey meat
to desperate residents claiming it was beef, a state daily reported
Monday.
The unidentified man went around a poor township in Beit
Bridge, near the
border with South Africa, with a basket of meat he said was
beef, according
to the Herald newspaper.
"This man had an ear of a
cow which he was using to hoodwink residents into
believing that it was beef
he was selling," a buyer was quoted as saying.
"Initially I had my own
reservations as the meat did not look like beef
until he showed me the ear
of a cow."
The woman said she realised that it was not beef after a
neighbour tipped
her off and the vendor took to his heels after doubtful
residents confronted
him.
Butchers across Zimbabwe have run out of
meat since President Robert
Mugabe's government ordered businesses to halve
the prices of goods and
services, claiming some were colluding with the West
to plot his downfall.
Retailers and manufacturers, grappling to cope with
an inflation rate now
believed to be well over 5000 percent, had been
raising their prices several
times a day until the government
order.
AFP
The Zimbabwean
(06-08-07)
There could have be no bigger irony than for delegates at a
3-day
anti-poverty summit in Malaysia to give Mugabe what has been
described
as a 'cordial welcome.' The 83 year old is presiding over the worst
inflation rate
in the world, he displaced over 700 000 people in a
'clean up exercise' in
2005,
before embarking on a crack down on the
business community
this year that has led to empty supermarket shelves and
even higher
unemployment levels. And of course he destroyed the agricultural
base of the
country which has lead to extreme poverty for hundreds of
thousands more.
With elections scheduled for 2008 just round the corner
the
distribution of food aid is being
politicised and areas perceived
to harbour opposition supporters are
being deliberately marginalised. His
guns are still smoking from a blitz he
launched on
the opposition
beginning March this year, which saw over 600 activists
hospitalised.
His colleagues at the Langkawi International Dialogue
in Malaysia will
probably not care about such a record. The summit was
launched in 1995 with
the intention
fostering closer relations between
South East Asian countries and resource
rich
but poor African countries.
Mugabe was said to be participating in round
table discussions
alongside
other African and South East Asian leaders.
His presence was a source of
controversy after some delegates
objected, but the Zanu PF leader is reported
to have managed a few 'hugs and
kisses' according to
a Malaysian
delegate who spoke to the media. No doubt this could have been
from fellow
tyrants
at the conference.
The theme of the summit this year is
poverty alleviation and Malaysia
is using the platform to share its
experiences on how it transformed its
economy from the 1970's
to the
present. Observers say it can only be hoped Mugabe can learn a few
things
there on how
economies need a stable political environment in which to
thrive. He is
criticised for
attempting to enforce a command economy in
which his cronies in the army
and
security services control all the
resources. In the last couple of months
members
of the army have been
running havoc on white owned commercial farms,
disregarding court
orders
and threatening police attempting to enforce
them. - SW Radio AFrica
Comment from The Weekend Argus (SA), 4 August
William
Saundeson-Meyer
This week President Thabo Mbeki predicted, somewhat
wistfully it must be
said, that free and fair elections will be held in
Zimbabwe next March. It
is difficult to see how this scenario is likely,
given the increasingly
erratic behaviour of President Robert Mugabe and the
deepening political and
economic crisis in that country. Some three million
Zimbabweans have entered
South Africa illegally over the past four years.
The flow is increasing:
between 6 000 and 10 000 people are crossing the
northern border every day.
Others have sought sanctuary further afield,
especially in the UK. It is
estimated that a quarter of the Zimbabwean
population has now found a haven
elsewhere. Since possibly half of the
Zimbabweans eligible to participate in
elections have already made clear
their feelings towards the Zanu PF
government by voting with their feet,
Mugabe is therefore understandably
reluctant to allow ballots to be cast
abroad next year. Yet unless there was
to be the forced repatriation of
exiled Zimbabweans - these millions are not
going to return to Zim just to
vote - the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change would be deprived of
its most solid voting bloc and the one that is
most impervious to
intimidation. What is crucially at issue is whether these
Zimbabwean exiles
are migrants or refugees. The Zimbabwe government and, it
seems, the South
African government, want to define them as would-be
emigrants.
Emigrants choose, for a variety of reasons, to seek a
new life elsewhere. To
a greater or lesser degree they transfer their
identification from their
home country and, by definition, they would seek
their political rights in
their new homeland. Refugees are displaced by
hostile conditions at home.
Their primary focus remains where they come
from, not where they perforce
have to eke an existence. They tend to feel
passionately about changing the
home political circumstances that triggered
their exile. The DA has urged
Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
to set up refugee camps for
the border-crossing Zimbabweans. In terms of the
Refugees Act, in the event
of a "mass influx of refugees", the minister may,
after consultation with
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and various
others, designate places
for the "temporary reception and accommodation of
asylum seekers or
refugees".
Home Affairs' response was
fascinating. The DA plea had identified the
exodus as having its origin in
Zimbabwe's "deteriorating political
circumstances". Home Affairs, in
contrast, carefully identified the influx
as being the result of Zimbabwe's
deteriorating economic circumstances.
Risibly, Home Affairs claims that
refugee centres would, in fact, fly in the
face of the Refugees Act.
"Refugees are supposed to be integrated into our
communities and not kept in
camps as the DA proposes," said the minister's
spokesperson. "Why does the
DA want us to have a separate policy that
discriminates against
Zimbabweans?" This semantic egg-dancing by Home
Affairs is significant
beyond scoring points against the DA.
The sticking point for the
South African government is that refugee and
asylum centres would be an
implicit acknowledgment that the Zimbabwean
government is acting in a
politically unacceptable manner and that matters
are deteriorating. The
Mbeki charade, which must be maintained at all costs,
is that Zimbabwe has a
legitimate, democratically elected government that is
merely encountering
some temporary economic difficulties. Consequently, the
Zimbabweans coming
here are not refugees, nor legitimate asylum seekers, but
economic
opportunists. Their sojourn, the South African government pretends,
will be
brief - perhaps no longer than it takes to buy some goods to trade
back home
- and requires no special action. No democratic election could
have taken
place in South Africa in 1994 without the participation of the
hundreds of
thousands - not millions, as in Zimbabwe - who had fled the
apartheid state
for political reasons. Similarly, no democratic election
could take place in
Zimbabwe without the exiled community participating.
Refugee status is - for
both the South African and Zimbabwean governments -
the thin edge of a
dangerous wedge.
Mail and Guardian
Lewis Mwanangombe | Lusaka, Zambia
06 August 2007
07:20
Zambian immigration authorities are struggling to cope
with a
sudden upsurge in Zimbabweans crossing the border to shop for basic
products
as the economic crisis in their home country bites deeper and its
coming
wheat harvest is expected to be the worst in
years.
The immigration department in the southern border city
of
Livingstone said the number of Zimbabweans crossing into Zambia daily had
risen from 60 to 1 000 persons, with long lines forming at the border post
every day.
Immigration Public Relations Officer, Mulako
Mbangweta, said
they feared the situation was spiraling out of control in
Livingstone -- a
tourist hub because of the nearby Victoria
Falls.
"We now fear the security risks that can be posed by
this
swollen influx," Mbangweta said.
She said most
people crossed into Zambia to buy goods such as
bread, corn flour and milk
that are now unavailable in Zimbabwe and then
returned home. South Africa
and Botswana also have an upsurge in
cross-border
shopping.
Poor harvest
Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail,
a government mouthpiece, confirmed the
expectations of many, saying experts
predicted the wheat harvest would be
the worst in years, below the 78 000
tonnes harvested last year and far
short of the target 340 000 tonnes
because of electricity shortages, which
prevented farmers from irrigating
the crop.
"In some areas farmers could go for four
consecutive days
without electricity. It became impossible to irrigate and
complete the
required cycles, resulting in the crop wilting," the president
of the
Zimbabwe Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union, Wilson Nyabonda, told
the
newspaper.
Maize, rather than wheat is the staple
diet of most Zimbabweans,
but the disastrous wheat crop is likely to worsen
bread shortages and serves
to highlight the economic woes of Southern
Africa's former breadbasket.
The World Food Program appealed
last week for $118-million to
help more than 3,3-million Zimbabweans -- more
than a quarter of the
population -- facing severe food
shortages.
Zambian immigration officer Mbangweta gave no
estimates of the
number of Zimbabweans sneaking into Zambia illegally and
staying. But there
is mounting concern among Zimbabwe's neighbors that they
will be swamped
with destitute refugees as Zimbabwe's crisis
worsens.
Aziz Pahad, South African deputy foreign minister,
on Thursday
voiced alarm at predictions by the International Monetary Fund
that
Zimbabwe's inflation may hit 100 000% by the end of the year. He said
that
neighbouring countries "will not be able to sustain the levels of
refugees".
There are an estimated three million Zimbabweans
in South
Africa, most of them illegally.
Farmers on South
Africa's northern border have started a
vigilante campaign against the
illegal immigrants, accusing them of theft
and of scaring away foreign
tourists in game lodges along the border.
In a bid to tame
the price increases, Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe's government ordered
sweeping price cuts of up to 50% in June. But
that merely worsened the
shortages.
No choice
In rare welcome news for
Zimbabweans, the Sunday Mail said that
the government had repealed proposed
legislation to limit the amount of
products including cooking oil, flour and
beef that Zimbabweans could
import. This would have cut an increasingly
important lifeline to desperate
Zimbabweans who flock to the borders each
day to shop in neighbouring
countries
A 57-year-old
Zimbabwean woman, Selina Nkhoma of Victoria Falls
Town, said she had no
choice but to shop in Zambia.
"Zambians should not be annoyed
with us. We are only coming here
to buy goods which are not available in our
country in order to survive,"
said the mother of seven.
Immigration official Mbangweta said she was worried about the
numbers of
people.
"We foresee a situation where there will be a lot of
people on
the streets such that we may face problems if people continue
coming in such
large numbers," she said. - Sapa-AP
Eddie Cross
6th August 2007
We are now into our
5th week of price controls and the resultant shortages.
I am becoming
increasingly alarmed at the situation and hope that my
misgivings are not
misplaced.
Today there is no rice in the urban areas, very little bread
and what is
available is being rationed, there is no maize meal, no cooking
oil or
margarine, no meat and very little milk and dairy products. I called
the
Dairibord today and they had no product to sell - nothing, they said
they
were having problems with their milk supplies.
In addition to
this situation, public transport is virtually at a
standstill. This has
developed following heavy fines imposed last week on
the mini van taxis that
provide 90 per cent of urban transport here. People
are being forced to walk
everywhere.
The wholesalers and manufacturers are virtually out of stock.
There is a
thriving parallel market for everything but even here the
supplies are very
short. Maize meal is being sold at Z$250 000 to Z$300 000
for 10 kg's - that
is 4 times the official price, fuel is available but at
prices ranging from
Z$240 000 to Z$500 000 a litre.
Hotels are
running out of food - I stayed in a local hotel on Friday and
found the
staff serving a basic meal of rice with stew and a bit of cabbage
as a
salad. The queue stretched out onto the road - the manager said to me
he was
not running a hotel but a feeding station. The manger of the hotel
over the
road was eating there and said to me he could not even provide the
basics to
his clients. They had no beer!
Local business that has a contract to
supply the Prison said that they had
4000 prisoners and could not feed them,
not from any source. The Army and
the Police are in a similar predicament
although the Police have been using
their role in the price control exercise
to loot business of goods in short
supply. I hear that soldiers went through
Ross Camp (the main Police camp in
Bulawayo) looking for looted
stocks.
In addition to this crisis in domestic products nothing is being
imported
commercially. This is because the price control authorities are
treating
imported goods as local goods when enforcing the price controls. So
people
who would normally import products in short supply are holding off
and no
imported products are available. That leaves only cross border
shopping, as
a means of meeting family needs.
Wealthy people are
traveling to Botswana and Zambia for shopping trips and
poorer families are
calling their relatives in South Africa for help. For
this reason on
Saturday there were hundreds of vehicles from South Africa at
the border -
all trying to get up to their families in Zimbabwe, drop off
supplies and
then head back to South Africa. The road was littered with
broken down
vehicles, as many are old and overloaded.
I see no signs of any response
to this crisis in basic food supplies. What
do the international community
and the UN system think they are doing? I
hear that when the State tried to
stop retailers selling fuel against
coupons purchased with foreign exchange
that the UN agencies promptly told
the government that if they did that they
would close down and leave. The
government backed down. I heard this morning
that many embassies are
considering flying food in for their local Embassy
staff, one Ambassador
told me they were evaluating the difference in buying
from South Africa or
direct from Europe - great to have options, but what on
earth do they think
the ordinary Zimbabwean is doing?
I will tell you
what he/she is thinking. It is how do I get a passport, how
do I get to the
border or get a ticket to anywhere where sanity prevails?
The exercise to
remove up to 3 million Zimbabweans from the country by
simply denying tem
the means to survive is well under way. I estimate that
500 000 have gone
already to South Africa, with other destinations that
probably means we are
up to 600 000 - 20 per cent of the goal, 80 per cent
to still go. That's
only 12 000 a day across the Limpopo - an easy target.
No amount of
border patrols, no amount of policing or forced expulsions will
slow down or
stop the exodus. There is only one way to do that - give
Zimbabweans some
hope that they have a future, any sort of future in the
country of their
birth.
SADC leaders gather in Lusaka on the 14th August - just one week
away. The
future of this country and perhaps others in the region are in
their hands.
I must say that does not give me a lot of confidence, if they
fail us again
as they have in the past, we may well have to take things into
our own
hands, and that could be very nasty.
Mr. Mugabe is in
Malaysia staying in a five star hotel with no shortages. He
could not give a
damn. His own strategy for the immediate future is being
worked out and he
sees no possibility of his efforts being frustrated by
regional leaders.
Left to his own devices he will get want he wants by the
year end, hold
farcical elections in March 2008 without opposition and
continue as
before.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
03 August
2007
Zimbabwe's supreme court will hear arguments
September 20th in a
constitutional challenge to the results of the 2005
general election filed
by the Movement for Democratic Change faction headed
by MDC founder Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The party is challenging the
Zimbabwe Electoral Act because it doesn't
provide for an independent court
to resolve electoral disputes, among other
reasons.
Jesse Majome, a
member of the party's national executive and legal
committee, said the case
could \have a significant bearing on the upcoming
March 2008
elections.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa asked the supreme court in
June to throw
out the MDC challenge, saying the opposition had taken too
long to file it.
Though the supreme court has decided to hear the case,
lawyer Nicholas
Mathonsi of Bulawayo tells reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the legal challenge comes too late to change much
in time for
the 2008 elections.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
06 August, 2007
The Manica Post newspaper reported on
Friday that police plan to launch
night raids on businesses and bus
companies suspected of operating at night
in order to avoid the government's
price controls. The report quoted Brian
Makomeke, the Police spokesperson
for Manicaland province, warning those who
try to dodge price-cuts that they
would be punished. The paper also quoted
an unnamed source claiming that
some of the queues at supermarkets were
artificially-created in order to
tarnish Zimbabwe's image.
The Manica Post quoted the police spokesperson
as saying: "Desperate
business people say they can't afford to operate at a
loss. Some are now
opening their doors only after 5pm when police and price
inspectors knock
off for the day." He accused butchers of "selling meat in
the moonlight" and
said road blocks would be extended to make sure ensure
that no buses charge
more than the gazetted fare of Z$265 000 for the trip
between Mutare and
Harare.
Last month the government ordered all
businesses to go along with a pricing
schedule that means they operate at a
loss. Many businesses have remained
open but without any products on the
shelves after panic buying by consumers
and massive looting by officials who
plan to resell the goods at a profit.
Critics and the opposition have
insisted the price-cuts are designed to gain
support for the ruling party
ahead of the elections next year. But the
serious shortages and business
closures that resulted are now making life
extremely difficult for
Zimbabweans. Without fuel even more are forced to
walk to work and long
queues for just about everything have reappeared.
A more ominous
suggestion is being discussed as the reason for the price
cuts. Some
observers have suggested that this exercise has been deliberately
planned to
remove up to 3 million Zimbabweans from the country, by denying
them the
means of survival. If that is the plan then it's working quite
well, as
thousands now try to find a way across the border with South Africa
everyday.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Telegraph
By Sebastien
Berger at Heroes' Acre
Last Updated: 2:12am BST
06/08/2007
Not even the staff at his first wife's grave
have much to say for
Robert Mugabe.
In Heroes' Acre, Zimbabwe's
national cemetery on a hillside outside
the capital Harare, Sally Mugabe
(1932-1992) lies in a black granite tomb,
complete with a Biblical
inscription comparing her to Abraham's wife Sarah.
When both halves
of a married couple qualify for plots among the 74
residents here to date
they tend to be buried next to each other, and there
are four empty chambers
to Mrs Mugabe's left.
But graves are not allocated in advance, so
if Zimbabwe's octogenarian
leader wants the slot, an attendant explained,
"he has to come quickly".
"We like our president," he insisted, but
added: "A lot of people want
him to go. The opposition think it would be
better if he left."
Asked for his own views, he said: "I'm very
apolitical. I am a
coward."
The cemetery itself is emblematic
of the ruling Zanu-PF's militaristic
mindset.
Not only has the
party always been allied with Communist Beijing, it
now espouses a "look
East" policy, describing China as its most important
partner.
The graveyard was planned with the help of North Korean architects and
smacks of the Kim Il-sung school of grandiloquent design.
From
above it even resembles the shape of a gun holster.
A central
monument to the unknown soldier is overlooked by bronze
murals depicting the
Zimbabwean dictator in standard hagiographic style.
"All of
the people are coming around him and he is leading them to
liberation," the
staff member said of Mr Mugabe's portrayal.
The comrades' tombs
themselves curve away in rows.
Those who are to be honoured with a
place among the great figures of
post-independence Zimbabwe, such as
Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi, who led the
seizure of white-owned farms, are not
identified ahead of their deaths.
But Heroes' Acre also reputedly
tends to be the final resting place of
senior Zanu-PF cadres who dare to
challenge Mr Mugabe's rule.
After an alleged military plot against
the president was uncovered in
June three generals died in quick succession
and were buried here with full
military honours.
Mr Mugabe
presided over the ceremonies to issue denunciations of the
British as "the
colonisers and the oppressors of yesterday".
Two of the three
ostensibly died from natural causes, while the third,
Brig-Gen Armstrong
Paul Gunda, had an unfortunate accident with a train at a
level crossing -
an extraordinarily unlucky way to go, given the paucity of
rail services in
Zimbabwe.
Public information advertisements on Zimbabwean
television have since
warned viewers: "Remember, you cannot win an argument
with a train."
With Zanu-PF riven by internal divisions, workers
are now installing
more plots at the cemetery.
"We have a lot
of heroes," the attendant said.
World Politics Review
Lauren Gelfand | 06 Aug 2007
World
Politics Review Exclusive
LONDON -- Alighting from his vintage Rolls Royce
limousine with a cursory
nod to the mounted ceremonial guard that escorted
him to the steps of
Zimbabwe's parliament July 26, Robert Mugabe was every
inch the defiant and
bombastic African leader, telling the West to "go hang"
after imposing
another round of travel restrictions and sanctions on his
penurious country.
Bearing with him a sheaf of economic bills to support
the latest
price-stabilization scheme for a country bare of virtually every
necessity
for daily life -- from food to fuel to foreign exchange -- the
83-year-old
president railed against "Western detractors . . . [who]
unashamedly
[trample] upon the rights of weaker states while resorting to
self-serving
notions of democracy and human rights as a veneer of legitimacy
for their
ill conduct."
Such fiery rhetoric cannot feed the
11 million people of Zimbabwe, who are
fleeing the sinking country at a rate
of 4,000 per day for the greener
pastures of southern neighbor South Africa.
Nor can it obfuscate the dire
state of a nation that just eight years ago
was a breadbasket for southern
Africa, its massive commercial farms so
redolent with grain and produce that
it was able to support a profitable
export market as well as provide ample
food for its people.
"It's
like a funeral is enveloping the country; the mood is of resignation
and
desperation," Sydney Masamvu of the International Crisis Group told WPR
in
an exclusive interview.
"When I talk to my mother, who is 76, she asks
me, 'where are we going? How
long can this go on?'"
The bills
introduced in parliament July 26 are the second phase of an
exercise begun
in June to offset the inflation-induced price hikes of the
meagre goods
still available in shops around the southern African country.
They were
followed July 29 by an announcement by Mugabe that his government
would
print more money to fund government projects, thereby insuring the
increasing worthlessness of Zimbabwean currency.
Prices on staples
such as rice, cooking oil, flour and canned goods were
slashed in half to
curb inflation, estimated at around 6,000 percent on an
official index
suppressed by the government.
The latest forecast, released last week by
the International Monetary Fund's
director for Africa, Abdoulyae Bio Tchane,
shows year-on-year inflation
could hit 100,000 percent by
December.
Shopkeepers have taken to leaving price tags off of commodities
in
anticipation of daily and sometimes hourly price hikes: One customer told
the Associated Press that while waiting in line to buy bread, the price rose
twice.
But the price slashes -- mandated by the authoritarian
government and
supervised by baton-wielding police officers -- have sparked
panic buying
and fostered a climate of fear among merchants who cannot
afford, or refuse,
to comply.
One gas station owner estimated his
losses at over $1.2 million in three
days due to the price cuts, according
to the Financial Times, having been
forced to sell fuel at half the price it
cost to import.
Others have been arrested and harassed for overcharging:
Nearly 5,000,
including the country's top businessmen, have been thrown in
jail, however
briefly, joining the few members of the political opposition,
led by
longtime activist Morgan Tsvangirai, who dare speak against the
increasingly
autocratic and kleptocratic Mugabe regime.
"The lack of
political leadership feeds and compounds the paralysis: If this
were a
normal country, the situation would be fertile ground for a political
uprising," said Masamvu.
"This economic collapse needs a political
response, but that is not
happening because there is a vacuum of political
leadership."
The measures announced by Mugabe constitute more of the same
blame-slinging
and deflecting of responsibility, designed to capture the
loyalties of an
increasingly desperate and skeptical population, by a
government whose
often-violent land seizures from white farmers in 2000 are
seen by the
international community as the main reason behind Zimbabwe's
precipitous
decline.
The new laws, expected to be passed by the
rubber-stamp parliament by
September, will tighten government control over
the economy by forcing the
remaining private companies to sell up to 51
percent of their shares to
black Zimbabweans.
In anticipation of this
iron-fisted economic regime that would also
establish a National Incomes and
Pricing commission that will set prices and
wages across all economic
sectors -- even as the formal unemployment rate
crests beyond 80 percent --
two dormant state companies are to be revived to
serve as acquisition
mechanisms.
Speaking before the announcement to parliament, Trade and
Industry Minister
Obert Mpofu assured the country that his ministry had been
allocated "enough
funds to ensure that industry does not collapse," the
Financial Times
reported.
Such fund allocation is of dubious
provenance, coming, no doubt as part of
the central bank's credit creation
through the frantic printing of currency
that has financed government
spending.
(For comparison's sake: when Mugabe became prime minister in
1980, the
Zimbabwe dollar was worth $1.50. After the introduction last week
of a new,
Z$200,000 note, worth about US$1, consumers bitterly note that,
with the
price of toilet paper at Z$30,000 per roll, it is cheaper to use
paper
currency.)
"We do not want to kill you but to make your
business viable. Once you are
in business and happy, you will also leave us
to run the country," Mpofu was
reported to have told businessmen.
"We
want to build some kind of an orderly business environment. I will hate
to
reach a stage where I will be forced to take over the companies from you,
but if you do not co-operate that is what is going to happen and this is the
position of the government.''
Such a threat bolsters concerns among
small business owners and foreign
companies that the government is preparing
to take over their interests
under the guise of implementing the
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Bill.
But since much of the
business still functioning in Zimbabwe is within the
hands of a small slice
of the elite -- most of whom are longtime members of
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party
-- there is little outcry at a further consolidation
of the country's
financial interests.
"There is a lot of talk about the internal struggle
within ZANU-PF, but the
reality is that it is limited," noted Masamvu.
"These people made business
empires out of Mugabe's patronage so there is a
line they will not cross.
Their struggle is not born from a need for
democratic change: it is to
ensure a new leadership to sustain their
business empire."
None of this would be necessary, according to the man
who has spent the last
27 years in power and shows no signs of loosening his
grip, if Zimbabwe had
not been plagued by drought and aggression from a
hostile Britain and her
allies, all of whom have suspended aid and turned
their backs on the country
despite the obvious need of its
people.
"Our economy continues to face adverse challenges emanating
mainly from the
illegal sanctions and successive droughts whose effects in
turn are, inter
alia, foreign currency shortages, and erratic energy and
power supply
situations," Mugabe said in his speech to open parliament last
month.
"In these circumstances, the inexplicable price and rent hikes,
which were
apparently welcomed and encouraged by our regime-change
proponents
compounded the situation further and thus invited Government
intervention."
Optimistic critics of the octagenarian leader suggest that
such brash
pronouncements will only hasten the demise of the already fragile
economy.
Recently departed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Dell told reporters
at the
airport in Harare as he was leaving that there will be a total
economic
collapse in Zimbabwe by the end of the year.
In a farewell
interview with an independent newspaper in June, according to
the Associated
Press, Dell added that the government was "doing regime
change to
itself."
Such strong words have not been backed by much international
diplomacy. The
African Union has taken its cues from Zimbabwe's largest
trading partner and
ally, South Africa, in following a longtime "softly,
softly" policy of quiet
diplomacy instituted by President Thabo
Mbeki.
"South Africa will be indebted to Mugabe forever, politically,
because of
his role in helping to end apartheid," noted Masamvu. "So while
South Africa
has more economic mileage, Mugabe has more political mileage.
That means
that South Africa cannot do what the rest of the world says it
wants to be
done, which is impose sanctions. It really will defend quiet
diplomacy even
if it has become mute diplomacy."
And with the
opposition cowed into submission through violence, harassment
and
indiscriminate arrests, and Mugabe unlikely to brook opposition for the
nomination in elections slated for March, any change in Zimbabwe's fortunes
may come too late.
The impact on the population cannot be
understated, even with the exodus of
tens of thousands of civilians each
month.
The USAID-funded alert system, Fewsnet, reported this month that
there is a
"general consensus" that Zimbabwe's cereal production will have
to be
complemented by imports of more than one million metric tons to meet
the
country's needs for next year.
Arrangements have been made with
Malawi to import 400,000 tons of maize,
with 70,000 tons already received.
But without the necessary foreign
exchange reserves to pay for the needed
cereals, the country faces a food
crisis of its own creation.
The
World Food Program, meanwhile, has launched an urgent $118-million
appeal
for emergency funds to feed an estimated 3.3 million people in coming
months.
"People are battling to make ends meet on an hourly and daily
basis, so any
election, against this backdrop of human suffering, will only
produce a
stalemate," said Masamvu.
"Right now, the biggest
opposition to Mugabe is the economy. He can rig the
ballot as he has done
for the last seven years, but he cannot rig the
economy."
Lauren
Gelfand is a freelance journalist and commentator with a special
interest in
African issues.
The Herald (Harare)
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
6 August 2007
Posted to the
web 6 August 2007
Daniel Nemukuyu
Harare
TOBACCO Sales Floor
has lost more than $4 billion to three suspected
fraudsters who allegedly
siphoned the money from its bank account through
Real Time Gross Services
(RTGS) transfers while Stanbic Bank lost more than
$2,285 billion in an
almost identical scam.
Two of the suspects in the TSF case, Ignatius
Mabena and Lovemore Munemo who
worked in cahoots, are alleged to have
siphoned $870 million while Murisi
Chirume is accused of defrauding the same
firm of $3,762 billion.
Mabena (34), who is employed by Marklight
Enterprises, and a friend,
Lovemore Munemo (31), have since been arrested
and were remanded out of
custody to August 20 this year on $35 million bail
each by a Harare
magistrate.
They were ordered to surrender their
travelling documents and not to
interfere with witnesses and
investigations.
Chirume's bail ruling will be heard today Mr Tawanda
Nyamasoka appeared for
the State.
According to the court papers,
Mabena held an account with Barclays Bank at
the time of the alleged
offence.
It is the State's case that on May 18 this year, the two
submitted documents
purporting that TSF had instructed the bank to transfer
$870 million from
its account to Mabena's.
As a result of the
misrepresentation, the funds were transferred from TSF
and deposited into
Mabena's account before the duo withdrew and converted
the money to their
personal use.
The company discovered the fraud when reconciling their
accounts and
reported the matter to the police leading to the arrest of the
two.
Chirume is being charged for fraudulently authorising the transfer
of $3,762
billion from TSF's account into his personal account.
In
the third case, a Stanbic Bank Samora Machel Avenue accounts executive
was
last week arrested on allegations of conniving with fraudsters to siphon
$2,285 billion from a city firm's bank account through the RTGS
facility.
Cynthia Mwaibongwe Chizwina (30) was not asked to plead to
fraud charges
when she appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Archie
Wochiunga.
She was remanded out of custody to August 20 on $20 million
bail coupled
with stringent conditions.
Chizwina was ordered to
surrender her travelling documents and to report
twice per week at Criminal
Investigations Department Frauds Squad.
Chizwina's duties included
managing non-bank financial institutions, one of
them identified as Prime
Stockbrokers.
She was also responsible for processing RTGS transfers and
payments by
verifying signatures and authorising payment.
The State,
led by prosecutor Mr Tawanda Nyamasoka, alleged that between July
16 and
July 20 this year, Chizwina connived with two fraudsters, who are
still at
large, to swindle Prime Stockbrokers.
They allegedly approached three
suppliers -- First Pack, Dar-Al-Salaam Agric
and Jeremiah Warikandwa -- from
whom they bought bond paper, engine oil and
furniture for which they
undertook to pay through RTGS.
The State further alleged that the trio
fraudulently filled in three RTGS
forms in the name of Prime Stockbrokers
and forged the signatures of the
firm's directors, Mr Guy Mulam and Mr Hugh
Strickland.
It was further alleged that the forms were sent to Chizwina
who fraudulently
authorised payment to the three companies.
The fraud
was discovered on July 23 during a routine bank reconciliation
exercise.