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| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
Muckraker
Trudy's Diary
Candid Comment
Speaking on behalf of Africa at the 11th summit of the G-l5 here, Cde Mugabe said the exploitation was perpetuated by such organisations as the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank.
The organisations lacked relevance as instruments of economic equity among nations.
"It is submitted that the record of these institutions is marked by incontrovertible evidence that they are the principal instruments of much of the social instability and poverty of most of us in the underdeveloped world.
"There is no wonder that all progressive civil societies in both the developed and the developing world have taken bold moves to question the relevance and legitimacy of these institutions, and they do so on our behalf.
"They are on the side of international justice and the plight of the poor. We should salute civil society for its re-awakening to this persistent justice," he told delegates who included several heads of state and government.
The world order had to be rejected for its injustice towards the economies and people of the developing world.
Without a review, world leaders would be guilty of "inaction and acquiescence" in the face of global economic inequity mainly promoted and sustained by the World Bank and IMF.
This state of affairs was also reflected in information technology where the availability of technology was unevenly skewed. This largely
resulted from colonial legacies.
"The developed world is dominated by G-8 countries who have, over the entire spread of two centuries, seen themselves as owners of other people’s lands and countries, masters over other people and subjugators of other people’ s cultures and civilisations. For as long as this lasted, the developed world has been too ready to regard all this as a divine order."
The President said the developing world had to respond to this inequity through struggles and revolutions, some of which were still being waged today.
"At the economic level, some nations are still economic colonies. This forum provides us with the opportunity for the sober reflection we need to find out why, despite the modern rhetoric in support of the economic recovery and group of developing countries, despite official development assistance programmes, nay, despite the prescriptions of the Bretton Woods institution and donor finance, our economies and peoples’ lives remain poor, marginalised and servile to the economies of the developed world, especially those of Europe and the United States.
"The struggle for economic emancipation, for economic self-expression and dignity has hardly been won by the majority of our people in the developing world."
He called for committed investment in the information sector, saying information had become a very powerful political, economic and cultural tool in the global village.
But, President Mugabe warned against the abuse of information technology, saying this was a threat to morality.
"We should express our concerns and take concrete regulatory steps to stem the intrusion of the undesirable, nay, destructive information and information habits in our societies.
"We observe, with dismay, the threat which the free information era poses to the sanity and purpose of our national communities, families, traditions a morals."
He urged the summit to come up with broad policy guidelines to protect "our people from contaminating or contaminated information".
Information providers should be mindful of the effect their messages had on communities. He urged caution in embracing globalisation, which should be based on a global consensus on the values and principles that should guide key institutions.
"Turning to the commanding institutions in world affairs today — notably the United Nations Security Council, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation — their relevance and contribution to global governance has to be re-conceived in the full view of their capacity to enhance democracy not only in relation to national governance, but also in relation to the conduct of affairs between nations."
Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad echoed President Mugabe’s concerns when he spoke on behalf of Asia.
Dr Mahathir, a renowned critic of globalisation, said globalisation had worsened the woes of the developing world.
"There is no doubt that globalisation has exacerbated the vulnerabilities of developing countries and eroded their national policy-making capacity. In the area of trade, for instance, developing countries have been unable to overcome the inequitable and declining terms of trade against that of the developed countries."
In its message to the summit, the United Nations urged member countries to work towards bridging the information divide between the developed and developing countries.
Cde Mugabe arrived here yesterday morning to join other heads of state and government from Africa, Asia and Latin America at the summit. He attended a retreat for Heads of Government in the afternoon.
The G-15 was established in 1989, originally comprising 15 member countries. Another four countries later joined the group, but leaders decided preserve the G-15 name.
Its membership comprises Zimbabwe, Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Venezuela.
Cde Mugabe later held bi-lateral talks with his Venezuelan counterpart Mr Hugo Shavaz. Details of the talks were not immediately available to the Press.
He later attended a dinner hosted by the host, President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Zimbabwean companies participating at an exhibition here have received export orders worth US$320 million.
The Government has signed a tax agreement to bolster their efforts. The agreement was signed with Indonesia yesterday to avoid double taxation. Foreign Affairs Minister, Cde Stan Mudenge, signed on behalf of the Government, while his Indonesian counterpart signed on behalf of the Indonesian government.
The agreement, which also seeks to enhance trade, was signed in the presence of the presidents of the two countries.
Chairman of Metropolitan Bank, Mr Enock Kamushinda, who is the leader and sponsor of the business delegation, said the orders mainly covered agriculture, leather, artefacts and horticultural products.
The Secretary for Industry and International Trade, Mr Stuart Comberbach, said the Indonesians were also interested in cotton, steel, beef, asbestos, nickel and yarn.
The stumbling block could be the payment arrangements as both countries were facing hard currency problems. But this was also taken care of in the agreement signed yesterday.
Under the agreement, the countries’ two central banks should soon hold discussions on a bilateral payments arrangement. The arrangement would increase trade in local currencies, with foreign currency only used at the end of the settlement period. Zimbabwe already has a similar arrangement with Malaysia.
In addition, two Zimbabwean commercial banks are here to negotiate payment arrangements with Indonesian correspondent banks. This would ensure that trade is facilitated without recourse to third party banks in developed countries.
Zimtrade manager (trade research and policy), Mrs Vonesai Hove, also said an Indonesian company had indicated that it wanted to go into partnership with Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company for the processing of steel and another wanted to export palm oil to Zimbabwe.
In addition, she said, there were companies keen to export rubber to Zimbabwe, as well as import asbestos. Indonesia imported 2 000 tonnes of asbestos from Zimbabwe annually before 1995 when it was hit by a foreign currency crisis.
Zimbabwe also supplies 0.22 percent of the Indonesian fabric requirements. There was potential for improvement in the area, said Mrs Hove.
"They want to buy a lot of things from us. We should increase trade."
Zimbabwe's opposition MDC had its most extensive round of official meetings in South Africa yet when it met ANC and government officials this week. "We have to work with the Zimbabwean government and other stakeholders to avoid a situation of total collapse," President Thabo Mbeki told the national assembly on the visit by Welshman Ncube, the secretary-general of the MDC. It was not the first time that the ANC had held meetings with MDC leaders. But it was the first time that Mbeki had publicly drawn attention to such meetings. Up to this week the government had been careful to make a clear distinction between interactions it had been having with the Zimbabwean government and interactions that the ANC as a party had been having with the MDC.
On Monday Kgalema Motlanthe, the secretary-general of the ANC, held talks with Ncube, who also met officials from the department of foreign affairs. Welile Nhlapo, the deputy director-general of foreign affairs, said he had planned to meet Ncube but had been unable to do so because of the visit of Lionel Jospin, the French prime minister. He defended the government's approach to Zimbabwe. "You're dealing with a country under severe attack. Mugabe himself is under attack and the tendency for a siege situation developing is there. South Africa is the only country engaging Zimbabwe. We have to stave off a situation which will have a major impact on South Africa."
Ncube said: "My meeting with the officials from the department of foreign affairs was at their request. The economic crisis [in Zimbabwe] is getting worse and the political environment and the security situation is also getting worse. We wish the South African government to use whatever influence it has in its dialogue with the Zimbabwean government." Ncube also met Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and Zimbabwean professionals and business people living in South Africa.
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Armed police seal off three campuses
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6/2/01 9:32:57 AM (GMT +2) |
Staff Reporter
Heavily armed policemen
yesterday barred students from three tertiary institutions in Harare from
marching into the city to protest against the privatisation of catering services
and to demand an increase on Vocational Training Loans (VTL).
The students at the Harare
Institute of Technology, Belvedere Teachers’ Training College (BTTC) and the
Harare Polytechnic College could not move out of their colleges into the city
after the police sealed the main gates.
Itai Zimunya, the vice-president of
the Zimbabwe National Students Union, (Zinasu) said the police were armed with
guns and teargas canisters and students were not allowed in or out of the
colleges.
“This will not deter us in our resolve to make sure that our loans
are increased and the privatisation issue is resolved once and for all,” said
Zimunya.
He said in Chitungwiza, 54 students from Seke Teachers’ College
were arrested and made to pay $200 admission of guilt fines for malicious injury
to property and public disorder.
Tinashe Chimedza, Zinasu’s
secretary-general, was detained for five hours on Wednesday and was only
released after the intervention of Zinasu’s lawyer, Solomon Sacco of Kantor and
Immerman.
Chimedza had addressed students who had marched to The Herald
newspaper office calling on the paper to report the students’ strike accurately.
Students have gone on an indefinite strike countrywide calling for a review
of the VTL’s and the scrapping of privatisation of catering services.
Ministers named in
Chinese casino deal  By Basildon Peta, News Editor
5/31/01 7:26:45 PM (GMT +2) TWO Zimbabwean government ministers have been implicated in a questionable deal that has resulted in some Chinese businessmen operating what could be one of the country's real top-flight casinos in Mazowe. | |
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Local businessmen this week
questioned how the Chinese were awarded the lucrative casino licence at the
non-star hotel near the citrus estate when top hotels such as the Elephant Hills
at Victoria Falls, Troutbeck Inn in the picturesque Nyanga area and Bulawayo Sun
have failed to secure licences. |
HARARE, June 2 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's controversial war veterans' leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi, who collapsed over a week ago, has been admitted to hospital again and is critically ill, state media reported on Saturday.
State news agency ZIANA said Hunzvi was readmitted into Harare's Parirenyatwa Hospital on Friday and transferred to its coronary care unit on Saturday morning.
"His condition is said to be critical," the agency said.
Hunzvi, 51, was initially admitted at Bulawayo Hospitals late last month after collapsing at a hotel. State media said then he was suffering from malaria.
Hunzvi spearheaded a violent war veterans' campaign last year against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which analysts say helped President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party win closely-fought parliamentary elections.
At least 31 people, most of them opposition supporters, died in the violence.
The MDC, riding on an economic crisis widely blamed on government mismanagement, grabbed nearly half of the 120 contested seats, ending a virtual parliamentary majority the ruling party had enjoyed since independence from Britain in 1980.
STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2001--For many years, AIDS care and treatment in Africa has long been dismissed as unfeasible -- the drug therapies too expensive, the health care infrastructure too inadequate and the infection rate too great. But a Stanford University Medical Center researcher who has spent three to four months a year in Africa since 1989 is tackling the problem head on, launching pilot projects with limited populations in Zimbabwe to get people on the life-saving medications that are widely available in the West.
David Katzenstein, MD, associate professor of medicine, has gone from doctor/scientist to self-proclaimed activist. "There has been precious little attention paid to the 95 percent of people with AIDS living outside of the United States," said Katzenstein, who specializes in infectious diseases and geographic medicine. "Until a few months ago, no one thought it was feasible to treat AIDS in Africa. Not even me."
Katzenstein has created AIDS Care and Treatment Now, or ACT Now, a not-for-profit organization established to bring care and treatment to Africa. Through the organization, Katzenstein is developing the first HIV clinic in Zimbabwe, which is scheduled to open by August of this year. In a pilot project, the clinic will treat 1,000 University of Zimbabwe employees who are covered by CIMAS, the country's largest health insurance company. In addition to testing and counseling, the clinic will provide primary care and appropriate pharmaceutical treatment for HIV infection.
The primary limitation restricting the use of antiretroviral therapies for HIV-infected Africans has been cost -- a factor that is rapidly changing with the advent of generic drugs and negotiated price agreements between governments and pharmaceutical companies. At the current cost of $1,000 per year, treatment is within the reach of thousands, if not millions, of HIV-infected individuals in Africa, Katzenstein said.
In addition to setting up clinics, ACT Now will facilitate training sessions between AIDS experts and African practitioners to set up treatment protocols for antiretroviral therapies. Katzenstein, along with 12 other experts from the United States, Europe and Australia, will travel to Africa at the end of June to train 200-300 African physicians, nurse-midwives, pharmacists, nutritionists and community-outreach and social workers.
"We will begin by developing a private-sector model," Katzenstein explained, "and then determine how to transfer that structure and knowledge to treating the general community." The goal? To build a sustainable health care infrastructure that will ultimately be led by Africans.
"Unless we are able to affect the HIV crisis differently in Africa, people will continue to die," he said. "Morally, it's more satisfying to try, even if you fail. At least you've tried to do something."
Of the estimated 35 million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS, 25 million reside in the southern and eastern portions of Africa, a region known as the sub-Sahara. In Zimbabwe, one in four people are infected with HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS. "This is resulting in more than 150,000 unnecessary deaths each year in Zimbabwe due to HIV," Katzenstein said. "This strikes me as injustice on a grand scale. It's a grand apartheid in terms of resources."
In the United States, where powerful antiretroviral therapies have been available for the past five to six years, the death rate from HIV has plummeted 90 percent. "The disparate availability of resources is not only unfair, it is morally intolerable," Katzenstein added. --30--alx/sf* CONTACT: Stanford University Medical Center
HARARE/JOHANNESBURG, May 31 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe, a fertile land once described as sub-Saharan Africa's breadbasket, faces food shortages and possible civil unrest by the end of the year, economic analysts say.
With Zimbabwe's maize stocks running out, they say it will be in South Africa's own interest to bail out President Robert Mugabe's government to prevent regional turmoil.
"I think at the very end of the year...we do face the problem of not enough food especially in the southern parts of the country," said Harare's leading private economic consultant John Robertson, adding this could quickly spread nationwide.
"I can easily imagine street riots and massive demonstrations against the government," Robertson told Reuters, saying food price hikes expected in the next three months would also meet with resistence.
He predicted that farmers angry over low prices would begin to hoard more maize, restricting supplies to milling companies and making imports of the country's staple crop critical.
Last year Mugabe's government deployed police and reserve army units to quell food riots that gripped Harare's poor black townships for three days in protest against soaring prices.
In 1998 similar riots left seven people dead, forcing Mugabe to order troops onto the streets.
"If there is a serious food crisis in Zimbabwe it will be in South Africa's interests to make sure there is enough food available to ensure stability in Zimbabwe and the region," said Jakkie Potgieter of Pretoria's Institute for Security Studies.
LOOMING RIOTS?
Britain's Guardian newspaper reported this week that some top Zimbabwe officers had secretly told the South African government that a looming food shortage in Zimbabwe would create a flashpoint for more riots.
But Mugabe's government and the army have denied the report which quoted army officers as saying they would opt to overthrow Mugabe rather than act on orders to quell unrest.
Eddie Cross, economic critic for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said maize supplies have been tight since June because growers unhappy with prices were dragging their feet in delivering to the state Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
"The GMB producer price is too low to attract early deliveries of maize," said Cross.
The Commercial Farmers Union, whose members produced 40 to 45 percent of the maize crop over the past decade, says output in 2000/01 season fell to 385,000 tonnes from 800,000 tonnes.
Aside from delays in payment for farmers' crops, production was also disrupted last year by war veterans occupying hundreds of white-owned farms.
The government insists there are enough maize stocks to meet domestic demand.
But the U.S.-based Famine Early Warning System has said Zimbabwe will run out of maize between in early 2002 unless it imports grain to cover an estimated 500,000 tonne deficit.
Grain SA has factored into its estimates of South African grain exports about 300,000 tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe, but the demand would probably be higher.
"The Zimbabwe situation is serious and one of the big questions is whether they can pay for maize imports," said the organisation's director of research Kit le Clus.
Zimbabwe's government admitted earlier this year it was living from hand to mouth as far as its import requirements were concerned because of a critical shortage of foreign currency.
"Zimbabwe will have to be seen not through political eyes but through absolutely humanitarian eyes. We'll have to see what surplus food we have to send there and encourage international organisations to do the same," said Herman Hanekom, a senior analyst at the Pretoria-based Africa Institute.
Even if food riots did erupt in Zimbabwe and developed into political upheaval, they were unlikely to topple Mugabe.
"Mugabe is too well entrenched militarily," Hanekom said.
Analysts said it would be difficult for Zimbabwe to attract food aid from outside Africa because of Mugabe's strained relations with the West over his controversial plans to seize white farms for redistribution to blacks.
"We have behaved badly and the donor countries don't want to know any of our problems. At the moment we are in great danger of not getting any help," said Robertson.
HARARE, May 31 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling party has filed an application to the High Court to challenge the victory of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change in a key mayoral election, officials said on Thursday.
Analysts said the opposition victory in the mayoral contest in the southern city of Masvingo was a clear warning to President Robert Mugabe ahead of presidential elections next year.
Jacob Chademana, who represented Mugabe's ZANU-PF party in the mayoral contest in Masvingo earlier this month, said the MDC had won fraudulently.
"We have gone to court because it is my belief that some of the voters had physical addresses which were non-existent within the Masvingo municipal area," he told reporters.
Chademana lost to Alois Chaimiti of the MDC, whose election made him the first opposition executive mayor in the country.
Political analysts said the MDC's victory after a violent campaign by ZANU-PF militants was a warning to Mugabe that voters were likely to punish his ruling party if it continued to try to manipulate their will through violence or fraud.
Zimbabweans will vote in presidential elections next year in which Mugabe will seek another six-year term to extend his 21 years in power since steering Zimbabwe to independence from Britain in 1980.
Parliamentary elections last year were marred by a violent campaign and seizure of white-owned farm land by self-styled war veterans and the death of at least 31 people, mainly MDC supporters.
HARARE, May 30 (Reuters) - The commander of Zimbabwe's joint forces on Wednesday dismissed a report that some army officers had threatened a coup against President Robert Mugabe in the event of food riots.
"It is not true. It is misleading Zimbabweans that the uniformed (forces) are no more genuine to the government of the day. We are committed and loyal...," General Vitalis Zvinavashe said in remarks carried on state television.
Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that some army officers had threatened to stage a coup against Mugabe if a growing political and economic crisis resulted in riots.
In a special report from Pretoria, the Guardian said some top commanders, including long-serving and trusted officers, had told the South African government a looming food shortage had the potential to spark such riots.
It said any coup attempt was likely to be led by airforce commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri.
"There is only one commander in the Zimbabwe Defences Forces. I am the commander. The army commander, the airforce commander fall under (me)," said Zvinavashe, who was flanked by Shiri and the army commander, Lieutenant-General Constantine Chiwenga.
"What is being mentioned (about) them is not right. There is nothing that is going to happen that way. We are one, we are going to remain united. We know what we are there for, what is our responsibility. That is to defend this country."
Mugabe's government, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, said on Tuesday the report had been planted by opponents of the government to incite violence, spark a witch-hunt and create divisions in government ranks.
South African President Thabo Mbeki told parliament on Wednesday he was not aware of any coup plan.
HARARE, May 30 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe may lose power when he faces an angry electorate next year, but there are no signs of a serious threat from his ruling party or the army command, analysts said on Wednesday.
Mugabe's main political rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, also said there was no reason to believe the army wanted to seize power or to abort the democratic process.
Mugabe himself has shown no signs of worry.
The 77-year-old Zimbabwean leader, who has ruled the southern African country for two decades, calmly bade farewell to his ministers and military brass on Wednesday before departing for a trip to Indonesia.
"The real threat Mugabe is facing at this stage is from the opposition, not his followers or the military," said Masipula Sithole, one of Zimbabwe's leading political analysts.
"For all of them -- Mugabe, party leaders and the army high command -- the challenge is collective political survival."
Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that some senior Zimbabwean army officers had told neighbouring South Africa they might stage a coup against Mugabe if Zimbabwe's growing political and economic crisis resulted in riots.
The officers reportedly said they would rather seize power than be used by Mugabe to crush riots likely to break out due to a looming food shortage.
The government dismissed the story, saying it had been planted by opponents to destabilise the country, incite violence and sow divisions in government.
ARMY SWEARS LOYALITY
The commander of Zimbabwe's joint forces said on national television on Wednesday that the army was "loyal and committed" to the government.
The 40,000-strong army -- comprising independence war veterans, young recruits born after 1980 and former Rhodesian soldiers -- has in the past shown no appetite for politics.
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe's most serious political challenger, also doubted the coup rumours.
"We have no doubt that the army wants to be seen as a professional army and will not want to get involved in power politics," he told Reuters.
Sithole predicted that Mugabe and his close lieutenants in the party and army were busy devising a strategy to win next year's presidential elections "by hook or by crook."
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party barely defeated the MDC in parliamentary elections marred by a violent campaign against the opposition led by veterans of the 1970s liberation war against white-ruled Rhodesia.
"A coup is not an option," Sithole said.
"A coup against Mugabe or the opposition is not only unattainable, it is politically unsustainable. It is practically difficult to achieve in an army where the rank and file wants to stay out of politics," he added.
Analysts say Mugabe has consolidated his power within ZANU-PF through a well-developed political patronage system and by fanning divisions among potential rivals.
He has also purged ZANU-PF ranks of competitors, making a challenge from within the party unlikely.
LUCRATIVE CONGO DEALS
In the army, Mugabe has kept the senior officer corps -- many of whom fought alongside the former guerrilla leader -- loyal by either co-opting them into ZANU-PF structures or smoothing their entry into lucrative business schemes.
Analysts say top army officers are profiting from mining ventures in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia have thousands of troops backing the Kinshasa government against rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda. The government has denied these allegations.
"I think the majority of the military brass is by and large happy," said University of Zimbabwe analyst John Makumbe.
"Some of them may have fears that their fortunes will change with a new government. They may try to get the army to defend ZANU-PF and Mugabe, but not the other way round."
He said Mugabe might be looking for an opportunity to declare a state of emergency and use the army against his opponents.
Soldiers have been deployed in some Zimbabwe townships since the parliamentary polls last year to pressure supporters of the MDC, which enjoys strong backing in urban centres.
Mugabe's biggest threat is facing an electorate increasingly angry over their worsening economic plight, analysts say.
The country is struggling with acute foreign currency and fuel shortages, and economists fear food shortages due to low production from farms illegally occupied by squatters since land invasions began a year ago.
May 31, 2001 (UN Integrated Regional Information Network/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX)-- President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe told a summit of developing nations on Wednesday that the information age should be regulated so that the Internet does not "poison societies", news reports said.
Mugabe, speaking at the summit of the Group of 15 developing countries in Indonesia, said that globalisation was "extending the economic dominance that the United States and Europe have enjoyed over the world since the days of colonialism and slavery". Mugabe added that "undesirable" information should be regulated, including pornography, disinformation, popularisation of crime and the "character assassination of public office holders and governments".
"The toll-free and regulation-free information highways and the Internet threaten the very being and essence of our nations and communities," Mugabe said. Information providers had a "heavy responsibility" over their content, he said. The summit is expected to issue a declaration urging a united stand to bridge the gap in information technology with rich countries. Many leaders called the gap a handicap preventing the poor from benefiting from globalisation.
From News24 (SA), 3 June
Hitler Hunzvi 'critically ill'
Harare - One of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's staunchest supporters, war veteran leader Chenjerai Hunzvi is critically ill in a hospital in Harare, state news agency Ziana reported Saturday. Police were guarding Hunzvi - who has spearheaded the invasions of around 1 700 white-owned farms here - in an intensive care unit in the city's main hospital, Ziana said. Hunzvi's illness comes a week after the death of another Zanu-PF stalwart, defence minister Moven Mahachi. Mahachi was killed less than a month after gender and employment minister Border Gezi. Both died in car crashes. Last week Hunzvi collapsed and spent several days in hospital in the city of Bulawayo, reportedly suffering from malaria, the news agency said. It was not clear what illness Hunzvi was suffering from on Saturday. The controversial war veteran leader is also a member of parliament for Mugabe's governing Zanu-PF party.
From The Sunday Times (UK), 3 June
Mugabe's men on the run from witchcraft
RW Johnson
Zimbabwe’s embattled president, Robert Mugabe, is facing a new crisis: a growing belief among his followers that he and his government have become the victims of black magic, and that bad luck follows them at every turn. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the much feared former head of the secret police and Mugabe's designated successor, was visibly troubled when he went on television last week to discuss recent setbacks, including the deaths of two ministers in separate road accidents. "We don't know what is hitting us," he lamented. "It's not natural. Something else must be happening." A regional leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party went further, saying: "We fear the hand of Lucifer is at work."
The comments follow an unprecedented sequence of disasters for Mugabe. First, his brutal and dynamic campaign organiser, Border Gezi, was killed in a car crash. Gezi had created a slush fund within his Ministry for Youth and Job Creation that was used to pay election bribes in every municipal poll and parliamentary by-election. Mugabe had been counting on Gezi to get him re-elected as president next year. His trade minister, Nkosana Moyo, quietly shipped himself and his family to the safety of South Africa before announcing he had resigned from the cabinet on the grounds that Mugabe's policies had made his job impossible. Then the defence minister, Moven Mahachi, was killed in another car accident. Mahachi, an unconditional loyalist, was responsible for the detention and torture of two leading black journalists last year.
The opposition MDC had earlier persuaded a court to set aside several election results because widespread violence by Mugabe's party meant they had not been fair. The judge brave enough to reach this decision had to resign the next day but a legal precedent had been set for MDC challenges in more than two dozen other seats. Meanwhile, the invasions of urban businesses by Mugabe's shock troops, the war veterans, have rebounded so badly that they not only had to be called off, but the government claimed they had been carried out by "rogue elements".
Among Zanu-PF's often superstitious supporters, the greatest impact has come from the deaths of Gezi and Mahachi and the electrifying news that Hitler Hunzvi, the war veterans' leader who led the invasions of white farms, had collapsed. Conscious that his macho image was on the line, Hunzvi discharged himself a few days later, but he has collapsed again and is officially back in hospital suffering from "cerebral malaria". On the streets of Harare, the word is that all this is the work of a powerful sangoma (witchdoctor) the MDC is said to have brought from South Africa - a rumour the opposition ridicules.
But such superstition has permeated even the educated elite. When Mugabe approached several leading businessmen about taking over the trade ministry, he was turned down. "To get involved with Mugabe is to invite bad luck into your life," said one. Although Mugabe is notionally a Catholic, he has increasingly fallen back on the tribal religions that many Zimbabweans combine to a greater or lesser degree with Christianity.
Mugabe's supporters are vocal in their traditionalist beliefs. The war vets have their own spirit medium, Sekuru Mushore, whose dictum is that "those who die killing a white man will have no sin before Jehovah". Mushore has his troubles with the law because he openly insists that using marijuana and having sex with young women are legitimate parts of the rituals he performs. Similarly, many of Mugabe's rural supporters belong to the Va Pastori church, whose followers proclaim a brand of Christianity but are frequently caught up in witchcraft rituals. But Mugabe's encouragement of tribal religion and scorn for the modern world has now rebounded on him, for his authority and air of invulnerability has been badly dented by the "black magic" explanations for his run of bad luck.
From The Sunday Independent (SA), 3 June
Mbeki lifts lid on talks with MDC
Zimbabwe's opposition MDC had its most extensive round of official meetings in South Africa yet when it met ANC and government officials this week. "We have to work with the Zimbabwean government and other stakeholders to avoid a situation of total collapse," President Thabo Mbeki told the national assembly on the visit by Welshman Ncube, the secretary-general of the MDC. It was not the first time that the ANC had held meetings with MDC leaders. But it was the first time that Mbeki had publicly drawn attention to such meetings. Up to this week the government had been careful to make a clear distinction between interactions it had been having with the Zimbabwean government and interactions that the ANC as a party had been having with the MDC.
On Monday Kgalema Motlanthe, the secretary-general of the ANC, held talks with Ncube, who also met officials from the department of foreign affairs. Welile Nhlapo, the deputy director-general of foreign affairs, said he had planned to meet Ncube but had been unable to do so because of the visit of Lionel Jospin, the French prime minister. He defended the government's approach to Zimbabwe. "You're dealing with a country under severe attack. Mugabe himself is under attack and the tendency for a siege situation developing is there. South Africa is the only country engaging Zimbabwe. We have to stave off a situation which will have a major impact on South Africa."
Ncube said: "My meeting with the officials from the department of foreign affairs was at their request. The economic crisis [in Zimbabwe] is getting worse and the political environment and the security situation is also getting worse. We wish the South African government to use whatever influence it has in its dialogue with the Zimbabwean government." Ncube also met Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and Zimbabwean professionals and business people living in South Africa.
From News24 (SA), 3 June
Second Zim judge quits
Harare - After months of state-backed pressure on the judiciary, a second judge has resigned his post, court officials said on Friday. Judge Ishmael Chatikobo submitted his letter of resignation on Wednesday but refused the make public his reasons for going, his office in the High Court said. Chatikobo, who served as a judge for four years, angered the government last year when he ordered police to stop a raid on a private radio station pending the outcome of its appeal of an order for it to shut down.
Zimbabwe's independent judiciary has come under intense pressure in recent months for its rulings against the government of President Robert Mugabe. Ruling party militants have threatened judges and the government has refused to protect them against potential attacks. High Court Judge James Devittie, who struck down three ruling party election victories on the grounds they were tainted by violence, resigned May 8 from the High Court. His resignation came days after ruling party militants accused him of bias toward the opposition MDC.
Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, who is white, agreed in March to take early retirement after the government said it could not guarantee his safety. Hundreds of militants stormed the Supreme Court November 24 shouting, "Kill the judges." None of the militants were prosecuted. A report in April by the International Bar Association condemned what it called "unrelenting and vicious" harassment of judges by government officials and ruling party militants, saying it put "the very fabric of democracy at risk".
Chatikobo issued a restraining order in October after the court had closed for the day demanding police stop a raid on the private Capital Radio station, one of two private stations that went on the air after the Supreme Court declared the government's broadcast monopoly unconstitutional. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo accused the judge of playing a role in a sinister scene of "night lawyers going to see night judges in a night court to seek night justice." The radio stations were banned the next day by a presidential decree. Last month, lawmakers passed stringent broadcast laws. Capital Radio is to challenge the new laws as a violation of free expression. State radio remains almost the sole source of information for the rural poor -about 70 percent of the population - ahead of presidential elections that must be held by early next year.
The government has repeatedly come into conflict with the courts in recent years as judges ruled against its program to seize white-owned farms and found unconstitutional a decree by Mugabe preventing challenges to the results of parliamentary elections last June. The High Court has yet to rule on another 27 opposition lawsuits challenging election results on grounds of violence and corruption.
Comment from The Daily News, 2 June
Never mind talk of a coup: where is the maize?
The last time a newspaper published a story alleging there was an attempted coup in Zimbabwe, two journalists were tortured by soldiers. The country received so much adverse but justified negative publicity, it has still not recovered. Today, President Mugabe is counted among the worst enemies of a free Press in the world. This week, after the story of an impending coup, no journalists have been tortured. In any case, a far more urgent question is: is there enough maize?
As to the idea of a military coup, we agree with President Thabo Mbeki that it provides no lasting solution to the problems of any country. Military coups have never improved the stability of the countries in which they have been staged. Most coup leaders are crooks, anyway, their preoccupation being with the looting of the country's coffers, which they invariably empty before they hand over to a civilian government. Nigeria and the DRC are prime examples.
What is the maize supply situation as we write this? Most analysts have predicted so serious a food shortage that there may not be enough of the staple for the whole country. If that speculation is even half true, then there is trouble ahead. We are dealing with a government which has honed the art of being economical with the truth to a fine art. Their statements on the fuel situation provide a catalogue of so many half-truths and downright untruths, whatever they say on the maize situation has to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
Most of the analysts are agreed that we will not produce the 2,1 million tonnes that the country needs to be self-sufficient. Only 1,4 million tonnes will be available. Of this figure, 40 percent is unfit for human consumption. Clearly, this shortfall will have to be imported to make up for the substandard crop, which may end up as stock feed. To import the maize, the government will need foreign currency and there is such a dearth of that commodity there is still no end in sight to the fuel crisis, which hinges on foreign currency.
But the official government line is that there will be no problem. South Africa is expected to lend a helping hand, yet the indications from down south are that South Africa is not expecting a bumper maize crop either, at least not so abundant that they can afford to spare some for Zimbabwe. This government may be so arrogant it will not come clean on the prospects of a maize crisis, but someone ought to remind them there are precious lives involved here. The time for political games with the people's lives is over.
We know that Cabinet ministers such as Joseph Made may be keen to implement their political brief to the letter - do everything to get President Mugabe re-elected, never mind the cost in human lives. But the people may not be as docile as they have been in the past. Zimbabwe today is not inhabited by the timid, docile and malleable population of the first years of independence. Today, people are demanding accountability and if they don't get it, they will show their anger in one way or another, never mind the threat of violence from the war veterans. So, unless this government is prepared for the fury of a hungry people, it would be well-advised to ensure that there will be enough maize until the next harvest. The tendency may be for the government to dismiss the food riots of the last few years as non-events deserving only incidental attention from the authorities. This would be a fatal miscalculation. The people are angrier now than they were in 1997 and 1998. The level of their deprivation has deepened and the antics of the war veterans have not lessened their mood of confrontation.
President Mbeki, for his part, has unfortunately decided to content himself with seeing the situation in this country as strictly a struggle between black and white. He told the South African Parliament earlier this week of what he had been told were the reasons for the decay of Parirenyatwa Hospital, which started its life as Andrew Fleming. According to his information, as soon as the hospital was opened up to the people after independence, it could not cope and standards declined. But that is not the whole truth, is it? One good reason was that more money was being spent on defence than on health. This government still prefers guns to glucose.
