The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
Sadc leaders nail Mugabe
Harare - Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate surged to a record 76,1 percent
last month, figures released yesterday showed, fanning fears of a triple-digit
figure by the end of this year.
The Central Statistical Office said the
consumer price index rose from 70,1 percent in July, outpacing the previous
record of 70,4 percent in October 1999.
"The figure doesn't surprise me
because the parallel market rate has impacted on prices all around," said Tony
Hawkins, a business studies professor at the University of Zimbabwe.
He
was referring to the black market rate of over Z$350 to the US dollar during an
acute foreign currency shortage. The official rate has been pegged at Z$55 to
the dollar since last November.
The stats office attributed the increase
to rising prices of bread and cereals, rent and rates, beverages, vehicle
running costs and public transport. - Reuters
By Ed O'Loughlin in Johannesburg
Zimbabwe's bloody land war could be far from over, experts warn, despite an agreement from President Robert Mugabe this week to halt attacks on white-owned farms.
Although Mr Mugabe accepted a Commonwealth-brokered agreement to halt the violence on Sunday, farmers said scattered incidents continued to occur in various parts of the country during the week.
Some regional observers say they fear the beleaguered 77-year-old President may be planning to renege on a deal that was largely forced on him by fellow African states.
While Mr Mugabe has described the invasion of more than 1,700 white-owned farms as a popular protest at colonial-era land ownership, his critics say the President has deliberately fanned the violence in an attempt to boost his own flagging popularity.
More than 30 opposition supporters, nine white farmers and dozens of black farm workers have been killed by gangs of pro-Mugabe militants since the Government suffered a shock defeat in a referendum in February last year.
Dr John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, said that the deal brokered in Abuja, Nigeria, amounted to nothing more than a United Nations package that Mr Mugabe accepted and then promptly rejected three years ago.
"The 1998 deal was requiring a transparent approach to land reform, full compensation for the land which the Government acquired and also a non-violent approach. The 'fast track' program which Mugabe established in February 2000 violates all those principles," he said.
"For the deal to stick he has to order the war veterans and the persons occupying invaded farms to go away, and he is not about to do that. To do that would be to commit political suicide in terms of the 2002 elections."
A South Africa-based regional analyst said he thought it "extremely improbable" that Mr Mugabe would abandon his campaign so easily.
"In terms of winning a national election he has no other vision," he said. "He has no answer at all to the political and economic crisis he has created."
After 22 years of rule by Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, the once wealthy Zimbabwe is lurching along on the edge of total collapse.
Chronic fuel and foreign-exchange shortages have crippled industry, and the land invasions have disrupted Zimbabwe's biggest single source of foreign currency and exacerbated food shortages, with the UN warning of possible famine early next year.
On Monday a group of regional African leaders, worried about the destabilising effect on their own economies, flew to Harare to pressure the erratic Mr Mugabe to implement the deal he had agreed to the day before.
Mr Mugabe's Zimbabwean supporters were shocked and angered when the group's chairman, Malawian President Bakili Muluzi, said Zimbabwe was damaging economies in the region and creating hopelessness at home. The violence associated with the land campaign had undermined the strong moral basis for land reform, he said.
Some analysts hope Mr Mugabe's realisation that he is isolated from his fellow African leaders may encourage him to honour this deal, having dishonoured so many others before.
Others doubt he will resist the temptation to raise the political temperature as his popularity keeps declining.
"A week after the [1998 Harare land] conference he was going to accept everything," said an analyst at a Johannesburg think tank. "A few days later he was screaming that he wouldn't pay a penny for the land and he would never bow to the British. We could well see that again."
Tribal clashes on farms
Business cartel cleans out local consumer goods
HARARE, Sept 13: Representatives of a United States-based election
support organisation left Harare on Thursday after being expelled by President
Robert Mugabe's government, officials confirmed.
Thomas Bayer, director
of programmes in Africa and the Near East for the International Foundation for
Election Systems, said today he was about to fly out of Harare international
airport, but was unable to give further details immediately.
However,
Western diplomatic sources who asked not to be named confirmed that Bayer and
Laurie Cooper, the IFES's senior programme officer in the regions, were ordered
by immigration officials on Wednesday to leave today, despite a plea by the pair
to be allowed to go on Saturday.
They arrived in Harare a week ago,
planning to offer assistance to the Zimbabwe government and non-governmental
organisations to prepare for presidential elections due by the end of March next
year. Their offer was rebuffed by registrar-general Tobaiwa Mudede, the
government official whose office is solely in charge of elections, although they
were able to meet non-governmental organisations, the sources said.
Bayer and Cooper were called to a meeting with immigration officials on
Wednesday and given their orders to leave. "They were not deported," the source
said. "The officials said they were welcome to come back, but only as tourists.
"What the government really means is that it is not going to have anyone
here who they believe is going to 'interfere' with their running of elections.
It's clear they doesn't want observers here next year." IFES is an
internationally respected, non-partisan organisation that has helped organise
democratic elections all over the world, including Africa.
They have
been involved in elections in South Africa. "They are a really well-known
professional operation," said the diplomat. There are deep concerns that
Mugabe's regime will try to rig next year's elections where for the first time
in his 21-year rule he will face a likelihood of defeat.
In
parliamentary elections in June last year Mugabe's ruling ZANU(PF) party
narrowly beat the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the vote for the
country's 120 constituencies, but secured a majority through constitutional
provisions that allow the 77-year- old dictator to choose an extra 30 MPs.
Repeated appeals by opposition parties and civic groups for an
independent electoral commission to run elections and for wide- ranging
electoral reforms have been rejected by the government.
Recently the
government said it would ban any non-governmental organisations from being
involved in elections.
Until now, church and civic organisations have
been heavily involved as election monitors and observers. Observers say Mugabe's
lawless militias have escalated their 19-month campaign of violence and
intimidation ahead of next year's elections.-dpa
The protest is organised by concerned Zimbabweans and supporters, Human rights campaigners, Church groups and organisations, gay rights organisations and environmentalists. Possibly the last protest outside Zimbabwe House before the end of the year 2001. This protest shall coincide with the CHOGM meeting/protests taking place in Brisbane Australia. The protest will focus on:
Or
From News24 (SA), 13 September
Featherstone, Zimbabwe - With boxes of matches as their only weapons, President Robert Mugabe's lawless militias have launched a new offensive against the country's white farmers - engulfing huge areas of the countryside in flame. In just over two weeks, about two-thirds of all grazing in the drier cattle-ranching regions that cover most of the country has been destroyed by fires raging across hundreds of thousands of hectares, often for days on end. Two people, believed to be the children of squatters, were burnt to death last week. There are widespread reports of animals dying in fires, including 57 young ostriches in the western district of Nyamandlovu this week.
Fires are part of the natural cycle of the bush in the hot, dry months before the start of the rainy season, but there is no doubt that nearly all of it now is arson, says the Commercial Farmers' Union. This year's fires are three times worse than last year's, which was the worst ever and coincided with the invasion of white-owned farms by state-driven squatters. "The effect on the cattle industry is catastrophic," said CFU deputy director Jerry Grant. "There is wholesale destocking and slaughter because ranchers have nowhere to feed their cattle. "The national commercial herd is down to 1.2 million and it's shrinking fast. We will never meet our European export quotas of 9 000 tonnes again," he said.
The district of Featherstone, about 100 kilometres south of Harare and one of the country's major beef producing areas, is probably the worst hit, with 80% of all grazing gone up in smoke. Kilometre after kilometre along the district roads, the veld on either side is a sea of black, with small piles of white ash where trees smouldered away. "On some days it's so bad, you can hardly see the sun," said local farmers' association chairman Les Mallet. "It's as dark as it was during the solar eclipse in June." The worst was a three-day conflagration that swept through an entire 33 000 ha ranch. Sometimes farmers faced with up to five fires breaking out in a day.
Boetie O'Neill, 36, has managed to save two-thirds of his ranch, thanks to his home-made fire brigade - three tractor-drawn trailers, each carrying a 2 000 litre water bowser - that has doused scores of blazes on his own and his neighbours' farms. But the fires in Featherstone are only a part of demoralising strategy of harassment, violence and intimidation against the farmers. The real name of the game is extortion. Last week the squatters on his ranch drove his animals out of the paddocks and on to the main tar road where they have no water and no grass, and stand the chance of being hit by a vehicle. Four new-born calves died in the heat. Police ignored calls for help. O'Neill asked the squatters what he should do with his cattle. The land now belonged to them, they said, but he could graze his animals on unburned parts of the ranch - for a fee. On Friday last week, O'Neill, who in two years has almost doubled the carrying capacity of his pasture through revolutionary grazing techniques in the last two years, paid out Z$123 000 for the right to graze his animals on his own land. "Then they caught me out," he said. "First they said it was for six weeks until the middle of October. But after I had paid them, they moved the goalposts. They said it was only for seven days."
The paper chase doesn't stop there. This week the squatters admitted to him that the money they raised went mostly on paying the roaming mobs of ruling party youths, Mugabe's violent political troopers in the commercial farming areas. The daily wage of 500 Zimbabwe dollars a day is an enormous sum of money for unemployed youths lifted off the streets by Zanu PF. In an ultimate irony, O'Neill is paying for the lawless thugs who make a misery of his life and those of his family and his 60 workers, 30 of whom he was forced recently to retrench. A new ultimatum came this week. He was told he had to get all his cattle off the ranch. He has to meet the squatters, war veterans and party youths on Sunday. "What they want is for us to pack our suitcases and leave them the cattle," he said. "If the meeting doesn't go well, I will slaughter everything. And I am not going anywhere.
Constitutional Assembly Threatens Mass Action If Government Shuns Free, Fair Poll Proposals
September 14, 2001
Posted to the web September 13, 2001
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) said it would mobilise Zimbabweans to embark on mass action, and would also lobby international support against the government, if it refused to implement the NCA's proposals to guarantee free and fair presidential polls scheduled for next year, the 'Financial Gazette' reported on Thursday.
NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku said the implementation of minimum requirements needed to guarantee free and fair elections was a matter of life and death for the NCA and that the civic group would not back down. "We won't give up. We will die on that one," he was quoted as saying. Madhuka said the NCA would present two options to the government.
"The first option will be for the government to adopt and enact our draft constitution which we will present to them by December. The draft constitution has permanent mechanisms to guarantee free and fair elections. If for some reason the government decides to postpone the issue of the constitution until after the presidential elections, then it would have to implement the minimum requirements that we have suggested for the holding of free and fair elections. That will be a fair compromise and we will agree to that," he told the 'Financial Gazette'.
Madhuka added that if the government did not adopt the NCA constitution, the organisation wanted an independent electoral commission to run the elections. He said that the NCA wanted the voters roll to be updated and verified well in advance of the elections and for equal air time and space to be given to the opposition in the public media. "It's either that the government enacts the new constitution or effects these minimum requirements or we will take to the streets," Madhuku said.
He said the NCA would also lobby the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the European Union and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to apply pressure on the government to ensure the implementation of the minimum conditions. The NCA wanted to make representations on these issues to the SADC leaders from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique who met in Harare on the land crisis this week, but was excluded from civic groups which met the leaders, the report said.
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YOU can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, says the old saying. And eighteen months ago, most right thinking Zimbabweans were saying that the country needs to break an awful lot of eggs, that in order to rebuild what was once a prosperous little African country, a destructive catharsis was essential. Zimbabwe will only emerge stronger and fitter after the present cancer is removed, but that the removal is going to be a cruel and painful process.
This paper said the same thing. We said the birth of a new Zimbabwe would be traumatic and painful, but that it would happen and Zimbabwe would once again be able to raise its head with pride.
Perhaps the message was given too early. When told that the fight would be long and hard, people may have nodded sagely, but it’s doubtful they really took it in. It was, after all, just another opinion, one of many and perhaps the least agreeable. On the other side of the great divide, there were those who promised salvation through acquiescence. They said that sitting at the feet of Zimbabwe’s leaders and fawning appropriately would soon put things right. Since then a thousand promises have been broken, though not, interestingly, by the ruling party or its merchants of madness. They promised violence before Zimbabwe’s constitutional referendum and they’ve delivered it relentlessly ever since.
No, the promises have been broken by those in agricultural politics who swore "things were on the mend".
Which is all by the by. What is happening now is that Zimbabwe has entered a new phase and all the difficulties promised and prophesied 18 months ago are happening. It was said then that things have to get worse before they get better – and they’re certainly getting worse. The events that constitute a crisis have accelerated and people are becoming increasingly nervous, despite the fact that everything that is happening now had to happen and could have been foreseen.
Over the last eight weeks, the Zimbabwe Crisis has worsened considerably. The arrest and subsequent illegal treatment of the Chinhoyi 21 precipitated a new phase of chaos and anarchy. It was followed by the dramatic destruction of over 40 homes in Doma, then by the eviction of thousands of workers and their families in Hwedza. Optimists say that what we’re seeing now is the endgame, the final big push from ZANU-PF as it tries to pull off the coup that will see it remain in power for another five years.
Well, it may well be the endgame, but it’s still too soon to say. SADC’s leaders have undoubtedly turned on Mr Mugabe. They did so last week in Mozambique, despite the State’s best efforts to tell us all that the president was in Mozambique to discuss the Beira Corridor. They will do the same at another meeting, probably this week. Mr Mugabe now has no friends – or no friends worth having. This will either make him behave with more decorum or it will make him intensify his self-proclaimed war against everyone who is opposed to his dictatorial rule.
Still, if this isn’t Mr Mugabe’s endgame, then the endgame can’t be too far away now. The circle of enmity around him has closed with condemnation from old friends in South Africa and Mozambique. He might look to Dos Santos in Angola and Nujoma in Namibia, but neither is of any real consequence, the former a picture of depraved corruption so grotesque he now rivals his old neighbour Mobutu Sese Seko, while the latter relies on South African patronage for survival. Mr Mugabe will be hard pushed to escape the same fate Mr Smith faced when Henry Kissinger put the squeeze on Rhodesia.
Not everyone thinks that’s good news. Lot’s of respected people in Zimbabwe still believe (or hope fervently) that Mr Mugabe will provide a solution that maintains the status quo – and extends ZANU-PF’s hegemony for at least another five years. Some believe this out of naivety, others, especially in business, fear Mr Mugabe’s demise because it spells an end to life on the gravy train.
They’re likely to be very disappointed, but that will be of little consequence unless Zimbabwe institutes its own Truth Commission in the future.
But whether this is the endgame or whether the endgame is still to come, it is likely that life in Zimbabwe is about to become even more difficult before it gets better. That means Zimbabweans have to make certain decisions, decisions that question their commitment to the country. Many people have already left, while many others are trying to leave now. The brain drain is regrettable, but perhaps unavoidable. What would as regrettable as the brain drain (without in any way saying that farmers aren’t brainy), would be an exodus of farmers. That would be regrettable on several fronts. Firstly, it would seriously reduce the speed of economic recovery because Zimbabwe’s economy is dependent, perhaps too dependent, on organised agriculture.
But secondly, at
a moral level, it would provide the ruling party with what they want most – the
opportunity to initiate a Zambian scenario in Zimbabwe. Some farmers already
know this because they’ve been asked whether they want to be on a list of farms
that will survive the mass listing of properties. The ruling party believes
Zimbabwe can survive and prosper with as few as 700 very large tobacco estates
supporting thousands of small-scale growers, in much the same way as Brazil’s
tobacco industry works. They may be right, but that isn’t the point. What would
suit Zimbabwe best isn’t what would suit ZANU-PF or its greedy financial backers
best. Rather it is what would suit the thousands of farmers who currently feed
the country and make a decent living for themselves rather than an obscene
living for grasping middle men and the obsequious business community.
Cattle producers face new
threat VELD fires
being randomly lit by land invaders countrywide are further compounding problems
faced by commercial farmers, many whom have been left with inadequate grazing
land but cannot move their cattle to alternative pastures because of the
outbreak of the Foot and Mouth Disease which has necessitated a ban on all
cattle movements. The land
invaders have set ablaze thousands of hectares of pastures in their efforts as
to clear the land in preparation for ploughing. In some cases the lighting of
fires is being seen as a deliberate strategy to force the farmers off their
land. Commercial
Farmers’ Union (CFU) regional executive for Midlands, Mr Bob Vaughan-Evans said,
"In all my five years in the Midlands, I have never seen anything like this.
"People are
just lighting these fires, sometimes deliberately, without a care what happens
after." As a
consequence, he said, there was no longer sufficient grazing for cattle and
farmers had to find alternative pastures but legally, due to the recent outbreak
FMD, they are forbidden to move cattle only unless they are sending them
directly for slaughter. However,
sources interviewed by The Farmer confirmed that there were still some illegal
cattle movements in some areas in defiance of the ban by the Department of
Veterinary Services and this would undermine efforts to control the spread of
FMD. He said one
farmer in Gweru, Mr Dave Engle, narrowly escaped being incinerated to death in a
raging inferno he and his workers were trying to fight. He said the fire, which
started on a neighbouring property, was rapidly advancing towards his farm when
he summoned his workers to try and put it out. Mr Vaughan-Evans said the farmer
was practically enveloped in the inferno and had to run through the fire to
escape. He said in his
view, invaders were lighting the fires in an effort to clear land for ploughing.
He did not believe most of the fires were deliberate arson but many of those
setting the fires soon became overwhelmed by the flames because of the dry
conditions prevailing. He also thought there was an element of recklessness
among some of the illegal settlers who seemed unconcerned about the consequences
of their actions. A Kwekwe
farmer who refused to be named related an incident in which two donkeys
belonging to illegal occupiers at his farm were burnt alive. He said although he
was not sure who started the fire, indications were that it was one of two
groups camped on either side of his property. The farmer
expressed fears that the situation regarding veld fires in the area could soon
get out of control. "The situation is very bad. Everyday we see raging fires
around us. Those less fortunate have lost almost all their gazing lands. I lost
150 hectares but others have lost as much as 1000 hectares." What is most
worrying, said the farmer, "is that once they light these fires, they haven’t a
clue on how to control them." CFU regional
executive, Mashonaland West (South) Mr Ben Freeth expressed a more ominous view.
"It seems its now official policy to burn people out. As soon as they tell you
to move off, they start the fires," he said. He said no
sooner had current holder of the prestigious Cattle Man of the Year, Roy
Lilford, received a letter ordering him to move off his property, there was a
veld fire raging on the farm. Mr Freeth said in other instances, fires had been
started on a farm soon after Agritex officials involved in pegging farms had
completed their work. According to
Mr Freeth, in a number of cases, high value Rhodes grass plantations had been
set ablaze to allow District Development Fund tractors ploughing for the new
settlers to move in. Mr Freeth said
because vast tracts grazing land had been destroyed in fires, the affected
farmers had resorted to seeking help from neighbours, particularly some black
farmers, whose properties have escaped the fires. He thanked some of the black
farmers whom he said had shown willingness to share their pastures. He said,
however, with the current outbreak of FMD, sharing of pastures might no longer
be possible because of the ban on cattle movements. It was a pity,
he said, that after a good rainy season resulting in the development of good
pastures, this was now being destroyed at the same time that some farmers were
de- stocking. He urged farmers and relevant authorities to move swiftly to put
in place necessary fireguards before all grazing lands are totally
destroyed. Hwedza, which
hit the headlines in recent weeks when so called war veterans and Zanu-PF
militants went on rampage evicting thousands of farm workers from their homes
and resulting in a total breakdown of farming operations on scores of farms, has
had its share of veld fires. There have been
reports of a Hwedza farmer who was given an ultimatum by the land invaders to
move off his 650 herds of cattle, which he could not do because of the ban on
cattle movements in the wake of the FMD outbreak. Angered by his failure to
comply with their demands the invaders are reported to have set ablaze about
1000 hectares of pasturelands and have been preventing the farmer from feeding
his cattle with stored hay. Zimbabwe’s logging reward for DRC war LONDON
Zimbabwe plans to log forests in the
Democratic Republic of Congo 10 times the size of Switzerland, raising $300
million in the first three years, to recoup the cost of backing the government
against rebels, a human rights group said. Zimbabwe’s
army plans to log about 600,000 cubic meters of wood, the equivalent of about
222,000 acres of tropical forest, a year from four concessions covering 15
percent of Africa’s third-biggest country, the London-based Global Witness said
in a report. A Zimbabwe government spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the
report. President
Robert Mugabe’s decision to deploy 11,000 troops to the DRC to support the
government against rebel forces backed by Uganda and Rwanda helped push
Zimbabwe’s economy into its worst crisis and drain foreign currency needed to
import fuel and food, analysts say. "This type of
rapacious exploitation in the Congo will only accelerate the conflicts in the
Central African region,’’ said Matt Phillips, senior campaigner at Friends of
the Earth. "The military controls this type logging all over the world, in
Africa, Cambodia, Indonesia, in order to earn money to spend on military
operations. Zimbabwe
spends more than a $1 million a day on the war, roughly the cost of daily fuel
imports, according to Harare-based economist John Robertson. It intervened in
October 1998 in the DRC, which has some of the richest reserves of hardwood
timber, copper, cobalt and diamonds. "Zimbabwe’s
intervention has incurred heavy costs in men, material and money,’’ said the
Global Witness report. "These facts add to the government’s incentive to recoup
at least some financial losses, which they could use to defend their role in the
country.’’ The
Concession A venture known as the Congolese Society for the Exploitation
of Timber, or SOCEBO, has the right to log 33 million hectares (81.5 million
acres) of tropical forest, Global Witness said. Timber from the world’s largest
logging concession will be used mainly in furniture and chipboard for
construction, the group said. "Magnificent
forests will be devastated, local communities will lose their livelihoods, and
the wood will end up pulped or chipped in the UK, the US and China,’’ said
Phillips. SOCEBO, Global
Witness said, is a venture between Operation Sovereign Legitimacy, a company
controlled by Zimbabwe’s military and the business interests of Mugabe’s ruling
party, and Comiex, a Kinshasa-based company. The Wall Street Journal has
reported Comiex is linked to former president Laurent Kabila. Some of the
wood may be transported by rail through Zambia and Zimbabwe to the South African
port of Durban, while the rest may be carried down the Congo river to the
Atlantic coast, said Global Witness. Likely buyers would be in Europe,
especially France, which already imports wood from Cameroon, Gabon and
Liberia. Previous
attempts by Zimbabwe’s military to earn money in the DRC have had mixed results.
Last year Oryx Natural Resources Ltd, postponed plans to takeover Petra Diamonds
Ltd. and sell shares in London to raise money to fund the development of a
Congolese diamond mine. Grant
Thornton, a financial adviser to Petra, opposed the venture’s formation because
of its links to Operation Sovereign Legitimacy and Comiex and prevented the
listing. Zimbabwe’s
state-controlled Mhangura Copper Mines Ltd. has processed Congolese cobalt ore,
and a Zimbabwean, Billy Rautenbach, for a time was in charge of the Congolese
state mining company, Gecamines. Zimbabwe Defence
Industries, a state-owned company, has sold $53 million worth of food and
uniforms to the DRC military, Global Witness said. Veld fires increasing risk of
transmission Origin of foot and mouth disease confirmed THE Department of Veterinary Services
says it is now convinced the current outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)
originated from buffalo-cattle contact and, most likely, in the Gonarezhou
National Park and the Save Conservancy where war veterans have deliberately
flouted veterinary regulations as they embarked on rampant poaching. In an
Interview with The Farmer the Director of the Veterinary Services
Department, Dr Stuart Hargreaves, said, "The source of the outbreak is
definitely buffalo-cattle contact. We are now investigating the various
possibilities of where and how this could have occurred. " Saying he had
no knowledge of who the perpetrators of poaching and cutting down of fences
were, Dr Hargreaves said, "Poaching is on the increase. Reports that fences are
being cut are on the increase but we do not know who the perpetrators are. So I
can’t comment on that." The government
has blamed unidentified poachers for cutting down veterinary fences but analysts
say the incidents cannot be divorced from the lawlessness that has characterised
the land invasions. Many say before the farm invasions 18 months ago, poaching
was largely under control through the Department of National Parks and Wildlife
which maintained the fences to control animal movements within game parks and
conservancies. The problem
escalated to the present stage when land invaders, led by so called war
veterans, moved into the affected areas and started cutting down fences and
poaching, causing damages that have been estimated to run into hundreds of
millions of dollars. The Department of Veterinary Services, Department of
National Parks and Wildlife and the police have watched helplessly while
poaching assumed catastrophic proportions in the wake of an almost complete
breakdown of veterinary controls and regulations. Asked to
comment on the EU recommendations to repair the veterinary control fences that
have been destroyed, Dr Hargreaves said; "We wrote to them. They wanted to know
when and how we were going to implement their recommendations. We gave them the
time frame as to when and how we would implement their recommendations. We were
not given a specific time of the implementation." He acknowledged, however, the
recommendation for the repair veterinary fences required urgent attention.
Said Dr
Hargreaves, "The issue is still waiting for a proper agreement between local
District Council, war veterans’ task force and the Conservancies." He said the
parties concerned were aware of the urgency of the matter, as it had been fully
explained to them. Dr Hargreaves
said however some of the recommendations would take years to implement such as
the transfer of authority governing abattoirs from the Ministry of Health to the
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement. Dr Hargreaves
also said farmers affected by the current random burning of grazing lands and
have to move their livestock to alternative pastures need to report to their
nearest Provincial Veterinary offices to discuss their requirements. He said,
"In emergency situations we can inspect all the cattle and allow them to be
moved if they are not in foot and mouth quarantined areas. If it is in
quarantined areas it becomes exceedingly difficult." Dr Hargreaves
appealed to people causing fires to stop saying; "Veld fires minimise the
options that we have. It minimises flexibility in efforts to contain the disease
and fires actually increase the risk of transmission," Even as the
disease is reportedly still spreading to other areas in the country’s southern
region, The Farmer understands that there are still a lot of illegal
cattle movements in many areas especially with the government urging people to
take up their plots in areas they have been resettled. Dr Hargreaves
said he was aware of the problem emanating from the directive to the resettled
farmers and his department, through the ministry of Lands, Agriculture and
Resettlement, had called for a meeting with the ministries of Home Affairs,
Finance and Economic Development, Local Government and National Housing and
Transport to see how best the issue can be dealt with. At least 5000
cattle in the Gwanda-Beitbridge areas where fresh outbreaks have been reported
could be infected and measures to ensure vaccination were already in progress at
the time of going to press. Hunting on infected
properties has also been banned. Dr Hargreaves said although hunting on such
properties is now prohibited this would not impact on tourism.
FMD makes Harare show low key
affair THE Harare
Agricultural Show was a low key affair this year with few farmers bothering turn
up, as their main attraction, cattle and other livestock, were not on show due
to outbreak of the Foot and Mouth Disease which prompted a government ban on all
cattle movements throughout the country. The handful of farmers who visited the
show were mostly interested in tobacco and the produce section. Officially
opening the show, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President, Joseph
Kabila praised Zimbabwean authorities for their efforts to contain and stop the
spread of the disease. However,
information reaching The Farmer indicated that at the time of the opening
the show, new infections of FMD were still being discovered in the country’s
southern region despite assurances from the government that the disease had been
contained. Meanwhile, at
the show, a number of commercial stands remained unoccupied although show
authorities confirmed that these had been booked. Most other exhibition halls
were not fully occupied, a situation attributed to the economic difficulties
confronting the country. Zimbabwe
Agriculture Society chairman, Mr Mick Townsend, said most businesses had made
efforts to exhibit at the show despite prevailing difficulties. He said the show
provided opportunities for farmers to window shop and for suppliers to the
agricultural sector to market their products. In his
address, President Kabila said he hoped the government’s land reform programme
would broaden the grower base increasing production in agriculture and thereby
bringing more prosperity to the country. He said he was
encouraged to note that farmers, agro-business operators, industrialists,
commercial producers, manufacturers, traders, government institutions and policy
makers were all at the show to learn from one another. Mr Kabila
called upon business communities of DRC and Zimbabwe to take advantage of the
open market policies of the Common Market Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
to develop various opportunities that exist in mining, forestry, agriculture,
textiles and tourism. Mr Kabila said
his country had vast resources and potential for generating hydro electricity
for the next 100 years and would continue to contribute to the industrialisation
of the region. New outbreaks of FMD reported FRESH
outbreaks of the dreaded Foot and Mouth Disease were reported this week raising
fears that the disease may be far more widespread than earlier
suspected. In a statement
this week, Cattle Producers Association chairman, Tim Reynolds said since 24
August, infections had been detected in cattle in the Jopempi resettlement area
and Mtetengwe Communal area north of Beitbridge between the Masvingo and
Bulawayo roads. The disease had also detected in the Siyoka and Dendele Communal
areas and several commercial ranches between Beitbridge and West
Nicholson. Although,
according to Mr Reynolds, the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) considers
Beitbridge to be the main focal point of the outbreak at this stage, other
infections had been found at the two northern-most dip tanks in Lupane Communal
area near Hwange which is up against the red zone area fence. In the
meantime, a circular issued by the veterinary services department said in order
to minimise the adverse effects of the FMD controls on the livestock industry,
it had been agreed in areas outside the FMD zones of Matabeleland North and
South Provinces and part of Masvingo, cattle sales may still be held but of
slaughter stock only. The animals would be inspected at the sale and then moved
directly to slaughter at a registered abattoir. "Animals
cannot go back to the farm of origin or any other farm after the sale. This must
be the pre-sale agreement. All animals go for direct slaughter within 24 hours
following the completion of sale," said the circular "The
initiation of sales for direct slaughter is an effort to assist the livestock
industry without increasing the risks of FMD transmission. Very serious action
will be taken against cattle owners/ or purchasers who do not follow these rules
for direct sales." The circular warned. Yet another land initiative
tabled YET another
initiative to resolve Zimbabwe’s contentious land issue by opening fresh
negotiations with the British government and other countries and organizations
to persuade them to finance land reform under a new arrangement where full
compensation will be paid directly to dispossessed farmers has been
launched. The plan, the
brain child of a firm of British solicitors, envisages asking the British
government, bound by its obligations under the Zimbabwe’s independence Lancaster
House Constitution, and other countries and organizations that made pledges to
support the country’s land reform during the 1998 UNDP sponsored donors’
conference in Harare, to now make good their promises by providing relevant
funding to pay full compensation to farmers for both land and
developments. It is proposed
in the plan, met with some skepticism in some farming circles including the
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), that the British government along with other
countries and organizations that have indicated willingness to assist in
Zimbabwe’s land reform, be persuaded to purchase, on behalf of the government of
Zimbabwe, all commercial farmland by paying the affected farmers directly, in
the currency and country of their choice. The Zimbabwe government would then
retain the land it needs for resettlement and lease back to the commercial
farmers that which it does not need. However, in
the event that initial negotiations fail, the proposal says as a last resort,
court action will be taken against the British government "to force it to
fulfill its treaty obligations in regard to land acquisition
payments/compensation." The man behind
the initiative, which some farmers described as "too good to be true" is British
solicitor, Mr John Lockwood, who says he has been researching the Zimbabwe land
issue for past two and half years. Mr John Lockwood is pushing the initiative
through his company, a British registered, JAL Legal Consultancy Limited
(JALLCL), legal consultant to McCarron & Smallcombe, a UK legal
firm. "The results
of Mr Lockwood’s investigations essentially entail a course of action whereby
the British government along with other donor countries and organizations will
purchase all agricultural land owned by commercial farmers in Zimbabwe," says a
document entitled "A proposed solution to the Zimbabwe land issue" and prepared
by JAL Legal Consultancy. "While this
might sound fanciful", the document says, "a great deal of legal research has
been carried out and a team of advisors has been assembled including Mr Nicholas
Atkinson QC. The confidence displayed by this team is reflected in their
willingness to charge clients on the basis of a success only arrangement apart
from a modest initial fee." The proposed initial fee is 1000 pounds
sterling. In the course
of his research, says the document, Mr Lockwood "has unearthed a number of
important documents and issues. The single most important document which was
signed at about the time of the Lancaster House Agreement, incorporates an
undertaking by the British Government to acquire commercial farmland for
subsequent transfer to the Zimbabwe government." The document
goes further to say funding for this land purchase has been set-aside with
assistance from other governments and institutions. It does not, however, name
any of the other donors. "It is therefore the opinion of the JALCL that the
British Government have an obligation to acquire such farmland and that
Zimbabwean land owners have a cause to enforce this obligation," the document
says. Contacted for
comment, a spokesman of the British High Commission, Mr Richard Lindsay,
acknowledged the existence of the scheme, but said as an employee of the
(British government) authority being taken to court, he could not speculate on
the prospects of success of the proposal. But he said as
far as the British government was concerned, it had fulfilled all its
obligations under the Lancaster House Constitution. "The British government is
not aware of any existing contingent liabilities from the Lancaster House
Constitution," said Mr Lindsay. Efforts to
obtain comment from Zimbabwe government officials were fruitless. JAL
Consultancy is currently running advertisements in various media including
The Farmer, which promise, "full compensation for land and improvements
and an option to then lease your farm back" to those interested to take up their
offer. In its
proposal document, JAL Consultancy says its overall strategy will be to
individually engage the three concerned parties; farmers, the Zimbabwe
government and the British government in a constructive dialogue aimed at trying
to resolve the land issue." In so doing, the major objectives of the three
parties are being taken into account and the discussions are non-
confrontational as the JALLCL has no position to protect, "it says "JALLCL’s
primary objective is to obtain a satisfactory outcome for the farmers in their
quest to obtain acceptable compensation for the sale of their land. In the event
that no agreement is reached with the British government, JALLCL and Council
will pursue the matter in the British courts on behalf of their
clients." The document
notes, however, that while the Zimbabwe government would not be directly
involved in the action between the farmers and the British government, senior
officials within the Zimbabwe government had been appraised of the position and
their support sought. "A generally favourable response has been received from
the Zimbabwean authorities," it says Initial
discussion with the British government had elicited a cautious response, the
document says, adding "but the negotiation channels have been established and
will be pursued vigorously. "If the
negotiations fail or the terms offered are unsatisfactory. JALLCL believes the
next stage would be through the courts to force through and treaty obligations.
This would be the last resort but they would be prepared to do so if
necessary." It notes that
the British government had stated, on a number of occasions, that money was
available for the land acquisition programme. The British government’s reasons
for withholding such payments, the document says, was that it was not satisfied
that these funds would find their way to the right people. "JALLCL will offer
the British government an alternative to funding land acquisitions through the
Zimbabwean government by suggesting that it fund land acquisitions
directly. "JALLCL in
conjunction with Council will contact all relevant countries, organizations and
individuals and offer an alternative solution to the continuing problems of land
compensation in Zimbabwe. JALLCL will also bring actions in Britain, Zimbabwe
and other country’s courts as advised by Council. The actions may be against
governments, organizations or individuals," the document says.