As we come to the end of 2005, we might find it
difficult to look ahead and
ask ourselves what might be in store for those of
us who live and work in
Zimbabwe. 2005 has been very tough - inflation has
soared to new heights,
the economy has shrunk again - the 7th year in a row
since 1999. In fact it
might be argued that the economy has been in decline
since 1998 as 1997 was
the last year during which we experienced any sort of
real economic growth.
Our currency has lost 99.9 per cent of its value
and over 80 per cent of our
population is now classed as being absolutely
poor. Human flight has, if
anything, accelerated and it is now estimated that
a third of the total
population lives in self imposed exile. Hundreds of
thousands are dying each
year - from Aids, dysentery, tuberculosis, malaria,
malnutrition, hunger and
the collapse of our health system. 2005 will go down
as a miserable year for
millions with many now homeless and destitute after
Murambatsvina (remember
what that means - "drive out filth").
It will
also go down as a year of failure - failure of the regional
community to face
up to what is going on here and to tackle the crisis, the
failure of Mbeki's
"quiet diplomacy" and the failure of the international
community to make
progress in resolving the plight of the many who live in
the "outposts of
tyranny".
For the Zimbabwe government it has also been a year of failure
- failure of
the much talked about "economic recovery", failure of their
agricultural
policies, failure to get any sort of growth and recovery in the
mining and
tourism industries. To this we might add the failure to halt the
slide in
the public service and in all social sectors.
And so we come
to Christmas 2005, hungry, angry and disappointed.
Disappointed with our
leaders and disappointed with ourselves for having
achieved so little when
the needs around us are so great. I think this is
going to be the worst
Christmas ever for most Zimbabweans.
But while we bemoan our condition we
must now look into our proverbial
crystal ball and ask ourselves "what does
2006 hold for us". In business we
can hardly plan for tomorrow, how to plan
for the next year is something we
do not even want to think about - yet we
must. I am the proverbial optimist
so all my friends will take what I have to
say with the proverbial pinch of
salt, but since they will not put their
necks on the block - why should I
not have a go?
The first thing we
can say about next year - is that we have had the best
start to a wet season
that I can remember for a long time. Last year at this
time we had 50 odd
mls. of rain in October, none in November and then a very
wet December. That
is about as bad a start to the season as you can have in
this part of the
world. Crops planted with the early rains died in November
and those planted
in December were too late to really perform and got wet
feet.
This
year, as if on a schedule, we have had 85 mls. in November - soft rains
and
perfect planting weather. Now in December it has rained continuously for
a
week and we are already up to half our last years total rainfall. The
only
problem is that there are no crops in the ground. A handful of
large-scale
commercial farmers are left and they are again under siege. Money
is tight,
costs are in the stratosphere and inputs almost impossible to find.
Even the
peasant sector has very little in the ground and we can forecast an
even
worse outturn for the crop season just starting, than last year when
Mugabe
stated in the famous interview that we had grown 2,5 million tonnes of
grain
and instead we reaped a paltry 600 000 tonnes.
In last weeks
budget statement the Minister of Finance predicted a strong
growth in
agricultural output next year - well you can put that down to the
mad musings
of Made (our nutty Minister of Agriculture). But while we are
likely to go
hungry again next year it is possible that other sectors might
start to show
signs of recovery.
In the mining industry we have had a fantastic year on
international
markets - gold is over US$500 an ounce, Platinum over US$1000
and all other
base metals and minerals are at record or near record levels.
If we can get
a policy framework in place (and one already exists) which will
give
investors confidence, then I would predict a veritable gold rush next
year
in the precious metals industry. Already the rapid depreciation in
the
official exchange rate coupled to the strong rise in world market prices
and
demand, means that gold producers are at last making some real money
here.
In other sectors it is more difficult to see progress but I am sure
that we
are about to see a major turn around by the State in the field of
economic
and political policy. The signs are already there that the
Government is
preparing to allow the re-emergence of free market forces in
all sorts of
fields - fuel and food among others. This will allow the market
to overcome
current shortages in many areas plagued by bad decisions and poor
policy
making. Exchange rates are gradually (some would say rapidly) being
allowed
to rise to free market levels and this will have all sorts of
implications
for the economy. Minimum wages are already poised to go through
the Z$5
million a month barrier and will reach Z$7 million by March or
earlier.
While this is being driven by inflation it also reflects
employers
willingness to adjust wages more realistically than in the past
when low
earnings from exports were crippling the productive
sector.
These policies will halt the decline in exports and allow some
recovery in
industrial activity - but they will not be enough to turn the
tide
altogether. That will depend on political events and the future of the
SA/G8
loan agreement talks and negotiations. In this respect I think we are
in for
a surprising 2006, I think we might see the early retirement of
Robert
Gabriel Mugabe and the adoption by the succeeding regime of many of
the
reforms demanded in the SA/G8 loan agreement. We may see the Daily News
back
and there is widespread talk that the State is going to reverse itself
on
land - allowing title deed owners to reclaim their properties and
resume
farming.
If that happens then we might see the resumption of
inflows of much needed
foreign assistance - the UN seems set to feed the
country this summer, Mbeki
's loans will overcome the current critical
shortages of fuel and
electricity. If that happens then anything is possible
- we might even see a
resumption of real economic growth. If this does not
happen then I am afraid
we are in for another tough year. My money is on the
positive outlook and I
am going to put some into the local stock market in
the New Year. I did well
this year there and cannot see any reason why next
year should not be
better.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 8th December
2005
Reuters
10 Dec 2005 17:50:59 GMT
By Stella
Mapenzauswa
ESIGODINI, Zimbabwe, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling
party has
recommended a crackdown on Western-sponsored groups hostile to
President
Robert Mugabe and asked security forces to make a list of people
whose
passports should be seized.
On the last day of its annual
conference on Saturday, Mugabe's ZANU-PF party
adopted a central committee
report that recommended government action
against non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) and civic groups allied to the
opposition.
"The
opposition is also grouped in the form of NGOs and civic groups, all
sponsored by the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union,"
it said. "Stern action shall be taken against them."
Senior ZANU-PF
officials refused to discuss any details.
Last year the ruling party
passed legislation that banned foreign funding
for local rights groups and
tightened the registration of other NGOs.
Analysts say Mugabe did not
sign the bill into law as Zimbabwe badly needs
aid from NGOs as it struggles
with food and fuel shortages.
Critics charge Mugabe -- Zimbabwe's sole
ruler since independence from
Britain 25 years ago -- has plunged one of
Africa's most promising countries
into a deep political and economic crisis
through controversial policies.
Mugabe has blamed Zimbabwe's problems on
sabotage by opponents of his drive
to redistribute white-owned farms among
blacks and sanctions imposed on the
country by the West.
Despite its
firm political grip on the southern African country, Mugabe's
government
still feels insecure and has imposed tough media and security
laws to police
its opponents, analysts say.
This week Zimbabwe security agents seized
the passports of a top opposition
figure and of the country's leading
private newspaper publisher under a
controversial law allowing the
government to bar travel by "traitors".
A resolution adopted by the
ZANU-PF conference on Saturday, welcomed moves
to withdraw passports of
people "who go around demonising the country" and
to implement the law right
away.
"We want the security forces to draw up a list of such people so
that their
passports can be withdrawn," it said.
ECONOMY,
FACTIONALISM
ZANU-PF wrapped up its two-day congress in the southwestern
Esigodini
district on Saturday night secure in its political domination. But
it faces
the daunting task of pulling the economy out of crisis and
overcoming
factionalism over Mugabe's likely successor on his expected
retirement in
2008.
When he opened the conference, and in the wake of
a Senate victory last
month, Mugabe said on Friday his party was growing
"higher and higher,
bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger".
But in
his closing speech, the Zimbabwean president acknowledged there was a
wide
gap between making verbal resolutions on the economy and acting them
out.
"There are serious shortcomings in government planning and steps
will have
to be taken to correct them," he said.
He also conceded
some party officials were involved in corrupt activities
such as black
market foreign currency trade.
Others had seized more than one farm for
themselves in abuse of the land
reforms, which critics blame for food
shortages that have plagued Africa's
former breadbasket for five
years.
"That greed is untenable and some of our leaders are guilty of
that. Bring
cases of that kind of greed to us and we will correct them,"
Mugabe said.
Analysts also say Mugabe is fighting to stamp out remaining
party tensions
over his selection last year of Joyce Mujuru as vice
president -- which put
her first in line for the top job after Mugabe's
expected retirement in
2008. (additional reporting by Cris Chinaka)
Reuters
Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:04 AM GMT
By Stella Mapenzauswa
ESIGODINI,
Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling party wraps up its annual
congress on
Saturday secure in its political domination, but facing the
daunting task of
pulling the economy out of crisis and overcoming
factionalism.
"Our
party is growing higher and higher, bigger and bigger, stronger and
stronger," President Robert Mugabe told delegates at the start of the
meeting in the south-western Esigodini district on Friday.
But
officials acknowledged that despite a sweeping victory in a Senate poll
in
November, the ruling ZANU-PF still had to grapple with corruption,
factionalism and the country's worst economic crisis since
independence.
Mugabe has blamed Zimbabwe's problems on sabotage by
opponents of his drive
to redistribute white-owned farms among blacks. But
he conceded some party
officials were involved in corrupt activities such as
black market trade in
scant foreign currency.
Others had seized more
than one farm for themselves in abuse of the land
reforms, which critics
blame for food shortages which have plagued Africa's
former breadbasket over
the last five years.
"That greed is untenable and some of our leaders are
guilty of that. Bring
cases of that kind of greed to us and we will correct
them," Mugabe said.
Analysts also say Mugabe is fighting to stamp out
remaining party tensions
over his selection last year of Joyce Mujuru as
vice president -- which put
her first in line for the top job after Mugabe's
expected retirement in
2008.
"Some (party officials) had become far
too ambitious and wanted to get to
the top," Mugabe said on Friday in tacit
reference to the row that erupted
over Mujuru's appointment.
The
veteran leader, in power since independence in 1980, took another swipe
at
former colonial ruler Britain, with which he has clashed over charges of
rights abuse and election rigging, as well as the land
seizures.
Britain still wanted control of Zimbabwe to exploit its vast
mineral and
agricultural wealth, Mugabe told delegates, charging: "They
would want
Zimbabwe therefore to subject itself to their will so they can
manipulate
the government here so they can have a grip on our
economy."
Mugabe accused U.N. humanitarian affairs and relief
co-ordinator Jan Egeland
of misrepresenting Zimbabwe this week after a
four-day tour to assess the
impact of a government crackdown on urban
slums.
Calling Egeland was a "hypocrite and a liar", Mugabe said on
Friday he would
ask U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to no longer send to
Zimbabwe envoys
"who are not his own but agents of the British, because we
don't trust men
from his office any more."
Egeland said from New York
he had told the truth about his tour to assess a
crackdown the U.N. says
left 700,000 people homeless and without a
livelihood and that Mugabe's
speech was for the benefit of his audience.
Analysts say the Esigodini
meeting is likely to gloss over the country's
chronic shortages of fuel and
foreign currency, unemployment of over 70
percent and rampaging inflation,
which surged to 502 percent in the year to
November.
IOL
December 10
2005 at 02:18PM
Esigodini, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe's
ruling Zanu-PF party
winds up its annual conference late on Saturday but
there have so far been
little or no leads as to who is to succeed him when
he retires in 2008.
Still smarting from a leadership row that
rocked the party in December
last year over leadership changes, Mugabe and
other top leaders warned party
faithfuls against "crooks and dubious"
leaders among them.
"We have had some very bad leaders, some
perhaps came to the fore like
a whirlwind.
"They
demonstrated... enthusiasm, so we promoted them to higher
positions only for
them to turn against the party a year or two after," said
Mugabe in apparent
reference to his one-time protege and former information
chief, Jonathan
Moyo.
Moyo, a former university lecturer, who made
a dramatic about-turn
from fierce critic to Mugabe's loudest cheerleader,
rose rapidly through
party ranks to become one of the president's closest
advisers and spin
doctors.
He was sacked earlier this year
after he fell out of favour for
allegedly plotting against the ruling
party's leadership as it prepared to
elect a new vice president to
Mugabe.
Party chairman John Nkomo said "the residual impact (of
last year's
row) is still lingering as evidenced by the unwholesome
behaviour of some
party cadres even during the recently held senatorial
elections" who were
mobilising against formally approved
candidates.
Zanu-PF last year suspended senior officials saying
they held a secret
meeting that defied Mugabe's directive to nominate a
woman for the post of
vice-president which was vacant at the
time.
"We have had some crooks in the party, some dabbling with
foreign
currency, others involved in the black markets and others even
turning
against the party," said Mugabe.
"Be careful of such
crooks," he said.
A senior party official and businessman James
Makamba and former
Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri were arrested last year
for foreign exchange
control violations.
"Some became too
ambitious and wanted to get to the top. So for them
it was that the party
should serve their self interests," he said.
Mugabe, 81, also
blasted ruling party officials for selling secrets to
foreign governments.
He was referring to an alleged espionage ring involving
senior Zanu-PF
members and a South African spy.
The ruling party's policy-making
body urged party supporters to cash
in on the disarray in the main
opposition to recruit more members.
"The opposition, represented by
the MDC, has given our party great joy
as it drives itself into a suicide
mode and finally commits suicide over the
much-awaited senatorial
elections," Zanu-PF's central committee said in a
report submitted to the
conference on Friday.
"The party must take advantage of this
commotion and disarray in the
opposition and mobilise new
members."
The MDC split into two in October following a row over
participation
in senate elections held on November 26 and won by Zanu-PF. -
Sapa-AFP
News24
10/12/2005 10:59 -
(SA)
Johannesburg - Print Media SA (PMSA), the publishers' lobby, on
Friday
condemned the confiscation of the passport of Mail and Guardian
publisher
Trevor Ncube.
Zimbabwean immigration officials took away
Ncube's passport shortly after he
arrived in Bulawayo from South Africa on
Thursday.
A recent constitutional change passed in Zimbabwe allows the
government to
confiscate passports of citizens it believes are undermining
its "national
interest".
"Print Media SA believes that this action is
a move on the part of the
Zimbabwean government to subdue any criticism
against it," the PMSA said.
Ncube is also the publisher of Zimbabwe's
Standard and Zimbabwe Independent,
two newspapers which have been critical
of the Zimbabwean government and its
policies.
Under the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Zimbabwean
authorities have
arrested journalists and closed down newspapers critical of
state
policies.
"PMSA believes that this action further undermines the
principles of freedom
of expression and freedom of the press in Zimbabwe,"
the lobby group added.
Ncube is a past president of PMSA and a board
member, till November this
year, of the World Association of
Newspapers.
PMSA president Connie Molusi said the move was a flagrant
assault on the
media and freedom of expression and implored the Zimbabwean
government to
revoke the action that, he said, virtually put Ncube under
house arrest
without due process.
"We are very concerned that this
action not only interferes with Mr Ncube's
rights of free movement as a
citizen, but also restricts his activities as
an accomplished publisher of
several newspaper titles in Southern Africa,"
Molusi said.
The German
dpa news agency reported that Ncube appeared to be the first
person to have
his travel documents taken away from him under the
constitutional
amendment
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2005 4:33 PM
Subject: Humpty
Dumpty
Dear Family and Friends,
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party
have been holding their annual congress
this week and watching some of the
coverage on television made for
staggering viewing. By any standards Zimbabwe
is a country in dire
trouble. Inflation, which began the year at 134% is
again completely out
of control and presently at over 400%. Life expectancy
continues to
plummet and is now just over 30 years. Unemployment is well over
70%,
almost a quarter of our population are eating food provided
by
international donors and the number of people in need grows by the
week.
With these dreadful facts and figures you would think that our
ruling
party would have more than enough to worry and talk about at their
annual
congress. The posters adorning the walls of the now well known
enormous
white tent were damning. The slogans were not about the economy,
early
death, hunger or inflation. They were the same old deflectory
attacks,
just as they have been since Zanu PF first realised they had lost
popular
support when they were defeated in the constitutional referendum in
2000.
"Mr Bush, how about New Orleans!"
"MDC beating about the
Bush."
"Mr Blair, how about Brixton?"
"Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and
Blairs horses couldn't put the MDC
together again."
So while the party
which has governed Zimbabwe for 25 years finds it
fitting to focus its
energies on attacking the world, ordinary Zimbabweans
have been looking to
more pressing issues.This week the United Nations
Emergency Relief
Co-ordinator Jan Egeland concluded a five day visit to
Zimbabwe and saw first
hand the dramatically deteriorating situation in
the country. His
observations and comments were not about nursery rhymes
or Humpty Dumpty and
will hopefully again cause the world to look to the
dreadful conditions of so
many people in Zimbabwe.
Mr Egeland said : "The humanitarian situation in
Zimbabwe is very serious.
The need for international aid is big and growing."
He said that: "When
life expectancy goes from more than 60 years to just over
30 years in a
15-year span, it's not just a crisis, it's a meltdown." Mr
Egeland said
that "The food security is now an exploding issue" in Zimbabwe
and said
that the need for international aid was "big, and growing". He said
the UN
was already feeding two million people in Zimbabwe and that this
would
increase to 2.5 million by December and 3.3 million by January
2006.
In the course of his visit Mr Egeland offered Mr Mugabe tents from
the UN
for the estimated 700 000 people whose homes were destroyed by
the
bulldozers of the Zimbabwean government's Operation Murtambatsvina in
mid
winter. The offer was declined. According to the Herald
newspaper,
President Mugabe told the UN envoy that: "We are not a tent's
people... We
believe in houses." Mr Egeland criticized the governments
rejection of
tents saying: "If they are good enough for people in Europe and
the
United States who have lost their houses, why are they not good enough
for
Zimbabwe?"
The situation in Zimbabwe is neither nursery rhyme nor
fairy story but the
grim picture of real people struggling endlessly from one
day the next
just to survive. Until next week, love cathy. Copyright cathy
buckle
10 December 2005.
http://africantears.netfirms.com
My
books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:
orders@africabookcentre.com
WOZA Women Mark International
Human Rights Day with Six Street Actions - five women arrested and assaulted in
custody
HUNDREDS of members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) took to
the streets of Harare and Bulawayo today in six separate protest marches to
commemorate International Human Rights Day.
The women wore t-shirts
calling on Zimbabweans to ‘Stop Violence against Women’ and also bearing the
international symbol for this campaign - an open hand. Whilst marching, the
women distributed WOZA’s newsletter which included an open letter to the
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to stop arbitrary arrests of WOZA
women.
By noon five women from the Harare protest were in custody at
Harare Central Police station. They were assaulted with open palms and baton
sticks whilst in detention by officers, including one called Mhondoro. Due to a
combination of this assault and refusal of access to lawyers, the women decided
to negotiate the payment of ZD $25,000 admission of guilt fines. They were
released on this basis at 16:45 pm. In Bulawayo no arrests were recorded
although five simultaneous protests had been conducted.
The
placard-waving women held aloft placards and banners bearing their messages,
including “the strongest man is a woman” and an Eleanor Roosevelt quote, “Women
are like teabags. We don’t know how strong we are until we are in hot
water.”
In the spirit of “Tough Love”, WOZA’s brand of civil
disobedience, the ‘mothers of the nation’ defied the Public Order Security Act
(POSA) and conducted their protests without giving notification to the
police.
In Harare, after a WOZA delegation participated in a
ZimRights-organised march, they went on to gather on Fourth Street before
proceeding along Nelson Mandela Avenue. The women were intercepted at Second
Street by a police vehicle however and five women were promptly arrested. The
five are Loise Grezia, Rosemary Mironga, Julia Chipehama, Noria Kadhari and
Monica Chimbiro. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have reacted and are
attempting to gain access.
In Bulawayo, five community-based protests
were conducted simultaneously. They were joined by male defenders and children
who found the singing and evident enjoyment of the protestors
irresistible.
Women started their protest at Mabutweni Shopping Centre
and ended at Mabutweni Police Station where the women dispersed, leaving their
placards and the open letter addressed to the ZRP. In Mpopoma, the protest
started at Msitheli High School and ended at Matshobana Beer Garden, passing
Traffic Police on the way. As the women dispersed, a police vehicle pursued some
protestors but soon gave up chase. In Tshabalala, WOZA women gathered at the
shopping centre and marched towards Sizinda Beer Garden, leaving their messages
with the patrons present. In Magwegwe, Pumula, Emakhandeni and Luveve, protests
also started and ended without incident as did the Nkulumane contingent. As the
marches proceeded, children joined in helping to distribute the Woza Moya
newsletter.
On International Human Rights Day and the final day of the
16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, WOZA made the following demands to
the ZRP in their open letter:
ALL Zimbabweans respect the rights of women and
girls and violence against women is stopped. NO MORE VIOLENCE!
The police
respect the rights of women human rights defenders and the women they represent.
We call on the officers from all ranks to refuse to arrest WOZA women as they go
about their peaceful business.
· ALL police officers read and uphold
the 2001 Harare Resolution on the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs
Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) Code of Conduct for Police Officials. The
specific points that should be implemented to restore their dignity as
professional police officers are, in particular, Articles 1- 5.
Article 1 -
‘In the performance of their duties, police officials shall respect and protect
human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all
persons.’
Ends
10 December 2005
NOTE TO EDITORS:
For more
information about WOZA and the protests conducted today, please contact Jenni
Williams or Magodonga Mahlangu on + 263 91 300 456 or + 263 91 898 110/1/2/ or
Ellah Hwenzira on + 263 91 377 800.
Photographs are available on
request. A copy of the open letter to the ZRP is included below:
An open
letter to the Zimbabwe Republic Police
Joins us in saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,
SOKWANELE, ZVAKWANA.
WOZA, the acronym of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, is an
Ndebele word meaning ‘Come forward’. WOZA is a registered trust formed in 2003.
Our objectives are to:
- Provide women from all walks of life with a
united voice to speak out on issues affecting their day-to-day
lives.
- Empower female leadership that will lead community
involvement in finding solutions to the current crisis.
- Encourage
women to stand up for their rights and freedoms.
- Lobbying and
advocacy on those issues affecting women.
We encourage women to speak
out and hold their government accountable. Our mandate is to conduct peaceful
protests in defiance of unjust laws that sanction our fundamental and god-given
freedoms of assembly, expression and association. Through our actions, we create
space to allow the general public to articulate issues they are too fearful to
raise alone. WOZA has conducted over 30 protests in its three year existence. We
recognize the sacrifice of over 800 women who have spent up to 48 hours in
custody, some more than once. On 31 March this year, over 265 women and 20
babies spent a night in custody after conducting a prayer vigil on election
night. These women, front-line human rights defenders, are willing to suffer
beatings and unbearable conditions in prison cells to exercise their
constitutional rights.
We have set out to prove that the power of love
can conquer the love of power. ‘Tough Love’ is our weapon of mass mobilisation.
'Tough Love' is the disciplining love of a parent; we must practice it and bring
dignity back to our families. Tough Love from the grassroots is the solution to
the crisis of governance in Zimbabwe. Our rulers need some discipline; who
better to dish it out than a mother! But what kind of mother would we be if we
remained silent while our children cry from hunger? Do your children go to bed
at night with full stomachs? Can you afford to send all your children to school
and provide them with a promising future?
When WOZA was formed we
adopted the highest risk option of demonstration when the most repressive laws
were in effect. We had to find ways to speak out about our wellbeing rather that
suffer in silence. We knew that police officers would support our struggle if
they saw our love and determination. So when we march with love in our hearts,
it helps us to bear the consequences. The consequences we suffer are arrest,
assault and harassment by YOU – police officers. We know that you are our
children, parents who are also trying to earn a living and feed your families.
Through our work we must break the chain of oppression. Rhodesia had an
elite group of capitalists ruling over and oppressing people with unjust laws
based on inequality. Little seems to have changed – we now have Zimbabwe and an
elite group of black capitalists ruling over and oppressing people with unjust
laws based on inequality. How many houses were some of you forced to destroy
because of colonial housing laws? How may people did you make homeless and
jobless through Operation Murambatsvina?
As the women of WOZA mark the 16
Days of Action Campaign with activities, we will be calling on Police officers
to join us in saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, SOKWANELE, ZVAKWANA. During this time,
and forevermore, WOZA demands that:
· ALL Zimbabweans respect
the rights of women and girls and violence against women is stopped. NO MORE
VIOLENCE!
· The police respect the rights of women human rights
defenders and the women they represent. We call on the officers from all ranks
to refuse to arrest WOZA women as they go about their peaceful business.
· ALL police officers read and uphold the 2001 Harare Resolution on
the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO)
Code of Conduct for Police Officials. The specific points that should be
implemented to restore their dignity as professional police officers are, in
particular, Articles 1- 5.
o Article 1 - ‘In the performance of their
duties, police officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain
and uphold the human rights of all persons.’
Signed by
Your mothers,
sisters and grandmothers
Women Human Rights Defenders
IOL
Basildon Peta
December 10 2005 at 02:11PM
The Zimbabwe High Court has overturned
the suspension of Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai by senior members of his
party who differed with him on the issue
of participation in a newly
introduced upper house, the senate.
A faction of the MDC led by its party secretary-general, Welshman
Ncube, and
Tsvangirai's deputy, Gibson Sibanda, recently suspended
Tsvangirai for
breaching the party's constitution after he overturned a
narrow party vote
to participate in the senate project.
Tsvangirai rejected the
suspension and the pro-senate faction
petitioned the High Court for an order
to enforce it.
In their application, filed by MDC deputy
secretary-general, Gift
Chimanikire, the pro-senate faction asked the High
Court to order Tsvangirai
to surrender all party property in his possession
and refrain from visiting
party offices or carrying out any party
business.
But Judge Junus Omerjee dismissed the pro-senate
faction's
application with costs on Friday morning.
The judge
said he would provide detailed reasons later. Tsvangirai's
lawyer, Selby
Hwacha, confirmed the judge's ruling.
In a statement, Tsvangirai
applauded the judgment and thanked the
people of Zimbabwe for rallying
behind him.
Tsvangirai lobbied for a boycott of the poll and later
said he had
been vindicated after the lowest-ever number of Zimbabweans to
vote in any
election reported for the senate polls.
"It is
common cause that all democratic struggles are known to be
associated with
detractators and divisionists," said Tsvangirai.
"These are normal
diversionary tactics deployed by the enemy to slow
down the people's
revolution and quest for democratic dispensation."
Tsvangirai
bemoaned the crisis in Zimbabwe, which he said continued to
escalate, with
the price of wheat increasing yesterday by 2 000 percent from
Z$900 000 a
ton to more than Z$12-million.
The increase follows a sixfold
increase of fuel prices to Z$120 000 a
litre. The hike in the price of wheat
means bread will become a luxury for
many in Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai said the challenge for the MDC was to rally the people and
the
international community to address the crisis.
If President Robert
Mugabe thought he had had an early Christmas
present in the form of a dead
MDC, he would in fact face a New Year wake-up
call with a rejuvenated party
to confront him, said Tsvangirai.
Addressing party loyalists at the
Zanu-PF annual conference in
southern Zimbabwe yesterday, Mugabe reportedly
chided the MDC, saying its
infighting had revealed "the real character" of
the opposition party.
He accused the MDC of being driven by greed
and obsessed with power.
This article was originally
published on page 6 of Sunday Argus on
December 10, 2005
Zimbabwe Independent
(Harare)
December 9, 2005
Posted to the web December 9,
2005
Augustine Mukaro
ZANU PF chefs and war veterans who
grabbed farms under the land reform
programme are being taken to court for
failing to pay levies to Rural
District Councils (RDCs,) the Zimbabwe
Independent heard this week.
Highly-placed sources said summons have been
dispatched to more than 200 A2
farmers, the majority of them political
bigwigs and war veterans who have
evaded levy payments over the past five
years when they forcibly moved onto
commercial farms.
Association of
Rural District Councils president, Jerry Gotora, confirmed
that farmers'
reluctance to pay levies had crippled RDCs' operations and
capacity to
provide basic services. He however could not provide specific
details on
RDCs that had engaged debt collectors.
"I can't give you which RDCs have
already engaged debt collectors now
because I am not in my office," Gotora
said.
"But you should understand that it is within the RDCs' powers to
engage debt
collectors or even lawyers to ensure that farmers pay the
levies."
Gotora said he would be willing to provide specific details of
what is
happening next week when he gets back to his office.
Sources
said RDCs which have already forwarded names to debt collectors
include
Mazowe, Shamva, and Mvurwi in the fertile Mashonaland Central
province where
chefs stampeded to grab prime properties.
"Topping the list of non-paying
people are A2 farmers," a source said. "The
majority have not paid anything
from the time when they moved on to the
properties."
Levies are used
for the repair and upgrading of district infrastructure such
as roads,
clinics and schools.
But the newly drafted 99-year leases for occupiers
of state land stipulate
that the lessee can only secure the lease agreement
when they have paid
annual levies based on the type of land and improvements
on the property
they occupy.
Government has the right to cancel the
agreement if the lessee fails to meet
these conditions.
The Telegraph
Simon Heffer on Saturday
(Filed:
10/12/2005)
The tales of
yet more horrors coming out of Zimbabwe, with the opposition
now it seems
emulating the brutal tactics of the evil dictator "Butcher Bob"
Mugabe,
ought to prick the conscience of our Government. Sadly, as we all
know, the
Government doesn't have a conscience, and this can mean only that
the morass
into which this once happy and prosperous country is sinking must
get deeper
and deeper. It won't be long now before our television screens
are adorned
with films of fly-blown, starving Zimbabwean children,
famine-stricken not
because of the vagaries of the soil or the climate, but
because of a
conscious decision by Mugabe to destroy the nation's
agricultural industry.
We have sent thousands of troops into Iraq to boot
out Saddam Hussein. The
problems in Zimbabwe are entirely our
responsibility, because of the foolish
way we decolonised it. If ever we had
a humanitarian responsibility to
intervene in another country's affairs by
force, this is surely it.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Dec-10
THE
Harare City Council has raised the ire of some disgruntled ratepayers
after
billing water consumption charges a month in advance for water
supposedly
consumed in December following a breakdown of its billing system
in
October.
Acting City Treasurer Cosmos Zvikaramba yesterday acknowledged the
problem,
saying the embattled council had experienced problems with its bill
generation programme.
Zvikaramba said: "You might be aware that we bill
rates in advance, which
means that ratepayers pay this month for services
they will receive next
month. With our water charges, you will notice that
we have written on the
bills that the charges recorded may be subject to
change. The problem lies
with our computers.
"The bill generation system
we were using went down on October 31 and it has
to be upgraded by South
African engineers."
He added that to bill for November, the council reverted
to its old billing
system and some arrears were carried over from that
month.
Asked whether his office had received complaints from residents,
Zvikaramba
said: "The problem will be rectified as soon as our system is
upgraded. We
cannot deal with it now because the Christmas holiday break is
coming soon.
We have communicated the issue on this month's statements that
the charges
are only initial. We are assessing water consumption queries
from individual
complainants."
Ratepayers who thronged the city's Rowan
Martin Building to pay service
charges and rates said they were confused by
the October water charges
statements. One Chardcombe woman only noticed in
the queue that her bill was
written "January 2006".
A disgruntled
ratepayer, Taka Ruzvidzo, of Msasa Park, queried: "They have
already charged
me $200 000 for water consumed in December. Surprisingly, I
have not yet
consumed water this month because we have not been having water
in Msasa
Park since last week. So where is this charge coming from? I told
the
cashier about the problem but he was not even aware of what was going
on. He
insisted that I needed to pay up that fee or my water would be
disconnected."
The billing problem adds to other challenges faced by the
city.
Harare is currently experiencing serious water shortages, forcing the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) to ration the precious
liquid.
Council has also gone for months without collecting refuse after the
withdrawal of private garbage collection companies citing
sub-economic
fees and fuel shortage as the main reasons for doing
so.
Furthermore, the council is struggling to repair burst sewer pipes that
have
posed a health threat to the city's population.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date
:2005-Dec-10
MARONDERA Hospital is facing drug shortages and staff
exodus, amid reports
that non-critical patients are being turned away from
the health
institution.
The hospital's medical superintendent, Jervas
Majok, told this newspaper
this week that the major cause of the staff
exodus was poor remuneration and
working conditions.
"Non-critical
patients are at times turned away due to lack of drugs and the
shortage of
staff to attend to them timeously.
"Others are referred to other district
hospitals and clinics to get
treatment," said Majok.
He said since
November the hospital lost seven nurses.
"Nurses are experiencing housing
problems after Operation
Muramba-tsvina/Restore Order displaced them. Some
are now living in areas
out of Marondera," Majok said.
He added that the
majority of the nurses had left because of poor
remuneration.
"Most of
the nurses are leaving for greener pastures because what they are
earning is
not enough to sustain them and their families. After deductions
they are
taking home between $2,5 million and $3,3 million a month," Majok
explained.
The most affected hospital departments by the staff exodus
were maternity
and theatre.
The situation is further compounded by the
acute shortage of drugs, with
stocks below 25 per cent, which authorities
said, was against the World
Health Organisation recommended minimum of 70
percent.
"The situation will be worse if a consignment of new drugs is
not
delivered by January 2006.
"If the situation does not improve, other wards
will be temporarily closed,"
he added.
The problems facing the hospital
had seen many patients in the town seeking
medication from
expensive
private health institutions.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Court Reporter
issue date :2005-Dec-10
POLICE in
Mozambique recently recovered a vehicle worth $1 billion stolen in
Zimbabwe
when two suspected car thieves fled on being asked to produce
identification
papers.
One of the suspects, Paradzai Matsambe (38), was arrested at his
Waterfalls
home on Thursday last week.
Matsambe appeared before Harare
magistrate Rodin Mzyece on Thursday and was
granted $5 million bail. He was
also ordered to come back to court on
December 29.
Police are now hunting
for the alleged accomplice Tanaka Macheka Nyabonde.
Prosecutor Lucky Mauwa
alleged that on November 22 Winhoo John Ralph secured
his Toyota Land
Cruiser and parked it at home,
but Matsambe broke into the car using an
unknown object.
He picked up Nyabonde and they drove to Mozambique in the
stolen car.
After entering Mozambique through an illegal point called Dumisa,
local
police stopped them.
They were asked to produce their passports and
car papers,
but they lied that they had left the documents
somewhere.
They then asked for permission to go and collect the papers and
were
allowed, on condition they left the car.
When the suspects did not
return, Mozambican police searched the car and
recovered their
particulars.
Globe and Mail, Canada
By ANDREW
ALLENTUCK
Saturday, December 10, 2005
The Undercover
Economist:
Exposing Why the Rich are Rich,
the Poor are Poor --
and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car
By Tim
Harford
Oxford University Press,
286 pages,
$34.95
Economics has the power to bore the bright and to enchant the dull
with
abstractions that have no counterpart in the real world, and policies
concocted by those who have never tried them. It is a discipline that gets
respect because its precepts ought to work, apart from frequent evidence
that they don't.
Tim Harford is an official of the World Bank in
Washington, D.C. He also
writes a column for London's Financial Times
Magazine. In The Undercover
Economist, he sets out to restore relevance to
economics.
As he sees it, the failure of many theories to predict the
real world is a
result of reaching to grasp small issues in spite of bigger
ones compelling
attention. As he writes, "most economics has very little to
do with GDP
[gross domestic product]. Economics is about who gets what and
why. . . .
There is much more to life than what gets measured in accounts.
Even
economists know that."
Harford offers fresh explanations for
ordinary questions. He shows how
Starbucks gets away with charging $5 a cup
for froth. His theory is that
it's not the cost of production that sets the
$5 price. Rather, he says,
that's the price paid by the customer for being
able to become a star for a
moment while a wish for a latte is fulfilled.
Harford explains how
imbalances of information influence pricing when one
side in a deal knows
much more than the other. For example, a seller knows
the truth of a used
car's condition and the buyer wants a deep discount
because he doesn't.
The Undercover Economist concludes with a discussion
of globalization, trade
and economic development. Harford acknowledges the
harm globalization can
do, but insists that protectionism does far worse
things to people and to
the environment.
Harford demonstrates that
the economics taught a generation or two ago is
old hat, stuff that should
be put aside. For example, 40 years ago, it was
economics' vanity that the
business cycle was dead, put out of its misery by
wise governments and their
economists. Then came stagflation in the 1970s,
an economic debacle in the
early 1980s, when interest rates went double
digit, and the currency crisis
in the early 1990s, with its resulting year
of depression in Southeast Asia.
The business cycle, credit cycles and trade
cycles are thriving, theories
that they are dead notwithstanding.
A few decades ago, the World Bank
operated in the belief that no country was
too much of a disaster to move up
to developed-world prosperity. A village
in Laos could turn into Singapore
in a generation with the right loans and
guidance. The theory asserted that
with the right equations, poverty would
be licked. Harford doesn't say if he
was part of this conceit, but he offers
a very different take on how
entrenched poverty should be viewed today.
He takes on Cameroon, calling
it "the armpit of Africa," a kleptocracy in
which the government has stolen
so persistently that it has created an
economy in which the only work that
pays is stealing. Officials steal from
visitors, from locals and from each
other. An idealist would replace the
crooks with honest officials, but this
would be a mistake, Harford argues.
He cites the work of economist Mancur
Olson, who proposed that a wise
dictator bent on theft will leave enough
capital in the country to keep the
economy running, the better to allow more
theft.
But Cameroon has been bled dry, so is Olson wrong or are the
crooks not
optimizing their stealing? This is a vital question, for
kleptocratic
government is common in the developing world. (In the
developed, too, some
would say, but I digress.) Harford offers only half an
answer. A rational
dictator can pillage a country's wealth as long as he
gets a superior return
from his stash in Zurich, still a popular place for
kleptocrats to hide
their loot. Infrastructure maintenance is all very nice,
but complete
destruction works very nicely too. If one needs another example
of a
national looter who has turned government into robbery and destroyed a
formerly verdant economy, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe will do.
What to
do? Harford is too decent to say it, but cutting off the aid that
gets
stolen might actually force the crooks to flee to where they have put
their
cash. Just a thought, of course.
Harford is a realist. He notes the
argument of leftist critics of child
labour who would like to abolish
factories that employ children in the Third
World. He argues that the kids
and their families are better off making
money honestly, even if it is not
much more than they would make in the
twilight economies of market stalls,
crime and poaching.
That aside, The Undercover Economist is dulcet stuff.
It should interest
both economists and schmoozers at Starbucks. Brief,
chatty and digestible,
the book should refute the old canard that economics
is dismal.
Andrew Allentuck writes often for the Report on Business.