The Associated
PressPublished: December 10, 2006
HARARE, Zimbabwe: A public row
erupted Sunday between Zimbabwe's two top
financial leaders over orders to
print more money to keep the government
afloat, thereby worsening the
nation's already disastrous inflation.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono
pinned responsibility on Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa, rejecting
comments from the minister that the bank was to
blame.
"It is
becoming sickening the extent to which public figures and officials
are keen
to misinform the nation," Gono said.
In his national budget proposals for
2007 made last month, Murerwa said the
central bank's "quasi-fiscal
operations," including paying freshly printed
money to the government and
loss-making state enterprises, fueled inflation
to 1,070 percent this year -
the highest rate in the world - and contributed
to a massive 43 percent
budget deficit in spending against revenues received
by the
state.
Murerwa said money supply grew by 1,000 percent over the past
year without
production earnings to back it up.
But Gono released a
16-page statement Sunday that included confidential
memos ordering the
Reserve Bank to provide cash to ministries and government
departments that
overspent on their annual budgets this year.
Gono rejected implications
by Murerwa that he made "unbudgeted, unauthorized
and allegedly illegal
disbursements" of money.
His statement showed copies of memos signed by
Murerwa, Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made and other senior officials noting
that legislation covering the
central bank operations obliged it to pay out
money required by the state
when authorized by ministers.
It was
Murerwa who signed most of the memos for purchases of wheat, the
staple food
that is in short supply, and bridging finance for government
projects, it
said.
Gono said the bank operated correctly under its mandate as the
state banker,
followed instructions and did nothing blameworthy.
"If
fiction is not attended to and replaced by facts, that fiction will
assume a
life of its own in the hearts and minds of people," Gono said.
Murerwa,
however, defended himself, saying he did not lay the blame on Gono
or any
individual.
"All I said was let's reduce quasi-fiscal operations because
the source of
the money was not sustainable," he told the independent Sunday
Standard
newspaper.
He acknowledged he authorized many of the
payments.
"I wrote to Gono on several occasions asking to pay for certain
commitments.
He was able to provide support when we needed it," Murerwa
said.
The central bank prints and controls the distribution of local
currency.
Gono's statement said cash shortages were discussed at "fire
fighting"
meetings of President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet.
"The history
of nations shows that quasi-fiscal operations are a necessary
and
unavoidable feature of crisis periods, a feature of hyperinflationary
times
and a necessary feature where ordinary ways of doing things have
failed,"
Gono said.
With acute shortages of gasoline, food and imports and record
unemployment,
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since
independence in 1980.
The meltdown is blamed largely on disruptions in
the agriculture-based
economy after the often-violent seizures of thousands
of white-owned
commercial farms.
|
Sokwanele - Enough is Enough -
Zimbabwe PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY |
|
Sokwanele Report: 10 December 2006 December 10th is Human Rights Day, but in Zimbabwe human rights are grossly abused, and the poor, in particular, are ridden over roughshod by the Mugabe regime. 26 years after Independence, there is no respect for human rights in this country. The American Declaration of Independence written at the end of the eighteenth century, states "….all men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights…. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". These are the most fundamental human rights of all. Today on Human Rights Day, we take just three basic human rights - perhaps the most important ones: food, health care, education - and look at how they fare as we mourn what has become of life in Zimbabwe. Food The average life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen to 34 years for women, and 37 years for men - the lowest in the world. This is due to the combined impact of poverty, Aids and malnutrition. Zimbabwe used to be the bread-basket of Southern Africa, before Mugabe and his regime embarked on an ill-thought out land redistribution exercise. The majority of the previously highly productive farms were snatched from the mainly white owners and given to landless peasants without access to finance or the necessary skills and inputs; the other beneficiaries were Zanu PF bigwigs, who practice weekend farming using methods akin to slave labour. Since 2001, the country has relied on food imports and donor aid to supplement domestic output. Predictions for the last agricultural year 2005/6 were that farmers would harvest only 62% of the country's annual cereal requirement. Zimbabweans are dying. Bulawayo City is the only city council that regularly reports deaths due to malnutrition: in the five months up to May this year, they reported 155 deaths. Health officials there reported that most of those who had died of hunger-related illnesses were children below the age of five. Shockingly, in that same city, five deaths due to malnutrition were recently reported at Ingutsheni, the government mental hospital. Even government itself reports that stunting, a measure of chronic malnutrion, is reported to be 29,4 percent in 2005-06 compared to 26,5 percent in a 1999 survey, and the mortality rate for children under five has dwindled from 102 per 1 000 births in 1999 to 78 in 2004, and is no doubt far worse now, two years further on in 2006. A report approved by senior government officials estimated that 1.4
million rural people (about 17% of that sector) are food insecure in the current
season. This does not include a few million more hungry people in Zimbabwe's
towns and cities. The situation is desperate: workers arrive at work
inadequately nourished and will often save the highly subsidized lunches
received in factory canteens, taking them home in the evening to be shared
amongst the entire family. Health Care The Zimbabwean health system has collapsed: there is serious understaffing, lack of morale, lack of essential drugs including ARVs, critical equipment is old and not functioning, and HIV infection levels are running at 24% of the population. Doctors and nurses battle with low wages and without critical equipment such as rubber gloves, saline drips, syringes and painkillers - not surprisingly, many of them emigrate for greener pastures, leaving a still greater load on those remaining. One province, Matabeleland South, recently reported that it had only one doctor, based at Gwanda Hospital, to service 4 million people; its full complement of doctors should be 12, with a further 9 specialists. Even pharmacies battle to obtain critical drugs, supplying their clients in dribs and drabs as they are able to get their hands on 10 or 15 or 25 tablets at a time; a large percentage of drugs are imported and the pharmacists have to do battle with the Medicine Council's import requirements, as well as with the Reserve Bank for the sourcing of the forex to pay for them. Medical aid subscriptions increase by 25% per month, notwithstanding the increasing shortfalls that are passed on to the patient, and probably only 10% or so of the population is fortunate enough to have access to private medical aid in any case. The country has only two radiotherapy machines, at Parirenyatwa Hospital
in Harare. They broke down five months ago, having gone well over their 10 year
lifespan (one was bought in 1987 and the other one in 1992!), and are yet to be
repaired. The Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr Edwin Muguti said
the country Aids is the largest killer in Zimbabwe, although that is rarely the cause entered on the death certificate. In developed countries, patients diagnosed with HIV can expect to live 15 years or more without developing full-blown Aids, providing they have access to good nutrition and anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. In Zimbabwe, about 600 000 HIV-positive people need treatment, but the regime's ARV programme only caters for a tiny 42 000 of them. The rest have to source them from pharmacies (where the cost has increased by 65% in just 3 months) or the ultimate death sentence is passed, and they must go without. Education Zimbabwe's workforce was once the envy of all other African countries: they were well educated and had a good command of English, Maths, Geography, Science and History on leaving school, often armed with other subjects as well. The University of Zimbabwe was well-respected, offering degrees which could hold their own against those of any other country on the continent, and abroad too. As with other public services, though, the man-made economic crisis has bludgeoned the education sector into a shadow of its former self, with headmasters fighting to preserve standards with virtually no financial provision from the state. Teachers are poorly paid, and regularly resort to running "tuck shops" in break or lunchtimes, to augment their income by a few miserly bank notes. Rural schools in particular are quite literally falling apart, with no provision for repair work to buildings or infrastructure: windows are smashed, desks and chairs are broken, often irreparably, and one text book is shared between an entire class. With the increase in school fees this year, (and do please remember that as government schools, these are supposed to be free) many children have had to drop out of school. Where families have had to choose which child would be the unlucky one, the girl child often suffers first. Children, too, are arriving at school without adequate nutrition, resulting in falling concentration levels, or even falling asleep during class. Even the private schools are not exempt, and have been subjected to sustained attack by the Minister for Education, Aeneas Chigwedere, doing everything within his evil power to force sub-economic fee levels that would lead to their closure. This has generated ire from his fellow ministers, most of whose children attend the best private schools in the country, but his aim appears to be to level all educational institutes to the lowest common denominator. Finally on this subject, we mourn for the school leavers who have battled the odds to get good O and A level grades, for there are no jobs for them to go to. They are forced into economic exile or back to the streets or their rural homes to scratch a living there. Our mourning turned to hope So today, on Human Rights Day, we mourn. We mourn the current situation,
the hopelessness, the deaths, the sores and scabs of Aids patients, the
unemployment. Firstly, to have a government that is democratically elected by the people of the nation; secondly, the will to end corruption, and to prosecute offenders at all levels. Next, a redirection of government expenditure to critical areas, and away from the defence and intelligence forces; also in accord with this, a paring away of the bloated civil service and bringing in a culture of service, efficiency and value added. Finally, with these remedies successfully applied, a return of skilled professionals to the country, which would happen naturally if the fundamentals were put to rights. How ironic that Zimbabwe currently holds a seat on the Council of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights. Mugabe is the chief criminal when looking at human rights abuses, and he has inculcated his value system into his cronies. They are afraid of losing power, because their crimes will become known and they will be held accountable. We at Sokwanele want to hold them accountable, and this is part of our brief: to diligently record the gross abuses of power in this land, so that a contemporary record stands, ready for the time when they leave the corridors of power and are made to account for what they have done. Visit our website at
www.sokwanele.com We have a fundamental right to freedom of expression! Sokwanele does not endorse the editorial policy of any source or website except its own. It retains full copyright on its own articles, which may be reproduced or distributed but may not be materially altered in any way. Reproduced articles must clearly show the source and owner of copyright, together with any other notices originally contained therein, as well as the original date of publication. Sokwanele does not accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt of this email or use thereof. This document, or any part thereof, may not be distributed for profit. |
Zim Online
Monday 11 December
2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe will not step down at
the expiry of his term in 2008 but will rule
for an additional two years
after three more provincial committees of his
ruling ZANU PF party resolved
at the weekend to extend his term to
2010.
ZANU PF, which has enough parliamentary majority to amend
Zimbabwe's
Constitution to enable Mugabe to continue in office, is pushing
for a
constitutional amendment to postpone a presidential election due in
2008 to
2010 so it could be held together with general elections for
Parliament.
The ruling party says holding simultaneous presidential
and
parliamentary elections would cut on costs. But insiders say the move is
more because of failure by bitterly opposed factions in the party to agree
on a single candidate to succeed Mugabe, who will have done 30 years at the
helm if he stays on until 2010.
"Holding separate elections is
too expensive and we have resolved as a
province that presidential,
parliamentary and even senatorial elections be
held at the same time," ZANU
PF spokesman for Bulawayo province Effort Nkomo
said at the weekend after
the provincial leadership agreed to ask a party
national conference later
this week to extend Mugabe's term.
Party provincial leaders in
Matabeleland South and North provinces
also agreed at the weekend to support
extending Mugabe's term, bringing the
number of provinces backing the call
to keep the 82-year old leader in
office until 2010 to six out of a total of
10 provinces.
The provinces of Masvingo, Midlands and Manicaland
had earlier
indicated they would push the national conference that begins
next Wednesday
to extend Mugabe's term - which is now a mere formality after
the majority
of provinces expressed their support for the
proposal.
Mugabe - accused by critics of ruining Zimbabwe's once
prosperous
economy through repression and mismanagement - has not publicly
commented on
the moves by his party to extend his rule.
The
veteran President, among the few remaining of Africa's old style
big-men
rulers, had never categorically stated that he would step down in
2008. But
he had indicated in a May 2004 interview with British television
that he
would not seek re-election at the expiry of his current term.
Under
Mugabe's charge - he first came to power at the country's
independence from
Britain in 1980 - Zimbabwe has declined from being a model
economy to a
classical African basket case, weighed down by an economic
crisis that has
spawned hyperinflation, severe food shortages, record
unemployment and
poverty. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 11 December
2006
HARARE - The Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe) has
condemned as flawed the
revised Interception of Communication Bill saying
the proposed law is no
different to the one rejected by Parliament last
October.
A
parliamentary legal committee headed by Prof Welshman Ncube last
October
threw out the original Bill for revision after finding some sections
of the
proposed law to be in contravention of Zimbabwe's Constitution.
In
a Press statement released at the weekend, MISA says the revised
Bill still
flouted Zimbabweans' basic rights to privacy, freedom of
conscience and
expression.
"The Bill still attempts to overturn the outcome of the
Law Society of
Zimbabwe against the Minister of Transport and
Communications, and the
Attorney General case of the year 2003, which ruled
that freedom of
expression includes freedom from interference with
correspondence be it
electronic or postal," said MISA.
Under
the proposed law, President Robert Mugabe's government will be
empowered to
monitor and intercept internet communications between citizens
which it
deems detrimental to the state.
MISA-Zimbabwe said even in its
revised form, the Bill is a "repressive
piece of law that has no place in a
democratic society. No amount of
revision will justify the impending
snooping."
If the revised Bill is finally passed by Parliament, it
will join a
raft of tough media laws that have been used by Harare to stifle
the work of
independent journalists.
Zimbabwe already has some
of the worst media laws in the world, with
journalists for example, being
liable to two-year jail terms if they are
caught practicing without a
licence from the state's Media and Information
Commission.
At
least four newspapers including the biggest daily, the Daily News,
have been
shut down in the past three years for violating the country's
tough media
laws. The World Association of Newspapers says Zimbabwe is among
the three
worst countries for journalists. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 11 December
2006
MAPFUNGAUTSI - For 53-year old
Phathisani Ncube, life in the
Mapfungautsi Forestry area in northern
Zimbabwe is forever shrouded in
uncertainty.
It is as if
Ncube and his family here are living on borrowed
time, unsure of what the
future holds as they seek to eke a living on this
plot of land they have
occupied for the past six years.
During this tempestous
period in Zimbabwe's history, Ncube and
about 150 other villagers here have
survived largely due to political
patronage at election
time.
At every election time, they have religiously complied
with
instructions from Chief Njelele to go back to their villages some 60km
south
of Gokwe Centre to cast their votes.
But the choice
is quite clear - vote ZANU PF or you are out of
here.
And
so they have complied to ensure their continued stay at
Mapfungautsi
Forestry Reserve .
The villagers settled in the area at the
height of violent and
chaotic land reforms initiated by President Robert
Mugabe in 2000 that saw
the government seizing farms from whites for
redistribution to landless
blacks.
With the villagers
literally feeding from ZANU PF's hand, the
ruling party appears to have
taken advantage of the villagers' plight and
powerlessness to arm-twist them
during election time to back the party.
"We don't know for
how this will go on. Whenever there is an
election, we are told to return to
our original homes and vote. We have
become used to that," says
Ncube.
"It is the price everyone here has to pay," he says
with a
chuckle.
For example, Ncube says in the run-up to
rural district council
elections held last September, Chief Njelele clearly
spelled out that their
continued stay on the farm depended on delivering
victory for ZANU PF at the
polls.
"He (the Chief)
literally chased us back to our original homes,
saying each one had to
register and vote in their former ward," Ncube says,
adding that villagers
had no choice but to comply.
Now with the elections over, the
villagers say they can at least
continue with their lives undisturbed - for
now.
"We now have earned the chief's blessing," says Mathias
Mandlaenkosi, another villager.
But officials of the
Mapfungautsi Forestry Company, a government
parastatal, insist the
settlement is illegal.
The company accuses the villagers of
causing environmental
damage through random chopping down of trees,
threatening the future
viability of their timber
business.
Last March, the company clashed with the villagers
after it
destroyed community gardens set up by the villagers in a bid to
force them
off the forestry reserve.
But the villagers
stayed put with tacit approval from Chief
Njelele and local politicians who
value their presence come election time.
Zimbabwe's main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party and human rights
groups have often accused ZANU PF of using
traditional leaders in rural
areas to coerce villagers to back the ruling
party.
The
MDC and several civic groups insist that say Mugabe has
pampered chiefs with
allowances and privileges in a bid to buy their support
during
elections.
Both Mugabe and ZANU PF deny the
charge.
Although chiefs and headmen hold ceremonial powers,
they still
wield immense influence in rural areas.
There
have been several reports in the past of chiefs and
headmen force-marching
villagers to polling stations at election time with
possession of a ZANU PF
membership card sometimes being a prerequisite for
accessing food
handouts.
In an election synopsis to the recently held rural
council
elections, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition civic group said the
elections
saw the re-emergence of the politics of violence and vengeance
targeted at
opposition candidates.
Crisis said this
observation reinforced accusations by the
opposition that "traditional
leaders demanded that their people vote for
ZANU PF candidates or face a
wide variety of penalties - from the
withholding of food aid to eviction
from rural homes."
But the writing is now on the wall for
these villagers in
Mapfungautsi after Mugabe last month repealed the Land
Occupiers (Protection
from Eviction) Act that his government enacted at the
height of farm
disturbances to shield land invaders.
"We
might have to invoke the new law in order to evict the
villagers now," says
a Forestry official who declined to be named. -
ZimOnline
Even more cooking pots today.
Everyone seems to be bringing them to beat
the needs of Zimbabwe. People
who passed the Vigil took the opportunity to
bang a pot hanging from one of
our 4 maple trees. Children found this great
fun -but many of the parents
had heard of the brutal treatment meted out to
WOZA supporters. We showed a
graphic photo of the injuries inflicted on one
of the WOZA ladies in
Bulawayo - we pray for her recovery. The awful
situation in Zimbabwe was
underlined this week by the Zimbabwe Human Rights
NGO Forum report that more
than 15,000 cases of organized torture and
violence have been documented in
Zimbabwe since 2001. A notice about this
was stuck on the Embassy window on
their new poster "Go to Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe's true wonder is
back".(Perhaps the Falls had fled to Zambia
because of torture.)
The
Vigil's deputation to our friends in Germany was given an open-hearted
welcome. They were guests of the Harare-Munich Municipal Partnership, which
has in effect frozen dealings with the authorities in Zimbabwe but are very
supportive of Zimbabweans. Three young Zimbabweans had been hosted and
educated in practical skills by Munich and our representatives were there
for their farewell party before returning to Zimbabwe. We hope they will
spread our message of support for the Zimbabwean people. We are sure our
deputation of Ephraim and Wiz were able to convey the activist spirit of the
Vigil. Ephraim expressed outrage at the activities of the Zimbabwean
Ambassador in Berlin who has targeted all Zimbabwean asylum seekers in
Germany warning them that they are not allowed to take part in political
activities. They report that ordinary German people are appalled by what is
happening in Zimbabwe. Videos taken in Zimbabwe left them in tears.
Unfortunately we have to report that the CIO is very active in Germany as
elsewhere.
The Vigil has been advised by sources in the British and
French governments
that the French government might be minded to invite
Mugabe to a France /
Africa summit in Cannes in February. We have written a
letter to the French
Embassy to pass on to the new French Ambassador to
Zimbabwe pressing him to
do all he can to prevent this (see text of letter
below).
Two other initiatives: Luka handed out letters (in a campaign
supported by
Amnesty) for Vigil supporters to post to their British MPs
pointing out the
difficulties facing rejected asylum seekers and calling on
the Home
Secretary to ensure that they are not forced into destitution and
calling
for a review of their status. The Free-Zim Youth outlined plans for
a march
to all SADC Embassies in London to urge them to act on Zimbabwe.
Since they
are fairly scattered this will be something of a
marathon!
On our first real winter day, there was a welcome return of hot
drinks at
the Vigil thanks to Yeukai and Chipo who got hot water from the
nearby
Bullfrog pub to make tea and coffee in the flasks generously provided
by
another supporter, Patricia Jiri, daughter of Jairos Jiri ,who did so
much
for the disabled in Zimbabwe.
The Vigil drew the attention of
lots of Christmas shoppers when we sang the
Shona song "Where has the money
of Zimbabwe gone", dating from the Congo
enterprise but now given new force
by the scramble for diamonds.
For this week's Vigil pictures:
http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.
FOR
THE RECORD: 59 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
- Monday,
11th December, 7.30 pm, Central London Zimbabwe Forum.
Several items:
practice for the carol singing outside the Embassy on 20th
December, letter
writing campaign to MPs and MEPS in line with ACTSA
initiative to stop the
crumbling of EU targeted sanctions against the
ZANU-PF regime, report back
from Wiz Bishop on the visit to Munich. Venue:
the Rose and Springbok, 14
Upper St Martins Lane, WC2H 9DL. Map link:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?N2D231EA6.
Nearest tubes: Leicester Square,
Covent Garden.
- Come and join
the carol singing in Shona, Ndebele and English
outside the Embassy from 5 -
7 pm on 20th December in sympathy with people
facing a dismal Christmas back
home.
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00
to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
You are
receiving this because you have attended the Vigil or contacted the
website. Please advise us if you wish to be removed from this list.
Letter from the Zimbabwe Vigil to the French Embassy, London to pass on to
the new French Ambassador to Zimbabwe
We are writing because we are
appalled to hear that the French government
may be inviting Robert Mugabe,
the Zimbabwean President, to the France /
Africa Summit in Cannes from 14-16
February 2007. We were informed of this
by Lord Triesman, Minister for
Africa at the British Foreign Office, when he
spoke at a meeting in London
on 4th November arranged by ACTSA (Action for
Southern Africa, the successor
to the Anti-Apartheid Movement) in support of
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU).
We were grateful for the opportunity to brief M. Gabriel
Jugnet on 27th
September before he took up his appointment as French
Ambassador to Zimbabwe
and were pleased that he was prepared to listen to
ordinary Zimbabweans and
hear about the pain of those back home.
The
excesses of the Mugabe regime are getting worse: the brutal treatment of
trade union leaders when they tried to hold a peaceful protest on 13th
September (this was applauded by Mr Mugabe), the re-launch of Operation
Murambatsvina (a government programme designed to make the urban poor
homeless and deprive them of their livelihoods) and more recently the
vicious suppression of a peaceful march by women on 29th November. At a time
when the country is spiralling into deeper chaos (see list below) as a
result of Mugabe's inhumane policies, we find it extraordinary that M.
Chirac can consider entertaining this vicious man and be tainted by
association with him:
- Highest inflation at around 2000%. The
IMF predicts 4000%
inflation in 2007.
- Fastest shrinking
economy
- Lowest life expectancy - 34 for women, 37 for men (source
UN)
- Highest number of orphans per capita (source
UNICEF)
- Death rate 3,500 per week - exceeds: Darfur, Iraq,
Afghanistan
- 80% unemployment
- 80% below poverty
line
- Half the population starving
- 24%+ HIV Positive
- 90% HIV infection rates in the army, 70%
infection rates in post-natal
women
A French government invitation to Mugabe (in contravention of EU
targeted
sanctions) will dismay Zimbabweans world wide. At a time when we
are told
that people are dying in their thousands not just from AIDS, lack
of
medication and lack of food, but from despair and hopelessness, this
sends a
message that the French government is prepared to overlook gross
human
rights abuses in Zimbabwe. If Mugabe's visit goes ahead it will not
only
give him legitimacy but also help send the wrong signals to would-be
dictators in Africa and elsewhere. The visit will also present Mugabe with
an opportunity to once more claim on a world stage that he is not to blame
for what is happening in Zimbabwe - France will be complicit in this
deception.
We understand there is considerable pressure from leaders
of the Southern
African region to invite Mugabe. We have been lobbying
leaders in the
region for many years to condemn the human rights abuse in
Zimbabwe and we
beg the French government not to give in to unprincipled
pressure. Call
their bluff - most of them will find it very hard to resist
an all-expenses
paid trip to the Riviera!
Please could you convey our
dismay to M Jugnet and ask him to do everything
in his power to persuade the
French government not to break EU targeted
sanctions by inviting Mugabe to
the February meeting.
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from
14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the
current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will
continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held
in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Monsters and Critics
Dec 10, 2006,
18:31 GMT
Harare - The United Nations' top food aid official
arrived Sunday in
Zimbabwe where close to two million people are in need of
emergency aid, a
spokesman said.
James Morris, the head of the World
Food Programme (WFP), is scheduled to
meet Monday with the heads of UN
agencies, non- governmental organizations
and government ministers in
Harare. He will assess the humanitarian
situation in Zimbabwe, said Michael
Huggins, the WFP's public affairs
officer for southern Africa.
Morris
also hopes to hold talks with President Robert Mugabe before flying
to South
Africa Monday afternoon although the meeting has not yet been
confirmed,
said Huggins in a telephone interview with Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
dpa.
At least 1.9 million people in the country of around 12 million will
require
food aid until April next year, he added. The struggling southern
African
country, once labelled the region's breadbasket, has experienced six
successive years of declining agricultural output.
Critics link this
partly to the government's controversial seizure of
productive white-owned
farms for redistribution to new black farmers. Harare
blames the decline on
drought, and a drying up of financial aid from Western
nations.
The
UN food boss is on a tour of four southern African countries that
require
food aid. The WFP executive director, who is also Kofi Annan's
special
humanitarian envoy to southern Africa, has already visited Zambia
and
Malawi.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
From The Sunday Argus (SA), 10 December 10
Staff Reporter
South Africa, Zimbabwe and other
neighbouring countries are about to step up
joint |security operations on
their borders in a bid to cut cross-border
crime. Another agreement between
South Africa and Zimbabwe is to address the
chronic traffic back-ups and
bottlenecks at the Beit Bridge border post over
the Christmas season. A
senior government source disclosed yesterday that
Police Commissioner Jackie
Selebi, accompanied by directors-general and
senior managers from various
South African government departments in the
security cluster, had spent
Friday in the Beit Bridge area. They met their
Zimbabwean counterparts, and
together inspected both sides of the border
post and the border fence. With
Selebi were officials from the South African
|Revenue Service, which
oversees customs and deals with smuggling. Also in
the party were officials
from the intelligence agencies, Home Affairs and
the SA National Defence
Force. A source said these departments had increased
their manpower levels
at Beit Bridge, other ports of entry, and on the
country's borders. The
anti-crime co-operative drive has been stepped up.
The focus is on land and
sea ports and airstrips - particularly those close
to the borders. On the
joint effort to ensure a flow of traffic through the
border posts in the
coming weeks, the official said that the government was
about to launch a
service for travellers to neighbouring countries - a
website, a call centre,
and an SMS facility.
From Business Day (SA), 9 December
Simba Makunike
Stung by a resurgent Zambian
tourism industry and political isolation,
businessmen in the resort town of
Victoria Falls have launched a marketing
initiative to woo visitors back to
Zimbabwe. One of the seven wonders of the
world, the Victoria Falls is the
natural boundary between Zimbabwe and
Zambia and is key to both countries'
economies. But with Zimbabwe embroiled
in political feuds with the west -
the region's main source of visitors -
its immediate neighbour has taken
advantage and is growing the number of
tourists visiting the country. Fuel
shortages and a poorly serviced Victoria
Falls airport have heightened
Zimbabwe's woes, leading major international
airlines to use the expanding
Livingstone airport as a point of entry,
before crossing the border into
Zimbabwe. Complicating issues for the
Zimbabweans is the fact that Zambia,
which has long played second fiddle in
the fight for tourists, is planning
to build two top-class hotels near the
falls.
The heat is on and
industry players in Victoria Falls concede they have a
fight on their hands.
"We have been a fractious industry because things have
been tough," says
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge's Dave Glynnis. "Everyone was
busy fighting
their own little wars for survival. International negative
publicity has
also made it very difficult for the industry. But there is
also a lot of
fatigue with this negativity. There is a new thrust of
enthusiasm and
business is coming back. Tourists are coming back despite all
the negatives,
and this sends us a signal that people still want to see us,"
he says. "The
Zambian side has had substantial growth at our expense. They
have got debt
relief and cash from the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund for
tourism. They are currently the flavour of the month."
Livingstone airport
is extending its runway to accommodate long-haul
aircraft while in Zimbabwe
the domestic airline faces financial
constraints - sounding a death knell to
domestic tourism. "We have taken too
much for granted. We've always assumed
that anyone who wants to see the Vic
Falls will come to Zimbabwe. But the
Zambian experience has given us a
wake-up call."
Although the
falls are mostly on the Zambian side, the Zimbabwean side
benefits more as
it has a full view of the falls. This should naturally
bring more tourists
to the country. "As an industry we decided that if we do
not react to the
Zambian onslaught we will shrivel and die," says Ross
Kennedy, one of the
driving forces behind a new initiative,
GotoVictoriaFalls.com, launched by
all industry players in the town.
"Victoria Falls is still in very good
shape. Business is thriving. We
enjoyed growth of 24% in 2004 and 20% in
2005. We had a slight pullback
after Operation Murambatsvina (the
government's shack-clearing programme,
roundly condemned worldwide) but it
is picking up again," says Glynnis. He
says the way to go is to market
regional destinations as a package. "Tourism
can be a once-in-a-lifetime
experience so it is important to market our
products as a group. It makes
sense for tourists to come to the region and
see Cape Town, the Kruger
National Park and Victoria Falls at once."
To do this the
GotoVictoriaFalls.com campaign needs to have a heavy presence
in SA as the
bulk of the business in the region comes through Johannesburg.
The
initiative had a heavy presence at the last Tourism Indaba in Durban,
says
Glynnis. It has also exhibited in Europe, traditionally the largest
source
of tourists to Zimbabwe. "This is a purely commercial effort and is
funded
fully by the roleplayers in the industry. It has done well for us and
I hope
the government has taken notice." To address the fuel crisis,
Kennedy, who
is MD of the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, says his group had
opened a depot
at the hotel where tourists can buy it in foreign currency at
$1/l. Other
aspects the campaign emphasises are the chance to see the Big
Five in nearby
game parks; safety; eight-plus hotels and conference centres;
and
affordability.