• CFU - FARM INVASIONS AND SECURITY UPDATE - Monday 11th December 2000
• RBZ throws out $4bn SA fuel loan - Daily News 11/12/00
• Chiyangwa flees angry workers - Daily News 11/12/00
• Zambia asks Zimbabwe to take back its soldiers - Daily News 11/12/00
• Chinamasa wants Daily News charged over airport story - Daily News 11/12/00
• US Disappointed With Zimbabwe Events - The Associated Press, Mon 11 Dec 2000
• EU ‘fed up’ with Mugabe - Financial Gazette 7/12/00
• MDC under renewed pressure to relaunch mass protests - Financial Gazette 7/12/00

Gideon Gono, the managing director of the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ), yesterday said bureaucratic bungling and petty jealousies were responsible for Zimbabwe's current fuel crisis which has seen fuel queues re-emerging.
In the meantime, civil servants were taking their time to consider the multi-billion dollar petroleum products importation application by the CBZ on behalf of Noczim which would have seen the country secure a fuel supply facility enough to last until the end of January 2001, said Gono.
Speaking from Johannesburg, Gono said: "The current fuel shortage is self-inflicted and can easily be overcome if all interested parties and key players, especially in government, applied a little bit of innovation in their management styles."
The RBZ turned down a proposal the CBZ had submitted towards the end of
November, which clearly spelt out that terms set out were indicative and not exhaustive, and were designed to chart a mutually satisfactory arrangement for the proposed finance.
The RBZ secretary for the External Loans Co-ordination Committee (ELCC), Morris Bekezela Mpofu, said the proposal did not meet their criteria which requires that only confirmation or guarantee fees be levied as opposed to having other flat fees such as drawdown arrangement and roll-over charges included in the proposal.
In a letter to the CBZ, he said: "ELCC takes note of the importance of importation of fuel and, therefore advises CBZ to liaise with the Ministry of Finance to establish the possibility of granting the financing proposal national priority status."
This forced Gono to approach the Ministry of Finance seeking urgent guidance and highlighted to the ministry that if such a fuel facility was not accorded national priority status, the country would run dry within days.
"We are asking you to please, accord this facility a national priority status so that we can at least buy time to end of January 2001," said Gono in a letter to RBZ. "To try and arrange a new facility now is almost impossible with most people going away on holiday."
Disregarding this advice and plea, the Finance ministry told CBZ that Noczim should make such an application.
"As a matter of procedure, the parent Ministry is required to submit a formal request for this Ministry to consider the issue. Noczim should apply through their parent Ministry for this special dispensation," said Mpofu.
The ABSA Corporate Bank, which has shares in the CBZ, later recalled Chris Venter and Deon Coetzee who had come to fine-tune agreements with Noczim, citing bureaucratic bungling as a major stumbling bloc in the provision of relief facilities for fuel supplies to Zimbabwe.
Efforts to get comments from the Minister of Finance, Dr Simba Makoni,
Secretary for Mines and Energy, Mr Nicholas Kitikiti and chief executive officer of Noczim, Engineer Webster Muriritirwa, proved fruitless as they were all said to be attending marathon meetings for the greater part of the business day on Friday.
Meanwhile, The Daily News understands that CBZ is now seeking to conclude another fuel importation facility worth more than US$150 million (about Z$8 billion) with an American financial institution, but Gono would not discuss the matter and referred all enquiries to Len Loader, the bank's Executive Director for operations.

The workers said they had not been paid since September.
They said Chiyangwa, the MP for Chinhoyi, arrived at the company with senior management and as they approached him demanding their salaries, Chiyangwa escaped through another gate and left the company hurriedly.
They said the company's management kept on postponing their pay dates.
A spokesperson for the workers said: "When we tried to talk to Chiyangwa, he probably thought we would harm him, but that is not the case. We just want to be paid our dues because, as we speak, some of the workers have been thrown out of their lodgings for non-payment of rent."
The workers briefly downed their tools on Wednesday as their management and workers' committee continued negotiations.
The workers, who are supposed to be paid fortnightly, said management constantly told them that the company had no money.
But yesterday Chiyangwa said he had ceased to run the affairs of the companies as he had leased them to some private companies. He refused to name the private companies.
He said: "If the workers think that I have a legal obligation to pay their salaries, then they can take the matter up with the courts. I ceased to run the affairs of the companies eight months ago.
"I did not go there for them but I was on AAG business with the people who are leasing the businesses to see how they are coping. If they think I am supposed to pay their salaries, then they are mistaken."
Without denying that he left the company unceremoniously, Chiyangwa said he had been advised by his consultants to lease the companies due to the prevailing economic climate.
The workers, however, maintained that Chiyangwa was running the companies as they had not been officially informed of the lease by Ben Muchovo who is the managing director. Muchovo was not immediately available for comment yesterday.
The workers told The Daily News that water supplies to the company had been cut and they were concerned about the implications of this latest twist in the companies' fortunes.
The workers also showed a crew from this paper the state of the toilets.
It also emerged that telephone lines to Midiron Enterprises, formerly
G&D Shoes, one of the companies under the Tirzah umbrella, had been cut because of non-payment of bills.
The manager of Belmont Leather, Clement Shoko, declined to comment.
He said: "I am not officially entitled to give statements to the Press. I am solely responsible for production."

Keli Walubita, the Zambian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who flew into Harare yesterday told The Daily News he held talks with Tirivafi Kangai, the Zimbabwean High Commissioner to Zambia, about the immediate repatriation of the soldiers.
Kangai was also in Harare yesterday.
Walubita said: "I had a chat with the High Commissioner, under normal diplomatic practice. I did indicate to him that it was the wish of the Zambian government that Zimbabwe arranges the immediate repatriation of the combatants. That is normal practice."
Walubita said Kangai assured him everything was being done to repatriate the soldiers. Both Kangai and Walubita would not say when the soldiers would return home.
However, sources said Zimbabwean military officials flew to Zambia last week to assess the situation.
"The High Commissioner has told me that everything is being done to repatriate them," said Walubita. He could not be specific about the number of soldiers, but said he had been told they were more than 200.
The Zimbabwean soldiers fled from the DRC after their camps in Pweto and Pepa were overrun by rebels fighting the government of President Laurent Kabila. Both towns have since fallen under rebel control.
Walubita said he was hoping to get further assurance from Stan Mudenge, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that moves were indeed being made to repatriate the soldiers.
"When I meet my counterpart, he has to confirm that the combatants will be catered for," he said.
He said the Zimbabwean soldiers had been disarmed and were living in a separate camp from the ordinary refugees in Luapula province near Lake Mweru.
Zambia is having to contend with refugees fleeing fighting in Angola and the DRC and the country has said it is not equipped to deal with such influxes of people from the two neighbouring countries.
Walubita said under the Geneva Convention, Zambia was obliged to receive anyone but soldiers had to surrender weapons.
"As combatants, they are handled differently and they have to be separated from the civilian refugee population," he said.
He denied he was in Harare to discuss the repatriation of the soldiers, saying he was reciprocating a visit by Mudenge last year under the Zimbabwe-Zambia Joint Permanent Co-operation Commission.
However, Joint Co-operation Commission meetings are always attended by economic and finance ministers, but these were not part of Walubita's delegation that arrived yesterday, suggesting the visit had more to do with the soldiers than the minister wanted the public to believe.
Kangai would not comment on the plans to repatriate the Zimbabwean soldiers.
He said: "I can confirm that we had a meeting with the minister over the matter. The issue is being dealt with amicably by the governments and relevant ministries.
"I am here for the Zimbabwe-Zambia Joint Co-operation Commission meeting, not to talk about issues of defence. I am here for trade issues."
Zimbabwean military officials have been quiet over the issue of the soldiers, only confirming the attack on Pweto. General Vitalis Zvinavashe, the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, said he would issue a statement at the appropriate time.
Zambia has experienced an upsurge in the number of refugees ever since war broke out in the DRC about two years ago. Walubita said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated the refugees in Zambia at about 100 000, mostly from the DRC.
"We have received refugees in the past but this has been so sudden and too large," he said. The repatriation of the Zimbabwean soldiers would provide minor relief to the Zambian government.
Fighting has continued in the DRC despite an agreement signed in Harare last week by defence chiefs of the warring parties, to pull back from the frontline in preparation for the deployment of United Nations peace monitors.

The Daily News reported that Hani Yamani, the owner of Air Harbour Technologies, the company that won the controversial $5 billion tender to construct the airport, wrote a seven-page letter to President Mugabe complaining that his local agents, Tony Yates of CIE Mercantile and Heena Joshi made certain unauthorised payments to current and former government ministers and alleged that former Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Enos Chikowore, the former Minister of Transport and Energy, and Jayant Joshi, the managing director of Zidco, a Zanu PF owned company, made a substantial amount of money from the airport project.
Chinamasa told journalists attending a workshop on corruption in Harare on Friday that the story was "criminal and highly defamatory of the President, current and former ministers and high-level government officials."
He said: "Given that the persons against whom the allegations of corruption are being made have denied their involvement in the alleged corrupt practices. I have decided to bring the matter to head by requesting the Attorney General's office to give consideration to instituting criminal defamation proceedings against the editor and publisher of The Daily News.
"The ball is now in the court of the Attorney General's office. If they should decide to institute criminal defamation proceedings, this will assist in clearing the air once and for all. This, I am sure, will give The Daily News an opportunity and a platform to justify the publication by providing the proof they have that the award of the Harare Airport construction contract was tainted with corruption. I have lodged the request with the Attorney General's office as a complaint to defend the integrity of the government."

BRUSSELS — A top European Union (EU) official said this week the 15-nation group is fed up with the ruinous policies of President Robert Mugabe who they hope will either quit office soon or lose the 2002 presidential election ''for the better of Zimbabwe''.

Karin Junker, vice president of the EU-Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) joint assembly and an elected EU MP from Germany, told the Financial Gazette here that EU member states now firmly believed that Zimbabwe would be better off without Mugabe.

She said EU budgetary aid to Zimbabwe and from other multilateral institutions would remain frozen as long as Mugabe remained in power and persisted with his violent land seizures.

"We are completely fed up with Mugabe. He has stayed long enough in power and we think Zimbabwe would be better off without him," Junker said.

"I was there in Harare during election time when opponents were murdered and opposition party supporters harassed. Mugabe has openly supported lawlessness and illegal seizures of farms. That’s very wrong."

But Presidential spokesman George Charamba said the government would not lose much sleep over Junker’s remarks.

"She has come under a spell of the British anti-land redistribution element. She wants to give the British position a veneer of EU endorsement. Junker has unsuccessfully tried to have sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in the past," he said in Harare.

"She is part of the conservative side of the EU that wants to equate land redistribution to the quest for democracy. To them democracy should exist to the 4 500 white commercial farmers only and not to landless blacks. We won’t lose sleep over her remarks."

Charamba said the policy of the EU remained that of constructive engagement with the Zimbabwe government and not "destructive disengagement as advocated by Junker".

Junker said it was sad to note that despite numerous exhortations from key donors for Mugabe to restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe, he had remained intransigent.

"The sad thing is that Zimbabweans will have to suffer for the actions of a wayward leader," she said.

Zimbabwe would not get any new budgetary aid under the Cotonou pact because of the government’s persistent trashing of human rights, she noted.

The EU’s aid to Zimbabwe was halted earlier this year over the breakdown of the rule of law in the country. The EU joined the United States and key international donors such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which cut aid over the economy’s mismanagement and Zimbabwe’s costly involvement in the civil war of the Congo.

The EU has nonetheless continued to fund projects aimed at alleviating poverty, especially in Zimbabwe’s health and education sectors.

Junker spoke to the Financial Gazette after addressing journalists from East Africa, here to attend an information seminar on the content of the new Cotonou Agreement between the EU and ACP group.

The Cotonou accord, signed in Benin in June this year, will govern trade relations between the EU and the ACP for the next 20 years. It is the successor to the Lome Convention which previously governed trade ties between the two regions.

The EU has budgeted 13,5 billion euro (US$15,2 billion) for ACP states under the 9th European Development Fund (EDF), the aid component of the Cotonou trade pact.

Nine billion euro (US$10,1 billion) remained undisbursed from Lome Four’s EDF, bringing the total available in the first seven-year phase of the 20-year agreement to 22,5 billion euro (US$25,3 billion).

Junker said the Cotonou agreement would substantially change trade and aid ties between the EU and the ACP.

The new pact has a specific clause stipulating that individual countries that are seriously corrupt or disregard human rights will be excluded from aid programmes.

Unlike the Lome Convention, the new agreement will strive to create stable democratic conditions in ACP countries by engaging non-state actors in future aid programmes.

The non-state actors will get access to EU funding and be involved in the formulation and implementation of development projects and capacity-building initiatives in their own countries.

Thursday 7 December, 2000

MDC under renewed pressure to relaunch mass protests

Staff Reporter

THE leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said yesterday his party is under renewed pressure from poverty-stricken Zimbabweans to re-launch mass protests to force early presidential elections to usher in a new government.

But Morgan Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans should work for change and not wait for it to occur, noting that his party is busy consolidating its plans to take over the reins of government in two years’ time.

"As a party, we have over the past weeks come under considerable pressure to re-launch plans for mass action to call for an early presidential election which will usher in a new government," Tsvangirai told the Financial Gazette.

"In some instances, I have been summoned by constituencies which want me to explain why we deferred the initial planned protests," he said.

"I must however hasten to say people should be focused to work for change and not to wait for it. They should not just moan and groan, but work to achieve the goal," he said, brushing aside suggestions that his party had lost the political upperhand.

Two weeks ago the MDC deferred plans to stage mass protests to force President Robert Mugabe out of power. The protests had been due to start last week.

Yesterday Tsvangirai said he was acutely aware that a majority of Zimbabweans were demoralised that change had not come immediately as they had anticipated.

"We are working as a party to consolidate our structures with a mission to take over power by 2002," he said. "If we manage to force an early election, that will be a bonus for us."

The MDC chief, whose party controls 57 of the elected 120 seats in Parliament, said the party’s rank and file membership and leadership were drawing up concrete programmes and policies to sell to the electorate as a government-in-waiting.

Even though the MDC’s governing council unanimously endorsed the decision to defer the mass action, there were some members who came out strongly in support of it.

Tsvangirai said in some instances ordinary people were even threatening to go it alone, but said the MDC’s decision to shelve the mass action was strategic and not an abandonment of the action.

Opposition parties and civic organisations have been urging Mugabe to resign before his term expires in 2002, saying he has failed to govern Zimbabwe, which is grappling with its worst economic crisis in two decades.

Crippling shortages of fuel, power and foreign exchange and accelerated closures of distressed companies have magnified the crisis spawned by the government’s widening spending that has lifted inflation and interest rates to record high levels.

Muted pressure has also been mounting within Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party for him to spell out his retirement plans.

Despite this, the leadership of ZANU PF which meets at a special congress in Harare next week is expected to endorse Mugabe as its sole presidential nominee in the projected poll.