Reuters
Sun 11 Dec 2005 5:42 AM ET
By Stella
Mapenzauswa
ESIGODINI, Zimbabwe, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe's
ruling party has consolidated its gains this year, but a
renewed crackdown
on critics shows panic within its ranks in the face of a
deepening economic
crisis, analysts say.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party
recommended on Saturday that the government act
against hostile rights
groups and asked security forces to draw up a list of
people whose passports
should be seized under new laws seen aimed at
muzzling critics.
The
call at the end of a two day party conference came shortly after
security
agents seized the passports of the opposition party's spokesman and
a
leading Zimbabwe publisher whose papers have carried stories critical of
the
government.
Analysts said the crackdown was a sign the ruling party and
government were
devoid of ideas on how to tackle chronic shortages of food,
fuel and foreign
currency, as well as triple-digit inflation.
"If
anything this is an indication of frustration and panic on the part of
the
government. The crackdown might worsen but I do not think it will stop
people from making constructive criticism," Heneri Dzinotyiwei, a political
analyst from the University of Zimbabwe, told Reuters.
"This is just
some hot air from the ruling party in order to keep themselves
agreeing on
something because even among their own followers there are deep
concerns
about the worsening hardships facing the country," he added.
Threats of
further reprisals against rights groups and individuals critical
of the
government are unlikely to silence voices that have spoken out even
in the
face of repressive security and media laws enacted three years ago,
analysts
said.
CRITICISM FROM WITHIN
In an unusually tough
editorial at the weekend, the state-owned Chronicle
newspaper urged the
government to come up with concrete programmes to pull
millions of
Zimbabweans out of poverty, saying the welfare of ZANU-PF hinged
on
this.
"The failure of the government is the failure of the party. It is
as simple
as that," the paper said bluntly. "The long-suffering nation is
now
impatient for solutions to the country's economic challenges. Time for
action has come."
Despite the euphoria at ZANU-PF's annual conference
after November's
sweeping Senate poll win, it still faced the daunting tasks
of pulling the
economy out of crisis and resolving internal squabbles over
Mugabe's
successor, analysts said.
Analysts say tensions still simmer
within the party after Mugabe cowed
members to endorse Joyce Mujuru as
second vice-president both in ZANU-PF and
government last year.
In
the process he purged some senior officials who had lobbied for a rival
candidate for the post, seen as a stepping stone to the top job.
The
dispute nearly split the party in two a few months before crucial
parliamentary elections in November 2004, which ZANU-PF went on to win amid
charges of vote-rigging by the opposition.
CALL FOR
UNITY
In his closing address to the ZANU-PF meeting in the southwestern
district
of Esigodini, Mugabe -- who is 81 and expected to retire in 2008 at
the end
of his current term of office -- called for unity among his party
faithful.
"Only a strong party yields a strong government and we need to
be strong to
defeat the machinations of imperialists," he said.
In
power since independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe routinely accuses
the
former colonial ruler of spearheading a Western campaign to sabotage
Zimbabwe's economy and unseat him over the government's seizure of
white-owned farms for blacks.
The weekend convention adopted a
recommendation to take stern action against
non-governmental organisations
and rights groups it said were sponsored by
Britain, the United Sates and
the European Union.
"To me statements like that show that this is a party
that knows it is still
in trouble because you do not talk about enemies
unless you are in deep
trouble," said lawyer and political commentator
Lovemore Madhuku, chairman
of pressure group National Constitutional
Assembly.
"It's all stemming from a clear sense of realisation within the
party that
things are definitely not well but they do not succeed by trying
to silence
critics," said Madhuku, whose NCA was listed among organisations
to be acted
against.
News24
11/12/2005 17:12 -
(SA)
Esigodini - Zimbabwe's ruling party ended its annual conference
on Saturday
urging the government not to entertain any more "clandestine"
envoys sent to
Harare under the auspices of the United Nations.
"The
conference resolved to encourage government to re-think its position on
entertaining any future UN envoys sent into the country as clandestine and
insidious agents of the British and other Western countries in pursuance of
their hidden agenda of regime change in Zimbabwe," said a conference
statement.
The resolution by the ruling Zanu-PF was adopted a day
after President
Robert Mugabe accused the UN envoy on humanitarian affairs
and relief aid
co-ordinator Jan Egeland, who visited the country earlier in
the week, of
being a "damn hypocrite and a liar".
The longtime leader
hinted on Friday that he might ban any more emissaries
sent from the UN
because he believed they were shoring up Britain's
anti-Zimbabwe
campaign.
Mugabe said Egeland had misrepresented the facts of a meeting
between the
two men by claiming that they had discussed a critical report
compiled by
another UN envoy, Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, who spent two weeks
in Zimbabwe
in July assessing the impact of the government urban demolition
campaign.
The head of state said no reference was made to the Tibaijuka
report during
their two-hour meeting in the capital.
The conference
said it was convinced that the Tibaijuka report was "a direct
product of
some anti-government non-governmental organisations operating in
Zimbabwe".
Harare has rejected the report, saying it exaggerated the
facts and ignored
the fact that victims of the clean up campaign had a
safety net on which
they could rely.
"Most of those affected by the
clean up programme have rural homes or farms
they can return to," said
Zanu-PF, adding Zimbabwe had one of Africa's
lowest rates of urban
squalor.
Zanu-PF said it was disappointed that Egeland had failed to
stick to the
truth about his Harare trip and had decided to tell the media
of its outcome
before UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who had sent him to
Zimbabwe.
It said contrary to the UN's assertions that food shortages
were a result of
controversial land reforms, the country had experienced
three successive
years of drought, but the government had ensured nobody had
died of hunger.
Zimbabwe embarked in May on an urban clean up exercise
which saw tens of
thousands of people lose their shelter and livelihood.
Zim Online
Mon 12 December 2005
HARARE - There is simply no respite
for Harare's long suffering
residents.
While the cost of living
was already beyond the reach of many in the
capital - thanks to six years of
unprecedented economic recession - the cost
of dying is set to surge beyond
the reach of many families, according to the
city's financial plan for
2006.
The state-appointed commission running the crumbling capital
after the
popularly elected opposition council was controversially dismissed
by the
government, last week announced a shock Z$32.56 trillion budget for
2006 in
which the price of the cheapest grave is set to rise several times
more than
the average salary of a factory worker.
Rates and
tariffs for other municipal services and facilities are
similarly expected
to rise by between 500 and 2 000 percent. But it is not
the fact that
charges are rising while council services and facilities are
deteriorating
by the day that has attracted the most ire from residents.
It is
the new burial charges that many in Harare's teeming low-income
suburbs say
are not only unaffordable but also show the city commission's
insensitivity
to the plight of bereaved families.
Or to use the words of Oscar
Mubaya, a resident of the capital's
Kuwadzana suburb: "These new charges
mean that dying is now a luxury only
the rich can afford. How do the city
fathers think we will cope with these
new charges? Surely, it is anti-people
to come up with such a budget whose
effect extends even to the
dead."
Harare, with about two million people, has three main
cemeteries at
Warren Park, Granville and Greendale as well as several
smaller ones
scattered across the city.
Charges at all the
burial grounds will, beginning January 2006, soar
more than 20-fold from
$750 000 to $8.5 million for the grave of an adult. A
further hike is
planned mid-year to leave the cost of a grave at $17
million.
The average take home pay of a worker in Zimbabwe is about $3 million
per
month meaning many will find it extremely hard to pay for a relative's
or
their own grave.
It is many times cheaper for one to cremate a
deceased loved one. But
cremation is an alternative acceptable only to
Zimbabwe's minority Asian and
white communities and not among the black
segment of the population.
"We, black Zimbabweans do not believe in
cremating our departed ones.
Burning the bodies of dead relatives is simply
not an option," said Sekai
Mapusa of Highfiled suburb, a mother of four who
vowed she would never
forgive her children if they were to cremate her dead
body.
Combined Harare Residents Association chairman Mike Davies
said the
association was still consulting over not only the proposed new
burial
charges but the entire budget as well.
Davis however was
quick to add that the proposed new grave charges
would be unaffordable to
the average Harare resident and accused the city
commission of wanting to
cash in on the people's misery.
He said: "Very few people can
afford that kind of money to buy burial
space for their departed ones. Right
now the country has no fuel and it is
very expensive to ferry the deceased
to the rural areas where burial ground
is free and many residents were
resorting to these urban cemeteries. With
the latest hikes, I am not sure
how residents are going to cope."
Harare Commission chairwoman
Sekesai Makwavarara was not available for
comment on the matter. But the
commission has defended the rates and tariff
hikes saying this was in line
with galloping inflation which hit 502.4
percent last month.
Whatever the justification for hiking burial charges, the move is
certain to
pay off handsomely for Makwavarara and her commissioners given
the high
number of deaths in the capital due to a burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis
that
alone is killing at least 2 000 Zimbabweans every week.
But total
deaths in Harare due to HIV/AIDS-related illness and a host
of other causes
are even higher with municipal figures showing that an
average 5 000 people
are buried in the city's cemeteries every week, with
several more
transported to their rural homes for burial there.
But Shyleen
Mupukuta from Mabvuku suburb in the east of the capital
said if the city
budget was approved by the government without changes to
the proposed costs
of burial ground, then Harare - already overflowing with
uncollected
garbage - might soon find its hospitals clogged by corpses as
relatives
struggle to raise enough cash to pay for graves.
She said: "It's
not just about the cost of the burial ground, you also
have to consider the
prices of coffins that are also rising daily, the cost
of transport from the
hospital mortuary to the cemetery and then the cost of
food for people
gathered for the funeral wake.
"To be honest, the way I see it is
that dead bodies will pile up in
hospital mortuaries for months and months
while poor relatives scrounge
around for enough money to pay for all what is
required to conduct a
burial." - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 12 December 2005
MUTARE - As darkness slowly envelops
the eastern border town of
Mutare, Edmore Mukwena (not his real name), a
senior Zimbabwean police
officer, rather hurriedly puts on his faded grey
uniform as he gets ready
for the evening's "assignment"
Soon,
Mukwena's battered Renault 18, packed with five other
"colleagues" who
literally live by the sword in Mutare's crime-infested
Sakubva suburb, roars
into life as he drives towards a dingy spot along
Forbes Border Post on the
Zimbabwe-Mozambique border.
It is at this spot that Mukwena, a
veteran and "loyal servant of the
people" over the past 15 years, now ekes a
living as the boss of a criminal
gang.
"I have resorted to
crime because that is the only way I can survive.
The criminals make money,
so why shouldn't I work with them if that is how
my family will
survive?"
"Tell me, what is better, to arrest a criminal and get a
salary that
is not enough to buy a pair of trousers or partner the criminals
and make
millions of dollars?
"I use my police identification
card and uniform to scare away border
jumpers. After they run away, my gang
loots their wares, which we later
resell," says Mukwena, who opened up to
ZimOnline only after much coaxing
and reassurance that his true identity
would not be revealed.
Mukwena also uses his services gun to scare
away the more hardened
border jumpers who sometimes try to put up some
resistance.
The Mutare police officer is not alone. Hundreds of the
Zimbabwe
Republic Police's once highly regarded officers have been forced to
forsake
the oath to keep the law and instead turned to crime as the
country's
six-year economic crisis deepens.
"I take 50 percent
of the spoils while my gang shares the other half.
I am the boss and after
all, I am the one with the uniform and the police
identity card. Other
members of my gang simply pose as civilian police,"
Mukwena told ZimOnline
from a smoky bar in downtown Mutare.
With an average paltry salary
of Z$3 million, Mukwena like most police
officers, says he can hardly make
ends meet.
The police are among the lowest paid workers in Zimbabwe
which is
grappling hyperinflation and severe food shortages. Zimbabwe's
inflation
shot up to 502.4 percent in November, highlighting worsening
economic
conditions in the once prosperous country.
Food,
medicine, fuel and virtually every other basic commodity is in
short supply
because the country does not have foreign currency to import
the commodities
after the International Monetary Fund withdrew
balance-of-payments support
to Harare following disagreements with
President Robert Mugabe over fiscal
policy and other governance issues.
The forex shortages were
worsened after Mugabe began his farm seizure
programme five years ago. The
farm seizures destabilised agriculture, the
country's biggest hard cash
earner, while food production dropped by about
60 percent to leave Zimbabwe
dependent on handouts from food relief
agencies.
The
state-funded Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average family
of a
father, mother and four children requires $11.9 million for basic goods
and
services per month which is several times more than the take-home pay of
most workers, including policemen and soldiers, who have propped up Mugabe's
government.
But many police officers have found a new way to
beat the worsening
poverty and economic hardships - they have simply swapped
roles from being
enforcers of the law to accomplices in crime.
Here in Mutare, residents say they have long lost trust in the police
because according to some of the residents the police have turned into worse
criminals than the usual thief or gangster in the city.
"The
government should stop training more police officers because they
are
nurturing criminals. The more policemen they train, the more criminals
they
are unleashing on society," says Muchafara Matutu wryly.
To prove
his point Matutu, a 28-year accountant with city financial
services firm,
without prompting quickly recounts an encounter he had with
one of the
robber-policeman.
"From nowhere the policeman charged at me,
accusing me of being on the
police's list of wanted criminals and before I
knew it, he had pinned me
down and handcuffed me. He only released me after
empting my pockets. I ran
for dear life," said Matutu.
Last
October, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri told a
parliamentary
portfolio committee on defence that his officers were
"dangerously
underpaid" and admitted that some were resorting to crime to
make ends
meet.
Chihuri said: "The situation is very bad. It would not be
surprising
if serving officers decide to down their tools anytime from now.
They are
saying they cannot wait for next year for a salary adjustment. Our
officers
are being forced to steal and get bribes to buy cabbages for their
families."
Police spokesman Wayne Bvidzijena last month also
told the Press that
more than 100 police officers had been fired over the
past year for engaging
in criminal activities.
Judging from the
number of police officers who are turning to crime,
it appears Mugabe's
cash-strapped government is unable to do much to stop
the trend. -
ZimOnline
Zim Standard
By Gibbs Dube
BULAWAYO -
While at least three million Zimbabweans are in desperate need of
food aid,
there was a glut of food for delegates to the eighth Zanu PF
Annual People's
Conference who feasted in Umzingwane for four days.
Fifty beasts were
slaughtered for the 3 000 delegates, who were also
expected by the end of
today to have sampled other dishes following the
sourcing of 48 goats, 11
kudu, five reed bucks, 17 impala, five buffaloes,
1.19 tonnes of rice, 60
chickens, 50 kg of wheat and 11 tonnes of maize
meal.
Those with a
gluttonous appetite for three-course meals and continental
breakfast were
not left out as there were 250 bags of oranges, a tonne of
tomatoes, 400
cabbages, 60 litres of ice cream and other assorted
foodstuffs.
The
abundance of food at the conference caught the attention of President
Robert
Mugabe, who officially opened the event on Friday, and Zanu PF
chairman John
Nkomo.
"When I arrived, I was complaining to (Governor Thokozile)
Mathuthu saying
that I wanted meat. Now, I don't want steak but liver. Where
is the liver?"
he asked, sending delegates into a fit of
laughter.
Welcoming the delegates to the venue of the conference -
Mzingwane High
School, 42 km south-east of Bulawayo - Nkomo noted that there
was plenty of
food for the delegates which was donated by Matabeleland South
Province.
"We have enough meat and other foodstuffs to feed delegates .
However, there
are some people fond of stealing. Don't abuse
MatabelelandSouth's kind
gesture by stealing meat. Otherwise you will be
embarrassing the leadership
of the party," he said.
To top it all,
the host province donated $1.3billion and sources within the
party indicated
that more than $4 billion was spent on accommodation, fuel,
printing party
paraphernalia and hiring of the state-of-the-art tent pitched
at Mzingwane
High School. The school was renovated and roads leading to the
venue of the
conference were recently upgraded at an estimated cost of more
than $6
billion.
In addition, a national cellphone network provider and the
Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority erected booster stations to cater for
delegates' needs and this is expected to be a permanent feature in
Esigodini, widely known for its extensive crop cultivation and citrus
plantations.
To complement these efforts, the District Development
Fund also sank a
borehole, with water tested in Bulawayo laboratories on a
daily basis in the
countdown to the conference.
Millions of
Zimbabweans are currently living from hand to mouth due to the
country's
economic meltdown, with an average family expected to spend $11.9
million a
month to cater for its basic needs.
Prices of basic foodstuffs recently
went up following an unofficial price
increase of fuel, a scarce commodity
in the country only available on the
parallel market at a rate of $120 000 a
litre.
Some of the delegates, including top party officials, who were
interviewed
by The Standard said they hoped that leftovers would be donated
to less
privileged Zimbabweans.
"I believe that we do not need to
feast so much while some of our fellow
citizens do not know where they will
get their next meal. Donating some of
the foodstuffs to the needy, and not
only leftovers, is an idea which we
have to suggest to senior members of the
party," said one delegate. He said
he was aware that some Zimbabweans were
only having a single meal a day due
to crippling inflation and other
socio-economic problems.
"I hope that we will not consume all the food
here so that we can donate
some of the beasts and goats to a group of
entrepreneurs in Esigodini," said
another delegate.
This will leave
the beneficiaries empowered for life,"
While delegates to the Zanu PF
conference were enjoying their bounty United
Nations humanitarian affairs
co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, who was in the
country last week repeated the
UN's commitment to fighting starvation in
Zimbabwe saying World Food
Programme was set to increase the number of
people receiving food aid from
two million this month to three million by
February.
Zim Standard
By Gibbs Dube and Walter
Marwizi
STATE security agents last week unsuccessfully tried to bar UN
envoy for
humanitarian affairs co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, from getting first
hand
information on the humanitarian crisis caused by "Operation Restore
Order/Murambatsvina".
Visibly jittery Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) operatives
repeatedly tried to gatecrash the private
meetings, but found UN security
officers uncompromising.
Egeland met
church leaders and made field visits to holding camps such as
Hopley, where
he assessed the magnitude of the problem. Back in New York on
Thursday,
Egeland said the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe was "extremely
serious
and it is worsening as we speak".
He said it was "heartbreaking" to meet
AIDS orphans, estimated to be one
million in Zimbabwe.
"It's
heartbreaking to meet with people who are fearing the future because
of food
insecurity, which is affecting the majority of the people. Prices
are
spiralling as food is becoming increasingly scarce. It was heartbreaking
to
meet victims of the eviction campaign last summer, who now are back in
the
same place, only in much worse shelter than the house that was
bulldozed."
Egeland disclosed he explained to Mugabe that permanent
structures would
take a long time to build, hence the need for tents to
temporarily house the
people who were staying in the open this rainy season.
He said Mugabe
refused saying this would create an impression that Zimbabwe
had a shelter
crisis.
"If they (tents) are good enough for people in
Europe and the United States
who have lost their houses, why are they not
good enough for Zimbabwe?"
Egeland asked.
While he went around
Zimbabwe gathering facts on the ground, State security
agents who in May had
allowed the author of a damning report on the
demolitions, UN envoy Anna
Kajumulo Tibaijuka, to meet as many victims as
possible, were keen to
monitor his movements.
In Bulawayo, a CIO operative caused a scene on
Tuesday when he manhandled a
United Nations (UN) security official after he
was denied entry into a
private meeting where churches were meeting
Egeland.
There was chaos and pandemonium outside the venue of the meeting
as the
security officer, identified only as Mungate, attempted to forcibly
attend
the meeting without any success.
Mungate pushed and shoved but
the UN official was not moved by his actions.
"You have a secret agenda and
you are hiding (Archbishop) Pius Ncube and his
delegation. You have no
mandate to hold meetings in this region without us
knowing who is hosting
you. You are not allowed to hold private meetings
where the media is
barred," said an irate Mungate, attempting to drag the
media into the
issue.
However, the UN security official stood his ground and informed
the CIO
operative that he was not a welcome guest. The operative temporarily
left
the main entrance of the venue of the meeting and attempted to
gatecrash the
meeting using a backdoor. He found it sealed off.
He
gave up after unsuccessfully trying getting assistance from the Permanent
Secretary of Information and Publicity, George Charamba. Archbishop Ncube
did not attend the meeting.
Prior to the meeting, one UN official
accompanying Egeland blocked the main
entrance of the Holiday Inn and
informed government officials and about
eight State security officers that
they were not expected to attend the
private meeting.
Egeland had
also earlier indicated to the Governor of Matabeleland North
Province,
Thokozile Mathuthu, that he was comfortable with a small group of
people
accompanying him during his tour. However, Mathuthu insisted that she
wanted
to accompany the envoy.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has failed to
pay polling
officers engaged during the recent senatorial election. The
Standard
established that the majority of unpaid polling officers were
teachers
deployed in remote parts of the country.
A large number of
officers, drawn mainly from teachers and junior civil
servants, were
reportedly paid on Monday with each pocketing $1.7 million.
Some of the
affected polling officers said they were instructed by ZEC to
submit their
bank accounts when they were hired but were surprised to find
no money had
been deposited in their accounts.
"Initially we thought we were to be
paid our money after the poll but were
surprised when ZEC officials told us
to give them our bank account numbers.
They indicated that the money would
be deposited on Monday.
However, they failed to do so and now we do not
know whether we will ever be
paid," said one of the affected teachers, who
was stationed in Plumtree.
Several other teachers said they were angry
over the empty promises made by
ZEC over the payment of their
allowances.
"It appears as if the commission does not have money to pay
us. We have not
faced such problems in the past and are worried that we are
regarded as
cheap labour," said another affected teacher.
The
secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association, Denis Sinyolo,
said
he had received disturbing reports that ZEC had failed to pay most of
the
teachers who were engaged as polling officers in the just-ended Senate
elections.
Sinyolo said ZEC's failure to pay the teachers was a
"demotivating" factor
to teachers who were always willing to take part in
such national events.
"It is unfortunate that teachers who are rendering
an important service to
the nation have not been paid their dues in time
considering the fact that
they receive meagre monthly salaries. We want the
teachers to be paid their
money as soon as possible. This is a demotivating
development," said
Sinyolo.
Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ) acting secretary general,
MacDonald Mangauzani, said his organisation
had received similar reports
with most of the unpaid teachers based in rural
areas.
Mangauzani said: "A large number of teachers are visiting our
offices to
make reports that they have not yet been paid. We are very
worried about
this issue and hope that it will be rectified within the
shortest possible
time."
Contacted for comment, ZEC spokesperson
Utoile Silaigwana confirmed that
some polling officers had not yet been paid
their allowances. He however
blamed the polling officers for allegedly
providing incorrect bank account
details to ZEC.
"Polling officers
have been paid election allowances save for a few who
supplied our paying
officers with incorrect details. These polling officers
will be paid as soon
as we rectify problems of their details supplied to
us."
Mangauzani
said his organisation would in future discourage teachers from
taking part
in polls.
"The government has abused teachers and civil servants in
general for too
long and in future, we will discourage our members from
participating in
elections," he said.
Zim Standard
By Valentine Maponga
and Davison Maruziva
THE government, scaling up repression against
Zimbabweans it considers among
its trenchant critics, has compiled a list of
people whose passports should
be "seized, withdrawn and invalidated", The
Standard can confirm. The move
has drawn a chorus of condemnation both at
home and abroad. The list was
drawn up on 24 November and reportedly has the
names of 64 on it, although
The Standard has been able to confirm 17 on
those blacklisted.
Last week's seizure of the passport of Trevor Ncube,
the chairman of The
Standard and The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper marks
the beginning of an
onslaught against the private media through withdrawals
of their travel
documents.
On Friday MDC's Secretary for Information and
Publicity, Paul-Themba-Nyathi
had his passport seized and withdrawn by the
State soon after arrival in
Bulawayo from Johannesburg, South
Africa.
The Standard understands that the list of people whose passports
should be
seized, withdrawn and invalidated is from Tobaiwa T Mudede, the
Registrar-General to Immigration and is listed as Reference D/9.
The
letter from Elasto H Mugwadi, the Chief Immigration Officer, is dated 28
November 2005 and is headed Invalidation and withdrawal of Zimbabwe
Passports. It reads:
"With immediate effect Zimbabwe Passport held by
the under listed persons
are deemed invalid and should be withdrawn on sight
for onward transmission
to the Chief Passport Officer.
"Attached
hereto is a self-explanatory copy of the invalidation authority
dated
24/11/05 from the Chief Passport Officer and the Registrar-General,
Cde TT
Mudede."
Mudede's letter to Immigration, dated 24 November 2005,
says:
"You are please advised that the current Zimbabwe passports of the
following
holders are effectively withdrawn and invalidated for the purposes
of
passage. Please these passports must be surrendered to the Chief Passport
Officer, if with- drawn."
The European Community (EU) and local
analysts condemned the latest
government move. The EU cited the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
Article 13, which says: "Everyone has the right
to leave any country,
including his own, and to return to his country"
guarantees freedom of
movement.
In a statement, the EU said: "Any
withdrawal of a passport prevents freedom
of movement and is in breach of
the Declaration. We have repeatedly
expressed concerns about the human
rights record in Zimbabwe and called on
the government to respect
individuals' rights, which include free expression
and free
movement."
Ncube said there was a linkage between the seizure of his
passport, the
listing of the other 16 and the Constitutional Amendment No 17
and that the
intention is to create a climate of fear and
intimidation.
"From here on Zimbabweans are going to be terrified to
speak up and express
themselves. The move is meant to frighten people. The
17 of us are being
used as an example. I am the first person to have his
passport withdrawn. I
do not think I am likely to get my passport in
Bulawayo. The passport will
be sent to Harare," said Ncube, who is launching
an application to have his
passport back.
Meanwhile Ncube who last
week appeared on an Australian sanctions' list
said: "The Australians have
called me and have apologised. They have said
the issue is under review and
it will be corrected."
MDC Secretary-General Professor Welshman Ncube
said Themba-Nyathi was being
punished for speaking out against Mugabe's
repressive policies.
The Committee to Protect Journalists in its
condemnation of Ncube's passport
seizure said: "The existence of this list
is an affront to basic rights
including freedom of movement. This is nothing
short-of a witch-hunt against
those courageous few who still dare publicly
to criticse President Robert
Mugabe."
Mudede and Mugwadi were
unavailable for comments all of Friday and
yesterday.
But local
analysts interviewed yesterday said there was no enabling
legislation that
would give the government a leeway to start impounding
passports.
Arnold Tsunga, the human rights lawyer and director of the
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights, said the move couldn't be justified in
terms of the
country's laws and even by international statutes.
He
said: "This kind of a purge can only be found in a dictatorship where
there
is a severely oppressive regime or in those governments who are
suffering
from severe paranoia and are even afraid of their own shadows,"
Tsunga
said.
Rashweat Mkundu the director of the Media Institute of Southern
Africa said
the move is only an intensification of repression by Mugabe's
government on
the citizenry.
Mkundu said: "This goes to show how this
government is determined to silence
all dissenting voices. We have seen much
of what this government can do to
its own people since 2000. It's a grand
plan to muzzle the Press and curtail
the freedom of movement of the people
in this country. This is just an abuse
of State positions which is only
synonymous with dictatorships."
Lovemore Madhuku, a Constitutional lawyer
and political analyst said the
seizures could never be justified in a
democratic society.
Mudede's hit list
Brian Kagoro;
Raymond Majongwe; Trevor Ncube; Geoffrey Nyarota; Basildon
Peta; Clive
Masiiwa (sic); Nqobile Nyathi; Noble Sibanda; Bernard
Mandizvidza; P
Themba-Nyathi; Caroline Gombakomba; Tafadzwa Musekiwa; Grace
Kwinjeh;
Beatrice Mtetwa; Gabriel Shumba Marechera; Lloyd Mudiwa; and Lionel
Saungweme.
This list was drawn up on 24 November 2005. However,
there is an expanded
list of 64 people and Ncube also features on that
list.
Zim Standard
By Ndamu Sandu
THE drama
at the troubled First National Building Society (FNBS) has taken a
new twist
amid revelations that curator David Scott had sold the society's
assets
without consent from the Master of High Court and founding
directors.
Standardbusiness heard last week that Scott, curator for the
institution
since 7 February 2003, had under-priced the assets.
The move
to sell FNBS assets is in contravention of the formal agreement
between the
promoters/ majority shareholders, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,
Scott and the
Master of Master of High Court to stop any liquidation process
and give the
re-opening of the society a chance.
In September Master of High Court
Charles Nyatanga deferred the liquidation
of FNBS to next year on the
grounds that there were fresh manouvres by the
founding directors/ promoters
to inject capital to resuscitate the society.
Scott requested the
postponement of the liquidation saying he had received a
number of written
enquiries seeking an opportunity to invest into FNBS to
reopen the
society.
The founding directors Samson Ruturi and Nicholas Musona have
89.74% in the
holding company First National Holdings Limited (FNHL).
Documents in
possession of Standardbusiness reveal that Scott had
understated FNBS assets
when he disposed of them without the consent of the
founding shareholders.
Documents show that assets worth more than $45
billion had been sold for a
paltry $4.41 billion. The assets included 11
vehicles including two Mercedes
Benz (1997 E280 and 1996 C220) vehicles sold
for a meagre $414 million.
Investigations last week revealed that the
1996 C220 was sold for $140
million while the 1997 E280 was sold for $180
million.
A total of nine vehicles that included Madza 323s, Peugeot 306s
and 406s,
one Mazda 626 and a Toyota Crown Executive were sold for a
combined $94
million.
It also emerged last week that Scott had sold
136 residential stands and
three commercial stands for $1.6 billion. The
residential stands are
situated in Devonshire, a medium to low-density
suburb in Mutare, and the
commercial stands were also in Mutare. A house on
nearly two acres in the
plush Borrowdale suburb of Harare was sold for $2.4
billion. All stands and
the house had pending transfer indicating that they
were sold recently.
Standardbusiness heard last week that Scott's latest
balance sheet as at 30
September 2005 did not show the disposal of the
stands though it was
reflecting the disposal of
vehicles.
Investigations last week unraveled that Scott had failed to
make available
management accounts and audited annual financial statements
for the past 33
months as at 16 November 2005. Audited financial statements
are a specific
mandatory requirement on curatorships in terms of Section 55
(1) (d) and (e)
of the Banking Act Chapter 24:20.
As the battle for
the control of the society rages on, it emerged last week
that Policy
Implementation Minister Webster Shamu had written to Scott
seeking
clarification on the disposal of the society's assets. Shamu's
letter was
prompted by the correspondence he received from Ruturi and Musona
outlining
how FNBS' assets had been unlawfully sold.
In a letter dated 29 November
2005, Shamu wrote: "Find enclosed a
self-explanatory letter I received from
Mr. S Ruturi and Mr. N.B. Musona of
Lesal Investment P.L and Strongline
Investments P/L respectively. May you
please respond to the issues they are
raising in their letter. May I request
you to copy the Governor your
response to me and Mr. Ruturi and Mr. Musona
so every one is kept
informed."
Since the closure of FNBS in 2003, Scott has on a number of
occasions failed
in his bid to push for the liquidation of the society.
Twice he has turned
down plans by the founding directors to inject new
capital in order for the
institution to re-open. Scott is a senior partner
at PWC that audited the
accounts of the now defunct Bank of Credit and
Commerce International
(BCCI). BCCI gave birth to CBZ.
Contacted for
comment, the founding directors said they had undertaken an
agreement that
they will not give interviews to newspapers and referred all
questions to
Scott. Scott had not responded to questions sent to his office
at the time
of going to press.
Zim Standard
By our staff
BULAWAYO
- Gweru City Council has introduced water rationing due to the high
demand
for water that has outstripped the pumping capacity of the town
council,
says Gweru mayor, Sesil Zvidzai.
Zvidzai blames the failure to meet the
water needs of the residents on the
meteoric rise of poverty and
unemployment that has seen an upsurge of rural
to urban migration in Gweru,
a situation leading to high demand for water.
"The rural to urban migration
has doubled over the years due to a plethora
of reasons like
unemployment.the number of people in town now exceeds our
pumping capacity.
Our pumping capacity is not managing to meet the demand,"
said Sesil
Zvidzai.
As a result, the city now has a shortfall of 19 mega-litres of
water. Under
normal circumstances, Gweru needs 65 mega-litres of water a
day, but
currently only 46 mega litres are being pumped from the city's
supply dams.
To worsen matters, only a 21-months' supply of water is now
left in the
Gweru supply dams. Four dams - Gwenoro, White Waters,
Amapongogwe and
Ngamo -supply the population of Gweru, which is about 350
000.
"We have also decommissioned some of the supply pumps as we are
doing a lot
of rehabilitation works at the pumping stations in Range Booster
and Gwenoro
Treatment Works," Zvidzai said.
The Mayor said the
situation was likely to improve in February next year
when the city
completes the $10 billion rehabilitation programme.
Meanwhile, Bulawayo
Mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube says he is disappointed that
there is nothing in
the 2006 National Budget, yet again, for the local
authority that has been
grappling with acute water shortages for years.
Of the Budget, Ncube
would only say: "It is very disappointing. I am
disappointed." In his $123.9
trillion Budget presentation 11 days ago,
Herbert Murerwa, the Minister of
Finance did not make an allocation towards
improving the water situation in
Zimbabwe's second largest city.
The cash-strapped council last month was
struggling to raise funds to
rehabilitate boreholes at the Nyamandhlovu
aquifer, commissioned during the
1992 drought.
Some suburbs in the
city have gone for five months without consistent water
supplies after the
main supply dams - Mzingwane, Upper Ncema and recently
Lower Ncema - were
decommissioned in June due to low water levels.
Zim Standard
By
Godfrey Mutimba
THE newly elected Senator for Chivi-Mwenezi constituency
Samuel Mumbengegwi
is embroiled in a land wrangle with war veterans in
Mwenezi, The Standard
can reveal.
War veterans led by Wensisilous
Chikovo are accusing Mumbengegwi of trying
to evict them from Lot 21 A farm
in Mwenezi district.
They allege the Senator, who denies the allegations,
is trying to bring back
a white commercial farmer who donated beasts
slaughtered during his
senatorial campaign rallies.
The war
veterans, led by Chikovo, have vowed not to vacate the plots
alleging that
they were aware that politicians were accepting bribes from
farmers, thereby
derailing the land reform exercise.
"They now want us out of the farm
when the rains have just begun.
Politicians must respect our offer letters
and desist from using their
political muscle where it is not warranted and
they are the ones who are
openly derailing agrarian reform," Chikovo
said.
The war veterans allege that when President Robert Mugabe
intended to visit
Mwenezi to attend an aborted victory party for Isaiah
Shumba, a white farmer
was instructed by the politicians to give the
President a bull so that his
farm would not be taken
over.
Chikovo added that the farmer was also told by the Masvingo
political
leadership to give more bulls to Mwenezi chiefs so that he could
get the
unwavering support of the traditional
leaders.
Mumbengegwi, who is the Zanu PF provincial chairman, however
denies any
wrongdoing. The Senator said he was not involved in the
distribution of
land, and after all there was a land audit
underway.
"There is a lot happening at Lot 21 A farm but the
allegations are false.
The land reform programme is not run by politicians
but by the land
committee which is the accepted and normal channel," said
Mumbengegwi, who
added that he could not stop people from saying whatever
they wanted about
him.
Mumbengegwi is the newly appointed
Minister of Indigenisation.
Zim Standard
By Bertha
Shoko
THE $5.2 trillion allocated to the country's ailing health sector
in the
2006 National Budget announced last week is just not enough to
improve
deteriorating conditions in the sector, experts have
said.
For the first time in a number of years, the health sector got
priority over
other key ministries such as defence, claiming at least 12
percent of the
total budget expenditure. The defence ministry has
traditionally received
top priority in budget allocations. However, critics
maintain that more
could be done for the country's ailing health
sector.
Also, other than the Aids Levy, the Budget did not make any specific
provision to mitigate the effects of the HIV and Aids epidemic, which
continues to claim thousands of lives weekly.
Of the total health
budget, $2,1 trillion is earmarked for health centres
that include mission
and local authority hospitals, an amount of which $665
billion will go
towards construction and rehabilitation works at various
hospitals and rural
health centres throughout the country.
Under this provision, Harare,
Chitungwiza and Parirenyatwa hospitals - in
the capital city - and United
Bulawayo Hospitals and Mpilo in Bulawayo would
be the major
beneficiaries.
Provision has also been made for the procurement of
ambulances, service
vehicles and medical equipment for various health
centres.
Zimbabwe's health service delivery has taken a nosedive over the
past few
years due to inadequate funding, shortages of foreign currency and
the
departure of skilled health personnel to other countries offering better
conditions of service.
Most health institutions, especially in the
rural areas are operating below
capacity as they continue to experience
shortages of essential medicines and
drugs as forex crunch
persists.
In his Budget speech,The Minister of Finance and Economic
Development,
Herbert Murerwa, acknowledged that the health sector faces a
number of
challenges.
Said Murerwa: "Most of the equipment at our
health institutions is now
either obsolete or non-functional. This has
affected the delivery of health
services. I therefore propose to allocate
$260 billion for the procurement
of medical equipment to be distributed to
the five central hospitals, eight
provincial hospitals and 60 district
hospitals."
Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Health and Child
Welfare,
Blessing Chebundo, says although the health sector got one of the
highest
allocations, funding is still inadequate compared to the needs the
sector.
He said the provision made to the health services board, which
was appointed
recently to oversee the improvement of conditions of service
for health
personnel, was inadequate to address the problems of brain drain,
among
other challenges facing the sector.
Said Chebundo: "Murerwa
attempted to address the problems we as the
parliamentary committee
recommended but adequate funding remains a key
issue. The needs in the
health sector are great. There are many challenges.
Our health delivery
system has gone to the dogs.
"The Budget focused on all the areas we had
recommended such as transport,
personnel, procurement of drugs, repair of
equipment and the rehabilitation
of existing infrastructure but the money
allocated on all these is not
enough."
Another bone of contention is
government's apparent lack of commitment to
fight the HIV and Aids scourge
by allocating enough resources for treatment,
among other key interventions.
Health experts and activists say government
has failed to treat HIV and Aids
as a national disaster even after it made
that declaration.
At least
1,8 million people in Zimbabwe are HIV positive. Of that number at
least 500
000 are now at full-blown Aids stage and require Anti Retroviral
Therapy
(ART) but less than 30 000 are accessing them in both the private
and public
sector.
National Aids Council director, Dr Tapuwa Magure, said his
organisation was
yet to analyse the budget before making any
statements.
Sostain Moyo of the Zimbabwe HIV/Aids Activist (ZAHA) said
although he had
not thoroughly analysed the budget, it was quite clear that
it had not
singled out the problem of HIV and Aids and made any provision to
help
mitigate its effects on the desease.
Contacted for comment on
the budget, The Minister of Health and Child
Welfare, David Parirenyatwa
told The Standard to phone later saying this
year's budget was "a bit
different" and therefore needed to analysed
intelligently.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
ZIMBABWE Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) have attacked the police
for
disrupting this year's edition of the World Aids Day commemorations,
following the arrest of five aids activists.
Police, said ZLHR, had
no right to stop the peaceful demonstrations, which
were held last week as
part of the commemorations, held annually on 1
December.
The five AIDS
activists; Sostain Moyo of the Zimbabwe Activist on HIV/Aids
(ZAHA),
Munyaradzi Gwisai of the International Socialist Organisation,
Nickson
Nyikadzino of the National Constitutional Assembly, Gladys Chiume
and
Anacolletta Penduka both of Women and AIDS Support Network, were
arrested at
Africa Unity Square on World Aids Day and spent the night in
police cells.
They were released the following day in the afternoon after
police failed to
level any charges against them.
One of the arrested Moyo said the
demonstrations had police clearance and
the arrests came as a surprise to
them.
Moyo said: "We had police clearance and the disruptions came a
shock to us.
Police queried the involvement of the National Constitutional
Assembly and
Gwisai's ISO in the march and we told them that HIV and Aids is
a human
rights issue and is everyone's problem. We can't say you come and
march and
you don't come, it is ridiculous."
In a statement, the ZLHR
said the police had no basis to act heavy-handedly
as they did. The ZLHR is
convinced that police action clearly showed the
failure by the government of
Zimbabwe to treat HIV and Aids as the national
disaster that it
is.
"It is shocking that the State would act in such an abhorrent manner
and
take such a grossly unreasonable decision in an environment where
approximately 2 000 people are dying of Aids every week, 1.2 million
children have been orphaned by HIV/Aids and an estimated 20 000 out of an
estimated 290 000 in need of antiretroviral treatment (ART) are actually on
treatment.
"With some 2 million people living with HIV/Aids in
Zimbabwe, the looming
drug shortage presents an eminent threat to the lives
of millions."
The ZLHR say the disruption of the demonstrations by police
also show that
have little understanding of the provisions of the Public
Order and Security
Act.
"This prohibition by the police clearly
illustrates the failure of the
government not only to duly regard HIV/AIDS
as a national emergency calling
for concerted efforts against its impact,
but also a pure misconception of
the purpose and provisions of the Public
Order and Security Act (Chapter
11:17) to which AIDS Service Organizations
(ASOs) are exempt from the
procedures relating to political
organisations.
The World Aids day commemorations were organised by a
number of Aids
organisations such as the Women and AIDS Support Network,
ZAHA, Zimbabwe
National Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS.
World
Aids Day has been commemorated since 1988 worldwide as an occasion
that
provides yet another opportunity for Zimbabweans to reflect on progress
made
towards mitigating the effects of the HIV and Aids scourge.
Said ZLHR:
"The need for the government to reflect on its commitment comes
against a
background where the public health delivery system in Zimbabwe has
virtually
collapsed, culminating in the State's failure to facilitate,
provide and
promote the full realization of the right to health, including
the right of
access to treatment particularly for PLWAs."
Zim Standard
Comment
THE picture of the United Nations emergency relief
co-ordinator, Jan
Egeland, peering into a hovel with surprise and disbelief
at how people can
be expected to live in such circumstances can only confirm
the horror of the
cruelty of the government's "Operation
Murambatsvina/Restore Order".
Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka the UN special
envoy who visited Zimbabwe in July
wept when she was confronted with the
cruelty of "a people's government".
Egeland's shock and horror is
unlikely to make his report and findings any
different from Tibaijuka's. In
fact, where Tibaijuka was given a commitment
on completion of houses for the
victims of Murambatsvina, Egeland found the
targets had not been met and
that no houses had been occupied.
The UN was horrified at the lack of
progress in moving the victims of the
government's operations, eight months
after they were thrown out onto the
streets. The victims have endured
winter. Now they are enduring the wet
weather conditions. It is unlikely
Egeland missed this double misfortune to
befall the victims of the so-called
people's government.
Egeland's impatience with the government was not
disguised. He said: "We
don't want to come here every year to help. I am
appealing for the evictions
to stop." Egeland's comments confirm that the
government has not put an end
to the evictions.
But where Harare
hoped to put a positive spin on Egeland's visit and
capitalise on it, it
will be dismayed. Egeland did not wait for his return
to New York to make
his intentions known about what he had seen and had been
horrified by. He
declared, much to Harare's dismay: "I came here to
reiterate my colleague's
(Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka's) findings. It is a UN
report and not Anna's. The
humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is very
serious and prospects are growing
and also very worrying. The need of people
that want assistance is big and
growing.
"The shelter campaign was the worst possible thing at the
worst possible
time. It created a lot of problems as far as the humanitarian
situation is
concerned."
Egeland openly disagreed with President
Robert Mugabe during their 90-minute
meeting on Tuesday because the
government wants the UN to be active. There
was disagreement over the
eviction of the estimated one million people, how
to assist them as well as
enable them to have food.
Once the government realised the enormity
of the resources required for the
project and its own inadequacy, it pinned
its hopes on the intervention of
the world body, hoping that it could assume
responsibility where the
government had failed.
The government
allowed Egeland's visit because it was convinced whatever his
recommendations; they will open the taps for UN resources to be channelled
to Zimbabwe. Typically, the government will seek to benefit from the
resources intended for the victims of "Operation
Murambatsvina".
The fact that the houses being built under "Operation
Garikai" have not met
the targets for completion and the fact that they
remain unoccupied attests
to the inability and lack of resources by the
government to carry the
programme further.
But real victims of
"Operation Murambatsvina" are unlikely to afford the
houses and therefore
qualify for them. In fact, they were never the intended
beneficiaries.
The houses will become yet another tool in the
government's programme in
consolidating its hold on power, through political
patronage.
The impact of "Operation Murambatsvina" was not just
confined to loss of
shelter for almost one million people affected. For the
victims, it meant
loss of income and consequently, food insecurity that
impacted negatively on
people suffering from HIV and AIDS. The gains that
Zimbabwe claims to have
made in reducing the prevalence rate of the scourge
could be short-lived.
Scores of women with no other sources of income have
resorted to the only
means of survival they know - prostitution - in the
process undermining the
optimism over the fall in prevalence
rates.
It will take time for the full effect of the evictions on HIV
and AIDS
statistics to be felt. For people living with HIV and AIDS,
deprivation of
income and shelter impacts severely on their ability to
resist opportunistic
infections, while exposure to the elements hastens the
inevitable.
But there is another side to Egeland's visit: It was to
prepare for a
possible visit next year by the UN Secretary General, Kofi
Annan. It is now
doubtful whether what Egeland saw will provide any argument
for the
Secretary General to proceed with the proposed visit to Zimbabwe.
The UN
might feel that failure to meet targets which Tibaijuka was promised
in
July, the ongoing evictions and the subsequent inability to house the
victims suggests tardiness on the part of Zimbabwe and therefore do not
present a compelling case for Annan to visit Zimbabwe next year.
Zim Standard
WE, the students at
the University of Zimbabwe are being barred from
expressing our grievances
by a puerile and insensitive administration which
has taken it upon itself
to silence all dissenting voices through arbitrary
suspensions and
expulsions.
The unfortunate thing is that these suspensions are unlawful
because they
are contrary to the rules of natural justice and the University
of Zimbabwe
Act. The Act does not permit the suspension or expulsion of a
student before
the convening of a disciplinary hearing.
A few lucky
students have had their suspensions nullified by the High Court
while the
majority have suffered irreparable harm by failing to complete
their degree
programmes.
We call upon the authorities to put an end to this abuse of
our inalienable
right to education otherwise we will have no option but to
take to the
streets in protest.
K K
University of
Zimbabwe
Mt Pleasant
Harare
Zim Standard
THE height
of lunacy and financial promiscuity in the City of Harare is now
bordering
on sabotage; courtesy of the under-performing but overpaid
executives
It turns out that the turnaround strategy is proving only
a talk show and a
smokescreen. The town clerk and his executive are lining
their pockets with
ratepayers' cash. Unless something is done to stop these
men, ratepayers
will rue the day these men were appointed to their present
posts. Can
someone provide answers as to why:
The town clerk and his
executive have their own payroll, separate from other
council employees?
Recently they paid themselves November salaries with full
bonuses while
paying the rest of other council workers only half bonuses and
even
deducting the medical aid loan advanced to these workers hardly a month
ago;
As a nation we all know the salary of our president and cabinet
because this
is our (tax payers) money. Central government has an obligation
to let us
know how our money is being used. In the same vein the ratepayers
must know
how much they are paying these tinkering men who run the offices
at Town
House, since this is a local government issue. We must know how much
we are
paying our non-performers at Town House;
An executive smashes
a council vehicle and gets a new car a few days later,
while a less
important worker would face the music for such an accident. If
they are
lucky to escape summary dismissal, they would be made to pay for
repairs of
the council vehicle.
The town clerk is refusing to pay workers their 120%
in accordance with the
labour tribunal judgement, because he says council
has no money, but the
same man thinks council must have utilities with 25
workers because council
has the money to pay them.
If the council has
no money, how can it afford to suspend a few heads of
sections with full
benefits, while paying those elevated to acting positions
an acting
allowance? Where is the financial prudence here?
I will not be churlish
to say this man can not be trusted to run a city a
hundred times bigger than
Marondera. Remember this same man was in trouble
with the late executive
mayor Solomon Tawengwa, Commissioner Elijah
Chanakira, and Engineer Mudzuri
only to be saved by the municipal workers'
union, his present
nemesis.
Anyone who runs the local authority of the capital city like a
fowl run has
no business being at Town House!
Disgruntled
ratepayer/worker
Harare
Zim Standard
THE
first Head of State to visit Zimbabwe soon after independence was the
late
President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and what he saw in terms of
industrial
development made him pronounce the following at Sakubva Stadium
and I quote:
"The delay of Zimbabwe in attaining independence was a blessing
in disguise.
Zimbabwe has the entire required infrastructure. Ourselves,
when we got
independence in 1964, we had no such advanced infrastructure."
Over the
years what has happened to all that Nyerere saw? I will just
mention a few
like Cone Textiles, Cold Storage Commission (now Company),
forest
plantations, private game sanctuaries as well as very productive
farms and
sugar estates.
These have either ceased altogether or are operating below
capacity. All
this has been brought about by Zanu PF's mismanagement and
nepotism. Nyerere
must be turning in his grave now that what he saw has been
destroyed by the
Zanu PF government.
For all the bad economic
situations prevailing in Zimbabwe, the blame is
being put squarely on the
negative publicity, demonisation, President George
W Bush of the US and
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.
Surely the Zanu PF government
should be ashamed of itself for blaming others
when it is responsible for
the present great suffering of its own people due
to its gross failure to
manage resources.
D R Mutungagore
Mutare
Zim Standard
THE much
talked about Jatropha Tree Project seems to me to be just another
big
joke.
After surfing the internet as well as additional
research, I found that
about 8 tonnes of
Jatropha seed produces only
1 300 litres of diesel.
Tests undertaken in India revealed that a
Mercedes CD 1200 clocked 5 900 km
on 1 300 litres giving an average
consumption of 4.5km to a litre.
The engine had to be specially modified
by Daimler Chrysler, the
manufacturers of Mercedes Benz.
So for
Zimbabwe to start growing Jatropha, it means we will need specialist
engineers to modify all diesel engines so that they can run on Jatropha
diesel. In any case we are yet to go to tender to find people with the
requisite knowledge to build a commercial plant.
There is also the
question of technology, experts with the requisite skills
and the massive
outlay of capital that would be required to pursue these
lofty dreams.
Perhaps the powers that be need to look carefully at their
priorities before
they plunge some of these hare-brained schemes.
I think the masses need
to know where we are going.
Claudius Sithole
Harare
Zim Standard
newsfocus by Walter
Marwizi
FOR more than 20 years, former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi
dominated
the affairs of his country, despite mounting criticism to his
rule. In fact,
by the time the man bowed out of politics, it was generally
agreed that he
was one of the "The Big Men" of African politics who, apart
from
dictatorship, thrived because his opponents were deeply divided along
ethnic
lines.
A few years after Moi officially left the east African
country's political
landscape, the Kenyan scenario is becoming a reality in
Zimbabwe where
leaders of the main opposition have turned on each other,
leaving President
Robert Mugabe to entrench his grip on power. Fringe
parties are also
appearing on the political horizon.
The main opposition
party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), once a
cohesive body
cutting across ethnicity, race and other differences, appears
to have lost
its focus.
Ethnic clashes and infighting, which had all along been
rumoured, have crept
into the open, tearing apart the party which offered so
much hope to
millions of Zimbabweans, desperate for change.
For MDC
vice president Gibson Sibanda and other members of the pro- Senate
faction,
the greatest threat to democracy in Zimbabwe at the moment is not
Mugabe but
their own party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
They charge that Tsvangirai is
a "dictator in the making" who unleashes
violence on his opponents. On the
other hand, the Tsvangirai camp accuses
Sibanda and others of tribalism and
of links to Zanu PF.
Only last week, Gift Chimanikire, the party's deputy
secretary-general,
unsuccessfully took the dispute to High Court where he
sought an order to
shut out Tsvangirai from Harvest House, the party's
national head office in
Harare's central business district. Court papers
seen by The Standard show
that the party is deeply engaged in the squabbles
leaving no room for them
to fight Zanu PF.
Even after the court
battle - which left Chimanikire saddled with legal
costs - both factions'
energies will be directed towards the party's
congress, where the decisive
battle for the control of the MDC will be
fought in
February.
Insiders say it will take some months for Tsvangirai or whoever
emerges the
winner to bring unity and cohesion to a party that, three years
ago, forced
Mugabe to resort to violence and a chaotic land redistribution
programme in
order to remain in power. And like Moi, the veteran Zimbabwean
leader is
having the last laugh.
For the first time since MDC was
formed six years ago, Mugabe can be assured
of both the Christmas and New
Year holidays free of political headaches.
At the Zanu PF conference in
Umzingwane on Friday, an exuberant Mugabe told
cheering supporters that the
opposition no longer caused him any
"stomach-aches and
headaches".
"The party has disintegrated. It's now a complete wreck or
wreckage if you
want," he boasted.
Ironically, Tsvangirai, the man
who has caused those difficulties for the
81- year-old President, will this
time around, spend much of the festive
season plotting the downfall of
opponents who only four months ago shared
the same table with
him.
Tsvangirai, who is seeking a fresh mandate to lead the party for the
next
five years, is likely to be challenged by Chimanikire.
Apart
from dealing with internal dissent, Tsvangirai will also have to work
hard
to restore the confidence of donors and diplomats who have supported
the
party over the years.
Information reaching The Standard indicates that
key financial backers had
been alarmed by the disclosure by St Mary's MP,
Job Sikhala that party
leaders were squabbling over US$ 2.5 million
allegedly donated by Nigeria,
Ghana and Taiwan. They summoned some party
officials.
Although Sikhala made a u-turn and said he was out to test the
gullibility
of journalists from the State media, his pronouncements further
damaged the
opposition party, gripped by its worst crisis since its founding
six years
ago.
The Standard is informed that diplomats who had great
sympathy for the party
were clearly unimpressed and sought explanation from
the MDC president,
Tsvangirai.
A well-informed party official talked
about a "diplomatic mess" at a time
when the party was at its weakest
point.
The official said: "One diplomat called Tsvangirai and said: 'If
you people
can squabble over US$2.5 million, what more if you are entrusted
with the
whole national fiscus?' Tsvangirai has been under pressure to write
letters
clearing the air. It's a diplomatic mess and I have no doubt it's
now
impossible for the party to get into West Africa."
While the
party can easily regain the support of backers once they put their
house in
order, analysts say this bickering is an early Christmas present
for
Mugabe.
Churches, political analysts, diplomats and other people who had
been trying
to persuade Tsvangirai and the other members to a common ground,
appear to
have all but given up hope, leaving the opposition party hurtling
towards a
political precipice.
One of the mediators told The Standard
"When professors, lawyers, teachers
and respectable people reach a point
where they shout names at each other in
public like children, then you know
Mugabe has achieved his goal."
But Tsvangirai differs: "If Robert Mugabe
thought he had an early Christmas
present in the form of a dead MDC, he
shall now get a New Year wake up call.
The MDC is emerging stronger after
the events of the past two months."
As the circus in the MDC continues, a
new political party, the United
People's Movement is already on the horizon.
Little is known about the party
save for the fact that it is fronted by
former information Minister Jonathan
Moyo. It remains to be seen whether
it's entry onto Zimbabwe's political
landscape will shake the resolve by
Mugabe to rule until 2008.
Zim Standard
Sundaytalk with Pius
Wakatama
WHEN President Mugabe first mooted the idea of resurrecting the
Senate,
which his Zanu PF party had abolished long ago as a "useless
colonial
relic", he never dreamt that he was in fact aiming a body blow at
his
arch-enemy, the Movement for Democratic Change. For him the Senate idea
was
just part of his succession strategy. It had nothing to do with the
hated
opposition. He was just ensuring that after retiring he will live
happily
ever after without his sins dogging him as happened to other hated
African
despots after they stepped down. So, the more of his old cronies he
leaves
ensconced in power the better for him.
He must be chortling
with glee because by the Senate strategy, he managed to
kill two birds with
one stone. The MDC leadership got seriously divided over
the Senate
issue.
However, I can bet you that the opposition will come out of this much
stronger. It was a necessary shake-up, which will separate the wheat from
the chaff.
By the way, most commentators seem to get things wrong.
They say the people
heeded Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader's call to
boycott the Senate
elections. Actually, it is the other way round. After
consulting the people,
like a true democrat, it is Tsvangirai who heeded the
people's call not to
lead them into useless and costly Senate elections when
Zimbabwe is
bleeding. The pro-Senate group is not of democrats. They are the
real
dictators because they ignored what the people were saying and tried to
bulldoze into the elections because they had their own agendas which had
nothing to do with the wishes of the people (Zvichemo zvevanhu).
It
can be conceded that at face value, Tsvangirai breached the party
constitution. However, this does not mean he breached the democratic
process. He rightly decided to obey the spirit of the constitution rather
than the letter. It is the spirit, which lives and gives life. The letter of
any law is dead without the spirit behind it being followed. Christian
theology manifests this very clearly.
It is the pro-Senate group,
which breached the democratic process by not
consulting with their
respective constituencies and voting according to the
majority feeling in
their constituencies. Instead, they voted according to
their own personal
agendas. In other words, Tsvangirai did the wrong thing
for the right
reason. He rightly rejected the result of a vote, which was in
all ways
fake. The pro-Senate group is, therefore, clinging to a legality,
which is
in all ways immoral and dishonest.
It is reported that a vicious legal
fight is under way over the ownership of
the party's name and assets with
the pro-Senate group seeking a High Court
order barring the MDC President,
Tsvangirai, from speaking or conducting
business on behalf of the
MDC.
Anybody who has seriously been following this unfortunate and rather
sad
saga will tell you that it is academic and immaterial which group wins
that
battle in our skewed judicial system. The real winner will be
Tsvangirai
because, whether he wins the court battle or not, he will have
the people
who comprise the MDC membership, solidly behind him. This also
means that
the question of whether Tsvangirai breached the party
constitution or not is
also entirely academic and immaterial. It is a
question which the suffering
people of Zimbabwe have no time for just as
they had no time for the Senate
elections.
I have read arguments by
two pro-Senate advocates, Trudy Stevenson and
Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga. The major one is that Tsvangirai should
have abided
by the pro-Senate vote according to the party constitution. I
have already
dealt with that. The second one is that they did not want the
party to
surrender political space to Zanu PF.
Now, ladies, be serious! You don't
give anything to Zanu PF, let alone
political space. They take it whether
you like it or not. Look at what
happened to the democratically elected
mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri. Look
at what is happening to the mayor of
Mutare, Misheck Kagurabadza and Misheck
Shoko, the mayor of Chitungwiza.
What happened to Roy Bennett? While being
incarcerated after being convicted
by a parliamentary kangaroo court, he
still tried to retain the party's
political space in Chimanimani.
A judge of the High Court ruled that he
had every legal right to contest in
the election. Zanu PF simply ignored
that court order and grabbed the
Chimanimani political space. What makes
these naïve ladies think things will
be any different now?
It is a
pity that these ladies seem hell-bent on removing themselves from
the real
battle ahead. I have picked on them because I have known them both
for years
as personal and family friends. They are tough fighters who have
endured
much. Their presence will be sorely missed in the main political
arena. I
urge them to reconsider and reconcile with the people who need them
very
much at this time.
The real political battle in Zimbabwe was never about
the Senate. The Senate
idea is a Zanu PF ploy having to do with President
Mugabe's succession. Only
people without feelings or consciences can
squander billions of dollars on
something they once dismissed, as a colonial
relic. While other countries
strive to feed their starving people, Zanu PF
would rather have the United
Nations beg on their behalf. Havanyare! (They
have no shame).
The political battle is not even about a few
parliamentary seats, for that
is all the MDC can hope to get under the
undemocratic political system
obtaining in this country today. The real
battle is about creating a level
political playing field so that free and
fair elections, which will lead to
the peaceful ouster of the heartless Zanu
PF regime from power, can take
place. This can only be done through a new
democratic constitution, which
will guarantee freedom of expression and
association as well as protecting
basic human rights.
In fact, some
of us questioned the wisdom of the MDC participating in the
March 2005
parliamentary race because they were effectively gagged and
hobbled. It is,
indeed, a miracle and a sample of the people's resolve that
they managed to
get the number of seats they did. This shows that in a free
and fair
election, the MDC would win, hands down. Zanu PF would not get even
one
seat!
What is most saddening about the political division in the MDC is
that it
has degenerated into exchanging personal insults. We must remember
that in
politics, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, just
permanent interests. What we should all desire is the national interest.
Therefore, we should confine our public debate to the issues at stake only.
In Shona we say: "Kana muchitukana siyayi pehukama." This means when
rebuking each other, we should always remember that ultimately, we are
brothers and sisters, and nothing can change that. We should, therefore.
Always restrain ourselves so that the door to reconciliation is always
open.
I do not for one moment buy the story that the pro-Senate group are
on the
payroll of Zanu PF to destabilize the MDC. I have observed them for
long
enough to realize that this cannot be so. They are just suffering from
fatigue and would like to surrender and also enjoy the good
life.
Beckoning across the border is the South African President Thabo
Mbeki with
his own agenda. He is the biggest MDC destabilizer. He is giving
them
"brotherly" advice on how to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis through a
government of national unity with Zanu PF.
The mere thought of a
labour-backed MDC government in Zimbabwe sends chills
down his spine. It
might surely encourage the ANC's restive ally, COSATU,
which is close to the
MDC, to break away and form an opposition party. He is
not sure that the ANC
could withstand a labour-backed opposition onslaught.
This is why he prays
that the MDC, led by uncompromising Tsvangirai, will
never get into power in
Zimbabwe.
He, who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion
by Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
THE more Africa changes the more it remains the
same at the level of
leadership. While it is no longer an issue for debate
that we should choose
our own leaders in a democratic election there are
many challenges in the
processes that may make cynics proclaim that we are
only making a
distinction without any fundamental difference in the way we
are governed.
Our dictators have learnt how to repackage themselves with a
veneer of
electoral democracy that ensures that we "vote without choosing"
since the
outcome often remains the same.
In the past few years
constitutionalism has also made a come back across
Africa but unwilling
democrats that many of the leaders are they have found
ways of
constitutionalising their illegitimacy by following a constitutional
route
to deny their peoples the democratic right to genuine changes and
alternatives in public policy.
Take the cases of three Presidents from
different regions of Africa who have
become the symbols of this
constitutional gerrymandering. The first one
holds the dubious title of
being Africa's longest-serving (I am not sure
what services any more)
President El Hadj Omar Bongo of the oil-rich Central
African State of Gabon.
He has been in power since 1967 and has just secured
for himself another
7-year term at the Presidential Palace, which will
ensure that he remains in
power till he is 75 years old (officially).
After that term if both
nature and the ancestors have not called him home we
can be
sure that
there will not be shortage of footloose opportunists to
orchestrate "one
more term" using the same dubious argument that echoes from
the lips of
supporters of sit tight leaders across this continent: "This
country will
collapse if the Old man leaves", "Nobody can govern this
country but him"
and other apologetic justifications by self-serving,
regime-worshipping
apologists for status quo.
Any country whose social, political and
economic well being depends so much
on one person probably does not deserve
to survive. No matter how gifted and
committed any leader is he or she is
still just one mortal being, fallible
and finite.
Bongo has ensured
that he runs and runs till he drops dead, by removing any
limitation on
presidential terms. This is where his presidential run and
re-run interfaces
with that of the Second President, Retired General Yoweri
Kaguta Museveni of
Uganda whose onward match to another term was the subject
a recent column to
which I got many responses from both the Museveni Camp
and even more from
the anti-Museveni group.
The President's men and women typically become
legalistic on the issue of
"sad term" arguing that now that Ugandans have
spoken through referendum and
there has been appropriate change to the
constitution the President is not
doing anything
unconstitutional.
They overstate their democratic credentials by stating
the seemingly
obvious: Ugandan voters are supreme they say and whatever they
decide is
sacrosanct. It is a very beguiling democratic case even if
democracy is the
last thing on the minds of those pushing it. It is always
amusing to me why
Ugandans are supreme over the issue of Museveni running
again but have
neither been supreme on the key economic decisions of the
government or the
various wars the country has been involved in for the past
two decades. Not
even elected Members of Parliament have any influence on
the government's
neo-liberal policies yet the people are supreme! On the
other side of the
debate the anti-"Sad term" camp think I have become too
complacent about
Museveni's self -succession.
I had concluded my
article matter-of-factly that five years will soon come
to pass. But the
fear of many in the opposition is that it is not just the
next five-year
term that Museveni and his cronies want but the next one, and
the one after
that and probably another one after that till the President
gives up the
ghost. In a sense self-succession in perpetuity like Bongo's.
I must
confess that I have no answer to that speculation because there is
something
that happens to our presidents once they enter office they find
ways and
means of perpetuating themselves. People often blame opportunists
around
them but I think that is a lazy approach. There is no adviser that
will
compel an unwilling President to remain in office for a minute longer
if he
is not that inclined.
Unfortunately Museveni is not alone in the struggle
for presidency in
perpetuity. And that leads us to the third President,
another retired
General, Chief Mathew Aremu Olushegun Obasanjo. I have been
in Nigeria for
the past month and the big political issue is about the quest
for another
term by President Obasanjo. Like Museveni's supporters when his
campaign
first started to change the constitution Obasanjo's people are
saying the
president has not decided either way. Like Museveni, Obasanjo
rarely
addresses the issue directly and when he does he says defensively
that the
constitution does not allow him to go beyond two consecutive terms
and he
has pledged to uphold the constitution. However, as it happened in
Uganda,
his agents and political contractors are busy pushing for
constitutional
amendments that will allow him to stand for another term
thereby
constitutionalising his self -succession as has happened in
Uganda.
It is obvious that our presidents compare notes on how to deceive
their
people and adopt which manipulation methods work best. It is sad that,
in
spite of the new African Peer Review Mechanism, they do not compare notes
on
how to improve the lot of their people.
But somehow they think
that they are indispensable to their countries.
Abacha could have killed
Obasanjo in prison as he did his blue -blooded
former second in command,
General Shehu Musa Yar Adua, with impunity.
Yet by a combination of local
and international campaign and sheer luck or
divine intervention he
survived. Not only escaping with his life but was
parachuted to the
Presidency for a second time and as his eight years draw
closer, he cannot
remember the exit door again or be thankful to his God for
the miracle of
having a second chance.
Yet this man is supposed to be a born-again
Christian. Is it really God that
tells these people to go on and on or they
tell themselves and believe it is
God or may be they do think themselves as
"god" hence their wishes must be
divine!
I looked at the sun, it was
about 11:00 AM on Christmas day. I was getting
late for this was a day of
showing off. I have to rush to the Shopping
Centre where people of all ages
were celebrating the traditional christmas.
I needed to show off my new
cloth to the rest of the village. Every body
was happy, I mean happy. There
was no politics in sight, as far as I was
concerned I was my own liberator,
MP, Minister and Prime Minister rolled
into one. This was the first
christmas after attaining Independance, a test
of African rule in Rhodesia
indeed. I was 9.
I was tall and slander, my friends used to mock
me saying I was tall seated
than standing, which ever way I had no bad
fellings. I wished there was a
big looking glass to cover my whole body but
that was a luxury not to be
seen in a village. I was wearing a new pair of
black Tender-Foot by BATA, a
Paramount English Khaki suit from ENBE, Moffat
Street. It was slightly
oversize but stone robust and thick. I looked like a
1890 Brakwasha without
a cap, it was brilliant. My father, a carpenter by
the way gave me some
spending money, Z $1.00. I was the luckiest child
because not many families
would raise Z$1.00 in rural areas, let alone
giving it to a 9 year old, I
was dressed to kill, I was lucky. The whole
christmas wear costed $5.00,
very expensive indeed considering the value of
the Zimbabwean dollar by
then. As was the traditional, I passed through
relatives' houses showing
off my new cloths and feasting . Almost all
families would afford meat and
bread on christmas. Not only bread but this
was the only time that families
bought dozens and dozens of bread and tins
of SUN jam and butter margerine.
Sorry I must leave you now and ejoy the
christmas in peace.
"Munongotumira vana kuhondo, kuhondo iwe,
kuhondo iwe, aha wedza muchadura,
kuhodo iwe, kuhondo iwe hwedza muchadura",
I suddenly find myself dancing to
the tune. I had no idea who sang the song
but all the same it gave me that
conviction of a forgotten struggle.
Suddenly I felt courage flowing into me,
I wished the war would start again
and so that I would be in the for front
of it all branding an AK 47 and a
Bazooka, breaking the enemy lines. How
much I wished, I was old enough to
have gone to war, I had the greatest
respect for the Comrades, "vana
mukoma". With my $1.00, I was able to buy a
box of Lebena biscuits, a bottle
of Coco-Cola, a tinned beef and still
remained with 70 cents (1Z$=100
cents). We danced to a host of musicians,
Ngwaru Mapundu, Thomas Mapfumo,
Marshal Munhumumwe, Oliver Mutukudzi and the
Ngwenya Brothers, it was
brilliant. I watched people dancing, bare footed,
people crying for more,
there was that human bond of a nation in the making.
Zimbabwe or Rhodesia as
was still the confusion was my home not that I owed
it a fovour but that it
owed me a favour for bringing me to life.
Back home, my mother
was waiting for me patiently. I had dust all over me
and my Khaki suit was
wet with Sweat in the smearing heat as I was dancing.
I sat down and settled
for the Mazowe Oranges, sweet and full of flavour.
There was plenty of food
every way, evrybody was happy, what I didnot know
was whether the happiness
was brought by Mugabe or Ian Smith. I did not like
politics by then , I was
too young to understand it and even so I hated the
politicians for misusing
people into being soldiers for their own gains.
By the way, I
understand , Paramount Garments have since closed down so is
the Coco-Cola
company, a cheapest pair of shoes costs not less than
Z$1,000,000.00. The
bread is now $32,000.00. A shirt costs more than a pair
of trousers at over
$1,200,000.00. A monthly rent for a decent house now
cost not less than
$6,000,000.00. I understand that calculators no longer
work in Zimbabwe
because there are just too many digits more than 8 digits
it was designed
for. In 1999, 80% 0f the population was literate, to day
only 50% is
literate. The rest can hardly count their day's earnings, its
just too many
zeros. I undersand that there are no more pick pocketers in
Zimbabwe because
anything in a purse won't buy even a sweet, you need a
carrier bag full of
money to buy a pint of beer.
In a country where everybody is a
millioneer, We must be the richest nation
in the World, happy christmass all
Zimbabweans!. Pass my greetings to
Mugabe, the
Amighty!
Elliot Pfebve
www.itrc-pfebve.com
A good crowd to mark UN
International Human Rights Day. Blest with
bright, calm weather, we could
hardly fit between the 4 maples. Graphic
pictures of Mugabe victims
underlined our message that the UN must do more
than feed the starving. It
must take action to bring Mugabe to justice.
Posters reminded passers- by
that the crisis is worsening: "Evicted and
Forsaken", "Rights under Siege",
"Desperate Plight of Homeless". To mark
the occasion we unveiled our new
updated banner "Mugabe wanted for Murder"
listing the victims of
state-sponsored violence. Thanks to Angie and Alex
for doing this for us.
It certainly hits people in the eye.
Unfortunately, another victim could
already be added - Don Stewart, father
of Cathy Stewart, who, as we
reported, was murdered in his home recently.
We were deeply touched that she
made time to be with us on her return from
Zimbabwe. The drumming, singing
and dancing stopped as we all stood with
her to pray for an end to the
violence and suffering.
Among a number of newcomers to the Vigil was a
former water polo
international from Zimbabwe, desperately homesick like the
rest of us. We
were pleased to get publicity for our protest and to hear
one of our
supporters, Harris Nyatsanza, speaking on BBC Radio.
As
Christmas approaches our message becomes ever more potent and many people
out shopping for the festive season expressed deep concern about the
deteriorating situation. They were shocked by comments made by the UN
Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, after his visit to Zimbabwe. He
said: "The situation is very serious in Zimbabwe when life expectancy goes
from more than 60 years to just over 30 years in a 15-year span - it's a
meltdown, it's not just a crisis, it's a meltdown". He noted that 3,000
people die of AIDS every week and said that by next year the UN hopes to be
feeding about a third of the population. He was too diplomatic to point out
that, as people desperately seek shelter from the rains, Mugabe continues to
blame drought and the UN and the West in general for the plight of
Zimbabweans.
FOR THE RECORD: about 60 supporters came
today.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday, 12th December, 7.30 pm, Zimbabwe Forum,
Upstairs at
the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2
(cross the Strand
from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway to John
Adam Street, turn
right and you will see the pub - nearest stations: Charing
Cross and
Embankment).
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
News24
11/12/2005 15:28 -
(SA)
Harare - Two leading Zimbabwe national cricket team players and
an official
have been fined by a magistrate's court for violating foreign
exchange
regulations, a state daily reported on Saturday.
The Herald
newspaper said long-serving national cricket team manager
Mohammed Meman was
fined Z$1m (US$13, ?11) and national team players Vusi
Sibanda, $800 000 and
Waddington Mwayenga $400 000.
The three were arrested on Saturday last
week following investigations by
Zimbabwe's central bank into Zimbabwe
Cricket (ZC)'s financial affairs.
"The three pleaded guilty to breaching
the country's exchange control
regulations when they were initially
arraigned before the court," The Herald
said.
The newspaper said the
cricket players and official worked for ZC and were
entitled to marketing
and match fees in foreign currency each time they
travelled on national
duty.
In July last year, the cricket league informed Meman it was holding
on to
US$6 750 in marketing and match fees due to him.
Meman
instructed ZC to deposit the money into his offshore account in
Britain
without informing the central bank as required under Zimbabwean law.
In
September this year Mwayera instructed ZC to deposit US$182 due to him in
marketing and match fees into Meman's British account.
Sibanda
instructed the cricket union some time last year to deposit money
that was
due to him into team captain Tatenda Taibu's offshore account in
Britain.
Both of them did not seek authority from the central
bank.
Zimbabwean cricket has been mired in problems which led to the
resignation
three weeks ago of national team captain Taibu.
Taibu and
other national players had earlier teamed up with the country's
seven
provincial chairmen in a bid to have national chairperson Peter
Chingoka
sacked and the ZC managing director Osias Bvute suspended pending
an
investigation into the financial activities of the cricket body.
Zimbabwe
cricket has been in crisis ever since and their performances have
been so
poor that both England and Australia have refused to play Test
matches
against them.