• Tourists' money is needed, but boosts Mugabe regime
• Zim illegals have nowhere to go
• Irrigating nothing
• Illegal to demand rent in forex
• ZRP won’t tolerate rotten eggs: Chihuri
• Private doctors to demand cash upfront
• Land Acquisition Amendment Bill
• Crackdown On Forex Smuggling
• Zimbabwe Food Crisis Continues
• New Farmers Try to Stop Flower Exports
• Dollarisation: Can It Work for Zimbabwe
• End of Era for Kwekwe's 'Makorokoza'
• Waiting for Godot: Firms Await Policy
• Tutu slams South African silence over Zimbabwe
• Mugabe praises China
• Centre for Torture Victims Established
• Anthrax Claims 8 in Masvingo
• Police Beat Up Security Guards
• Mt Darwin Villagers Blast Zanu PF
• The Great Exodus Continues
• Standard Comment: Zim and the Commonwealth
• State Leading Human Rights Abuse: Lawyers
• Botswana disowns SADC statement on Zim
• The Zimbabwe we live in
• My Meeting with Mugabe after CHOGM, by Obasanjo
• Ministers behind illegal gold trade
• The open sore of Zimbabwe

      "Our plan was to leave in the morning by bus for Bulawayo. I have been
waiting here for the past four hours and my friends are nowhere to be seen,"
said a worried Sarah Ndlovu.

      The last time Sarah and her friends crossed the Ramokgwebana border at
the gazetted point of entry was about six months ago. The three women have
regularly illegally crossed the border into Botswana from Zimbabwe to find
menial jobs.

      Mostly they go unnoticed. The police, who "trouble illegal Zimbabwean"
have never managed to round up Ndlovu and her friends.

      "I suspect that my friends could have been nabbed by police when they
left the houses where they had been temporarily employed as housemaids,"
contemplated Ndlovu. She added that the three of them have been hired by
some teachers at a local secondary school to cook, wash clothes and
sometimes to baby-sit.

      They have been renting a one-roomed house in town and shared it to be
able to afford the rent. Their employers have told them to leave because the
schools have closed.

      Wednesday morning was another chance to escape unnoticed. As tough
luck would have had it, Ndlovu fears that the police nabbed her mates and
took them to the centre for illegal immigrants where border jumpers are kept
while awaiting deportation.

      She finds herself in a serious dilemma. She cannot go back to the
house they rented because she could fall in the trap of the police. "I have
seen a number of Zimbabwean illegals bundled into police vans before.

      "We have been very lucky ourselves - until today's incident," she
said.

      When brought to her attention that she had broken the law, she had no
qualms. "My brother, have you ever been to Zimbabwe, or read about Zim.

      "Millions of people in our country are literally starving", she
explained. She claims to have been a teacher at a primary school in Zimbabwe
before, but was driven by hunger to Botswana in the hope that things would
work out here.

      "Prices are soaring everyday while the value of the Zim dollar plunges
almost daily. This is a sad reality isn't it?" she asked.

      She said that she breaks the law to survive. She finds herself in a
fix because her passport shows that she has an entry stamp from the
Immigration Department but that she has overstayed.

      "I cannot risk going into the bush with people I don't know and trust.
I would rather hand myself to the police so that I join my mates at the
centre until we are driven back home."

      Ndlovu is one of the many Zimbabwean illegals that are arrested daily.
She finally stated that she would rather hand herself over than risk her
life.

      Zimbabwean illegal immigrants fleeing economic realities back home,
flock to the city in the hope of getting menial jobs. Daily they traipse the
streets and residences in search of jobs.

      Most of them are women. Male illegal immigrants mainly flock the
industrial sites in search of "piece jobs".

      Most of them are qualified, but because they cannot be absorbed into
the labour force back home, they find themselves moving from yard to yard in
search of opportunities. They are mostly cheap to hire and are employed at
cattle posts and jobs shunned by Batswana.

      The Francistown Commanding Police District Officer, Boikhutso Dintwa,
has seen the many faces of illegal immigrants. His officers have even set up
special operations to nab Zimbabwean illegals.

      "The situation is just like before. We still have them living amongst
us and we still arrest them almost on a daily basis," explained Dintwa.

      The police are worried that their budget for feeding awaiting-trial
prisoners while they are locked up, has been under strain because they feed
many illegals before handing them over to the Centre for Illegal Immigrants.

      Government vehicles also transport them, which further puts strain on
the budgets.

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

Bulawayo

With an iron grip on a medium-sized travelling bag, Zodwa strolls leisurely
along Fifth Avenue, one of the busiest streets in the southern Zimbabwean
town of Bulawayo, keeping an eye out for cars bearing foreign plates, and
the police.

Zodwa is a foreign currency dealer, one of the hundreds working on the
parallel market in Zimbabwe's second city. Her business is made possible by
an official exchange rate that bears no relation to the street value of the
local currency, which has been steadily eroded by the country's economic
crisis.

The government, however, blames people like Zodwa for the shortages of
foreign currency in the formal economy. It is determined to hit back,
especially with Christmas approaching, when people working abroad return
with plenty of hard currency.

In a statement last week, the police said 24-hour roadblocks, manned jointly
by the police and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), would be set up
along the main highways from the South African and Botswana borders in a
crackdown on currency smuggling.

The response revives the stop-and-search operations carried out by the
police and ZIMRA in early November, which were halted after a public outcry
over their intrusiveness.

"The police will intensify their crackdown to monitor the movement of
foreign currency into the country during the festive season. We expect many
Zimbabweans who work in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to enter the
country. These are the people who smuggle in the foreign currency that feeds
the black market in Bulawayo and Harare," said a police spokesman.

The crackdown is the work of a nine-member cabinet taskforce led by Water
Development and Rural Resources Minister Joyce Mujuru. Apart from using the
police and ZIMRA to clamp down on the dealers and smugglers, the taskforce
is also monitoring the conduct of banks that run foreign currency accounts.

Under the new law on foreign currency transactions, the Reserve bank of
Zimbabwe takes as much as 50 percent of foreign earnings in taxes, while the
remaining amount must be exchanged at the official rate of US $1 to Zim
$824. On the parallel market the rate varies between Zim $5,600 to Zim
$8,000 to the greenback.

Several hundred foreign currency dealers have been arrested in Bulawayo over
the past month, with about Zim $40 million (US $49,000) seized, according to
police spokesman Inspector Smile Dube. The police have also recovered over
Zim $32 million through searches at Beitbridge, on the border with South
Africa.

For more than two years, Zimbabwe has had to rely on food supplied by
outside agencies such as the World Food Program to feed millions of its
citizens. That situation might not change anytime soon because most of the
new farmers do not have the seed and fertilizer that they need, and getting
these necessary supplies can be expensive.
The problem is a shortage of locally produced seed and fertilizers, and the
high cost when they are available. The government is not supplying those who
cannot afford these farming necessities.

This is raising more questions about whether the Zimbabwe government's much
vaunted agrarian revolution will succeed.

Even when the rains finally come - and they are already late this year -
most farmers still have no seed to plant.

Traditionally Zimbabwe has produced its own seed maize, but President Robert
Mugabe's land-reform program has disrupted most of the country's commercial
farming activity, resulting in less than enough to meet local requirements
being grown.

Villagers at a World Food Program food distribution point told VOA that they
and most other farmers simply do not have any seed maize "Some of us have
nothing," said one villager. "Only a very few people have any seed."

"We do not have any seed, we are going to use the maize we receive for food
as seed," said another. There is nothing we can do. Maybe we can harvest
something."

A spokesperson for the Commercial Farmers Union who spoke to VOA on
condition of anonymity blamed the seed shortage on bad planning on the part
of the government.

One official of a seed-marketing company who also requested anonymity says
that while seed production was lower than normal last season, the issue now
is the prices of seed from commercial outlets.

As if this were not enough, he said, seed is finding its way onto the black
market where prices go up substantially. That means the seed is priced out
of the reach of the country's mostly black new farmers, who have no access
to either government or bank loans.

And what this means, in turn, is that when it comes harvest time, there will
be little or nothing to harvest.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

Liberty Chirove

A GROUP of resettled farmers recently attempted to stop a shipment of
horticultural exports to Europe, citing foul play by established exporters,
it has been established.

The standoff, which reportedly affected freight-forwarding agencies'
business, only ended when police and authorities in the horticulture
industry intervened to secure unease peace.

"The new farmers blamed the established exporters - mainly whites - because
the new farmers' exports are currently not being accepted internationally,"
said an official source.

"The new farmers tried to stop shipments by two jumbo jets that were to
export flowers and vegetables and business came to a halt at the entire
Europort area at the Harare International Airport," he said.

Industry officials say the new farmers, who have occupied horticulture
farms, are struggling to gain a foothold in the highly lucrative export
business.

"Many of the newly resettled farmers who took over farms are failing to meet
the specified requirements and acquire licensees as required by the Royalty
Administration International (RAI) and therefore they cannot export because
their exports will not be sold as they will be labeled as 'stolen flowers',"
said Basilio Sandamu, the president of the Horticulture Promotion Council.

RAI is a worldwide organisation representing growers of ornamental plants in
the field of plant variety rights and plant patent administration.

The organisation issues conduct regulations in consultation with the breeder
and also issues worldwide licences.

RAI also takes care of the application, the administration, the filing and
the maintaining of plant variety rights and plant patents in the name of the
breeder.

Industry officials said that some of the exports from the new farmers such
as ornamental plants and vegetables were deemed "unauthorised" and not sold
in Europe and South Africa because the farmers failed to produce the
required licenses.

"Unlike the new farmers, growers from all over the world pay royalties on
all the protected products they propagate and as a result breeders are able
to bring new and improved varieties to the markets," said Sandamu.

"The newly resettled growers are also finding it difficult to start the
breeding which needs about US$120 000 or to raise working capital which
requires about Z$40 million," he said.

"Horticulture exports have been steady from 1999, which was the peak period
but exports are set to decrease by 10% this year due to a lot of
disturbances and chaos on the farms and also the loss of skill from
established farmers who left the country," he added.

Mary Dunphy, the Exporters' and Flower Growers' Association of Zimbabwe
Chief Executive, said a meeting had been held to discuss matter and a Press
statement concerning the incident at the airport would be issued out soon.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

ANALYSIS
December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

Mehluli Mpofu, Investments Analyst Intermarket Asset Managers (pvt) Ltd

Introduction There has been much debate in various circles on the issue of
dollarisation with several Latin American countries having gone this route
with different levels of success. Maybe the starting point should be to ask
ourselves, what is dollarisation?

Dollarisation in its simplest form is the process in which a local currency
loses its function as a medium of exchange and is instead replaced by a
foreign currency usually the United States Dollar, hence dollarisation
(though it can be used to refer to use of any other currency).

Types of dollarisation

There are basically three types of dollarisation namely; unofficial,
semi-official and official. Under unofficial dollarisation, individuals and
corporates alike strive to acquire and store assets that have a foreign
component. Such assets include machinery, computer equipment, motor
vehicles, offshore deposits and in some cases currency itself.

Under semi official dollarisation, foreign currency can be used as legal
tender. Local currency however remains in use for daily expenditures.

Under official dollarisation the foreign currency becomes the principal
legal tender for the country. In this article we will dwell more on
unofficial dollarisation.

Dollarisation process

What leads to a scenario, where citizens of a country decide to discard
their own currency in favour of a foreign one? Going back to economics,
monetary theory tells us that the function of money is one; a store of
value, and two: money is a means of payment and exchange. As a store of
value, money brings out a very important aspect, inflation, where inflation
put simply, is the rise in the price of goods and services.

To act as a good storage of value, the goods that you can buy today with X
amount of dollars should be roughly equal to the amount of goods that you
can buy with that same amount at a later date, say a period of one year.

This works well in a zero inflation environment. In practice however, this
ideal environment is not normally achievable such that there is always some
degree of inflation. Under such a scenario, if you decide to defer spending
your X amount of dollars today, you are compensated by earning interest on
your money.

All things being fair and equal, at the end of the year your X amount of
dollars plus the interest earned, will afford you the same quantity of
goods.

In a hyperinflationary environment it becomes a challenge to maintain a
balance in the equation stated above by increasing interest rates without
pushing the country's productive sectors and other borrowers closer to the
edge of the precipice.

When this balance between interest rates and inflation is lost, money loses
its function as a store of value. If you decide to defer payment for goods
and services to a later date and instead deposit your money into the bank,
you will definitely buy less when you get around to doing so.

Unfortunately it does not end there; under such an environment the local
currency's interplay with other currencies is also affected. The value of a
currency is determined by lots of factors but the relation between interest
rates and inflation plays a key role.

If the margin between interest rates and inflation is negative, investors
from outside the country will shun the country as an investment destination.
As a result, where a country is not a strong exporter, supply of foreign
currency will be outweighed by demand.

The local currency will thus tend to lose its value relative to other
currencies, as more and more local currency units will be needed to buy
scarce foreign currency units. By nature, no one wants to lose money so
people begin to quote goods and services in a more stable currency.

Deals are then effected in the hard currency itself or paid off in the local
currency at the ruling exchange rate on that day. This process, as defined
earlier, is what is largely referred to as unofficial dollarisation.

The Zimbabwean case

Year on year inflation as at October 2003 stood at 526%. In his budget
speech, the Minister of Finance put forward an inflation projection of 700%
by the end of the first quarter next year.

Though we have seen a rise in interest rates in the last couple of weeks on
the back of market shortages, interest rates have largely lagged behind
inflation by margins of about 300% thus upsetting the balance mentioned
earlier.

In addition, the local currency has continued to lose its value when
measured against the currencies of its trading partners. The official
exchange rate has been maintained at 1US$: ZW$824 since the first quarter.

To runaway from this stagnation of the exchange rate on the official system,
a lot of players are operating on the unofficial market where rates as high
as 1US$: ZW$6500 are being quoted, a significant premium over the official
market.

This sets the background for what we are currently seeing on the ground.
Flipping through the classifieds section of our local newspapers it has
become common to see prices for houses, cars, fuel etc quoted in United
States dollars.

Any news of a collapse of the ZW$ on the unofficial market, inevitably
brings with it a wave of price increases. This in itself is a manifestation
of unofficial dollarisation.

The most pronounced benefit that results from this, is that, while the local
currency collapses, people are better able to maintain and realise the true
value of their assets. To some extent, investor confidence is also boosted,
and this could see investors from abroad pouring more money into the country
given the relative stability of the adopted currency.

From this, it does seem as if unofficial dollarisation is a good thing to
have. But, what is the flip side to the coin, do we all stand to benefit?

For most of us, our main income stream is our pay cheque which comes every
month, or in some cases on a fortnightly basis.

With unofficial dollarisation, quoting services in a foreign currency is
largely and understandably so, against the law. As a result, incomes remain
quoted in local currency.

While salaries and wages are at best only reviewed on a quarterly basis,
prices of goods and services on the other hand, track on a daily/weekly
basis the movement of the local currency versus the foreign currency.

A mismatch therefore results with incomes continuously shrinking in foreign
currency terms and failing to cope with rising price levels.

This is further compounded by the existence of two markets as noted above,
with incomes largely being drawn assuming the official exchange rate while
goods and services are linked to the unofficial market. This article is not
exhaustive in terms of the full pros & cons of unofficial dollarisation, it
is however apparent that in the absence of indexation of salaries and wages
with respect to the foreign currency the general populace stands to lose.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

COLUMN
December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

Rangarirai Mberi

LEANING heavily over the bar and hurling relentless abuse at the hapless
barman, 23-year-old Peter Arubi is as bitter and cold as the brandy he's
drinking.

Life has taken a nasty turn for this Kwekwe resident, as it has for hundreds
of his former gold panner colleagues.

Five months ago, he would have strutted into this pub and bought everyone
within sight a beer. Now, as on this Saturday morning, he spends all his
days draining away what remains of his gold "fortune" in endless glasses of
brandy.

"We were lied to", he says, the bitterness in his drink and in his heart
warping his face. "They told us lies".

Before joining Kwekwe's gold panner ranks, Peter was an assistant to his
uncle, a motor mechanic. Then a friend introduced him to the hazards and
fortunes of digging for gold. He made a quick bundle and, the day after his
first pay-off, went back to work and threw a spanner across the workshop at
his stunned boss.

After a year living a life that swung between burrowing through cavernous
mineshafts and going on wild drinking orgies, Peter finds himself with empty
hours he finds impossible to kill.

Peter is a typical victim of the "Zanu PF way", or rather modus operandi Ñ
use and reject.

Five months ago, gold panners in this town were the untouchables, the city's
top dogs, and Stanford Bonyongwa's foot soldiers in his fight for Kwekwe's
mayoral robes.

Kwekwe's natural wealth became its curse, as the "makorokoza" ruthlessly
went about their business without interference from the law. Residents of
this neat Midlands town watched helplessly as their once picturesque
environs were allowed to deteriorate into a wasteland of open pits and
abandoned piles of sand.

Sleep became uneasy for residents, as huge dynamite explosions tore through
endless nights, shaking homes at the foundations and rattling windows. As
all this continued, residents could find no protection for life and property
alike.

"My neighbour had part of his security wall destroyed by those people. They
came early one morning and dug right through under the wall. We made
repeated reports to both council and police but no one would help," a Kwekwe
resident who only identified himself as Govere said.

The fortune hunters even brazenly dug under a section of the Harare-Bulawayo
railway line.

The city council would not intervene; even when the "makorokoza" casually
slashed water pipes and even punched holes in sewer pipes for free water
with which to sift their ore. Even when Globe and Phoenix school lost an
entire football pitch and a classroom to an army of pick and shovel wielding
panners, ratepayers still had no recourse.

It was a police problem, concerned residents were told at townhouse. At the
police stations, it became a political problem.

Among the gold panners, the Midlands ruling party bigwigs had found an easy
and willing army to recruit.

The thriving gold digging enterprise was clearly illegal, but also evidently
addictive. The gold panners had come to know no other life, and blackmailing
them onto the party campaign wagon was no huge task. They would be barred
from the mines or arrested Ñ the tacit warning said Ñ unless they agreed to
beat, harass and intimidate those opposed to the party.

At meetings with the party leadership, they were repeatedly assured their
future was secure.

"The leaders of our association were always talking to Zanu PF and they were
assured we could continue our operations. They only warned us against going
into abandoned mines. Otherwise, we could mine anywhere", said Peter.

Then Zanu PF's Bonyongwa won the election, and today, many of the faithful
"makorokoza" wallow in police cells. Only those working for senior party
officials are allowed to continue their illegal operations. The rest spend
time evading the law and attacking the same Zanu PF councillors who
recruited them, as they allege, to vote more than once in the council
election.

Before the election, the spendthrift gold panners were accused of bidding up
prices in the local stores. But fortune has turned against them. Recently
they ordered shop owners to sell bread at $1 500. And now that they can no
longer afford to wheel about in expensive taxis, the gold panners have
ordered commuter bus operators to slash their fares by half.

The impact of the po-lice crackdown is however not restricted to the gold
panners and the dealers.

Shop owners say sales slumped more than 50% after the raids began. Peter's
barman says he used to push over 30 crates of premium lager on a good night.
Now, he moans, he would be lucky "if one of them orders a single Pilsener".

If there was one trait about the "makorokoza" that set up them apart from
mere mortals, it was their penchant for pricey bicycles. At one time, a
leading bike dealer in the town had his order book bulging at the seams.

Now, after the election, bicycle prices in this town have hit the rocks
because just about every other former gold panner is desperate to sell his.

"I sold mine last week," says Peter, initially refusing to say how much he
sold it for, but then giving it away: "I needed money to pay rent."

Asked to whom he sold his gold, Peter frowns again. A well-connected local
businessman bought his gold, he says, but then "everybody knows who really
controls things around here".

Despite Mines Minister Edward Chindori Chininga's tough line against the
illegal trade in gold, select groups close to senior ruling party officials
still ravage Kwekwe's mines with flagrant impunity, undisturbed by the
fearsome Police Gold Squad.

Government says 70%of the country's gold output is not making it to central
bank, costing the economy US$350 million this year.

Peter says he spent two nights on the cold concrete floors of police cells
after his sister-in-law tipped off the police.

He remembers watching the earth cave in on one of his colleagues at an
abandoned mine.

He tries hard to be nonchalant about the tragedy, but he pauses for a while
gazing into his glass reflecting on the tragedy. Clearly, he is haunted by
how helpless he had felt then scratching away frantically with his bare
hands into the debris and knows how helpless he is now wasting away at the
bar.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

LOCAL markets and the private sector say they still face too many
impediments in and now wait for the unveiling of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe's long awaited monetary policy statement, expected to be released
this week.

"The skewed macro-economic environment, negative impact on the productive
sectors and instability characterised by a high budget deficit, high levels
of debts, low levels of domestic savings and productive investment is
halting business operations," said economist and consultant, James Jowa.

"Unless issues pertaining to the exchange rate and the monetary policy are
addressed, we are heading for a big crunch as the much-awaited 2004 Budget
did not address these issues," he added.

Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation is currently pegged at 525,8% and economic
analysts have predicted a further 13,4% decline in economic performance this
year from the negative growth of 12,1% last year and a further 8,5%
deceleration in 2004.

In the last four years, Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by 50% with the
unemployment rate down by 20% between 2001 and 2003 as the country gained
the dubious distinction of being ranked the fastest shrinking economy in the
world.

The harsh economic climate has resulted in a blooming parallel market for
hard currency, which has also pushed up the prices of imported goods,
thereby further fuelling consumer inflation.

Zimbabwe's exports have, during the same time, drastically been reduced in
volume, going down by 70% between 2000 and 2003, while capacity utilisation
now averages 45% and manufacturing investment is down by more than 50% from
its 2000 figures.

Hundreds of companies have closed down or relocated outside Zimbabwe as the
situation continues to deteriorate.

Analysts last week said only market-driven policies would stop the decline.

Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth on December 8, a day after delegates
at a Commonwealth summit in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, indefinitely
prolonged its suspension from the grouping's ruling councils.

The southern African country was originally suspended from the Commonwealth
in March last year, after Mugabe was re-elected in polls which observers
have said were marred by violence and vote-rigging.

"Zimbabwe will not collapse, our struggle will not fail and we will never be
colonised again," he declared.

"We will not relent until we fully recover our land and use it to
economically empower its rightful owners to restore social justice and
secure our national sovereignty," he said.

Zimbabwe faces massive food shortages both because of drought and the
government's controversial land reform program, under which white-owned
farmland has been seized and re-distributed to blacks.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

"POLICE set electric wires on my feet, my teeth and on my genital parts. I
urinated and the next thing I was unconscious," said one victim.

Such were the moving testimonies recounted by victims of torture at the
official launch of the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims
(Ceretov) in the capital on Friday, graced by diplomats.

Ceretov is the brainchild of a group of torture victims who came together
after having realised the effect of torture on their lives and other silent
victims in general.

Initially formed as a group in Chitungwiza, the victims who met almost every
Saturday to counsel each other, decided to form an association, which would
attempt to engage many victims and find strategies for rehabilitation.

The organisation's objectives are to counsel survivors of torture, providing
legal aid to survivors and to advocate against torture nationally and
internationally among others.

Officially launching Ceretov, board chairman and a survivor of torture, St
Mary's legislator Job Sikhala said the emergence of the organisation was a
challenge to those who have been using stress and duress tactics to
interrogate and harass opponents.

Ceretov intends to file test cases with the United Nations in The Hague
against prominent individuals who have been sanctioning torture.

"Those responsible shall be exposed to the entire world. We shall challenge
torturers locally and internationally," said Sikhala.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

Savious Kwinika
Masvingo

Eight people in Masvingo province are reported to have died of anthrax in
the past few months and many more are under threat from a host of other
diseases that include rabies because of the ill planned land reforms and the
shortage of drugs.

Officials at the Ministry of Health confirmed the deaths but refused to give
details referring The Standard to Provincial Medical Director, Dr Tapiwa
Magure, said to be the only person allowed to speak to the Press. Magure was
reportedly out of town since Monday.

A senior veterinary officer however said his department, which had run out
of vaccines owing to foreign currency shortages and the strained relations
with donors, was on high alert after reports that three people from Gutu,
four people in Bikita and one in Masvingo district had died of anthrax.

Besides the deadly anthrax disease that has claimed eight lives to date,
officials disclosed that many rural people were contracting rabies.

"We are in a serious crisis, my brother. Anthrax, rabies and foot and mouth
disease have become major problems threatening both human beings and
livestock in Masvingo province. And we don't any have any vaccines for
that," said the official.

He attributed serious problems of foot and mouth in areas such Chiredzi,
Mwenezi, Zaka and Gutu to the chaotic land reform programme.

"The land reform programme brought a lot of chaos resulting in the outbreak
of rabies, anthrax and foot and mouth diseases," said the veterinary
officer.

"For rabies, if you are bitten by an affected dog, there are no two ways
besides dying because we don't have vaccines or treatment drugs," he added.

He said the only vaccines they received recently were the 150 000 doses for
foot and mouth disease but his department had no fuel for the past month to
visit the hardest hit areas, especially Chiredzi and Mwenezi.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

Tafara Tandi
BUlawayo

More than 30 people were injured, 12 of them seriously, when riot police
descended on the premises of a local security company owned by newly elected
Zanu PF district chairman for Embakwe-Silonda, Reginald Mavangire, and
indiscriminately started beating up everyone in sight.

The heavily-arm-ed riot policemen num-bering about 20 arrived at Mavangire's
fifth floor Treger House offices on Wednesday last week and accused him and
his security guards of planning an illegal march before beating them up.

A fuming Mavangire, who owns Guaranteed Security company, told The Standard
that he was shocked by the incident.

According to Mavangire the police are said to have been further incensed by
the uniform worn by his security guards, which they claim resembles that of
the riot police.

Earlier this year, Bulawayo police applied to the High Court to bar his
organisation from using the uniform but the police lost the case.

Mavangire said after the assaults he and his employees were bundled into
police vehicles and taken to Drill Hall police station where they were later
released without being charged.

Some of the seriously injured had been taken for treatment at the time The
Standard visited the troubled Guaranteed Security premises, while others
were waiting for transport to hospital.

Another company director, who refused to be named, said the security company
planned to sue the police for the assault.

Smile Dube, the police spokesman, however dismissed Mavangire's claims that
the police had beaten the security guards. The Standard however, has in its
possession documents showing that the assaults were reported to the police
and a docket to that effect was opened.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

Nyasha Bhosha

DURING the March 2002 Presidential elections, top Zanu PF officials were
frequent visitors to this remote area drumming up support for President
Robert Mugabe but now, the people of Katarira, over 100 km north of Mt
Darwin town, say they feel abandoned and neglected.

"We are now depending on donors. If it was not for them, many of us could
have died of starvation months ago," said a villager who declined to be
named fearing reprisals from marauding Zanu PF youths who are almost
everywhere in the area.

After winning the controversial presidential election, with a considerable
number of votes coming from Mt Darwin, traditionally a stronghold of the
ruling Zanu PF party the government has allegedly ditched the area leaving
donors to help villagers ward off the effects of starvation.

Katarira villagers say their area is a perfect example of how the ruling
party can use and dump people after getting votes.

"We used to see them everyday, now we are on our own, waging a difficult
battle to survive," said another villager.

At the moment, more than 7 000 people from this community are benefiting
from food aid, provided by donors.

And these days, it's common to see barefooted hungry young women carrying
babies on their backs, scruffy teenagers in ragged clothing and the elderly
standing in the scorching sun, waiting for food at the Final Delivery Points
(FDPs) where they receive the food from donors.

It was the same story on Thursday at Katarira Primary School, where
villagers were receiving mealie meal, cooking oil, beans and cereals for
children from World Vision Zimbabwe.

"It's good that we got this food but we are still waiting for the government
to give us farming inputs because we will still need to eat next year. We
can't even afford to buy a packet of seed," said an old woman clutching to
her breast a 5-kg bag of mealie meal.

"A 25 kg bag of maize seed is going for $100 000 while a 50 kg bag of
fertiliser is almost twice the price of maize seed Ñ who can can afford
that? Ñ and what of the bus fare to go and buy the inputs," asked the woman.

As if poverty was not enough for the suffering villagers, the constituency
has been hit by a cholera out-break which has been attributed to lack of
protected water sources and toilets.

The only few blair toilets in the area were constructed through the
assistance of World Vision, otherwise the bush provides relief to the
majority of villagers when answering the call of nature.

"There has been a cholera out-break in Mt Darwin because a lot of people are
using bush toilets and some still fetch water from unprotected sources such
as rivers," said Ambuya Chirise.

"They (Zanu PF) don't even realise that we need decent blair toilets," she
added.

High levels of unemployment have hit the area and the Border Gezi training
centres have failed to accommodate the ever-increasing number of unemployed
youths who are searching for opportunities to better their impoverished
lives.

"We have been told many times to come up with a list of people who want to
join the centres but all in vain. They have never given us a reason why we
can't secure places at the centres.

"At least that's the only way we can secure employment because we have tried
to find jobs in government but were told to first go and join the youth
training centres," said Mafara, one of the unemployed youth.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

Henry Makiwa

AN armed police officer confidently struts on the broken-down pavement while
he gazes at the reflection of his AK 47 on the long glass doors at the
entrance of Harare's Corner House the offices of the British High Commission
to Zimbabwe. Three other equally armed police officers menacingly stand a
distance away, their eyes hovering on hundreds of people who form a snaking
queue waiting for the hard-to-get visas at the mission.

Among the scores of people is Nomore Gore, an unemployed but qualified
telecommunications technician.

"I have been there before, we (Zimbabweans) have taken over London like our
own country," Gore says.

"You have university graduates like myself who have failed to get employment
at home relocating there because we have no choice," he says.

"The bad politics and economic meltdown here is the reason why many of us
are going these far-flung places even though we love our Zimbabwe," he says
while jostling for a vantage position in the winding queue.

Gore says despite the stringent British visa requirements and a steep rise
in airfares, the UK remains one of the most favoured destinations for
Zimbabweans seeking relief from economic hardships at home

This is evident by the increasing number of people visiting the British High
Commission in search of visas in the past fortnight.

At some point, the mission reportedly asked the riot police to contain the
situation after an increasing flood of Zimbabweans seeking visas besieged
its offices, some sleeping on the pavement outside.

Though an official comment from the British High Commission could not be
obtained, it was clear the recent wave of visa seekers was unprecedented,
taking into consideration the high visa fees required.

Scores of people mill around the offices each working day these days. A few
days ago, before security was stepped up, many would even sleep at the
office's entrance.

Such is the desperation of many Zimbabweans who want to flee from the
country, once the envy of the region.

Across town, at the South African High Commission offices, chaotic scenes of
Zimbabweans desperate to get visas, are now a thing of the past, thanks to
the introduction of restrictive visa requirements.

The SA government last month imposed a new visa regime which requires
Zimbabweans to show proof of 1 000 rands in the form of traveller's cheques,
in response to the growing numbers of people entering their country.

"Since the new visa regime was introduced not too many people come here
anymore," said a security officer manning the premises.

"One can simply come and apply for his visa in no time as long as he is
armed with proof of the thousand rands," he added.

The new arrangement has however, adversely affected the business of
middlemen, who were charging to facilitate the quick issuance of visas.

One of them, a middle-aged man donning a well-worn shirt and faded jeans and
standing a few hundred metres away from the South African High Commission's
offices, says before the new visa regime, his business was good.

"It's true that there are not too many people coming here anymore. But I
reckon if you go to Limpopo River you will see them," he says, punctuating
his remarks with a shrill call to advertise his business.

But crossing the border into the "Promised Land" down south is risky
business.

The illegal Zimbabwean emigrants have to crawl through the wilderness that
lies between the two neighbouring countries before they are halted by the
rushing waters of the Limpopo, one of the largest rivers in Southern Africa.

In the river are hippos and crocodiles that lie in ambush, waiting to topple
rickety boats to get at their human cargo.

If one is lucky to cross the river, there are still miles and miles of
twisting barbed wire to trascend and worse, there is also the danger of
being caught by patrolling South African National Defence Force soldiers who
are ready to shoot any fleeing aliens.

Jeremiah Ndou, the South African High Commissioner in Harare, says his
country has however eased the rules governing Zimbabweans living on the
border with South Africa.

"We have devised special permits for Zimbabweans living in Beitbridge to be
allowed to do shopping across the border in the northern border town of
Musina and return home without having to travel to Harare for visas," said
Ndou.

"We have also set up other functions for informal traders to be allowed into
South Africa, without showing the 1 000 rand requirement, if they can
convince the immigration officers that they will be able to raise such an
amount for their upkeep

"It is understood and felt by all that the foreign currency situation is
severe that is why we have to map out strategies to halt the recession,"
Ndou told The Standard in an interview recently.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

EDITORIAL
December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

THE last kicks of a dying horse? Yes. A craze for attention and reverence?
Perhaps. An unharnessed ego of a small child? Indeed. Wild man of Africa on
a senseless warpath? Definitely.

How else can one explain the crazy decision on the part of the government of
Zimbabwe to pull the country out of the Commonwealth. What conceivable
benefit is there in such a course of action?

As New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark rightly pointed out: "The Zimbabwe
government's decision to withdraw is not a disaster for the Commonwealth. It
is an indictment of Zimbabwe's government that it has chosen this path."

In today's rapidly globalising and inter-dependent world, countries are
seizing opportunities to maximise friends and minimise adversaries. It is
most unfortunate that Zimbabwe is moving backwards when most of the world is
moving forward.

Elsewhere in this issue, we provide a fraction of the benefits Ñ
quantifiable and unquantifiable Ñ that have accrued to Zimbabwe before and
after independence. The gains are enormous and space limitations prevent us
from doing justice to them.

No amount of posturing, showmanship and grandstanding by the likes of Stan
Mudenge and the gormless and brainwashed battalions in the ruling Zanu PF
party can wash away the importance of the Commonwealth to the people of
Zimbabwe.

Contrary to what is in the market place, much of what happened in Abuja did
not reflect a white-black divide on the fundamental principles and values of
democracy and human rights. The clear consensus of the Abuja Chogm was that
democracy was the road map of the future. Differences of opinion and
emphasis emerged on whether reform in Zimbabwe can best be achieved by the
country remaining suspended or from within.

Zimbabwe's supporters led by South African President Thabo Mbeki opposed
continuing suspension arguing that President Mugabe should be encouraged to
reform by being reinstated.

But the so-called "white" Commonwealth of Britain, Australia, Canada and New
Zealand favoured a tougher line arguing that there was no possible
justification for lifting Zimbabwe's suspension. In this they won the
unanimous support of a largely silent majority of Caribbean, Asia and
Pacific states along with a number of African countries notably Botswana,
Kenya, Ghana, Gambia and Sierra Leone.

Clearly therefore, Africa is not united on the Zimbabwe crisis. Neither is
there one Sadc view on the country. The vote over the renewal of Don
Mckinnon's term by 40 votes to 11 showed that there was no African consensus
on how to deal with the Zimbabwe issue.

South Africa opposed the re-election of Mckinnon in favour of little known
Sri Lankan candidate simply because of Mckinnon's determination to continue
with the suspension of Zimbabwe until the country complied with the Harare
Declaration principles.

It behoves ill of South Africa that they could go for a man whose name most
of the world knew nothing about. Lashman Kadirgamer of Sri Lanka was an
unknown quantity. This was amply demonstrated by the former Canadian Prime
Minister Jean Chretien in a press briefing: "There was a candidate who stood
against Mckinnon. I don't know him. I have never met him and if I did, I
don't remember."

Even the Group of Six countries comprising Jamaica, Australia, Canada,
India, South Africa and Mozambique appointed by the Commonwealth leaders to
try to dispose of the Zimbabwe issue produced a consensus document
recommending continued suspension of Zimbabwe although South Africa and
Mozambique later voiced "strong disagreement" with the decision.

The dissociation of South Africa and Mozambique from the Group of Six
consensus report did not go down well with the host chairman President
Obasanjo. Describing the behaviour of these countries as unethical, Obasanjo
went further to say: "In a situation like this, consensus means that you may
not have your way. Consensus really means that you can smile with one side
of your face and frown with the other side at the same time."

Smiling or frowning, the point must be forcefully made that the Zimbabwe
government is clearly in breach of the Harare Declaration whose essential
ingredients include genuine democracy, human rights, good governance, the
rule of law, freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary.

In today's Commonwealth, you do not arrest opposition members and close down
newspapers and hope to get away with it.

The report by the Commonwealth observer team on the Presidential election
last year which was the basis for Zimbabwe's suspension was not flawed as
Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge would have us believe. The crisis of
governance including political violence, widespread hunger and unemployment
and the collapse of the economy are all staring us in the face right now.

Zimbabwe was a thriving democracy which sadly has gone down the hill. And
President Obasanjo, Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Howard far from what
Mugabe wants the world to believe, mean well for Zimbabwe.

So does President Mbeki and the other Sadc leaders Ð only that there are
differences of approach and tactics. Playing the race card as President
Mugabe is doing will not help to find solutions to our political problems.

The Harare Declaration principles, ironically drawn up in Harare in 1991,
are still on the Zanu PF table. Meet and comply with them and you are back,
is the clarion call. Commonwealth leaders' desire is to re-engage Zimbabwe
and assist it to return to the Commonwealth family of nations. As President
Obasanjo pledged:

"We are determined to do everything possible within the Commonwealth
principles and values to see that Zimbabwe is returned to the fold. I will
leave no stone unturned to carry out my mandate to the best of my ability."

Mr President, it is not the right thing to do to thumb one's nose at those
who are merely trying to help.

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

December 15, 2003
Posted to the web December 15, 2003

THE State security apparatus, mandated with protecting human rights, are the
most guilty of violating people's rights in Zimbabwe as the country recedes
into total political and economic chaos, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR) has said.

Speaking on the International Human Rights' Day last week ZLHR chairperson,
Nokuthula Moyo, lamented the current state of affairs where the supposed
custodians of law have become the abusers.

She said Zimbabwe's human rights climate had deteriorated year by year since
the country started commemorating the global Human Rights Day a few years
ago.

"We have regressed to the extent that those organs of State, which should be
protecting and upholding human rights, such as the police, are the ones who
are the most guilty of violating people's rights," said Moyo.

Some of the attacks have been targeted at the most vocal human rights
defenders, including lawyers, throwing Zimbabwe into the international
limelight for the wrong reasons.

Moyo said the attack of human rights defenders by President Robert Mugabe's
security agents mirrors the government's lack commitment to upholding and
the promotion of basic rights.

She noted: "It is a pathetic human rights record for our police force that
lawyers have suffered abuse at the hands of the police. It is a reflection
of a lack of commitment by our government to the protection and promotion of
human rights."

Prominent lawyers that have been subjected to verbal abuse or beatings by
the police and other extra judicial forces include Beatrice Mtetwa, Arnold
Tsunga, Gugulethu Moyo, Alec Chadehama, Kossam Ncube and Gabriel Shumba.

There has been a number of mass protests sponsored by organisations such as
the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza),
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) against Mugabe's rule.

Each time there were demonstrations, a great number of people were arrested
and lawyers had a difficult time trying to have access to their clients. In
some cases, they were assaulted, verbally abused and denied access to their
clients.

Several people were allegedly beaten, tortured and murdered by security
forces during both the 2000 parliamentary election and the controversial
presidential poll last year.

Some of the accused agents continue to hold positions of influence and are
moving freely, committing more heinous crimes. The majority of those killed
were opposition MDC supporters.

The actions of the police, together with other state security agents such as
the army and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), reflects badly on
the country's international human rights record.

According to the Southern Africa Trade Unions Coordinating Council (Satucc),
an umbrella body of trade unions in the region, Mugabe's government tops the
list of brutal and oppressive regimes in southern Africa followed by
Swaziland.

The organisation has since Southern African Development Community (SADC)
chairman, Benjamin Mkapa, to rein in Mugabe's repressive regime.

By newzimbabwe.com staff
15/12/03
THE Botswana government has sensationally disowned a statement by some
southern African countries condemning Zimbabwe's suspension from the
Commonwealth.

Jeff Ramsay, spokesman to President Festus Mogae said contrary to a recent
news reports, Botswana was not and is not a party to the statement issued by
a number of SADC member states, dated December 9, "On the Continuation of
the Suspension of Zimbabwe from the Councils of the Commonwealth".

It should be further noted that Botswana was not in fact present at the
meeting at which certain SADC countries agreed to issue the said Statement
distancing themselves from the position taken by the Commonwealth as a
whole, he said.

Observers say this indicates a split within the SADC community which
manifested itself when some countries, including Botswana and Malawi, voted
for Don McKinnon to continue as Commonwealth secretary general while other
countries led by South Africa and Zambia tried to lead a rebellion.

It is likely, they say, that the statement could have been drafted by one of
the SADC countries, most probably South Africa, then circulated for
endorsement by other countries.

Ramsay said it was also Botswana's consistent position that the suspension
imposed on Zimbabwe by the Commonwealth should be lifted so as to allow
Zimbabwe to remain fully engaged as a member of the Councils of the
Commonwealth.

"In the spirit of compromise, Botswana accepted the Commonwealth Heads of
Government of member state's (CHOGM) decision to endorse the recommendations
of the special Committee as was reflected in the final CHOGM Statement on
Zimbabwe. This is in accordance with our known democratic traditions".

The SADC statement condemned Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth,
blaming it on the "dismissive, intolerant and rigid attitude" of some member
countries.

"The present situation in Zimbabwe calls for engagement by the Commonwealth
and not isolation and further punishment," said a statement by those members
of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) which are
also members of the Commonwealth.

"This decision will do nothing to assist the people of Zimbabwe overcome
their present difficulties. As we warned, it has resulted in Zimbabwe
withdrawing from the Commonwealth," it said.

By Chido Makunike
15/12/03
ONE of the things I endeavor to do in this column is to give Zimbabweans
living outside the country a flavour of life at home beyond the news stories
they read, watch or listen to where ever they are.

The mere facts of some event or another are not sufficient to give a
consumer of news a full picture of it. While I cannot completely fill in the
gaps, I will strive to provide nuance and flesh beyond the bare bones.

Hate propaganda
Hate speech has become entrenched in Zimbabwean politics to an extent that
is surprising for a society that has always prided itself for at least a
surface politeness. In the last few years since Jonathan Moyo took over the
government propaganda portfolio, political discourse has almost completely
lost any good-naturedness it might have had before. His deep personal hates
and complexes are fully mirrored in the venom of the propaganda that is
spewed forth against opponents of the Mugabe regime in the state newspapers
and electronic media.

There is little intelligent debate about anything anymore. It has been
almost entirely replaced by name calling, the most common tactics being to
label dissenters from the government line stooges of the west or the whites,
sell-outs and so forth. It matters little that some of those who orchestrate
the demonisation of government opponents could not withstand scrutiny on
some of the charges they so freely hurl themselves.

Professionals in the media have been replaced by a hungry group of young
"journalists" with little sense of professionalism and even less of personal
esteem and probity. Young chaps with rudimentary writing and grammatical
skills, but who are enthusiastically amenable to instruction from their
political masters spin astonishingly crude tales of conjecture, innuendo and
insults dressed up as news.

Even if one concedes that the state media will back the government of the
day, it's lack of proportion is mind-numbing. One looking for a well
reasoned, well researched and written defense of government positions is
sorely disappointed to read or tune in to any of the state media. The
"dumbing down" of the state media in these waning days of the Mugabe
government will be one of the legacies for which Jonathan Moyo will long be
remembered.

Experience, tight thinking, good writing and a sense of integrity have
completely given way to the ability to perform fascinating mental and verbal
gymnastics in the defense of the government. I have often thought that the
propaganda is often so overdone that it must often embarrass those it is
designed to defend, but this could be a naive misreading of the sense of
proportion of the ruling authorities on my part! Still, there are many times
that I have thought the outlandishness of some pro-Mugabe story or opinion
piece must surely turn off the least bit discerning reader.

Implicit in the puerile propaganda we are bombarded with is the idea that
most of the readers/listeners/watchers will not know any better than what
they are being told. That their intelligence levels and powers of
discernment will not allow them to see that what they are being regaled with
is so patently at odds with what they experience! Yet certainly for the
newspaper and TV information that is mainly consumed by the urban
populations, we now have electoral evidence to suggest that the vast
majority simply do not believe what they are fed by the state media.

We are bombarded with speeches, songs,discussion programs that are
pro-establishment , with not a second allowed to opposing views, yet the
urban electorate has consistently rejected ruling party candidates in most
recent elections. They may read, listen and watch, but they by and large do
not believe!

Nothing for free
As things get tighter and more desperate economically, things that one could
take for granted before have now assumed economic value. Leave your car
lights on and need a push to get your car started? Before,in any crowded
area one could count on the good natured help of several volunteers. Now one
is likely to have to undergo a several minutes haggling session first.

It is an opportunity for one who is lower on the socio-economic ladder to
wring some concessions from one more privileged than he, at least for those
few minutes. The calculations and underlying tensions involved in even this
kind of seemingly simple, harmless bargaining are relatively new to this
society. Have a flat tyre or battery in the "wrong place" at night, and
those who might help you for a fee by day are more likely in today's
Zimbabwe to rob and manhandle you. They might not be "professionals," but
crimes of opportunity have skyrocketed as everybody's economic fortunes have
plummeted.

Service
The quality of all kinds of services have deteriorated across the board for
all kinds of reasons, including the difficulties with fuel, which have
recently began to ease as private importers secure their supply lines and
motorists become accustomed to prices up to ten times those of earlier in
the year. In many stores customers who complain about anything are looked at
askance by both floor personnel and management.

The attitude that you must simply accept what you can get is becoming
entrenched. Till operators who hold private conversations amongst themselves
while customers wait to pay for goods are not unusual sights any more. A few
months ago I watched with disgust as one ate and drank noisily at the once
upscale suburban branch of a leading supermarket chain in between punching
entries into his machine. I know the manager and could have complained to
him but the standards at this and many other stores have deteriorated so
steadily over the years I didn't think it would make any difference.
Besides, one now tends to keep one's energy for the many bigger battles one
must fight to get through a Zimbabwean day!

Tension levels
Zimbabweans are still an amazingly good natured people given the stunning
fall in their standard of living in the last few years, but it is not hard
to find signs of how the stresses of daily life are taking a toll on various
kinds of relationships.
For instance, it is difficult to keep track of all the economic sectors that
are on strike for better wages as inflation fast moves towards 600%.

There is deep suspicion between government and civil servants, with doctors
at government hospitals having been on strike for months now, with no sign
of any serious effort to deal with the cause of their grievances. In the
private sector where there may be presumed to be a better appreciation by
all of the link between the state of the economy, company productivity and
employee remuneration, workers and management in a lot of companies are at
loggerheads, each trying to get more out of the other than working together
to try to find ways of weathering the economic storm.

When relations get bad enough, it almost always leads to the downsizing or
closure of the company after the details of the labour dispute have faded
from the news. Productivity and morale in many places of employment is very
low as the country's mood of depression touches all but the most resilient.

Politics
At the moment the country might as well be a one party state, with the
ruling party having completely failed to deal with any of the issues
pre-occupying Zimbabweans, but nevertheless totally dominating the political
space. This has been made a lot easier by the closure of the Daily News as
well as the rash of repressive laws meant to keep a very tight lid over
demonstrations and any displays of dissent.

Despite all the odds stacked against the opposition MDC, it is still
surprising that a party whose main cry is "change!" has so failed to
innovate ways around designs to keep it down. A few weeks ago a lackluster
end of year message from party president Morgan Tsvangirai made the rounds
but otherwise the party is for the moment disappeared from the public
consciousness. Parliament has recently been in session but that body has
never been as removed from the day to day concerns of the people as it is
now, with both ZANU-PF and MDC members seemingly very remote from and
irrelevant to their constituents.

On the land
Considering that Zimbabwe and Mugabe's notoriety is mainly over "the land
issue," it is shocking how little activity is in evidence on the farms
expropriated from white landholders. At the end of the last rain season I
had occasion to drive from Harare to Kariba in the north, Bulawayo in the
south and Mutare in the east. Like many others, I was stunned by the lack of
activity along the main highways that had previously given one a passing
glimpse of Zimbabwe's agricultural power. Even allowing for the many
problems with the land exercise, it was a frightening picture of desolation.

In the last few weeks, at the beginning of this year's worryingly late and
so far spotty rain season, the picture on all three major highways is little
changed. Perhaps all the new farmers have chosen to work the land away from
the highways out of modesty! Cynical, far-flung supporters of Mugabe to whom
taking the land is completely divorced from what is done with it for the
benefit of the "previously marginalised" do not give a damn that Mugabe's
chaos has made it all but impossible for the vast majority of those who
genuinely hoped for a better deal from land reform to use it to any
significant economic degree. The rains are late again this year, but even if
they should be good for the rest of the season, much as I would want to hope
otherwise, there is little evidence on the ground to give reasons for
optimism about a bumper harvest. We are likely to depend on food handouts
for years to come.

Except for a very few, life in Zimbabwe has declined in quality
precipitously again this year. One can be cushioned by money or power from
the deprivations that most Zimbabweans are suffering, but there are many
levels at which the decline affects you regardless of what your vantage
point is.
chidomakunike@yahoo.com

      Zimbabwe Standard
      published:Sun 14-Dec-2003

      Four Cabinet ministers, two deputy ministers and an army general have
been identified as kingpins in the illegal trade in gold

      By Kumbirai Mafunda

      Four Cabinet ministers, two deputy ministers and an army general
(names supplied), have been identified as kingpins in the illegal trade in
gold that is draining the country of one of its most valuable resources, The
Standard has established. The ministers, who include an influential former
Zapu leader from Matabeleland South, are said to have cornered the illegal
gold market by employing agents who sale the precious metal to dealers on
their behalf. The dealers market the bullion mostly in South Africa. Others
accused of illegal gold deals include a retired army general, two Cabinet
ministers from Mashonaland Central, another from Mashonaland West, a
recently retired provincial governor and two deputy ministers, one from
Mashonaland Central and the other from the Midlands Province, among others.

      Senior government officials involved in mining told The Standard that
it was clear that the illegal mining and sale of gold outside Zimbabwe would
continue unless President Robert Mugabe acted and punished some of his
closest advisers involved in the scam. “These culprits are very influential.
So how then do you make decisions to eliminate the trade when you are
involved in it,” a top mining official said. “Nyaya haisi yemakorokoza. It
is about those organising the makorokozas,” he said. “Makorokoza” is slang
for illegal gold panners whom the government is publicly accusing of gold
smuggling. The ministers and army and police officers, it is alleged, own
milling concessions and work with most of the prominent illegal gold dealers
in Kwekwe, Kadoma, Filabusi and Shamva. The Midlands town of Kwekwe, which
is 214 kms from Harare and lies along the gold rich Great Dyke belt, is
under siege from gold panners who have been locked in running battles with
the police gold squad, after the government recently banned trading in the
metal.

      “The issue of gold smuggling cannot be resolved as long as those in
government or positions of authority are working in cahoots with white-owned
and black-owned milling centres,” said a highly-placed government official.
“Unless the kingpins who are smuggling gold are dealt with, we can forget
about clamping down the trade,” he added. Apart from the ministers, other
officials alleged that gold smuggling was still very rampant - even after
the recent government crackdown - and most of the culprits were senior
serving members of the army and police as well as leading politicians. The
government abruptly cancelled 14 gold concessions last month alleging that
licenced gold buyers were involved in the illegal trade of the precious
mineral. Fidelity Printers and Refineries, a unit of the Reserve Bank, was
instructed to carry out door-to-door buying of gold from milling centres.
Official sources said the government had begun to reshuffle officers in its
mining commissioners’ pool as part of cleansing the department. The
department issues licences for claims and some of its officers have been
accused of taking bribes as well as owning claims themselves. Efforts to get
comment from Mines Minister Edward Chindori-Chininga were unsuccessful.

      Tablet (UK)
      published:Sun 14-Dec-2003

      Reversing its earlier request to keep a low profile for fear of
inflaming Mugabe, the opposition MDC is calling for Britain to introduce a
motion at the UN in New York demanding human rights inspections in Zimbabwe.
That would be a start

      Comment

      The summit of the Commonwealth nations in Abuja could have achieved
great things: a new global consensus on trade or debt, for example, or a new
impetus to the battle against Aids. It achieved none of these things, and
broke up in acrimony over how to deal with the dictatorship of Robert
Mugabe. On the one side President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa wanted
Zimbabwe readmitted to the Commonwealth after its 18-month suspension. Mr.
Mbeki, supported by seven or eight of his neighbours, argues that Zimbabwe
is going through a transition similar to that of South Africa a decade ago
and that while terrible things are happening, progress is being made. He
also believes in an African solution to an African problem and resents any
interference by outsiders, especially Britain and other "white" Commonwealth
members. Indeed, he fears being seen as the West’s policeman in Africa. On
the other side Britain and others insisted that membership of the
Commonwealth presumes certain standards of civil and human rights, and that
Mugabe’s regime clearly fails this test.

      Despite the best efforts of the chairman, President Olusegun Obasanjo,
the summit ended in bitterness. Britain and others won and Zimbabwe remained
suspended. Mr. Mugabe promptly tore up Zimbabwe’s membership card and the
South Africans said "I told you so." The relationship between Mr. Mbeki and
Tony Blair, who has tried to garner more international help for Africa, has
been seriously damaged. But the real victims of the failure in Abuja are the
people of Zimbabwe. As Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo describes in these
pages [in a BBC interview reproduced], people are quietly dying in their
thousands as the economy spins downwards and the repression grows ever more
brutal and indiscriminate. Unlike most of the other bishops in Zimbabwe,
both Anglican and Catholic, Archbishop Ncube has had the courage to put his
head above the parapet and name what is happening to his country. It is an
evil regime, he says, which is willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands
of ordinary Zimbabweans for the sake of remaining in power. Archbishop Ncube
’s powerful moral witness deserves to be listened to, and acted upon.

      But what action? Zimbabweans cannot take the matter into their own
hands. Mugabe rigs elections, beats and tortures demonstrators, and exerts a
reign of terror which makes an internal political answer impossible. The
answer must come from the outside. Zimbabwe’s tragedy is that South Africa,
the country which could most easily remove Mugabe simply by turning off the
supplies of electricity and oil on which he depends, refuses to do so out of
a misplaced loyalty to a fellow anti-colonial freedom fighter. The task
therefore falls to Europe and the United States. Reversing its earlier
request to keep a low profile for fear of inflaming Mugabe, the opposition
MDC is calling for Britain to introduce a motion at the UN in New York
demanding human rights inspections in Zimbabwe. That would be a start.