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COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION

 

FARM INVASIONS AND SECURITY UPDATE

 

  Wednesday 13th December 2000

 

We apologise to recipients that the distribution of this report is a day late.  Events surrounding the politically motivated murder of Henry Elsworth took precedence.

 

NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF:

No regional reports were received from Manicaland and Matabeleland.

 

REGIONAL REPORTS:

 

Mashonaland Central

Glendale - Von Abo was fast tracked by invaders on Saturday but the crowd dispersed when the farm owner was found to be unavailable.  War vets/invaders attacked the farm village at Chirobi on Monday night, assaulted the labourers and trashed their houses.  When they eventually responded, police made no attempt to take statements from labourers and made no arrests.  They did, however, detain the farm clerk for questioning upon receiving a fabricated tip off from war vets.  15 ha of soyabeans have been destroyed by invaders at Thrums and they are now attempting to over plant with maize. 

Mutepatepa - The owner of Bourtonvale reports that a Mrs. Katsande, who is a Sister at the clinic on the neighbouring farm Gatumba, has employed children from Gatumba village to plant for her on Bourtonvale.

 

Mashonaland East

Beatrice - Section 8 Orders have been delivered for Plumstead Estate, Lot of Plumstead, Gowerlands B & C, Silver Oak, Victory, Elim, Karreboom, Central.  Occupants in a government vehicle (white sedan) were seen on Eden Farm looking for the owner and his foreman.  Four individuals from Tsunga Resettlement threatened the owner of Portugal farm.  Five settlers from Ringa Resettlement threatened the owner of Voerspoed farm with a knife, but left after the situation was defused.  Invaders on Goldilands are top-dressing their maize with AN.

Enterprise - Timber cabins are being erected on Masuri farm with asbestos roofing. 

Harare South - Section 8 Orders have been delivered for Doune and Kildonan, Garth, Kinfauns, Chesham and Nyarakuru.

Marondera - Problems on Mari farm continue as the police insist that the farmer was the one who burnt down the invaders hut and they want to arrest him for arson.

Macheke / Virginia - Invaders on Dry Law Hill have built an enclosure for their 21 cattle which were moved onto the farm with a suspicious cattle movement permit.  On the same farm, 10 ha of Katambora grass seed has been ploughed in already.  The squatters on Welcome Home have stated that the police would have to kill them to move them off the farm.  Seventy hectares of maize has been established on Welcome Home farm with the assistance of neighbouring farmers.

Wedza - Three poachers were arrested on Chard farm. The tractor on Lifton continues to plough illegally and some illegal planting has taken place.  The owner of Chakadenga received a letter of complaint from the base commander alleging that the farmer and foreman had broken a “deal”, but no deal had been made.  Section 7 Orders (notification of intention to confirm the acquisition in court) have been received for Chirume, Budleigh and Collace.  However the Section 8 Orders have already expired for these farms, thus invalidating the court applications. There was poaching on Welton farm where two warthogs were killed.  In the reaction - two were arrested and another two, whose identities are known, escaped. 

 

Mashonaland West (North)

Chinhoyi - Four individuals were arrested after police responded to a work stoppage on Ormiston Farm.  Invaders are planting in prepared lands on Long Valley Farm and have threatened to burn equipment.  The DA has stated that the Law is not relevant as the President and war vets can do what they like.  ZRP reacted but the matter is not resolved.  Two resident invaders informed the owner of Cotswold that he was not allowed to plant his seed maize in the adjacent land.  Ploughing and illegal cattle movement continues on Magondi Farm, Magog, Listonshields, Baramanya and Gorodema.  Mutala Farm and Zintafuli.  The invaders on Zintafuli are five families from Gokwe District who resettled by government on Kanyaga Estate two years ago.  “Weekend” invaders from Harare continue to plant cotton on Omagora. The DA has given full permission to settle 48 families on Zintafuli and Omagora and says that the farmers no longer the own the farms. 

Karoi - Illegal ploughing is taking place on a number of properties.  In many cases, illegal occupiers are living in the tobacco barns, which will shortly be needed for curing tobacco.  The owner of Wingate Farm who was alleged to have dismantled war vet structures was charged with malicious injury to property.  The Assistant DA (Chiweshe) informed the owner of Glen Ellen Farm that he must make land available to the invaders or he would suffer the same fate as the Shamva farmers. 

  

Mashonaland West (South)

Norton - There was a new invasion of approximately 20 people on Wilbered Farm.  An aggressive crowd arrived on Serui Source to warn the owner that a DDF tractor would be coming the next day to disc in all the maize that the owner has planted. 

Selous - There was a prize bull slaughtered on Arbor Farm close to the war vet encampment. 

Chegutu - There continues to be reluctance from police to remove cattle that have come in from the anthrax area in Mhondoro.  Meanwhile none of these cattle have been dipped and present other animal health risks as a result.  On Ijapo there has been approximately 10 hectares of rhodes grass destroyed and despite three reports to police with RRB numbers destruction of this crop continues. 

Kadoma / Battlefields – Invaders on Collingdale have attempted to prevent planting and have demanded co-existence.  The Assistant DA for Kadoma, with several others demanded co-existence from the owner of Railway Farm 4, threatening war and "bad things" should the owner and his wife refuse.  One war veteran was trampled and badly bruised by a buffalo.  When the farmer returned to the camp after taking the injured person for first aid, the other war vets attacked his vehicle. 

 

Masvingo  

Masvingo East and Central - Plot allocation has degenerated to a free-for-all after the DA of Masvingo informed illegal occupiers that government has not got the resources to “officially” (but illegally) resettle the farms. An official from the Ministry of Land and Agriculture (Mrs. Chanatsu) has advised illegal occupiers to cut branches to protect “their” fields from cattle damage.  Propol has formed a high level committee to deal with work stoppages.  Work stoppages continue on Lothian Farm despite the taskforce.  The owner of Yetton and Marah Ranch had to make a hasty retreat after war veterans alleged that the security guards on the farm were trained militia.

Chiredzi – After a dispute on BJB Ranch about the watering of invaders’ cattle, invaders have threatened to hamstring or kill the owner’s cattle if they wander onto “their” lands.  In a meeting with the farm manager, they warned that it might be time for them to become more aggressive and violent, like their comrades in the highveld where commercial farmers have “learned their lesson”.   All illegal occupiers have moved off Oscro Farm, onto Wasara. “Black Jesus” who carried a pistol, led the invasion.  Ranching Enterprise has been devastated through haphazard land clearance. Cattle on Buffalo Range are being deliberately driven onto the main roads.

Mwenezi - Ploughing, planting, tree chopping, deliberate fires and illegal cattle movement continues.

Save Conservancy - Poaching still continues within the conservancy.

Gutu / Chatsworth – A group of war veterans, who said that they were armed, surrounded the homestead at Eastdale Ranch at a time when the farmer’s wife was alone in the house. Police reaction was slow.

 

Midlands 

Kwekwe – The politically motivated murder of Henry Elsworth and the serious injuries sustained by his son, Ian, have been reported through an urgent sitrep and a statement issued by CFU President, Tim Henwood.

Gweru East / Lalapanzi – War vet “Honest Chigwederi” has given veiled threats to the owner of Gando Farm that he will turn the cattle off the farm on to the main road as they are a threat to their planting on that farm. Negotiations for part of the farm to remain available for cattle are ongoing and Chigwederi has been told that he would be held responsible for any accidents that may occur should the cattle be driven onto the road.

Shurugwi - Occupiers are planting maize on fields on Edwards Farm in which summer field flowers have been and are being planted. The fields have been treated with herbicide for grass, which will prevent maize from growing, but the occupiers appear not to believe this. Cutting of fences, opening of gates causing cattle management problems are ongoing and on Outward Bound Farm. Calves have been disappearing and one was found but was put down due to spear injuries.

 

Malcolm Vowles, Deputy Director (Admin & Projects). Harare 309800-18. ddap@cfu.co.zw

 

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Hi Folks,
Just to let you all know that there is a lot of trouble in the city. I left work at 11.30am this morning to come home. All the male members of my staff were going to the Queens Hotel for their annual Christmas lunch. The Queens area is about 1 kilometre from the city centre. We have a Branch of the business in the Queens area. My staff from Queens phoned and said they had locked themselves in the Branch as there was teargas in the streets. The rest of my staff made it safely to the Queens Hotel, where they were locked in and had their lunch. One of my Managers called to say there were police everywhere. They had been shooting randomly, and had killed a woman ( a vegetable seller) and this had sparked off riots. The woman is lying dead in the street and hundreds are protecting her body, and not allowing the police anywhere near her. People have burned a bus and two police vehicles up to now. My brother just called. He had been driving through town and thought a building was on fire, then realised it was teargas. He saw people running everywhere, and then saw the Police vehicles coming down a main city street, Julius Nyerere Rd, and they were firing teargas cannisters indiscriminately. He said there were mothers with young children, christmas shoppers, whole families being affected by the teargas. My Manager has just phoned again to say half our guys are still locked in the Queens Hotel, too afraid to leave. He says it is a war zone out there, and it has spread to the centre of the city. Police are everywhere, shooting off the teargas at anyone and everyone. One of my senior technicians is frantic. His wife was shopping in the Queens area and he can't find her. I will let you all know when I hear more.

Lorraine
http://www.freesite.co.za/general/lorraine/index.html
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~an opinion from an unknown source~
EWOZ
EVACUATE WHITES OF ZIMBABWE
 
 
Reduce the amount of Aid you spend
Rid yourself of the problem of Africa
 
The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and his ruling ZANU (PF) party, have for political reasons made it clear that they consider it politically expedient to promote the concept that the whites of Zimbabwe are the cause of Zimbabwe's economic problems. They totally ignore the corruption, and inept incompetent mismanagement of the economy that they have created and allowed that has brought the country to it's present economic predicament.
 
The land issue is quite simply a politically motivated issue aimed purely at controlling the vote for the next Presidential election. There are a few thousand people creating mayhem on the farms. The land is not being allocated to the "land hungry masses", but to the people with connections in the government, civil service, army and police. The "land hungry masses" are not being resettled other than in very small token quantities.
 
If the land issue was about the "land hungry masses", then consider this. there are around 8 million people forming the group referred to as the "land hungry masses". There are around 5 thousand farms. If the 8 million opted to occupy 5 thousand farms, the occupation would have been over and done with overnight. Instead reality is that there are a few thousand people illegally occupying the farms, and the majority of these people are employed and not part of the "land hungry masses".
 
Mugabe has said that the whites must go. So listen to him and help evacuate the whites. The whites are in many cases financial prisoners. It is not possible for the average white to move with the value of his assets. It is not possible for the average emigrant to buy foreign currency to convert his Zimbabwean assets into meaningful assets in another country.
 
Aid to Zimbabwe has been misused and abused. Aid to Zimbabwe has not been appreciated in the context of it's intended use (corrupt officials have appreciated becoming wealthy through miss-appropriation of Aid). What has Zimbabwe got to show for the vast amounts of AID and Donations that have poured in over the last twenty years. Far from taking a once self sufficient nation and making it economically stronger as a result of the assistance and goodwill that has been extended to Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe today is on the point of economic collapse.
 
The attitude at the moment is that regardless of what destruction is done to the economy, eventually the donor community will step in to rescue the situation. That we are destroying the commercial farming sector, and destroying the crops which should feed the nation and earn foreign currency, is of no importance over the political issue of Mugabe retaining power.
 
Africa has made it clear over the years, as countries gain independence, that the original indigenous inhabitants of Africa consider that Africa is for indigenous Africans, and that any white born in Africa, regardless of how many generations his family may have been in Africa, is not indigenous and still belongs to the land of his ancestors.
 
So let Africa revert to being Africa. Save the money that you spend on Aid, a large part of which is misappropriated in any event, and evacuate the whites. The whites came to Africa as a result of the encouragement given by the colonising countries for their subjects to immigrate and develop the colonies.
 
The majority of the white population do not need free handouts. We do need help and assistance to re-establish our selves in a new country. We need someone to provide the security and backing to be able to borrow money and re-start our lives in new countries. We need to be able to start new businesses, but to do this will mean borrowing money. Borrowing money requires guarantees. Provide those guarantees and let the whites of Zimbabwe build new lives in a new country. There will be a small portion of the population who have retired who will need support in the form of pensions, but this still has to be cheaper than the cost of Aid which is misused and misappropriated.
 
It will be cheaper than giving AID. You will be able to wash your hands of Africa, and let Africa get on with itself.
 

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HARARE, Zimbabwe –– Enoch Dumbutshena, 80, Zimbabwe's first black judge and
a respected jurist who fearlessly ruled against the government, died of liver
cancer Dec. 14 at his home here.


Judge Dumbutshena, the nation's former chief justice, was widely credited
with transforming the colonial court system into a respected, independent
judiciary after Zimbabwe declared independence from Britain in 1980. The
colony was formerly known as Rhodesia.


He also was a long-serving member of the International Commission of Jurists.
In recent years, he had advised on arbitration cases, supported human rights
organizations and went on lecture tours.


In 1983, Judge Dumbutshena acquitted six white air force officers charged
with sabotage after ruling that their confessions were made under torture. He
criticized the government after the officers were arrested again and detained
for two more years.


Trained in law in Britain, Judge Dumbutshena was appointed Zimbabwe's first
black judge in 1980. He became chief justice in 1984. He retired in 1990.


This year, Judge Dumbutshena headed a fledgling opposition party to challenge
President Robert Mugabe's ruling party in national elections. The party
folded after winning no parliamentary seats.


Judge Dumbutshena campaigned for political reform and criticized Mugabe for
undermining the judiciary and using sweeping presidential powers to overrule
court judgments.


He practiced as an advocate in the High Court of Rhodesia in 1963. His
specialty--defending black nationalists opposed to colonial rule--led to his
exile in neighboring Zambia four years later.


He was a senior advocate in Zambia until 1979, when constitutional talks
began on Zimbabwe's independence.
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COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION

 

FARM INVASIONS AND SECURITY UPDATE

 

  Friday 15th December 2000

 

NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF:

Regional reports were not received from Midlands and Matabeleland. 

 

REGIONAL REPORTS:

 

Mashonaland Central

General – Throughout the province, there are widespread work stoppages, illegal movement of cattle and other livestock onto properties, haphazard attempts at ploughing and planting and construction of shelters.

Victory Block – Invaders at Msitwe River Ranch continue to make claims that the owner’s cattle are eating “their” crops.

Mazowe/Concession – Yesterday, invaders at Danbury Park demanded that the farm workers move out of their houses and proceeded to remove their possessions from the houses.  They moved up to the owner’s parent’s home, where they sat on the front lawn shouting and chanting until the police eventually responded and dispersed the crowd in the evening.

 

Mashonaland East

Bromley / Ruwa  - Ploughing with a DDF tractor and private tractors continues on Masun in pastures that have been planted to katambora grass seed.

Enterprise - There appears to be a movement of people back onto farms in the Enterprise area where invaders have previously moved off.

Featherstone  -  Section 7 Orders have been delivereed to the owners of Loudia and Nyamazaan.

Marondera  - Agritex went out to Gwaai farm with the intention of pegging the farm.  The owner of Wenimbe spoke to invader Maphosa who insisted that the tenant’s labour vacate their houses on the farm.  The owner refused.  Maphosa said that they would evict the workers anyway and see ‘who would end up in the mortuary’.  Police are attending to the report.

Marondera North - Sheep and oxen have been moved onto Chiparawe farm.   Ploughing and planting continue on Seaton and Rakata.   The owner of Seaton Farm received a copy of a letter from the war vet base commander to the District War Vets Office with a number of allegations, including that he bought a number of armed white men onto the farm and the son fired a shot into the air.  These allegations are false but the invaders are using them to justify taking sterner measures against the farmers.   There is still a large group of illegal occupiers on Cambridge.

Macheke / Virginia  - Police are going through the district asking to see farmers firearms and licences.  It appears that they are more interested in the types of firearm rather than if they are licenced or not.   A Section 5 was delivered to Metheven farm.

Wedza  - A local invader threatened the foreman and cattlemen of Chakadenga Farm stating that they must not bring cattle into “their” pastures.

 

Mashonaland West (North)

Karoi - The owner of Nyamanda Farm was severely beaten by illegal occupiers yesterday following an altercation when the invaders attempted to prevent work.  A group of about 40 invaders, one armed with a machete, confronted the farmer and at least seven were involved in the attack.  The farmer defended himself with a baton, but sustained severe bruising.  At least one invader was injured. The matter was reported to the police, but there was no official report book available.  Superintendent Mabunda, who had been transferred out of the Karoi District following a meeting with the Minister of Home Affairs, is investigating the case and has instructed that the farmer be charged with assault.

Ayshire - Farms have had Section 7’s.

Tengwe - Illegal ploughing and cattle movement is ongoing on Gwiwa and Pollux.  The notorious Superintendent Mabunda continues to be actively involved in the area.

Chinhoyi – Assistant DA Chisepo says they are launching a tillage programme on Zintafuli today and are allocating the farm to 30 people.  There are still problems on Listonshiels with ploughing and more people moving onto the farm.  Invaders on Long Valley are still planting in lands that are being prepared for soyabeans.  Police have been contacted but a confrontation seems inevitable.  There is illegal movement of cattle and a new influx of invaders on Magondi Farm and more cattle have been moved onto Magog Farm for ploughing.  Tree cutting and planting is ongoing at Oswa Farm.

Trelawney / Darwendale - The DA has notified a farmer representative that Colenso, Taunton, Mwanga Farm will be fast-tracked on Monday.  The DA has instructed that the owner of Shirleigh Farm be persuaded to plough for invaders.

 

Mashonaland West (South)

Norton - ZANU (PF) are active in setting up ZANU (PF) cells on farms.  The farm workers are being told that the cells are the authority on the farm and that labour disputes are to be handled by ZANU (PF).  This is creating significant problems regarding productivity.   

Selous - On Arbor Farm war vets have defied police and are planting maize into pastures in order to incite the owner.   

Chegutu - Wing Commander Mazambani, commanding officer of Fylde Air Force Base, continues to head up illegal ploughing and planting on Exwick, which has been de-listed.  A guard was kidnapped on Lone Kop Farm whilst trying to follow up a report of a wounded wildebeeste.  His automatic shotgun was stolen and the gang then moved north where evidently another person was kidnapped and tied to a tree.  Information leaked out that this gang was waiting at Farnham Farm gate where they were going to hold up the owner.  In a good community / police reaction the gang was apprehended and their weapons were confiscated.  There have now been over 600 people hospitalised from the Mhondoro Anthrax outbreak, however the police, Veterinary Department and DA are still unwilling to sort out the illegal movement of cattle from this area into commercial farming areas.  So far nine people have died due to the Anthrax outbreak.   

Kadoma/Battlefields - On Collingdale Farm police have reacted regarding illegal planting. 

 

Manicaland

General - The province is reported to be generally quiet.

Chipinge  - Ploughing with oxen is taking place on Buffelsdrift, which is not listed.   Two DDF tractors, both escorted by an armed policeman and an armed soldier, are ploughing on Groenvlei. 

 

Masvingo  

Masvingo East and Central – Ploughing, planting and tree-cutting continues on the half of Southwill Estates that has been claimed by invaders.  A Rural District Council tractor is illegally ploughing on Chirdza Ranch.

Chiredzi – Fifty opposition supporters gathered to support the manager of Buffalo Range who was experiencing difficulties with local war vet leader Mutumachanie.  There is reliable information that Mutumachanie has subsequently been issued a semi-automatic weapon.

Gutu / Chatsworth - A Section 7 Notice has been served on the owner Southvale

Mwenezi - The DA reports that the second fast-track phase, in which favoured individuals will receive land, will start in the New Year. Section 7 notices have been served on Rutenga Farm (B. Landman) and Altenburg Farm (K. Landman).

 

Malcolm Vowles, Deputy Director (Admin & Projects). Harare 309800-18. ddap@cfu.co.zw

 

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Mugabe to stay on as party leader

Analysts say power will remain firmly in Mugabe's hands

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has asked President Robert Mugabe to stay on as party leader.

Delegates at the party congress in Harare agreed 76-year-old Mugabe should retain the post until "the land issue has been resolved".

"There was tumultuous applause when Vice President Muzenda, in his vote of thanks to the president's keynote address, said the congress was asking Comrade Mugabe not to step down until the burning issue had been addressed," reported the Herald newspaper.

Mugabe had been expected to face a leadership challenge at the meeting.

The president opened the congress on Thursday by denouncing Zimbabwe's minority white community.

He also vowed to press ahead with his Government's controversial plan to seize thousands of white-owned farms for resettlement.

Mugabe's militias have illegally occupied 1,700 white-owned farms, triggering political violence which has left more than 30 people dead and 10,000 homeless.

He has described the farm occupations as a justified protest against unfair land ownership by whites.

Mugabe averted a leadership challenge by purging provincial party executives of potential rivals in recent months.

He is expected to appoint a new politburo, the decision-making body of the ZANU-PF, before the end of the conference.

Analysts say power will remain firmly in Mugabe's hands.

Mugabe's aides are confident he will stay on to fight presidential elections in 2001, although Mugabe - struggling politically in the face of a deepening economic crisis - has not yet announced a decision.

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Mugabe declares race war

Dumisani Muleya
AFTER telling his central committee on Wednesday that Zanu PF was at war with the country’s white commercial farmers, an embattled President Mugabe yesterday intensified his racial rhetoric to whip up nationalist indignation against a growing list of enemies — at home and abroad — in his battle for political survival.

Two days after war veterans murdered former MP Henry Elsworth in Kwekwe, he said his party should “strike fear into the heart of the white man, our real enemy”.

Opening the three-day Zanu PF special congress in Harare, Muga-be also stepped up attacks on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) whom he accused of teaming up with whites to overthrow his government.

A thread of crude racist rhetoric ran through Mugabe’s ranco- rous address in which he tried to stoke-up racial emotions and garner support as the party’s candidate in the 2002 presidential poll.
The president admitted his party’s poor performance in the June election saying it was because “we were sleeping”.

“Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy,” said Mugabe as a receptive audience bussed in for the occasion bellowed Zanu PF slogans and anti-MDC denunciations.

In a combative and paranoid mood, Mugabe — who of late has been trading on warlike demagoguery to frighten critics — threatened to fight back in defence of his troubled stewardship. He repeated his mantra that the MDC would never rule this country.

“The intellectual level of this country will not allow the MDC ignoramuses to rule this country,” Mugabe declared amid applause from his party faithful.

“Whites have formed an alliance and are regrouping across borders to defend their interests ... We have also started regrouping to defend the gains of the revolution,” he said.

Mugabe then launched into a stinging attack on whites accusing them of trying to rule the whole world. He said they should “think afresh” on their alleged hegemonic tendencies because “Africa is for Africans” in as much as “Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans”.

Mugabe lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union saying it spawned a Western-controlled global economic system which had impoverished the Third World. He said the current economic reforms had reversed the social gains of the first decade of Independence.

“The far-reaching changes that took place from 1989 and beyond, largely triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the concomitant unchecked rise of the West and its market-based global systems, did not create a helpful global environment for the transformative vision we had at Independence,” said Mugabe.

“Instead, the new unipolar environment simply legitimised and deepened the racially skewed structures we have had here.”
Mugabe, hankering after the command economy and price controls, charged that the economy was currently in the hands of a “racist” minority and foreigners.

“We have an economy which largely excludes and exiles our people, while reposing all the power and control into the hands of a tiny
racial minority of colonial origins,” Mugabe said.

“We do not have a national economy; what we have are our nationals in a foreign-owned and controlled economy...of course we participate as wage earners, as mortgaged and circumscribed legislators and governors.

A “small racial group”, he said, determined how the economy functioned and that had caused hardships. Recycling rancid explanations, Mugabe said various factors, excluding economic mismanagement, were responsible for the economic implosion.

“We have had droughts, we have had cyclones, we have had depressed international markets which knocked out practically all our leading exportables, starting with tobacco and ending with base metals,” he explained.

“This is our objective situation, quite structural indeed and cannot be described in any way as bad management of the economy by government,” he said.

The president, locked in denial, said land redistribution should be the beginning of genuine economic structural adjustment.

“Real structural adjustment of the economy therefore starts with the land which must change hands in favour of our people. With that vital resource at their disposal, our people should be able to create employment for themselves, fend for themselves, and get over the poverty and misery that afflict them presently,” he said.

Mugabe claimed those economic reforms since 1991 had caused poverty and were destabilising third world countries. He said former Ghanian President Jerry Rawlings was “defeated” (he did not contest the presidential poll because he had served his two constitutional terms of office) because of problems caused by Western-backed economic reforms.

The president said even if the MDC was to come into power it would not resolve the economic problems because it comprised ignorant politicians.

“Where will he (MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai) get ideas to resolve economic problems?” Mugabe asked.

“Does Tsvangirai even understand how an economy functions?” he asked amid cheers from the ecstatic crowd.

Mugabe reiterated that he would defy court orders in pursuit of his arbitrary land reforms. He said he would continue with his land programme as he pleases.

“Our fast-track land reform programme is underway and phenomenal progress has been registered since its inception hardly six months ago,” Mugabe announced.

“There is no going back, there is no hesitancy on this one. The attacks and pressures we have endured can only encourage us to be more resolute,” he said.

Mugabe, appealing for local and regional solidarity, persisted with the official claim that the international community was beginning to understand his land reform policy while Britain, the former colonial master, was increasingly isolated.

“I want to thank the many African presidents who have stood by us on this matter of supreme principle (land). Indeed, support for us continues to grow on the continent and within the Third World, while that commanded by the British regime continues to dwindle, even within Europe,” Mugabe said.

Yesterday Tsvangirai responded to the killing of Elsworth by saying that in Zimbabwe today, nobody was safe.

“No one can confidently feel safe. The law enforcers are now involved in lawlessness themselves with the tacit approval of the president himself. Everyone must be very careful,” he said following Mugabe’s latest threats.
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Fuel licence scam exposed

Vincent Kahiya
THE Ministry of Transport and Communications has through the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) cancelled a fuel import licence issued to Addymay Marketing, a company in which President Mugabe’s nephew, Patrick Zhuwawo, is a principal shareholder, as it emerged this week that some companies and individuals were operating a thriving fuel import licence racket.

Addymay’s licence was allegedly cancelled after the firm failed to meet set criteria, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week.
Industry sources said Addymay had been issued with a licence to import 400 000 litres of diesel but a cheque made out to Noczim as a deposit was not honoured by the bank resulting in the cancellation of the licence at the beginning if this month.

Records at the company registry show that Addymay was incorporated on August 28 this year. Other directors of Addymay include Indigenous Business Women’s Organisation president Jane Mutasa, Maxwell Maheya, Zondai Kangu-na, Stella Mwela, Rodreck Mlauzi and Robert Tichatonga.
Noczim managing director Webster Muriritirwa yesterday confirmed the cancellation of the licence but could not provide reasons.

He however said Noczim had written to all border posts and the Ministry of Industry and International Trade not to recognise the licence.

The cancellation of the Addymay licence comes amid reports that some briefcase businessmen who did not meet the criteria to be licensed are selling both genuine and counterfeit certificates to trucking companies and bus operators who need bulk supplies of the commodity.

The opening up of the market with the falling away of the Noczim monopoly means licences can be issued to anyone who meets the set standards. The licences to import fuel are issued by the Ministry of Transport and Communications through Noczim.

For a company to get a licence, it should be able to raise the requisite deposit payable to Noczim. The deposit includes the road user levy, government taxes, a Fuelco levy and import duty. After paying the amount, a company is then issued with a licence to import a specific amount of product. The applicant’s credentials are also checked before the issuance of a licence.

Licencees then raise the foreign currency to import the fuel from organisations which have placed orders for the commodity. Industry players said applicants for licences needed at least $3 million to get into the business but certificates to import believed to have been issued in a fraudulent manner were doing the rounds in the capital.

“The system that Noczim has put in place to vet applicants is quite rigorous but there are definitely papers on the street which look like licences. There is something wrong somewhere,” said an executive with a fuel company.

Meanwhile the consortium which has been formed to take over the duties of Noczim will only start functioning after it has agreed with the government on a pricing policy that ensures viability. Sources close to the consortium said the grouping wanted autonomy from the government to decide on pricing.

Over the years, Noczim has incurred huge deficits from selling fuel at below market rates. Zimbabwe’s normal fuel consumption is about 5 million litres per day and at one time Noczim was incurring a deficit of up to $10 per litre.

“The consortium cannot operate under these circumstances because we should have the latitude to raise prices so that we break even,” said one indigenous operator who is part of the consortium.

Sources said members of the consortium were calling for price adjustments of up to 40% to cushion themselves from the volatility of the Zimbabwe dollar against hard currencies and movements in the price of crude. The government would have to make a political decision to allow such large increments.

The operator said if the government did not want prices to go up, it had to make concessions by reducing import duties on fuel. At the moment the duty on fuel is between 15% and 40%.
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