Zim Online
Mon 19 December 2005
HARARE -Zimbabwe's main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party on Sunday said it had suspended
party deputy president Gibson
Sibanda, secretary general Welshman Ncube and
other leaders, as infighting
continues to tear the party apart.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa last night told ZimOnline that Sibanda
was
suspended for a year but would be allowed to retain his title of
vice-president of the MDC. Sibanda, who together with Ncube leads a faction
of the MDC pushing for party leader Morgan Tsvangirai's ouster from the
party, was given the option to appeal against his suspension to the party's
congress scheduled for next February.
Ncube and his deputy Gift
Chimanikire were both suspended for two
years each and would not be allowed
to retain their titles while party
treasurer Fletcher Dulini Ncube and
policy and research secretary Trudy
Stevenson were suspended for one year
each. The four can appeal against
their suspension to the MDC national
council, Chamisa said.
Chamisa said: "They were
given a right to defend themselves as
dictated by the rules of natural
justice, which they chose not to exercise
and accordingly the disciplinary
committee exercised its right to determine
the fate of the accused (on the
basis) of oral and written evidence
available."
The
disciplinary committee, which sat last Saturday, was chaired by
MDC chairman
Isaac Matongo. The committee found Sibanda, Ncube and the
others guilty of
violating the party's constitution while Sibanda was found
guilty of
deviating from party policy by allegedly calling for a separate
Ndebele
state.
It was not possible to get comment on the matter last night
from
Sibanda or Ncube.
But the two and their allies had last
week said they would not appear
before Matongo's committee saying it was set
outside the MDC's constitution
and whatever decision it would come up with
would neither be legal nor
binding on them.
Initially, the four
MDC leaders had through their lawyers written to
Matongo's committee
requesting the hearing to be moved from 10 December,
when it was initially
scheduled to take place, to last Saturday. The said
the rescheduling of the
hearing would allow them to attend but later changed
their stance after a
meeting in Harare at which Sibanda claimed the MDC
national council had
instructed them not to attend the hearing because it
was
illegal.
Sibanda, Ncube and the others fell out with Tsvangirai
after the MDC
leader refused to participate in last month's senate election
saying the
poll would be rigged by President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF and
that it was
also a waste of resources in a country facing
hunger.
The other MDC leaders however felt the party had to contest
the poll
after its national council had narrowly voted for it to do so.
Sibanda and
Ncube also accused Tsvangirai of being dictatorial by seeking to
unilaterally overturn the decision of the council.
But
observers have said the disagreements over the senate vote merely
triggered
off a bitter fight for the control of the opposition that had been
long
coming.
The wrangling between the MDC leaders has left the six-year
old party,
which had appeared the most likely to unseat Mugabe's government,
badly
paralysed. Political analysts say whoever emerges as the winner in the
ongoing struggle for the ownership of the party shall find it more than
difficult to confront Mugabe. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 19 December 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe police
have charged three journalists of the private
Voice of the People (VOP)
broadcasting company for breaching the country's
tough broadcasting laws but
it was unclear last night when they might be
brought to court for
trial.
Human rights lawyer Rangu Nyamurundira told ZimOnline last
night that
the journalists - Maria Nyanyiwa, Nyasha Bosha and Kundai
Mugwanda - were
charged under the Broadcasting Services Act but said he had
not been told
when the reporters might appear in court.
Nyamurundira said he would probably know only today when the
journalists are
likely to face trial. He said: "We are waiting for Monday
but they are still
in custody."
The journalists were arrested last Thursday when
police and officials
of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) raided
the VOP offices in
Harare. They have been detained at Harare Central police
station since then.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena could not be
reached last night to
establish when the journalists might be brought to
court.
But one of the lawyers representing the journalists, Jacob
Mafume,
wrote in a court affidavit last Friday that the police had indicated
to him
that they would not release the journalists until VOP director David
Masunda
handed himself in to the law enforcement agency.
Under
the government's draconian Broadcasting Services Act, it is
illegal for
Zimbabweans to own signal-transmitting equipment or to broadcast
from the
country without first obtaining a licence from the BAZ.
But VOP
does not broadcast from Zimbabwe although it maintains offices
and reporters
in the country. The station broadcasts into the southern
African country
using a Radio Netherlands transmitter in Madagascar.
VOP, which was
once firebombed three years ago by unknown people, is
one of several
foreign-based radio stations set up by Zimbabwean
broadcasters unable to
broadcast from home because of the stringent
conditions under the
Broadcasting Act.
The crackdown on VOP comes days after a vitriolic
attack by government
Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya against the
privately-owned media
which he accused of being paid by Western countries to
tarnish the image of
President Robert Mugabe and his
government.
Jokonya threatened to take unspecified but tough
measures against the
small but vibrant privately-owned media. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 19 December 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe is likely to
drift towards social unrest in 2006
amid signs of no respite in the
six-year-old free-fall of the country's
once-robust economy and
deteriorating political conditions, analysts have
warned.
With
inflation at 502.4 percent and living standards deteriorating,
analysts say
the conditions are ripe for a violent social upheaval unless
something
drastic is done by the government to arrest worsening economic
hardships
marked by shortages of basic commodities.
The country's annualised
inflation is forecast to hit 700 percent
within the next few months, driven
largely by the rapid depreciation of the
local dollar. The Zimbabwean unit
has depreciated from around 26 000 against
the United States dollar in
October on the official market to about 80 000
against the greenback at
present.
The exchange rate on the thriving but unofficial parallel
market is
even higher at around 100 000 Zimbabwe dollars to the US unit. The
illegal
foreign currency black-market remains the surest source of hard cash
for
both individuals and the corporate world.
But analysts
think the litmus test for President Robert Mugabe and his
government during
the coming year will be how to handle the emotive issue of
civil service
salaries and working conditions.
Salaries for uniformed forces,
teachers, health workers and other
civil servants have dominated the news in
the past two weeks, with the
government acknowledging these were low and
needed to be revised upwards.
"I foresee economic instability and
more strikes as the government
fails to raise enough money to pay salaries.
This could lead to social
unrest if not addressed properly," says
Harare-based economist John
Robertson.
Civil servants and some
legislators are pushing for a salary
adjustment of at least 500 percent in
January to cushion government workers
from economic hardships.
This may, however, not be possible because the government is broke and
also
due to the restrictive budgetary regime that Finance Minister Herbert
Murerwa proposes to pursue next year.
According to Murerwa,
government ministries will be required to stick
to strict budgetary targets
and all recurrent expenditures (which account
for 75 percent of the state
budget for 2006 and of which salaries are a
major component) must be
financed from available revenue resources and no
borrowings will be
entertained.
The analysts say crisis-weary Zimbabwe should,
therefore, brace up for
a plethora of industrial actions by civil servants
and other workers, a
development that will further worsen the situation in a
country already hit
by economic and political problems.
Robertson forecasts the rate of inflation to double next year,
worsening the
plight of ordinary citizens and companies.
"We are also going to
witness further shrinkage in tourism," Robertson
warns.
The
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority - charged with the marketing of the
country's
tourism facilities - recently painted a gloomy picture of the
state of
tourism, saying that arrivals were down during the first nine
months of
2005.
The worsening inflation forecast spells doom for exporters
and
importers who will have to contend with a steep depreciation of the
Zimbabwe
dollar in coming months. The exchange rate tracks movements in
prices.
Compounding Zimbabwe's gloomy prospects for 2006 are the
unsavoury
prospects of another poor harvest, this time not due to natural
phenomena
but as a by-product of six years of skewed economic and political
policies.
Analysts believe that for the first time since the
country embarked on
the destructive land reform programme in 2000, Zimbabwe,
already battling
severe food shortages, will next year start experiencing
the real
consequences of pursuing its widely-condemned agricultural policies
of the
past six years.
Despite prospects of an above-normal
season, most farmers are unlikely
to get inputs such as seeds and fertiliser
on time.
"I think we will have the worst agricultural harvest
because there is
no fuel, seeds and fertilisers for farmers. Prices of other
inputs have
sharply gone up," explains Robertson.
It is
estimated that Zimbabwe has foregone more than US$1.5 billion in
unearned
tobacco proceeds since 2001 - a direct result of the expropriation
of former
white-owned farms and the subsequent chasing of the farmers from
their
properties.
The country is now paying a heavy price for the
disruptions caused by
the land reform exercise as the new owners of land are
either inexperienced
or have no resources to feed the entire
nation.
Economist James Jowa says he does not see any meaningful
investment
inflows until "sanity prevailed especially in the agriculture
sector."
Jowa said: "Reports of ongoing disruptions of farming
activities will
continue to dampen confidence in the agricultural sector. As
such, no
meaningful investment initiatives should be expected until sanity
prevails
in the sector."
He believes 2006 does not hold much
hope for Zimbabwe because of
constraints faced by the various economic
players.
The government estimates that the key agricultural sector
will expand
by 14.8 percent during the 2005/06 season to anchor the
projected overall
economic growth of between two and three-and-a-half
percent in 2006.
Government has indicated that it will expend a lot
of energy on
strengthening extension services and procurement of livestock
vaccines in
2006 in its quest to bolster agricultural
production.
The analysts believe that the continued collapse of
companies will add
to the pressure on the government during 2006. At least
33 export companies
shut down this year, according to the Export Processing
Zones Authority.
"This means that there are more and more people
requiring a slice of
the limited resources that the government is able to
give out as social
welfare benefits," explains an analyst with a stock
broking firm. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 19 December 2005
HARARE - It is mid-day on Thursday.
Harare's streets are teeming with
traffic as people engage in seasonal
Christmas shopping.
Like a bolt from the blue, hordes of people
suddenly break into a
daring run across a busy street, undeterred by the
danger posed by traffic
on the street.
Florence Tsoka, a
35-year old mother of two, also finds herself
impulsively joining the
stampede to join the queue which had quickly formed
at the entrance to one
of Harare's biggest supermarkets.
It is not just the young who have
joined in the mad rush. Old women,
strapped in their famous wrapping cloths
known as "mazambiya", are also here
competing with the younger ones for pole
position in the ensuing chaos.
Soon, it becomes clear why there was
such a rush as a battered blue
truck carrying 10kg bags of maize-meal snakes
into the sanitary lane. The
maize-meal is quickly offloaded from the truck
and shipped into the
supermarket, much to the relief of desperate
customers.
Maize-meal, like most basic foodstuffs here, is in
critical short
supply in Zimbabwe's cities and towns after President Robert
Mugabe
disrupted the key agriculture sector, Zimbabwe's biggest foreign
currency
earner, through his seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution
to
landless blacks five years ago.
But it is not just
maize-meal which is in short supply. Fuel, basic
medicines, sugar and
virtually every other commodity is also in critical
short supply because
there is no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers after
the International
Monetary Fund withdrew balance-of-payment support in 1999
after disagreeing
with Mugabe over fiscal policy and other governance
issues.
The
farm seizures slashed food production by 60 percent leaving
Zimbabweans
dependent on food handouts from aid agencies. But Mugabe had for
the past
five years denied his land reforms caused hunger blaming the food
shortages
on drought.
The Zimbabwean leader, who is accused by the main
opposition Movement
for Democratic Change party of ruining what was once one
of Africa's
strongest economies at independence from Britain 25 years ago,
only admitted
at his ruling ZANU PF's party's annual conference two weeks
ago that his
farm seizure programme exacerbated the food
crisis.
But Mugabe's belated admission to his mistakes will
probably go
unnoticed by many Zimbabweans most of whom appear to have found
ways to
survive in an economy that has long ceased to function normally -
although
this has meant having to queue for virtually every basic commodity
from
maize-meal, cooking oil, sugar to flour.
The trend in this
southern African nation is that you join the queue
first and ask what is on
sale later. If you are interested, you stick it
out, if not you sell your
place to someone else!
"This is one way of making quick money. I
make sure I join any queue
that I find forming and would then sell my
position to anyone desperate to
buy the commodity on sale," said Tonderayi
Makombe, who was part of the
queue.
"I spent five hours in a
queue for maize-meal at a supermarket in
central Harare and I obtained 10kg
of maize-meal at $200 000!" lamented
Stephen Moyo, a 46-year-old caretaker
in Harare.
With inflation currently standing at 502.4 percent, one
of the highest
in the world, there virtually appears to be no respite for
long-suffering
Zimbabweans.
While people have almost accepted
their lot, what is happening in
Harare aptly captures the rigours of daily
life for ordinary Zimbabweans who
have bore the brunt of an economic
recession described by the World Bank as
unseen in a country not at war. -
ZimOnline
Reuters
Sun
Dec 18, 2005 12:34 PM GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's High Court has
formally dismissed all
challenges against the government's controversial
seizures of white-owned
farms, months after the approval of a law barring
courts from hearing such
cases.
President Robert Mugabe's governing
ZANU-PF party used its parliamentary
majority earlier this year to push
through a raft of constitutional
amendments establishing a new Senate,
threatening travel sanctions against
critics and making its land grabs
legally unchallengeable.
The state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper
reported that the Administrative
Court -- a branch of the High Court -- had
on December 9 granted the
government an order formally withdrawing over
4,000 cases in which white
commercial farmers were contesting the
acquisition of their properties.
Administrative Court senior president
Andrew Mutema also dismissed
applications by the farmers for their legal
costs to be paid by the
government, saying each party should meet their own
expenses, the weekly
said.
"The Administrative Court has granted the
government an order ...
effectively laying to rest a protracted legal
wrangle between the state and
the aggrieved property owners," it added,
citing Mutema's ruling which said:
"The applicant ... is hereby given
leave to formally withdraw this and all
other land cases that were pending
before the Administrative Court and were
aborted by Constitutional Amendment
No. 17."
Mugabe plunged Zimbabwe into a deep political and economic
crisis five years
ago with a drive of seizing white-owned farms for
redistribution to landless
blacks.
Mugabe, 81, and in power since the
southern African country's independence
from Britain in 1980, said his
controversial land reform programme was aimed
at correcting ownership
imbalances created by British colonialism.
But critics say the farm
seizures, which were sometimes accompanied by
violence by Mugabe's ZANU-PF
supporters, have crippled Zimbabwe's
agricultural-driven economy and left
nearly half the national population
surviving on food aid.
The
country used to be the region's breadbasket.
Critics say most of the
farms seized by the government have been shared
among Mugabe's government
and ZANU-PF officials.
Western powers, including the European Union and
the United States, have
imposed travel sanctions on Mugabe and his
associates over the land seizures
and over charges that he has rigged three
major elections since 2000 to
remain in power.
The Herald
(Harare)
December 17, 2005
Posted to the web December 17,
2005
Harare
A PARLIAMENTARY backbencher has urged the Government
to evict white former
commercial farmers whose land has been acquired for
resettlement as some are
disturbing farming operations by the new
farmers.
Chiredzi South legislator Cde Aaron Baloyi (Zanu-PF) told the
House of
Assembly on Wednesday that following the promulgation of the
Consti-tution
of Zimbabwe Amendment (No 17) Act, the Government should move
with speed in
evicting the white former commercial farmers.
"I
implore the Government to enforce that those white farmers whose land was
acquired by Government should be removed. Some have remained disrupting the
activities of the new farmers and some are hostile to the new farmers," he
said.
He was contributing to a debate on the Presidential Address to
the House.
The Constitution of Zimbabwe (No 17) Amendment Act bars courts
from hearing
appeals on land acquired for resettlement
purposes.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Cde Patrick
Chinamasa
recently told the House that the Government would soon formulate
legislation
making it a crime to occupy State land without a lease or
permit.
He said there was need for an orderly land reform programme and
there was no
excuse for anyone to occupy State land without a lease or a
permit.
Cde Baloyi urged farmers to fully use the land in order for the
country to
regain its status as the breadbasket of the region.
The
legislator also appealed to mobile phone operators to expand their
services
to rural areas where about 70 percent of the population lives.
Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria
Sunday
December 18, 2005
The Observer
Hunger and repression make life
tough enough for most Zimbabweans, but in
the rural areas the wildlife is
making life tricky too.
This year crocodiles took a narrow lead over
elephants as the most dangerous
animal to humans, according to new
statistics released this weekend by a
Zimbabwean conservation
group.
Crocodiles dragged away and ate 13 people in the first 10 months
of 2005,
according to the annual report of the Campfire group. Elephants
charged and
trampled to death 12 people. One person was killed by a buffalo
and one by a
hippopotamus making a total of 27 Zimbabweans killed by
wildlife.
Many of those killed by elephants were subsistence farmers
trying to protect
crops from the voracious appetites of the animals who eat
about 300kg of
vegetation a day.
Some farmers use chilli pepper spray
to ward off the elephants, which
usually amble off but occasionally become
enraged, especially if they have
young. Crocodiles prey on villagers fishing
or washing in rivers and lakes.
Despite the fearsome reputations of
lions, they rarely kill humans. No fatal
lion attacks on humans have been
recorded in the last year.
The Campfire group aims to promote the
management of wildlife and use of
wildlife products in rural areas. 'Most of
the time there is no recognition
of that fact, that communities are always
on the front line of the battle
between man and beast,' said its director,
Charles Jonga.
People's Daily
Zimbabwe is committed to fighting corruption in
the economy, a senior
official said on Saturday.
State
Enterprises, Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Minister Paul
Mangwana said
the country was facing many economic problems related to
corruption and the
government was making its systems watertight to curb
corruption.
"The government set up the ministry when it
realized that corruption
had reached unacceptable levels," he
said.
He was speaking during the commemoration of the belated
International
Anti-Corruption Day. The theme was "promoting national
partnership in the
fight against corruption."
Mangwana said the
ministry would strive to stamp out corruption at all
levels. All
stakeholders should close ranks in fighting this war, he said,
urging all
people to become whistle-blowers.
The new Anti-Corruption
Commission would spare "no sacred cows" in
fighting the scourge, he
said.
He said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was taming corruption in
the
financial sector, while police and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority
continued
to play their part.
The commemoration was held by the
ministry together with the United
Nations office on Drugs and
Crime.
The International Anti-Corruption Day was conceived at the "
High
Level Political Conference for the Signing of the United Nations
Convention
against corruption" held in Merida, Mexico in December
2003.
Hence the 9th of December has been officially recognized as
the UN
International Anti-Corruption Day.
Source:
Xinhua
IOL
December 18 2005 at
06:46PM
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
suspended
five senior members of his party, deepening serious splits in the
party, a
spokesperson said on Sunday.
Nelson Chamisa, the
spokesperson for Tsvangirai's faction of the
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) said a disciplinary committee decided
on Saturday to suspend five
senior party officials, including Secretary
General Welshman Ncube and the
party's president, Gibson Sibanda.
"Each of them had the right to
defend themselves, which they gave up,"
Chamisa said.
He said
Ncube and his deputy, Gift Chamanikire were suspended for two
years, while
party treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube and MDC lawmaker Trudy
Stevenson were
each suspended for a year.
Sibanda, who was
suspended for a year will be able have his case
reviewed at the national
congress next February, said Chamisa. The others
have the right to appeal
against their suspension before the party's
national council.
The five are key members of a faction of the MDC that supported
participation in last month's senate elections.
The party has
been seriously divided over the issue. Tsvangirai had
called for a boycott
of the poll. - Sapa-dpa
Xinhua
www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-18
23:13:20
HARARE, Dec. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The shortage of
essential inputs
such as fertilizer and diesel for efficient tillage is
expected to result in
a sharp decline in tobacco production this season, an
official said on
Sunday.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers
Association president Julius Ngorima said
an output of not more than 65
million kg of flue-cured tobacco was expected
down from the initial 160
million kg.
"Though a total of 80,000 hectares were targeted to
be put under
tobacco this year, we are now expecting about 45,000 hectares
due to the
problems most farmers faced," he said.
Ngorima
said a significant number of farmers had prepared seed
beds for
transplanting, but the shortage of inputs and financial resources
held them
back.
As a result, he said, an average of between 800 kg and
1,000 kg
per hectare would be expected this season, down from the normal
2,000 kg.
He said the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board had
failed to
disburse loans to most farmers citing poor repayment
levels.
Meanwhile, Ngorima said planting of the main dry land
crop should
stop at the end of this month to avoid stunting crops known as
"bush top".
The southern African country produced 73.3 million
kg of the
golden leaf worth 118 million US dollars during the 2004/2005
season.
Tobacco accounted for 14 percent of the foreign currency the country
earned
in 2004. Enditem
IOL
December 18 2005
at 06:25PM
By John Chiahemen
South Africa's union
federation Cosatu planned to use a rally marking
its 20th birthday earlier
this month to promote a "buy local" campaign.
But as some 20 000
unionists marched and chanted "Proudly South
African" slogans in a Durban
stadium, word went round that the bright red
T-shirts each wore were made in
China.
Thousands of noisy members of the SACTWU textile union,
which is
spearheading a campaign against a flood of cheap Chinese textile
imports,
removed the shirts and hurled them into a pile in the middle of the
stadium.
"People's reaction to those T-shirts is a clear indication
that
they've had enough of these cheap products from abroad," SACTWU
President
John Zikhali told Reuters later.
"South African
retailers need to come to the party and buy products
that are made here
because we cannot afford to lose any more jobs," Zikhali
said.
From South Africa to Lesotho, to Zambia
and Nigeria anger is mounting
over what one union leader called "a tsunami
of cheap Chinese goods" that
many say is choking off local industries and
wiping out jobs.
Leonard Hikaumba, president of the Zambian
Congress of Trade Unions,
bemoaned what he called the dumping of cheap
textiles and electronics goods
by Chinese exporters.
"The
beneficiaries of these are the exporters, not us," he told
Reuters.
In no sector is this more critical than in textiles,
one of the first
industries that took root as many sub-Saharan African
countries became
independent in the 1960s.
The Textile,
Garments and Tailoring Senior Staff Association of
Nigeria estimates some
350 000 jobs had been lost directly as a result of
Chinese competition and
1.5 million indirectly after more than 50 textile
industries were forced to
shut down over the past five years.
"Most warehouses in Lagos have
been converted to churches because
there are no manufactured goods to
warehouse," the union's
secretary-general, Issah Aremu, told
Reuters.
The South African textile union estimates 800
manufacturing units and
60 000 jobs have disappeared in the country since
2001 as a result of what
it calls unfair competition from
China.
"It's not just about South Africa, the whole continent is
concerned,
the whole world is beginning to suffer," said the union's
Zikhali.
China's surging economy and manufacturing muscle have
confounded even
economic superpowers like the United States.
Washington has found no easy barrier against a flood of Chinese
textiles
since World Trade Organisation (WTO) quotas on Chinese imports
lapsed
earlier this year.
Pretoria has imposed anti-dumping duties on a
number of Chinese
products such as face cloths, door locks and handles, and
blankets.
But some analysts called these token measures, perhaps
reflecting a
desire by South Africa not to antagonise the giant Asian
economy that is
growing in leaps and bounds.
Chinese diplomats
in Africa are quick to note that their country is
becoming a major source of
direct foreign investment for the continent.
Analysts say these are
increasingly to extract minerals to fuel China's
awesome
growth.
In 2004, China exported goods to Africa worth a total of
$13,82-billion (about R88.4-billion), against imports from Africa of $15.65
billion, but these figures mask a fundamental imbalance, experts
say.
China imports mainly raw materials, with hardly any added
value for
industrial growth in the African countries.
"What
Chinese and other investors need to do is to set up
manufacturing industries
here with new technology to produce quality
products," Zambia's Hikaumba
said.
African countries have for decades faced a dilemma of how to
deal with
China on trade issues because of Beijing's solidarity with Africa
in its
fight against colonialism in the 1950s and '60s and its support of
liberation movements in Southern Africa.
This has only been
complicated by China's charm offensive on the
continent aimed at containing
the influence of Taiwan, which Beijing claims
as a rebellious province of
China.
China's "friendship" with African countries has led to an
influx of
its citizens who now run everything from grocery stores and
building
materials shops to restaurants and corner stores in even remote
provincial
towns of the continent.
The Chinese are increasingly
visible on the streets of Zimbabwe, whose
President Robert Mugabe, shunned
by the West for alleged misrule, is
pursuing a "look East"
policy.
In Lesotho, an impoverished nation dependent on textiles
for 90
percent of export earnings, the garment industry collapsed
dramatically this
year after the end of WTO restrictions on Chinese exports
killed off
Lesotho's US orders.
Chinese and Taiwanese investors
set up factories there in 1999 to take
advantage of Washington's Africa
Growth and Opportunity Act, which gave
textile exports from qualified
African countries duty-free access to
American markets.
They
simply closed shop and walked away when the US orders dried up,
leaving
thousands of workers, mostly women, jobless in a country with a 40
percent
unemployment rate.
(Additional reporting by Shapi Shacinda in
Lusaka, Tume Ahemba in
Lagos and Ntsau Lekhetho in Maseru)
News24
18/12/2005 14:02 -
(SA)
Harare - Three members of staff of a private Zimbabwe radio
station will
appear in court on Monday on charges of operating a broadcast
service
without a government license and working as journalists without
accreditation, their lawyer said on Sunday.
The women were arrested
on Thursday in a police raid against the Voice of
the People, part of a
crackdown against President Robert Mugabe's critics.
Documents and
production equipment also were seized.
The women - who are administrative
staff, not journalists - were being held
at Harare central police station,
said their lawyer, Rangu Nyamurundira.
Their alleged offences are
punishable by a fine or jail term under Mugabe's
media control
laws.
Nyamurundira said lawyers had been unable to locate a High Court
judge to
ask for an urgent order declaring their detention illegal after
police said
they would be freed immediately if station director David Masuku
surrendered
himself. Nyamurundira said he had no knowledge of Masuku's
whereabouts but
police had no right to hold the women hostage for
him.
Women detainees often ill-treated
"We come to court tomorrow
and we take it from there," he said. "We saw them
yesterday and they are
fine."
Nyamurundira said the three made no specific complaints of ill
treatment.
But human rights organisations say women detainees routinely are
ordered to
surrender their underwear, so they are left only with two outer
garments,
and are kept in rat-infested cells without proper
sanitation.
Nyamurundira said family members had been allowed to bring
the women food.
No licenses have been issued for private broadcasters in
Zimbabwe, where the
government controls the sole authorised radio and
television station. But at
least three private radio stations beam
programmes into the country using
short-wave transmitters based beyond its
borders.
Arrests condemned
Reporters Sans Frontieres, also known
as Reporters Without Borders, said the
government employed Chinese
technicians over the past three months to try
and jam their signals, which
are broadcast from Madagascar. In August 2002,
the Voice of the People
offices were destroyed in a nighttime bombing. No
arrests have been made in
connection with the attack.
The United States-based Committee to Protect
Journalists has condemned
Thursday's arrests.
After 25 years in
power, Mugabe's government has sought to curb its critics
as it confronts
the worst economic crisis since 1980 independence.
Scores of journalists
have been harassed, assaulted and arrested, many of
them held over weekends
until courts open on Monday. The government has also
shut down a number of
independent newspapers.
From The Sunday Times (SA), 18 December
The so-called Welken incident raises questions about South
Africa's
diplomatic relations with Zimbabwe, writes Bonny
Schoonakker
Friends of the South African spy who returned home this
week from detention
in Zimbabwe are shocked by his appearance. "Hy het net
stokoud geword in
hierdie jaar (He has become very old this year)," says a
former colleague of
Aubrey Welken, after seeing the spy's photograph in the
daily press. The
greying hair and the tiredness in Welken's eyes tell them
that the SA Secret
Service agent has survived something of an ordeal in
Zimbabwe since his
arrest on December 10 last year at Victoria Falls.
Intelligence Minister
Ronnie Kasrils, who says he has "worked extremely
hard" over the past year
for Welken's release, denies that his agent was
tortured, and Welken himself
seemed to skirt around the issue. But when he
addressed the news conference
held at Johannesburg International Airport
this week, his reply did suggest
he had been hurt physically. "In any
interrogation you need to follow a
certain procedure," Welken was quoted as
saying by The Star. "As you can
see, I'm here, well, with all my limbs. As
far as treatment is concerned, I
can say they've done it in a normal and
professional way."
Considering that Welken had been in the custody of
Zimbabwe's Central
Intelligence Organisation for a year to the day, the
phrases "a certain
procedure" and "normal and professional" could cover a
multitude of sins.
Kasrils decided not to allow the Sunday Times access to
Welken, who was
accompanied back from Zimbabwe by his wife, Elmarie. The
couple live in
Pretoria's southeastern suburbs, not far from the
intelligence services'
headquarters at Musanda. Both continue to work for
the secret service.
According to Kasrils's office, the Welkens had left town
by the weekend,
"for a long, welldeserved holiday". Since her husband's
arrest in Zimbabwe,
Elmarie Welken has been on leave on full pay, according
to her colleagues. A
former colleague also says the couple's continued
employment will make it
unlikely that they disclose anything controversial
or embarrassing about his
arrest or Kasrils's 12-month fight for his
release. The intelligence
ministry regards "the Welken incident" with some
sensitivity, not least
because it has been interpreted in the media as
emblematic of the SA
government's supine policy of "quiet diplomacy" towards
Zimbabwe.
It also raises questions about which of the countries holds
the greater
influence over their diplomatic relationship. For example,
within days of
Welken's arrest, the SA Police Service detained three
Zimbabwean agents near
Musina, apparently members of the CIO spying on
Costatu. Within hours of
their arrest the three were taken back across Beit
Bridge. A Business Day
editorial stated this week that, "far from being
proof of South Africa's
diplomatic prowess, the Welken incident shows up the
ineptness of our
involvement in Zimbabwe". Kasrils dismissed the comment as
"sour grapes",
but did concede in an interview on Friday that the handover
had been less
than perfect. He had been hoping that Welken's last vestiges
of anonymity
(images of Welken's face had not been published until this
week) could be
retained, even though the real name of the spy identified as
"Andrew Brown"
was reported widely in South Africa after this was first
disclosed in the
Zimbabwean media. Instead, Welken was this week "totally
outed" (as Kasrils
termed it on Friday) by Zimbabwe's official media, who
were on hand when
Kasrils arrived in Harare by private jet with Elmarie
Welken and a senior SA
Secret Service official to collect their
man.
Although the presence of the Zimbabwean media did not breach any
agreement
between himself and Zimbabwean Intelligence Minister Didymus
Mutasa, Kasrils
admitted that, "I did not expect the media reception. I was
not going to
make a point about it, but did not really expect that. At all
costs I wanted
him home before Christmas and any quibble might have delayed
his release."
Kasrils said Welken would continue to play an "invaluable"
role at the
secret service, which is responsible for gathering foreign
intelligence, as
opposed to its internal counterpart, the National
Intelligence Agency. Asked
about Welken's future role, Kasrils said:
"Obviously, that will change. But
if you as a person have been burnt in this
way, it does not mean that [you
are] no longer serviceable. His experience
is invaluable, as a manager and
an analyst. [His detention in Zimbabwe] does
not in any way prejudice his
employment." Asked whether Welken's arrest had
compromised any South African
intelligence-gathering operations, Kasrils
replied, "Not at all." Welken's
arrest had "obviously" compromised the
mission at hand, "but it did not have
any consequence on any operational
aspects".
According to court papers, Welken's mission seems to have
been to pay the
secret service's Zimbabwean informants in US dollars cash,
and one former
colleague has stated in court papers that Welken went there
reluctantly. On
a previous mission to Zimbabwe, he had been followed,
presumably by CIO
agents, and he feared that he would be arrested if he went
back. SA Secret
Service Deputy Director-General George Madikiza insisted
that he go. The
court papers were filed by an office worker, Amanda Jeanne
van der Merwe,
who is claiming that she was unfairly dismissed by Kasrils
for attempting to
alert him to Welken's arrest. Kasrils insists he was aware
of Welken's
disappearance within 24 hours and that she had violated
procedures.
According to Van der Merwe's attorney, the matter will be heard
in the
Pretoria High Court in February. Kasrils responded to the allegation
by
saying that Welken "took the decision himself to enter Zimbabwe from
Zambia,
on his own judgment and on his own volition. He was not prodded or
pushed."
On whether Welken or any of his superiors had erred, or whether
there would
be any disciplinary process, Kasrils replied only that "the
matter is highly
operational, so I cannot say too much".
He was
willing to confirm that Welken's arrest had been under constant
discussion
between himself and Mutasa over the past year. Zimbabwean media
reported in
May that Kasrils was visiting Harare to discuss Welken's release
with
Mutasa. The two had also discussed the timing of the release during
Mutasa's
visit to Cape Town in mid-November, when Kasrils berated
journalists for
questioning Zimbabwe's human rights record in the presence
of Mutasa and
Zimbabwean Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi. He had gone
personally to
Harare on Monday, Kasrils said, because Mutasa had "contacted
me the day
before to say, 'We are ready to release him.' I was overjoyed,
obviously. It
was a consequence of political diplomacy. Do I want to put a
spoke in the
wheel? Obviously not. Mutasa was leaving for abroad the
following day, and I
would not have had this handover [if I did not leave
immediately]. There was
no seeking of cheap publicity."
Santa visited the Vigil today.
Dozens of Father Christmases swamped us on
their way down the Strand to
wherever Santas go a week before the big night.
They were part of a regiment
of red-robed revellers who brought a blaze of
colour to a cold day. They
signed our petitions, played our drums and
joined in the singing and
dancing.
Many passers-by commented on a BBC Newsnight report this week
which went
further than anything else in showing the desperate situation at
home. Video
link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
Well
done to the small group of supporters (from as far afield as Sheffield
and
Birmingham) who braved the freezing weather today - our coldest Vigil so
far
this winter. We meet again next Saturday - Christmas Eve, all thinking
of
loved ones back in Zimbabwe.
FOR THE RECORD: about 25 supporters came
today.
A reminder - there will be no Central London Zimbabwe Forum on
Monday, 19th
December 2005. This is because our regular venue is not
available because
it has been booked for Christmas celebrations.
Unfortunately because of the
time of year we have not been able to find
another venue. We will meet
again after the Christmas break. The first
forum in the new year will be on
Monday, 9th January 2006 at the Theodore
Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street,
London WC2.
Vigil
co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London,
takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross
violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which
started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free
and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
IOL
December 18 2005 at
05:25PM
By Roy Barford and Santosh Beharie
South
African police and their London counterparts have jointly
smashed an illegal
immigration syndicate.
Their investigations revealed that the
syndicate, based in London,
smuggled at least 150 illegal immigrants from
Zimbabwe, South Africa and
Jamaica into the UK.
The syndicate,
whose kingpin was Harry Peter Wilson, a 46-year-old
Zimbabwean national who
owned a luxury apartment in Durban, as well as two
in Bulawayo and two in
London, issued fake qualifications, visas, identity
documents, birth
certificates and passports.
The SAPS Crime Intelligence division
and the London British
Metropolitan Police had worked on the case together
for more than a year
before nabbing Wilson and two of his accomplices in
June last year.
SAPS national spokesperson Senior
Superintendent Tummi Golding said
Wilson had been sentenced to 38 months in
prison for his crimes in a London
court in October.
Wilson
convinced innocent people that he could lawfully get them a
visa and
indefinite leave to remain in the UK for £1 200 (R13 700).
The
Isleworth Crown Court sentenced him to three years and two months
for
supplying false information to the Home Office.
Two Sri Lankan
principals of the London Schools of Accountancy in
Tooting, south London,
backed the applications. Arumagan Kanageswaran, 54,
and Ponnduri
Puvanandaran, 50, wrote letters saying that the applicants had
been accepted
at their school.
They were jailed for two years and 10 months
each.
In forms filled on the immigrants' behalf, Wilson claimed he
provided
them with accommodation plus about R5 500 living expenses while
they studied
accountancy.
In 2003 the trio, who had become
British citizens themselves, applied
for at least 150 visas.
Not knowing how to make the applications themselves, the victims
either
contacted Wilson in Zimbabwe or just after their arrival in London.
Wilson, who lived in Penge, south east London, also touted for
business at
hotels in both countries.
"This network was motivated by greed and
was achieved by manipulating
young and vulnerable students," said the Met's
Detective Chief Inspector
Matt Parkes.
The men used the money
from the scam for frequent trips to South
Africa, expensive cars and several
properties in London and Zimbabwe -
including a hotel and casino in
Zimbabwe.
They were finally caught after a joint investigation by
the Met and
South African Police.
Golding said that SAPS Crime
Intelligence had been approached by the
London police in June last year to
assist in tracking down and arresting
members of the syndicate.
In October this year, 22 suspects were arrested, and charged with
conspiracy
to facilitate illegal entry into in the United Kingdom by
deception, money
laundering and fraud.
They are currently being detained in
London.
Another SAPS national spokesman, Captain Khumiso Sekethema,
said that
some of the suspects were in possession of fake South African IDs,
but at
this stage, their true nationalities were not known.
"They could be Nigerians and Zimbabweans, but it is very hard to
say."
Sekethema said the co-operation between South Africa and
Britain was
aimed at eradicating illegal immigration activities. Sekethema
confirmed
that British Crime Intelligence groups had also been operating in
South
Africa, with the co-operation of local police.
This
article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Argus on
December 18,
2005
New India Press
Monday
December 19 2005 00:00 IST
UNI
NEW DELHI: The International Cricket
Council has issued a clear warning to
trouble-ridden Zimbabwe saying that
the African nation's Test status could
be suspended if it failed to resolve
its internal strife.
Mired in volatile political situation in the
country, the Zimbabwe cricket
has been on a downslide ever since Robert
Mugabe took the charge of the
nation. In May 2004, the ICC had proposed a
Test suspension after a players'
strike.
In a joint statement on a
cricket website recently, ICC President Ehsan Mani
and Chief Executive
Malcom Speed said, "A similar move (suspension) cannot
be ruled out in the
future.
"While members have the freedom to manage their own sovereign
affairs, they
do not have the right to risk the integrity of the
international game."
After Heath Streak, Stuart Carlisle and Sean Ervine,
Captain Tatenda Taibu
also quit as national team captain in protest at the
way the game is being
run.
His resignation came in the wake of
Zimbabwe cricket Chairman Peter Chingoka
and Managing Director Ozias Bvute
being questioned by police as part of a
fraud investigation.
Taibu
has said he would return if Chingoka and Bvute are removed from their
positions. However, ICC is reluctant on direct intervention.
"The
idea that the ICC can simply walk in and 'take over' one of our members
is
quite simply a nonsense," they said.
The Herald
(Harare)
December 17, 2005
Posted to the web December 17,
2005
Harare
VICE President Cde Joice Mujuru yesterday launched a
multi-billion dollar
agricultural project at Chapoto Estate Irrigation
Scheme set to benefit
thousands of people in Kanyemba communal areas, in
Lower Guruve.
Newsnet reported that the 20 000-hectare estate would focus
mainly on cotton
production and maize farming, making it the largest
indigenous owned estate
in Mashonaland Central.
The estate run by
local company Synthesis Agriculture under the banner of
Dotito Agricultural
Projects is expected to cost approximately $56 billion
through the
acquisition of earthmovers, land clearance and water canals.
Commissioning
the multi-billion dollar scheme yesterday, Cde Mujuru said it
was a welcome
development to the people of Dande.
It would go a long way in
improving
the welfare of people in the communal area.
The Chapoto
Irrigation Scheme, which currently has 13 bulldozers, has the
potential to
generate more than US$25 million a year when fully operational.
A cotton
ginning factory is also set to be built at the estate by next year
creating
at least 8 000 jobs.
Cde Mujuru commended Synthesis Agriculture for its
vision, saying the
establishment of the estate in the Dande valley was
beneficial to people in
the community who had no other means of
livelihood.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gono, who also attended
the occasion,
said following the positive developments taking place at the
estate,
Synthesis Agriculture deserved to get more support through financial
institutions.
The central bank has assisted the project by making $60
billion available.
The project was given a free water usage concession
for one season by the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority.